A note to PC

I could also post pictures of blokes hanging about in shorts and t-shirts, but then, they wear that all year long no matter the weather. Here is a picture of the Cheltenham ladies enjoying themselves in the snow on the hockey pitch two weeks ago.


By now the snow has melted and the temperature is back to an acceptable level, although I almost expect it to get worse again, now that Viki has left, hehe.

Sunday: Laziness

We basically just relaxed on Sunday: we watched The Royal Tenenbaums and enjoyed J's Sunday roast. Since I don't even remember anything apart from that, it must have been a very lazy day ;) But then, we had to mentally prepare for our trip to Oxford the next day (about which I'll also write a few lines, but since I want to watch a film now, that'll have to wait until tomorrow):

Saturday: Gloucester and Clubbing...errrm....

On Saturday, Viki and I went to Gloucester to see the Cathedral which is very beautiful, stunning and even cosy in a way. The cold in the old building didn't exactly appeal to us, and there was a very strange exhibition in the Cathedral by some Swedish church in which bullying and Jesus' life were strangely thrown together, but apart from that, it was brilliant.

Viki eyeing the strange exhibition which used very subtle metaphors.
Parts of the Cathedral from the outside.
View from the inner garden.
Gloucester Cathedral lent its cloisters to the Harry Potter film team and, Viki and me being big fans, we not only had to see the locations, but also to reenact certain scenes from the film.
Viki giving her Severus Snape impersonation (notice the demonic red eyes which were totally intended!)


Expelliarmus!


Here lies some important chap whose name I've forgotten. He was a son of William the Conquerer's who died imprisoned by his brother. The reason for taking this picture wasn't his historic value, but the way he lies there which looks incredibly uncomfortable.


Later, we went to see the historic docks where we found the reason for the number of seagulls living here (water, who would've thought) and the Black Pearl!



In the evening, Thomas finally acted on his promise to cook for us, so we had homemade burgers and chips. Later, Thomas' flatmate, Angel, and a friend of his, an Italian bloke named Marco, joined us. Marco ticked all the boxes that an Italian needs to tick to fulfill all the clichés. He basically used his hands to talk, wasn't exactly subtle in his hitting on Sandra, commented on all the beautiful girls on the telly, etc. I loved his accent, and in general he seems to be an okay guy.
Originally, we wanted to go out clubbing afterwards, but Viki wasn't feeling so hot because she was still struggling with a cold, so we left after a nice evening at around 1am.

German Visitor

Viki arrived on Friday afternoon and we spent the day hanging about the house and walking through town. I volunteered to cook and after the nice Buletten à la Wilfried, we met Thomas, Francois and Sandra at Bentleys for a pint.


Viki was introduced to our drinking companion Wii and I had the impression that they got along fine. Viki is welcome to contradict me here, though. Fortunately, her Mario Kart Wii skills weren't better than our's, so no one managed to rank higher than 11th place. Out of 12, that is.


Viki had an interesting conversation with J about the Minotaur's (see blog picture) penis which is kinda big (note that J+M have a minitiature version of the statue in their living room that spurred the conversation). Anyway, Viki begged me until I took a picture of her with the Minotaur and Hare. Again, Viki is welcome to give her point of view :P

I know I'm not a good blogger anymore. But not a lot is going on, so I rarely know what I'm supposed to write about.
What happened? Let me see...
I assume you know that England got a lot of snow last week, but little did I know that the English are such weather wimps. The public transport system in London stood still (including the Tube, I would like to know how that's possible ;) ) and schools all over the country closed for a few days due to the state the roads were in. The result (schools closing) doesn't suprise me as much as the roads not being gritted properly. They don't exactly keep a stock of salt or whatever they use, because they rarely have that much snow, hence they run out fairly quickly when they do. The grit was just enough for the really big main roads, everything else was just left as it was: slightly smaller main roads, pavements. This time the next door neighbours' children had enough snow to build a three part snowman. Anyway, Pate's was closed on Thursday and Friday which was quite nice and today everyone also hoped that it wouldn't open because we had quite a lot of snow again last night. The new lot has already melted, so no need to close. Hrmpf.

Some weeks ago when I put out the rubbish to be collected the next day, a woman stepped up from behind, her dog on a leash. She asked me whether the bins would be collected the following day which I affirmed. Then, she asked me if I would mind her putting her dog's poo bag (at that point she held up that black bag about whose contents I'd just got informed) into the bin. Niiiice and probably the strangest question I've ever been asked.

We're going to see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button tonight, then there are two more days of work to do before half term aaaand Viki coming over. Plans for when Viki is here: drinking, clubbing, Gloucester (incl. original locations of the Harry Potter films) and probably Oxford.

Update

One of my pupils got beaten up on his way home after a night out last weekend. Apparently it was completey unprovoked which makes things so much worse. He was in hospital on Monday and Tuesday, and I saw him when he came into the language office last week and I was shocked, because by the looks of it, the beating was really bad: black eye, bruises, he even had to get stiches. I wonder how high the hopes are to find the culprits. I also wonder how safe it really is to walk home alone when it's dark.

It was Sandra's birthday on Wednesday and we celebrated it on Thursday evening with quite a lot of booze (yes, I admit, it was too much for me ;) ). Sandra made burritos, we had beer, vodka, rum, scotch tape and my Super Nintendo!


I just love that picture! She had just downed a glass of alcohol.
Things I learned on Thursday evening:
1. I'm rubbish at Super Nintendo when I'm drunk.
2. Don't drink another beer just to pass the time.

J + M are still in London and have been since Wednesday. Thus, I've lived unhealthily for a change and haven't left the house since I got home from Sandra's on Thursday. Ben's sister stayed for the weekend, so Sandra and Ben were busy entertaining her. Next week will be rubbish, because I have to start teaching my extra lessons with year 11. GCSE questions! Hooray! 'Wie ist deine Alltagsroutine?' over and over again! Looking forward to it!