Ear we go...

Apologies for the attrocious pun, but it really does seem that the whole World Cup is governed by the cat ear headband in this picture. Well, so Tim and Butch seem to think. I obtained the headband as a resource for a lesson that I was going to teach in the partnership room at school, but it has taken on a more legendary status after last night.
The World Cup is a marvellous sporting event, it really is. It brings out the best in everyone. In several cities in the UK (including London, Liverpool, Manchester and Leeds), the authorities put up large screens in central areas so that the general public could join together in support for their country's team. And so that they could charge an undescribable fortune for drinks from the portable bars at the venues. However, Millenium Square in Leeds is the only one still up and running, because the rest have been plagued with violence. We really know how to celebrate a victory, don't we? With a healthy dose of rioting.
Despite the fact that Leeds is the only one of those cities to have escaped mob rule in the last week, I have decided not to risk it, and have watched the games at my friends' houses. For example, I saw last night's clash with Sweden in the lounge of my next door neighbour, Tim. (Although I joined Steve Darke and friends for a bit of cake at half time).
Butch, Ches Den and I all decided to wear headgear to Tim's for the game, and, seeing our efforts, Tim popped upstairs to fetch himself a nice flat cap. When we scored our first goal, I was wearing the headband. When Sweden equalised a little later, I had taken it off, and so it came as no surprise to my friends that the cat ears were having an influence on the goal scoring. I had taken them off again later on, when Ches Den shouted loudly at me: "Put the ears on! Put the ears on!". I did as she asked, and we scored approximately three seconds later. Hmmmmm. All the evidence points to the truth of their claim. (Well, except the fact that Sweden scored again while I was wearing them...)

Whatever the reason for it, England managed a 2-2 result against Sweden, which, although it means that we have STILL never beaten Sweden, for the first time in 4 major tournaments, we have emerged as the clear front runners in our group. We have also successfully avoided a second round clash with Germany. Good for us. I shall be wearing my ears again, then, on Sunday, when we will face Equador. Sash!, I hear, will not be playing.

Rome and home...

I went to Rome with my dad. It was pretty stinking awesome, actually. We only went for three days, but we squeezed so much into those three days it was ridiculous. It all started about five years ago, when I first went to Canada. My sister was a bit fed up that I was jetting off around the world (even though I paid for it myself), so my mom took her to New York for the weekend to keep her happy. My dad promised to take me away for a few days ever since then, to make up for it. I wasn't bothered about not getting the same thing as my sister, but neither was I going to pass up the chance of a boys weekend away.
We've been talking about going to Rome for some time, because we went when I was ten, but only for a day, which is never long enough. Plus, my dad couldn't get into St. Peter's basilica on the day we were there because he was wearing shorts, and at the time you had to cover up your legs to go in.

So, in half term week, we boarded a plane in Nottingham, and flew to the Campino airport on the outskirts of Rome. We arrived late, took a bus to the centre of Rome, and then a taxi to our hotel. From there, it was three days of walking in one of the most beautiful cities in the world. The eternal city, as they say.

We started off on the first day with the Vatican. We wandered past the Pantheon on our way (built 1700 years ago, still in use today as a church). It took us about two hours to walk across the city; mainly because we kept stopping to look at things. It certainly wasn't built in a day. Everywhere you look, there's something else to see.
When we finally crossed the Tiber, and headed towards St. Peter's Square, the crowds thickened. We walked up the road towards Vatican City, taking in familiar sights as we went. When we finally reached the square, we realised why the crowds were so large. Il Papa himself was out on the steps in front of the church, doing his thing! Yep, we went to Rome, and we saw the Pope. He was a good way off, but, as you can see from the picture, we were provided with video screens around the square that allowed us to see what was going on up there. That was pretty funny. We watched him for a while, then went to the Vatican museum.

I could bore you for weeks talking about all the amazing things that we saw. It's such an incredible place. The Colleseum, the vast collection of fori, the columns and statues and fountains and churches. We think that we're so clever in the 21st century; that we have everything. When we were in Rome, we saw Traijan's markets. This is an 1800 year old five-storey shopping mall. Entirely true. We saw a temple that had been turned into a burial place for a loved friend of an emperor. The 1700 year old bronze doors were still fully intact. And the archeologists had found the key. And it still worked. Ridiculous.

Since I've been back, things have been a little bit mixed. Things have not been going so well at work, and I have a lot of work to do in order to get up to speed really. There were a number of contributing factors; nobody is without blame. My Nana is very seriously ill in hospital, and things don't look good there. That's quite emotional, really.


There's been ups too, though. Extra days at college to learn about how to teach PE are pretty good. My class at college is pretty competitive, which has led to some fairly amusing situations. And, of course, we played a show on Friday night. It went pretty well, and, although there was a smaller crowd than we're used to, we still rocked it out. We showcased a couple of new songs, and bust out our good friend Sarah Tee on the saxamophone. We have a recording of the show, and a couple of tracks might find their way onto our myspace soon enough. You should really check it out.

So, Bethany arrives in less than two weeks. I have a bunch of work to do; we have more gigs to play, and more to organise; I have a book to write (which Bethany has illustrated fantastically), and some assignments too; we still have a wedding to plan; I have someone to visit in hospital; I have a car to fix... the list goes on. And so, my motto for the summer of 2006:

When in Rome, do as the Romans do; when at home, realise that your vacation's over.

Love...

Gig day...

I love gig day. Really, I love it. Preparing for the show, moving all the sound system in, setting everything up. All the work that goes into it, and then the hour or so on stage, rocking out. It's so stinking hot here today, it's going to be even hotter in that room tonight. I can't wait...

lots of fun...

So, it's been a while. I promised more than a week ago to blog again, but things have been crazy busy. Firstly, with the weather being so nice recently, we decided to get out of the house on the bank holiday weekend. We didn't want to go far, but we all needed a bit of fresh air, so Ben Wolfson, Sarah Sarah Leeson from Monsoon and Official Photographer Tim the Architect from Next Door joined me in a jaunt to Menston near Ilkley, where we took advantage of the ridiculously cheap camp site. Tim and Sarah formed team A, and used Sarah's tent, whilst Ben and I were team B, and we used mine. We won the construction and destruction of tent competitions, but Sarah was the greatest cook. We also took part in some crossword action, and played more cribbage than is strictly necessary. The pipe was busted out, and in order to play cribbage in the tent in the dark, Tim ended up wearing my cell phone in his hat, with the light switched on. That was pretty funny. I guess that you had to be there.
The following day was spent on Ilkley Moor. That's where mine and Ben's team photo (above) was taken. Fresh air, excercise, great views... What a weekend.


The advantage of the bank holiday weekend, of course, is that you don't have to go to work on the Monday. This seemed to us to be as good a day as any to mark the beginning of Honnis season. Honnis, the game invented by Me, Rob and Jacob two years ago, is growing in popularity. The sport, which is played using honnis rallets (hockey sticks) and a honnis ball (a hockey ball), takes place on a honnis court (a tennis court). I'll not give you a full run-down of the rules here, as it is a bit complicated, and would probably benefit from a diagram etc. What I must tell you is that I am currently ranked number 1 in the world, having had an excellent start to the season; although I am not so confident that I will hold up so well against ex-honnis world champiom, Rob Littler in the next few weeks, and I am as yet undecided as to how I will fare in the forthcoming Canadian Open, where I will face the mighty Jacob Murphy, and other top honnis player, Joel Mason.
Pictured above is Tim from next door firing a superb shot at Ben Wolfson in the first rookie match of the season, which Tim took with barely a challenge from Wolfson.


The other picture here is the photograph that I hung in Starbucks this weekend. I'm fortunate enough to have a wall in the coffee shop in Borders bookshop to use as display space. For the past few weeks, it's been home to a bunch of smaller pictures, but I felt that it was time to show something a little larger and more interesting. I'm rather pleased with the way it looks. I think that I'm going to start advertising some of my stuff on my myspace soon. I need to get rid of some bigger pieces before I go to Canada, and a bit of extra money wouldn't go amiss either...

School is going well, but is becoming harder. A couple of weeks ago I had a terrifying incident, in which the two lessons I was teaching in the morning got progressively worse as time went by. I realised that things were not going well, and ended up panicking, and getting worse. My lessons have been better since then, and I'm not discouraged, but I think it stirred me to realise that this isn't going to be as easy as I first thought it might be.
My link tutor is coming in again this afternoon to observe my literacy lesson, and that should be good. It's the third in a series of four that I'm teaching about stories from other cultures. Last week, we read some stories, and this week we're planning and writing our own. Hopefully, it should go well.
I've formed a good relationship with my tutor, who is a born again Christian; he is very supportive, not only of my work in school, but also of my relationship with Bethany and my plans for the future.

Speaking of which, I'm going to go look over some plans for the very near future now. My lesson plan for this afternoon. My boss always says that teaching is a little like being in the theatre, because you have to learn your lines, otherwise you'll end up floundering. I don't mean that I have to learn the lesson off by heart, word for word, but that it is advantageous to know what questions I'm going to ask when, and what I expect my pupils to learn and to demonstrate in class. Best get to it, then. It's been good to catch up. I must make an effort to do this more often...

scant consolation...

I know this is weak, considering the amount of time since my last post, but I HAD to link to this. Oh, man, is that ever funny. I promise I'll post something that I've written soon, as I have lots to tell. But for now, surely this will suffice...

Mark Day...

What a night we had last night! In case you didn't know, yesterday (April 25) was St. Mark's day. Now, I've never celebrated this before, but living next door to an Italian does this to you. She told us a while ago that it is traditional in Italy to celebrate your 'name day', and we made a start last year for Tim. We decided that Mark Day should be the first day of the barbeque year, and preparations were made. The weather looked decidedly dicey all day, and in the afternoon the rains came, but by the time I got home from work it was rather warm. Very sunny, in fact.

We made burgers and vegetable kebabs with Japanese sauce. We grilled sausages and big pork chops. There was rice salad, tomato salad, homemade salsa for dipping, homemade cheesy garlic bread, stir fry and roasted potatoes. It was a feast. We were joined by a number of good friends (who can be seen in the picture above), and all in all we had an excellent time. I couldn't recommend a name day barbeque more.

After the food was polished off, and we could eat no more, the party headed to the village green, where we played a little Fricket. This game is a combination of Frisbee and cricket. The 'bowler' throws the disc as hard as he can at the 'batter'. The batter must try to catch the disc with one hand, and without moving their feet. If they achieve this, they must throw the disc as far as possible, and run between the wickets as many times as they can before the bowler taps the wicket with the disc. If the batter's throw is caught, the batter is out. It's a great game. Before too long, though, bad light stopped play, and we headed in for cribbage and Fluxx. A good night all in all.

Things were soured slightly this morning, however. In my rush to get into the house from the supermarket last night in order to get on with the cooking, I left the front panel on my car stereo. Hence, when I went to the car to go to work today, I found a big screwdriver hole in my passenger door, and nothing but a bunch of wires in the slot where my stereo used to be. That's the third break in I've had since September. It's getting a little silly now. I only just had the hole in the door repaired from the last time they got in (when they took nothing; just had a look around), and it wasn't cheap. I think I'm going to patch it up with duct tape this time.

Not to worry. My cd player was slightly dodgy anyway. The lights on the display panel all stayed switched on constantly, so you couldn't read it, and it was not in the habit of playing discs that were burned on my computer. I was looking for an excuse to replace it.

Still, all this gives me a reminder of scripture. Just like the person that took my stereo, Jesus is going to come like a thief in the night. If I had have remembered to take the front panel off my cd player, they would have walked past, and there wouldn't have been a problem. Because I didn't prepare for the possibility of the thief, I was caught out.
When Jesus comes, he's not going to steal from you - he's coming to give life. But only to those that are prepared. Have you remembered to take the front off your stereo, or are you risking gettting caught out?

Fresher Wind...

It's been five years since I first came to Canada. Did I say that already? This year was my third Freshwind, and by far the best yet. I think there were several things that contributed to this. Firstly, even though Delirious played, the guys from the church did most of the stuff. In previous years, there's been a bunch of different bands from outside of TACF, and most of the speakers have been from elsewhere too. This year, the Youth Network band played just as much as Delirious, and the only outside speaker was Cleetus Adrian (who was awesome, by the way). It was really refreshing to see it acknowledged that you don't need someone famous to come in order to see a move of the Holy Spirit.
I think another reason for the high quality of this year's conference was summed up perfectly by Jacob when he said that in previous years, he's been really excited for Freshwind to arrive, because he he loves big events. This year, he found that he was more excited for it to be over, because he feels that the big events are the regular, weekly cell meetings and Sunday evenings at Central. Even though I'm not usually around, and I don't have a constant experience of this, what he said really spoke to me because I feel in my heart that conferences should only be a bigger version of what we normally do. By this, I don't mean that we should feel the presence of God more, it's just that there are going to be more people there. Like Jacob, I'm more excited now because of Freshwind than I was for Freshwind.

At the end of the conference, Duncan asked his cell group up on stage. Then he invited me to go up there too, and told everyone that I would be joining them when I move over here in January. He had already suggested that this would be the case to me, but I guess there's no going back now. It was just another example of how everyone here is making me feel so at home.

This poses something of a problem, though. I don't want to go back. I know that I always want to stay, and that it's no surprise that I don't want to leave Bethany behind again, but this time is the strongest I've ever felt it. My heart is in this city, in more ways than one. I love the place. I know that I'm meant to be here, and it's so frustrating to remember that in a few short days I have to leave again, and that I won't be back for three months. I have family here now (well, nearly), friends, a GREAT church, my fiancee... I know that I have all these things back in the UK (except Bethany, of course), and I love everything about it, but something is making me want to be here even more. I guess I'm a bit like a kid that wants a new toy. The old ones I have are ok, but nothing will match up to the features of the new model.

So, as I prepare to leave, I think I'm looking for the way in which this visit will have impacted my life the most. I don't really want to leave, and I think that's because I know what lies ahead here for me. I'm starting to think of the next few months in England as a sort of Freshwind of my life. It's not going to be the big event, I know that, but it's setting me up for the big event that is to come. I'm going to feel a huge presence of the Holy Spirit, and I'm going to see God do some incredible things in my life, but it's really just preparing me for the awesome (and I use that word in it's correct context here) things that he'll do in my future. That's pretty exciting, actually...

Canadian weather...

Well, here I am in Canada again. I love this place, but I don't need to tell you that; you almost certainly know already. If you didn't know already, then you do now. As ever, it's been pretty manic so far. Bethany is working quite a lot, so we're grabbing every spare minute together, and when she's actually at work, I've been catching up with a lot of friends. It's pretty awesome that my friend Joel is in town this week too, as I never expected to see him. Jacob was at band practice on Monday night, getting ready for Freshwind, so Joel and I went outside, and talked at length about what we've both been up to for the last year, and what the next year holds. He gave me some pretty good advice, too. And there was praying. It was excellent.

I also hooked up with my friend Becky on Sunday night. Becky goes to the same church as me in Leeds, and she's over this side of the Atlantic visiting family. she joined us at TACF central, and that was pretty sweet. It's great to feel at home at that church. Last time I made it down, it was in October, and it was pretty new. I didn't know a lot of people there, and it was in an unfamiliar building. Just before the service, I'd met with Bethany in a coffee shop to try to persuade her that our relationship was worth pursuing. The jury was still out on that one, so I was in a bit of a wierd mood. I said to Andrew G afterwards that I knew that Central would feel like home sometime, but right now, it was a little awkward. As I suspected, this time was a whole new experience. I'm seriously excited to become a member of the church when I move here in January.

I'm stuck inside right now, which is why I finally have time to blog. There's a pretty good thunderstorm going on out there at the moment, and Bethany's at work. Jacob should be over in about an hour, and I'm going to cook up some steak. Then we're going to go meet my wonderful fiancee from work, and catch a movie. Life is so chilled out for me while I'm here, and whilst I'm doing planning for next term at school, there's not an awful lot for me to do that's actually pressing. I've found myself wondering how different life here will feel when it's actually my home, and I have a job, and a WIFE. I'm excited by all of that, but I don't really know what to expect. My only real experience of the country is one of relaxation, and I know that's not always going to be the case when I build a life here. Any thoughts on that?

There's plenty more to report, I just don't have the motivation to type any more right now. I'll get back to you in a couple of days...

Countdown...

I finally caved in on Wednesday night. Having read Don Miller's Blue Like Jazz, I packed my pipe with a particularly tasty blend of tobacco, and set out from the house. I'd been working on a report for school all night, so by ten pm I was more than ready for a break from the glare of the computer screen, and a bit of fresh air.
I took a stroll to the Co-Op on Cardigan Road. It was a pleasant evening, and I knew exactly what I was going to do. Once I arrived, I sat up on the wall out the front of the car park, and stoked up the contents of the pipe's bowl. I prayed for Burley and Hyde Park, my home for the last five years. I love the place, you know? I love the people, the houses, the shops. I love the parks and the graffiti and the communities that intertwine.

I have been thinking about what I love about Burley for some time, but I was never able to articulate it until I spoke to Tim the other day. We were looking at the possibilities for the artwork for The Salvator Darlings' forthcoming mini-album, Sorry it's so Short, I'm Quite Tired, and Tim asked me what it was that I wanted to convey with the cover image. I found it quite hard to put into words at first, but once I started, there was no stopping me.

What I realised I loved more than anything, was the mixture of the static with the ever-changing. The fact is that most people that live in the area now are students. The majority of them stay for a maximum of two years. Without wanting to generalise, most of them don't give a crap about the state of the place, because they're renting the living space, they know that they're going to be leaving shortly, and, to be frank, most of them are too concerned with partying to think about cleaning up the place.

I'll give you an example: Some guys on my road, a couple of years back, decided that they wanted to sit outside on a warm summer's evening. To facilitate this, they took the sofa and chairs out of their living room and put them in the middle of the street. My sister came to visit that night, and she found it hard to manoveur the car around them; they shouted insults at her for her inability to park. They drank into the night, and left the furniture outside. As it is wont to do in England, it rained that night, and the seats were ruined. Rather than dispose of them properly, they took them to the end of the road, and tipped them over the railing into the park. I know because when I went to the park the next day, I had to step around them.
This is an extreme example, but my point remains the same. Last summer, I was enjoying the sunshine after work, sat out on the park at the end of my road (the one that had the sofa in it). I watched as a group of students picked up their belongings and left. They discarded empty pop bottles, crisp packets, magazines etc, and just went. There are two bins on the path out of the park, but they just left the litter there. Shortly afterwards, an old man came round the park with a plastic carrier bag. He went around and picked up all the junk that people had left behind, and placed it in a bin. He wasn't employed by the park or anything, he was just a local resident that wanted his neighbourhood to look clean. This guy had probably lived in Burley his whole life, and now, just to keep things looking good, he felt like he had to go round and pick up the mess that these students leave behind. These people that move in for a year, make a lot of noise, leave crap around the place, then disappear again. No wonder that the locals don't think much to students.

All of this is somewhat off my original point, but you'll see where I was going with it. Amidst all the chaos of the area, the houses remain static. The picture at the top of this post was taken just around the corner from my house. Most of the houses here are late Victorian red brick terraces. They are what I consider to be incredibly beautiful buildings, and they have all stood here for more than 100 years.
I know that I have only lived here for a few years, but even so, I feel like I am more of a resident than many people in the area. With the exception of Tim, I have never lived next to the same person for more than a year since I have been here. I have watched the people change around me. These houses, despite all of the attic conversions, walls knocked down, walls built, attrocious UPVC double glazing installations and basement conversions that they have encountered, are still standing.

I am about to start the application process for my right to live and work in Canada. I intend to move there in eight months. So, as I sat on the wall outside the Co-Op smoking my pipe, I thought about what it meant to be leaving this, the only place that I have been able to call my own home. I love it, and yet, like all the other young people that live in the area, I plan to leave it for somewhere better.

These houses have been here much longer than I have; much longer than I have been alive. They aren't going anywhere. And, if Bethany and I happen to come back here, they'll still be there. I guess that what I'm trying to say, in a very elaborate way, is that I am rather like one of these students that moves in for a very short period of time. Compared to the whole of existence, I'm not around on this planet for very long at all. God is a constant; much more so than this house that I'm sat in typing this. Much more so than anything else that has ever been, or ever will be.

I crave consistency. My life sometimes seems to run so fast, and I have so much on, that I don't know whether I'm coming or going. Right now, I'm training to teach, planning a wedding, applying to move to Canada and putting the finshitng touches to an album. It's a lot of stuff to be doing, and I know that there's many more changes ahead. In less than a year, I'll be married, living in a country that I have never visited for more than a month at a time. But in all of that, I have a constant, static God, who I can always rely on to be the same. You can't get more constant than that.

Love.

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...

Women's things...

Well, that was interesting. Last night, I went along with some of my friends to watch a production of the Vagina Monologues. It was certainly an experience. I went because my good friend, Sam Reid from Band Club was in it, and a great job she did too; but I was not particularly looking forward to spending two hours listening to what I expected to be a feminist rant.

And feminist rant it was, in places. I'm not sure if I'd recommend it to anyone, although certain parts of it were invaluable. The monologues address issues such as violence and abuse towards women, and rape. These monologues must be heard. But some of it is just wierd, and some of it is entirely unnecessary. One of the pieces, for example, is dedicated to the C word. That word which is considered more offensive than any other in the English language. The speaker claims that she has reclaimed it, and takes pleasure in using it. She tries to get the audience to chant it over and over again (and I'm sad to say that most of them did). It seems to me that it was put there for nothing more than shock value. The monologue seemed to serve no real purpose; there were no staggering insights in it. Just a repeated use of a particularly vulgar word. But then again, if you're going to watch something called The Vagina Monologues, you have to expect a few vulgarisms.

I'm not going to say anything more about the production, because I don't want to put people off/ruin it for them. AS I say, I think that some of the pieces are essential viewing (or reading), but parts were a little hard to swallow.

Meanwhile, back at Salvator Darlings camp, things are getting a little exciting. Leading up to the release of our mini album, we have a series of gigs that we're in the process of booking from the end of April. We have a show next Monday (Feb 20th) at the Packhorse in Leeds, to say farewell to our Irish bassist, Tim Higgins, who's leaving for various reasons. The show will feature long time friends of the Darlings, The Hyde Park Death Squad, as well as new act Sensitive Men.

In preparation for the show, Simon and I will be appearing on Leeds Student Radio this afternoon at about 4:30 GMT. Just go here, click on the button that says listen, and you can enjoy a couple of songs and an interview with us. Should be pleasingly silly.

Right, the bell just went, and I have a group of children to take bowling. I love my job! Have a good Valentines day, y'all...

Ragtime...

Remember how I was saying a few weeks ago that everyone I know is getting a blog? Well, it's true. If he ever posts something worthwhile on there, you can read the thoughts and musings of the drummer from my band, Little Rob, here. He's a funny man, you know. If only he'd get around to typing something...

Something that has been up and running for altogether longer, is The Rag. This is a spoof of the news, contributed to by a group of people, one of whom is my old next door neighbour and hero of the now disbanded Speakeasy, Matt Medd. It's a work of genius. They're getting quite a lot of traffic now, and they're considering sorting out a proper site for it, rather than the Blogspot format. Go check it out now, enjoy it, link to it, and when it's the most popular site on the web, you can say that you were there from the start. Well, nearly, anyway...

That's all from me for now. I have college tomorrow, and the next four-week block is Maths. I hate maths. I'll let you know how I get on with that. I'm off to prepare for it now. Have fun kids...