A bit of a catch up

Sorry I've not been posting. Well, the cut-back to the M5 was the way to go. Shaved whole minutes off the drive time...

On Wednesday we went to a French movie - My Best Friend - and enjoyed it very much. It was at the Watershed in a refurbished section of the waterfront quite close to us. There was a moment of disorientation on coming out as the old brain tried to figure out where Moray Place had gone. We had a nice drink - mine's a cider thanks - and a bowl of wedges as we watched the various people drift by. It could actually have been a scene in Paris or Amsterdam with the water and adjacent buildings. I've been neglecting to take the camera out which I'll have to rectify.

The weather hasn't been particularly nice but the sun did come out yesterday. It was my last day (possibly) at Priory, and I had one lovely class twice in the day just to prove they're not all bad 'uns. They role-played a documentary on the closing of the Welsh coal-mines and we filmed it on their cell-phones. (MOBILES, sorry, as they keep reminding me.) To balance it up, I had two hours of little shits.

That night we took advantage of the sunshine and went across the river to a busy pub area opposite our flat. There are about 6 pubs on a closed off street, with tables outside so it was very cosy. I'll take some photos next time to set the scene. One of the pubs is one of the oldest in Bristol and is charmingly skew-whiff, and the street has ye olde cobblestones. Another 2 are on barges. We shared our table with too blokes and got to chatting. One was an Olympic level yachtsman and both worked as IT Consultants for an Austrian software company that provided management software to a company in Bristol. They were being made redundant because the business wasn't doing well here, but were well paid in the meantime. We had a great yak, with rounds going to and from, then one of their Mums joined us and then it was time to go. We were a bit tiddly by the time we went home, but it had been an interesting night.

J was a little less chirpy this morning. I had a day in Churchill Community School in a tiny village (called Churchill). Surprisingly the school itself had a roll of 1800 pupils, so they must ship them in from miles around. The atmosphere there was decidedly better than Priory, and the classes were more relaxed. There was one Religious Education class that was not very cooperative, and dance is not really something I feel able to teach, but the day as a whole was a good one. On the way home the agency rang to say I'd be in there again on Monday.

When I picked up J, the Priory staff football (soccer) team had just arrived to play her school's staff. If I'd had some gear I'd have shown them just how poorly Kiwis can play. By then it was raining so I used that as an excuse. J has been doing really well at her job and I'm certain they're very impressed with her efficiency and competency. She should be getting paid more!

There was a letter from the council saying that an episode of Casualty is to be filmed on our street in late May/early June. How exciting. Sadly we'll be allowed nowhere near the set, except to drive in and out, and we're planning to be away anyway. The episode involves a bus exploding but they found it necessary to tell us real explosives weren't be needed.

On the email front Dad and M are now in England but we may not be able to meet up. They're pretty busy, and in the 'wrong' bits. Worse was the news that the Sarfies had got two teams into the Super 14 finals. Were the semis good games? Anyone care to comment? This weekend is the FA Cup final so we'll sit in a pub somewhere to watch that.

Ciao for now.