A car is a hole...

To pour money into. After many hundreds of pounds I now have a car that is not a risk to my health, and only two repayments left on the insurance so I should soon have some money with which to do things, cool things, foreign things. Well, that is if the taxman doesn't decide to take it all away from me. But enough of a moan for now. On to plot...

Since September my life has been relatively routine, plodding along at work alternating between pulling my hair out and a feeling of 'huh, well that worked'. Nothing terribly interesting to report. Although I have finally gotten myself into gear in regards to extra-curricular stuff (other than DOE). Started two clubs. One, the role playing group, currently has four year 12 students, two of which are capable of running games so that will be good if/when numbers increase. The other group has been referred to y my fellow staff members as a cult but really it is just me trying to improve this country by upskilling some young citizens in the values and skills they should have learnt anyway. Still creating the history for this but the Order of Orion will have links to all the cool guys from history, the knights of the round table, knights errant, order of assassins, the musketeers, and whatever else I can come up with to make it seem mysterious and cool.

Speaking of DOE, spent several weekends in the Wales farmhouse with groups of students. Interesting seeing them in a different light. Got in some decent hiking trips as well. Also had a staff training weekend in Wales. Managed to get fastest orienteering time which is good.

TKD is going pretty well, in fact have my next grading coming up in a week to go from yellow tag to yellow belt. Shouldn't be too difficult though. Also attended a competition the other weekend. Managed to come home with two gold trophies, one for white belt patterns and the other for yellow belt heavyweight sparring so not too bad an effort.

Role playing continues to be interesting. My Star Wars character is a hard-hitting Kel-Dor with two Sithy looking sabers who hasn't had much fighting recently. Wraith finished with our ghosts rising from the dead and banishing the bad dudes to somewhere horrid. The new steampunk game sees me playing a Maori airship privateer who can fly like no ones business near the speed of sound while scorching the Earth in his kick-ass ship.


Went for a drive with Sam on Friday as I had the day off. We went to Shuttleworth falconry centre to find it closed so we looked at some old churches. Then I decided I was hungry so we drove all the way to Felixstowe so I could have fish and chips on the beach. It was good, but damn was it cold.

The snow has started for the season. About an inch on the ground, just not enough to close the school which means not only do I still have to work, I have to go through a harrowing journey twice a day. Here's hoping for a decent fall over the weekend so I don't have to go in on Monday.

Coming up on two years now since I left the homeland. While I do miss the country occasionally and the people more often, I have pretty much decided to stay here in England another few years, Probably until I can get citizenship. This should mean I return with more money in the bank and allows me more time to see this part of the world, but it does mean I miss out on events back home but that can not be avoided. In summer I may make an effort to come home for a month or so, depending on what the bank balance looks like of course.

Until next time (in several months most like),

Arriverderci miei amici