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 :(