Another case of bad luck!

Well i definitely have the world's worst luck!!! Yesterday wasn't going too bad until a Y11 failed to turn up for her mock exam, found her wandering at 2pm and ushered her in the finish it! Didn't think no more about the day until i got home and realised i had no key! Drove back to school to look for it, which i couldn't, which is when mild panic set in! Ringing and ringing the flatmates, no one was answering, tried to break in again no luck there so gave up and went to Meadowhall for some retail therapy! Wandering round the shops got a call from one of the flatmates to say that he's got home but can't get in...his key won't turn in the lock! We tried again to break in but it wasn't happening so i rang the landlord, needless to say he wasn't best pleased but there was no need to make it sound like we'd done this on purpose!!!

Whilst he was thinking what to do, i rang a locksmith who said the pin had probably dropped in the lock, quite common as it seems, though the landlord was not willing to pay £118 + VAT for them to gain entry so we had to resort to waiting for him to turn up and have a look at the situation. The lads downstairs were very accommodating and looked after us well, fed and watered!

As the landlord is such a lovely man (sense the sarcasm!) he realised what we were trying to explain to him on the phone and had a genius idea (hmmm!!) of getting up to the patio door and seeing if it was open. So in the piddling down rain he lays a rung on the roof of his car, stands on it and with a mop tries to open the door...it was locked. So his next genius idea was to drive back to Derby to collect the spare keys (yes he is that stupid he didn't think to bring them) and try entering via the flat downstairs.

Almost two hours later he returns, after we had tried to remove the wood he had used to block the door, which turns out was not coming off (clearly the landlord himself did not do that job, it was far too professional), he again tries to get up to the patio door with the idea to try and unlock it, this time with a chair on top of the roof of his car, i honestly thought i was going to have to ring an ambulance, but we did find it very funny! Now if he had listened to me earlier he would have agreed that it wouldn't work as there was a key in the other side of the door! He wasn't amused with the idea of breaking the glass panel in the door but instead at 11.20pm decided the best idea was to kick the door in!!! As i say a lovely man!!! At least we were now in!!!

Now that was all last night...onto today! After no sleep due to the original situation of which the landlord made into an epic...my key that i originally lost was found, the laptop completely died, the science experiment took forever to wait for the results of, we were getting so impatient!!! The kids did everything else they could possibly do and their homework whilst waiting for the damn experiment to give us results!!!! And then had a delightful meeting for two hours after school.

I honestly think i have the worst luck in the world...surely by now I've paid my dues and deserve a dose of good luck...please........

Two weeks from hell...

Well a lot has happened in the last month! After a very hectic, but very cultural, half term in London being back at school has been mental. So where to begin...myself and Sarah spent half term grabbing bites to eat and seeing shows. Now when Sarah suggested going to see John Barrowman's show i thought it was a stand up one man band style show, bit of singing, few jokes...but no, La Cage aux Folle turned out to be about a transvestite club! Having said that it was very funny and the guys had amazing legs!

Thursday of half term was day of doom, my birthday! It wasn't too bad i suppose, went to the National Gallery, then for some food, we do love Wagamama's, then on to see the Jersey Boys. It was again awesome and we had a good view, however the boys themselves are no where near as hot as the Vegas lads!

The week wasn't going too bad till the end when a not very nice blast from the past rings out of the blue with some horrific information, which, like he always manages to do, screws everything up that was going well now!! Boooooooo, consequently i was not a happy bunny and things needless to say turned sour! Oh well, all men are arseholes! I knew that so technically i shouldn't be too surprised that things went belly up!

This did mean that i had plenty of time to do work...which was lucky as our school had the dreaded phone call from the big O...Ofsted! Ahhhh, after spending two days preparing beyond all belief they arrived. I was starting to feel a little cheated having not been observed the last time they visited and it was looking the same this time, until my last lesson they could have potentially turned up in and low and behold in they walk. Thankfully the kids were perfect, the lesson went really well and the feedback was good, so obviously i was extremely pleased! We are still waiting now though to find out the results for the school, so fingers crossed...

Fright night for sure!!!

OMG, I've started this evening watching a DVD of a lady giving birth! And it was not good, the DVD froze as well as the head was coming out, it was far too much information for my liking! Teaching science is definitely interesting, i can get on board with the reproduction topic and quite happy doing all the other parts of the topic but this giving birth stuff is proving difficult to stomach!!! I can definitely see the benefits of adoption of why people are too posh to push, it is not pleasant!!! I tell you, getting the DNA out of the kiwi is much more my kind of thing than child birth!!!

School is definitely interesting at the minute what with our Alton Towers trip too. We had one who threw up in the bin and another who couldn't go on one of the rides due to size, we felt very sorry for him. Aside from that it was a good trip, exhausting though, mostly from all the screaming. We were sitting on oblivion and the top before you fall down to what feels like your death and everyone goes silent...then i scream, for no reason as we weren't moving! Must have been in anticipation for what was coming!!! Good day was had by most, if not all though and certainly by us!!

Where does time go?

I can't believe it has been 3 weeks since we started the new year at school, time has flown, mainly because it has been so busy. Well people have been counting down to the next holiday since the first day back so needless to say we'd all rather be somewhere else! It seems like a lifetime ago when we were travelling around the US, oh how I'd wish to be back there again! For the weather as well as everything else!

Been down to London to visit and my what a traumatic journey that was! Typical the one weekend i have to go down, there was a crash between 3 lorries on the section of the M25 i have to go on, so they shut the whole motorway! Hours and hours later i eventually got home at 11pm after leaving at 3.30pm! I honestly thought i was going to have to sleep on the motorway in the car surrounded by foreign lorries and the thought of that, coupled with a lady saying she thinks we're here for the night, almost made me roar! Hopefully my next journey down at half term will be a lot smoother!

What am i doing in London during half term i hear you cry! Well Sarah and I have tickets to see the Jersey Boys, yay, on my birthday, yay!!! Beats trying to come up with something inventive to do for the day or sitting dressed in black mourning it!! I'm sure I'll fit in time for a few drinkies too!

Anyway back to the week in hand, the weather better hold out for our Alton Towers field trip on Friday, keep forgetting we are going it's come round so quick! As long as the kids behave it should be a good day, and anyway we go for free so can't complain!! Wonder if Hazel will get pooped on by a bird again, haha.

Anyway back to the Sunday night dread feeling before work Monday morning, and i don't even have any Las Vegas' to watch as waiting for season 4 and 5 to arrive! Hurry up Amazon!!!

The Last Supper

So it's the last day of the holiday's today before going back to school, booooo. I really don't want to go back, but i think no one does! I did today though try to recreate my delicious dinner from Bahama Breeze in Vegas - chicken with Jamaican jerk seasoning and mango glaze, mango and pineapple salsa, cinnamon sweet potato mash and seasonal veg which was green beans. So i couldn't completely recreate it as have no mango but it was a twist on this meal. Cajun chicken on a bed of spinach with cinnamon sweet potato mash and seasonal veg, green beans. It was yummy, am very pleased with myself! Awesome!!!

Hooray for Hollywood...What's your dream?

So last day of our tour and we spent it seeing LA - good job too as it's a bitch to get around on your own as we found out on the first day! The weather was a little chilly to start but soon brightened up though it was extremely foggy. We stopped at Santa Barbara first, which you could hardly see due to the fog! But I'm sure it was lovely!! We went for a walk on the pier but couldn't exactly see the view! Though i did step in dog poo - booooo, why can't people pick up after their dog!















We then made out way through Santa Maria and Malibu before entering Santa Monica for lunch. We did go past some lovely houses - massive mansions when you can only really see the entry gates, but we get the impression they would have been nice - including Cher's house though my pictures doesn't do it justice as it looks like I've taken it of her shed! Ron was driving too fast for my camera!! We also went past the actual Baywatch beach where it was filmed but our first stop at Venice beach better suited Baywatch than this one.

Since we'd been to Santa Monica on our first day trying to get somewhere we didn't go on the pier with the others but hit the shops. We found an awesome shop, Forever 21, which we have since found out is coming to Europe in 2010 - fab. We got so caught up in the shopping area, which i might like to add was no smoking ever though it was a street, that we thought we were going to be late so grabbed a McD's on the run!

We then saw how the other half live - and boy how do they live in Beverley Hills. The posh shops, fancy houses, we also went passed the Beverley Wiltshire where Richard Gere stayed in Pretty Woman, what's your dream? Mine would be to have enough money to live here! We made our way to Hollywood where we saw the Viper Room - Johnny Depp's club that River Phoenix died outside of. Yet another morbid sight on our travels!















We started to take a trot down the Walk of Fame until we came to a stop as they had shut the street due to a premiere! Typical! We didn't see anyone famous - except Superman, but the red carpet was out ready! Hollywood is not what you'd expect. Beverley Hills definitely is as it is very glam but Hollywood is not glam at all. If anything its a bit of a let down considering how much Hollywood and the movie industry is worth.















We got back to the hotel and everyone was a little glum - except the two going back to Vegas, wish that was us! You always feel rubbish when you know you have to go home - wherever you have been. We went for our last meal back to Islands, where ironically the waitress remembered us! Must have made an impression - just like our trip had made on us! Oh well back to reality and ready to plan the next holiday!!!

Chillaxing in Carmel

Quieter day today - time to chillax a little. We make our way through loads of agricultural land, which turns out they flatten the land with lasers as it turns out it's not naturally flat, towards Monterey. We did find out this morning form Kurt the other guide that during our 2 days in San Francisco there was 2 earthquakes! Luckily they were only 2.2ish on the Richter scale and we couldn't feel them, so no panic or need for the emergency earthquake kits we've seen in the shops.

Fisherman's Wharf at Monterey was our first stop - it was that early they were only just setting up on the pier - i was in stitches when Mark our guide was waving and saying hello to a sea otter! It was so funny i was almost in tears. To begin with i couldn't even see what he was looking at as the seals and otters looked like rocks on the shore! Oh well, back on the road down to the world famous Cannery Row. This is where all the sardines from the bay used to be canned, it's quite a cute place really. John Steinbeck wrote books based here - I'm sure it was Of Mice and Men he wrote. Anyway we continued down the coast, where we saw a dead shark, then into Carmel.











A very odd town, extremely posh, randomly had a Tiffany's and Louis Vuitton there and rules on how to behave in the shopping area. Clearly a place where the men go off to work and the town is for ladies who lunch! Need to find me a sugar daddy, haha.

Final stop of the day after driving down the freeway that James Dean died on was Pismo Beach. Morbid i know but our guide likes to tell us all!! Tea at a Japanese Sushi restaurant was nice - they had hot plates where the chefs cooked it in front of you - one of them got a little eager tossing his spatula around, but all good fun and the beef teriyaki was fab. Back to LA tomorrow, boooo that means we are near the end of our tour :(

Escaped from Alcatraz!!!

Very excited - I'm off to prison! After getting our trolley down to the pier we boarded our boat to Alcatraz. A very harsh environment there, on one side of the island it overlooks the bay and the view of San Francisco. In a way it reminded me of Ellis Island in New York where the immigrants looked out to the Statue of Liberty. The audio tour is excellent with the ex prisoners and guards narrating your tour as well as background noises that at times freaked you out a little - like when they talked about the riots and escape attempts. The story of the 3 that did escape by making masks out of soap, paint, cement and hair was amazing and you have to give them a little credit for their creativity! The cells were tiny and depending which block you were in there was very little natural light.













Stories of this prison are really interesting from the guards, families that lived there but especially the prisoners. We had the advantage of leaving prison when we so wished! So off we went on the boat to the mainland to get clam chowder, mmmmmm.

As most of our day was spent in prison we ended the time we had left in San Francisco shopping at Union Square. At least the weather picked up today and wasn't anywhere as near as foggy, windy or cold!











I think i have now succeeded in seeing all major attractions in San Francisco from my two visits! Yay!

San Fran Foggy!

Before we knew it this morning we were travelling over the Oakland Bay Bridge and entering San Francisco - all before 9.30am! Turns out they are trying to make the first section of the bridge earthquake proof so they have rebuilt it and are going to move the rest of the bridge over to join the new section over the labour weekend. Moving a bridge in 3-5 days - is that really going to happen? We'll see!

Ron then drove us on a tour round the San Fran neighbourhoods. We saw some lovely Victorian houses, which they call painted ladies (we'd use that term for something else), went up Twin Peaks to look at the very fogy view of the city and also around the Castro district. I was glad we went round there as didn't get the opportunity to last time i was in the city, since we found out so much about it in lectures it's always nice to see for yourself.











Golden Gate Park was our first stop. We had time for a stroll around, in the cold i might add, saw the Japanese Tea Garden, Sarah 'walked like a man' through the centre of the square before making our way down to Golden Gate Bridge.

As ever the fog was still strong and you could see the glimmer of international orange through the mist. Whilst some walked across the bridge then went for lunch, we all went down to Pier 39 and had a few hours to potter about. Windy it was!











After fresh fish and chips we found a great left handers shop! Sarah was not amused! It was well good, full of gadgets, the guy in there said that in the US only about 10% of lefties are female - don't know how true that is - he also said that I'm losing my London accent, sounding a little like i was from Newcastle! He advised i visit London more often to not lose it completely, how sweet. We saw the sea lions and gazed across the bay to Alcatraz which we are visiting tomorrow.











Turns out our guide was telling us on the way to the hotel that the guy who hides behind the bush and jumps out on people was arrested as one person took it that badly and called the cops - I thought he was a homeless person - didn't realise he does it all the time, he scared the living daylights out of me the last time i was here!

Very excited as went to Bubba Gumps for dinner, overlooking he bay when the sun went down with a great night view of Alcatraz. The shrimp was lovely - as was our server, Luke. We had split a fab pudding of a giant chocolate chip cookie sundae, mmmmmm. Turns our Luke was also a leftie - maybe it was meant to be! To top our night off - aside from the 2 hour chat in reception with some of the others when we got back - another city, another free public transport ride! Though this time it wasn't out of pity - the trolley's pay thing had broken! Oh well!!

Yosemite - living in a picture

My my this morning is fresh in comparison to where we have been! Stop one, Tioga Lake on the way to Yosemite. Very nice, you can do ice climbing here in winter which looked cool. As yet we still have not seen a bear on bear watch!

We then continued to Yosemite national park - the mountains here are spectacular. We stopped at Olmsted Point, named after the guy who designed Central Park - i thought i recognised the name from when we studied it at uni. Our second stop was Tunnel Point or also called Inspiration Point - from here you could see a stunning view of Mount El Capitan which is famous for climbing - apparently the fastest climb time was 2.49 hours! That is crazily quick - it takes me like an hour to get up 5m! The slowest were a French group taking 2 and a half months but apparently they just did it to get into the Guinness Book of Records. The view was amazing, like you were looking at a picture.











The visitors centre at Yosemite was a completely different picture to the places we had already stopped - Japanese tourists everywhere! At one point Sarah turned around and couldn't find me as i was lost in a sea of Japanese! But as our charismatic driver Ron said ' that is why God gave us elbows - to get them out of the way as they hunt in packs!' He doesn't say much Ron but when he does it is very funny. Bear watch update - still 0 but squirrel watch was 10+. They were everywhere.

Tonight we are staying in Modesto - meaning modest in Spanish - turns out this is the home town of George Lucas! We went for a delicious meal, i had the Thai chicken mmmmmm, and the waitress gave us our desert for free as she forgot about us! Awesome! Though for the life of me i couldn't remember what cilantro was - remember now its coriander! Anyway turns out they have MSNBC on the TV here which has Lock Up on all night - brilliant, easy watching before the 6am wake up call tomorrow! Bear watch - still 0.

Bye bye Vegas, Vegas bye byeeeeeeee

Booooo the day started leaving Vegas - we were not amused and at having only 5 hours sleep! And in our grand plan we did everything bar see hot Josh from Las Vegas Uncut and Uncensored - booooo. But back on the road we must go! First stop - Death Valley. We stopped at a number of points - all of which were mentally hot - over 121 degrees F at the height of the day. The scenery was magnificent though, each part was different, hilly, desert like, green, sand dunes etc. At one place Sarah commented that the rocks looked like marble cake - it really did!











It was so hot that we spent most of the day sitting with the air con whacked up!! What a difference when we reached Mammoth Lakes. We passed the Alabama Hills and the Sierra Nevada mountains on the way which were spectacular - highest peak being Mount Whitney.

This resort is well into the mountains - where we are staying at Mammoth Mountain Inn is 9000m above sea level. What a difference, we thought it was freezing when it was only 77 degrees F! This place is beautiful with pines all around and surrounded by ski lifts but no snow! It does look a bit odd but it would make a great place to ski. The only thing we are slightly concerned about is the threat of bears - everywhere you turn there are signs about being bear aware! Definitely not something I'd want to come across on a dark night in the mountains. Or even a big black dog like before when it is that quiet out there! At last we have had a taste of a ski resort ready for the next holiday!!

Viva Las Vegas!!!

Well since there is so much to do in Vegas and time is not to be wasted i am now reflecting back on what happened over the last two days. But...as they say...what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, so I'm obviously limited as to what i can say!

Prior to entering Vegas we stopped at Zion National Park, another stunning area of natural beauty. Massive mountains with lovely colours and amazing rock patterns like the checkerboard - I won't bore you with the geography of how it got like that!! We stopped for a lovely lunch in the park before moving onto Vegas. No word of a lie we honestly thought we saw a bear!! This big brown looking bear was on the side of the road looking at getting to a dead rabbit! It ended up being a huge dog but seriously it looked like a bear!











We reached Vegas mid afternoon where we checked into Circus Circus and then hit the strip!!! We thought we'd take a poodle along the strip but it was more like a sweaty limper!!! We looked like we were going to pass out! We had a grand plan for the two days in Vegas which consisted of:
- visiting Krispy Kreme
- Easting at the Bahama Breeze
- Abercrombie and Fitch
- Seeing a show on the strip
- Have a little flutter
- Have cheesecake at the Cheesecake Factory
- Enjoy some frozen alcoholic beverages
- Seeing hot Josh from Las Vegas the programme
At this point when we actually returned to Circus Circus all we achieved was getting a Krispy Kreme!! But they are very nice doughnuts!! Sooo we then thought we'd get ready and go out for dinner. We had a very nice valet, who would fit in well in the programme Las Vegas, working with Mike, who got us our taxi to Bahama Breeze - food was lovely. We then bought our gift shop crap and our frozen alcoholic beverages so things in the grand plan were looking up! Time now for a flutter - well our style which means 1c slot machines - but still we were gambling in Vegas!!! I bet $1, didn't have a clue what i was doing other than pulling the lever and somehow managed to win 25+ free turns and ended up winning $4!!!! Needless to say i was very excited, before we knew it it was 1am! I decided to save collecting my winnings for the next day!!

























Vegas day 2 we were up and about early (well not as early as our normal wake up calls) to get to the half price theatre ticket booth. So we were there armed with our Krispy Kreme dying of heat at 9.30am under a giant yellow umbrella. About an hour later we were successfully holding our tickets to Jersey Boys. Yay - another item to tick off the grand plan list!! We were very excited as the people in the queue were raving about it - one lady had seen it 4 times! Now the shops were calling! Fashion Show Mall is bigger than you think but i did get some awesome clothes in Abercrombie and Fitch - that shop is definitely the best smelling shop i've been in! By the time we came out of there and then went down to NY NY for lunch it was time to make our way back to Circus Circus to get ready for the night. Things take longer than you think because it is so hot!











Glad rags on we were off to the theatre to see Jersey Boys. The show was at the Palazzo so it wasn't right at the other end of the strip, which was lucky as the deuce bus was sooo busy! We took our seats and had an amazing view - second row on the balcony and could see everything. The show was about Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons - how they got together through to the end and it was brilliant. We didn't realise they sang so many songs that we knew. The actors were amazing as was their singing, they proper draw you in and makes you forget where you are. The character of Tommy DeVito was very arrogant but extremely likeable - as was the actor playing him who was hot and sang brilliantly, especially one of the filler songs Earth Angel. I lone that song! Even in Back to the Future it was great! The guy who played Frankie Valli had an amazing voice - to get up that high - fantastic singing. You end up loving all the characters even though they had bad boy days and then you remember it's actually a true story! Can see why that lady saw it 4 times.

We left the Palazzo all giddy, singing and headed down the strip to Caesars Palace for cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory - best cheesecake ever, seriously. This evening was brilliant and topped off our two days in Vegas nicely. Will have to download the soundtrack when we get home - relive the magic. To quote the Four Seasons, Oh What a Night or Ces Soirees-La. I love Vegas and will be definitely coming back again!!!

Wild Wild West...

Off we set again on the open road from Page. First stop, Glen Canyon. It was very similar to the Hoover Dam, massive concrete dam across Lake Powell. Turns out Mr Powell explored the natural river and named the features he saw. Glen Canyon was the most beautiful so he named it after his best friend - ahhhh. Later they built the dam and flooded Glen's canyon - apparently rumour has it he would be turning in his grave if he found out they named the lake after him! Too right too!!

On we went to Red Canyon - everywhere you turn in this area you are surrounded by stunning natural landforms and Red Canyon was no exception.











We then went Rollin Rollin Rollin into Kanab, the little Hollywood, where a lot of the old western movies were made, including The Lone Ranger. Off we headed into an actual old movie set to make our own movie - yes you heard correctly! Everyone was given a character and off we went to shoot our scenes. We were Indians! The general plot was that some wild coyotes roamed and scared the town. A couple came out to do their day to day business and were attacked by Indians (us - we had to do an Indian dance) who were chased off by cowboy type people. Then some showgirls were drinking in a saloon and got hassled by a bad cowboy. The good cowboy came - they had a shootout and the bad cowboy was chased out of town - all on wooden horses! It was called 'How the West was Lost'. It was awesome to do and so funny - this guy on our trip made a brilliant good cowboy! We then had a cookout - oh my god the food was fab - a brisket with bbq sauce and traditional lemonade - it was soooooo nice. After, everyone was quite giddy, thigh slapping, shouting yehaaaa.











We then headed onto where we were staying for the night in Bryce then onto Bryce Canyon. We stopped at a number of points, Bryce, Inspiration and Sunset points, all of which were spectacular. Yet another breathtaking place that words can not do justice to. The hoodoos definitely cast a magic spell over those that visit, they are amazing. We walked along the rim from 8300m down to 8000m and the colours in the rock are beautiful. Yet again i went rock collecting.











We spent the night in Bryce - a very quaint western looking town staying at Ruby's Inn - kind of like a motel, very road trip! Next stop...VEGAS!!!