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sorry this is just here so i can add a pic to the profile. some things on this blogger are very complicated

having a latvia time!

yes i think if you looked up 'latvia' in the dictionary (or maybe a thesaurus) then the word 'happy' would be right there next to it. well maybe in a very sarcastic dictionary. To explain lisa, jonny and I have just got back from a ryanair enabled quick jaunt to riga, the capital of latvia where we had a great time but weren't convinced the same could be said for teh indigenous latvian population. never before have we seen such a stoney faced non-reactive bunch. I shouldnt be too harsh, they were nice people, maybe they didnt have much to be happy about or maybe they didn't want to show it. but it was strange.

so generally we just milled about the city eating latvian food (potatoes, cabbage and meat), drinking cheap latvian beer (40p ahalf litre) and seeing the sights. one of the highlights for me was eating in a medieval restaurant. The cellar which it was in was first mentioned in 1293 as the most ancient wine-vault and festival place of the Riga City Council! it was all candle lit and they served only medieval meals (so no potatoes as they were only brought over in the 16th century). it could have been a bit over the top like a theme park but i think they got it just right.

oh and after many days of looking i finally found a latvian flag in the airport gift shop. can you belive nowhere in riga sells flags!
probably more riga photos to follow. oh and matt we tried our best not to whistle indoors and on the occasions a peep did slip out we did get some stern (and stoney faced ) looks.

the money and curry from hell

as mark said, new years came 3 minutes early for us in our bar in leeds which kind of stole our thunder a little as we had agreed to celebrate the bringing in of 2006 a second later than everyone else in the bar due to the leap second that had been added on by those kooky atomic clock watchers. we did wait a few more minutes but the reaction wasnt the same after the premature celebration.

there always seems to be such a pressure on new year's eve to have really good plans, to be 'somewhere' when that clock strikes but when i actually look back my most memorable new years were when i wasnt anywhere in particular and hjadnt planned much at all like 2004/5 just sitting around in mark's house or when i stood on a roundabout -not quite having made it into bristol- for the millenium.

so in a bid to avoid the hype lisa an i hot-footed it to leeds for a simple night and it all just fell into place. mark and jo joined us in susanna's emtpy house (situated in the attractive area of beeston, leeds-bomb-making capitol of the England). from there we went into leeds and had the hottest curry known to man. as with every curry i said "hmm not sure what i want to have" to which mark replied "have a vindaloo, they're the best". he too ordered one proving he wasnt just trying to order a hot curry for me. WE WERE IN PAIN. it was stupid. i missed most of the conversation in some sort of curry daze. so we left there and tried to find somewhere to go next and were persauded by the first person selling tickets we came across about 10 metres away. i was quite cool actually. you paid £10 and they gave you 4 banknotes like the one above. which you could exchange for drinks. it was like something out of spirited away- the bath tokens maybe. and to top it off they played some good music- rolling stones, killers ans white stripes etc.

so there we are 2005 over with 2006 just begun. and still another 10 days of holidays. nice

( )

it's 2.15 am. lisa's asleep, roxy the dog is asleep. I however am still writing my pesky essay. ihave 2,500 words but still need to write another section so I may have to cut back. still it's all quite peaceful- a glass of wine, some tortilla chips and dip and some sigur ros in the background. could be worse.

this term is history

not long til stevemas day now, i mean christmas day. sorry sometimes i forget who everyone is making the fuss over, and i seem to have just about made it to the end of term. of course i still have my essay to do but at least all the lessons are out of the way. i've actually learnt a whole lot of history myself this term. strange having to teach a topic one day that you have only learnt about yourself the night before. it's kind of good because i'm still interested in it myself when i'm passing it on to the kids, for example over the last couple of weeks i've taught about welsh pirates, how to attack a medieval castle, the american frontier and how america could have been named after a welshman rather than that italian guy (amerigo vespucci).

lisa and i have also decided it was time to step out of the country again so looked for which flights looked the cheapest and most interesting.we found out that apparently you can go all the way to the latvian capital Riga for about £30 return which is amazing really seeing as its just about in russia. so off we are going for a few days in january.

(just thought i'd make the post a bit christmasy)

the difficult 14th blog post

i notice some of us are slowing down in our frequency of blog posts so i thought i would throw another tuppence worth in. actually i should be doing my pgce essay but obviusly have been putting it off all day. watched two very good dvd's though- the station agent and motorcycle diaries. but i might still get this essay done. a mere 2500 words which isn't too bad. at least it's near the end of term.

just as a christmas notice i wanted to invite all and sundry to the 3rd annual christmas eve coffee at soloman grundy's in withington. 10.30 am we were thinking. it's not really so much a birthday thing more just a get together. so there you are hope you can make it. unless of course you are some random psycho reading this. well hey why not come along aswell. the more the merrier.