Posted 3:28 AM by Lodger
We decided to give the tennis a miss Tuesday. Em was held up at work and the queue would have been about two hours... worth it probably, but because we'd been in the day before and were both tired, we decided to have takeaway Chinese food at home instead.

The weather here is scorching at the moment... the students are behaving as if death is imminent (sir, it's too hot to work, can't we just sit here and do nothing?). No.

Londoners cannot not handle extremes of weather. Any touch of heat, or snow in winter, and they either panic or shut down completely... the cure for the heat, lager and an outdoor beer garden.

I'm hot. Can't think. Go now.

Posted 2:21 AM by Lodger
Once again I am stealing a moment (actually, lots and lots o' moments) to blog. You see, year 11 students are doing exams, thus I no longer teach them, thus Mondays now consist of one lesson, period one, then free periods for the rest of the day.

Last Monday, I marked exams all day, and today I will do the same, but not before sharing my thoughts with y'all.

It's been an eventful couple of weeks...

I am an uncle again!!!! Jason and Nat had a baby boy, Aidan, who from pictures appears to be quite the looker. Big blue gray eyes, chubby cheeks, blonde hair. Em and I are very excited to meet the young lad, and also to see little Emalee... it's strange being away from home for such a long time... you want to be able to see the little ones grow up in front of you, but I guess it will just have to be intermittant visits for the next little while. However, we are so excited about coming to Canada this summer, I miss so much.

Half Term Break:

On May 30, Em and I took 16 Gifted and Talented pupils to Devon for a writing course in the countryside. It was an amazing experience, the course tutors were excellent, an acclaimed poet and a successful novelist and theologian... spending time with children in that kind of environment has helped me to see what can be accomplished when creativity is nurtured, rather than stifled as it is in this overly prescribed curriculum.

This Saturday we've planned a reunion dinner with the kids, which should be fun... haute cuisine a la Pizza Hut maybe followed by a movie.

Tennis:

Yesterday Em and I both got away from work as quickly as possible and made our way to Wimbledon for day one of the tennis!!! We queued for five o'clock tickets and got in fairly quickly and then saw a bit of a match between Jonas Bjorkman and Jeff Morrison. We then waited in a queue to get a standing position to see Phillipousis play his opening round match on court 2. We got in after about 25 minutes and saw most of the match. I expected it to be quite crowded, maybe a bit overwhelming, but the whole place is completely relaxed, polite without being snobby... the weather helped as well, sunny with a light breeze. Sometimes you get lucky.

Going again tonight. Got to go.

cheers!