Jo T Goodbye Bash (?) - June 22

With the amalgamation of Ramsey Abbey School with Ailwyn School there are going to be a lot of changes when Abbey College, Ramsey opens up September 1st. Jo is the fourth on the left and she was the head science tech at our school. (I went to her mom's birthday party the other weekend...it was held at the Ramsey Museum.) Unfortunately, the desire to do other stuff combined with the politics of the school (probably) she left us for an outside lab job June 23rd. Keith - or second in charge for the labs is also leaving and his last day is July 7th. Again, a lot to do with the politics of the school. With the departure of these two there aren't any lab techs for Abbey College - which also means I have to prep my own experiments for the final two weeks of school. (Whats 2M NaOH mean again? Does the M stand for million or might be?)

The rest of the science department is going through tough times, too. I don't think I'm amiss by suggesting that there is a lot of stress and unhappiness with the upcoming union of schools for both staffs. Because of this, I wouldn't be completely surprised if more change happens before, and a few weeks into, the new school year. It's too bad since the staff in our department seem to get along very well.

Well, Zela is coming back for more. The ICT teacher from New Zealand is coming back to teach next year at Abbey College. (She left before her contract ended for some unstated reasons.) She'll be here on Monday, I believe, and she's going to stay with me. I don't really know why she's coming back so early - her school year is almost 12 weeks away - but whatever. The school has raised the rent on the flats again. Stupid, stupid, stupid. It's now £350 and they want two weeks in advance. Zela can't afford it so she'll stay with me for 4 weeks, then she leaves for South Africa before coming back for September. I assume she'll look for alternative accommodations for her return in September. I just hope that she won't mind that I take 80 minute showers in the mornings...and that I don't like to clean things...nor throw things away. She can't complain, though. She's staying for free.

Blakeney - June 17

Len and Carol invited me to go to see some seals. Yeah, seals. Cromer, which is due East of Ramsey and on the cost of the North Sea has a reserve called Blakeney. It's like Brighton, I've been told, except without the rides, the weird and numerous people, the obnoxious sellers, the noise, the hokey souvenirs...maybe it's nothing like Brighton. But it was a very pleasant place to go. We had to take a small boat out to a point that had all of these fat and super relaxed seals sunning themselves on the beach. Some were pregnant and it was amazing how close the boat got to the things.

We also stopped off in Great Yarmouth...at least I think we did. We stopped at a pier to get some ice cream and I think it was Great Yarmouth. I might be wrong. I'm probably wrong. Regardless of where we were it was a very pleasant day. We ate cockles, mussles, and shrimp fresh from the pier and had a pint of Guinness in the local hotel with the sea air blowing in from the sea. Unfortunately, my allergies were kicked in high gear - due to the locale of our picnic probably - and I was congested like the drain in my bathtub. (It's true...bathtub drain was plugged and had to buy a 99p jug of some weird alkali toxin to eat away all the dead spiders and long strands of hairs Fiona and I washed away during our months in the flats.

The picture is of me - of course - and Carol on Blakeney rock just after checking out the seals. The seals are on the island as well but on the eastern point. We were given 60 minutes to check out the island before the boat took us back into Cromer.

London June 9-11

I caught up with my parents and sister in London for a few days. We went to all of the requisite touristy places but, surprisingly enough - or maybe not a surprise at all - we ended up in Chinatown each night for dinner. Nothing like some chinese when visiting England.

We signed up for a seemingly comprehensive tourist bus thingy to see all the sights and take in all the sounds. It was as advertised but not as imagined. Of course, we got to see much of the major sites in London but briefly and in a very rushed way. We got to visit all of the major Bridges but only as we rumbled over them. No time to stop and take a picture when we have a schedule to maintain. The tour didn't even have Big Ben on its list of stops!!! We spent a lot of time in the Tower of London. That was okay. We actually lost a person and the mother stayed behind to find him. We, of course, maintained the schedule and left without them. The worst part was being admonished by a high school (?) history teacher/tour guide for trying to take ice cream onto the bus with us.

This is a picture of a bird.

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Oil posters

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Originally uploaded by cherubichomer.

This is a cartoon that one of my students made on the formation of oil. It's not entirely correct (I don't know what the space craft has to do with the production of crude oil) but it's a very fine example of what I wanted them to do.

Today is the first day in a fortnight that we teachers don't have to teach anything. The year 11, 12, and 13s are out on exam preparation while the year 10s are out on work practical. The only thing I know that I have to do is check in on 6 specific year 10s once per week. Super easy. They are all placed within walking distance from the flat. 3 of them (Barnetts Hair, School Plus, and Burton Brothers Auto) are near the high street. The other three (Ibbotts Catering, Ramsey Golf, and Old Nene Golf) are on the edge of town. I'm already bored. There's nothing to do but organize for the last four weeks of school. So, I'm searching google for radiostations in California to kill the time.

June 5, 2006

nigeria kidnapping
Originally uploaded by cherubichomer.

There was a kidnapping in Nigeria of 6 Brits, 1 American and 1 Canadian from an oil rig three or so days ago. Because of this, I've notified my agency that I don't want to go to Nigeria next year. I really must be difficult to get people to go and teach in Nigeria because of all these unfortunate things that come up.