another one of our slightly underinformed adventures to london's west end resulting from £5 tickets from graeme's work. but this one was a treat - not an ounce of disappointment.
read the info here. check out the cast list - quite impressive.
from that page:
Beane is an exile from life – an oddball. His well-meaning sister Joan and brother-in-law Harry try and make time for him in their busy lives, but no one can get through. Following a burglary on his apartment, Joan is baffled to find her brother blissfully happy and tries to unravel the story behind Beane's mysterious new love Molly..
It was funny, entertaining, thought-provoking, etc
(cut short because dinner's here and i'm starving)
Friday, 12 January 2007
Love Song
Thursday, 11 January 2007
updates galore...
this is (kind of) the first post i made today, but i've timed it later so it appears at the top
basically i have been trying to update my blog for days now, but i keep having issues with various things. so there are a bunch of things to post, but i don't want to do it all in one post, especially since i have upgraded to the new blogger (whatever that really means) and want to try and use the tags/labels feature it now has.
this post will probably be deleted in a couple of days - its just here to warn you that there should be more than one new post for you to read...
Sky High (2005)
...or why I'm still a kid at heart.
i watched this yesterday, not on the disney channel, but it could've been :)
basically, the plot is, a kid starts his first day at high school. but this high school is for kids with superpowers, and this particular kid is the son of not one, but two, of the most powerful superheroes in the world (where every superhero seems to live in the same suburb and yet still have alter-egos, but anyway). of course, the kid hasn't actually discovered what (if any) superpowers he has yet and wackiness ensues*.
i actually really enjoyed it. sure, it was totally predictable, very tame, and i saw the 'twist' before it should've been obvious there even was one, but it was fun and easy to digest and all that. my sister tells me there is a lj community for grownups who still love everything disney - perhaps i should seek it out and join in. did i mention i've seen High School Musical 3 times?
*"wackiness ensues" being my way of saying i can't be bothered describing the plot anymore
Les Misérables (1998)
one of our many dvds that we own and hadn't actually sat down and watched yet. now i really have read the book, seen the play and watched the movie :)
right about here, i was going to refer back to my review of the stage show, but i can't seem to find it... oh hang on, its on our other webpage, and not as detailed as i thought.
anyway, the movie is (like the musical) a fine example of how to turn a (massive) novel into a good film. ok, i admit i have only read les mis once, and it was awhile ago, whereas i have read hp a lot of times over the last few years, but i still hold to my opinion that the makers of the harry potter films should be learning from other book-film conversions. none of the really important storylines were cut (in fact i only actually noticed the missing eponine), i felt the same/similar things about the characters as i did when i read the book and i still cried several times, even though i knew full-well what was coming. obviously, i enjoyed it.
Wednesday, 10 January 2007
50 Projects in 2007 - Project #1
i'm not really the new-years-resolution-making-type, but one of the girls from an online commuity i am part of suggested a challenge to complete 50 crafty/creative projects in 2007. since i feel as though the only creative output i had in 2006 was the 5000-odd photos i took, i jumped on board.
so here is my first project - something to keep my wrists/hands warm over this crazy long winter i am experiencing (i feel like it should be warming up already and its not even half way over).
i didn't use a pattern - i just bought some wool and the appropriate sized needles and went for it. i'm quite happy with how they turned out.
unfortunately, i have hardly any crafting supplies here in london, so without buying new things, i am basically restricted to badgemaking, scrapbooking (although, i guess this is something i should get working on with all those photos) and other paper crafts. i have my sewing machine but no fabric. oh, hang on, i have the fabric scraps from the school musical costumes i made, which unfortunately i got no photos of :(
so project #2 is a hat out of the leftover wool from my gloves and just writing this post has given me ideas for other projects (even if it turned a bit rambly).
Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and all that...
I know, I know, I'm a bit late. We went home for Christmas (and by home, I of course mean Sydney, Australia) and I was basically only online to check email. But I hope you all had a great time with the people you love.
So we got to spend a grand total of like 9 days back in Oz - kinda annoys me because we planned that based on the school holidays, assuming I would need to be back for the start of term, but anyway, Graeme couldn't have taken too much more time off since we want to do some serious holidaying this year and besides, we will be back in September for a couple of weddings. It was a great holiday actually - we just hung out, played my brother's wii, went shopping, caught up with most of our favourite people. Aside from the jetlag, it was the most relaxing holiday I've had in ages.
I won't bore you with the details, I'll just put up some photos.
me and my sister elizabeth - taken by herthis is NOT the funniest photo of her, but i resisted posting the others because they were pretty embarrassing
just a future warning to everyone reading this: if you strike stupid poses when i point my camera at you, don't be surprised if they end up on the internet
scully on the trampoline...and just to prove how alike they are...
josh on the trampoline
(to outside observers - the two above boys are not related - scully is part of one of my favourite families that is not related by blood and josh is my brother)
callum and finn(scully's brothers)
looking great in their matching shirts :)
and finally...
my growing family
me, one husband, two parents, three siblings and a (soon-to-be) sister-in-law
this was the first time in forever that we'd all been together, so mum insisted on a family photo. i set it up and then handed it to my brother's best friend to take them. he took about 20 and this is the one where the percentage of goodness is highest - in almost every other one, someone looks odd...Thursday, 21 December 2006
done and dusted
that's right - i have had my last day at my unhappy job. it was actually really hard to say goodbye to some of the kids, especially when they were all being so sweet, giving me cards, gifts and hugs and begging me not to leave. but i just kept telling them (and myself) that i couldn't stay in a job i didn't like for the 20 minutes a day i did actually enjoy.
i'm a bit stressed about this job interview tomorrow - i have to do some presentations as part of it and i just found out this afternoon that the reason i hadn't got any of the extra info i'd requested is that their email server is being stupid and not letting emails through, or something. i finally have some of the info i wanted but i'm feeling totally underprepared and too tired to do anything about it... so of course i am procrastinating by writing a blog post instead of working on it.
i still have a bunch of presents to wrap, some suitcases to pack (although i won't be taking many clothes - i need to do some serious shopping, especially since my favourite jeans have a hole in them :( ), some laundry to finish, a kitchen to clean and a bunch of other things to do before i get on the plane on friday... a big part of me is actually looking forward to spending 20-something hours on a plane - there's nothing to do but sleep, read and watch movies.
oh, and in case you didn't notice - i'm too lazy to use capital letters today.
Thursday, 14 December 2006
Prepare for a long one...
...because I am certain it will be long.
I know its been forever since I blogged - my sister asked me why the other day and I said it was because all my news was depressing. I finally feel like I'm in a position to share everything thats been going on, but I don't know where to start...
OK, so its been pretty clear from early on that I wasn't enjoying my job. About a month ago, I had that week off sick and begrudgingly went back in. My third day back, I got verbally attacked by another teacher in front of a class. I'm not going to go into the details of why and what she said, but lets just be clear that I had done nothing to deserve it. I almost walked out then and there - seriously considered walking past the office, telling them they'd never see me again, getting my stuff and leaving. The only thing that stopped me was that my students supported me and said I was in the right.
As part of reporting it to my head of department, I let him know how seriously I was considering leaving. He asked me to put the incident in writing and to let him know if there was anything more he could do to make my job better.
After writing out what had happened, I included this (copied direct from the email I sent him):
I’m still thinking on sorting out my own thoughts, but I know that part of the reason I am unhappy here is that I purposefully applied for jobs at Christian/Church of England schools, knowing that schools in London can be tough and assuming that I could at least expect some basic love, honour and respect approaches from staff and students at a Christian school. I’m not feeling as though I work at a Christian school. People (staff and students) seem to think its OK to treat each other like garbage. When I try and do bible-centred discussions with my form group, its an uphill struggle. I have actually had a student (not from my form) say that she didn’t understand why some teachers tried to talk about Christian stuff when most of the students aren’t Christians. The last school I worked at, although a state-funded, non-faith high school, felt more like a Christian school than this one does, because a lot of the teachers were Christians and the environment was mostly a loving one where there was mutual respect and the students were always the number one priority for every teacher at the school.
I know for a fact this email got forwarded to the deputy in charge of our department and then the head teacher (principal). I had one discussion with the deputy who said we would talk again later - we haven't. Nothing has happened to the teacher who yelled at me. The working environment has not got any better. Why then were they surprised when I handed in my resignation last week? Mainly because it sent them into a spin about how they were going to replace me, I suspect. Especially since I said I wasn't going back after Christmas. They tried to tell me that I couldn't do this - that I would be breaking my contract. I argued that, besides the fact that I have never seen/signed a contract (they tried to say I had a verbal one, which is legally binding in this country, but since I they haven't upheld the conditions they placed on themselves.... anyway), they shouldn't want a teacher in the school who isn't passionate about working there (although, just between you and me, there are plenty of those at this school). I guess I convinced them that they weren't going to break me with their "legal talk" or something, because its all official now, even though, apparently, any reference they write me will "have to include mention of the fact I broke my contract" - pppphhhhhhhhhh whatever - I just need to get out of there. I am currently writing out a full breakdown of my reasons for leaving - I'll let you know when its done if you want to read it.
On a happier note, I have already applied for another job. Its not a teaching job and its not even a design job, but its something I think I'd be really good at. I don't want to say too much about it publicly yet, but I have an interview next Thursday. So 5 days left of my job, an interview the following day and then, next Friday, we get to go home for Christmas :) Hopefully happy Kate will reemerge with better, more regular news soon.
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