lazydays, bedbugs, parties, internet addiction and stuff

the bites....


whoa, just had a crazy big bumble bee come into my room... it sounded like a whipper-snipper crazy. and it's 5:55pm and STILL LIGHT!!! i'm starting to love this place again.

ok, sorry about messing up my blog... I somehow published it twice and then deleted the pics and then the blog... ARGH!!! the first time i've fully mucked it up... and now i have half my posting and not the other half... GRRRRRRR

so, brief update. so, sunday over a week ago, schelle and i went to the natural history museum for me to do an OHS visit for school, we had lots of fun. We then went to the science musuem, well cool... i am soooooo going back there... And, it's free... hooray for free museums. then we went to church. And i have been feeling a little out of the crowd at church. I am just not part of the family like i was at st james (man, i miss you guys!! you have a good thing, believe me). Maybe it's because I am in a big city, and well, the english are different with social 'rules' and acceptances. anyways, was praying about that, and on sunday night a lovely american couple Mandy and Andy (hehe, no seriously!) came and spoke to me and schelle... maybe it's cos their not english either, but tell you what, it was perfect timing.

Monday morning woke up with love bites... except they were extremely itchy, and well, no lovers here... what else could they be?? that was a great talking point for the students, and well, also for the guys at the streetcaf on monday arvo. still really enjoying my homeless work... praise God. and when i got home, i searched my matress and found and killed two bedbugs... nasty little buggers they are. i also found some eggs, so i bashed and sprayed them... hopefully that is the end, but i am still checking and spraying just to make sure. (don't worry mum, i'm airing my room too!)

tuesday, wednesday and thursday... really really lazy days. didn't make it to the gym, or to bible study, or to do much at all infact. although i did make it to my final lesson of spanish. Our teacher didn't turn up for some reason (for our LAST lesson) and we had a sub and i kid you not, we learnt more in that 1 lesson than we did in 20 weeks with our last teacher. It's a pity she only teaches A level (equivalent to above HSC... a little above me at the moment). and after, we went out to dinner in the vesbar, and tell you what, it was a lovely meal, with a lovely bunch of people, ta clem, nick and clem for coming, it was lovely! hooray.

umm, friday caught up with danica and stayed up heaps late with my new addictions of myspace and facebook... my goodness, i need to stop using these things, but it is amazing who you catch up with again after like 5 or more years.

speaking about catching up with people, caught up with Anh and Loc Duong (and schelle) on saturday for breakfast (well cooked schelle!) and then went down to Winchester or more precisely Swanmore for Matt's party. Matt is a guy i met in chile, and then randomly met his sister in thailand... and well, at his party saw richard again after ummm, however many years it has been since chile (maybe 8 or so).... CRAZY! guys, it was great to see you again.

and sunday, have a leisurely morning in swanmore and then a trip back to london. actually, now it is tuesday as i had to redo my blog, and i have just seen amazing grace at the movies with my cluster group (and andy and mandy came along, they are champs!) it was a pretty full on movie. very fitting seeing we are celebrating the 200th anniversary of abolition of slave trading, and i am studying black history at school.

tomorrow night, a girlie dinner night where i am cooking (ha, good luck to the girls) and thursday night, maybe have a hair cut, if chris is not too busy and then, well... FRIDAY is PARTY PARTY!!! hooray!!!

ok, well seeing as i had already typed this up before and i am now just talking more randomly than usual, i am going to go... enjoy my pics.

with my goodies anh and loc brought from my parents... gee thanks mum, just what i always wanted... ummm, a rabbit basket! (and i'm not going to open the present till my b'day... cheers for that!!!)

me at the natural history museum with my faced morphed... i think i am a middle-ages male or something... ha

us getting funky with Nick's crystal that he bought for a fancy dress party... (i designed the photo, but cheers nick for taking it)

the boys from Chile, 1998-1999... Martin, Richard and Matt... chi chi chi, le le le, viva chile!

anh and loc... good to see you two, welcome to uk. sorry i don't get to see more than you!!! love you two!

me being arty again, this time with schelle's houses alcohol

schelle, nick and me at schelle's house after brunch yesterday... schelle, you're a good cook! cheers for that!



happy good sunday everyone! hope you have a good week!
xxxxxxxx

Happy St Pat's Day...

me wee lucky leprechaun socks, oh and a guinness hat (i also painted my nails with some shamrocks and guinness pints, go me)

to be sure to be sure... twas a great night... started out running a little late, as i forgot to charge my camera... whoops, lucky i found that out... otherwise no great photos for you all. Went into Soho and met up with Danica (friend from church, who also went to my school 2 yrs ahead) and we wandered down to meet up with Karen, Lexi (formerly known as Alex), Vic the man (don't ask, actually the girl with the red scarf next to me in photo), Adrian (karen and alex's house mate) and Rebecca (umm... not sure... friendof Lexi). we were loving it as we were at Fuel bar (balcony at Covent Garden) and there was a busker playing below is with some good tunes... and £10 cocktail jugs... not bad, not bad (seeing as you can go to some places and get a cocktail for £15). anyways... we then were met by Richard, Geoff and Nathan (boys up the back). and waved to matty from the balcony. (he didn't want to pay the cover charge to get in when we were leaving... fair call)... So, we then decided to go to a club in Soho... which has no cover charge and great music.

Off we go... we lost karen's group along the way, but that's cool, we had to get in there before the cover charge started at 10:00. as we are lining up to get in, we notice a sign on the door... preference given to gays and lesbians... ummm, what type of club are we going to?? we get in... Karen and co catch us up, joined by a few more (Mat D my housemate and JB) and party party into the night with good music, good dj, good drinks and especially good company. it was a pretty full on experience for me. At one stage i was chatting to matt and didn't really want to look at him cos right behind him were a boy/boy couple making out... very eye opening for me. Haha and Mat and JB got told that they made a nice couple haha (JB is married to Celeste)... nice one boys!!

then had an exciting night bus ride home. missed 2 busses as they were full and the driver wouldn't let us on... then got on another one. at marble arch, some guy got on who was bery bery be drunk (sorry that is my spanish english coming out). He fell onto someone's lap whilst trying to put his wallet away. then he started telling us all that we were evil as we were enjoying ourselves whilst villages were getting wiped out in afghanistan and children were dying of aids every 30 seconds in africa. he then wandered down stairs (he was actually a little scary) and then started abusing people downstairs. the next thing we hear is breaking glass as he has put some part of his body through the bus door glass... hooray... it's now like 3:30am and we have to get off this night ride and wait for another one... HAPPY ST PATS DAY to you all!!!



and now... the photos

richard, geoff, nathan, rebecca, vic the man, karen, adrian, danica (taken by lexi... cheers) at Fuel bar in Covent Garden...
Lexi, me and Karen at Trash Palace... hmmmm....
the funky table that moved when you pushed it...
tom, looking a bit like a dj... i think he was just playing with the table, or maybe he was carving up some tunes

matt holding his drinks like some old men do (oh and someone else... not sure who geoff) and matt... is that two girls pashing behind you??? not a new sight from last night...

and that's me done... till next time
hasta luego

another busy week... I'm soooo tired

well, can't even remember where to start. I think Wednesday is the first port of call. I did my first ever soup run with Simons. Start out at the house to load the sandwiches (and take one for my own dinner, they have way too many) and then jump in the van and make our way to ummm, i think it's Euston, Aldwych, Waterloo and Victoria handing out soup, tea, coffee, sandwiches and rollies. I was on the soup and by the end, my left arm was hurting so much because of the ladelling... hard work! ha. But it was really nice to see some of the people i am now getting to know because of monday nights at the streetcaf. so, am loving it.

thursday night, another not so fun night at spanish. loving the language, but not really the teacher... which sucks. Not doing it again next semester, so will have to see what happens... try and just go to spain to submerse myself in the language.

friday, girls night out with michelle from spanish.
saturday, SLEEP and then catch up with Helen Laverty a Narweigan (ahh, miss you guys!) from home. it was nice to see her, and we decided to go to the V&A (Victoria and Albert museum) to see the KYLIE exhibition. It is FREE, and it was really well presented... i think the first thing pretty much everyone says when they enter is 'wow, she's tiny'. ha.
then onto meet up with Chris (a rover from home) for a drink in Notting Hill. the weather today was PERFECT!!! loving it!

Sunday, a trial day at Kew Gardens with Alex (go to her blog in my links to see a lovely photo of us) and again, another PERFECT DAY!!! I had to go to find out where i was taking my Year 8 class on Wednesday for an 'educational visit'. the garden usually costs £9.50, so it was nice to go there for free. Thanks for coming alex, i had a great day in the sun, catching up with you! Unfortunately, my camera battery was flat (stupid me forgetting to check), but alex took some great pics, and i knew i was going back on wednesday, so it's ok.

washed my hair this morning (sunday) and then got home from church, looked at it out and thought, it looks really nice. I really like my hair. and then for some reason, went upstairs and got some scissors and proceeded to chop into it. weird sensation, not fully aware of what i was doing and have no idea why i did it, but hey. I now have 'layered' hair.. hehe. i kept it long at the bottom and just chopped into other bits. I think i'll leave it long for the moment and get chris (schelle's friend) to cut it shortish next week. haha, so that was my randomness for this week...

Monday, back to school and simon for street caf and street work. AM LOVING IT!!! a great way to spend my monday nights. And i am learning so much about myself and the homeless community in London.

The weather is so great at the moment (although someone said forecast for colder next week). And wednesday was another FAB day to spend wandering around kew gardens. Only 6 kids came and we had fun looking at rainforest plants and others. (dad there's a pic of a christmas blossom for you, reminded me of your one at home). chased one kid round the park on the way home and had to ring the school, as he was not coming... was ok, we got to the station only to have 1/2 of us get on one tube and half miss out... whoops. eventually got onto the bus to go back to school and then it decided to wait for 5mins doing nothing, so as we were walking into the school, kids were already leaving and my kids almost missed their transport... whoops, but hey, we got there.

wednesday we had our staff meeting at the pub again with no agenda. our art teacher made a joke and someone said he was funny to which he replied 'funny haha or funny weird'. the head then said well, funny haha, everyone has to be funny peculiar to work here. and i asked 'what about me, i am not funny haha' to which he replied, 'yeah, but you have two lots of funny peculiar to make up for it.' oooooooohhhhhhhh, good call. it's a nice environment i work in... keeps us from getting stressed out. ha.

today, our school one a SEN schools football match. and seeing as we had 1/2 our school playing in teams, we took the whole school out to watch, so another arvo spent in the sun... i love my job!!!

and now, i'm off to another night of spanish, not entirely sure how good tonight will be... oh well. i am going to have a cadbury cream egg mcflurry on the way home which will wash away any baddness of the night.

tomorrow night, stay at home, sat, celebrate St Pat's day (and of course go shopping on sat during the day to buy some green clothes) and sunday go with schelle to the NHM (Natural History Museum) to check it out for another excursion i am having there with Year 9's next week.

hope you enjoyed my week this week as much as i did... and now some photos... i don't mind being a little late to spanish

oh, this is just a cheeky squirrel on the green on the way home from school this arvo


peacock at Kew on wednesday
me and the flowers... oh, it's so nice now spring is nearly here... lovvin it
the christmas bush
sylvia and lynda (two of our TA's) today at the football... like my new haircut?? hehe, it's not that different
ummm kew
trying to be arty?? the art teacher new exactly where it was taken from... crazy
hehe, the 'bum' plant. but when i asked my head teacher what it looks like, he said, 'oh that's the coca de mere' spoil sport. and then i asked the art teacher and he said the same thing..... my goodness, why don't they share my humour??
flowers at kew!!
the kiddies WINNING the footy today. ours are the dark blue.

ok, i should be leaving now for spanish, so dinner then off i go. hope you are well!
besos
deev
xx

praha take 2 and simon community...

howdy all,

well, just came back from a lovely lovely weekend in prague. it was meant to be a trip in the winter time to see the snow that was in all the postcards when i was there in July. However, there was no snow (stupid stupid global warming) and only lots of rain. BUT, i had a nice weekend. Just winding down from a busy week and enjoying relaxing for a weekend in another city in another country. Oh and reading up on my history work that i am teaching... Medieval England, Tudors and Stuarts and Black History . My time in Prague cost me £24.83, not bad for a weekend away (that didn't include flights and busses in London, but was everything in Czech Republic... all transport, food, accomodation and even a theatre).

The theatre was a black light theatre of 'Cats'. Well, here was i thinking it would be a Lloyd-Webber replica, but, it was just a Prague take off about the lives of the stray cats of Praha. Mind you, besides the painful music, it was a pretty good performance. A lot of it was done with one hand in white gloves making up the body of the cat and then the other hand had a cat mask singing... and they danced with the hand-puppet cats. It was quite clever, even if not that exciting. An experience. and a TINY theatre... probably only room for 50 people.

anyways, i'm just crapping on (as usual), so
loving - fried cheese burgers (where the burger is just a paddy of cheese crumbed and deep fried). How good is cheese!!!!!
- 'please, hello, please, may i help you please??'... very polite! ha

hating - loud obnoxious (especially drunk) groups of english guys thinking they are God's gift to everyone.

unsure - all the tourists from so many different countries, accents of which i have never heard before.

then monday, was my second night for street caf and streetwork. I had some awesome conversations with some people at street caf, even getting there with remembering peoples' names. This week i was handing out bikkies and just listening to people, and chatting. Then wandered from Oxford Circus to Marble arch giving out sandwiches, coffee and rollies. Oh and there was this one guy who was an awesome artist. He had so much to say and i think we just sat there chatting for like 15mins, in the cold and wind... GREAT.

anyways... I tried to get a bit arty in my photos, hope you enjoy them... if they can do it on the postcards, then why can't i do it?? i think they are pretty cool... just pics of prague/praha.



crazy babies on a tv tower,



oh, this is just my new adapter... it's a worldwide one. and it has a usb thinging too (good for my i-pod). That was quite exciting for me. cheers tami for lending me yours when i was in Norway.

ok, well, that's all from me for the moment.
hope you are well
love to you all
deev
xx

oh, going to see John Butler trio and got a few tickets, its 26th April, let me know if you are interested in coming! £17each. (kinda like a late birthday present to myself)

my busy busy and funny funny week...

don't know if i said, but last weekend, we had louis (an ex-housemate stay with us), was nice to see him. as i have said previously, i went to cat empire on the saturday night, it was AWESOME!

then, Monday night was my first night with the Simon Community where i did a street cafe and streetwork... the cafe is just serving, tea, coffee, soup, and rollies to the homeless people who come to the aldwich and chatting to them. then, streetwork is wandering through the streets in a pair giving sandwiches, coffee and rollies to people we come across on the street. (was good... don't know if i agree with the rollies, but if you have had a crap day and have nothing to look forward to then i suppose a rollie is better than nothing). i am doing all of that again next monday too.

Tuesday was just my normal gym and biblestudy (although we are doing an awesome series in Biblestudy, reading through Road to Calvery by Roy Hessian, great book!!)

Wednesday, had a kid ask me a question in History (Tudors and Stuarts) that i couldn't answer. then the other kids were like, 'oh my days, this kid knows more than the teacher'... clang... now what do i do?? make a joke about it. I told them, that i am going to do a crash course this weekend (in prague, as that's where i will be) and then i will try and know more than the smart kid on monday. if i don't then he can teach the class.
On Wednesday, we also went to our staff meeting at the pub (with no agenda, quite nice) played 3 games of pool on team with the english teacher helen, i sunk the black ball to win 2 games (luck) and we lost the 3rd. then off to busabi eatthai restaurant for a lovely thai meal and then went to Jimeoin concert... the funniest thing i had seen in ages. Jimeoin was GREAT!!! sooooooooo funny. just kinda your humour on everyday things. but loved it!!! this was with Mark (good to see you again as always, thanks for a good night out) and two of his friends. oh and i got paid today... yay!!!

by thursday i was dead tired. met up with Alex and some of her friends to see Dave Strassman. HE WAS FABULOUS too... my goodness. Skipped spanish class (and apparently missed nothing but a waste of money, so kinda glad about that) and went to Islington area to see this ventriloquist guy http://www.puppetronics.com/ didn't realise who he is... it's a bit incorrect (politically and otherwise) but a great laugh!!! i even wrote down some of the lines that i loved...

...you've got cows that are mad, sheep that are cloned and birds that have the flu...
... i can't talk while he's laughing, i don't know why!...
... i wanna be in southpark so i can go to kill kenny... no, kilkenny is in ireland (derr)...
... you're american too... yeah, only because he can't do any other accents...

haa haa haa haa haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa... had me laughing at least!

and then, well, today was a great day at school (didn't really do much), still dead tired, so skipping the pub with friends... getting caught up with my blog (thus the update), watching neighbours, going to the gym, watching crocodile dundee and then maybe ummm, i dunno, an early night in order to get to the airport for a stupidly early flight tomorrow morning!

saturday/sunday... hopefully a lovely weekend in prague doing not a lot, but relaxing in a foreign city and reading over stupid tudors and stuarts stuff so i can know more than my smart kid on wednesday! hehe...

well, i think that is all for the blog, oh, by the way, spring is coming... the daffodils are out, trees are starting to bloom, the sun is starting to shine, it is GREAT!!! lovin it... bring on the spring!

and now, enjoy the photos!!!
clem, me and mat on our breakfast when i got back from oslo... louis is still asleep
and here he is... ahhh the sleeping angel... hehe...

jo, jeremy and two of their friends (sorry forgot their names) outside the walkie before The Cat Empire... good night hey!
nick and me eating a good aussie style meat pie at the walkabout

the cat empire putting on an awesomely good show... well done lads...
mark and me, doing what aussies do best (besides eating meat pies, or course)... drinking VB at the walkie before the cat empire... have i mentioned that it was a good night??

stu, mark, alex, karen and nick (token english at the walkie), after the Cat Empire Gig... what did you think of our aussie music nick??

tami and me having a bit of fun with her new mac computer... oh, check us out, we belong in an art gallery... a few photos there... enjoy them (hopefully almost as much as we did making them)... i think i'll get some of the others up on myspace (if i get around to it)



our ears are soooo warm =p
hope you enjoyed my posting...
love to you all,
deev
xxxxxxxxxxxxxx times a million