The Big Smoke...

I went to London at the weekend. It was great. On Friday night we had some vocal recording to do, and that ran a bit late, so I didn't leave Leeds till half nine. I made the drive down to Golder's Green, and it took me FOREVER. There were loads of roadworks near the big city, and I was at a standstill for a while, but I finally arrived at quarter to two in the morning. It was worth it. As always, James had a particularly comfy spot for me reserved on the floor, but this time I had come prepared, and produced a sleeping bag, camping mat, and two pillows. Much better than last time. We ate muffins with bovril; we drank cocoa. We chatted a bit, and fell asleep in front of QuizMania, which is a prime example of why I don't generally watch television. That guy has issues...

When we awoke, James prepared us cups of tea, and we set off to pick up my new enlarger. I'm well excited to have this - I've wanted a darkroom again for a while, and getting a bargain like I did is awesome. Ok, it needs a bit of work, but it's going to be well worth it. Of course it's too big to bring over to Canada. I'll have to think of something... The journey that should have taken twenty minutes each way took us a total of 3 hours. Stupid London traffic. James did a splendid job of navigating though. Then we played video games.

James showed me a side of the capital that I had never seen before. After getting my mom some books for mother's day, we trekked across towards a pub that we rather like on Great Portland Street. Except that we somehow missed the road. We walked for nearly an hour. It was ridiculous. Pretty funny though. When we finally arrived there, we walked in, and found that, even on a Saturday, it was so quiet that it was closing at nine.

We gave James' housemate Paul a call, and found that he, his friend and his sister were in a pub near to University College of London, so we went to the uni to meet him. He is a GREAT guy. He's a South African archaeologist, and a very clever, very funny man. I got on well with him. The same goes for his friend Dan, and his sister Claire, all of whom can be seen in the photograph. We visited a couple of pubs, laughed a lot (not unusual when I'm with James), and formulated a plan for my stag party, which should be enormously silly. We took the night bus home, and ended up watching QuizMania again. Hmmmm. I left early the next morning, and popped in to see mom, who cooked me a wonderful dinner, even though she didn't expect me to be there. What a star...

In other news, since our clocks went forward on Sunday morning, there is now a 6 hour time difference between Bethany and I, as opposed to the usual 5 hours. This causes no real problems, but can be a bit confusing when you're used to calculating 5 hour's difference into everything. All will be resolved this coming Sunday, however, when Canada gets itself into gear, and puts their clocks forward too. And things are resolved even further 6 days later, when I arrive in my favourite country in the world. Sweet.

I have a bunch of thoughts on things this week, but I've reserved this post for telling you about London; uninteresting as that may be to you. I'll get on with some deeper stuff later on. Love, guys...

Chicks dig scars...

Or so Bethany tells me... Yeah, I took a bit of a tumble. I was on my way to a church prayer meeting. I had decided to use my rollerblades, because it was a dry day (for the first time in months) and it seemed like a good idea to get some exercise. I booted up, and headed to the venue. But, it turned out, I had got the wrong place, and I had to relocate to a centre a bit of a distance away. 'Not to worry,' thought I, 'I have my skates.' And so, I skated through Burley, down towards St Matthias Church centre. I was trundling down the hill, zig-zagging to reduce my speed (my hockey skates have no brakes), when I realised that there were cars coming in both directions. I took evasive action, and attempted to stop, but there was no way I was going to come to a halt in time, and I fell. Even though I controlled the fall, and directed myself towards the sidewalk, I came down pretty hard. I tore my jeans, and also my knee. I figure that I might sew up the jeans (as they're my only pair) in a rudimentary fashion so that it's obvious I have been involved in some sort of accident. I also intend to leave them a few days before washing them, so that the blood stains them real good. And the summer's on its way, so I can enjoy a lot of short-wearing to show off the scar on my knee.

You may also notice that I have obtained a Flickr gallery on my sidebar. I thoroughly encourage you to do the same. That's all for now...

bombastic scholastic...

Yes! What a weekend. It all started on Saturday morning with an enjoyable round of golf. Tim and I finally got onto the golf course in Kirkstall, and played a pleasant nine holes. Particularly good fun. We brought out the golfing attire that we have been gathering for a while now, and we looked a treat. Check out the photographic evidence here. You can also see some great pictures of us enjoying the pudding party that Sarah Leeson from Monsoon held at her house on Wednesday.

Golf was followed by a jaunt into town, with visits to the oriental supermarket on Vicar Lane, and Morrisons in Kirkstall for more groceries. There was also some great chop-busting action, when we encountered one of the student teachers from my school working on the checkout. We started eating the bread that we'd bought while it was still on the conveyor belt, dropping crumbs everywhere.

When we got home, I sorted out some lesson planning for today, while Tim prepared the meal. We had the most amazing chilli ginger mushroom noodle concoction. I'm going to post the recipe on here when I get the chance. It was UNBELIEVABLE... We finished off the night with a viewing of Cool Runnings. I love that film. The late John Candy. What a guy.

Yesterday, church was awesome in the morning, and we practised with the band in the afternoon. We also did a photo shoot ready for the website to be updated, and also to use some images for the demo which should be ready in the next couple of weeks. That needs to be going off to some venues in Leeds before I head to Canada. Tim and Mark's Saturday kitchen took place yesterday (I know it was Sunday...) evening, and we were able to enjoy stilton scones with butter followed by oatmeal and raisin cookies whilst we watched the incredible Planet Earth. And, I quote, lovely stuff.

This morning I had a formal observation by my link tutor from college. He was watching me teach a literacy lesson to a year four group. I did something on Danny the Champion of the World by Roald Dahl, getting the kids to plan out the way that they would poach a pheasant from the woods. It was all great fun, and I got a very encouraging feedback sheet from him, that says I'm on the right track. It's all good stuff.

So, this afternoon, one of the teachers is off, so I get to take her class. We're going to do something for mothering Sunday. I think that we're going to make a class book about what we like about our mums. I love my mums; both Hardy and Ventura. What a fortunate man I am. I'm off to get my resources together, then. Love you...

Snow day...

I meant to post this on Monday, but my computer has still been playing all sorts of games, so it took me a while to get things running sufficiently. So, Sunday was a snow day. We don't get them very often in Leeds; it tends to come down a little bit, then rain until everything has gone. Unusually, the wonderful stuff stayed around for more than a day, so there was plenty of time to play around in it, especially with it being a Sunday and all.

I was particularly pleased about the snow, because I've been feeling rather homesick for Canada recently, and the British winter hasn't been doing an awful lot to improve things. When I woke up on Sunday morning and saw the snow coming down, I said a little thank you to my Heavenly Daddy. Man, he's awesome. In the truest sense of the word.

I drove back from church through snow that was laying on the roads, which is something that you almost never encounter in this city. I was feeling more and more Canadian, and that was completed when I got a text from my friend Cesca, who asked if Tim and I wanted to join them on the park. I pulled on an extra t-shirt, and changed into some lightweight pants. Then I put my snowpants on. I tucked the inner leg into my socks, and put on a belt. Then I grabbed a hoodie, topped it off with my winter coat, and fastened the snow cuff. I attached the clips on it to my belt, and put my thumbs through the holes in the inner sleeves. With my hat on my head, and a scarf round my neck, I zipped up my coat, and then slipped my hands into a pair of gloves. I was almost entirely protected against the snow. I was certainly ready to face a snowball fight, knowing that I would be by far the best prepared for such an occasion.

After the war that ensued, we headed over to the bottom of the park, and made a snowman. The pictures speak for themselves. He was the most fun snowman that I have ever had the pleasure to hang out with; his ability to join us on the rides in the park was almost human.

The snow has gone now, and it's been replaced with rain. Oh well, it was good while it lasted. And I have many, many, many real Canadian winters ahead of me. Lots of snow. I'll probably end up sick of the stuff...

Dos and Don'ts...

It's been an interesting couple of days, that's for sure. Things started off pretty badly on Thursday, what with there being nothing to eat for breakfast in the house and all. It got worse when I ironed my brand new trousers, and someone had managed to melt some dark blue plastic on the iron, which smeared all down the leg of my new work khakis. I was in a foul mood by the time that I arrived at work, having stopped at a shop on the way and purchased a low quality tuna sandwich for breakfast (the only thing I could find that didn't have meat in it). I have a meeting with my boss on Thursday mornings; the purpose of the meeting this week, it seems, was to tell me how badly I was doing. She had a list of about twenty things that I needed to change about what I was doing. I'm not going to go into all of it, because it's boring and unnecessary. Anyway, I didn't agree with all of it, some of it was misinformed, and I have already made an effort to sort out the rest. We're all good now. It didn't help my morning though.

The day was ok, with lots of work to do, and my collegue making me feel much better. Bethany also made a more than valiant effort, with voicemail messages and emails to cheer me up; I got a good one there. When I returned home my housemate had gone to pick up my new motherboard for me, so we put the computer back together. However, my new stick of RAM is the wrong type for my motherboard, so it's completely useless. I can't send it back either. Ho hum. Neither does this motherboard have a built in sound card like my last one, so I have to get one of those before I can use Skype to talk to Bethany on the internet. Not that I can do that at the moment anyway - the network card is causing all sorts of problems. It will only connect to the net for about ten minutes, after which I have to shut the machine down and restart it if I want to email or surf the web. Rubbish. I ended up taking my aggression out on the ice at Bradford Ice Rink. That, I have to say, was pretty good.

Yesterday started badly too, if I'm honest. I woke up in the morning feeling particularly rough; coughing and spluttering. I took the day off college, and stayed in bed till half nine. Then I got up and chilled out. In the end I headed into town, and bought some new work pants. I also purchased a shirt and some other clothes for work. I spent four hours shopping. And, as it turned out, I really needed that time. Not only was it retail therapy, but it was a valuable amount of time spent on my own. I've been very surrounded by people recently, and I think that I really appreciated the time spent just with myself. I love having people round me, but occasionally you just need space to think. That's what I needed yesterday.

The evening was also great. After a night of practising with the band, and feeling much more happy about our sound than I did after our show last week, we decided to head to the supermarket and get some ingredients for a crazy dessert. You can see a picture of it at the top of this post. You won't, however, understand how BIG the portions were. a generous serving would have been to split the thing between 6 people. We divided it between three of us. It was full of chocolate, and served with more whipped cream than was absolutely necessary. Ridiculously good. Agreed, it was 2am by the time we tucked into it, but it still felt like Friday.

So, I guess my point is this: My day on Thursday was awful, but, as Bethany said, it got SO MUCH BETTER yesterday. And none of it matters anymore, because when I went to bed on Thursday night, I left all that crap behind. And guess what? Today was awesome too. I wonder what tomorrow's going to be like...

Birthday beats...

It's my wonderful fiancee's birthday today. I can't be with her, which is a bit of a nuisance, but she wasn't here on my birthday, so it's fair really. If you haven't already done so, visit her blog and leave her a lovely birthday comment. She deserves it; after all, she is the most fantastic girl in the world...

So, here I am, 3500 miles from my future wife on her birthday; in school. I have to be honest, I'm having a great day. I'm observing in the mainstream class this morning, not teaching at all. I've observed another student teacher do her thing, and she was particularly good. It's funny, because she's on the same course that I left after one semester. I couldn't cope with it. She (and her friend) seems to be doing really well, and it suits her to a tee. I find it fascinating that there are so many teaching courses out there, and that God has seen fit to get me on the one that will train me the best. He really does know what's good for me.

The other thing that we did so far this morning is have a music lesson. Teaching a bunch of 8 year olds to beat drums together but in different rhythms produces some interesting results. You should try it sometime. I think that I will. Just give me my own class...

My house is being redecorated by my ace landlord this week, so hopefully he'll be in when my new motherboard arrives to sign for it. All going to plan, I'll get everything up and running again by tonight, and this blogging thing will no longer be such a hassle. Excellent.

So, happy birthday to my incredible Bethany, thank you to God for getting me to the place I want to be, and goodbye to you lot. We'll talk later, OK?

Busting my chops...

It really is. There's no one specific thing that's doing the chop busting, it's a bit of a combo deal, actually. The workload from my course is building up in a major way. Being based in essentially two different schools is not easy, and I think that I end up with twice the work that most people do. I'm also basically being treated as the teacher in one of the classes that I'm in, all the time that I'm in there, which isn't part of the deal. I find that I haev stuff that I have to hand in to college, but that I'm not being given the proper support that I need for that at school. I'm finding that things are being expected of me at school, without the proper support for that being given either. It's pretty hard work. Put together with that the fact that I had some sad news recently, and it just makes the whole thing worse.

It's true. We did everything we could, but the time of death was pronounced at ten after one on Saturday afternoon, when my housemate Rob finally declared that my computer's motherboard had well and truly passed away. It seems that some of the resistors had blown, and it's in no fit state to be doing anything. I don't know how long it had been like that, but on Saturday morning it decided it had finally had enough. I have a new motherboard arriving this week, so that should get it sorted, but I have to rebuild the thing from scratch, and until then, I have no computer. I'm writing this at school.

So, excuse me if there's been a continuing lack of posts - it wasn't my intention, I've just been sort of forced into it. I promise that when I get it up and running again, my computer will once again become a place of much blogging. And much working. And much emailing my beautiful fiancee, who I suspect is feeling a little lack of communication thanks to my situation. Until then, then...

Bedtime stories...

Ok, just because Bethany has gone back to Canada doesn't mean I can't have fun. I'm determined to have as much fun as possible for the next five weeks, until I get to go to Toronto and see her again. As a result, I heartily welcomed last night's entertainment. Myself, Tim (pictured), Butch and Ches Dennis got together for a sleepover. That's right. We all got into our pyjamas and sleeping bags in the lounge, and had a sleepover party. Tim had never had one before. I don't know if you have. They're a lot of fun. There was the obligatory moment for one of our evenings where we have a sudden panic that we've completely lost the plot - last night it was when we realised that we were all in our early to mid twenties, and sat round in my lounge in our sleeping bags playing silly little games and drinking fizzy pop at two in the morning. It was great. If you're inspired to have one of your own, here's what we did:

We ate pizza (which we topped ourselves); we ate a lot of cookies and potato chips with dips; we drank a lot of fizzy pop; we watched a silly movie (Wallace and Gromit); we watched a rubbish horror film (Creep); we played a game called consequences; we talked about the girls and boys that we fancied; we played video games; we listened to some of the latest hit records; and, of course, we intended to stay up all night, but instead went to sleep about four am. Lovely stuff. I thoroughly recommend it to you...

Catch up time...

What an amazing couple of weeks. It's been busy, which is why it's taken me so flipping long to blog, but it's been fantastic. Bethany arrived on the 16th, and it's been pretty much non-stop since then. I have a whole load of pictures, but there's too many to put on one post, so I'll get them on a photo album or something, and then I'll put a link to them.

As you can see from the photo, we went to see Sheffield Wednesday. They were playing Sheffield United, so it was a bit of a grudge match. We lost the game 2-1, which sucked, but to be honest it was better than we deserved. It's pretty funny to see how emotional people get at the football, actually. We scored our goal from a penalty kick, and I pretty much cried when it went in. The best thing is seeing all these double hard lads around that probably rob grannies for fun and steal the wheels from baby's buggies getting so emotional about a game. Seriously; some of these guys would kill for football. Quite scary really.

It was really good to spend time with Bethany and my family, because it's the first time that they've seen each other since we got engaged. They threw us THE BIGGEST party on Saturday night. In case you haven't read Bethany's blog, I'll tell you all about it. When they first said that they were doing us an engagement party, I thought that it would be a fairly small affair. But no. They invited half the known world, it seems. Then they got the local butcher (with whom we are fairly good friends - my dad taught their kids) to turn up and do a hog roast. That's right; a whole roast pig. Head and all. You should have seen the place. The tables were decorated like nothing else, thanks to my sister. The food was plentiful and ridiculously good. The music, provided by Brett, was varied and superb. And there were about 150 people there. We had close family, friends from my church in Leeds, my housemates and neighbour, some more distant family, some family that I'd never met before, friends from my dad's church... The list goes on.

So, we had an incredible time. We got all dressed up for it, and that was good. We were given so many gifts, it was ridiculous. We're so blessed to have so many people that are rooting for us. The food was outstanding, and my auntie made us the most amazing cake. We didn't get back to Leeds until 2:15 the following morning, but it was well worth it. It did, however, add to the lack of sleep that I'd gotten over the past week. Another incident that did my sleeping pattern no favours was our little trip to Wales. We headed over to Wrexham to see Nicola Tancock, and then went with her to Colwyn Bay to visit Lee and Sarah Houghton. We had a great time, and ate curry at a surprisingly good, clean and comfortable Wetherspoons (not an easy thing to find these days). When we completed the drive back to Wrexham, I got pulled over by the cops, who told me that I had a brake light and a headlight out. I showed the guy that I had spare bulbs in my car, and he told me to go change them before I drove the two hours back to Leeds. Well, I changed the brake light, but I didn't end up having the right bulb for the headlight. I also noticed, when I drove to Nicola's house, that the dashboard lights were only on when I pressed the brakes. I couldn't see any of the dials at all. I figured something was wrong, and I ended up calling brakedown, because there was nothing open by then. This guy came and discovered that the set of bulbs I had was for a different car. By putting in the wrong bulb, I'd blown a fuse. Anyway, he switched both bulbs for me, and the fuse, and only charged me a fiver. We didn't get home till four am though...

Another great festivity took place yesterday. Pancake day. I love pancake day. A good chance to use up all those things in your house before you use them up for lent. Well, not me. I have no intention to stop eating what I ate yesterday. English pancakes rolled up, stuffed with lemon juice and sugar; flambed bananas with grated chocolate; summer fruits with mascapone cheese... mmmmmmm. Nope, I'll be giving up meat for lent. Not fish, just meat. I think that I may just survive on sushi for the next 40 days. I love meat; I'm not sure how I'm going to get on with this. Butch has three things that he gives up - he has one that he absolutely won't go back on, one that he might, and one that he almost certainly will. Good thinking, Butcher, although it doesn't help me one bit.

Finally, in other news, my school had OFSTED in the last two days. The inspectors. I'll let you know how we got on when I hear the report. It's been good to talk, we should do this more often, you know...