It's my birthday and I'll laugh if I want to!

I brought forward my birthday by a day this year, partly to make it easier to celebrate and partly so I would get more presents off the students. Hahaha and it worked!

But first, I am back living in my house in Streatham now after ten days catsitting at my sister's. I had only been in my house for two weeks when I came back here and I am here again for the long weekend since it is my birthday and all.

The best thing about living in Streatham is the ability to go out for the night and not have to keep an eye on my watch. The most dangerous thing is pretty much the same. Me and Rachel went out for a Spanish- English language exchange on Tuesday night and I nearly had to get a night bus home... on a TUESDAY! Not sensible. So I was a bit tired on Wednesday.

On Thursday something strange appeared in Trafalgar Square... grass!



Which gave a real festival atmosphere to the place though it was only due to be there for a couple of days. I had been doing a lot of extra hours that week so I was pretty tired on Thursday and missed my Spanish class for the first time in seven months... bad student!

Friday was my pseudo birthday. I had been pretty honest and told everyone that it was really on Saturday but they all seemed to be buying into the Friday thing. I might have mentioned it once or twice every day for the previous month or so. There has been a gratifyly large amount of people who have found it hard to believe that I was even in my thirties let alone as old as 33! So that is cool:)

We didn't do anything much in my morning class. We had ice cream at Leicester Square and then went and sat on the grass at Trafalgar Square. I had to head back because I was covering a class 12-3.





At first no one arrived and then nine minutes before I would have been allowed to cancel the class two people turned up. A grand total of four made it to the class. Huff, not the most interesting class. Even my class only had fifty percent attendance... sunny Friday at the start of a long weekend made it hard to motivate students to come and study English.

Fortunately my afternoon class came up with the goods. Almost 100% percent attendance plus two homemade tiramisus, the benefit of having Italian students. One from Angelo



and one from Francesca



The class had clubbed together and bought some chocolates and a card too. And then they all sang me Happy Birthday in English and in their own languages- Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Vietnamese, Chinese, Turkish and Iranian. The Thai girl insisted that they never sing it in anything but English in her country but she might have just been being shy.

We took the obligatory class photo but someone appears to have been mucking around in the middle of it



Hum.

We went to the pub at break time. There is a school policy that we can occassionally take the students to the pub if they all agree to go. I had hardly got the words out asking them before they were all propping up the bar in our local The White Horse or the school pub as my morning class call it.

I was ladden with presents, some of the cute and cuddly variety.. the teddy bear not Chris









Unfortunately that seems to be where the photos end except for one last one at the end of the night. I had a blinding night, it is fair to say. Lots of people were there, teachers, students, my Spanish teacher and even a friend- not a teacher or a student, weirdly!



These are four of my class from last summer. I don't know who the other girl is but I seem to remember insisting that she be in the photo.

I ended the night with a free rickshaw ride with a guy that I had met at the language exchange on Tuesday and a night bus home.

And now I have a windowsill full of birthday cards and presents and my new room feels more like home



I slept for most of my actual birthday before coming back to my sister's and going out for dinner last night. The birthday text messages came thick and fast and I had a couple of phone calls too.

On Friday night in the pub my Colombian family called me from Bogota but panicked when their son hadn't arrived to translate. I thought that they were looking for him but he later told me that they had all been standing round the phone waiting to wish me Happy Birthday! How cute is that!!

Baby Alex arrived with his flatmates and people kept going up to him to ask him if he was Baby Alex. I guess that I must talk about him quite a lot! Ah, my little baby!

We had plans to go to the Southend Air Show this weekend but it is raining today so maybe we will just go to Lakeside instead.

Another year older, another wiser, two more countries' stamps added to my passport and a plane ticket to Barcelona ready to go at the end of June. Just another five weeks until there will be no more smoking in public places in the UK. 2007 has already been a blinder of year and I am sure that it will only get better!

Chao

Back again

Things here have been hectic of late. I moved house but the internet wasn't up and running. I have been at my sister's for the last week tending to every whim of our ginger cat while she is on a walking holiday in Turkey. Still seems to weird to me that other people have holidays too!

There was a barbecue in my new house a couple of weeks ago which lasted long enough to see the sun rise. And last weekend I went to London Zoo with my cousin and her two kids, in the rain. I didn't care about the weather... I saw giraffes so I was happy

Lina, a girl that I met in Manizales, arrived in London last weekend. Somehow I had persuaded her to ditch the school that she was going to study with and she signed up with my school. It was good to see her and I guess that she will be around for a while.

What else? Not much really. It is my birthday next Saturday though I don't have any plans for the big day yet beyond sleeping off what ever happens the night before. It is payday on Friday and the start of another long weekend so it is sure to be a big one. Anyone of you who is around in London that night is welcome to come along... White Horse in Soho, the usual haunt.

I was there last night which is why I am so tired today. For some reason people seemed to be buying me drinks which is unusual. The White Horse is such a regular Friday night thing that we tend to refer to it as an extension of our school. The upstairs of the pub is certainly like our cafe only with beer and cigarettes- at least for another six weeks or so until the smoking ban comes in.

Life is good. As ever really. My Spanish classes started again a couple of weeks ago which can only be a good thing. My English classes, which I am still refering to as my 'new' classes have now been running for seven weeks so I feel like I know my students pretty well now.

Quite unEnglishly, I have no complaints really:)

Weird

Something weird is going on in student-teacher land and I don't know what to make of it!

Moving

I have moved house, in as much as bringing a single backpack and kipping in the spare room can be described as moving house. I am now living in South London with my friend, Matt. The broadband and wireless box has arrived at the house but neither of us had the courage to try and connect it yesterday.

I guess that I am out of touch until one or the other of us actually gets the damned thing out of the box and spends a couple of hours trying to connect it and us to the outside world.

Have a good (long) weekend