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 EDIT: Yeehaw! Hotel room booked! I picked up a nice little bed and breakfast in Dover for less than £40. All told, lodging and travel should cost me less than £70! It'll give me two days to kick around both Dover and Calais. Yes, I'll be sure to take many, many pictures.   

I do so enjoy Sundays like this, when there's no pressure of tomorrow to worry about. I can sleep in, stay up late, be as lazy or as active as like, and just enjoy the day.  

And I have! 

Today, my lovely other read to me from her favourite novel wherein the author spoke of her childhood passion of gathering stones. These stones, as the author claims, only tell part of a story; they serve as a mnemonic.  

Whilst this was being read to me, I could not help but smile at the little stones which adorn my altar. How true were her words! 

Other events of the day include receiving my grocery order. This, in itself, isn't exactly a thing of great importance, really, but, to me, stocking the larders full has a reassuring effect upon me. Perhaps this is an echo of times when my larder has been much, much more bare and macaroni and cheese was a luxury to break the tedium of ramen noodle soup. 

As mentioned in an earlier post, one joyous highlight was discovering a means of getting my feet upon Europe with little hassle and expense. In some ways, I look more forward to the upcoming short visit to France than I do about April's possible week long visit to Germany. It has a lot to do with knowing the language of the place I am visiting and the independence that grants. It means I can wander as I wish, something I fear I might not be able to do so readily in Germany. Hmmm... I must make sure to walk the beaches of Dover, in England, and Calais, in France; perhaps I may be able to find a few new stones to add to my stockpile of memories. 

Today also saw a decent, and thankfully uneventful, run of about 2.5 miles. Perhaps I should have done a longer distance, but I was feeling mildly under the weathe and didn't want to push it. Besides, methinks I might be better off doing more shorter runs during the week; doing six miles on the Sunday seems to take it out of me for the rest of the week. *chuckle* Yeah, I really need to work to get back to where I was. 

And now, methinks, 'twould be a good time to say "good night."

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After having developing a bit of a yen for fruit smoothies, I bought a blender on Friday. Nothing spectacular, as I'll be moving soon enough, but, so far, £20 well spent! I've enjoyed a couple varieties of fruit and yoghurt smoothies that not only taste damn fine, but seem to agree very well with the gastronomics. And, hey, as filling as they are, they don't seem to do as much damage to my bodyweight as my typical fare seems to. Bonus!  

But that's not the real joy, no! Right now, I am enjoying an incredible American style milkshake blended from Ben and Jerry's Vanilla ice cream and *sigh* Irish cream. Bliss! Yes, Irish cream milkshake! You just can't get that in a restaurant (at least not in any I'VE been in). 

I think I will sleep well tonight. 

I also had a good run today, about five miles to and through some lovely woods on a hill near home. Got an excellent work out in! I still have to do more regular runs, though. 5 miles or not, once week just isn't enough cardio. I really need to get more yoga in, too. I actually found that it seemed to do well to tone my upper body; I'm getting definition in my upper arms (kewl!). 

During the next three months, I HAVE to try and get in a trip to Europe, just to say that, in the damn near four months I've been in living in the UK, I at least made it to the continent ONCE. I've checked out some fairly cheap weekend getaways. I have to decide between Paris, Amsterdam, and various bits of Germany. Hmmm.... Sadly, I do not think I can really afford to do more than one. I'll still need cash for the move back to Canada and to do last bits of puttering around the UK (and maybe Ireland: gotta visit the motherland and all that). 

In the next week or so, I'm thinking of checking out the Terracotta Soldiers exhibit at the British Museum. Anyone interested in joining me? I also have to do a photoshoot of famous London landmarks featuring this little guy (seen here in front of the Toronto City Hall): 

Can you believe it? All the times I've been shooting in London and I haven't got any with Teddy in them! Must rectify that! 

And there's friends I'm going to have to see before I go (saying 'goodbye' to them is going to be the hard part ). 

Yeah, April is going to roll up pretty quick (at least I HOPE it rolls up quick!); there's a lot of things I have to get out of the way. 

But chief is getting my feet on Europe! *chuckle*

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The Sun is REBORN: REJOICE!!!

Today, I had a nice walk out to a lovely English country field to watch the sun rise. 'Twas absolutely beautiful to watch the clouds change from crimson to gold, the sky from indigo to powder blue. And, yes, to see the Sun climb out from the shadowy hills; His longest slumber of the year finally over. 'Twas a worthy moment to share a libation with Divinity; good thing I thought to bring a crisp, clear can of cider with me! *grin*

Later celebrations included a feast of ham and pork, an echo of ancient Yule traditions that called for the sacrifice of a boar and much rejoicing. And, of course, there was the lighting of candles to symbolize the renewal of the Sun's warming energy.

And I'm still not finished! The neighbours have kindly invited me over to get completely smashed. Aside from all the fixings needed to make Black Russians, I'll be bringing over a Belgian chocolate ganash Yule log to share.

Yep, gonna have to do me some serious jogging THIS holiday season...

the_vulture: (Man/Vulture)
 

the spirit a voice

the voices a chorus

the chorus a song

the song a wind

the wind a caress

the caress a blessing

the blessing a love

the love a spirit

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One afternoon, my good friend Dwayne and I (Yes, he is a character in yet another lobster tale.) were standing transfixed by the amazing expense of live lobster in a tank at a super market in British Columbia (west part of Canada), when we were approached by a friendly and eager young store clerk who asked us if we needed any help. 

We explained that we were just looking and, as she was rather cute, we carried on the conversation a bit further into the topic of lobsters and the cooking of them. 

She told us about how she learned to make lobsters "go to sleep," before putting them in the pot, as she felt uncomfortable just putting them in whilst still moving about. This involved curling the lobster's tail under itself and stroking it until it stops moving. 

"Dwayne," I asked, "if I remember correctly, those tiny paddle-like legs on the underside of a lobster's tail are its gills, are they not?" Being a brighter fellow than myself, with a biochem degree to prove it, I can usually count on him to at least have an educated guess about such things. 

"Yep," he affirmed, just moments before sprouting a wicked grin, showing that he just realized the implications of the situation. 

Alas, the poor cherubic store clerk's face flooded with dismay when I asked her, "Did you realize that, when you curl the lobster's tail under like that, you're effectively suffocating the lobster to death before plunking it in?" 

Dwayne and I can be such bastards...

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The graduation/mortgage burning party was good for, not one, but two rather amusing lobster tales. The second revolves around Dwayne, a very good friend of mine, who, like a number at the party, had no clue as to how to eat a lobster.  

To fully appreciate this tale, you'll have to understand that most maritimers know how to eat lobster, I mean REALLY KNOW how to eat lobster. What the maritime approach to eating lobster does NOT entail is prissy plastic bibs and a nutcracker, like one would see in a posh restaurant. Rather, one would see the active and expert use of a large bladed instrument, such as a kitchen knife, and the judicious application of well placed blows to the back of said bladed instrument. A true maritimer can have the seemingly impenetrable armor of a lobster hacked to a sufficient number of pieces as to render every morsel of lobster flesh available for consumption in under a minute. To those uninitiated into the secrets of lobster munching, however, that armored crustacean glaring at you from the plate can be rather intimidating. 

So it was with Dwayne, who, like a small handfull at that lobster feast, had no clue as to how to enjoy his lobster and looked on in envy as most everyone around him dug in. However, Dwayne, being fairly clever (he has a biochem degree, afterall) decided that the best course of action was to ask for help.  

And so he turned to my uncle Daryl for assistance. Darryl informed him that he was missing a critical tool and told him to wait a moment whilst he obtained one. Dwayne waited expectantly, expecting a large knife as many around him were wielding. 

Darryl returned some minutes later. From behind his back, he pulled a meat tenderizing mallet with which he then proceeded, with great gusto, to smash the lobster to bits, as Dwayne watched in stunned astonishment.  

"There you go," said Uncle Darryl cheerfully, before casually turning and walking away. 

Dwayne returned his gaze to the demolished lobster before him. He shrugged and began picking out the bits of edible flesh from amongst the shattered shards of shell. 

Dwayne was always pragmatic about such things...

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Being of maritimer descent, I have had, throughout my life, a number of interesting encounters with that quite hideous, though fairly delicious denizen of the sea, the lobster (le homard, en français).

At approximately the same time that I graduated from high school, my parents also paid off their house mortage. As such, in celebration of both events, they decided to have some lobster shipped in from the east coast of Canada for a grand feast.

During the preparations that fine summer day, I beheld, looking out the screen door, a good family friend putting lobsters (live, of course) into the large pot of boiling salt water.

Sensing he had an audience, he held one of the lobsters menacingly over the pot and, with melodramatic flair, bellowed out...

REPENT!!!

Needless to say, I was doubled over with laughter.

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Thanks to a posting by another person, I am actually now aware of the Canadian Thanksgiving Day occurring tomorrow. Yay!  

'Course, that still means I have to find a way to score a turkey dinner for tomorrow evening, but I'm sure I'll manage. Might have to check out one of the local pubs to see what's on the menu... 

Being on my own in the UK, I don't quite get to celebrate in the grand style that I'm used to when I'm with friends and family. The first year here, Thanksgiving came up on me completely by surprise and I wound up trying to find any place in the town I was living in that served a turkey dinner. The end result? A turkey sub from Subway. Sad, no? 

'Course, that wasn't the first time I ate Subway for Thanksgiving. When I first moved to Victoria, BC, Canada, with a bunch of my friends, we were all quite skint. A really good friend of mine had a huge collection of paperback novels. He sold off a huge lot of them to help keep us fed during those few months before we got on our feet. That included buying he and I turkey subs for Thanksgiving. I'll never forget that - we were down and out, but still made the best of it. Damn good friend! I miss him and many others I left back home. Still, thanks to the internet, we keep in touch. Hopefully it won't be too much longer before I can swing through BC again. 

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I express my gratitude for all the true friends I have had, both home and here, for sticking with me through it all, both good and bad. Thanks guys! 

To all my fellow Canadians, Happy Thanksgiving Day! May you never have to resort to turkey subs from Subway to celebrate!

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*chuckle* I'm just feeling a wee bit lazy at the mo'. There's been a lot going on in the week since I last posted, mostly to do with sorting out the new classes for next term and attempting to (successfully) stave off being stuck in a hot, tiny room with large groups of pupils notorious for poor behaviour (well, I still have those pupils, but I've got a big, airy room to let them run rampant in).

Aside from that, Saturday was spent walking about a wet and chilly London that was warmed by the company of a delightful new friend I made a number of weeks ago (on the Avesbury trip, to be precise). Highlights of that day include a nice walk along the Thames, roaming Lambert Gardens (only open to the public four times a year) and enjoying a fine meal at Studio 6 on Southbank, all of which was liberally dosed with brilliant conversation.

Other than that, my week off has been, ummm... lazy. Okay, yes I did do a lot of laundry, a fair bit of tidying up, sorted a lot of my new classroom, and stuff like that, as well as a couple of running sessions and another Kenpo lesson, but I've spent far more time sucking on my VR crack pipe (the computer). *chuckle*

At some point, I have to get to the planning for next term, but not tonight...
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Yep! I did manage to make that tour of Avebury, as well as Lacock (Harry Potter fans may now drool with envy.). The evening of said day was spent in London in the company of a lovely woman I met during the tour. Having been working and living in inner London for a while, she was able to point out a few places I didn't know about, key amongst them an excellent Mexican fast food restaurant that served up the best burrito I've had in years!

Check out my Avebury and Lacock albums here: http://s6.photobucket.com/albums/y220/CathartesAura/

In other news, marking is going well and I should be able to readily avoid burning midnight oil in a blind panic on Tuesday night to finish off for moderation when I get back on Wednesday.

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Right, so it's been a while since I last posted. Much of that is not being in the mood, or simply being preoccupied. Some pretty startling things have occurred:

1) A few days prior to Valentine's Day, my girlfriend of over a year broke up with me. 

2) Pondering my possible whereabouts over the next year got cut short by the offer to continue teaching at the school I'm at next year. Again, Swiss Army Teacher wins the day by being able to teach English and IT part-time, apparently with a few support classes for added flavour.

3) I have survived two months of exceptionally tight finances due to paying off damage deposits and dual rents for a short period of time.

4) I got somewhat addicted to an online dating site called person.com. Games like Play and Flirt make it just too damn fun. Through this site, I've made quite a few online friends around the world.

5) I survived the English department's annual LEAP review. Though not completely happy with my personal results, I at least did not receive any unsatisfactories.

6) I am currently down to 235 lbs. I have not been that weight since, I think, my very early twenties.

7) I would have enjoyed nearly two weeks of Easter holidays, but have spent much of that either ill or marking coursework.

8) Training, on account of illness, has been substantially delayed. Fortunately, however, I still possess more than sufficient capapcity to complete the 10k run; I'm just working on how much grace I do it with.

9) On Wednesday, I took a lengthy walk to meet one of my new online friends and her family at a major shopping centre. 'Twas fun!

10) Marking of coursework is going according to plan. There will be no last minute panic to finish.

11) Tomorrow, with luck, I'll be visiting the standing stone site at Avesbury. This will be my upcoming birthday treat to myself.

12) I now have broadband. (Yessss!)

And there is the point form summary of (most) everything that's happened with me over the last while.

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I'm still in dire need of new furniture, and other odds and ends, but I'm settling into life in the new flat quite nicely: I've found good trails to run on, I'm no longer so ridiculously broke and the nearby off-license carries a tasty brand of pear cider. I've also acquired some new work trousers, size 40. Yes, I did try to squeeze into size 38, but I've got a ways to go for those yet. (I did get the fly buttoned, though!)

Exercise wise, the upper body is solidifying nicely and the major masses where my six pack will appear are quite apparent.
The most recent bit of good stuff, however, was the invitation I received yesterday evening to join some of my neighbours for an impromptu drink.
Yep, methinks I may come to really enjoy life here.
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Some time in the fairly near future, I'll be headed back to Aylesbury for a couple days. It'll be good to see a couple of faces that I haven't in a while. I'm not sure if I'll have immediate internet access, as I recall D. has some sort of 'puter issues going on, but I'll be back on-line soon enough. I'll be headed to [livejournal.com profile] imapunkin's on Friday for the weekend.
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As you may have guessed from the title (or by following my friends page) [livejournal.com profile] ekatarina and I did eventually make it to the showing of Titus Andronicus. We even got good seats for the event (by absolute luck), which proved to be enthusiastically gruesome, if entertaining.

I've also had the pleasure of learning that a particular pupil, who gave another instructor and I an unimaginable amount of grief during a bowling trip on Monday, is facing possible permanent exclusion (details on this to follow in a future posting).

I crashed mightily early Tuesday evening for about 10 hours following the mere 4 or so I had Monday night (Heather: turns out I could have gotten home from London Bridge if I'd remembered to check for another train station that's only twenty minute's walk from home (argh!)).

Before crashing, I swapped out my 80 gig hard drive as it was failing immensely (grrr...), for a 40 gigger that I had kicking around. I now have to clean out that drive, at some point, so that I have enough space to do what I want with it.

Today, I finally had my appointment to register with the local surgery (doctors' office). The interesting bits of info that have come out of that include:

1) I have shrunk 2 inches in height from my former 5' 11"
2) According to my BMI, I am technically "morbidly obese" (chuckle (for those of you who are wondering, the reason why I am taking this quite lightly is because BMI takes no account of how muscular one is (and I am a powerfully built individual)))
3) "Pagan" is one of the listed options for religion on this surgery's registry system

And that pretty much covers the first half of the week.
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This has been an eventful week, beginning with a lovely Monday evening spent with [livejournal.com profile] ekatarina, during which we had a nice dinner, toured a bit of the south embankment of the Thames and enjoyed an informative and entertaining guided walking tour exploring haunts and hauntings around St. Paul's Cathedral. I wound up really missing my camera, though, as there was plenty of interesting architecture to capture in pixels.

Since then, I've discovered that, courtesy of an issue of being paid till the end of August like a teacher, yet being on administrative pay roll which does not, and the required resolution of such of by the headteacher, I am still not yet on the payroll, though I will be for next time. Fortunately, the bursar arranged for a direct deposit of pay, instead of those awful time consuming cheques (up a week to clear in this country), so my bank account is currently happy.

Thursday was spent trying to assist about three groups of pupils through the process of creating model buildings for a presentation to other school and a team of designers next week. I'll go through a fuller description of this sad state of affairs at a future point, but, currently, the kids are still at a point that they will be embarrassing themselves, the teachers roped into this bombshell, and the school. Worse still, they know it and, despite any encouragement we can give them, they are feeling exceptionally unmotivated. It is really unfair to them as this is not a situation of their own making, but we are all stuck in it till the bitter (and likely humiliating) end.

Friday, on my way to [livejournal.com profile] imapunkin's place, some young punk tried to nick my MP3 player! I was on the first bus, standing at my seat whilst waiting for a group of about five young adults (late teens) to pass by me. The last youth in the line noticed the player and turned around to face me. He casually reached out, grabbed it, and unplugged the headphones before I quite realized what was happening. I snatched it from him and bellowed out an indignant "What do you think you are doing?!" in that certain I-am-about-to-tear-you-a-new-a**hole-so-wide-your-head-will-fall-through-it that only a seasoned teacher in the British school system can deliver.

Between that and the fact that I felt, and consequently did not demonstrate, absolutely no fear of him (though he was fairly athletic and towered over me by a good six inches), he was sufficiently intimidated to back off in a hurry, saying words to the effect of "Just chill!" Sadly, the whole incident had me fuming for the remainder of the trip. Fortunately, cuddles with [livejournal.com profile] imapunkin on my arrival soon had me relaxed.

Saturday saw the return of the petrol powered strimmer purchased two weeks ago as the engine kept cutting out. It was exchanged for a new one (an upgrade since the former was not in stock) and J. and I spent some bonding time putting it together. We also watched Coneheads, as well as the usual doses of Big Brother.

Sadly, though, the evening involved tears for [livejournal.com profile] imapunkin as she discovered she got ripped off for £100 by someone who used to be a trusted provider of doll parts. Said person had taken an advanced order on a doll she had been really looking forward to, but never delivered. His on-line store has subsequently disappeared off the net.

Late yesterday evening involved a lot of cuddles and chatter until we were both just too tired to continue (silly grin).

Today, in theory, I'll be headed back in the early evening to meet up with [livejournal.com profile] ekatarina to hang out and catch up. One topic of conversation will be how to deal with the current complication for Monday evening's plan of watching Titus Andronicus at the reconstruction of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre. The original idea was to book tickets for the yard (where all the "groundlings" get to stand for the whole performance (but arguably have the best view)), but, sadly, when I phoned in, I found out all that was left for advanced booking was seated with restricted viewing. The current options are to book a couple of those, or wait and call the box office on Monday to see if anything else is available.

Yep, it's been an interesting week!
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Wouldn't it be cool to have a shared room in a house that's really huge and sunny with more storage area than you could possibly use? Wouldn't it be cooler if the live in landlady was a very sweet and easy to get along with person? Wouldn't it be awesome if the landlady offered, in the interest of economizing laundry and washing energy expenses, offered to wash your clothing and dishes? Wouldn't it just be unbelievable if said landlord only charged about a quarter of the deposit and asked for rent at the end of each month because it makes her bookkeeping easier? And, to top it all off, all this for much less than going rates for a room? Such a situation is just a dream, isn't it?

Well, today, on my birthday, this dream came true! No word of a lie! 'Course, I have to wait a week to move in, but that means I get to spend another week with L. (well worth the commuting hassles on both counts).

L. and family has been very good to me. L. gave me a beautiful dreamcatcher/drum head, a lovely glass and pewter wolf head charm, and a silver bracelet. The kids signed a lovely card for me. I got to talk to my family back home via speaker phone. Mom sent a goodly chunk of money for me to celebrate with.

And I started off a game of Scrabble with L. by playing a seven letter word for the first time ever! I even actually managed to win (L. is very, very good at Scrabble)! (Damn, I should've bought a lottery ticket...)

It's been the best birthday I've had in a long while.
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Man, I need a vacation from my vacation! It's been almost non-stop activity from the end of school including the staff buffet, at least two dates with a new lady friend, two visits to Aylesbury (one for stuff to bring to my new apartment and one to visit for Christmas), a Pagan Solstice social, a ceremony celebrating the re-birth of Mithras (yes, being closer to London is making it MUCH easier to attend such events), Christmas morning mass with D. and her boy (recently arrived in the country), a showing of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, a Christmas party, seeing a friend off at the airport, multiple train and tube rides, and probably other stuff that I'm simply forgetting. And there's STILL more to come! (yergle!) Despite the hectic pace, Christmas has been, so far, quite pleasant. I've enjoyed a lot of great company, received generous gifts from both D. and my parents. The only real sour notes have been the nasty cough I got stuck with and the fact that [livejournal.com profile] mionemione's gift didn't arrive as it is now apparently "unavailable" from the Sears catalog site I ordered it from (it was supposed to be a Hermione towel with MIONEMIONE stenciled on it; she was so disappointed that she wasn't going to get it (sorry Sis! Back to the drawing board...)).

Currently, I'm debating whether or not to stay another night in Aylesbury in order to try and visit a couple more friends who will be arriving much later. Tomorrow, I'm headed out on another train trip to visit my new ladyfriend overnight (hence one of the reasons why I'm hesistant to stay another night; all these two-train-trip days are starting to get to me! (chuckle)).

All the best to everyone this holiday season!
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We've been under the threat of an impending HMI inspection for the last little while. Unlike years previous, this time HMI will only be giving 2 days notice before they visit the school. Fortunately for me, I've gotten a lot of the necessary preparation done and two days warning should be enough to finish 'em. 'Course, there are certain classes that I'd prefer they see over others, but, hey, I think that's true of any teacher. If the news from on high is correct, we should be getting notice either this week or the next. I'll be glad to finally get that out of the way; the tension amongst the staff is way too high.

It hasn't all been doom and gloom, though. On the way to work the other day, I had a chat with the deputy headteacher; I asked him about whether or not I'd be on for the spring (as my contract is currently only for four months). His response was an earnest/amused "Of course you're on for spring. Sorted!" The only question that remains is whether or not I'll be on as a member of the agency I'm currently with or as part of the school staff (the latter is less likely, given budgetary restraints).

I'll be moving closer to the school in January. While I enjoyed my stay in Aylesbury with a most lovely friend and flatmate, I'm am deeply looking forward to regaining an hour or so from my daily commute. D and I never really get to chat much or anything on weekdays, anyhow; I tend to arrive late in the evening and go to bed early. There's also the adventure factor, too; I enjoy exploring new spaces. I'm also toying with the idea of finding a flat of my own, instead of sharing with others. That would be a lot more expensive, but I want to try living on my own for once.

Knowing I'll be staying on at the school and having more spare time has allowed me to begin a new search for new girlfriend. Again, I've begun by joining online dating services, but methinks I may try out a few speed dating events. I'm sure I won't be alone for very long.

Since I got back from Canada, I've tried to be more mindful of opportunities for exercise during normal activity, as D from PG has been doing with great results. It began with things like doing isometrics whilst seated on the train and such, but the arm exercises lately have been consisting of two things: first, when walking with my rather hefty briefcase, I walk holding it halfway curled up, giving my biceps a lot more exercise than they usually ever get. In the mornings, I've been doing push ups. At first, I started doing twenty whilst my feet were elevated on the seat of a sofa, but, for about a week or so, I've been upping the challenge by placing my hands close together, forming a "diamond" with forefingers and thumbs, near the center of my chest. THAT is a challenge! At first, I could only do twenty of them by bending at the knees. Each time I did so, though, I did a few full body, to help build the strength. Yesterday, I went to do them again, after having been negligent for a few days, and, without thinking much about it, did a few full body. Realizing, with amazement, the ease with which I was doing so, I finished off the full twenty.

Despite all the good stuff, though, I still have to face Monday (blech!). Ah well, the stress levels will be reduced soon enough and, for the last few weeks, I'll be sans a number of classes as they do their mock exams (yay!).
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... and I'm doing my damnedest (How did this word come about?) to relax; I quite deserve to, given my efforts over the last little while, which included formal planning for quite a few lessons and loads of marking after-school in an attempt to get the department into reasonable shape. I wound up getting observed with my shittiest class of pupils, but the observer was kind enough to take the abysmal attitude of the pupils into account and gave me a satisfactory for the lesson. He even complimented me on my efforts to deal with the pupils, especially that I chose to constantly chip at them to get on their work, rather than shouting. He saw me for another lesson the next day, where I was borderline between good and satisfactory and would have gotten the good if I had been a bit more realistic with what I had hoped to accomplish with the lesson (didn't get to explaining subroutines). The year 9s for that lesson, bless 'em, were, for the most part, very well behaved (so much so that methinks I'll have to reward 'em next class). The deputy head-teacher stated that, given all that I've gone through, in starting at a new school and working to clean up a huge mess not of my own making, I can be content in achieving a satisfactory.

Next week begins a reprieve from the year 11s until the break; in an attempt to sufficiently kick their asses enough to get them working, the head of department will be taking over that class whilst I assist another teacher with another problematic class. Normally we wouldn't go to this extreme so quickly, but these pupils are well out of time; they need to have been working hard from the beginning of the term and they're already behind. However, there are still pupils in this class who stubbornly believe that they are to be doing work from an alternative course program, rather than IT.

In other news, the weekend's been quite entertaining. First, I went out for drinks with a few of the teachers from my school to celebrate the birthday of one of 'em. Then, I went with a fellow Canadian teacher to go see Serenity. Loved it!!! Jos out-did himself on this one! The rest of the weekend was spent in the delightful company of a number of my flatmate's dearest friends, who came to spend a few days in celebration of her birthday (Happy Birthday, D.!).

'Course, at some point, I have to see to the lesson plans for tomorrow, but, fortunately, Monday is the lightest day of the week for me, with only two lessons to teach. Tuesday is the second, with one of the three lessons being a PSHE lesson with my delightful tutor group (The Heavenly Sevens). It's good to have a schedule that eases you into the week!
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It's been a little less than a week that I've spent in Toronto. So far I have:

1) Taken a long walk down Queen Street West

2) Taken a even longer hike down Queen Street East, from downtown Toronto to the Eastern Beaches (a little over 7 kilometers, I figure; I went to bed with my legs mildly aching from exertion for the first time in a lonnnggg while)

3) Snapped a number of photos of landmarks and architecture (I'm so glad I have a camera this time!)

4) Scored a decent burrito, some jerk chicken, and even some crispy ginger fried beef (though it wasn't as good as Lin Heung's)

5) Discovered that the teaching job scene for Canada has gotten worse since the last time I looked

6) Wrote a bunch of lesson plans and dug up material on mythological tricksters (Raven, Anansi, and Loki) for my year 7s

7) Struggled to avoid being overfed by my host's mother

8) Found out that a little snag in the work permit process has cost a bit of time and has likely marooned me here for an extra week

9) Found out that said snag was rectified by the school taking me on to the payroll (as they have to be directly employing me for work permit purposes)

10) Had a lovely lunch with a friend I haven't seen in a long while

11) Read through Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere (a great novel, though not as captivating as American Gods)

12) Started rereading Frank Herbert's Dune (which, after about twenty years and the development of a strong understanding of religious, social, political, and cultural matters, reads like a brand new novel)

13) Did an amazing amount of window shopping (including a lot of kewl curio shops and even a few "naughty" stores)

14) Caught up on a lot of rest

15) Engaged in plenty of conversation with my host and the other residents of the household (including a plethora of house-pets)

16) Picked up a pressie for a dear friend back in the UK

All in all, a week reasonably spent, methinks.

The weekend holds the promise of a trip to Ward's Island, which I've been looking forward to since my return. This time, I'll have camera in hand so I can show everyone just how amazing it is.

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July 2014

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