All the cool kids...

Are making records. Well, that's what we've been doing, anyway. On Friday night, our good friend Matt drove up from Peterborough with a 24 track hard disk recording unit. We brought in a whole bunch of other equipment from various sources, and some duvets, and built us a studio in the basement of the house on Talbot Mount (see picture). We managed to get down 9 tracks in one day, which was pretty impressive. There's still the vocals to record, and then we have to master it all, but things are going well. Keep an eye on our website to find out more, and to check out when you can get to one of our shows...

Back in the real world, I've got it easy at school today. Rather than teaching, which I was doing some of last week, today I'm back to observing. It's a reasonably easy task that basically requires watching the teacher, making notes on what they do, and then helping out a bit in the class for the lesson. Even I can manage that. One little gem from this morning though: The children were learning how to make notes on a text. They were given three paragraphs, which they had to shorten to something that made sense and contained all the major information. One girl, I noted, had written that the mercury from batteries can poison the soil. However, a slight mis-spelling on her part led the sentence to actually read 'the mercury from batteries can poison the soul'. Brilliant, and probably true.

Went for another run tonight, but couldn't take the pace that Rob kept with his mighty legs. Cut it short. Still felt pretty good afterwards though. I then cooked a tasty treat for everyone, and Butch went off to meet his girl. More about her at a later date, no doubt. The evening was rounded off with a lovely cup of chai tea, brewed by yours truly. I'll post in the next couple of days about how I did it, and how you can do the same. Until then...

Just an observation...

And that's all it was. I got myself a little bit worried about this morning, because my link tutor from college was coming to do his first formal observation of my teaching. As it turned out, I had no cause for concern. I was in the ASC (Autistic Spectrum Condition) class, which was a bonus because I feel much more confident in there. I'd planned an activity, and the kids actually whizzed through it, which was a miracle in itself; they all sat at the table and did the work. I found another resource that we could use for a numeracy lesson, so we did that, and then did some individual work programmes; such was the effeciency of the pupils this morning. All this contributed to the rather pleasing report that my tutor gave me at the end of the session. I'll let you read it:

Professional values and practice: High expectations of all children. Demonstrates positive values to all children.

Knowledge and understanding: Good knowledge of what constititutes an appropriate learing environment for children with particular needs.

Planning, expectations and targets: Detailed planning in place to meet specific needs of children. Challenging expectations set.

Class management: Good selection of resources. Teaching and learning time managed effectively. Purposeful learning environment.

Teaching: Work had pace and variety. You gave careful attention to pupil errors and helped to remedy them.

Monitoring and Assessment: Monitored children's responses in detail to activities throughout the session. Used a lot of constructive feedback.

Inclusion and equal opportunities: Clear understanding of how children's learning is affected by their intellectual development.

Targets for development: Consider how you could identify a specific 'learning objective' within your planning for this session.

I'm not sure how much sense that makes to you. Basically, he was also ticking little boxes that referred to certain targets which I must acheive in order to gain Qualified Teacher Status. The comments are in keeping with the standards that I have achieved during the lesson that he observed.

I actually really enjoyed the lesson, and the feedback he gave me is very useful, but I only realised after I'd finished talking to him (after he'd done the observation) how tired I was. It had really taken it out of me. I think that the thing I can most easily liken it to, is taking your practical driving test. I was pretty calm about the whole affair, and I wasn't particularly worried about it, but I was aware that he was there, making notes on everything that I was doing, so I made sure that everything was done by the book. In the same way that when you take your driving test, you concentrate very hard on making sure that you check your mirrors at exactly the right time, keep both hands on the wheel in the correct position, and generally drive with more caution, perhaps even than you had when you were learning. And it's a pretty tiring experience.

What the Butcher saw...

I came in from work last night to find Butch watching one of my favourite films, City of God. I saw it in the theatres when it came out, and then didn't watch it for years, despite the fact that I received it for my birthday on DVD. I finally got round to viewing it again on new year's day, very early in the morning, when I was waiting to go to the airport to fly back to England. Bethany was supposed to watch it with me, but she fell asleep. Despite the fact that I was incredibly tired, and watching it on a 7" portable DVD screen, I was once again wowed by the cinematography, incredible acting, and the harsh reality of the violence. The plot's pretty good too.

I was very pleased then, having been exposed to it again last night, to find that my very good friend James had written a review of it for digital-coffee.com. You can read the review here.

In other news, I went for a run last night. That's right, a run. I'm swimming tonight too. It's all part of a new initiative to get me in shape for my wedding. I know that there's a year to go yet, but trust me; the baggy sweaters do a great job of concealing a lot of extra weight that I shouldn't really be carrying. It's not the only change to my lifestyle either. But more on that later. Right now, I'm going to go have my lunch in a classroom. Then go for a swim. Then maybe I'll watch City of God again...

Nerves...

Well, who'd have thought it? I just took my first part of a lesson, and I was so scared! I have no fear of the kids, and I'm more than happy to work with them in smaller groups, but this was the first time that I've had to stand at the front of a whole class and write on the board. The first time that I've had to actually teach them something entirely new.

We were looking at time, and counting in five minute intervals between designated times. They caught on really quickly, and I was fairly confident that they'd achieved the objective of the session. Then the teacher came and took over for the rest of the time. She observed me as I taught, and gave me some valuable feedback, which you can find below:

Introduced the topic. You need to ask child rather than look at the whole class. Direct questions.
Good. Let children see their own mistake and work out the answer to correct themselves. Ask them to say how they worked things out (eg 14x5=70). Drew out well the 60 minutes = 1 hour.
Always ask the child to explain. Some do this automatically. A child's explanation is sometimes better than ours, as some children listen to other pupils better.

I feel much more confident now, as I feel that I've got over the biggest hurdle, and I've also recieved some valuable advice into the bargain.

It was a funny morning too. When we first came into the class, one child was showing me the latest addition to his pencil case - a bendy pencil. It looks like, and works like a normal pencil, but you can bend it to a certain extent. The boy next to him also had one. He was so pleased with it, and very keen to demonstrate how bendy it was. But he was a bit too rough, and snapped it in half... Ha ha ha ha. The other hilarious incident from this morning was in games. We were in the gym, and the children were in pairs, throwing a ball to each other, and catching it with one hand. The teacher asked them to use the hand that they use the least i.e. if you're right handed, catch with your left; if you're left handed, catch with your right. One boy announced proudly that he could catch equally well with both hands. The teacher told him that he should use whichever one he wanted. I had to laugh when I saw the look on his partner's face, as she threw him the ball for the first time, and he fumbled it and dropped it on the floor. Priceless...

A fun weekend was had, all in all. I went to a party on Saturday night at a very posh house. Full of people who thought that the most fun thing you can do at a party is stand around chatting politely with people of the same social class as you. We went outside and caused a ruccus. Butch invented a game where you had to kick cookie over a fence. Some random guy that realised we were having much more fun than anyone else came out and had a go. But his shoe came off and flew into next door's garden. Hilarious...
I got up a bit late on Sunday as a result though, and only made it to church for the Word (which Mashworth explained was a particularly significant name for it). The sermon was really good, and challenged me on a couple of things. Basically, it was looking at Annaneus and Saphira, and how they edged closer and closer to sin, playing chicken with it, until they took the final step; when what they should have done was run the other way when the idea came to them. I had a bit of a chat with God afterwards, and agreed with him some ways that I can avoid falling into the trap of playing chicken with sin. Really useful stuff, actually.

In the afternoon, I cleaned the house finally, so it looks great again. My parents have just got back from the Carribean, and they brought me a bunch of gifts and stuff. Hilariously, after I made the decision that morning to stop drinking alcoholf for the forseeable future, they gave me a bottle of fine Trinidad rum. Nuts. Not sure what I'll do with that... It was good to see them though, and they told me that they're decorating my old room, so the bed that's in there at the moment is going spare. I need a new bed, so they're bringing it up for me. And my old wardrobe, which I can paint. I was planning to decorate my room in February when Bethany's over, so that works out really nicely.

We had some great cheese last night too. A superb mature blue stilton. Ate it with Tim and Butch after a game of Fluxx. I thoroughly recommend this game to all that can get hold of a copy. Along with Scrabble, it's our favourite game for 2006.
Right, that's quite enough of that. There's work to be done. Catch you later...

Nothing changes...

It doesn't matter how many times I come back to Lincoln, it's always the same. My Best Man, James, is back for the weekend from London, so I too made the journey across into England's equivalent of Hicksville. As I could have predicted, James and Sujee, despite announcing that they would 'definately be there by 11' didn't turn up until midnight. Any normal people would have seen this as a good chance to have a few minutes catching up, before going to bed. But we were in Lincoln. At Damien's house. So, at quarter past twelve, we strode out of the house, and towards any pub that would still serve us beer. We didn't get in until quarter to four. Ah, a good time was had by all though. We went to Dogma, where I bumped into a good friend that I haven't seen for ages. Damo bought the drinks, and we sat in the corner and laughed until we cried. I haven't laughed that much in ages...

Before any of that could happen, though, I had to go to college. My second day back in university, and it was dreadful. The week before had just been an introduction to the English section of the course, so it was fairly general. But yesterday proved that our lecturer for the subject is pretty terrible. I just thought that our class was very sedate, but when the other group came to join us in the afternoon, I discovered that the problem lay with her. She just stands at the front and talks for two hours. If you try to make a contribution, she will shout you down and belittle you. It was pretty awful.

I never expected to enjoy the college part of the course as much as the being in school; one of the reasons that I love the idea of taking this route into teaching is that I get really hands on experience, and learn through doing the job. I'd rather not be sat in a room, listening to someone talk to me about it. It's interesting that, as a teacher, she demonstrates none of the good practice that she teaches us about. Remind me to do my best to avoid falling into that trap. Things will lighten up, I'm sure. Two more weeks of this, and then we're onto another subject, with a different tutor. And I'm still learning something, so all is not lost.

On my way over to Lincoln, I have to go through my home town of Worksop. I gave my sister a call, to tell her that I was going to stop off at McDonald's for a bite to eat when I got there. It turned out that she and her boyfriend were heading there at the same time as me on their way to his house, so we rocked up at the same time. We spent about an hour and a half, just talking and being silly. And laughing a lot, actually. Last night was a good night for laughing. We talked about our jobs, and had a great time. It was an unexpected bonus of the weekend. And it's only just begun. It's Saturday morning, I'm in Lincoln, and it's a beautiful day. I'm going to head into town with James soon, go meet some more old friends and have coffee. Then back home to Leeds, where I will practice with the band, and follow it up with a visit to my friend's birthday party. Good times. All this, and more, to come, when we play I don't have to work weekends any more...

Wordplay...

One of the reasons that I love the English language so much is that it's so complicated. Just when you think that you have a rule worked out for something, you find the exception. It makes things more interesting. Unfortunately, it doesn't make it particularly easy to explain rules of English to a group of 8 year-olds.

This morning, we were looking at pre-fixes. The task was to look through a dictionary, in groups of two, and find words that begin with ad- or al-. Then, the aim was to decide whether the ad- or al- in that word was a prefix or not. To help in this difficult objective, we explained the meaning of each of these pre-fixes; ad means 'moving towards' and al means 'in a state of...' In itself, those are pretty abstract concepts. Now try applying them to every word that uses those pre-fixes. Now try explaining your reasoning to a bunch of children aged 8. Then get them to work some out for themselves. I'm quickly learning that this teaching lark is a lot harder than it first seems. Trying to motivate children to do things is hard enough. Trying to get them to do things that they don't understand is practically impossible.

Out of school, I've been living wild. Monday night was the craziest. I went to the pub with Matt Ashworth, Tim next door and Rob Littler. We took a game of Scrabble with us. That's my idea of a great night out. The pub, with a word game. It seems that we weren't alone in this; the man at the table next to us had got a cryptic crossword that he was puzzling over. I won't bore you with a play-by-play of our contest, but I will tell you that it was very close; all decided in the last three words played. I'll also tell you that I was victorious. I remain unbeaten on my home turf of Leeds, and I intend to make sure that this remains the case...

Lunchtime...

I just had a cup of soup for my lunch. Well, a cup of water and powder. Why is it that no matter how much you stir those things, there's always a huge lump of slime at the bottom? One day I shall invent the perfect instant soup.

This morning has flown by. I started off in the class that I'm usually in when I go into mainstream. We did literacy, and continued where we left off the other day; writing descriptive settings. The class teacher is excellent with me, and put me with a more able group today, so that I could see a bit more of the range within the class. I'm learning so much, and I feel very privileged to be able to train in this way, picking up things from the practitioners. It will be interesting, I think, to see how Butch gets on when he starts his course in September, as he will be taking the more traditional PGCE route, the majority of which is spent in college as opposed to school.

We had an assembly this morning, which was fantastic, as it gave me a chance to see how the school funcions as a community. Being in the partnership room with the kids with ASC, I don't get much of a chance to experience this aspect of school life, so it was a lot of fun. Even more so because it was a singing assembly. A lovely lady came in for the first of a series of monthly sessions, to try to get the school singing. We did a couple of school hymns, including Praise Him, a classic from my own primary school days. Superb stuff.

I did, as I hoped I would, avoid having to do any exercise this morning, by getting out of PE. I went to the class next door instead, and did a literacy lesson with them too. It's quite advantageous for me to do so much of this subject at the moment, as that's what we're concentrating on for the first 4 weeks of college. Hopefully I'll be able to put some theory into practice in the classroom, and take some of my practical experiences to college with me. I'll let you know if my expectations are fulfilled over the next few weeks...

Suited and booted...

And ready for another day in mainstream classes. I got even more dressed up today, and have gone with the full suit for maximum smartness. Even though all I'm likely to do is sit and make notes on what happens in class. College was good on Friday, but I have to be honest; I didn't learn an awful lot. It was pretty much a day of introduction onto the course, and it was a good chance for the tutor to get an idea of how much experience we had. As a result, we talked a lot about what we already knew, but it will provide a good foundation for what we're about to learn. It was rather odd to be back on the other side of a desk, listening to someone else talk, and making notes. I had a brief moment where I actually had to consider the possiblity that the past 18 months had not taken place at all, and I had been at university the whole time, but common sense prevailed.

Right, I know this was a short post, but I need to go make my presence known in class. Perhaps I'll be desperately needed for something this morning. Otherwise, I'll just watch what happens, and let you know of anything exciting. I knwo that the kids are going to do PE this morning; I intend to come to the computer and do some work here instead of running around. Catch you later...

NEW FOR 2006!

I've been meaning to blog about this for a while now. We're compiling a list of things that are hot this year. Here's what we have so far:

Eating blue cheese - Blue cheese is awesome. Be it blue Stilton, Danish blue, blue brie, double Gloucester blue, Shropshire blue, or one of the many other fantastic mouldy cheeses, spread it on your crackers, your bread, your bagels; eat it in chunks or wedges; enjoy it with a spot of port or even just a glass of water. Blue cheese is great, and everybody's eating it.

Contradictions - that's right; everyone who's anyone is contradicting themself this year. Check out this lovely little excerpt from confetti's little book The Groom's Wedding. This very useful book tells you all the things you need to know to be the groom at a wedding. So, with reference to how to stand out at your wedding by your choice of clothes:

'If you're looking for something really different, the frockcoat is a popular choice.'

I don't think that we need to say anything else about that.

Teenagers whispering in shopping malls - This is going to be huge this year, trust me. They're everywhere. Blocking doorways, sitting on steps, hanging out outside washrooms. The list goes on. Whispering conspiritorially. Perhaps they're plotting something, I'm not sure. All I know is that everywhere you look in a shopping mall there's groups of kids whispering to each other. It's what all the cool kids are doing.

Alliteration - loads of literate lunatics all over the land are letting loose lots of like letters. If you're not constructing sentences overflowing with this poetic tool, then you're nobody in the literate world this year.

So, the list isn't exhaustive by any means, but it is in place. Observe it, learn from it, live by it, and you'll be cool.

Another possible entry for the list is blogging in England. I know that it's been very popular over in Canada for ages now, and some people over here caught wind very quickly. But it seems to me that lots of people that I know have just suddenly got their own blog. The pick of the bunch is this one. Steve Darke, front man of the wonderful Band Club, and station manager at Leeds Student Radio let's loose his opinions on pretty much everything (with an emphasis on music). Beware, some of the language is a little choice, but the blog is fantastic. I like it so much that I'm putting a permanent link to it on my sidebar...

In other news, my housemate, Butch, fell out of the shower the other day (he informed me last night). He was, apparently, performing a particularly vigorous rendition of the Christian classic, Lord I Lift Your Name on High, with actions, when it all got a bit to much for the space he was in; he tripped over the side of the bath, and ended up sprawled all over the washroom floor. Superb work, Mr Butch.

College was great yesterday, but I think that this post has been long enough for most people to digest. I'll let you know more about the course and what happened yesterday next week. Have a great weekend, guys...

O2 much to ask...

I made you a promise on the last post. I said that I would put up a picture of myself looking smart. I can't, thanks to my cell phone network provider. O2, who make it possible for me to make and recieve calls and text messages, sent my phone off for repairs last week. You may remember me telling you that it was broken. I had a voicemail message from them last night, saying that it was ready to pick up when I wanted. I went and got it back. I was very happy about that. But when I tried to make a telephone call, the person on the other end of the line couldn't hear me. So I tried another call. They couldn't hear me either. The microphone is broken. I thought I'd make the best of having the phone anyway, and had Rob take a picture of me in my posh togs with it to put on here. But when I tried to link the phone to a computer, it didn't recognise the fact that there were pictures on the memory stick. That's broken too. Now I have to take the phone back again, and have them fix it. That means another week (or more) without a phone, and another two trips into town to visit the shop. I'm not altogether impressed. If I'm honest, it's a bit unacceptable.

As for the rest of my morning yesterday, it was great fun. We did some writing work, and I got involved in the activity, helping one or two of the less able children. They were very happy to have me around, and I learned an awful lot. I'm looking forward to Monday now, when I get to spend the day in there again. I'm in college tomorrow, for my first day of lectures on the course. I'll let you know how it goes. But for now, I have to get back to class. There's work to be done, you know. I can't stand round here all day chatting...

An observation...

Things are going well. I've only done half the morning so far, but I've made three pages of notes. I can't see this lasting - it's going to settle down a little. I'm just taking note of every single thing that happens in the classroom at the moment. I'll give you some examples when I have a bit more time, but recess is about to finish, and I'm going to have to rush this somewhat. It's been fun so far though, and the class teacher is being really helpful. We get on well anyway, so that's a good start.

On a slightly different subject, Sgt Steve made comments on a few of my recent posts. For those of you that are new to this blog, or haven't read it in a while, or don't read the comments, he posed a question:

Hey Question to everyone, when I read mark blog I pretend as if Mark is reading it to me so I get the proper english accent and the mark twist put on it. Is it just me who does that????

What do you guys think? Is it just Steve, or is it across the board. I have it in good faith that Bethany does the same. She told me herself.

I look real smart today. Normally I wear sneakers to work, with a t-shirt and hoodie, and phat cords. But today, as I'm in mainstream class, and not crawling round on the floor, I'm in shirt and tie (!), a nice sweater (thanks Mom and Dad) nice pinstripe pants, and smart brown shoes (thanks Bethany for shopping with me). Man, I look good. I mean really good. Hey, everyone, come see how good I look! I think I'll get a picture taken, and post it on here. Nobody will believe me otherwise...

Get on with it...

So, this morning I begin my course proper. I've been doing some paperwork and stuff towards it, but I haven't yet begun observing lessons. Until now. I was supposed to be in a mainstream class observing what goes on all day Monday (which is why Mr. Mullet was taking my place), but the class teacher that I will be with was off sick. She's back today, so I can go ahead and start watching what she does. This is a very important part of my course, particularly in the beginning, because it enables me to gain some hints and tips on classroom management, and lesson structure. It also helps me, because I make notes on what I see, and these go towards my evidence file, which is what will eventually be assessed to see if I should be given QTS (Qualified Teacher Status).

I'm off to the classroom now. I'll let you know how it goes...

The phantom mullet...

For those of you that don't know, or can't see the picture properly, I've gotten myself a mullet. Several things are to be noted regarding this haircut: a popular question is (to me) 'Doesn't Bethany want you to cut it off?'/(to Bethany) 'Don't you want him to cut it off?'. The answer to this question is always that Bethany has wanted me to grow a mullet for some time now, and is rather pleased that I did so. She didn't like the moustache, though...
Still on the subject of my hair, an interesting thing happened today. To understand why the following anecdote is funny, you must realise that I modelled my awful hairdo on the styles of two people in particular; Barry Chuckle from the Chuckle Brothers, and a man that lives just over the road from me. His haircut is quite terrible in appearance (although I suspect he rather likes it). So, today was my first official day on my teaching course. As I will not be in the classroom on Mondays, the school has provided a Learning Support Assistant to take my place every week. I was first in this morning, so I was left in charge of making sure he knew where he was going. Imagine my surprise (and consequent shame) when I discovered that the man who was allowing me to train to teach was none other than the ape-drape wearing chap who lives across the street. I found it difficult to keep a straight face...

As I have noted above, I have, today, begun my teaching course proper. Unlike most courses that result in Qualified Teacher Status (QTS), this one is an employment based route into teaching. This means, effectively, that I spend most of my time in school, and only go into college one day a week. Initially I spend my time mainly observing qualified teachers, and making notes on what they do, but I progress, as the year goes by, to taking the classes myself. This should be quite interesting to others, as well as myself, because I think that it will give some insights into the teaching profession, and give a glimpse of the work that is involved in training to teach. I have made the decision, therefore, to blog about the things that I experience whilst I am on the course. The question is, do I do it here, on this blog, or do I create a new one, specific to the subject? Let me know what you think. In the meantime, I'm going to go brush my hair...

Mom will flip...

Mommy Ventura, I mean. I'm blogging considerably more than my usual once monthly efforts at the moment, and I can't imagine that this won't take some people by surprise. Particularly my future mother in law. She's always saying I should blog more frequently, and so, as part of my attempt to get in with the in-laws, I'm here again. Of course, I'm only joking. I wanted to blog. Mom, you should get a blog of your own.

So, I fixed my computer. I formatted the hard drive, and while I was at it, took out the faulty cdr/dvd combo drive, and put in an old cd drive that was lying about instead. It's a bit annoying, because I can't burn cds, but I don't miss the dvd bit. I never used it anyway. And at least I have a drive that reads cds now. It's also meant that I can install my webcam driver, so I'm rather pleased with myself. I can't take all the credit for this act of reconstruction on my system; my housemate Rob did more than his fair share. What a star...

Today I purchased for myself a copy of the popular board game, Scrabble. It was all part of the casual day that myself and my neighbour, Tim, enjoyed. We headed into town after a few games of magnetic darts (I'm not going to get started on that one...) and went to run a few errands. We were rather pleased that we didn't have any constraints on our time to speak of, so we strolled around Leeds at our leisure. I was looking for the aformentioned word strategy game, and intended to come home with a copy. We tried so many shops, but few stocked it (to our surprise). We eventually went back to the original shop that we had found it in, only to discover that someone had seemingly purchased all three copies that were in stock only hours before. Not to be perturbed by this, I bought a device that allows the board to be rotated easily, and headed to Argos, where I located the game in the Laminated Book of Dreams, and headed over to recieve it from the Pale, Mythical Warden of the Treasure.

I won't bore you with further details of my day, from our ride back home on the bus, to a trip to the supermarket with Butch, on to some Monty Python, and the establishment of my throne as Scrabble King of Village Place. Needless to say, it was a stinking good day, and a real blessing to have a weekend with no obligating commitments.

There's only one thing that sucks about this weekend. Not only is my lovely fiancee in another country (which I kind of get used to), but this weekend she's away doing an encounter weekend. She's out of contact. No phone calls for me to make or recieve. No emails waiting in my inbox when I get in. I miss her, and it sucks. I'm aware that the last time that I voiced my opinion on a matter similar to this, I was shouted down, so I'm not going to go on about it. I just wanted to say how I felt. And to tell her, when she reads this, that I love her...

If it ain't broke...

Then it probably doesn't belong to me. It's been a funny few days since I got back from Canada. The culture change always gets me more when I come back here. I don't know if it's because I feel more at home in Canada, but I always find it harder to start driving on the left again than I do to start driving on the right. I find it harder to say 'toilet' than 'washroom'. I suspect that I find it harder to go back to work than I do to turn up and bum around with no job to do for a couple of weeks. But the way of life is easier there, I think, and my fiancee's there too, so I guess I'd rather be there.

My computer is having issues, so that's something I have to fix. I don't know quite what's wrong with it, but the hard drive is a bit tired, so I think that I'm going to format it this weekend, and start afresh. That should speed things up a bit. My cell phone broke, so I took that in to be fixed. It's going to take two weeks before it returns to me, and I forgot to copy all my numbers out of it first, so I have an old cell phone, with no way of contacting most of the people that I want to contact. When I was taking my phone into Leeds to the shop to have it fixed, I parked my car outside an apartment complex at the top of town that I used to live at. I happen to know that, although there is a huge steel gate at the entrance, during the university holidays, they leave it open all the time. True to experience, when I arrived, the gate was open, so I drove in, and Butch and I walked into town. On the way back, I bumped into our next door neighbour, Tim, and petitioned him to come back with us, rather than on the bus. I thought it might save him time. When we got back to the car, the gate was locked, and nobody there knew how to unlock it. We had to walk home. I did manage to get it the following evening though.

The computer in our living room has sadly passed away, and my playstation is deteriorating rapidly. It currently displays a bit of an unwillingness to play dvds all the way through, which is a bit annoying. My cordless phone has given up the ghost. It seems that I've come back to everything getting a bit broken. Fortunately, this doesn't include my life. I'm healthy, I have a good future to look forward to in Canada. Plans are taking shape, and the preparations for my teaching course are also in full swing. I can't wait to get back to church. My band is going to record this month, and everything seems pretty good. So, who cares if a few of my material possessions are a bit rubbish? Not me...