Beastley Birthday Bash:)

Well I have survived my 25th Birthday. It was quite the adventure - train ride to London, did some shopping, found the "Maple Leaf" canadian owned and run bar in London, sadly realized canadian lager is inferior to the British lagers, Ate dinner at a S.African restaurant strangely enough called "Giraffe", Drank Margaritta's, enjoyed a bottle of wine whilst chatting up the likes of Mike Cavaletto and Craig Peterson back in Victoria B.C., discovered SKYPE as an amazingly free form of internet teleconferencing, heard sad news about a former chamber singers friend - wish him all the best, Crammed into a local pub for another pint, Made my way to a night club the size of a hockey arena, enjoyed more british lager, saw an amateur strip competition and was mortified that it ended up being my only "birthday suit" experience of the evening... and stumbled home with my wicked awesome friend Heather:) It was a really chilled day and highly enjoyable. Didn't make it to a show on time, so will have to wait out for my next musical venue. Always another reason to go back!!

I guess my big birthday present this year would be "Lester" my new car I bought him from the city of Leicester {pronounced Lester but spelled crazy like on a map}. He just went through a smoking detox where I had to scrub out years of nicotine from the windows, seats and dashboards. My favorite part was the yellow tar that came off with every swipe of the cleaning cloth. My photo is convieniently from far away while it's raining to give the false impression that Lester is shiny and new. Truthfully, he's got dents/cracks galore, the ceiling is peeling off and the interior lighting is rubbish - atleast it's a diesel, cheap on fuel and the engine works great.

That's it for this Birthday entry. I hope you've enjoyed the stories of birthday present and this photo of birthday past I've included. It reminds me how special every chance in life can be and to enjoy living the moment. Have a great wrapp on the month of October!!!

Quarter of a Century....

1/4, 25% [t-w-e-n-t-y f-i-v-e] a corner stone in life:

It's my 25 the birthday; I can't believe I haven't been run over by a bus or something by now. Well all my family and close friends are an ocean away so it looks like birthday 'vingt cinq' will have to be Solo - a man facing the world with everything he has - himself. I've decided to hop on a train and head'r for London, another musical awaits and I think Heather might be willing to give me a couple lessons on how to 'dance my ass off??' I look foward to it. A Post birthday synopsis is always more interesting to read, so with that in mind "Adieu to yeu and yeu and yeu"

Ps: I hope some part of the day requires my birthday suit, that would be a good story to tell;)

A blip on the Radar

Where in the world is SHB?? I've blipped on the radar screen and broke the bloggers two week silence... What a crazy end of term. I've recently joined up with the Warwick Boat Club - it kind of reminds me of the summer club from the Movie Dirty Dancing where all the rich Doctors and Lawyers spend their free time... a bit pretentious - but everyone likes a good smooze now and then. We row on a river and the coaches follow along the river bank on a bicycle.. it's kinda cool. The cox even labelled me a "Powerhouse" in 3 Seat (coxed four)... I've never been referred to as a power house in rowing.. so it made me chuckle a little bit. The men's squad is aiming for 6:40 erg scores so I'm right on target... maybe 3 years ago but I'm ready to jump back into it. The volleyball teams going well, first match in just over a week.. should be fun.

My year nine classes did a popsong music festival. They all got on stage and performed their best rendition of a Kareoki classic. My groups did "I love rock n roll", "Hey Baby" and "Blues Brother - Everybody"... One of my groups placed third in the judging so that was fun. It's half break starting this weekend. I get the next week of JUST FOR MY Birthday - how considerate;). Whatever shall I do with myself??

My new car is a real "Beast" - so special it deserves it's own entry at a later date... that's it for now, I'm happy to have broken the silence. All the best to everyone!!

Gobble Gobble?

Happy Thanks Giving Everyone,

It wasn't until a friendly phone call from Stew that I realized it was thanksgiving... See in England they don't have nearly as many public holidays as Canada - but as a teacher the 7 day term breaks every 6 weeks make up for it I guess? I've wrapped my first October weekend with a trip to Birmingham (and a musical performance of CHICAGO - with a superb Tuba player in the pit orchestra doubling between Tuba & String Bass) and a Sunday afternoon of car hunting. I'll settle for any 4 door, diesel hatchback I can find. It'll be my first car ever, and what a beaut she'll be with a whopping budget less than 500 GBP. I'm off to Leicester tomorrow for a test drive. On the left side of the road this may be an interesting feat!!

The honeymoon is far over with my students, and now they've decided to test all boundaries with me. I've had kids walk out of class, bully others, wander around the room, give 150 variations of attitude and attempt mutany for what Pop idol song the class would do for the talent show... this week I was really tempted to find a cosy office job with a comfy christmas bonus and no coursework to mark...

Lastly, many households do not have dryers here and opt for clotheslines instead... imagine trying to dry your clothes in Victoria during the rainy winter months... it's merely impossible, I had cloths on the line for three days and have given up. They're now inside distributed amongst the 7 different radiators in the house slowly drying at their own tempo... it's been quite the process as you can see me try to smile through the madness....

Well I'm off to a sunday night v-ball practice. I've joined a local team but their calibre of playing is pretty weak - I guess they only focus on mainstream sports here like cricket and lawnbowling???

Eat lots of turkey for me back in Canada, I'll be thinking of everyone as my oven is broken and I hope to spend tomorrow evening on a train in search of a used car...