Home again

On Thursday I had no work so started to catch up on what I had actually gathered while in London. Sometimes the process is all consuming so you need time to sit back and cogitate on what you've got, and what you've not. I was exhausted so had a bit of a sleep in too. It's a good thing that J can keep me in this fashion! 8-)

We went for a walk and ended up going to Ocean's Thirteen. Don't ever see this movie. It is BORING, with feck all storyline and less acting. I could have walked out and not missed anything, and I've never walked out of a movie before. Mea Culpa.

I ordered Nachos and a drink and you should have seen the size of the drink! It was served in a bucket. I really would have preferred less of it and a lower price and I guess it goes to show how valueless the drink really is. I managed to get cheese dip all over my trousers as well so the snacks were a bit of a disaster.

Friday brought a new school - Abbeyfield. It was in Chippenham, so quite a way out of town. A train and a bus away to be more precise. I asked the agent if he'd be sending me home for work. Anyway they promised a nice school, but 4/5 of the classes were the usual crap. I've really got to get out of this line of work. It's doing my head in.

J had the pleasure of the car, which I have only actually seen for 15 minutes or so since we bought it! Weird. This means that for a change she was home before me. After doing email and stuff we headed out for dinner and a drink which was pleasant enough, and it was still sunny although a little windy. You may have read that it has been very wet over here, with fatal floods further north. So much for summer, eh? Apparently Italy has been having a heatwave though, so fingers crossed that some of that is still around when we get there.

It appears C has done well in her first exam that she has results for so we are looking forwad to the rest. We are very proud of her, but she does work hard, so deserves it. We're making plans for her Christmas trip, or at least throwing ideas around. It'll be nice to see her (between shops).

Our ISP has decided to block the editing side of our blogs so we can't write them directly or edit previous ones (like "shooping"). These recent ones have been emailed in so may have looked a bit funny until I edited them.

Archives and stuff

So where was I? On Tuesday the IWM was closed so I went out to the PRO to look up some more war diaries. I photographed all of these for J so he has a hell of a lot to work through now. Sadly I didn't get to the stuff on the fall of Cassino in May '44, so will have to visit again.

Scene 1. A new arrival to the dorm had been at the pub, so at about 2.00 am he came in and tried to find his bed. He started to climb into his allocated one (you are given numbers) when the current occupant was awoken. "Who, what, what are you doing? Who are you?" "Sorry man, you're in my bed and there are no more free." "I've been here for a week." "I'll check with reception." So he goes down to find it's impossible for all the beds to be full, then comes back and more discussion until it is revealed that earlier occupant has dropped his gear on another bunk as well. Finally we all get some sleep. The sleepy response of the bloke woken by a stranger climbing in his bed was a classic.

Scene 2. Another new arrival at the door tries his key (which works) but doesn't turn the handle hard enough to open the door which is a bit stiff. Card, handle, card, handle, card, handle, card, handle, etc about twenty times. Then he goes down to reception to have the key reprogrammed then card, handle, card, handle, card, handle, etc. I could have got up to let him in, or just told him to push harder but it was much too much fun seeing how many times he repeated the same behaviour. Eventually he found someone who pushed the door harder and we all got some sleep.

On Wednesday I got back to the IWM photo archive. First they told me that they closed on Thursdays, then announced that they were also closing early that day. All this due to lack of staff. If the overruns from the Olympic Games, or even the funding for J's ridiculous bureaucratic b.......t for the schools were applied to the IWM what a wonderful resource it would be. However, I tried to make the most of it and did find some good stuff. I had a look around the museum itself afterward as my bus didn't leave until 7:30. I would have done more sightseeing if I wasn't dragging my verdammt bags around with me. I'd like to have seen my old workplace just down the road from Victoria Station. I guess it can wait.

Shopping in London

We headed into town again to see the shops. It was quite a different scene to the night before. None of the revealing attire of the women out pubbing and clubbing; no people dressed for the theatre; no hen's parties. I managed to spend 4 hours in two shops - a small one with a reasonable military section and then Foyles, which is large and has a great military section. J, meanwhile, managed to walk from one end of Oxford St to the other and back again. She had rather tired feet by then, and I had a sore back from the awkward reading position one has in a bookstore. (We're getting old you know...) We decided to check out the movies but there wasn't a great selection so we headed back to the hostel again. There we watched 4 episodes of Everyone Loves Raymond back to back. Ho hum.

Neither of us got a good sleep due to various aches and pains, and were up earlier than planned. Hence we have to kill time before the IWM opens. J has gone for a stroll in the sun, while I am here in an Internet Cafe. That sums us up pretty well doesn't it? 8-)

See y'all.

London with J

The entire Circle Line closed for maintenance which made every other line that bit busier. Sadly the District line was also closed for a section or two due to ongoing signal problems so there was much confusion. The LU workers did a good job of directing us to appropriate alternatives though, so a bouquet to them. I still managed to get to Waterloo on time to meet J.

There were heaps of very well dressed people on the tube and at the station as it was Royal Ascot weekend. Posh frocks, hat and heels; suits and toppers were in abundance. Sadly for them Ascot was as much a mud-bath as Glastonbury which once again has been a washout. At least you expect the mud at Glastonbury though, and go prepared.

We met L for lunch (after sending him to and from the other half of Waterloo). He was cheerful as ever and had a good catchup with J. I seemed to send most of lunch talking to the over friendly Portuguese waiter. I now know more about Portuguese beer and wine than I had ever thought necessary, but little about what L is up to.

After saying goodbye to him we set off for our accommodation which was way over in Angel/Islington. (We're living on the Monopoly board) We walked past a pub with the rugby showing and stopped to watch. It turned out that everyone in the room was a Kiwi, so we were in good company. Rather a worrying performance from the ABs, although of course a win in the end. Very scrappy though and some poor decision making - Mauger may have thrown the ball away, but why pass it to him in the first place? It should have been run back up the middle to were the support was. And so on. (It's an easy game from the pub seat.)

So after a very long short walk we booked in. The room is basic but functional, and cheap for London (the second most expensive city in the world behind Moscow) It's in a nice area and we went for a walk then checked out the local restaurants before having a Greek(ish) meal. Half way through, a thunderstorm broke and absolutely bucketed down so we were entertained by people running for cover. By the time we finished so had the rain.

We decided to go into town for a look, and it was great. It was very busy as you would expect for a Saturday night, so felt very alive. The familiar landmarks were there - the theatres on Shaftesbury Ave, Piccadilly Circus, Leicester Square, etc. More of the Monopoly board. We walked in a rough square around Tottenham Court Rd/Shaftesbury Ave/Regent St/Oxford St and then tried to find Covent Garden. Strangely, while all the other shops were closed, book shops were still open! Perhaps people read before clubbing over here?

Sikorski Museum

Since the NAM didn't seem to have any more to offer I went to the Polish Institute and Sikorski Museum. In stark contrast to all the other archives I was shown to the photo collection and then left to my own devices. They are far too trusting I feel, as you could walk away with all sorts of stuff if you were unscrupulous. However, it was also the least organised archive, with no apparent finding aids, (and, of course, everything in Polish). I spent the day flipping through one album after another, taking photos as I went. I filled 2 1/2 memory sticks with these. Many images were duplications but there were also some useful ones, and many that were interesting.

The Italian archive got back to me to say they had found some aerial shots of Cassino, so they may be useful also. We just have negotiate prices now!

I had a better sleep in the new room in the hostel. No snorers, and not as much foot traffic. Still too short a bed though. The next two nights J and I have a proper bed so these things might not be an issue.

Speaking of J, she gets in at 11:49 so I had better start moving. It's curious being back on the Tube again, as it is all so familiar. In fact, I tend to take the city for granted a little which is a shame as it deserves fresh eyes. Perhaps J will be better for that. We're meeting L for lunch as it's the only spare time he has with his global jet setting lifestyle. I'd like to give him a hard time about his carbon count, but our own is not exemplary.

J tells me there've been dramas outside our apartment window, which I'm sure you can read about on her blog. Now you can see the attraction of peering out the window!

Missing blogs?

My blogs from Monday and Tuesday seem to have disappeared into the ether. I can see them on my list of entries, but not when I look at the website. If you can see them, please add a comment.

On Wednesday I bussed into London. On arrival at the IWM I discovered they were booked up and I can't get in 'til next week. I hastily did some calling to book the other places and then headed out to the PRO which is always open. I arrived to find there had been a fire alarm so everyone was outside. Finally I was able to do some research and found some moderately useful stuff. It helped to be better prepared than last time. Each time we fill in a few more gaps, some large, some small.

The Earls Court YHA has been recently refurbished and is a clean and inviting hostel. My room turned out to be next to reception so every body coming in went through the door beside the room. The walls are paper thin as well. Then I found the new bunk beds are only 6 ft so I couldn't stretch out at all. Finally two of my room-mates were snorers. At 4:30 I got up and tried to sleep on a couch in the lounge, but although quieter this was just as uncomfortable, as the couches are two seaters. I reckon I got about 3 hours sleep, and my back is killing me. As soon as reception was opened I arranged to change rooms. We'll see if the new one is any quieter, although it still has the problem of short beds.

I walked down to the National Army Museum to find out what photos they have. They had enough to fill the day, but weren't as accessible as other archives. You couldn't make copies of any kind but even worse, the descriptions of items were not included with the photos themselves, and you couldn't access them except through the archivist. They really need to have these together. Some of the photos could be useful for us, and some for J's mates, but there was nothing really outstanding amongst them. Instead of another day there I'll go to the Sikorski tomorrow.

It had been a lovely day outside it would seem and walking back I took some shots of 'typical' London. It was so busy at reception that I couldn't get a cuppa for an hour! They had to turn people away so I was pleased I had booked. Maybe less so if I don't get a decent sleep...

BTW, nice to hear from you P and thanks for the update on the hockey. We always did have the potential to rip into each other, so nothing has changed. Say g'day to Murray and wish him good health.

A day for new things

I had to get up at sparrow fart to catch an earlier train to reach the new school, Broadoaks. I was still half asleep but the walk from the station woke me up. It was a nice school although some very rude students still. At least these just sat doing nothing rather than riot like at other schools I've been to. They are a specialist Maths and Computing school so are pretty well equipped. I was interested to see flow-charting being done in Y8/9, although there is little programming to lead into as yet.

J rang to say that she had shown up at the card yard to find the car wasn't there! It was still at the radio people, but they rang to say the radio was kaput so J battered her eyelids and made them swap a radio out of another car, which would take a few hours of course. She made her way back to town as she had by then decided to take the whole day off.

It began raining heavily just as school finished so I wasn't keen on walking to get the car. Instead we coordinated buses so we could go together - ah, isn't that lovely. Finally we managed to pick up a working vehicle, and drove the short way home. We now have a car in the garage for the first time in two weeks. All appendages crossed everyone!

J led the way in the elevator and after fumbling for a while with the lock and complaining about the key she noticed that we were in fact breaking in to our downstairs neighbour! A hasty retreat and lots of laughter. The key works fine on our lock.

For the last few minutes we have been treated to a fantastic thunder and lightning display. The flashes seemed to be just outside our window, and the rain was bucketing down. Quite awesome.

I'm off to London tomorrow, which will be an expensive business. J will join me for a long weekend, and we hope to meet up with L who is over here on business. Perhaps I'll have some photos of London to put on the blog to make up for the paltry few recently. There has been quite a bit of progress recently between Jeff's friend in the Sikorski Museum, the Gurkha Museum coming through with some pics and our own efforts. We may even have found some help in the USA, though that has yet to bear fruit.

We got an email from Lorenzo and as far as we can tell (it being in Italian) he has an apartment, but it won't be ready for August. We now have to try to find out what this means. Will it be ready late in August? September? Next year? I think we may have to knock on the door of the Italians upstairs to help with the language. (J might not have to knock - she can keep trying the key.)

Mondayitis

Wyvern. 'Nuf said.

Tried to get the car but couldn't get enough cash from the machine and then didn't get enough from the lady in the bank who wanted our cheque book to get the extra. Of course if we had a cheque book we'd pay by cheque so that was a bit stupid. Anyway, it turned out the car radio didn't work so I left it with them to fix. It was a long walk there and back in the on-off rain and was a bit sore on the feet.

We went for a quiet drink at the pub then in for a cosy evening. Heard that C has finished her exams and has gone on a bender. We are sure she's worked hard so I hope she gets rewarded with passes.

Sunday

I was glued to the laptop all day as Jeff had sent through a whole bunch of new photographs for checking out and placing. This lot was from the Sikorski Museum in London - the Polish Museum. There was some very useful stuff but now I don't know whether to go there myself or not.

J eventually dragged me over to the ethnic fair over in Queen's Square. Sorry no photos again as the camera was left behind. (J went back to get some shots, so see her blog). There were all sorts of immigrant and refugee groups represented but the Poles were the most colourful, with a couple of Zimbabweans second. There were more hippies here than at the Vegan fair, perhaps because there was, sensibly, no cover charge. Or perhaps it was because of all the new age bloody quacks practising hands off healing, Indian head massage (the same as any other massage but done by Indians), and Gong resonance therapy. Gong therapy? What the hell is that supposed to do? I think he's been using his head to ring it. Can you tell that I was less than impressed by this? The music was OK though.

J was unhappy about the time I spend on the laptop, which is fair enough. Her revenge is to publish a dopey photo on her blog. At least I'm not afraid to show my legs. 8-)

Another car?

Today's mission was to find a car. We ended up paying L695 for a Vauxhall Astra 1.7l diesel turbo, 1994. It was a bit more than I'd wanted to pay, but there's a 3 month mechanical warrantee, new MoT (WoF) and tax (rego) to October. And the radio works (or will by Monday). We don't get it until Monday or Tuesday as they have to get the paperwork through and do the MoT. Appendages crossed everyone!

It has rained off and on for the last couple of days so our L2 umbrellas have come in handy. It's still warm though, muggy even.

After we got back from the car hunt J went for a long walk right down to the harbour locks. It was stinking hot while she was out, but when she returned to drag me out it clouded over. We got back just in time to meet C & M and invite them in for a cuppa. It's nice to get visitors other than the postman. C has had exams, two of which went well and one not so well.

I popped into the TAB today and was amazed at the odds on the World Cup. NZ was 2:5, SA 11:2, and Aussie an amazing 16:1! They must have been playing crap to get such long odds. I put a fiver on SA to win. 8-) What are they offering in NZ?

We're busy trying to find accommodation in London that won't cost an arm and a leg, or alternatively risk them to rats or bed-bugs. It isn't an easy task. I can get a bed in a hostel dorm no problem for when J isn't there, but to get a double at a reasonable price is proving difficult. We'll keep you posted...

More school stuff

Thursday was back to John Cabot. Not a bad day overall with a few hiccups. I mentioned in the last post that a girl had misbehaved for me on Tuesday, and she turned up again. Within 5 mins she was swearing at me so I had her removed. Perhaps I look like her Dad or her Mum's boyfriend, but whatever the issue she was bad news! The other problem was the lack of lesson for a long afternoon class. The teacher hadn't left any lesson, equipment or, more importantly, keys and combinations to access equipment, and to top it off the necessary colour printer was out of ink! Most of the kids accomplished very little indeed.

On Friday I returned to Churchill. I had tried to find public transport but there was none at a reasonable time so it was bus+taxi again. We really do need to get on to another car so we'll head out this weekend to look at more. The morning went fine but the afternoon was harder work. The kids have been on "Curriculum Enrichment" all week and by this Friday afternoon were getting a little tired I think. I have Wyvern on Monday and a new school on Tuesday - Broadoak - which is supposed to be OK. Then it's off to London. Hooray.

We may have free accommodation in Cassino with Lorenzo and his family but we have yet to work out the realities of the offer. (Ie, does he really want us there for a month?) Rental there was quite cheap anyway according to the Real Estate agent who replied to my email.

Last night we went out for a meal across the harbour. It was nice, and the helpings were generous so we were quite full when we left. We walked it off a little and as we passed by the theatre we decided to see a movie. Tell No One, French with subtitles. It was a reasonable thriller, though perhaps a little cliched at the end. There was a very young crowd in the bars along the waterfront. Had we gone in for a drink we would have raised the average age considerably.

I rang Mum to harangue her for not writing. It would seem she hasn't read the blog despite Q telling me she had been kept up to date, so I hope she does this soon. Dad and M should be home by now, probably exhausted. It would have been quite a test of their relationship, so I hope they are OK.

The details of the last few days have been lost in a haze of tiredness so I hope this isn't too boring. See J's blog for photos.

Hills without mills, and Churchills

I spent Tuesday at John Cabot school. It was rated Excellent by Ofsted, but manages its intake carefully to ensure this. I have given up caring about the justice of it as long as I get a nice bunch of kids. This lot were pretty well behaved (with one glaring exception who obviously had something else going on in her life) but I don't think they accomplished much all the same. I enjoyed the junior math but it wasn't until afterward that I figured a better way to explain what they were doing. The last class had 3 students in it, so not too demanding, which made up for the rather muddled start to the day. I had looked on their website for appropriate buses and found they ran a school bus near to me. I waited for 10 minutes past the appointed time and still no bus so went back into town to catch a different one. After school I found that the route had been changed and the service provider's website hadn't been updated.

That evening we walked up to Victoria Park on Windmill Hill, which we had spied from John Cabot Tower on the weekend. It was nice, with dogs and kids playing, and good views back over parts of the city. There were some beautiful stone buildings that were the St Mary Redcliffe CE VC Primary School (I don't know what CE VC stands for but probably Church of England something), but there wasn't a windmill.

Today I was at Churchill where I had been just once before. (This was instead of Wyvern that I don't like so I jumped at the chance.) It's a bit tricky getting there without a car so the agency paid for a taxi from the airport - which is about half way - to the school and back. They make a huge margin so won't miss the L24. It's a nice school and I had a quiet day. I supervised half a dozen kids waiting to go into an exam, gave a teacher a tea break, set up for a lesson and then had a 3 hour lesson with a well behaved class doing a Google competition. They had to create the Google Doodle (that is the customised Google logo that marks special occasions) for 'The Future'. The biggest problem I struck was the laptop batteries dying. There wasn't provision to plug them into the mains directly but I managed a work-around to keep half a dozen of them going which sufficed. By the end of the day there were a few good entries that showed some great ICT skills in making creative doodles. The long trip home meant that for a change I was home after J.

We had a quick walk to pass by a new restaurant boat that had opened yesterday on the harbour opposite us. Looks nice, but the menu is things like Frog's Legs, White and Green Asparagus and so on, and pricier than we normally pay.

Sorry there's no photos. My camera has developed big blurry dark spots that I think may be mould on the CCD. I have to get this checked out. Meanwhile you can check J's blog.

I got the news from OGHS that RY is leaving and that CD has finally set a date for his farewell. I'm very disappointed I won't be there to share what should be a funny night. I quess it will also be a farewell of sorts to GE though she'll be back. I wish them all well for the future. (Of course they won't get those because they don't read the blogs!)

Anyway, I'm off to bed.

Monday

All I can say is school was better than Friday.

Nothing new to report. We thought we had cheap accommodation in Italy for a month but J pointed out that I hadn't specified furnished so it's back to the drawing-board.

Ciao

Vegans, babysitting and a tall tower

On Saturday we thought we'd go to a Vegan fair just for a look but got put off by the L5 entry fee. Personally I thought they had their marketing screwed up. If we wanted bands we could go to Glastonbury so perhaps they should have pared things back to just the stalls and had a gold-coin donation for entry. As it was you got a free concert by sitting on the other side of the docks in the sun!

We just wandered around for a bit and J did some shopping. She also had her hair trimmed but avoided the L89 hairdressers, in favour of some a lot cheaper. I wonder how much the phone sanitisers charge? We bought a Guide to the Historic Harbour which has proved to be very interesting. It says our apartment building was built in 1893-4 as a granary, and gives heaps of detail of the surrounding area. We also got some prints of photos taken around the turn of the century that show the building and surrounds. Fascinating.

That night we babysat M for C&M who had a dinner party to go to. We spent half the night fighting over the remote as it was the first time we'd had TV for weeks. The fight was more entertaining than the programmes by far. It was a different view of the central city at 1:20 when we came home. Lots of drunk young people around. Hen and Stag parties tend to have themes quite often, some even with printed T-shirts. There were a few stragglers from these to be seen.

Today J went shopping again, stung by my blog comments about not showing her legs. Her solution was to buy trousers, so I'm not quite sure how that works. It has been very warm and muggy but I think that's about to change in the next few days.

We wandered up to the John Cabot Tower which overlooks the city from a hill not far from the city centre. It was built in 1897 to commemorate his voyage to America and has a great view over the city that prospered on trade with that continent. From there we browsed in a few book shops before heading home again. It's a tough life...

Network problems...

Last night I typed up two days' blog entries only for the network to fail causing them to be lost in the digital never never land. We've had at least three days of poor connectivity so perhaps we should get some money back.

On Thursday I went to the car auctions. There were around a thousand cars through two simultaneous auctions and it was a very smooth operation. Each auction would have taken no more than a minute I think, so you had to have your wits about you. I didn't, so I didn't bid on any cars. What became clearer was by how much we had been ripped off on our dead one. There's a guy in London who must have laughed all the way to the bank. Next time we're in we'll key his Audi. Anyway, there were around half a dozen cars that would have suited us and given change from L500. The complication is that some don't have MoT, tax or both. Some don't even have the V5 which is the proof of ownership! All this has to be factored in to the price, and with them going through so quickly you have to be careful. J and I will wander down to view the next lot if it's open.

We finished the day with a beer across the river, watching all the people (and the short-short skirts). I can't understand why J slaps me when I mention these.

Friday morning started disastrously. My agent had mentioned going to Wyvern School but in several e-mails since had not confirmed it. He assumed it was firm and I waited for confirmation (especially since I'd said I no longer had a car.) At 8:45 I got a call asking if I was on my way! Shit. They confirmed I was needed and I jumped on the earliest train. I missed the first two periods and had nothing for P3 anyway. I shouldn't have bothered - the rest of the day was full of little shits. The culture in the school with supply teachers is extremely poor (this is the school where the teachers jumped the queue in front of me) and it really is a waste of time trying to teach. I resolved never to go back but crumbled and now have to go Monday and Wednesday. Look out for the blogs then! L100 less tax, L100 less tax, L100 less tax...

On the up side, I have two days back at John Cabot where I had a very nice day last week. (Unfortunately they are both on the auction days so we'll not have a car for another week unless we can bid online.)

We wandered in to town for a cheap meal (there are often 2 for 1 deals) and decided on Latin American which was very nice. Service was excellent as well so we'll definitely head back some time. J looked lovely in a new summer dress, although she refused to show off her legs for some reason - something about "People can see what I had for breakfast" - and hid them in pants. Still there were lots more legs to be looking at. Why did she slap me again?

We called in at the Walkabout Pub but the only thing Aussie about this is the stuffed Crocodile on the wall. I think we were the only Australasians in the joint on either side of the bar. I had hoped to hear another down-under accent but it wan't to be.

We'd just got to bed when a big fire-works display went off across the river, begun by three big bangs which we thought were bombs going off. J got dressed and ran down stairs for a better view but only caught the last fountain.

The filming has finished and there is no sign that anything unusual had happened. The (inefffectual) no parking cones have gone, the streets have been swept clean (OK, so that's different)and the warehouse is boarded up again.

See ya

D-Day + 63 years

By some coincidence I'm reading W's book on the Royal Marines at Port-en-Bessin in France. These events occurred after the D-Day landings so it's almost real-time. It's an interesting read so far.

Sadly there was a casualty on this day also. I took the car in to have the brakes serviced only to be told that with all the work they found was needed we would be better off writing the car off. The brakes alone would have cost L250 as there were complications, but it was pointed out that rust would mean the car would fail its next MoT (WoF) anyway, and should probably not have been given one last time! I guess that's why the guy sold it. So we've been diddled, but I suppose we have to pretend we got a reasonable use of it in a short time - somewhere over 2000 miles in a month. We'll just pretend it was a rental. BUGGER.

I wandered into town to join the library. It was rather small and disappointing so I'll try to find the Uni library as well. I also checked out a shop that catered for the Sc-Fi/Fantasy market. You could get Daleks, Droids, super-heroes, mags, books, games and so on. Heaven for certain types.

Another day, another dollar/pound

I thought I had a day off when the phone hadn't rung by 7:30, but at 8:20 in it came. A new school, to me, in east Bristol so the first one I'd been to within the city itself. A day of junior IT in a lovely school with lovely students and teachers who don't push into line! I even got to talk WW2 with some kids who came in from a History class. Yay!

The sun's out again, and the filming continues on the Casualty set. Nothing much else to say.

The school term restarts...

J was off early then just after she left the phone rang to send me off to Wyvern. I had a nice Junior Maths class, complicated only by the different page numbers in two versions of the text. I thought one of them looked a little advanced for Y9 or whatever they were! Then I had a free period (but still got paid) so a nice morning. However, you may recall I had a two-hour period of cooking with a class last time I was at this school where there hadn't been any lesson set? Well today I had two two-hour periods where there was no lesson set. What a pain in the preverbial. These kids don't appear to have had a cooking teacher (sorry Food Technology teacher) for some time now so I'm sure they don't really care about yet another supply coming in and giving them pointless tasks with little relevance to what they are supposed to be doing. If they ask me to this school again it will be on the proviso that I am not set those cooking classes again!

If I thought that kids treated their supply teachers poorly I never expected what was to follow. When I queued up for lunch in the cafeteria two teachers jumped the queue in front of me! Rude bastards. One said, "Who are you?" and when I introduced myself he just cut straight in. Next time I'll say OfStEd or Health Department...

J's not feeling well and has gone to bed. Me too.

Cardiff

We headed off to Cardiff on the train. It was a nice sunny day and it doesn't take long, although we missed the train by about 2 minutes and had to wait 40 for the next. We weren't quite sure what there was to offer, but what the heck. When we got there there were temporary barriers up all around the railway station and security people shouting to go this way and that. We thought there had been an incident but it turns out it was worse than that - there was a football match. Wales were playing the Czech Republic which we hadn't banked on when we picked the trip. However, aside from the large police (heddlu) presence we weren't really affected at all.

We wandered down to Cardiff Bay which has recently had a multi mega-pound face-lift. There is very little of the old to be seen, but many new buildings and social spaces, and of course cafes and restaurants, so lots of people were taking advantage of the sun. We had a ride around the harbour in a little old boat called Daffodil, but strangely there was no commentary, so we didn't know what we were looking at. We later discovered the main features to be the new barrage that has turned the bay into a fresh-water lake, several new marinas, and the redeveloped docklands. We wondered what the bubbling areas were and it turns out they were aeration systems to keep the lake from stagnating. The strangest thing we saw was the old Assembly Building. It was a large Terracotta building that looked worth a visit. We entered, emptied our pockets, passed through the metal detectors, and went into the first room. We looked around - toilets... shop... exit... We had gone through all that security for an empty room! "What the fu..?" we asked each other and left again, laughing.

Then we ran into the Welsh National Springy-Stilt Things team. I'd only seen one or two of these things up 'til now, except perhaps on TV, but here were around 5-6 of these guys all getting around on Springy Stilt Things. I'm sure they've got a real name but who knows what it is?

This time we took the river taxi back to the city centre and, strangely enough, we got a commentary. Go figure. The football game was about to finish so we got into a cafe before they did. When we came out the streets were awash with red, along with the flouro yellow of the coppers. We wandered off to the castle but it was closed by now so we could only visit its shop. The railway station was still expecting trouble but we didn't have to wait too long for a train. It was a crowded trip but we had seats so didn't care. With hay-fever hitting I just wanted to get home...

As usual, for more pics of Cardiff click here.

On Sunday we went to the Natural Bristol fair, which was full of earnest people from Greenpeace and FotE and so forth. The hay-fever really knocks me out so I wasn't particularly enthused, but it was OK. A keen uni student told me about the Bristol Dinosaur, and J picked up a number of pamphlets on walks we can do. Then she made me go for another walk later that night. Humph.

I found a couple of possible sources for photos on the 'Net that I hadn't been aware of, as well as a site that has a forum for people researching WW2. That kept me up 'til late.

To London...

I headed off to London to bury myself in the The National Archives. This is where all the War Diaries and other official documents from the war have ended up. It was all very exciting really, though I guess this won't translate for most of you. Anyway, at the end of the day it was clear I needed at least another day, but I hadn't planned for this at all. Fortunately there is a site listing accommodation for PRO researchers so I found a cheap bed that turned out to be at the end of the driveway. Between the two days I found lots of interesting stuff and some that might be quite useful for Jeff and me, and that would have been useful for Ron Crosby had he found them before writing his book on Massa Albaneta. However, the set up at the Archives was fantastic (thanks L&S for your part in this). In contrast to some NZ archives - one in particular - it was efficient, friendly and well equipped. You could use a camera as long as there was no flash, and they had camera stands to make this easier. They had 4 special photocopiers so you could p/c all types of manuscripts and documents. You could have up to 21 documents open at once and the pulling was continuous. There was free wi-fi connectivity throughout the building, and a cyber-cafe as well. There were some annoyances, but all from lack of planning - the battery on the camera ran out and I had no charger, I left the plug adapter for my laptop behind so had to buy another, and I had nothing for an overnight stay, for example.

Another thing I hadn't planned on was exactly how far London was! I know you must wonder how I could get this wrong, but I had made assumptions before even getting to the UK that just weren't correct. Add to the distance the horrible traffic jams leaving London and it made for long drives. I didn't get out of 2nd gear until past the M25 turnoff! W may be happy to know I don't hog the outside lane, but perhaps less happy that I hog the middle one. At the speed limit I will point out.

I'll spend today (Friday) sorting through what I got, while J works hard for our money. She's a good woman that J, and after the crap I've eaten in the last two days I appreciate even more the meals she creates every day. Yay J.

Tuesday's news day

Well, not really...

J had another day off (sadly unpaid - when is she going to realise she has to keep me in the manner I'm accustomed to. That is, unkempt, dishevelled, ragged.) We decided to have a look at one of the most famous of Brunel's designs, the Clifton Suspension Bridge. We got a closer look that expected when, despite the only navigational instruction being "don't take us onto the bridge", we ended up on the bridge. Luckily this year everything is C's fault, so neither of us took the blame. We paid the toll, drove over, turned around, paid the toll again and drove back again.

Clifton Village (now a suburb of Bristol) was an enclave of expensive shops, restaurants and cafes, with the odd interesting architectural and historical features. There had been a thermal spring (imaginatively called Hotwells) close by and even though there is no indication it is still used, what's left of the Pump Room has been incorporated into a Hotel. Next to this is a cliff railway that was drilled through the cliffs so as not to spoil their outlook. It was filled in after WW2 (when it was used for an air-raid shelter, a BBC broadcasting station and a store-room for barrage balloons) but is being excavated again by a local group. It would be nice if they could eventually get it all going again, but there would be a huge amount of work needed to do so.

After wandering around for a while and checking out a few shops we had lunch then headed off to see the bridge on foot. It has a fantastic view down the Avon gorge and over Bristol, though I wasn't too keen on getting near the sides. While it was designed by Brunel he never saw it finished as the company involved collapsed, and he moved on to other things. It was completed by other engineers as a memorial after his death. There was an observatory (though not astronomical) on a cliff overlooking the bridge and from there a tunnel had been carved through rocks to a cave with a natural viewing platform over the gorge. Apparently an artist had wanted a private view for painting, so had engaged some of the reduntant workers from the bridge company to dig the tunnel. Some people are crazy.

We had a look at more shops for various items we needed, of which we found none. We had bought a foam bed overlay in NZ for $25 or so, so looked here for similar. The closest we found was L49! It really is expensive over here, even factoring in the exchange. Another example is the L80 J was quoted for a hair-cut, and 96p for a litre of petrol. And before you say "Ah, but you salary makes up for it", no it doesn't. Whinge, whinge, moan, moan.

This time, and from now on, picks of Bristol will be found by clicking on the link in the top of the right hand column on this page. I'll just keep adding to that Web Album. Pics of other adventures will get their own Albums and their own links on this part of the Blog. Alles klar? Ja? Sehr gut!