Four eyes

I need to get glasses to correct my short sightedness!

I was at the pub a while ago, and couldn't make out how much time was left on the clock (probably just as well, coz it was that rubbish European qualifying game where England lost to Croatia 2-0) but I put my flatmates glasses on, for comparison, and was so shocked at how clear everything was!

So as a result, I finally went to the opticians to get an eye test and the verdict is glasses. At least I got some nice ones anyway....

So what does an English Ecologist do???

Well they work for the developer, to clear large areas of prime grassland habitat, with loads of diversity, the most amazing beetles and loads of lizards, snakes, great crested newts. Remove them off site, then do 'destructive' searches where they get big giant diggers in and dig up all the habitat, and the ecologists stand there and supervise them to rescue anything thats left.
Kinda sad, and thats what ive been doing all week. Fine, its great that they are putting in all the effort to remove everything off-site, and granted i was getting paid to do it, and didn't have to do it if I was that against it, but i just think its all arse.

But on a cool note, I got to have a go at driving a big digger! yeeha!

As a result of working long 13 hours days Im very very tired today (ie falling asleep at the pub tired, which was the case last night!)- but hopefully a couple of kilos lighter, with all the hard manual labour I was doing!

.... and

im working hardcore.... (and in the holidays boooo!) getting up at 5am, leaving at 5.30am and returning home at around 6ish. Supervising contractors with my old consultancy job... happy days, but tired grumpy carly.

And mouseypoos hasn't been caught yet either!

Mouse saga...

The trap has been set for mouseypoos..... the waiting game begins.........

Yay for me!

Im not normally so up-my-self... but Im the leading goal scorer in our 5-a-side football league.

Probably because I'm not really used to scoring that many goals.

I love football : )

I saw a mouse

WHERE?!
Where on the stair, where on the stair, right there.

Actually its in the kitchen but I'm slightly perturbed- what if theres a huge colony of them, or something? Or worse, Rats????

Will be getting some mousey traps tomorrow!

Im the meantime we were trying to decide what to call it (he/she??)

Suggestions thus far have included Mickey or Jerry, but my personal fave is Mouseypoos

Just to clarify

To explain the 'I crushed my sunglasses with my bossom' post, they were clipped to the front of my teeshirt (therefore right in the middle of my chest), and I leaned against the side of a door, talking to the school secretary Shilpa thus crushing them between my chest and the door.

We won!

Great result last night, completely anhilating Kingsbury High School 4-0. In the ultimate insult to English football, Dave Phillips scored..... with his head!

And in other random news, I just love Saturday mornings.... especially those without a hangover, and I just love the Saturday morning cooking shows you get. Sooooo hungry now though!

Anyway following
Jo’s list theme and upon receiving a email from Cest I thought I'd share with you the official 'You know that you have been living in the UK for too long when....'

You don't even bother looking out of the window when you get up in the morning to check what the day is like. You know it is overcast. Actually the weather has been really gorgeous! Wearing teeshirts and shorts in October is the way forward....

You believe that Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday are all good nights for drinking. Sunday day is also entirely reasonable. I couldn't agree more!

You can't remember what 'customer service' means. I concur, getting ignored is pretty standard

After a big night out you find yourself looking for a Curry house and not a 24 hour McDonalds.
You start to accept queuing as a way of life. Actually its always the Chicken and Rib place on South Ealing Road, which I happend to visit at 11.30pm last night after the game!

More than three hours sunlight on summer days seems excessive. Don't entirely agree with that one

You always call soccer 'football' ... and you have a team ... and it's not Manchester United. Liverpool is kinda my team this year, apart from Middlesbrough, of course

You don't think twice about buying a packaged sandwich. I particularly recommend the ASDA ones!

A sunny lunchtime means searching for a patch of grass and stripping off practically down to your underwear. Especially in the winter.....

You expect men to actually cut, comb and style their hair (using hair products). And to wear decent clothes. Jeans and a T-shirt are no longer socially acceptable. A guy at work spends more on his hair cut than I do! And wears fake tan and wears pink tee shirts

You think 40 quid for a haircut is quite reasonable. Bloody rip off, if you ask me!

You finish every sentence with 'Cheers' or "In'it", and start every conversation with Hiya or Alright.

You only just realise you have lost your sunglasses-you left them in Greece 2 summers ago. I actually managed to crush mine with my bossom!

You start thinking English cuisine isn't all that bad after all, I mean, it's hard to beat a full English breakfast. Mmmmm black pudding!

You are on to your 6th umbrella and your second overcoat. Broke my umbrella trying to beat Richie up the other day.....

You buy a disposable baby BBQ from Argos. Good old Argos.....

You realise your sunscreen is the stuff you originally brought from home with you. And is like white paint, in comparison to the weak ones you get here!

A day at the beach means wearing the warmest clothes you own while standing on golf ball-size pebbles and the thought of swimming doesn't even enter your head. If you are lucky enough to live anywhere near one!

You actually say, "Sor'ed" or "it's all gone a bit pear shaped". I don't actually!

Wearing a suit in a pub is relatively normal attire. Good old after work drinkies!

You have given up complaining about the Victorian-like banking services offered in the UK. So so true

Coming to work with a hangover is entirely accepted and indeed expected at least once a week. Im notorious for it!

The big game preview volume 2

Tomorrow Kingsbury High School will feel the might of the all-powerful Woodfield School staff football team. Coming off the back of a narrow 5-4 loss to Chingford High School, the staff are confident of scoring at least 15 goals, if Steves dream comes true!

Carly Pannell (and after Englands god awful performance last night, is no longer known as Woodfields answer to Gary Neville) is particularly confident coming off the back of a 4 goal spree and man of the match performance for the EDAW Terriers in Camden, on Monday night!

BRING IT ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Noooooooooooooooooooooo!

Im dismayed to learn that the fabulous Justin Hawkins (pictured...... ooooh yeah!) has quit The Darkness!

I must admit that I never bought their latest album but they were a good tongue in cheek glam rock band! They were pure class.....

Im so sad !

Even more scary is that the band are going to continue without him..... not a good move, me thinks!

Fire alarm fun

Question: Whats the coolest thing to do on a horrible, dark, rainy day?

Answer: Set the school fire alarm off!

We were doing an experiment on combustion in the lab, according to the big A, Arshad an experiment he has done many-a-time before, and the smoke wafted into the smoke alarm, thus setting the alarm off. I raced down the corridor to tell the deputy head that it was us and it was a false alarm, but too late- outside in the horrible wet cold. AND it even started raining even harder. The rolls were taken and 120 soggy kids trudged back inside hehehehehehehe!

Wierd dreams

Every so often I have a re-occuring dream involving tornadoes- one dream involved them coming over the Waitakere Rangers and threatening my house, and the one I had last night involved myself and a whole heap of others sheltering in cars and a house, as one after one came over. The scary thing about these dreams is you can clearly see the shape of the tornado...

Well according to Dream moods tornadoes symbolise....

To see a tornado in your dream, suggests that you are experiencing some extreme emotional outbursts and temper tantrums. Is there a situation or relationship in your life that may be potentially destructive?

Nothing that I can particular pin point???

To dream that you are in a tornado, signifies that you are feeling overwhelmed and out of control. You will be met with a series of disappointments for the next week or so. Your plans will be filled with complications.

At one point I was inside the tornado...... great, looks like I'm in for a bit of a ride..... maybe its because winter is coming?!

To see several tornadoes in your dream, represent people around you who are prone to violent outbursts and shifting mood swings. It may also symbolize a volatile situation or relationship

Well there were heaps of tornadoes in my dream, but I'm not in a relationship, or know of anyone who is prone to violent outbursts.... maybe shifting mood swings, but not a major? Maybe im going to finally go mad, which is what most have expected for a wee while!!!!

Not sure what to make of that, really, except for I'm sure its all a load of bollocks!

Madness in München

Well folks.... here is the lowdown from my trip to Oktoberfest..... I was going to say Munich, but I only saw the road between the Hostel we were staying at and the Oktoberfest beer tents, bar a 2 hour trip into town to kill some time before our flight home.....

To explain Oktoberfest its like a massive fairground with massive beer tents that you go to and....surprise drink beer out of big massive litre beer steins. You have to be seated to be served and you have to tip the waiters so they come back so you basically have to get there really early (ie queue up before it opens, which means very early morning starts). Basically beer and pretzels for breakfast. Theres an oompah band (big brass band playing) and ever so often they play this song called Ein Prosit (Cheers on the friendliness or words to that effect) and everyone goes mental and stands on their seats and swings their steins.

SO.............

Friday (Freitag)
Up early to meet Cest and Tim at London City Airport (which is kinda annoying as I only live about 20 minutes on the tube from Heathrow but not a bother.....) leave my place, walk up the road and discover its been cordoned off by the cops. Hmmmmm its still dark and I have my big pack and the cops like 'no I have to walk back towards Northfields station. Poos... so I haul my pack and head down to Northfields station- those in the know will realise how stressed I get.... so i get halfway down my road and its cordoned off... AGAIN! So i talk to the cops and they let me through and I leg it to Northfields (extra 10 minutes walk). Getting increasingly flustered, I immediately get on the westbound tube, instead of the eastbound for town and ended up the next stop along in Boston Manor Rd... two stops back off South Ealing. Grrrrrrrr!Turns out that there was a fire close to our place and there was gas involved or something. The cops knocked on all the doors on our street and people were told that they either stayed inside for the day, or went to work and didn't return until 6am! So really I picked a great day to go!

Anyway it kinda went like this.....Airport, breakfast, flight delayed, get on plane, take off, get to Munich Airport, catch train to city centre, offload packs at hostel, meet up with others and go to Hippodrome beer tent, drink lots of beer, bed (in that exact order) followed.

I quickly came to the conclusion that night that Oktoberfest wasn't only about meeting people, drinking beer and eating pretzels, but also trying to keep away from dodgy Italians and buying tacky hats (Please refer to the Flikr link for photos).

The Hippodrom tent was wicked- we met up with Cest's british friends she worked with in NZ- Liam, Luc, Lindsey, Andy, Suz and Sara, and pretty much drank in the beer garden until closing, and stumbled home. We sat with some oldie Italian guys and had some wicked conversations in broken english/german. Gotta love it! Probably the most odd thing of the night was biting Cest on the arm in my drunken state rather too hard, giving her a huge bruise. To punish myself, in my drunk wisdom I also bit myself and now have a large bruise, with people asking how I did it, which is rather embarrasing to explain. Yes Im a biter! The other funny thing is that the bruise is in the shape of the Wu Tang logo! hehehehehehehehe. I definitely remember it being a lovely warm night anyway.


Saturday (Samstag)
Woke up, very hungover (Hippodrome beer, therefore, is not recommended!), and looked around the dorm and realised that our group had accquired two Italians and Andy, who was supposed to be sleeping in another room. Quite funny. Anyway it was all urgency because it was Saturday, the biggest day of the week, so we all dragged our sorry arses down for the 9am opening of the Fischer Veroni tent.
So it was beer and a pretzel for breakfast- it did not cure my hangover or make me feel any better, and as a result I was on rather poor form : (. I managed 2 steins, hung out there for the day, but sadly went to bed at 8pm that was it really..... but, my friends, the best was yet to come....

Sunday (Sonntag)
The bestest, and coolest day of the trip! Absolute gold! Brilliant fun! I think it was karma or something, because we got to the Lowenbrau tent just after opening at 10am, and couldn't find a table anywhere. We had almost resided to the fact that we would have to squeeze onto someone elses table, when we were approached by one of the waitresses saying that she had got a couple of seats saved if we wanted it, as she was stuck serving dodgy italians the previous day, and didn't want a repeat. So she really did us one HUGE favour- and best of all it was really close to the oompah band yeeeeeeeha (even though there was a big table full of fanatics there, they are the Aussie equivalent of the beige brigade)! Of course we had to tip her, but our table steadily turned into the party table as the others that slept in joined us. The beer went down far too easily for 10am in the morning, the band struck up, a crazy chicken hat was purchased and the rest is just a big drunk blur of happiness. Highlights at some point include:

• Signing a chest of some fanatics guy
• Singing Hey Jude, full bore with everyone at our table standing on the table, I think....
• smoking cigars with some German oldies, discussing the finer points of the concentration camp, Dacau
• Meeting some Aussie girl who lived down the road from me and constantly saying that we were neighbours (apparently she was giving me funny looks!)
• Meeting a Aussie guy Shaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaane Murray (hows that for a good Aussie name!) who had legally changed his name to Prudence Murray to win some university competition
• Leaving the Lowenbrau tent at closing (13.5 hours of drinking later) and going for a midnight curry at the Restaurant across from the hostel
• Just about pissing myself laughing after the curry by singing that 'heeeeeeeeeeeeeey, hey baby and instead of doing the ooooh haaaa bit blowing my nose instead. Nuff said.

Monday (Montag)

Hungover, sleepy and looking forward to going home. Went into Munich city to try and find an old beer tent but gave up, had some food and went back to the hostel, picked up the bags and headed off the airport.

Soooooooo much good times, I'm just so tired now! Go to Oktoberfest everyone!!!!!