Strange what desire will make foolish people do...

Hello dear readers. It's sunday, so that must mean that it's time for this weeks update!

I will of course start with last Monday... It was the first day back at work after the half term holidays! The kiddies weren't in, though it was just the staff having a training day (or "Death by Powerpoint" as I call it!) It wasn't a bad day though and after all the tasks and the papers we were out by 3:00pm. In the evening everyone came over to my house for a guitar hero session. T'was a good evening, although my house is definitely more boring than Adams, or Carls! After some serious riff-bending everyone left so I could go to bed.

Tuesday morning came far to early and it was the first day of having to cope with the kiddies. They werent too bad, though and the day went as any other. My main jobs for the day were setting everything in place for the 1st half of the art GCSE exam which would be on the Wednesday. (I'll get to that in a moment, though) Basically the seating plan needed doing, the equipment needed sorting, and all the red-tape that goes with this sort of thing needed to be read through, and the instructions carried out. Now you may be wondering "GCSE? at this time of year?" well what we do is because the art GCSE is 10 hours (yes, 10 hours) long, it is split over 2 days. Because this places a huge demand on the exam timetable we do the GCSE exam earlier that everyone else, and use the supposed exam time later on to catch them up with their coursework. It is a very ingenious system and we are very proud of it. The wow factor of this is amplified by the fact that we don't choose two consecutive days (like I had when I took my art GCSE) instead we choose two days a week apart (this means that next Wednesday will be the second 5 hours of the exam) Clever because, although they can't touch their work in the week between the exams (because that would be cheating) they have a week to rethink their strategy, and to practice any various skills and techniques that they are finding difficult! Good, isn't it?

Ok Nothing happened on Tuesday evening because no one could think of anything to do so I will go straight on to Wednesday's affairs...

The exam started at 9:00am so everyone had to be in school at 8:30. I had preped the rooms and got everyone seated. The exam started as planned and I was glad to see the hard work of all the art staff start to pay off. I wasn't in the exam for long though as I had cover work and art lessons to teach in place of Sal' and Elanor who were overseeing the exam.

It was a good day, actually and at 4:30 when I went home I didn't feel like I had been to work at all... It was lovely! In the evening I went down to fathers as usual to watch a bit of telly. I came home for about 11:00-ish after watching independence day on film4.

Ah now on to Thursday... Work was ordinary so I wont bother blogging a load of waffle... I'll get to the evening. I didn't go to the Packhorse (for the 3rd week running!) because me and Father went to the Civic in Wolverhampton to see Chris Issak! (yes, I know... Not the coolest gig' in the world, but it was a laugh and good fun) We arrived in Wolvy' for about 6:45pm and had a drink in the little civic pub. Randomly there was an Adrenaline sticker on the pavement outside! After the pint we went next door and got seated. The support act were a band called "Ganjo Music" (I think) from Tipton! After they had done their session, out came Chris issak and his band... He was wearing a blue sparkley suit! He loves himself a bit but he was quite chatty with the crowd and did a song out in the audience! I assumed his encore would be Wicked Game (as it is the song he is known for) but randomely he performed it about half way through.....

... I missed the first verse, sorry....




Anyway it was a good show. He went off stage at about 10:30 and me and Father headed on home, after negotiating the onslaught of cars trying to get out of the carpark...

When I got home I played a bit of Oblivion, and went to bed...

... ready for Friday! Work was a doddle, and everyone was looking forward to the weekend! I did the usual rounds and got out of Woodrush for 3:30. In the evening I met Marcus and Adam in the Pakhorse to discuss the events that would unfold on Saturday.... (more of that in a moment)

... We drank a pint but then got bored so they came back to mine for a bit before heading off home...

... Right, so on to Saturday.... We were going to London!

Me, Adam, John, and Marcus met at 8:30 at Solihull station and caught the 9:06am train. It got us to Marylebone for 10:45-ish and the first thing we did was get something to eat! Our first big stop was the Tate Modern... The gallery that Adam loves to hate! Marcus went off to find Steve and Mark, friends from St. Peters school.
We spent a couple of hours in the Tate, then went over to the pub to meet with the others. We had a few bevvies and then went over to the Royal College of surgeons museum. I had never been before and if you are ever in London, check it out. It is very fascinating! Afterwards we went for some tea at a local Pizza Hut, and after gorging ourselves Steve and Mark left us. mark is running the London Marathon so he wanted to get back...

Well done to Mark for taking on the grueling challenge!

We had ourselves another drink and then caught the 9:40pm train back. It took 2 hours and we were back in Solihull for 11:50pm and Adam kindly dropped everyone home. I wasn't that tired though, so watched Derren Brown and Doctor Who on Catch-up-teleport-TV before going to bed.

I got up thismorning to watch the marathon incase I could see Mark, but with 30,000 runners it was a long shot...

I am doing an emergency shift at the Legion in a bit aswell so I will have to leave you readers.

TTFN.

blue, blue, red, blue, yellow, red, DAMN IT!

Hello readers, and before we go any further, yes, I know I am a day late after saying that I would blog on Sunday...
But thats all in the past and I have blogging to be done, so lets get on with it...

I came back from my travels and immediately felt somewhat bored... I mean how do you follow a week skiing? I decided therefore to purchase Guitar Hero 2 for the 360 last Tuesday...

Money well spent!

I purchased it from Toys R Us after trying HMV, Woolworths, Game, Argos, and Comet who were all out of stock. Actually the guy on the pick up point in Toys R Us Shirley looked a bit like Nick Frost (from Shaun of the Dead and Hot fuzz) and was eage to tell me how he and his mates sat up most of the previous Friday trying to complete it on expert.... Wonderful. I didn't know the game came free with a life-story. He then started talking about a japanese Anime called Naruto... Your guess is as good as mine...!?

Anyway I (eventually) went home and gave it a try out... I was so enthralled that I invited John, Adam, and Carl over for a go.

Throughout my week off we have been playing the game at Carls most evenings since he now has the house to himself. (Due to his housemates moving out... Detached house in Solihull, are they mad!?) Anyway, we have been over for 3 or 4 nights now culminating in yesterday which was the official Carl Notman Barbeque! We have many each summer and yesterday was the first one of 2007!. Jenny picked john and myself up and drove over to carls. Bobby was already there and Adam arrived a little later. Everyone had bought meat or drinks... But there was a mad dash when we realised we had no bread rolls for the burgers or matches to light the barbecue with!!! A quick run to Tesco's solved that problem and we were tucking in to hot cow in under an hour! Guitar Hero provided much of the entertainment, switching later to the Wii (which Ralph had lent to Carl whilst he is on holiday... Thats what big brothers are for!) We also watched Carls "Best Man Speech" from Ralph and Kirsties wedding last year on a DVD thats carls dad dropped off. Now the highlight of the evening was Marcus trying to play Wii Boxing agaist Bobby... Somehow I dont think he quite gets it...




... Interesting "technique" Mr. Wheatley...

After we had devoured a ton of meat and worn ourselves out, it was time to be going... I still had to go down to my nans for tea! Jenny dropped me off home, so I dived in to my own car and shot down to my nans... For some forced tea (well I wouldn't want to be impolite by refusing it) I stayed for an hour and came back to watch TopGear before going to bed!

... So Monday... Today... First day back at school... Sorry, I mean first day back at work! No kiddies, though just teacher training or "Death by Power-Point" as I like to call it. God it's dull... meeting, lecture, meeting, powerpoint, powerpoint, lecture, powerpoint, meeting, powerpoint.... I was glad when 3:30 came so I could come home... Which I did... And started blogging... Which is what you are now reading...

Sod it, that will have to do!

TTFN readers

I'm back! (and I'm blogging it!)

Well readers. It's been a while... 2 Weeks in fact, since I last blogged but there is a reason for this... I've been on holiday! But before I tell you about all that, I need to give you all a catch-up session from the 26th of March up to the 1st of April, which is the week that has not yet been blogged... I will, however keep it fairly brief...

Monday 26th: Went to work, came home at 4:30. Went out in the evening, can't remember where, probably with Adam, John, Jenny, and Marcus.


Tuesday 27th: Went to work, came home at 4:30. Went out in the evening, can't remember where, probably with Adam and John.


Wednesday 28th: Went to work, came home at 4:30. Went to Packhorse with teaching assistants from school. Had a laugh. came home for about midnight.


Thursday 29th: Went to work, came home at 4:30. Went to Packhorse with usual crowd. Came home for about midnight.


Friday 30th: Went to work, took Didgerydoo and guitar for open jam-session, came home at 3:30. Spent most of evening on Oblivion.


Saturday 31st: Ok, now I will start to use sentances... Adam phoned me and told me that Carl was back for the weekend, had the house to himself, and wondered if we wanted to go round for the evening... So we did. Me and John got to Ad's house and from there we went over to Carl's. When we got there we watched a bit of telly and then decided to get a chinese. We hung on a bit for Marcus and Jenny who were coming over, so when they arrived we set off up the road. I ordered sweet and sour pork, which was quite good (if a little chewy!) After everything had been devored Carl showed us Crackdown on the 360, think GTA set in the future and your half-way there. We then decided to watch a DVD... We ended up watching a british film called Human Traffic. It was done in the late 90's and it's about rave culture. Quite bizzare, but ultimately a good film with a happy ending. If you haven't seen it, watch it as it's quite funny in parts. During the course of the evening, Marcus decided it would be funny to get all of the stuffed toys on the mantle piece (and yes there are a few) and arrange them in various sexual positions... I thught that this was very immature....


... But wildly funny, so I joined in and took a photo or two...

Filth! pure filth! But funny... We left them like that when we left, so god-knows what kate and Claire (Carls house-mates) thought when they came back. Ater an evening of hilarity, we left and I dropped John back home, then I went home myself to bed ready for Sunday...

... Because sunday was... MEMORABILIA! at the NEC. Me, Adam, John, and Carl headed over there from Carls house at about 10:30. We got parked up and caught the minibus to the main entrance. We grabbed a bite to eat and drew some cash out before queing up for the tickets. Whilst in the que some random bloke came up to me wanting to sell a spare ticket for £5. he said that it was spare because his brother hadn't turned up. Now I don't care how true this might have been but one thing I never do is buy tickets from anyone who doesn't work at the venue you are trying to get in to. So I told him that I'd just get a normal one, since I was nearly at the front of the queue. His reaction was to start pleading with me, saying that he'd even come up to the entrance to prove that the ticket was genuine. At this point I was literally at the front of the queue, told him to fuck off, and got served... He just walked out of the NEC looking at me in contempt... Anyway, when we got in the first thing we noticed is that it was slightly smaller than usual. In fact it was in a different set of halls than usual, and so it was also layed out differently. As we were walking round looking at all the stalls we came across a dalek with erectile dysfunction.... Naturally I took a photo...

"EX-TER-MIN-ATE... EX-TER-MIN-ATE... EX-TER-MIN.... OH-BUGGER! IT-HAS-GONE-LIMP"

Ha ha... I love it. A dalek that looks like it needs a dose of viagra. Anyway we walked round for a bit and saw the usual people walking round dressed up (including one very overweight power-ranger!) and the stalls selling movie props and all sort of expensive goodies. It was whilst doing the rounds that I noticed a stall selling official force FX lightsabers for £40... Interesting, as online retailers sell them for anywhere between £70 and £90... I was curious... But I left them alone and we went to get a drink. Now last time we went to memorabilia we were at the bar and Danny-John-Jules (the cat, from Red Dwarf) came and walked past... Surely we wouldn't be so lucky to be surrounded by celebrities this time, would we? Well we ordered our drinks and sat down, only to find that Kenny Baker (the midget who operated R2D2) was sat down at the table next to us. Incredible! And before we left Danny-John-Jules came in for a pint with his family! (I wanted Toyah Wilcox to come by but she didn't) The guy must follow us around or something! But we left and continued our walk around... Hmm, lightsabers for £40... We had a look at the Wii stand and the scantily-clad ladies that were there, and we found Toyah Wilcox talking to a fan. I wondered if she might remember me from before christmas when I nearly tripped over her! but I guess she meets so many people that it all becomes a bit of a blur. £40 for a replica lightsaber... Thats got to be a bargain! (you can see where this is going can't you!?) after much deliberation I decided to get one! They make an excellent display piece, and are faithful to the films, with a full-metal hilt and handle, and the blade is made from poly-carbonate which houses 50 super-bright LED's which light sequentially, making it look like the blade is extending from the handle. the sounds it makes (oh yes, the sounds) are digitally recorded from the film, and include Power-up, idle hum, swinging hum, clash, and power-down. The only slight problem I had is that I didn't actually have £40 on me, and the stall didn't take Switch... (cue hero music) Carl to the rescue! Carl, being a rich student (ha ha) did have the cash, so I borrowed it from him and gave it him back when we left, and got to a hole-in-the-wall. But I got my lightsaber (an Anakin Skywalker Blue one!) We walked round the corner and bumped in to Kaz and John! We chatted for a bit and then left to go back to Carls. As we were walking out of the NEC the usual bunch of stormtroopers were walking round. Knowing that Adam would hate it if they came up to him, I decided to go up to one and ask him to stop Adam from leaving! However... The conversation was went more like this:

Me: Y'alright mate, see that guy there, with the jacket and the green hood, could you guys do me a favour and go and hastle him...

Stormtrooper: hastle him?

Me: Yeah, it would be a laugh, I'll get it on video

Stormtrooper: You want me to hastle your friend?

Me: Yes

Stormtrooper: Well maybe I'll hastle you, instead!

Me: ha-ha, thats- what!?

Stormtrooper: DOWN ON THE GROUND!

Me: I have a lightsaber... Don't make me use it!

Stormtrooper (plus back-up): GET ON THE GROUND!

So I had to kneel and john started taking photo's. It was at this point a bloke dressed as Batman (In a bloody good costume, actually. he really did look the part!) came walking down the corridore...

Me: Save me Batman!

Stormtrooper: OK, your credentialls are clear, you can go...

So I stood up to everyone staring at me and then, just when I thought I was free...

Me (sarcastic): Batman didn't even try and rescue me!

Batman: I've got my eye on you

Me: what?

Batman: Yeah, you... I know who you are... And the next time you plan some villainous crime-wave, I'll be waiting

Me:................?

Batman: You super-villains are all the same...

And then he walked off! marvelous, arrested by a stormtrooper and victimised by Batman all in the space of 10 minutes! Still, it's better that being bored at home I suppose... Anyway, we got back to Carls house where I ignited my lightsaber! I gave it a couple of swings and did a little jedi-styley twizzle (if thats the word) of the saber around my body (something I taught myself with my Katanas ages ago!) which Carl was a little impressed with! before watching a bit of telly and then heading home. I got in and got something to eat before heading down to my nans. We only stayed for a bit because we had to be up super-early to go on holiday!

So I will jump to that point...

At 4:00am on monday morning I got up, and got ready to be picked up at 5:00am by Father. He had already gone to get Selena and turned up 10 minutes early. I dived in to the car and we set off for Coventry airport. When we got there we joined the almighty big que for the check-in which, given the shoe-box size of Coventry airport, went out the door! The rest of our gang arrived a little later and after a wait, we were through the check-in and in the lounge, where everyone was properly introduced. There were 10 of us in total: Me, Selena, Father, Andy and Lorraine Lake, their daughters, Sophie and Rose, their two botfriends, Grant and John, and a friend of their family, a lady called Lindsey. After the usual 2 hour wait we boarded the flight and were on our way. The flight took just under 2 hours and when we arrived at saltzburg airport, our luggage was quick to make an apperance... which was nice! Our minibus and car taxis arrived to take us to the Hotel which was a 2 hour drive to Saalbach, and the Hotel was Hotel saalbacher Hof. When we arrived, we had time to get a half-day skiing done (a rarity!) so we grabbed our skipasses and headed off up the slopes! Afterwards we came back to a shower and our evening meal.

I should point out that the week followed a strict regime. Everyday was pretty much the same... This was:

7:30am: Get up

8:00am: Breakfast

9:15am: Meet in skiroom to put boots on. Get skiis.

9:45am: Get on gondola chairlift up to resort

10:00am: Ski

1:30pm: Lunch. Beer

2:30pm: Ski

4:30pm: Ski + last run to bottom of resort

5:00pm: Back to hotel. Boots off. Beer

6:00pm: Shower. Rest

7:30pm: Evening meal. Beer. Chat. Beer

10:00pm: Leave restaurant. Go in to bar. Beer

11:00pm: Leave bar. Go to bed.

It was nice! Anyway, I'm skipping ahead of myself. On Tuesday we took a different lift up and skiied over the other side of the valley. In the evening we explored a bit of Saalbach, and found a Spar!

Wednesday's skiing was also good, we went right over to the top of Hinterglemm and skiied the Gold-Run, which is used by the Austrian Olympic team as a training area! We had Gulashsuppen mit Brotte for lunch (Gulash Soup with bread) and gave it a rating out of 10, setting a habit that would remain with us for the rest of the holiday.

Thursday we stayed on the one side of the valley as it was a bit overcast on the other. in the evening, dad and Andy decided that they would get dressed up for the evening:

I'm sure John would tell me off for making the mistake of taking a photograph next to a mirror and capturing my own flash! But anyway, thats what they turned up looking like (note: my dad is the one on the right)

On Friday the weather was sunny again! So we did a grand tour of the valley, we racked up some good mileage on our skiis and I managed to get some video footage on my phone (which I can't upload to blogger, sorry)

Saturday was more good skiing, over to Hinterglemm and Leogang which has some nice trails and long, wide blue-runs for cruising on... (or bladdering it down which is what I did!)

Sunday was a bit difficult, the snow had really started to recede due to the sun and some runs were being closed. on our run down to the gondola at the end of the day I scratched ther bottom of my skis on gravel that was poking through the snow! In the evening we had a sing-song in the restaurant! dad, Andy and Lorraine had composed a song to the tune of "The Sound of Music" and sung it at dinner (the looks we got!) it was all good fun though and our waitress was laughing along and joining in at one point!

Monday was our last day skiing... Well actualy, our last half-day skiing. We got up, got out on the pistes but at 12:30 decided it was time for the official last run off the holiday. this is always a ceremonial time. Knowing that when you reach the bottom, and unclip your skis, that would be it for a year... back in the loft they will go...

Only 4 of us were brave enough to step up... Me, Dad, Andy, and John started from the top of Saalbach at precisely 12:39. We timed ourselves down and had time checks at every section... 12:44 we shot past the mid-station. 12:48 we hit the minefield of moguls that always hurt your knees. 12:48 we shot over the ridge and down the final leg of the mountain. And at 12:52 it was all over. The end. We undid our skiis and started the walk back to the hotel.

We had just an hour to get ready as the taxis were coming for us at 2:00pm. We got our act together and managed to get everything sorted. The drive to the airport didn't take as long as the the first time, so we had a good wait on our hands before boarding. We took off at 4:45pm (local) and landed 2 hours later at 5:45pm (GMT) It was a bit of a chore finding fathers car, and when we did it had a flat tyre! thatc was sorted though and I was back in time to shoot over to Adams house, and finally, over to johns, to watch Jackass 2 on DVD (I was in need of English-speaking things to watch on telly!)

Afterwards I came home and wentt o bed since I had been up 17 hours by that point and was fairly knackered!

Before I sign off readers I have some more photo's for you, straight from Austria!

The view from our balcony

View from a restaurant hut up in Hinterglemm

Top of the world, Ma!

The end of the black run down to the Gondola at Saalbach

The valley as seen from Leogang

So, readers, I will leave you there. I will carry on posting as normal now, so Sundays as usual...

TTFN