Well, well, well all my good intentions of keeping everyone up to date with what is going over here are out the window. Partly due to the fact that we still have NO internet at home. We are currently doing battle with BT (British Telecom) and Sky and we are patiently waiting.

As most people who will ever read this know, I have been working, working, working. Money is always a constant worry over here. That may be because everything is really expensive all the time. So I have been working supply every day up until the week before Easter. It was a long hard slog and I am so glad that my first term here is over. I have just come back from two weeks on holiday so everything is fresh and new. I have worked at some really good schools and I had a trial for a 3 day a week job yesterday. i haven't found out about it yet though.

I spent Easter in Scotland doing an absolutely amazing tour. I have never been somewhere like Scotland and I am totally in love with it. I don't know if I could hack the cold and the isolation. But I would love to give it a go someday. I fell in love with the amazing stretches of Heather (the plant) that cover the hills throughout Scotland. They even make jewellery out of it. Very Very cool.

I will do a full Scotland rant a bit later it is too hard to add photos at the dodgy internet cafe.

This week I have dealt with the craziness of housemates gone bad. Oh how I wish for the peaceful days of living with Paul, Courts and Carol. Anyway to cut a long story short and to try and not freak everyone out. Basically the couple I live with came home at about 1 in the morning arguing I was woken up and tried to go back to sleep but they were at it hammer and tongs there was crying and running and yelling and stuff thrown and eventually I braved it and got up to try and settle the situation down - which didn't happen so I called the police and they came round and they took my housemate for a night in the cells and my other housemate (the girl) stayed at home and moved out at about 5 in the morning. I had 0 hours sleep. He has left an apology note but I haven't seen him or talked to him. I don't think I will.

I was so scared I was in shock and luckily Louise was up and kept telling me I did the right thing. In hindsight I know my instincts are usually pretty good and I am glad I called the police but my word what a drama. especially since I had my trial day/interview at school the next day. But hopefully it is all OK now. They are both going home in 2 months anyways so hopefully there wont be any repeats. Don't worry I am fine. Louise (my other housemate) and I have worked out one of her guy friends lives down the road and he is our backup if anything ever happens again.

On a lighter note I am going to spend the first May bank holiday with Georgie and Ants in Oxford I am so, so excited. I just hope the weather is fabulous. The sunshine in London over the last couple of weeks has been amazing. i have no summer clothes so they are next on the list of things to buy - when I get paid of course.

I had better go. I would love to hear from everyone.

Miss ya H

So Life goes on....

Hi to everyone who i haven't caught up with and who is actually reading this. I am working working working and as you all know that means that i have literally no energy and no time for writing in this. I have been working at a different school nearly every day which is exhausting in itself. It is definitely spring here, the birds, the blossom, the squirrels and everyone just seems happier all of a sudden. A rescue pack from mum arriving on my doorstep full of home grown chocolate helped me along as well. This weekend I am heading up to Birmingham to visit Fiona, it is also St Pat's day on Saturday so I expect it will be a messy weekend for all - as I'm not sure what else there is to do in Birmingham.

So I am settling into the rhythm of life over here, who would have thought that i would get up at 6.30 every morning and trudge to work. Even more interesting is my ability to actually answer the phone when it rings, mainly I do that because it is always only Timeplan ringing about work and they don't go away otherwise. As soon as we have Internet back on at home I will upload some new photos and write in this some more but for now BYE!

H

In the spirit of catching up I thought i would continue with the week that was. Last week was the half term break for lots of London schools, the rest are on holidays this week. Of course it was also the week that I got sick and lost my voice. After spending a day in bed and taking 2 days off I decided to go and explore some churches on Wednesday. So i found (just) the Temple church (yep the one in the Da Vinci Code?) and i went to a free organ recital there - which was actually not that great but the church was beautiful. Inspired i walked down the road to St Brides church which has a crypt that you can go down into and see the footings and remnants of the 6 or 7 other churches that have been on the same sit since roman times which was very cool. Inspired I decided to go to the Museum of London which was amazing it to followed the history of London from the original geography through Roman, Saxon, Tudor etc... times there are heaps of artifacts and stuff there and it is set up for kids so there is heaps of cool stuff to see and touch. One of my favourite aspects was in the later periods when London was growing and growing around the time they were building the tube lines I think in the early 1900's the city was so obsessed with wealth and class there was this guy who was paid to make maps of the cities poverty areas. These maps are amazing and show every house built at the time coloured in according to the wealth of the families who lived there. It was really interesting and a little weird. I definitely need to go back there for another look around. So my day of Churches and history was over and I was totally buggered. I fell asleep on the bus home but it was worth it.

A Weekend with the Girls

I have become a little bit slack with this blog so because I don't have any work today I thought I would catch up. Last weekend Fiona came down from Birmingham of Brumma as she is now calling it to see the big smoke. I was invited to spend some time with her and Kate on Saturday looking around London. It was fabulous getting together and walking around,eating lunch and seeing some of the sights. Kate took us to Harrods at night which is a whole new experience of luxury. The lights and the people are beautiful. Earlier that day we waltzed around Hamley's this absolutely HUGE toy store with heaps of demonstrations and interactive stuff. We could have spent a fortune, I think Fiona is still thinking about the fabulous glitter pens we saw. That night Kate was again the hostess giving us dinner and then we helped get her school play organised which was fun. On Sunday we had lunch in Richmond which is a very very nice and posh place to live. It was great seeing the girls and getting an invitation from Fiona to come up to Brummas (Birmingham) which I will do as soon as the Cadbury factory up there is reopened. Thanks Girls

Snow Days

Hi to all, it has really sunk in that i am here for the long haul this week, mainly because i started work. Those people that got hysterical emails about the most dismal revolting school in the world will be pleased to know that the rest of the week was much more pleasant and normal with classrooms with kids work and pleasant children who didn't belt into each other the whole time.

Anyway on Wednesday afternoon at school we were in assembly and the head told the kids that school would be closed on Thursday because a 'blizzard' was expected. The kids and myself were noticeably excited. On Wednesday arvo I rang my agency who said that people were panicking and as far as they new it would be school as normal.

On thursday we woke up to snow and it was still snowing, it snowed all morning. Most of the schools in London were closed so no work. My housemate and I (she couldn't get to work) laid on the couch watching tv and randomly getting up to go outside to take photos or plane in the snow for about 5 minutes which was about my limit because it was so cold.

Friday it was somewhat melted and school was back on. Friday afternoon it snowed again and thankfully I was safe and warm inside. Today (Saturday) there is nothing left of the snow but it is raining so it sounds like another nice day to lay around inside and pretend like the outside world isnt there.

Waitangi Day

Well I have finally moved into a real house! It is so so nice not to have to squeeze myself into a shower cubicle and not lock my stuff up whenever I leave the room. The house is lovely and big my room is very small but this is OK hopefully when somebody else moves out I will snaffle their (much bigger) room.

As I am now living with some Kiwis yesterday was spent 'doing' Waitangi Day (I'm not even sure whether I spelt that right.) We thought we celebrated Australia Day, it was nothing compared to this. They start at about 10 am doing a pub crawl around one of the tube lines. I went with one of my new housemates and a few of her old kiwi housemates and by the time we got there it was straight to Westminster, yep that's right drinking Fosters out of a can out the front of the Houses of Parliament/Big Ben and the Westminster Abbey mmmm somewhow it seemed so so wrong. It was insane there were people absolutely everywhere and when it came time to do the Haka it was pure crush as all the guys tried to get to the front. We were in the very middle of it. Despite promises of drinking till we fell over I went home early as the girls seemed to have no real idea as to where they were going and after aimlessly walking around for hours, still lugging my supermarket bag full of beer, I decided it was time to go home.

Tomorrow I start work, and I am scared. This means the holidays are over, it also means that I wont be scared to start spending money. Fiona is hopefully coming down from Birmingham next weekend so it will be great to have someone to go and do some sightseeing stuff with.

The Saffa girls are still at the hostel and we have been messaging each other a couple of times a day. It is amazing how much I miss having those crazy kids around even though I have only known them a couple of weeks. They are still job hunting but are starting to get desperate so I hope it all turns out well. Everyone, well not literally but all the people I know from the hostel have started working for this catering company that caters functions in hotels, they are working 12 hour + shifts everyday, it makes me glad to say that I made the right choice by waiting to come over here until I had my degree.

Miss Ya and Love Ya H

YES YES YES

I wrote this enormous entry in this today and the bloody wireless stopped working in the middle so this is an extremely condensed version.

Today I found a house to live in, it is in Kensal Rise which is kinda North/ NorthWest of London with Aussie and Kiwis which is not really what I wanted but it is a fab house and hopefully it will all be good.

What else happened today... Well tonight we went out to the dodgiest club in the world and left fairly quickly and then found this amazing salsa club where everyone was an amazing dancer and i was sitting on the sidelines of course in my usual manner. It was so much fun and good to be somewhere open past 11 pm. although I went with these people from the hostel who I don't know very well but we had a fab time.

To cut a long story short there are some amazing things happening to my friends in Melbourne at the moment and I wish I was there sharing these fab times with everyone. So to Georgi and Ants congrats and I will catch up with you very soon, I wish that I could have been there. And to Belinda and Sam congrats and my respect and love go out to you and your new family.

Goodnight to all it is 3 am in London the latest i have been up mainly because I have had nothing else to do once it gets dark and now I'm not tired.

Miss ya and Love ya's all

H