We wish you a Merry Christmas...

Erin and I woke up this morning with massive smiles on our faces, "We're going to New York tomorrow" we shouted simultaneously. So we're spending the day packing our bags and checking them twice, I don't believe I've been naughty, so I must have been nice.

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas! I hope you eat loads of food and are able to spend it with people you care a lot about.

To everyone in Australia; from Lake Cargelligo to Tullibigeal, from Wagga to Blayney, from Tom Price to Wollongong, from Tamworth to Sylvania Waters enjoy your fun in the sun. To those in New York, see you soon. To those in Mexico, slam some tequila. To those staying in London and the UK, I hope it snows for you.
Enjoy the festive season all! Much Christmas love to you.
xxxxxx

Have a good one Jez!

Happy 31st Birthday Jeremy!
Lay off the margaritas babe. This year Mexico, last year Oz, the year before Nippon - you're turning into an international party boy. Take care bike-boy.

check out Jez's blog at http://hendu.blogspot.com

Christmas Mayhem

I just stopped off at Sainsburys Supermarket on the way home and it was the usual oh-my-god-it's-2-days-'til-Christmas-I-must-buy-groceries mayhem. As I walked in I noticed an open fridge displaying turkeys of varying sizes. The daddy of them all was 10 kilos. That is massive! It's like the size of a small child! On the label it read "feeds 16".

This week in London...

After finishing up school fa-eva and being abandoned by the majority of my mates luck would have it that I contracted the flu virus. Of course, last week I was bragging to my flatmate Liz that I had thus far avoided getting sick, despite everyone around me falling ill. So last weekend, when I should have been celebrating the end to my short lived London teaching career I was laid up. In fact, I spent all Saturday on the couch watching the entire sixth season of Sex and the City. Erin gave up two episodes short, what a quitter! I battled on 'til 2 in the morning, that's approximately 11 hours of Carrie Bradshaw and co., stopping only for toilet and food breaks.
It's been a hectic December and I am absolutely loving this week. School's out and offices across London are winding down, meaning it's been impossible to find any temping work. Those of you at home will be pleased to know that despite the plummeting temperatures, having the flu and not having to work I've been dragging my little Aussie battler butt out of bed every morning to go to the gym with Liz at 6am.
This morning I was on the treadmill watching one of 8 tv's and who should come on the screen but Sami Lukas, Aussie weather girl extraordinaire. There was a satellite link up between a massive crowd on a beach somewhere in Sydney and GMTV here in London. There were people holding babies for loved ones over here to see for the first time and loads of (by the looks of it) drunk Poms holding signs saying "G'day mum" and the like. It made me smile and then I was overcome with rage as I saw everyone was wearing little singlet tops and the sun was shining and they were all tanned and I had to leave the house in the pitch black this morning, being saturated by the rain as I went to the station. By the way, how's home you guys? still the same? yeah, thought so. I'm not bitter or anything. You know, London doesn't have cockroaches, so there.

On a brighter note Egg and I are off to the Big Apple on Saturday, yes we're flying on Xmas Day. We can't wait! A white Xmas is only a 7 hour flight away. All is good in the world!
Safe travels over the festive season people.
Love to you all!

PS. We went to see a movie called Garden State on the weekend. I thoroughly enjoyed it, check it out if you get the chance. It was written and directed by Zach Braff (JD in Scrubs), who also stars in it. And he's only our age. Well done! Apparently he had a run in with that Pomeranz woman when he was out in Oz doing publicity...
PS2. Sara and Maggs, Bones and Suze, Earle and Scali - hope you all arrived safe and that you're having a fantastic time!

Typo

Jonesy Bones found this on the Sydney Morning Herald website yesterday:
"It also damaged buildings and pelted residents with hail-sized golf balls"
If you're not laughing right now (or at least smiling) read it again...

Congratulations D&G

To my Dougos and Gwenos,
Happy Second Anniversary you two. Congratulations to the most beautiful couple in the world, who also managed to buy their first house on the weekend.
I cannot wait to see it!

"Are you our supply?"

Being a supply teacher in London is about being pushed out of the way in the corridor, arguing with sixteen year olds daily, trying in vain to keep students inside the classroom and being in a weird middle ground - not quite a teacher, not quite a student. Not knowing what the school rules are and being unsure as to whether a student is lying or not, "But Miiiiiss, Sir promised we'd make Christmas cards in our last lesson!". Students ignore you when you speak to them and talk about things you'd rather not hear.
The supply teachers whom I have encountered in the last 6 months are generally Australian, shunted around London by the agencies who control our fate on a "day-to-day" or "long-term" basis. Carrying our lunches and lives in our little baby day packs (Macpac, Blackwolf, Fairy Down) unzipped, unclipped, detached from the much larger mumma backpacks, that wait patiently in cupboards in sharehouses around London.
I watch the students dancing around the classroom, emulating the latest Beyonce moves and strangely, I'm jealous; I wish I could move like that. I see them using the latest mobile phones and I wonder "who's paying the bill?" I read the ineffectual posters stuck sporadically around the schools:
Everyone at [this school] has the:
Right to learn
Right to be safe
Right to respect

Remember! When a teacher is addressing your class
Look
Listen
Don't talk
Be polite

Graffiti - not smart, not art

Give me a break! These kids could not possibly care less, I feel apathetic and I'm not even suffering from the I'm-a-teenager-and-I'm-oh-so-tough syndrome which seems to be at epidemic proportions.
And then, I realise with a small amount of distress that I'm no longer a "youth". And then, I think to myself phew! Who needs crazy hormones dictating your every move, who needs friends dictating your choices, parents and teachers giving you a hard time because they don't understand you and because it's for your own good???
What's the NSW Department of Education's slogan? Teach. Make a difference. Yeah, good luck!

Christmas Time

Christmas in London is lights curling around the lightposts on the high streets, max temp 5 degrees cee, buskers dressed as jolly old Saint Nick singing carols in the underground, the smell of mulled wine at the markets, christmas trees for sale outside tube stations, Regent Street all lit up, cheerful from knowing that your days as a professional babysitter are numbered, massive, decorated christmas trees in public spaces and finally, just general merriment (enhanced by litres of "christmas" grog).
Oh, it's good to be alive!

Angus Holmes

Happy first ever birthday Angus Holmes!

Shellby Q

I'm not ignoring you babe. I just can't do international texts at the moment (don't get one of those Virginmobile bundles those in the UK) and I don't have email at school. Let's speak this weekend!
x

Snapshots of Budapest

In the caves, just after screaming when the Scots jumped out to scare us 

Palace by night 

Tram where tickets operate on the honour system, yeah right! 

The Palace 

Opera House on the Danube 

Is this the crappest car in the world? 

The fuzz 

"May I help you? I give you good price!" You touch it, you buy it! 

Ewww! A traumatised vegetarian... The look says it all 

Reflections 

Break dancin' Michael 

Consulting the Bible 

"Stuck in the middle with you" - Budapest Dogs 

The sign read "Sorry we have no more skate today". Shame! 

Fight Club

Erin was working a job where she had to sort through CVs and chase references. She received one that, under hobbies stated "member of a fight club". Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the first rule of fight club: "you DO NOT talk about fight club!!"

Teaching

Grid lines on the board keep my writing neat and straight, regulation size, conformist. I am the UN of teaching, the "toothless tiger", defenceless against their attacks.

Budapest is...

Budapest is zero degrees Celsius on a weekend jaunt with your flatmates. A place where thank you sounds like "curse-a-gnome" and kilted Scottish lads hide in caves to scare the b'jesus out of you as you enter unsuspectingly. Caves under the palace feature some random art work dedicated to 'Homo-consumus'. Christmas markets sell mittens with burrs still in the wool and street vendors say "sorry" to horrified vegetarians who spot a full pig skin with ears and hooves still attached. Where a McBuri is a hash brown and Hungarian Mafiosos drive Benzs with boots full of trays of eggs. Thermal baths warm you up and construction next door to the hostel drills your dehydrated brain. Gothic bars by night turn into breakfast rooms by day. Food is served in gargantuan portions and goulash is a thin soup not a thick stew.
It was oh so sweet and oh so cheap!