No more Nachos?!?!?!

John came to visit for the weekend, which was really nice. We spent most of the time relaxing, playing a few games, and watching a few movies. We also went out to eat a couple times - one of which was to the mexican restaurant that we went to before that had the mocha nachos that I raved and raved about. (They are so tasty). WELL... apparently, they change their dessert menu every so often, and they don't have them anymore!!! AHH!! But, I did get the recipe from the waitress, so we'll see if I can make them at home, and then you can all try them sometime. MMMMMMMMmmmmmm.
So far this week I have been at the boys school again. Probably not as bad as Rossmore. I keep talking to people, teachers and such at the different schools. We usually start talking about why I am in England, etc, do I like teaching here, etc. Well, once they find out that I am not too keen on teaching here, they almost all seem to say 'oh, well, don't judge on this school, this isn't a good school.' Well, if everyone is saying that about every school I've been to, which schools am I supposed to judge on then? Hmm...

Extra! Extra!

Ok,so this weekI have been in an all boys school for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. On Monday a boy brought a knife in to school because he was being bullied and he wanted to stop the bullies, or scare them at least. Well, he brought out the knife and got into an arguement with one of the boys who bullied him and ended up getting cut himself on his own knife. That is all that is known at the moment, but it is obviously a huge deal and we had to send all these letters home yesterday explaining to parents what happened. When I read the letter it said that this was unrelated to another incident of the same kind just a few weeks ago! Crazy! Not sure if I like this all boys school thing.
On a lighter note, John is coming to visit this weekend, so we are really looking forward to that! Not a lot else new around here. Adam starts his new job next week, that's about it. It's really great to hear from people back home, even if it's just a one liner, so thanks for everyone that is writing!

What to do in January

January is creeping by so slowly. I haven't been able to find a job to suppliment the teaching yet, but I haven't looked very hard becasue I am getting enough teaching that I don't need one too badly. I may not even get one at all.
Adam and I are finally getting a bit more good TV though. Usually it's just re-runs of 8 Simple Rules, or Home Improvement, or Hope and Faith or Scrubs. Most of these shows are garbage (apart from Scrubs) and they always show the same episodes over and over and over. But, finally! Last week was season premier week! We got the Premier of the OC, ER, and Law and Order CI. Yay! Good Television! (Well, apart from the OC, that is). Now all we need is a little Grey's Anatomy and we'll be set. I don't think we'll be getting that though.
See, I told you January was going slow. Nothing to write about except TV.
Oh, but there is one exciting thing happening in January - John is coming to visit us again at the end of the month. Good, something to look forward to.

The New Year

Well, so far this supply things isn't all that great. I have worked at a few schools, and they are all more or less the same. Ok, most of the students aren't as 'nasty' as the ones at Rossmore, so that's good. But what really bothers me the most is how they don't listen and that is something every school has in common. You can stand at the front of the class for ages and ask them over and over again to be quiet, but you are just ignored. Or, if they do happen to shut up for a minute, it is only for that - a minute. As soon as words come out you my mouth in explanation, someone has something to say about it, and the whole class is going again. It's really stupid. Oh well, at least I am getting a decent amount of work and I suppose I don't have to put up with it for that much longer.
Adam got a new job though! Yay! He is still going to be working at Beales, but now he'll be in the cash office. He only has to work 4 days a week now instead of 5, and he'll be getting paid more! He's pretty excited, he starts on Jan 28th.

We decided that we are only going to go on small trips for a while, just short distances probably on the weekends. This is all in prepration for April. You see, The first two weeks of April are school holiday weeks, so I won't be working and that's when we would go on holiday anyway. Plus, we are going back to Canada 2 weeks after that is over. So, we figured instead of paying rent for that month, we are going to buy two month long train passes and travel. I am pretty excited for it, I think it's going to be really fun. We'll also get to go visit John and Ronnie one last time that month before going home.

Christmas and New Year

Well, the holidays are over now. But we definitely had a good one! We got back from Spain on Christmas Eve to have a nice relaxing evening with Andrew and Lisa eating Indian food and watching a movie. For our compromise of when to open gifts, we decided to open a couple on Christmas Eve and the rest on Christmas morning. We had a surprising amount of gifts to open, considering we are in another country. Thank-you to everyone who sent us cards and/or gifts. It was such a nice surprise getting things from Canada and very much appreciated.

Christmas dinner was excellent. Troë perfected her gravy making this time, with a little help from Lisa. We all sat on the floor around our coffee table for dinner (as we only have two chairs), we even had Christmas crackers. It was nice. We were a little home-sick, but that's to be expected. As there was only the two of us eating Turkey (Andrew and Lisa made Tofu), we had tons left for sandwiches for the next few days. It was a good thing that Andrew and Lisa arrived just in time to replenish Troë's "Miracle Whip" stock.

After Boxing Day, Lisa and Andrew went on to Brighton and then London, and we relaxed for a couple more days before going to Teignmouth again to see John and Ronnie for New Years. It was a nice visit, as it always is.

We had a quiet New Years... we had planned to go out in Teignmouth with John and TA and John's cousin Flik (who's possibly kind of Troë's cousin too) and another friend of theirs. We started off with a few drinks at John's, but apparently John can't hold his booze well and he got, *cough*, kinda sick, so we just stayed in. It was still pretty fun. There was a hectic racing around to find a way to open the champagne just before midnight, but we managed to get it open and poured with 30 seconds to spare.

It was a nice trip, we like going to see them; and perhaps the next time we go, we may have another family member joining us (saRah?)