No longer in Bournemouth, but at what price?

Today was our last day in Bournemouth. We finished cleaning out our apartment with our stuff more or less packed, and John came to pick us up. We managed to fit everything into John's car - a tight squeeze (the plane trip back to Canada should prove to be interesting) - and we set off for Teignmouth.

We were about halfway along when we got onto a stretch of road that just turned into a dual carriage way (single lane highway becoming two lanes) after coming up a hill, and John decided to overtake the slow car in front of him. After signaling and starting our car out into the other lane, a car came speeding - literarly - up from behind, and so John pulled back into the slow lane... Unfortunately, the speeding car must have hit his brakes and lost control, because (after we were back in our lane) he swerved into the driver's side door of our car. We were pushed off the road and hit the road barrier, destroying the front left tire, bounced back down to the road and skidded to a stop on a grassy area on the side of the road. The other vehicle ended up on it's side in the merridian area of the highway.

No one was hurt, so that is good, but both vehicles are definitely writen off. John was quite shaken up - understandably. Well we all were I guess. Adam was in the front and his hand somehow went through the passenger window while it broke so got a bit cut up, but nothing serious. Troë was in the back and only got a lap full of glass from the shattered windows like everyone else. We had to do the whole police report thing, and there was a witness who pulled over and told the police that the other guy was excessively speeding up the hill, so we don't think it will be deemed as John's fault.

After that the car was towed to the nearest garage, and we all rode in the back of a police car to a small town in the middle of Dorset. Ronnie (John's mum) had to borrow a car to come and get us. None of us had been in a car accident before, and probably wouldn't mind never being in one again! Definitely an interesting end to our life in Bournemouth.

Sarah Visiting

Last week was really great. My cousin, Sarah came to visit. We met her at the airport in London on Saturday (kind of emotional) and spent the day walking around London. John also met us at the train station, which was a surprise to Sarah and it was a good surprise. On Sunday I had my last soccer game, so Adam and Sarah came to watch it. It was a pretty good game, we won as well but there was kind of a freak hail storm for about 10 minutes during the first half. Other than that it was totally blue skies! After work on Monday we went shopping in town a little bit and on Tuesday we all took the bus to Salisbury. They had a really great Cathedral there, and it's also the tallest building in England. From there we went to Stonehenge too. Wednesday and Thursday we wandered around Bournemouth some more, and Friday Sarah and I went out for wonderful Indian food and then met up with Adam for drinks at a pub. It was a pretty nice visit. Sarah headed off to John's on Saturday. I was supposed to go with her, just for the weekend, but on Friday we discovered that the bus doesn't run on Sundays, so I wouldn't have been able to get home, so that kind of sucked. Adam and I just had a relaxing movie day yesterday instead.
All in all the visit was very nice, but it went by too fast! On the other hand, that just means that we are closer to coming home. On my very last week of school now, so that's really exciting. Can't wait till Friday!

100 Days

Yesterday was my 100th day of teaching in England. It should have felt like more of a land mark because I get a bonus in July now that I have taught for 100 days; also I thought I might stop once I reached that goal. But, instead, I have 12 days of teaching left at the girls school. But, Friday was a day to remember, none the less, it was probably one of the worst days of teaching have had so far. I won't go into details of why - I think you can probably imagine by now. This morning I also got a nice '100 days congratulations' text message on my phone from the supply company I work for - only it was at 7:00 in the morning, so all it really did was wake us up. Nice.

This past week, other than Friday, has been ok though. We went to see a movie on Wednesday again. We planned on seeing 'The Illusionist', but when we got to the theatre their early show was cancelled for that, so we saw 'Ghost Rider' instead. (We'll probably go see 'The Illusionist' next week.) 'Ghost Rider' was pretty good. Similar type of movie to 'The Punisher' or 'Blade'. It was pretty creepy in parts and I thought that Wes Bently (the wierd kid in 'American Beauty') was really good as the devil's son in the movie.

On another note though, only one week until my cousin, Sarah comes to visit us! She arrives in London next Saturday at 9:30am. Adam and I have agreed to meet her at the airport, so in order to get there that early, we have to catch a bus leaving Bournemouth at 5:55am! Yikes! But it will be worth it to see her! I am very excited. We plan on spending the day with her in London before coming back to Bournemouth on a late bus. That will probably be a very long day.

Starting the Countdown

Today I quit my job.

This probably isn't too much of a surprise for all of you that have been following along on the blog, but not everyone here at Beales has been so informed. I'm been trying to decide the best time to let them know; I want to give them adequate time to find a replacement, but I also only started this position in January, and I don't want it to feel like I'm quitting right after I've started. (Which I am, I guess)

Ironically no one important is even at work today, so I have no idea what everyone's reaction will be. There wasn't even anybody in the Human Resources Department for me to quit to; I had to slip my letter of resignation under the door. My supervisor - Jean - is the one I most want to let know about leaving, but I don't work with her again for almost two weeks. Our days off keep missing each other. I have tomorrow off (randomly) so I guess I'll have to wait until Thursday to find out.

On a different note, "The Illusionist" has finally been released in the cinema over here so we're thinking about seeing that tomorrow for Orange 2-for-1 Wednesday (maybe, please, TA?). The last movie we saw int he theatre was "Babel" and we weren't amazed so we've held off seeing some movies the last few weeks. Hopefully tomorrow's outing will go well.

4 Weeks and counting!

Well, there are 4 more weeks until we are out of our flat and pretty much leaving for our train trip! (Though we will probably go to John's for a few days first). We are getting really excited! We also found out recently that we can buy extra luggage for the plane home ahead of time for pretty cheap, so we actually don't need to ship anything back! We are just going to have a lot of stuff when we arrive back in Vancouver on the 3rd of May. Also, there are just 2 weeks until my cousin, Sarah comes to visit, which I am equally excited for!

Work has been ok for both of us. The girls school is pretty good - nothing like back home, mind you, but better than anywhere else I've been over here. I am actually looking for jobs in the lower mainland for September now, I have to send off my applications pretty quick. the Vancouver school board is stupid though because I can't actually apply for specific postions because they only post them in the office there, and well, I'm obviously not there! So I have to apply for on call, and I'm also applying for other districts (like Coquitlam, which is easier). Where we will living when we get back will probably rely heavily on where I find a job.

Thank god it's the weekend now though, I have been really exhausted this week for some reason. Well, we stayed up pretty late on Wednesday going to see my former school's production of 'The Wizard of Oz'. I have to say I was quite disapointed. I was finding it difficult when I was there because no one realized how heavily the play depended on scenery or props. Now, I am all for minimalist sets, but with this show, I don't think it works at all. This was proven to me on Wednesday where there was pretty much no set and almost all the props were mimed. It was ok in the first act, but they kind of took it too far in the second act. Background was set by a projector and let's just say I thought the rocky mountain with a hut on top of it picture that looked like it was taken in Mexico somewhere was not exactly the most awe inspiring view as 'the Emerald City'. Ouch. Oh well, I don't have to take credit for it, in fact a lot of ideas that I had started and got others started on were taken out.

Well, that's about all that's new around here. I look forward to seeing everyone in exactly 2 months!