hola barcelona

once again the photos are a little bit random order, please bear with me. above is umm, a thing on the seaside with mat's head in the foreground. yes, it even rains in barcelona. below, is clement, jose, mat, me and note jose's beautiful 62MG top. go gang 62MG... (which is going to change yet again, as we are going to lose lucia to madrid...)

la sagrada familia by night... still to see it by day! next time for sure! below, matt, jana and myself with our tickets for the slides at the tate modern. we went to the slides today in tate modern which were heaps cool. level 4, for real the best slide, although i hurt my elbow on it. but i had a great day today with Matt and Jana. (i left school at 12:45pm and met with matt and jana at tate). we then had lunch over looking the thames and tried to go to the natural history museum to see a big squid, but the tour had closed, so maybe another day.
below, Jana coming off one of the slides, look at the smile on her face. yay!!! heaps of fun.

mat, me and clement sitting on a bench in a park. don't know where, somwhere in barcelona close to Arc de triumf. very close to where Jose lives. oh and there are the boys and the arc.

some of the mosaic in Parc Guell, i thought that was awesome and then below, the view from tres cruz at the top of Parc Guell.
mat and clem, you are like 5 times bigger and older than those girls. ha. i helped the girls up onto the play equipment and then we left. hopefully the girls were able to get down again without breaking their arms. we tried to help them get off, but they didn't want our help. oh well. not my fault!!
so, there are some photos of my last weekend and today... now for the news.

well, in the last week, i have been had the lovely offer from two EU citizens to marry me in order to keep me in the country. Fortunately (or maybe unfortunately), my visa is actually coming through, so i had to decline them both as i no-longer need it. oh and also they are too tall!!! ha. but it is very kind of them to be so selfless as to think of my needs and offer! since being over here i have discovered that i quite like shorter guys. like one or two inches taller than me... weird. mum, thinks i am crazy (especially seeing as dad is 6'2''). ok, well that is my randomness for today.

anyways, the weekend was Barcelona to see Jose, and it was great to catch up with him. as it turned out, Mathieu and Clement were there too. (both housemates). we had a great weekend, but instead of going out on saturday night, i stayed at jose's and slept, cos i was so tired.

i did still have a great weekend wandering Barcelona. We went to the beach, around the town and of course had tapas for lunch. then at night went to La Sagrada Familia and wandered the main shopping street. the next day, we went to have tapas again with Jose and dropped him at the Estacion Nord. Then we wandered and this time we went to the Parc Guell and umm, actually, i think that was pretty much it. Parc Guell was fantastic!!! I would love to go back there and spend some more time in the parc and then explore the city, maybe one day.

this week i am having a few nice nights out. one with marky mark to go and see Avenue Q and one with Lucia to see Chicago.

well, i think that is all for the moment. next stop, next weekend paris.

and tonight off for choir practice at church.
hasta luego.
deev
p.s. once again, those in aus, keep the 23rd free for our christmas party. hopefully you can see the invite below (click on it to make it larger). e-mail me if you need a reminder of our address. can't wait to see you. unfortunately i am only home for a little while, so this is one of my only chances to catch up with people. hope you can join us all!!! i wouldn't miss it for the world, ok, well i chose the world last year. whoops. but this year, i wouldn't miss it for the world!!!

yay

big thanks to Chris and her friend who cheered me up a bit on Wednesday night (after a crappy crappy day went to a lovely dinner) and then to Michelle H and Nick for listening to my whinging on Thursday (before, during and after spanish class).

and glad to say, i am pretty much out of my homesick feel sorry for myself stage and back to good old deev. so yay for that!!!

and i do still love my job, my house, my church, my area, my life. so praise God for that.

hope you all have a good weekend.
(congrats to Ty and Shane who are getting married this weekend)

deev
xx

missing home... wherever that is.

just going through one of those phases where I want to be 'home'. I got a message from a friend last night who i haven't seen for years. Good old Alex Chester, ha, thought he had fallen off the face of the earth. Reminded me of the funtimes we had with our super patrol back in scouts (Me, Tori, Alex, Michael, Matt S). oh, we were a kick butt patrol... and then the fact that i'm visiting home in a few weeks and i'm not there now. i actually had some random bad dreams about home. and then the kids are being a bit hard this week, and i'm tired and starting to get sick. all these factors add together to make a not so happy deev... just want a big hug.

but, i'll move out of this phase soon. went ice-skating with some people from my church last night, outdoors at Somerset House (and the fact that is my street name in Aus). It was a fab night. I am enjoying myself over here, so hopefully this phase will pass. anyways, in a few days i will be in barcelona, hopefully that will cheer me up a bit.

take care
a big hug
deev

manchester, Swanmore and more...

well, only 8years after chile and Matt and I are still meeting up. Oh and i didn't get a photo of Maria who Kristal and I met in Thailand by accident (the sister of Matt, who we made friends with in Chile, we then met his sister 4 years later in Thailand, small world in scouting circles.) anyways, i went down to Swanmore on the weekend to spend some time with him and had a fantabulous weekend. it was great to get away from london and catch up with him. (and to have my own tour guide in the area who of course knew everything there was to know about the area, or not... i think i knew more about it than he did!!! ha) Being in the area did help me with my history, we toured around Winchester, an area very close to Matt, that William the Conqueror had a bit to do with, and I am teaching the Battle of Hastings at the moment, so quite fitting.

and the weekend before last one, i went to visit some new rellies in Manchester. (get this relation, my new aunty's sister's family). so, caught the train up there and had a great time. i even got in a bit of babysitting and learnt how to say duck the proper way... such a proper way that i couldn't actually understand it!!! 'is that a quack quack or a woof woof, catriona?' this was also an educational visit, as Manchester was a booming industrial town, and i am also teaching about the Industrial Revolution... maybe i should have got school to have paid for these trips.

umm, what else?? oh, my cousins sent me a lovely teddy bear for christmas that i accidently opened (as he was straight in the box, promise i didn't unwrap a christmas present early!!!), but glad i did open him as i found a great aussie proud bear. he will be fantastic for both the rugby and the cricket... c'mon aussies!!!!

no more photos are going up at the moment, internet stuffing up, so these will have to do, now bear (excuse the pun, ahh haa haa haa) with me whilst i tell you what they are...
first, me and aussie bear. yay, (thanks jen, reyna and marissa, i love him!!! and he keeps my other teddy thomas company, not that i now have 2 stuffed bears),
next photo me and matt on the river, it was pretty cold, but the pub we went into was lovely and cosy warm, especially next to the fireplace.
next, king arthur's round table. don't know how they used to meet as it is hanging on a wall, would have been hard to stand sideways, i spose that is why they were so great!!!
the beautiful Catriona in Manchester, ahhhh.
and matt, walking through the umm, something garden next to the great hall in Winchester.

that's all folks for the moment.
love youse all
deev

p.s.those of you who are in aus still, put the 23rd December in your diaries. Rodgers family annual christmas party will be that date and i will be home for it (and a few days either side of it.) i will post an invite on my blog when i get it sorted out. would love to see you there, as i probably won't have time to see many of you apart from that time! just a flying trip, mainly to spend time with my poppy who is quite sick. and then family and then well, whoever else i can squeeze in, so would love it if you could come to our shindig on the 23rd.

i love my job.

and that's all i have to say.

i will however post some photos and a story or two soon

shebu

ok, so i already know that it isn't a proper day unless i see a sirened car, let alone 5 on the way home from school. (i walk down an access road to a major road and near a hospital, so it is very likely on any given day) and yesterday was no exception.

don't tell mum this, but on my way home from school (3:50pm), i was crossing the green and saw 4 police cars with some of the green sectioned off with police tape... ok, not sure what was happening, so just walked my merry way home. get to my street and a few houses past mine are 5 more police men standing around with another sectioned off area. this area goes around the corner with more police men standing there. interesting. so, tori and i have a bit of a sticky beak on the way to the shops (we have to walk past this area) we ask the police man what happened... apparently just a bit of a fight... mmmm, blood stains all over the pavement and a few sections of road sectioned off equals 'just a bit of a fight'. when i went to spanish class at 6:15 there was a lady taking photos in the sectioned off area.

don't know the story, but it was quite an interesting day!!! love the bush.

what a wonderful world we live in!

have a good friday!
love
deev

potato cakes and parties

last night we had Amy (girfriend of mathieu my housemate)'s party. she's the little one on the left. (i think the other girls name is lucy??) and then mathieu, looking chuffed to be inbetween two girls in a photo.
hey mark, what's that on your face?? it was about time poynts and i caught up, so what better to do than go to remembrance day for 2 minutes silence. london was at a standstill... amazing. just like old times on ANZAC day, but for once neither of us were in uniform.
schelle, Karen Dunn and myself looking sophisticated (the theme for Amy's last night). was nice to finally catch up with Karen who seems to be having a blast over here. good to see you karen!!

the poppy's in the fountain at Trafalgar Square where the service was held. lest we forget. and may we learn from it too.
that beautiful sunset at richmond i spoke about in a previous post. tori, me and schelle, the day we were all here. the next night i was all alone...
me, nick (schelle's new housemate) and Michelle (another one) at a Tapas restaurant in Brook Green. It had really good food and we needed to go there to umm, practice our spanish!!! We are part of the little shebu gang who walk to and from spanish class. last week we had 5 people walking home and branching off at different places, it was quite nice. an almost kind of community in london... never thought it could happen.
me, Evan, Jeremy, Jo and Chris. some of the rovers from back home celebrating evan's b'day. oh and that's my hat jeremy!!!
oh, oh, oh, can you read the name of the band on the drums?? schelle, chris and i went to the Jet gig on Tuesday night. it was pretty good! they are good live.

morrisons (my local grocery store) does my new favourite breakfast thing. potato cakes. they are kind of like a pancake but with pressed potato and you put them in the toaster... soooooo yummy. and probably really bad for you, but they taste so good!

so, my week this week. ummm, have done a bit of a clean-up of my room. putting stuff back in drawers, throwing stuff away, packing stuff that i won't need for a while into my suitcase. ummm, oh and of course then buying more stuff to put in my drawers and cupboard. why?? because i can. I still haven't done my job application, but that is on my MUST DO list of things for today. I'm not sure if i said, but i am applying for my job so that i can go off supply and onto contract so i can get things like sick pay, holiday pay oh and one stress day off a term!!

i think that is pretty much me done for the moment. ummm,

luego! deev

down with skeksis.

caught... watching the dark crystal and i should be applying for my job. whoops. well, i am just really tired and unmotivated. i was thinking that maybe i could do my application and watch the dark crystal at the same time... hmmm, wonder how that will pan out.

'follow the greatest sun, but master, i am only a gelfling.' and the stupid whirring skeksi.... actually, kind of reminds me of a kid at school, maybe i should show him the dark crystal.

well, umm, have a few photos to put online, although me being lazy haven't done it yet and my camera is downstairs, so you will have to wait until another day. saw jet lastnight. they were well good in concert. i forget that live music is really loud. next time i see a band i shall hopefully remember to take earplugs.

saying that, here is one, ummmm, well, ummm, just mucking around on the movember website. ha. hope you enjoy the ummm, changes that i have been through since arriving in London. not bad not bad... let me know what you think of my new look!

what else, not a lot really. having teacher drinks tomorrow night (either before or after spanish class, not sure yet) oh and not including this weekend, i have a few weekend trips planned. really looking forward to them.

ok, should probably try and get some of my good points down in a word document so i can apply for my job (and inturn visa to be able to stay in this country to work after december).

love youse all,
deev

bedtimes and sunsets

well, last night was an interesting night. Schelle moved into her apartment (with 3 most lovely english people) and i came home to a half-empty room and a bed all to myself. it was lovely, but at the same time there was no-one to chat to this morning when i woke up. i think it has been about 5 months of sharing room, bed and space. once i spread my stuff out again i think it will be good. good luck in your new place schelle! and the good news is her place is just around the corner, so not too far to wander there.

On the way home last night, i only passed 3 people urinating and 2 people vomiting. FANTASTIC.... Gotta love shepherds bush!

and the sunsets... my goodness, they are beautiful!! Yesterday Clement and I were wandering in Richmond along the Thames (and could hear the chanting England vs NZ rugby match) and my goodness, the sunset was glorious. and then again today... fantastic!!! they really are!! only problem is they are like at 5:00pm, so the days are getting shorter, colder and darker, but beautiful sunsets. (did i mention the sunsets??)

oh and still loving school, just thought i would share that.
best be doing some work actually, that's why i turned my computer on in the firstplace, but i got a bit sidetracked.

love to you all!
deev
xx

seagulls?

well, last time i checked, White City was nowhere near the sea.

so why all the seagulls on the way to work this morning...

keeps me guessing i suppose

have a great day!

xx

deev in Iceland

the falls, just before the camera broke. ahhh, look, a rainbow. yes, it was FREEZING!! below (sorry a bit out of order), ahhh, Jana, Matt and me at Pizza express. yummy, pizza...

about to set off whale watching, nope, no whales here, just me and tomas ready for the wind and waves. and below, warming up at the blue lagoon. it was something like 2 degrees, and we were swimming outside in warm water, MADDNESS, but it was actually beautiful.
oh, and last week Beth, Schelle, Chris, Me, Kate (a friend of schelles) and Xen (a friend of beths) went to see wicked. and it was.... you guessed it.... WICKED! it's the story of the wicked with from wizard of oz, and i think it is a really clever story. and onto my story...

well, after many a laugh by Tomas, I decided to give up trying to speak Icelandic. It is a language that i think i will never be able to get my head around. there are just some sounds my mouth doesn't know how to make. i will stick with espanol for the moment.

anyways, so, i get there on Sat to be greeted by tommi at the airport, (thanks heaps tommi) which was lovely. We then explored Reykjavik on the way back to Tomas' house. A lovely house indeed. The architecture is quite bland, but everynow and then there is a randomly designed house/building just to keep you guessing.

Sunday we went driving around Reykjavik on the Golden Triangle (first place of parliament, Geysir, Water Falls). TRUELY MAGNIFICENT! and i would have taken more photos, but my camera got wet at geysir, i was taking a video and tomas and i somehow got under tha path of the hot water falling... WHOOPS. but we were fine (water wasn't as hot as i would have thought) but wet and so quickly got very cold. by the time we got to the falls, my camera had decided to hibernate... very wise choice. so unfortunately only one photo, even though we were about 1m away from the water.

then sunday, a great day of whalewatching (only saw dolphins, but still, it was a lovely day and Reykjavik was magnificent once again) and then off to the Blue Lagoon to warm up after a cold day on the water. (a geothermal pool).

this morning was only -4degrees C. Not such a cold morning. And yesterday i had lots and lots of winter woolies on. Even though the weather was sunny, it was still really cold. the lake has started to freeze up. i was going to try and walk on it, but thought that would be stupid. especially if i fell in, so just looked at it instead.

by the way, the hot and cold water to iceland homes is all natural, so the hot water sometimes smells like rotten egg... a great smell for after the shower! nice and clean! oh, and they just run the water like it is infinite. i found it hard to do the washing up as i kept turning the tap off and tomas kept turning it back on again, guess i'm just used to water restrictions.

anyways, think this is enough rambling for the moment...
just finished to Sigur Ros, an icelandic band i bought on cd. hooray!

oh yeah, and before i went away on Saturday, I saw Matty and Jana for dinner on Friday night at the wonderful Pizza Express. We wandered all of Shebu to find a good place fore dinner and ended up there (about 20m from where i live). Ha, that would be right. And it was great to see jana again. Can't wait till just after new years when she will be back in london. a bit cooler next time.

chau,
dos besos,
deev
xx

HAPPY HALF-TERM!

YAY!!

congratulations schelle

well, we discovered that schelle has been living at my house for 6months now. and it has been a great 6 months, but the time has come for her to find her own feet in this big bad city. so, she has been looking around for a nice room to move into. and well, after 2 months of looking for 'the one' she has finally found it. congratulations.

my new friend from spanish class has a housemate moving out and i was chatting to him about my friend who was looking for a place. so schelle looked on wednesday, met the final housemate on friday and got the room. so exciting. she will be living just around the corner in a very nice flat with 2 other girls and nick. and i think she will be relieved just to be able to put her clothes in her own drawers.

oh and i like the place because they have pretty woman on DVD... SOLD!!

so I am excited for her and i am sure she is excited too. nice place, nice people, close to me and has pretty woman, who could ask for anything more??

xx

squirrels in the park...

check out my new streak of blonde hair!!! courtesy of Chris... ta chris! i'm loving it! just adds a bit of colour to my hair (looks a bit yellow there, but not too bad in real life). oh, it makes for a good moustache too, ha. ok, so quick description of the rest of the photos and then the goss... below is clement being a silly face and my new friend Nick my amigo from espana class.three very sexy ladies... schelle, chris et moi... below, schelle, matt, geoff, me and chris. always a great laugh when we all get together and go out. (oh jana, doesn't matt look lovely! haha)

and then ummm, the new housemate... barry, ummm, need i say more?? (by the way, he had just been at the gym, not always that sweaty.)

and now the goss...
well, i was walking home from work this arvo and i decided i must go back to the park to watch the squirrels. they intrigue me. the way their tails move when they pounce, the way they move sideways around a tree, the way they hold nuts in their hands. I have just become a fan of the little pests. ok, so that is my random story for the day, now what have i been up to??

it's hard to believe how fast time really does fly! i am now in week 6 of term which means at the end of this week it will only be one week until i go to iceland for 4 days to visit Tomas and have a bit of a holiday. (Tomas was on my tour of thailand... he was my peeing buddee, hooray for tomas.) so i am really looking forward to that. Iceland looks beautiful. Hopefully will make it to some thermal pools too.

teaching is still quite frantic, but i am enjoying it. today we made mountains out of clay and sand and then poured water over them to see the effects of erosion. we even put farm animals in to make it more 'realistic'. the kids loved it, and so it meant i had a good lesson too! And the best thing is that at the end of the lesson all the students were able to tell me what erosion is. Hooray... now if only my Industrial Revolution and King Henry VIII lessons go as well tomorrow. it really is very hard remembering which subject i am teaching, but the kids bear with me and we struggle through together.

oh, and last weekend, i had my first run into people i know... it was crazy. London is big and to actually see someone you know... crazy. so, story goes, I had my Happy Half Birthday Party (0r at least drinks at a cute pub in Notting Hill). a new friend from spanish class, Nick, came along and so did a person who schelle and I met in Copenhagen. Then on Saturday after i went shopping (and bought some skinny black jeans, aren't i now trendy!) I ran into Nick on the bus on the way home. then on the short walk from the bus to home I ran intoDan (the guy from Copenhagen. crazy!!! and really quite refreshing for london.

anyways, Schelle was away over the weekend in Budapest with Beth and Beth is coming to London this weekend. It will be really good to see her again and go party party in Londontown.
ok, so i think that is enough for the moment. there are probably a lot more things i could be telling you, but i can't think where to start at... so, some photos instead.

hasta luego.

more stonehenge shots.

and welcome the dutch photos from the weekend.

to check out me driving on the wrong side of the car (tongue out for concentration, hehe, didn't know i did that!) and more check out this website!

http://www.scoutingwasa.nl

click on nieuwe foto's NaWaKa en Stonehenge. then click on foto's patrick to see me driving. or just have a look at Patrick, Arnout and Sjoerd's photos.

ENJOY!!!! it really was a fun weekend.

xx

happy 1 year in the house

hello kiddies,
well, i have just reached my year in the house. My my, how time is still flying!!! it really is! i don't feel like i have been gone for very long and i have already been living at 62MG for a whole year!

as i said, it was great having Louis and Jose here for a visit and now we are back to normal (well as normal as we can be!). here is a photo from the Kensington, one of our many local pubs, where of course, we sometimes go on mondays for 241 mains.

Then on saturday morning Schelle, Christina and I went to a Walkabout to watch the swannies game at 5:00am. And well, it sucked when we lost. oh well, better luck next year ay! (not that i really follow AFL, but i had my pie and VB at 5:15am and watched the whole match!) After the match, we went back to sleep, then had a yummy second breakfast at Hampstead Heath before heading to watch World Trade Centre... INTENSE. and then on the way back we found some hair dye. So, i managed to persuade Chris and Schelle to dye random blonde bits in my hair (for old times sake, you can't see them until my hair is up, so not heaps radical) whilst we watched out lovely Johnny Depp. ahhhhh, what a lovely weekend we had!

and now, back at school. just started up a singing club on tuesdays, that went quite well today. 9 children turned up (which isn't bad seeing as we only had about 38 at school today). and on friday i am going to celebrate my happy half-birthday. so lots of fun stuff happening.

hope you are all keeping well. any news, let me know!
love ya all
deev

mat, me, clem, louis, schelle, jose and mat (across the front) at the Ken on monday evening last week. and below, what are mat and jose up to?? (never want to know with those two!!)

my pie and VB at 5:15am... never to early!! ha. and me, Schelle, Chris and Priscilla at the swannies match... go the swans.
hope you enjoy the piccies!!! xx

nights out

so, monday night was a fabulous one because we went to the pub with 2 ex housemates (Jose and Louis). And besides the fact that Marion was not there, it was just like it used to be when i moved into the house almost a year ago... it truely was beautiful, beautiful, it's beautiful it's true!

oh and then last night schelle and i went to see 'We Will Rock You' at the Dominion Theatre. I thought it was quite a clever show and well, the voices were really strong!! i think it is quite possibly one of the best shows i have seen (talent wise). i have been disappointed with some of the voices and enthusiasm in other shows casts, but man, these guys were FANTASTIC!!! really did rock me (ahhh).

ok, well, back to the school work. i am teaching history and RE today, so need to get my head around that.

love you all
deev

the joys of being a high school teacher...

walking past students and hearing them talking about you being well fit. crazy world we live in!!

a weekend of firsts...

ok, so photos first, then info. well, this first one is the gang, (i have made anglisised the names to make it easier for me). back row is... derrik, sjoerd, kun, robbie, umm, then front line, martin, gisella, partick and me. and then arnout at the front. the photo below is me sjoerd and arnout at the campfire... ahhhh, arnout was the first member of the gang i met.

me and arnout in the car on the way to stonehenge. are we there yet??? and then look, on the mountain, is that a horse??

my sock puppet eating stonehenge (don't ask the story there!!! yes i am strange!) and below, stonehenge before it was eaten... he said it tasted lovely, a bit crumbly, but lovely.

dismantling the tent.... ahhh, our home for 2 nights (8peoples worth! and 6 of them boys, mmm, oh and we had no running water at the camsite... mmm, breathe in the fresh air!) may i present to you, stonehenge!! (below)
ummm, robbie, is that peanut butter and sugar??

so, here's the story! last weekend was my first visit to stonehenge, my first weekend camping in the UK and my first weekend driving in over a year.

the first challenge i arose to was driving. Now, whilst that doesn't sound like too daunting, i haven't driven overseas EVER before and the friends i went to stonehenge with drive a car from holland. so, i get to the car on friday night (just after midnight) to hear 'here are the keys, you're driving'/ to which i reply, 'you have to be joking', 'nope, i'm not'. so in i hop to the left hand side of the car where i am meant to sit to drive and contemplate the car most of which is to my right. a very foreign experience for me. the gear stick was also on the right, so when i went to put the car into reverse, i used my left hand. Patrick tutt tutted that, so i had to try and use my very unco-ordinated right hand. oh, and english roads are in miles and this car was in kms, just another trick y thing to figure out. well, i am really proud of myself. i drove a manual car down to our campsite on the english road, stalling only once at the beginning of the journey and not crashing. Hooray for me. (patrick has a photo of this i will put up, i look to be concentrating very hard!! oh and thank you arnout, for being very positive with me whilst i was driving! i do like the game stay on your side of the lane!!!

the next first was camping. i had a great weekend and it only rained once on sunday morning when we were asleep in the tent, so not too bad. and i know stonehenge is just a bunch of rocks, but the people i was with made it a really enjoyable experience.

so, got to the campsite, sat by the fire, met a whole heap of dutch people (there were 8of them all up) and chatted for a while before heading to bed. it was not too cold which was lovely. then saturday, was Patricks birthday, so we gave him a cake in bed. and jumped in the car ready to find a nice place for breakfast. ended up having our picnic breakkie outside a golf course. then onto the rocks! they were beautiful. but they are unfortunately no longer there (note my piccy of my sock puppet eating stonehenge). oh well, sorry to those who never made it there and now never will!!! hehe. the rest of the day was spent driving around looking at chalk horses in the countryside and generally having a laugh in the cars. then back to the campsite for a lovely bbq, sleep, yet another good camp breakfast and then unfortunately, say goodbye to my dutch friends. (some of them quite new friends).

oh this weekend was also a first for trying peanut butter sandwich with sugar on it.

so i have just come back from a great weekend and wanted to share the experience with you.

hope you are all well
love deev

photos

ok, well, i started with the photos of eileen and me, but they are now half-way down the page and i couldn't be bothered to try and fix them, so deal with it! ha. this first photo is hmm, well, a nice group of people having a harmless picnic in the park in bucharest on a sunny day (or so we thought!!!) ahhh, i love pumas. there were some english guys staying in our hostel in brasov and one of them had just the right sized feet and these beautiful pumas. well, one night he was heaps drunk and i decided i was going to swap shoes with him for good. although i couldn't actually bring myself to do it. so i ended up with my old brown ones and he kept his aussie coloured ones.
the thinkers... or should i say the stoics. tori, me and kath (tori's egypt travel buddee) in a stoa in the acropolis. AMAZING place really. the history (and a great insight to it having a history buff there to tell me stories about Nike and Athena and other greek gods, put things into perspective. cheers tori). just amazing
me looking out over Dracula's home country in Transylvannia. the countryside here is beautiful. i would love to have spent a few weeks just exploring the mountains and walking tracks, but alas, it wasn't to be.

me whispering secrets to a funny old man in the streets of plovdiv. i can't remember what he is doing there, but he is one person who was willing to put up with my stories.
well, this is me and Eileen in Leeds, (thanks to her for looking after me for a night). it was great to see her again. and below is me and matt in a pub in Leeds (taken by schelle, thanks schelle) cheers to another good part of a great weekend away. it was a very funky pub just near the main street in leeds.
below is me being an olympian, well, an Ancient Olympian in the stadium at Olympus. Now, that was a great place to visit. (near my right hand you can see the tunnel the olympians used to go through to the stadium.) oh and look at the sunny day, ahhh, to have the warm sunshine back again. it's not too bad at the moment, but not the greatest either. still sunny, but quite cool.

ahhh, yes, the cow... well, if you use your imagination you can kind of see a cow!!!

and well, Geoff, don't know what you are doing buddy!?? singing hard to chisels or something?? but the rest of us are cheesy at the walkabout (of course) in Temple. Me, schelle, matty, geoff and richard (their friend). oh and schelle and i are wearing our new Primark tops. Man, we LOVE that shop! go Primark.

well, that is enough for the moment. don't know what will come next time, but until then, ENJOY!

love to you all

new quote i like from a book i read (who'd have thought i would be a reader??)

'kids think with their brains cracked wide open; becoming an adult,
I've decided, is only sewing it shut.'

don't worry, I am alive!

well, despite my parents (and apparently a few others) thinking i am dead because I haven't updated my blog, I am actually going really well. Just lazy as usual. I was going to update my blog last weekend, but ended up going to the bricklane festival instead. And then this weekend I went to Leeds to visit a friend of schelle and mine called matt and of course a lovely relative called Eileen. I had a fantastic weekend and i know schelle did too. So, now i am kind of back, it's time to give you all an update. I am really good at making promises and not keeping my word. VERY SORRY!!!!

anyways, school has been interesting going back. High school is definitely not my passion, but saying that, I am having a lovely time at this school. I am a Year 7 form tutor and my kids are quite tricky, but it keeps me on my toes and always looking for something new. the perks of being a high school teacher are my free periods. 7 in total this year not bad, not bad. much better than primary. although at the moment i do not know whether i am coming or going being the Head of 3 Departments (Geography, History, RE) aswell as teaching literacy and having my Yr 7's for personal health and social education. i do however like to feel important as i get heaps of junk mail addressed to the Head of _____ Dept. (not too hard when you are the only one teaching the subject! ha). I feel like i have had 3 job promotions, but not even 1 pay rise! oh well, welcome to the real world. But, i can say at the end of every day that i have had a good day! And despite their faults, the kids are good kids, just need a bit of TLC (and the right attitude given to them.)

so, as for the rest of my trip, it seems like it was so long ago. I had a ball travelling through eastern europe. and copenhagen was beautiful too. but by the end, i just wanted to be back home. ummm, since being home i have caught up with people and tried to get my head around the life that went on hold for 1 month whist the bills kept coming. Today was productive. I bought a pair of boots (well, 2 and have to take 1 back when i decide with help which ones i am going to keep), i restarted my membership at the gym (and i am going to yoga class tonight) and i also got some photos developed from my digital camera (dad, to send to eileen!! finally). but i had too many shots on my camera, they wouldn't all load, so i have to go back to get some more done. but i am getting there.

oh, and on thursday i start my spanish course. I am really excited about that. Doing it with a girl from my old church. it will be nice to see her every week.
well, enough ramblings for one day. (and i need to get ready for yoga, ha, so unlike me). so, ciao for now.

i will post some more hopefully later this week!
hugs and a whole lotta love
deev

tried to put some photos, but couldn't... sorry!!

bakery goodness

am loving cheese pies, donuts and lots of other bakery goodness. hooray for bakery goodness. am now in Athens. We have just come from Olympia yesterday, took 11hours instead of 5 1/2, as we hit a cow on the train, and broke it (both cow and train)... then sat in the train for 1hr, whilst another engine came to take us back over the cow to catch a bus to corinth, then train to athens.

olympia was very nice, great ruins, cliched photos (discus and javelin, i look so sporty) and the museum there is really well set out. so, athens at the moment.

and today wandering around ruins, this arvo, up to the Acropolis when it is a bit cooler. unfortunately only a day in athens, and then off to Copenhagen tomorrow. and tell you what, i am actually starting to miss my london home, can't wait to get back on tuesday night.

am in a bit of a bad mood at the moment, sorry, couldn't be bothered to type too much or think too hard about what i have done. but i will fix it with a donut and an ice-cream.

and write more from London.
love you all
deev

p.s. am excited about seeing the little mermaid in copenhagen

greece

wonderful sunny greece!!

well, we are on the Peleponese in Greece, it is beautiful here!!! We are at Napflio. The world was against us in Thesseloniki, so we caught a bus to Athens and then to Napflio. Again, yesterday the world was against us. We went to Mycenae and it was beautiful, so old, so much history there! We then caught a bus to Corinth, but unfortunately had to change busses and waited in the 3:00sun melting and the bus didn't come, so we missed out on going to Corinth (but saw a beautiful postcard!) and went back to the beach in Napflio. So, an ok end to the day. today is an admin day with eating, e-mails, transfers, catching up on postcards and oh yes.... BEACH!!! the sea here is beautiful, salty and the rocks are very warm. well lovely!!!

well, about to un out of internet time, so i best be going now.
will update on the rest later. ( i wrote a big list of things i wanted to include, but left them at the hotel). so from here, to another day and some more ruins, then to Olympia (more ruins), athens, copenhagen and then london... ho humm. my time of travel this time is coming to an end, but it is great!!
love you all
deev

don't picnic in Bucharest in the park

with alcohol!!! especially if you are going to sit on the grass!!! my goodness, what an advenutre yesterday.

tori and i met some english med students at the parliamentry palace tour. we then decided to have a picnic lunch in the park... lovely day for it. but apparently, no alcohol allowed. two police men made us go with them to their little hut, where they spoke to the guys inside. then the door closed and tori and i had to decide whether to run or not. the door opened again and we found ourselves giving money over to the cops... well, better that than end up i jail!

so, now i have a story of being 'arrested' in a foreign country. remember, not good to picnic in the park on the grass with alcohol!!!

leaving Romania today, off to Bulgaria. not sure whether you can picnic there... will find out we suppose. will update otherstuff lateer,
love
deev

brasov

well, it is all a lie!!!! Tori and I are still in Romania in Brasov and went on a castle tour yesteday to 'Dracula' castle. and really, it is just a castle that they use to sell dracula stuff, Vlad Dracul never went there. But it was fascinating all the same. The countryside here is great!! And as i said before, everything is so different to the rest of Europe that i have experienced so far.

our train trip from Sighisoara went really fast as we were chatting to two romanian guys who just decided to bag me out most of the journey! GREAT FUN!!! they actually had me in tears of laughter at one stage because the call they made was just me in a nutshell, how someone you have just met can bag you out so precisely is beyond me, but they managed. and then we got to our hostel and apparently they were about to give away our beds because we arrived at 8:00pm instead of 4:00pm, whoops, never knew we had to be so ontime when travelling. our first night in Brasov was great. we wandered into the centre of town and there was a free concert with a rock type band with a violinist. they were pretty cool and then a boy band came on!! they were fantastic... dancing, singing, the whole hog... tori and i couldn't stop laughing at them, but to give them credit, they weren't too bad. then some old dude came on with a rock band and we decided sleep might have been a bit more important, so back to the hostel.

yesterday we went on the (hostel run) castle tour and it was a nice day out. full of people from the hostel, romanian food and bits of information about castles and citadels and the guide put as much dracula stuff into everything. 'see this clothing chest here?? this is where dracula used to sleep!'

ok, well, i think today is just a lazy day exploring the city and surroundings of Brasov, maybe even read in the park for a bit.

Sighisoara - birthplace of dracula

so, my last night in Budapest I went out with a group of people from the hostel. nice groups, but the club wasn't that exciting. even still, stayed out till 4:20am. had to wake up at 6:20am for our train to Sighisoara... so not much sleep, but tell you what, it was a great sleep!!! the train trip was about 7hrs long and for most of it i saw the inside of my eyelids. but when i was awake and not reading, the countryside was beautiful. forests and hills and fields of veggies. tori told me the hungarian side was much flatter and more barren. sometimes when we approached the villages when i looked out, i was quite shocked at the buildings. i am not used to the architecture - barren concrete buildings with half the windows missing and kids playing in the dirt out the front. i guess it is just a different way of life that has been formed by very different times and experiences.

So, today, wandering around Sighisoara, the birthplace of dracula. his birthhouse is now a cafe/restaurant, but had to visit it anyways. we are trying to figure out the culture here... influenced by russia (or at least the cyllic languages {if that is what they are called, pardon my ignorance}), germany, hungary, sounds similar to italian.

it is a beautiful town with a great slow pace, and a wonderful mish-mash of architecture. well, instead of looking at the differences in computer screens and keyboards in different countries, i should experience the nature and city and people.

off to explore and practise my english (i am well tired, but it's beautiful here innit)

love youse all,
deev

hungary

so, in vienna, we didn`t end up going to the opera, cos it rained, but the next day it brightened up a bit and we went to see the Jazz at Raushatz Platz, and it was really good. good food, good weather, good music, very cultured. and then we wandered the streets looking at very grand architecture. loved it. on sunday night we went back to raushatz platz and watched a dvd of the vienna philharmonic orchestra on a big screen. and had some local beer. it was a great end to a fantastic day. the next day, tori went to salzberg and i stayed in vienna. i had breakfast at a very nice cafe and then walked to Mozarts tribute grave or something. spent like 5 hours wandering in the sun with flip-flops on... very tired and sore feet by the end, but it was a good day.

and then onto budapest where yesterday we went to some thermal baths, very relaxing. but then decided to blow our minds by walking through a house of terror that tells of hungary under the nazis and communism... i feel very ingnorant after going there, so much more to know about the world. and it all happened so recently. something to read up a bit more about when i get back to London (and can read the books due to language).

so, today, wandering around budapest, the buda side, and then tomorrow off to sighisoara in transylvania. I am really looking forward for this part of the journey. and i think we are slightly ahead of what we previously thought, so have some time to hang around there if we want, or to move on. it is lovely not having much to do everyday.

well, that`s all for the moment.
love
davina