Posted 2:57 PM by Lodger
I leave for Canada tomorrow at noon. Very excited, but dreading the flight. It's a long bloody flight... 10.5 hours to Houston, a 4 hour lay-over!, and then almost 5 hours to Vancouver. Almost 20 hours total!!! Argh.

I went last minute Christmas shopping in London yesterday. It was fantastic. I'm usually very bah-humbug this time of year, but walking through central London at Christmas was really cool. The window displays at Harrod's and Selfridge's were amazing. I walked past the Salvation Army Brass band playing carols (very classy outfits, big smiles)... and I saw Trafalgar Square lit up at night with the Christmas tree. It was the first time I'd seen The National Gallery without scafolding out front. It was lovely.

Walked from Kensington to Leicester Square area through Hyde Park, which was very peaceful at dusk. The sky was a blend of purples, pinks and grays, a slightly ominous backdrop to the Prince Albert Memorial monument as we walked by.

'We' was Paul and I. He met me in Kensington and kept me company throughout my shopping spree. I spent loads of cash, but feel okay about it. It was insanely busy, but nothing could disturb my contented, upbeat mood... Christmas time is here!

To finish up the evening we took in a film at Leicester Square (Intermission with Colin Farrell) and then went for what would be my last couple of pints in 2003. We went to 'The Cheshire Cheese,' a favourite pub of Paul, Carrie and I. It's a 17th century pub with low ceilings near Fleet Street. Dickens apparently used to go there for inspiration. And they serve a very fine bitter... Samuel Smith's Old Brewery Bitter... delish. Like butta. Best bitter I've tried in my short time as a UK resident.

It's odd. The notion of a beer without fizz served at room temperature would have seemed horrid to me before coming to England. But the stuff is brilliant. It's tastier than lager and brings on a full body buzz. Lager tends to go straight to my head and often leaves me with a headache... the downside of bubbles. I still enjoy a cold lager or Pilsner on a hot day, of course, but bitter's the stuff for me. The odd Guiness ain't bad either, but you can only have a few.

Enough about beer.

I'm packed and ready to go, but have that nagging feeling I've forgotten something... probably because past experience would suggest I likely have. I'm also quite anxious. Can't really place why. Obviously excited. But it's more than that. Not sure.

I had more to say but got distracted by an episode of Friends and now I've lost it all. It was good too. Damn.

Posted 8:50 AM by Lodger
Merry Christmas. I'm quite sure very few people now read this blog as I've been so poor at updating. Apologies. Updating has been inconvenient and when at work I am generally marking or planning. However, New Year's Resolution... at least an update a week? Quite do-able I think.

So, my first full year in England has almost come to an end. It has been challenging but also rewarding. I've developed some great friendships, seen many wonderful things and forged some close relationships with my students. I still find teaching here difficult culturally... the system really upsets me. Sadly, too many students are left behind. Sad also, that for many of them, putting an effort in at school is considered to be exremely uncool. I can only shake my head at times. But lately I've been making headway... I seem to be banging heads with far fewer than when I started this term.

Some news: my friends Winnie and Scott are officially engaged... Scott popped the question Wednesday night. Dinner, Champagne, a blue diamond (BLING BLING). Way to go Scotty! Congratulations to you both.

JV and Verona are close to their delivery date... I may be an 'uncle' when I get back from Canada... JV is really stressing.

So I head to Canada in just three days! I am so excited. It's been a year since I've seen most of my family and many of my friends and now that it is only days away I'm beginning to feel the excitement. Not looking forward to the flight though. London to Houston and then to Vancouver. Have to go through George Bush country. Yuch! But it's more the length that has me dreading the flight... but it was the cheapest flight I could get, so you do what you gotta do.

So 2003 has been an interesting year... very much a year of extreme ups and downs. I've developed some amazing friendships over here and I truly feel I've adopted my own family away from home. If I were to pinpoint the best thing about living abroad, it would have to be the people I've met. I also had the opportunity to travel through Europe with my sister and also to travel to many other domestic and European locations with other friends. I've been to Amsterdam, Cologne, Paris, Tours, Bayonne, Bilbao, Pamplona, Barcelona, Rome, Florence, the hills of Tuscany, Venice, Genoa, Brussels, Devon, Cornwall, Oxford, Nottingham, Birmingham and Bath.

I've made great strides as a teacher, I think, and I'm closer to feeling I can really do it now... for real, for good. But who knows. It's rewarding at times, but I do feel I give far more of myself than I get back in return. But I've only been in the game a short time. Time will tell.

I'm optimistic about the coming year. This year has been about finding my bearings, figuring out a whole lot of shit about myself and moving forward... finding my place? Who knows.

I know I want to take the most out of life that I can. I spent so long trying to fit some image of what I thought life was supposed to be that I didn't live the way I wanted. I didn't know what I wanted. A very dangerous thing. I still don't know, in an absolute way, what I want, but I've made some decisons.

I'm going to stay on at my school next year. It just feels right.

I'm going to Prague, and possibly Poland for a holiday. I would also like to get back to Germany - I especially want to see Berlin. And a possible ski trip in Austria is in the discussion stages. We'll see.

I want to spend my summer touring the British Isles. I'm not sure how yet, but I will suss that out in time. I also must get back to Devon to visit relatives that live there.

I want to become a better teacher while also effectively fine-tuning the work-time/personal-time balancing act. A constant work in progress.

I want to continue working on not trying to please others so much. Me me me.

Me!

I also hope to more successfully keep in touch with friends around the world.

That's about it I guess.

Merry Christmas to all and Happy New Year!

Take care,

Ricky Ricardo