Neighbourly fun

Last night I went outside for a break from working (at home around 9) and my neighbours, Alex & Caz, were roasting marshmallows and invited me along. I needed to get back inside and work, but they convinced me to "join the fun", so I just had to! I haven't roasted marshmallows in years!! It was a lot of fun (and a welcome break from work if I'm honest!!) and it was good to catch up with them. They're a very good couple to be neighbours with - I'd highly recommend you have them as neighbours!

Alex was taking the photo and made us laugh ... thus I look like a deranged phsyco (I'm laughing quite hard here)

Palace fun with Clare O

6 June

I met Clare O. with no plans other than to meet in the city and "do something". We had lunch at ________ ( a grocery store that I forgot the name of) which had an eatery upstairs with lots of different choices (I had a Mexican salad, Clare opted for pizza). Then we headed to _____ (okay, this was some time ago and the details are failing me obviously!) via American Apparel (as Clare hadn't been in a while and wanted to look for something. Clare was shocked that I'd never heard of it nor been in it - I am American after all. I spent some time explaining that Paris, Texas, is no L.A. in shopping terms. We had WalMart, not American Apparel. I was shocked at the clothing in American Apparel - very bright, very 80s, very loud.

I was highly amazed by some, no, most of the clothing / accessories, and couldn't resist taking the mick out of it!

We then continued on to _____ (wherever it is that we had decided to go) and passed through Kennisington Palace grounds. I had never been to Kennsington Palace and was quite excited by this. Clare mentioned the sea of flowers left there when Princess Diana died and I was shocked to see how big the grounds where and how many flowers that must have been!!! We then decided that since neither of us had been in the Palace to see if we could tour it.

There was an exhibition on at the palace (which was the only way we could tour around it) so we decided to do the tour. The exhibition (can't remember the proper title) was of clothing styles over the ages.

Not great photo quality, the lighting was pretty shocking (that's my story and I'm sticking to it!) Looking at hand made fabric here

Isn't it good that our taste in clothes has changed over the centuries!!

Then there was a small bit where you toured parts of the palace.

Looking at a big clock. It looks like Clare is holding a phone to her head but it's actually a talking guide headset thingy (yes, that is the proper name of it).

And there was an "add on" section about the life of the debutant's. Part of this section had you trying out walking in a line with a book on your head and teaching yourself how to dance, etc. I caught Clare giving the dancing section a go. Fun times!

Bye Clare :-(

A good friend of mine, former colleague and flatmate, Clare P., left at the end of June for a 6 month adventure around the world. I will miss her dearly!

May 24th

Before she left we went out for one last who-rah. We were both busy and pretty tired so it was a calm who-rah :-) We went out to a local Japanese restaurant for some yummy grub.

Who needs chop sticks when you've got hands!

Then Clare came back for a cuppa tea and a game of Sorry. I have a lot of fun memories with Clare being my flatmate, passing the time playing card & board games, Sorry! being our favourite.

It's very hard to take a self portrait while playing a game ... we tried 8 times and this was our best attempt :-\

Clare actually left the country early on the 30th, so a few of us went out on Monday night (the 29th) to say a final farewell. It was really sad to say good-bye. I've had a few emails from Clare since she left and she seems to be having a grand time ... I just wish I could ditch work for 6 months and join her on her jollies!!!

Blue Man Group

May 17th

James and I went (along with Jame's brother and his girlfriend) to see the Blue Man Group. I'd never heard of them before and don't really know how to describe them. A quote from Wikipedia: "produces theatrical shows and concerts featuring music, comedy and multimedia; recorded music and scores for film and television." Whatever you class them as, I'll say entertainers, I enjoyed it. It was a fun night. It was also the first time I'd ever used a boat on the Thames to get to a venue (we took the river taxi to get to the O2 arena where they were showing).

Lily Allen Concert

Saturday evening after leaving Meghan, I went to meet James to go to a Lily Allen concert for his birthday - too many birthdays to keep up with :-)

With the help of James's umbrella we were relatively dry at this stage. Just queueing to get into Somerset House* for the concert

Inside the venue, listening to Just Jack the supporting act

With Lily Allen coming out, so did the rain

But James brought me a coat so I was somewhat sheltered....but after 2 hours of rain, at the end I did look something like a drowned rat!

It was an "all standing" venue and we were only 3 people deep, so we had a pretty good view!

We spent several hours on our feet, but it was a great concert. I'm glad I got to go!! As I was just about home (11:40pm) I get a call from Mom on her mobile phone saying "can't talk, I'm calling from my cell phone, call your grandfather." My heart went into panic mode - why do I need to call him at this hour? what's happened? what bad news is he going to tell me? Filled to the brim with fear, I rang. His Sykpe account wasn't working. I could have strangled my mother for panicking me so!!!


*For those of you that have seen the movie The Young Victoria, the majority of the movie was filmed at Somerset House. (obviously without the temporary Lily Allen stage in the middle of the set :-)

Sister Act

Saturday I went to see Sister Act with Meghan for her birthday.

I was out Saturday morning and had failed to bring appropriate shoes as it'd started to rain and I was in sandals. Knowing that I was meeting Meghan later, I called and asked her to bring me some shoes. Sorted, all was right with the world ... so I thought.

I had also failed to grab my belt and raincoat from the car when I parked it as I was in a rush to meet the bus Meghan was on. So I meet Meghan on the bus, James was with me and he took the shoes I was in and the bag of the shoes Meghan had brought for me so I didn't have to carry them around, and sat down to put my shoes on only to realise that the socks were in the bag I gave James. D'oh!!!
So before the show I went into a shop to find a belt and some socks. It wasn't raining any longer so I resisted buying an umbrella.

Putting on my new socks outside the Palladium (Theatre where Sister Act is playing)

Meghan and I met 2 of her friends in the city, Kirsty & Crystal but I failed to get a picture of the four of us - grr! Meghan had arranged the tickets: way back in November she booked our tickets, then a month or so ago Kirsty was joining us and the seat next to us was free so that was booked, then a couple days ago Crystal was to join us and again the seat next to us was available so four tickets were purchased. Or so we thought. There was apparently some mix up and only 3 seats were booked...to cut a long story short, the show was about to begin and they found four seats together and plonked us there. We were a bit disappointed as the view was quite restricted, but we lived and still enjoyed ourselves!

The show was better than I expected (they weren't able to use any of the songs from the movie, so I was expecting it to be a bit rubbish if I'm honest!) and it was a fun afternoon. I had to rush off to go to a concert that evening and left the three of them. I heard that they were still able to have some fun in my absence though.

Dinner on the Thames

8 July
Last week I went into the city to Matt, a friend of mine, for dinner. We don't get to meet up as often as we used to (busy life I'm telling you!) but every time we find the time it's always good to catch up. Matt suggested a new location for a restaurant chain that he liked that was on the river. We ended up sitting outside, I've never dinned on the river Thames like that before, it was pretty fun.

I was trying to entertain myself on the way home and noticed I could take a picture of myself in the train window. I thought this picture was pretty cool (with the movement lines from outside) so I thought I'd share.

No time to blog today, but...

I just had to mention.....

I called my grandparents last night and chatted their ears off for over an hour. Part of the conversation towards the end of our phone call was about my blog. As we were saying good-bye my grandfather announced that he needed to get off the phone because he needed to pee. I thanked him for this information and a few jokes were made about it. I then said "I think it's that news worthy I'll include it on my blog tomorrow". So thus this post is me making sure I keep to my word :-)

Fun with Ed

May 20th
I always enjoy catching up with Ed, but he's ALWAYS been SO busy. He "double books" his evenings so he's doing 2 things with 2 different people or he joins up friends so he can see everyone. He's a serious social light ... and of recent so am I. (I have yet to become a "double booker" though.) Needless to say it's hard to catch up.

But when we manage it, I always have a fabulous evening. I remember on this particular night I was feeling very burdened by work and not wanting to go out. But as it'd been 'like forever' since I'd seen him, I trussed myself up and went out to meet him. And was rewarded for my efforts by a very good evening! No idea what was talked about or done (we went to a pub for a dinner in Herne Hill - an area of London in between our flats) .. but it defiantly lifted my spirits!

I do remember it was cold when we were going home ... Ed (the nutter) decided to do some star jumps* to keep himself warm!

Ed and I

*jumping jacks for those American readers :)

Si Senorita

May 14th (I think)


I think it was the 14th ... but it was mid-May anyway. I met Clare P. for a fabulous meal at a Mexican restaurant close to her. This was actually the first restaurant that we went out to (I think).

I tried (but failed) to find the post with Clare and I with both of us in this restaurant wearing sombreros. Oh well.

Strawberries and cream in the staff room

7 July

As with every other year that school ends, there are a few teachers who are leaving the school (London is a very transient place, so it's expected that there is a certain amount of turnover from year to year). Unfortunately the end of this academic year sees quite a few people I've grown fond of leaving me. Sniff sniff. Gen is going travelling with her husband this next year to spend a bit of quality time together - lucky thing!!! Gen is one of the sweetest people on staff. She's very helpful and lovely and I enjoy her very much. She's also super handy if you break jewelry (which I have been known to do on a few occasions)! Recently she's taken up coming to fitness (which I also attend) on a Thursday after school - I think you get to know people on whole new level when you sweat with them!!

As a good-bye (after 12+ years) to all the staff here, she laid on a strawberries and cream party in the staff room after school on Tuesday. Most of the staff came to say good-bye, a testament to how missed she will be. I didn't manage to catch her in a picture (grr) but caught some of the interaction.

Starting from the back of the head in the bottom right - That's David, then Richard and Celestina, Ken, Steph and Xena (who I do fitness with on Thursdays after school). Ederin is talking to Belinda (who's face is slightly covered by a plate and Brian is in on that conversations as well. The last two back of heads that you see are Geoffry and Louisa. Sheesh - how many people!

Next table gathering is Lisa and Adelaide, Carol, Anne T, Sheila W. and Marian

The next table (and last one that I managed to get) is Tyrone, Cate, Pepe, Tesca, Kelli and Danielle (my American colleague!!)

I was on a mission to get a photo of Claire L. for some reason. She was not very willing to let me have my picture. It was an amusing game, but this is the best I got. She won't thank me for posting this picture!

Some more willing participants here, Claire O. and Mary B. (I've spoken of Claire before, but only had a picture of the back of her head ... now you have a face to go with the hair :-)

Madonna Concert

July 4th

So most of my time the last month has been spent working (more precisely timetabling), my weekends are no exception. I get up in the morning and go to work, stay late at work and come home and do more work. The same is true of my weekends ... I just work in my pjs instead of going into work :-)

This past weekend James came to make sure I looked after myself. He came over Friday night and made me dinner (while I worked). He came back Saturday morning with breakfast and lunch which he prepared for me as I worked. I worked some more and then James and I went to a Madonna concert. How lucky am I to be able to go to a concert of "the queen of pop"?!!

It was a slight nuisance to get to and from the concert as the tube was closed but because James is super organised he'd already made alternative arrangements and the travel was absolutely fine. Madonna was an hour late coming out on stage (apparently the temperature wasn't to the madam's liking so says the press) but the concert was wonderful. A really neat experience. I think I've even managed to get my hearing back now :-)

James and I before the concert

Madonna also paid tribute to Micheal Jackson by having a Micheal Jackson look a like on the stage at one point while his picture was beamed through the arena.

There was a mix-up when James booked the tickets which meant we were sitting in the disabled section. This was a bit odd and I felt uncomfortable using a seat for wheelchairs, but looking on the bright side - they were good seats and we had plenty of leg room.

Though, sadly, she did not make mention of it being the 4th of July or pay homage to her homeland. That was a bit of a disappointment. But I shall lodge no complaints as I enjoyed my evening!

Sunday after church I was straight back to working on the timetable after my evening and morning off. I finally stopped working on the timetable around 1am when I collapsed in bed.

Year 11 leavers prom

25 June

So I never went to my prom at school, I wasn't really interested ... but I've managed to go to the last two proms at the school I work for now. I'm an odd pickle, what can I say!

All trussed up ready to go

Jess and I

The prom king, Jess, and queen, Ken....something might be wrong with this picture (besides the teachers being crowned!)

Jess, Ruth and Amy doing a little dancing in their seats

Tesca and I

It was a good evening, but if I'm honest I was so bogged down with work I didn't manage to just let go and have a relaxing and enjoyable night. Ed (a friend who I've mentioned several times on my blog) did drag me onto the dance floor for a little shuffle which was good and lifted my spirits. I've got some really good friends here at school who look after me and lift my spirits when I'm moping about!

Lindsay & Adam

Thanks to google calendar (and having access to google calendar on my phone) I have rather robust scheduling system and can tell you when I was doing each night. Yippee, all of June isn't lost! My posts will be out of order, but you can get a gist of what I've been up to.

23 June
Adam and Lindsay and James and I were due to go out (I thought we were going to dinner, Lindsay thought we were going for a drink.) Love confusion.

Lindsay and Adam at my flat

In the end I decided to cook pizzas. This week was the beginning of England's heat wave where we got into the 90s on a daily basis. I hear you say "but you're from Texas!" I am from Texas - where's there's air conditioning-o-plenty ... 90 degrees is flipping hot when there's no ac to cool off! Thus my "cooking" pizza entailed picking up the phone and dialling for Dominoes. I just couldn't face turning the oven on and adding more heat to my sweltering flat!!!

I was quite annoyed at the state of the pizzas when they got to the flat ... they were all mushed up. I meant to let Dominoes know of my irritation, but I forgot and I seriously don't have the time, but I did manage to snap a photo!

Despite the pizza entanglement we had a good natter and a fun evening!!

1 July

Lindsay and Adam came back over to the flat - this time for a BBQ on the roof with Meghan (my flatmate) and I. Meghan's got some better pictures on her camera, this is the only one I managed to take. We normally "put a leg over" this fence to get to our flat roof where we enjoy the outdoors. One of the "poley things" (that's a technical term) is missing and all night Adam was itching to try to go through the fence instead of over it ... on our way in for the evening he decided to go through it ... and managed it. He looked a bit silly though - but isn't that the point?!

After we got back inside and cleaned up it was bed time, but as we'd been talking about going inside to play a game we decided to have a few rounds of Uno. I love board and card games - so much fun and interactive. Who needs a tv! That was a fun night!!