Hello anyone out there.

Wimbledon is on at the moment and seeing as tomorrow is set to be a scorcher I'm going to go and watch after work (if I get work for tomorrow), cool hey.

Hope everyone's well, things at the moment are very interesting in my share house and all I can really say is YOU NEVER KNOW WHO YOU CAN FIND ON THE GUMTREE-be careful.

After this week there are only 3 more school weeks left (see the cartwheels and happy dance) then I'm having a holiday and for all those in SA I'll be home in the second week of August and I hope to see as many people as possible at Frankie B's for Strawberry D's!!!!

ROBBIE ROCKS MY WORLD!!!!

We're off to see Robbie!!!!

Last week Saturday I went to Paris for a very specific reason: to see the fabulous Robbie Williams in concert. Who would've thought that I'd get to do that. There is very little I can say because whatever I do write will never be able to convey how brilliant the concert really was, how much fun I had and how cool ol' Robbie really is.

There is one very important thing that everyone who knows me should know: If anyone ever needs to give me a present for a birthday, christmas, easter, "just because", or to get yourself out of some trouble you've got yourself in this is what I want...you will be amazed at how much trouble this would get you out of: GOLDEN CIRCLE TICKETS TO A ROBBIE WILLIAMS CONCERT ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD!

I really don't mind if you all pool together to buy it for me by the way.

Can you see Robbie? He's standing just in front of the big screen

OH boy OH boy OH boy

Y'all know who I am

I'm still the boy next door

That's if you're Lord Litchfield and Roger Moore

If I've gone up in the world

Or is the world gone down on me

I'm the one who put the Brits in celebrity

Can you guess who it is?

'course you can, ROBBIE in PARIS here I come.

THE S*%T HAS HIT THE FAN-thank goodness not entirely literally.

My oh my, so as this is the summer term and the end of the school year in England is drawing, ever so slowly, to a close, there is very little work in the secondary phase. This is due to the fact that the year 11's have left so all the teachers who would usually be caught up doing year 11 work now have frees and can cover any lessons where teachers are away. So not good news for me, being secondary trained and all... Anyway this morning I phoned and phoned and the agencies were lovely and cheerful but far from helpful in the way of giving me work. That was until about 7:50, I was given a day at a primary school, give me strength!!!! I can handle little ones up to a point. The constant telling tales and tears at the drop of a hat really don't make me a happy chappy, that's why secondary (high school for all those confused out there) is what I am qualified to do.

I spent the day counting to three, putting my finger on my lips, refering to the quietness of mice and dealing with tears brought on by the fact that... 'she's leaning on my side of the table Miss'. In the classroom next door one poor little soul had a little accident and didn't make it to the toilet in time... let's just say that the problem wasn't a puddle and, refer to the title of the blog for a slightly more detailed explanantion, yip... so glad it wasn't in my room, just another reason secondary is a little easier to deal with.

Oh well, the day was interesting and tiring for very different reasons than the constant meanness encountered with the older kids. And I did such a splendid job (their words to the agency, not mine) that they've asked me back tomorrow and if they can't have me they don't want anyone else (refer to profile: we've already established I'm cool), ah what a pity I'm already booked for a high school tomorrow, maybe another time (I know you're not meant to start a sentence with "and" for those pedantic people out there).

Right, so for all the SAFFAS in SA (isn't that a pleasant thing to be called?) Enjoy your public holiday tomorrow, lucky bums. Hope you all enjoy the comrades. Go to the road and clap for those runners, I did it for the London marathon and cheered all the South Africans very loudly, so get off those butts and get excited-think I like comrades at all?

DEAR ANONYMOUS

This post is specifically for one person who reads my blog. S/he reads it, writes comments and then does not leave his/her name. I think that's poor internet behaviour, don't you have the guts to sign what you write? Your comments will not be published in the future if they are not signed by name...this is my blog and I make the rules, mmha ha ha!!!!

HOTTEST DAY OF THE YEAR

Hello, hello, hello, hello to the world...

So, today according to Mom's reports from Sky news is the hottest day of the year in the UK. It's meant to be 27 degrees today and 28 tomorrow. The warnings are: Keep hydrated, wear sunscreen and don't go in a car unless you have to (????). That last one is a bit strange, in Durbs the best thing about a hot day is going in a car...an airconditioned car, an important thing to remember. They call this a heat wave... a 3 month long heat wave, I call it SUMMER. So today I am planning to go to the Lido, a big public pool with grassy areas et cetera. I am not feeling great but I gather that sitting in a hot little terraced house would probably be worse than sitting by a pool for some of the day, I just hope I feel better before I go and see ROBBIE WILLIAMS IN PARIS ON SATURDAY. What's the rule for a cold: 3 days to come, 3 days to stay and 3 days to go away... that leaves me at Friday. I hope it's just a cold.

In other news: On thursday night I went with Leigh, Roald, Hayley, Terri and Sarah to Prime Circle's debut performance in London. It was absolutely fantastic, they remembered playing in Grahamstown and said they're going back at the end of this month. See, we had a little chat, cool hey. I have photos

Reggae Bliss

Yesterday summer arrived in England. It was a lovely day which I spent playing frisbee in the park, throwing rugby balls around and braaiing or barbequing if you're a pom. When I got home the people that live 2 doors down were having a party and there was some very cool Jamacain tunes floating from their garden into ours. At 21:30 when it was still light and things were winding down the music was still good. However at 23:30 when I am now very ready to go to bed, music, shouting, people spilling out of the house and into the street, and singalongs really were not going down well. So I took action (seeing as the noise was the loudest in my bedroom is really was impossible for me to get some sleep unless I did something). In England when there is a disturbance it is considered dangerous to go politely to the disturbance and ask them to keep it down so instead you phone the police. When you eventually get hold of a police officer in your area he kindly puts you through to environmental affairs with a kind piece of information, 'By the way Madam there is no cut off time for noise pollution'. Hmmm. So you speak to the man at envornmental affairs at 23:30, he asks for your details, says he'll send a team round to determine whether the noise level is indeed unacceptable and then take it from there. He'll pass the message on to the team who will then phone to confirm the distrubance still exists. So at 00:36 James phones. He says, 'Madam is there still a distrubance?' Which of course there is, a reggae version of 'My Way' by Frank Sinatra is indeed very disturbing. He'll be there within 30 minutes. At 01:05 two men from the environmental affiars department of the council rock up to measure the noise. How do they do that you may be wondering, well it's remarkably simple...they walk into your house in the early hours of the morning, stand in your bedroom, cock their heads to one side, listen for about 10 seconds and say, 'Yes Madam that is indeed loud', and that's it, noise measured!!!!!!!!!

And the action that is taken... ' Well Madam what we're going to do is ascertain whether it is safe for us to enter the premises and if it seems it is and that we will come to no harm we will step inside and ask them to turn it down, they do of course have every right to not but we will ask'. Oh, so I've been kept awake by charmingly inconsiderate neighbours for the past 3 hours and they have more rights than me, right well it fits with the rest of the UK protect the criminal, that's right, make sure the children in the schools can get away with murder literally and the country will be top notch, please please don't presume that you have the right to uphold your rights if that means that the rights of others no matter how ridiculous and inconsiderate these rights may be, will be disrespected. So the men leave, but I really mustn't worry because no matter what the neighbours do (comply with the request or not) they will be receiving a LETTER, wow a letter hey, that'll help the situation now, oooh I'm shivering in my boots...most people can't even read.

Anyway, the dudes from environmental affairs asks them to turn it down and they did...at 5:15 this morning. I have had little sleep. The high point of the night you might ask:

3:40: The reggae mix of Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On" from Titanic.

BARCELONA

I have been to Barcelona, my first trip to Europe organised and paid for by myself and I am quite impressed with my great organisational skills. There is a lot to tell, even though I was only there for three days, so I'll give a brief summary and then on with the photos.

Monday:

Lovely and hot, a great change from pommie land where we're in the summer months now and in the middle of a drought... it rains every day and people get excited when it reaches 15 degrees celsius.Sarah and I headed for Placa Sant Jaume to meet our bike tour guide, Ricky, for our 3 hour guided tour around Barcelona. We basically rode around and saw everything, La Sagrada Familia, Casa Mila, Caso Batllo, Passieg de Gracia, the beach, the harbour, piazza's, liitle alleyways and so much more. We learnt how to ride in bike lanes and what to do when the bike lane suddenly disappears and you find yourself up against 4 lanes of traffic, we learnt that it is terribly important to follow the traffic lights that are set for cyclists and when these are not available to follow the lights for all other vehicles and we also found out that when there is no cycle lane, the traffic lights are on the blink, you have no helmet and have just approached an intersection with another 4 lanes of traffic that as a cyclist...NEVER SURRENDER and just RIDE!!!! So hollering my lungs out, and being me, in an absolute fit of hysterics I pedalled like crazy across the road as soon as I could imagine a gap in the oncoming traffic and found myself in the middle of the intersection with a huge tour bus cutting a corner and heading straight for me and my little red bike. Like the little tank engine chugging up the hill (I think I can, I think I can) but with a hell of a lot more pace I whizzed across the road to be met by Ricky's gruff voice... ' Never Surrender, we may be mere cyclists but never surreneder'.
After the hilarity of zooming around the narrow alley ways and across the huge roads of Barcelona, having smiled at pedestrians as I narrowly missed riding over their toes and shouting Gracias whenever they moved out of my way at the trill of my bell I made it back to the little shop we rented the bikes from, starving. We found some lunch and headed down to the beach.
It was so good to be in the sun again and to swim in the Meditteranean sea (it's very salty and has no waves) and also to be a little more educated in the ways of the Catalanyan people...topless tanning. Boys there's no need to get excited, the boobs we saw were flat and droopy, could've been tucked into ones pants or folded in half to make a boob sandwich. The others we like large christmas puddings happily resting on some unsuspecting woman who, after a very hot day, was taking a dip in the Med. I didn't have the guts to join in seeing as I possess christmas cupcakes but decided that when we visited the beach again I'd apply loads of sunscreen and give it ago, (we never got to the beach again so I suppose another trip to Barcelona is in order).

Tuesday:

Up early by Spanish standards and out of the B 'n B by 10am. Off to Casa Mila, Gaudi's most famous completed work, an apratment block without any straight lines. Beautiful and bizarre, I felt very lucky to see it. Next stop was Parc Guill, a park at the very top of a very steep hill with fantastic views of the city and Gaudi's most famous moasic work. We spent an hour and a bit there, and sharing the views with hundreds of others, spaniards and tour groups. It got a bit much and it was about 15:00 and we still hadn't had lunch. After lunch we headed off to museu de la xocolata (museum of chocolate) but alas, closed on Tuesdays. We spent the rest of the afternoon walking the streets of Barcelona, investigating funny little alleyways and shopping for pressies.
As dinner time approached at about 21:30 we started searching for a place to eat. We found "princesa 23" a lovely, warm and inviting restaurant where we ate "tapas" (spanish finger food) and I sampled spanish strawberry daquiri's... (I wonder where in the world the best one is, so far Frankie Bananaz is first place).

Wednesday:

Our final day in Barcelona greeted us with rain, and though it didn't stick around for too long the cloud and chill factor persisted all day. We went off bright and early after packing our bags to La Sagrada Familia. We had already seen it on our bike ride but hadn't been inside yet. This church is Gaudi's most famous work, he began working on it about 100 years ago and died 40 years into it's construction. Nowadays architects, builders, designers and constructers work on the ideas Gaudi had for the rest of the building and they have estimated it will only be finished in 2040, at a push. We went inside to find the entire thing filled with scaffolding, men polishing chips of mosaic tiles and contractors patiently working on the building. We took a lift 60 metres up one of the towers and then walk up a flight of narrow circlar stairs until we were 400metres up in the tower, a breathtaking if some what nervewracking thing to see.
After a slow climb down the stairs and out of the building and a visit to the museum we headed off to the chocolate museum again (of course again, if you know me there is no way I'd give up on choclate that easily). There we found explanations on the making of chocolate, how it first made it's way from South America to Europe (to Barcelona), who had control (the monks, they had knowledge and control of everything else you'd think they'd share the chocolate, but no) and how it came to be such a much loved thing (really not a difficult question if you've tasted chocolate). There were also life size models of famous artworks, models of charcters from movies and even a model of Casa Mila, one of Gaudi's buildings. We left the display in desperate need of chocolate (surprise, surprise). I order, what looked like a pot of chocolate but turned out to be hot chocolate, not a drinking thing, hot chocolate as opposed to cold chocolate. A little cup filled with thick hot chocolate served on a saucer with a tiny little teaspoon. Extremely decadent and delicious...needless to say I got my choclate fix for the day.
We then headed off to find some lunch, collect our bags and head back to the airport and that was Barcelona, briefly.

Forthcoming attractions: Prime Circle's London debut next week Wednesday
A night in Paris with Robbie Williams in 2 weeks time.

Leaving London on Sunday afternoon... Barcelona here we come.
In Ana's b 'n b, we were in this tiny yellow room for one night and then were moved to "The Rose Room". This yellow room had 2 beds squahsed into it and a fan on the floor that whenever it was on made the pictures on the wall rattle, not particularly comfortable but okay for one night.
Sarah in our new room on the second night we were there. That's one long pillow hey. This room had a balcony and loads more space.
Me withe the ultra long pillow.
Apartment blocks in Spain back onto each other and this is the view from the dining room in Ana's apartment.
Our last night in Barcelona, very tired after our whirlwind trip .
Getting ready for our bike tour of Barcelona.
Statue of Christopher Columbus at the harbour, he's pointing to America, not sure where Sarah is pointing.

The Piazza next to the harbour, one of our stops on the bike tour.
Our first steps into the med, in desperate need of a tan.
On the beach in Barcelona, this beach is one of the ones which is constructed every summer. There are natural beaches but these were a little further away. In the background you can see the golden fish glinting in the sun. It was about 17:00 when this was taken and still lovely and warm.
An example of the sights we saw on the Barcelona beaches.
Casa Mila-La Pedrera. Gaudi's most famous completed work. There are no straight lines in this building.
Surreal chimneys on the roof of Casa Mila
Me on the roof of Casa Mila, look at the photo below to see how huge these things really are.

This is an example of the mosaic work done by Gaudi. This piece is located underneath the terrace at Parc Guill where the pillars meet. In the next photo you can see the pillars, if you walk underneath the entire structure you see different mosaics like this one on the ceiling.
The entrance to Parc Guill. That's a school group going up the steps, there were hundreds of them wherever we went. We didn't enter the park this way, we came through the grounds on a dirt path, far more pleasant.
Me with the dragon fountain on the entrance steps.
View from the top of the terrace of Barcelona, see the funny little Gaudi buildings in the foreground and the sea in the background.
Behind me you can see the dragon's back slithering along, all little chips of mosaic tiles.
Spanish guitar players in the piazza
View of the other towers of Sagrada Familia from the inside of one of the completed ones.
Details of the outside of Sagrada Familia

Inside La Sagrada Familia you can see the scaffolding being used to complete the remaining towers.
One of the stained glass windows inside La Sagrada Familia, the other is ruined by the scaffolding erected infront of it.
La Sagrada Familia, less than 5 minute walk from Ana's bed and breakfast where I was staying.
Antoni Gaudi designed and constructed these lamp posts with seats at their base. They are only found on Passieg de Gracia, the road where most of his work can be seen.
I thought this could be a spanish version of me, Sarah said it was nothing like my name, but come on...there is definitely something there.
A stall at a market we stumbled across just before we left for the airport.
The chocolate replica of Casa Mila, mmm.
Sarah and I at the chocolate museum with our HOT chocolate.