Oooooooooooo.......

ebay speculation...

2006-12-29T23:56:00.000Z

I'm going to write like I was never gone, see if anyone notices...

Hehehe...

Heellooooo....

I'm currently watching 'Most Haunted' which gives me nightmares... )= Just I can't reach the controller and I'm being super lazy and it would involve way too much work!! So nightmares it is then....!

By the way I found myself in this situation last night too..... "Ooooo the orbs, the orbs....!!" ...

Reminds me of my sausage-roll fetish... should probably explain that..

Everytime I eat eat a sausage roll I get a headache, if I eat another sausage-roll then my headache gets worse, quite simple really.... no idea why!!

But that doesn't stop me eating them... if I'm at someone's house and they happen to have a plate of those delicious treats, then I'm buggered! Literally.... well not literally, but you know what I mean.

So I wanted to talk about ebay speculation, which is a term I've just decided to make up, I think it could become a sensation!! Watch this space!

It involves buying stuff on ebay and then selling them on for a profit, come to think of it someone else has thought of it before... but did they coin a term?? Should I copyright this?

Probably not...

Back with a bang...

2006-12-29T23:52:00.000Z

... what better way than with this Eddie Murphy classic...

Apparently only 3.5 stars on youtube.... what??? What is the world thinking...!!

Check out the doos, the dancing and my hero Eddie...

2006-03-20T03:38:00.000Z

Well it's about time I started writing again!!

I'm going to make it easier on myself, and post a photo along with a story each time I write.

Hope you like it!

(:

Here's a pic that I like to start the whole thing off!

This is a picture from Fuzhou zoo. A funny family moment!

Many goings on...

2005-09-07T06:37:00.000Z

Thought it was about time for a post here, a lots happened in these past weeks...

Just got back from Portugal, had an awesome time there!! Saw all the sights of Lisbon, Faro, Albufeira, Portimao and many other places you've never heard of... My parents were out there too, we saw them for two days. It was sooo hot down there, I absolutely loved the weather. However, coming back, not happy, the weather is shit! Rainy and cold, good Asturian weather!! However, this will not last for long as we're moving to the warm climate of Fuzhou in South East China in a matter of days.

Yeah, I said good bye to our boss (yesterday) of the academy, which wasn't the nicest conversation in my life, oooooooo! And we're packing our bags as we speak!!! We'll be flying off to Shanghai very shortly and to our new abode in Fujian province. We've been offered a lucrative job in Minjiang University, that means we'll be University teachers!!! So that means no more sweet teenagers, no more sending people out, no more "-1 for speaking Spanish" or for the smaller one's " ): unhappy face for speaking Spanish"!!!

So we're definitely looking forward to that. It's Carolina's first time in China, so she's caking her pants as we speak, as is her family!!! I enjoyed the phone call to her mother when aparently she was speechless!!! Happy times!! Last time in China my mother refused to visit, but the lure is becoming too much I think... we'll see though.

So we've already planned a trip to Hong Kong to get our official visas so look out for photos of that soon, as well as many other trips around the place.

I'm going to leave you with a description of Fuzhou which sounds really cool....

"Capital of Fujian provice, Fuzhou is a 2,000-year-old city with rich cultural heritage. It lies opposite Taiwan across the strait. The city abounds in banyan trees that were mostly planted at the time of the Northern Song Dynasty (A.D. 960-1127). So Fuzhou is also known as Rong Cheng, meaning the City of Banyans. Fuzhou has been the native place of famous men over the generations who made history. More historical sites are found in the city of Fuzhou than most of other Chinese cities. The three hills of Yu, Wu and Ping stand at triangular positions, while the two pagodas Bai Ta(White Pagoda) and Wu Ta (Black pagoda) face each other at a distance. These make up the city's landscape. Places of interest include the residence stone carvings and the cork sculpture, are objects of admiration since early on both in China and abroad. Fuzhou has abundant hot springs, and good quality hot spring water is supplied at the bathrooms of hotels. Fuzhou is also famous for culinary art. Gourmets' fascinations are such delicacies as Fo Tiao Qiang (Buddha-Jumps- Over-The-Wall) and clams in chicken soup. Fuzhou is accessible by modern routes of communication. It welcomes tourists from abroad and elsewhere in China".

Back...

2005-08-19T22:32:00.000Z

I've been away for a while, it's true, but now I'm back, really. After working my ass off for 6 long weeks at summer camp(pictures above), I've finally found the time to write a post about something. I thought about writing about my love of today...Branston Pickle... but you don't know what it is and there's not many words I can use to describe it, delicious, tasty and great, not enough to fill a post. I can tell you what book I'm reading..I started reading it today and I'm already half way through it, it's by a new author to me, Sydney Sheldon, it's a book called 'Sands of time' and Carolina has promised me that it's better than Da Vinci Code... so far it's v.good, so we'll see.

I'm reliving my fast reading skills days. When I was 10/11 years old I read all the books on the school reading book trolley, I know what your thinking, but yes all three shelves!!! Then the teacher said "Great, you've finished!", I was happy to have achieved something, which is important as a 10/11 year old, even if it was to finish a book trolley, there were more than 100 books!!! A modern day 'Matilda' except I didn't really read a book since. I did go through a phase of reading those 'decide the story' books, where you read a page and you chose what you should do next, which decision to take... they were pretty lame though, I cheated. For example, when you knew you were coming to the end of the book and the decision at the bottom of the page was

'throw the magic rock at the mad wizard from hell' turn to page 33
'run like hell back to the enchanted little village' turn to page 178
'try to talk to the mental wizard and reason with him' turn to page 233

...a quick sneaky peak at page 233 revealed a certain and gruesome death, and turning to page 178 meant that you'd have to read the last 20 pages over again and retake the same decisions, then throwing the magic rock was feeling really attractive, especially after the mad wizard from hell had kidnapped the precious diamond finger from the hand of Dragnar that held the power for all the land... ...so they were pretty lame...

Sometime between now and finishing the trolley I read all the Roald Dahl classics... not sure when. And a book along the way called 'Winjin Pom' which since then has been my favourite book. And considering no one else has probably read this book, then you know it's bad... ...the plot was about an Australian talking caravan and I remember that talking crows were the bad guys, and the good guys travelled around in this caravan, doing crazy capers. Not a day goes by without me thinking about that book, and the TV series...

But I'm trying to make up those lost days since 10/11, having been told I've finished reading now... my new favourite books are probably 'Da Vinci Code' and 'Wild Swans' -Jung Chang(just in case you'd heard of him), both awesome, for completely different reasons.

So I've officially written enough for a post.

I have got even more photos on my flickr account, loads with our new Nikon camera!!!

Make sure you try some Branston Pickle.

And don't listen when someone tells you to stop reading, unless your in certain danger, i.e. mad wizards, buses, poison...

And go see Charlie and the Chocolate factory...

And take a look a Carolina's flickr too while your at it!!

New photos!!!

2005-06-22T10:47:00.000Z

So I've been bust taking photos and uploading photos, blah, blah, blah.

I have the photos from Niao and madrera&Tazones and I also started a new flickr account.

So enjoy yourself!!!

Greek tradegdy

2005-06-20T21:39:00.000Z

I'm reading this book at the moment, it's called "The Secret History" and I'm really enjoying it. It's all about Ancient Greek and it's very far away from the modern Greece of cheap holidays, and tight jeans and white t-shirts. Although I did have the best omlettee I've ever tasted in Greece one early drunken morning!! Oooooooo!!! Despite this book being 600 pages long I started reading it with an open mind... it seems like unfortunately the best books I've read recently have been really long... why o why?? So here's a picture I found and I really like it, I'm not sure where it's from, what do you think??

Alpha Beta Beta Pie

Summer of a beach!

2005-06-18T22:26:00.000Z

After finally publishing the McDonalds post I can't be bothered to write any more!! I had a bad beginning of the day, woke up at 6am to be an examiner for Cambridge English Exams. But the day suddenly got better when I got back home to Gijón and my baby. We went to the beach for the rest of the day, fell asleep on the grass after that for an hour or two looking at an amazing view of the sea, then we went to our favourite restaurant, Versuvio!! Happy times... bring on tomoro!! Wish you were all here!!

Beach folk...

Beach angel...

Ooooooo...

View...

My latest book... "The Secret History" Donna Tartt...

American Eagle lasts forever!!!...

que guapa esta chica!!!...

The latest craze... Bamboozle!!! Otherwise known as "Bat 'n' Ball"...

I love this picture!!!...

So having an amazing time here on the beach... the best boss I had ever was at summer camp, Stew Fritz, he was also a school teacher... he also worked as an ice cream seller on Jones Beach, that was his favourite job out of all three!!! I think I might join him!!!

Happy holidays everyone, move closer to a beach if you don't live near one!!!!

¿Mc Donalds?

2005-06-18T21:38:00.000Z

Well I had to decide what to write about and it came down to two things “The Dog Story in China” or “What I think about McDonalds/Super Size Me Film”. The latter won because it's fresh and I can't forget the now mysterious “Dog in China” story....which I'll promise to tell you soon!

So I watched the movie “Super Size Me” the other day... because of various recommendations... “you'll never eat McDonalds again....”. Oooooo why not? So we watched it and I did enjoy him getting fatter and fatter because of the 1 month diet of JUST McDonalds!! And the effect on the liver was interesting... but for me, the movie, despite that was pretty pointless... I mean who thinks McDonalds is a healthy meal?? Who exactly thinks fries, burger and a coke is healthy?? Now that McDonalds are being sued is interesting, I think their being punished for their success!! But I think their success is based on the bad education... not just by the education system, but parents, friends... however I think that it's clear to most people that fast food is unhealthy, most of the 'victims' of McDonalds are surely more a victim to their own greed and laziness, than to misinformation on McDonalds part...! I openly admitt that I enjoy McDonalds food, and after summers in America, I did return looking like a bit of a fatty!! But that wasn't due to McDonalds, we only went there about once a week, maximum... it was due to American food! Sloppy Joe's, pizzas, bug juice, burgers, steak, good old fashioned American cuisine!! Sure I enjoyed it, and at summer camp it was perfect, high energy food, but otherwise, it's sooo rich in energy/FAT!!! I think it's a bad thing that McDonalds gets all the blame, just for being the most successful. Sure, theres a higher pecentage of obese Americans now, which is directly correlated to McDonalds growth, but surely that is a result of todays society, not McDonalds fault!! And as McDonalds is probably one of the most successful American companies in the world, surely it should be something Americans should be proud of, not angry or embarassed with!! There's a McDonalds in just about every country on the globe, that's amazing. I remember in China, it was so busy there, always people in there, always people in there, day, evening and night. And actually they weren't fat at all, they were all so skinny. So I think it's time to stop blaming other people and start to place the blame on yourselves. I at the moment am on a bit of a diet, and I 've never blamed other people for a bit of fat here and there, it wasn't the fault of any company, person, or brand. It's upto me and me alone to have a healthy lifestyle and not to be lazy and pop by McDonalds on the way home!!! I will continue to go by McDonalds when I feel like it, but surely not often, in fact I don't remember the last time I went!! But remember it's your life, so don't depend on others to run it for you, or to place the blame on them when things don't go your way!!!

I¡m sure there's a range of opinions out there and please I'd love to hear them, don't be scared to tell me what you think!! I'm lovin' it!!

Pericones

2005-06-08T10:32:00.000Z

Despite the name sounding like a disease this is actually our local park... it's now full of topless sun worshippers and exercising grandads, no old women though for some reason, hang on a minute... there not exercising at all......! Anyway, this is the place of the newly introduced fitness sessions where we are getting those beach bodies for the summer, it can't fail!!!

This time last year I was swimming every day and I was looking pretty trim, I must say!!! After a summer in America on a 'Super Size Me' type diet and after that too many Spanish Tortillas and Versuvio pizzas, it's time for diet and exercise. My diet includes:

1) no more of the drink of the gods, Colacao

2) regular exercise

3) not eating out so much

4) eating half of everything......half the calories!!!

5) looking at my stomach a lot and saying "Hmmmmmm", "tut tut tut".

6) joined a full contact/kick boxing class

So I'll show you some pictures of the PARK of the PERICONES for you to enjoy!!

The tree of the life...

A lonely swing...

Some completely mental fitness freak...

My new t-shirt....(unrelated).....do you like it??....

Join the Alex fitness plan today...

Riballanes

2005-06-04T23:15:00.000Z

Went on a bit of a day trip today with some friends that are visiting and of course Carolina... we saw some amazing things:

-chocolate dinosaurs,

-a bright red man(my friends having spent all of Thursday on playa San Lorenzo getting burn't like my dads' famous food[he even burn't pizza, how does that happen, everytime!!!]),

-me reading for a sustained amount of time without moving- guess who's reading "Da Vinci Code" (amazing!!),

And these equally exciting things from my journeys arouns Ribadesella and Llanes...

Flowers...

Giant cube from outer space...

Old man from outer space...

Flying horse from the outer of the space...

A gate post...

I wish you were there to experience these things...

If you haven't read Da Vinci Code then read it now, I'm loving it...

OOOooooo so exciting...

REM

2005-05-30T12:55:00.000Z

We went to the REM concert last night, which was amazing....! I have no good photos to show you apart from some pre-photos of Pauli getting drunk and the source of so many peoples happiness...beer....

One guy before the concert drank way too much and passed out next to us, he fell down next to us and his mates put him in the recovery position... seconds later he stood up, and his friends took him home. A good €30 well spent there!!! During all the commotion me and Carolina kept our heads. As a trained advanced emergency first aider, this is very important, we pushed forward in the confusion and got a much better spot, well done there!!!

We found ourselves behind the two tallest people in the whole place though. There definately should be a height limit for these people or a rule to make them stand at the back...

...it all makes sense...

blah, blah, blah....

Leon

2005-05-17T13:27:00.000Z

Leon sounds very much like lion, which is probably what brought people there all those years ago. This place is really flat and ideal for bike riding which we thought would be a fun thing to do, untill we realised that the wind was as strong as the salad dressing at dinner, which was a shame due to my necessity to eat something due to the seafood paella being a little too seafoody!!! But there was some nice cheese, which painfully got taken away when the salad and paella arrived... So we went on the windiest bike ride of my life, and both of my tyres were flat... happy days... then I played dominoes with the sweetest boy in the world, Carolinas' cousin, and I started by letting him win, but after a while I thought I'd beat him and put him in his place, but I couldn't, he just got really lucky, he has some skills, and all at the age of 3 year old, hmmmm. Maybe not my game.

During the bike ride we came across an abandoned castle and absolutley no-one about, the place was like a ghost town!! Untill during dinner the hostess told us to go outside, only to find 100s of people just walking about on somesort of procession, dancing about and playing instruments, why weren't we invited to the party!? 100s of people... then we went home which only took about 2 hours despite it taking 3 to get there, no idea how that happened!! I didn't break any laws or landspeed records on the way back or anything... so now I'm back fresh from a day at work, none of the kids went crazy, and my last class didn't come because it was pissing it down, happy days!!! This was not looking like it was going to be a good day however when I started work, which is summed up in the last photo!!

Ahhhhhhhhhh, the worst time on the worst day of the week, ):

today

2005-05-14T18:13:00.000Z

I've been away for some time, doing stuff keeping busy, being kept busy, so here's some photos to ease myself back into putting something on my blog...

Carolina fresh after a beating at trivial persuit in her mother tongue that's she's spoken all her life...

Carolina + new shades, check out the scarf in abid to be more 'classy' and 'fancy'...

Gimme a piece of da pie

The full pie of cheese, or cheese pie if you will...

The happy couple, today's Ag monsters' birthday, well done, happy Bday, good things...

Pauli amazed by my knowledge of all in the universe

This is the view from the pizza shop where we 'did' lunch before our drinking session...

The famous trophy for the winner of the day, the words "lucky, lucky bastard" kept being said but on the whole the best man won, and he is now very happy!!!

And tomorrow I'm going to Leon with the family de ella... more news to come...

Right Said Fred

2005-04-09T07:08:00.000Z

I promise the next post will be more cultural, I promise, I promise...

When I say "Right Said Fred", you probably say "One hit wonder" or "Gay wonder" but then I'd say "No" and then you's say "Waa?" then I'd say "Yeah, not true" then you'd say "Oooo" then I'd refer you to this blog post and you'd get all freaked out due to the "deja-vu"-ness of it all.

No truth is, as a British Musical superstar, Right Said Fred has a lot more to offer... I found myself looking at his website, yes he has a website, and theres loads of interesting stuff....hmmm...

Well anyway he wasn't just a one hit wonder, have you forgotten or heard the classics "Deeply dippy" or "Don't talk just kiss"....

I love the lyrics of Deeply dippy and they are actually quite accurate still today...

Deeply Dippy

Deeply dippy 'bout the curves you got
Deeply hot, hot for the curves you got
Deeply dippy 'bout the fun we had
Deeply mad, mad for the fun we had

Oh my love
I can't make head nor tail of passion
Oh my love
Let's set sail for seas of passion now

Deeply dippy 'bout the way you walk
Contact sport, let the neighbours talk
Deeply dippy, I'm your Superman
I'll explain, you're my Lois Lane

Oh my love
I can't make head nor tail of passion
Oh my love
Let's set sail for seas of passion now
Sail away

Deeply dippy 'bout your Spanish eyes
Sierra smile, legs that go on for miles and miles

Oh my love
I can't make head nor tail of passion
Oh my love
Let's set sail for seas of passion now

...Spanish eyes!!! It's so accurate, haha! Mental.

Top 5 things I didn't know and you definately didn't know about the "legend", these are all true apparently...

1. "I’M TOO SEXY was banned by Government officials in South Korea!".....good...
2. "RIGHT SAID FRED are brothers RICHARD FAIRBRASS and FRED FAIRBRASS"...there was two???
3. "Madonna publicly expressed a desire to ‘bed Richard’ in front of sixty million viewers of America’s Arsenio Hall Show. Richard is still waiting!" .....what so you mean he's still waiting, no he isn't....he's a gay super icon, you writes this stuff??
4. They have 5 albums....no way!!!
5. "A bride to be in the USA suffocated to death amidst the breasts of a table-top dancer as they were listening to “I’M TOO SEXY”; according to onlookers it excited him to an unnatural and fatal peak"...... if your going to die then this is the way to go, I wonder what his parents said....apparently "Who could have known that when he was waving his hands around, he was signaling for help?"...hahah.. and.... "Those breasts were lethal weapons," he told reporters. Heres the story!!

Why I hate mosquitos and other animals....

2005-04-06T00:04:00.000Z

I can't sleep because the first sighting of 2005 has been reported...while I drifted off to the beautiful home of slumberland while watching one of the Jackie Chan classics (Gorgeous 1999)... and along came a mosquito to ruin the moment... thus sporns the story "Why I hate mosquitos and maybe other animals... I can`t sleep now, having murdered one just now, not due to guilt, but due to the dawning of the new season, bites, itching, purchase of a special plug...

This is the mosquito I just killed in my room just now, it was easy to catch but it's only a small one...Well this is how big they seem to me. Last year I realised that Spanish Mosquitos have taken a bit of a shine to me, unfortunately!! I´ve never had a problem before but now I do... Over the period of four weeks in November, usually thought of as a winter month, I found a total of 20 mosquitos in my room, two of which I didn't catch... the worst thing was my housemate only found about two in this time, one of which was a giant mosquito mind you, but never the less... another problem is that my housemate due to him being a vegetarian won't kill mosquitos, and would rather let them go free and easy... vegetarians should be able to kill mosquitos surely!!! You don't have to eat it for fucks sake... then I bought a plug and everything stopped.. I was highly sceptical of the whole plug idea, but it worked straight away, thus ending the slaughter and murder that will be told in many stories in history... but now it feels like my serial killer days are to be restarted again, the time feels right and mosquitos are invading my personal space so you may not hear from me for some time... or I could just buy a plug again...

And apparently I haven't even got it that bad because this crazy chinese guy has a theory about mosquitos also, it´s an international thing...

PS Other animals will come later, but include: wasps, bees, snails, tics, horse flys.....

stuffed animals, this guy is soo funny...

millipedes this is sooo disgusting!!!

dead animals hahaha,

slugs this is disgusting but not real, apparently, hahahahaha,

buzzy flys, disgusting...

big beetles bad joke, sorry...

spiders woohoo hours of fun and not scary like the real things....,

jellyfish, i do love jelly, but hate jellyfish, seguro!!

Note that not many real photos have been used and that this is because I have to go to bed now, and tend to dream about what I last thought about before I sleep... I did come accross a the most disgusting photo that I've ever seen in my life of a camel spider that is the size of a big dog, I'm just glad I'm not a camel!!!!!!!!!!!!

Good night, ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Here are the top things I remember about China...

2005-04-05T09:37:00.000Z

10) People asking to have their pictures with you, just because your a foreigner!! I can imagine that they have my picture all round their houses, weird!!

9) 24hour Chinese food made in the best Chinese restaurant I´ve ever been too!!! If you go late at night you wine and dine with all the 'KTV' girls, which is interesting...

8) Being offered the delicacy of the day and realising it´s dog meat, no thank you!!

7) Having security guards on every corner despite being a country with next to zero crime!!!

6) People talking to me while I am in the shower, both of us completely naked for like 10 minutes because he has this really important story to tell me about chinese customs...he actually whipped back the curtain and demanded to tell me the story...

5) Going to the supermarket and seeing all the crazy fish, crabs, snakes, frogs, toads, jellyfish that you can by...and they also were packed in like a chinese bus (refer to number 4, and also they were in tanks which were right next to each other and one guys job was just to make sure the toads and frogs stayed in the right place, cheeky monkeys!! That was literally his only function!!!

4) People literally stopping in the streets to say 'laowei, laowai' (foreigner, foeriegner') and me stopping alos and shouting 'jong-wa-ren, jong-wa-ren' (chinese person, chinese person')!!!

3) Getting onto a bus for about 17 people(normally) and then the bus filling up with over 100 people(no exaggeration)!!!! And then not being able to get off the bus at my stop...!

2) Getting drunk during my lunch break at the schools I worked at, sounds bad doesn´t it!!! Not when it's the headmaster getting you drunk and he's paying for everything!!! In China it's a custom to get your guest drunk during a meal, otherwise you've failed as a host!!!! Teaching class drunk was interesting shall we say, and I was very 'bubbly'!!! Shall we say...

And finally...

1) The time I was getting changed at the gym and I realised i had only brought one fresh sock, so that meant I had to wear one of my dirty socks...er....so I smelt them both to find out which one was 'best' and everyone watched me to my embarrassement, including this massive kickboxer dude, who I was definately scared of!!! Just then another man lost his socks and it turned out I had identical socks to him and my socks were still in my trainers....o.....o shit....so I´d been smelling someone else's socks.......noooooooooooooooooo.....and this person was the big, kickboxer dude, who was definately scarier now, I didn´t have the heart to tell him, so I grabbed one of my socks and left immediately, leaving his socks behind, and for the situation to slowly sink into China's scariest man and the rest of the men in there!!!! I didn't go back for several weeks....

Crazy china

Mao

2005-04-02T22:23:00.000Z

Throughout my time in China I heard all this stuff about Chairman Mao and I had no idea who he really was or what he did... China is still a communist country although things are changing very slowly. No one will ever give you a true opinion or even facts on Chairman Mao due to the continued regime and fear of the past coming back! So having left China still without a clue, I've become really interested in what he did and how China went from being the most advanced and sophisticated nation to a nation closed off from the world and with all sorts of problems...

Now i think I'm geting a really good idea what went on there, and it´s not altogether pretty!!

One book I´ve read is Wild Swans, this really is an open account of the whole Mao era told by the first person. It tells the stories of 3 womens lives throughout this time, and was written in england which is important as any book written in China gets massively censored even still today...

I hope you read this book and see what amazing things happened in these peoples lives!!!

I also have made a small gallery of some of my travels in China, I´m hoping to add loads more photos and crazy crazy stories soon though!!

Semana to the Santa

2005-04-01T12:28:00.000Z

So I haven´t written anything for months, well two weeks anyway. Done loads recently, we had semana santa here in Spain and tht was spent with Carolina in Barcelona and then back here in Gijon... My parents came and visited, woohooo. My little sister came too, ubt she was getting driven crazy by my parents when she left here, so good luck sis, better you than me!! Everyone loves there parents, sure, but they can be a little annoying at times, although the 4 days here were fine...I got to see some nice little villages and I saw all the sights in Asturias.

Including this bloke... best day of his life...

One incident in particular will remain with me possibly for the rest of my life, this was a classic moment, but a little embarrasing for the person/s involved... so I´ve changed the names of all the people involved apart from the innocent parties, well you´ll see...

...So we went for a meal with my parents, Carolina and Ginis and Robert to a nice Spanish restaurant, but my housemate 'Bob' and his girlfriend 'Bobina' chose not to go however because they were celebrating 'Bobina' getting a new job and performing well in her play or something, so they decided not to come to the meal and drink champagne... So we all went to the meal had a nice meal and everything was fine...we all headed home at about 12 midnight for some much needed sleep and to plan the next days travelling... So we arrived back at the house and we all headed into my bedroom where we looked at maps and guidebooks etc.. to choose what to do the next day... we were all chatting and thinking when all of a sudden there was this light tapping noise on the wall between mine and 'Bobs' room. I heard and knew what it was straight away, but that wasn´t the case for everyone else. My parents looked up from their maps and stuff and said "What´s that noise?" I already felt embarrassed about the situation but I had managed to keep a poker face, but then when everyone was looking at me, waiting for the answer...I had no idea what to say... after a pause of maybe a minute I said "building work, noisy neighbours, thin walls, etc" in different combinations untill they were satisfied. I looked at Carolina and she couldn´t look at me...like when you got told off at school by the teacher and felt like laughing!! Well the noise did finish after about a minute, so we made our excuses, left and laughed all the way home... We couldn´t believe that randy 'Bob' and 'Bobina' couldn´t wait or be a little quieter, dirty, dirty dirty... but this is not the end of the story because the next morning it turned out the noises continued into the night, apparently a total of 3 times each lasting for no longer than a minute...!!! So 'Bob' wasn´t quite the stud muffin that no-one thought he was...I learn´t this fact from my mother who still couldn´t work out the source of the noise, so much so that she brought the puzzle up 3 times that day!!!! "What was that noise last night???! It woke me up 3 times!!!! But no problem because it didn´t last long!!!!!!!!!!!!!" 'Bob', 'Bob', 'Bob' what you doing buddy??? So me and Carolina questioned 'Bob' and told him of the embarrassing situation he got us in, but we got our own back when the durations were brought up...

"40 days, 40 nights" Volume 1.

2005-03-13T00:21:00.000Z

When I woke up early that morning I thought I was going to have the time of my life! I´ve always wanted to go snowboarding, it looks so cool and fun, also I love the snow! Also it was going to be so much fun because Carolina had never really seen snow, she hadn´t experienced it up close before!! I guess carribean islands doný have it all after all!! Who would of thought at the same time us Europeans are dreaming of the sun, or anything remotely warm, like a small badger, there are people in the world on hot sunny beaches wishing for snow, snowmen or even just a small snowball or something even a little bit cold like a frozen pea!! So everyone was excited including me! But.......blah, blah, blah (cut to the end)..........Carolina broke her wrist inthe first 10 minutes on the way down the slope! Despite only being 10 minutes down the slope the start of the slope seemed miles away especially with two snowboards and wearing big fat heavy boots, that were probably used before to sink ships or for those really old diver suits with the big helmets!! I can´t believe someone did a marathon wearing that kit!!! It took him like 3 days!!! Can you imagine the staff for the marathon who give out the medals at the end!!! Guaranteed they were pissed!!! Unless they were getting paid, then they´d be loving it, do those people get paid?? I have no idea... Anyway, so we headed up the mountain, me with two snowboards and climbing a mountain, in the snow, did i mention it was a steep mountain, and that there was the added peril of crazy ass skiiers and snowboarders coming down towards us!! Another thing, only one more, there was this death drop to our right, but that was ok because it had a waist high little plastic fence to prevent any danger, hmmm... but eventually we did get to the top, Carolina was in pain by this point and I was sooo worried, but I quite enjoyed the ´journey of shame´ on the chairlift down!! So after this, her wrist was getting worse so we settled down for fun in the best busiest and only restaurant on the mountain. Here we wined and dined on the worst hot chocolate ever created by man and a nice sandwich. Possibly the worst meal I´ve ever had, apart from the first and consequently last chinese school dinner I tried in China. So we spent the rest of the day knocking about the ´ski lodge´ safe in the knowledge that we couldn´t break any more bones and that I there are worse things that could happen 10 minutes into a snowboarding trip, but we couldn´t actaually work out what they might be, but there must be something, somewhere. Mo and Liam finally caught up with us 3 hours later and said they were ready to go because they felt tired, and little Pauli was having one last run down the mountiain. I never moved so fast, knowing that Carolina would be in safe hands, my chance to have one go down the beast was too much to pass over. I caught up with Pauli and had the time of my life on my first time down. This would have been the perfect time to have somesort of horrific injury but it wasn´t to be the case. I felt somewhat of a natural att he wholething, even if I did fall over every 5 seconds. I was natural at falling over, what can I say... So I got to the bottom of the run, covered in sweat, snow and 3 more layers of clothes than I needed. We then travelled home peacefully to the safety of Gijon. 5 hours spent in the hospital the next day reveled a breakage of the radius, a love for the hospital kiosko and a hatred of other people who get to go before you when they arrived after you!!! 1 more week and having a friend as a doctor revealed that the plaster had been put on wrong, so they very painfully rebroke Carolinas´ wrist, which Carolina didn´t even feel due to the exessive amounts of painkillers given to ease their pain of fucking up the plaster!! It wasn´t obviously fun and games a little less than 3 hours later however when the painkillers slowly wore off. I ran into town as quick as I could to get painkillers as I couldn´t stand seeing her in pain, after this started the 40 days and 40 nights....

There she is...
...

"40 days, 40 nights" Volume 2.

2005-03-12T23:00:00.000Z

So the story continues....plese read with 1-2 pinches of salt....however most of it is quite acurate!!..... After first breaking her wrist carolina was told she would have to wait 40 days for the wrsit to heal. "No problem" I thought, "I´ll look after you" I said not knowing what I was getting myself into... it all turns out that inside Carolina there was this little Princess who had been just dying to get out and reek havock over the land, or over me. Having seen how hard the Chinese work and how little they get paid for it I used to feel that they were hard done by untill now. Now I know that people can be made into servants getting paid in nothing more than emotions. My payment was love, yes, seeing her love for being pampered and treated like a queen, but love in a way!! I thought there´d be a few basic things she´d need help with, for example shopping, cleaning the house a little, but there was so much more in store for me!!! I didn´t know what as coming (I often refer to the first man that milked an animal, I think it was a sheep or a goat they milked first, why? I won´t go into this now, but who started it, and why, and why sheep first, I want to know who did it first). So I didn´t know what was coming like the first person who saw someone milking a sheep!!! Fair enough some mad bloke, probably named Jim or something, Jim "the radical farmer" Sittsmann, or Jim"crazy man" Zooseberger decides to have fun with a sheep and finds a tasty treat, but the first guy (Roger"passer-by-guy"McChowz) who saw Jimmy must have wondered what the fÜÇk was going on!! So thats how I felt, not like Jimbo but like Roger. And the situation rapidly became Jim milking every animal he could find, gerbils, hamsters, badgers, squirrels, the occasional vole. So now I´ve had to become everything that I thought I never was a cook, a cleaner, a dresser, beauitician, internet expert, handyman, labourer, carer, nurse, doctor, butcher, sailor, candelstick maker, all in one. Despite my whining, I really haven´t minded looking after everything, I´ve actually loved looking after her! But she really has enjoyed this whole thing too much!! She stopped saying please about 20 days ago now, and I think my uniform is too much!!! Anyway in 3 days she´ll get the cast off and we´ll have to wait and see if things go back to how they were pre:breakage!! I don´t think it´s likely though that things just go back, how many princesses want to go back to being "non-princesses". She will always be a princess.... Wo ai ni!!!

Sleeping Beauty

2005-03-08T11:58:00.000Z

Sleeping beauty and the 7 dwarfs, the dwarfs couln´t fit on the photo, too bad.

Airport art

2005-03-08T11:57:00.000Z

Art in airports, the new title of my new short book about airport art.

Castilla Durham

2005-03-08T11:56:00.000Z

An amazing photo dipicting what Durham has to offer, a big bridge, a chocolate river, and if you look carefully a Pizzahut!! Yep.

Scary

2005-03-08T11:55:00.000Z

Apart from the guy who tells you not to take photos, this is probably the scariest thing I´ve ever seen in a Cathedral... it´s like something from Alien or something...

St. Bede

2005-03-08T11:53:00.000Z

The sacred tomb of St. Bede. The old monk who did many important things and could probably do magic or something party-trick type thing which wowed people back over 1000 years ago, and probably would today, unless you knew how he did it.

Friendly times

2005-03-08T11:51:00.000Z

A solemn picture, no-one was here apart from this women right at the back and a few at the front. Friendly.

Shadows

2005-03-08T11:48:00.000Z

Shadows in the cloisters of Durham Cathedral, yes the same place where Harry Potter was filmed, I know! Famous!

Cracking

2005-03-08T11:46:00.000Z

Carolina cracking a prize winning smile and hiding her broken wrist really well.

Eye tree

2005-03-08T11:37:00.000Z

Apparently this is what your eye would look like if you could see the vains... that´s true. Just the branchy bits anyway. Not the trunk and fence...

Blue skies

2005-03-08T11:34:00.000Z

In Santander the sky in always blue and covered in white fluffy clouds, for this photo.

The little mountain

2005-03-08T11:33:00.000Z

We set off on our hike up the so named ´little mountain´ in Santander.

Close-up

2005-03-08T11:32:00.000Z

After a weekend of fun and travelling, traveling and fun, the weary traveller takes time for a reflective moment.

Pauli´s first kiss

2005-03-04T20:41:00.000Z

A kinda beautiful monet type photo, depicting Little Pauli´s first kiss with the AG MONSTER!!! Love in the big O (Oviedo).

2005-03-04T20:39:00.000Z

Little Pauli, mid conversation, having just learn´t that he´d been transported back in time to the 70´s!!!

2005-03-04T20:35:00.000Z

This is how I usually now see things in life...

2005-03-04T20:34:00.000Z

This is a geologists wet dream for sure, and we didn´t walk any further after this, the whole thing looks like it could collapse at any second!! In England they´d corner this off, in Spain it´s no problem, in China they´d probablt build a 20 story building on top of it, in about 3 days...

2005-03-04T20:29:00.000Z

The beauty of Gijon, the secret caves of Juan Corlio !!!

2005-03-04T20:17:00.000Z

Carolina "admiring" the sculpture up close!! I´m sure that´s what it was designed for darling...

2005-03-04T20:14:00.000Z

I love this.

2005-03-04T20:12:00.000Z

A completely rainy and miserable day in good ol` Gijon, I´m happy having just eaten Chocolate con Churros!!! My new found best friend...

Life in the deep end....

2005-01-25T20:39:00.000Z

I love making titles for these posts, more than writing them in fact!! Absolutley no relevance to anything. Some people were born to be wild, me, I was born to write titles for blogs, wicked.. There has to be money in that... Anyway below you´ll find some info from China and a few other places along the way. There are many gaps still to be filled, I agree, but we have time, don´t we?? I´m feeling er...a little down. Don´t know why, but my normal self should return soon, really Carolina, really!! Honest. Hmmm...

Other news: got a phone call from my best bud in England congratulating me on my engagement, not true!! I am very much in love, and I have no doubt that one day this will happen, but no, not yet...

My classes bad english continues to amuse me, the funniest mistake today was from Carlos, well done son, three stickers for you, he said--> "Enol tastes like Pablo". Future Mr Gay Spain in the making!! Obviously this was highly embarassing for Carlos as a young teenager in a class full of girls!! Maybe he was coming out, maybe he´ll never live it down and start a life in the circus, maybe...

I found this cool website, definitely my sense of humour, check it out...

http://www.mrandmrswheatley.co.uk/

...so what did you think?? Really it´s cool, in a twisted kinda way.

Hope you enjoy it!!

2005-01-23T20:10:00.000Z

Steven proves why he´s got a hot gig modelling for Sainsbury´s or something, coming to a supermarket near you!! I´m being his best man next year, I´m so scared of the speech, ouff.

2005-01-23T20:08:00.000Z

Steph looking good in her new scarf that looks suspiciously like mine, hmmmm...

2005-01-23T20:06:00.000Z

Pascal, looking moody and reflective after a hard day of doing nothing. She used to go out and do catty stuff, but she´s turned her back on that life to lead a more indoorsy, doing nothing kinda existence...

2005-01-23T20:02:00.000Z

Xmas 2004: I pose for a close-up by my personal photographer. If you look really close you can tell I have the worst cold of my life.

2005-01-23T19:40:00.000Z

Two of our top scientists proving you can make a square out of 4 chopsticks of equal length. Well done there.

2005-01-23T19:38:00.000Z

Katherine contemplates the universe, life and what to order for drinks...

2005-01-23T19:36:00.000Z

Katherine "geekzoid" Roberts, with all her friends, as usual!!! Soon to be Dr. Geekzoid, so watchout.

2005-01-23T19:32:00.000Z

Me and da boys in Cheers, Boston. Chris from Florida (hot wing lover), Mike from PEI, Canada (why Man-dy? why why why), Patrick (crazy jekyland hyde situation when he gets drunk, followed by Pukey McPuke!!!!) and Ben (4 quality years Ben, funniest "Big and Tall" shopper!!! You´ll never live that down bud!!)

2005-01-23T19:26:00.000Z

This was me at Timber Lake Camp 2004, the place were we teach children how to make friends....blah, blah, blah...and get good a tan and $$$.

2005-01-23T19:22:00.000Z

Here´s little Pauli and the love of my life. There probably laughing at an incredibly funny joke that I´ve just made.

2005-01-23T19:11:00.000Z

I was actually this close, this is no illusion, but I had so many Chinese people do it to me, that I didn´t care!!!

2005-01-23T19:09:00.000Z

This was an awesome day, one of my first days in China and I see 2 Shaolin Grandmasters!!! Well they weren´t actually grandmasters, ok ok, or from shaolin, bu they weer monks. And that guy probably has a weapon in that plastic bag, without a doubt.

2005-01-23T18:55:00.000Z

Beautiful.

2005-01-23T18:50:00.000Z

A Spanish Beauty. Carolina Garcia.

2005-01-23T18:06:00.000Z

For some reason, the only photo I took in Tokyo, it was night so none of them would have come out, too bad, I´ll go back some day though I´m sure.

It was probably the last drink that did it, definitely....

2005-01-21T12:56:00.000Z

This is normally a complete lie, but in this case it´s true. I had a couple of cañas in some random bars with Paul, then we decided to go to the bar which is the home of the litre or "el litro" as I will affectionally call it from now on! So we both ordered a glass, despite Paul giving up drinking for January! He said he was only going to have one drink all night, it might as well be "el litro" then!! Haha! (Note to self: start weight training so "el litro" doesn´t seem quite as heavy), (Note to self about other note: possibly start exercising first then move onto weights, your lazy). After "el litro" we went to see little Pauli´s friend Agueda, no idea how to spell her name, doesn´t matter, you probably don´t know her, if you do please send me correct spelling. After that we walked randomly, and found our way somehow to the home of "el litro", funny that. Twas Pauli´s round, and he said "another litre?", now I realise he was joking, hmmm. Feeling confident and a little drunk (possibly due to the previous "el litro") I said "yep", as I sat down I realised that wasn´t a good idea, but by the time I stood up again to change my order, it was poured, I must have been thinking really slowly! So we sat down, Me with "el litro", Agueda with a tiny in comaprison caña and Pauli, now back on the wagon, a small feminine glass of water! I´ll draw a diagram one day! Maybe below this text, down there. In fact i´ll draw it now.

So now you see the faults of "paint", but I think it has that Picasso look about it, that´s what I was going for, obviously...
I really wasn´t looking forward to the aftermath of the second "el litro", but that´s life isn´t it, so I kept drinking, for some reason I aimed to finish it before Agueda finished her caña, tall order maybe, the first "el litro" was messing with my mind. By this time, my body just turned into a big beer processing plant, and my efficent self must have gone to the bathroom about 3 thousand times...the women´s bathroom no less. The other one has been broken since before Christmas, honest. Maybe because we stole the sign! Maybe there was some sort of knock on effect...like Chaos theory, on a bar sized scale. Or like the bible, the bathroom lost all its power without the sign, it´s lost it´s purpose in life, it´s reason to live, it´s identity, it can´t remember why it exists, amateur pychology club. Dabbling. Well, cut to the end, Getting slowly very drunk, and slowly building up the muscles in my drinking arm, I all of a sudden hiccupped. No problem, they usually come in ones anyway. But more came, probably invited by "el litro", how rude. And despite me teaching Pauli how to get rid of hiccups Zen style before Chrimbo, I couldn´t shake them, well sometimes I did, but they kept coming back. I put it down to the drink, but kept drinking. It was like a challenge, a mountain to be climbed, for only €2.50. Hiccups told me the inevitable, your getting really drunk and you probably won´t wake up football tomorrow morning, or if you did you won´t be able to move, or want to. So my bout of hiccups were quite violent but managable as they kept going away. Like some people. My involuntary bodily action was mirroring human thought and thinking. You know that person who is annoying but managable in small quantities. I think my hiccups have lots to tell the world. So I eventually finished it, 3 weeks later. It felt good to finish the challenge, or was that the beer talking. It didn´t feel good that I felt like I was going to die, or that I still had hiccups at this point and there was nothing humanly possible I could do about it, and it didn´t feel good that I wanted to do stuff that only drunked people do at this point, and that my companions weren´t anywhere near drunkedness, but beggars can´t choose who is or isn´t drunk when they are, so I couldn´t choose either as a result. I´m not saying Pauli is a beggar, at all. Well he´s had his hair cut since Christmas and everything, and I think he may of had a shave, so... So I was worse for ware shall we say. We walked around, and I found "Estambul", the place were dreams are made and sold, along with kebab in baguette with loads of "salad". I was happy, and the hiccups had gone somewhere, thank you. We then set out to find the bar Carolina took us to a few times, the one with the worst toilets in Spain, and good music, and comedy Spanish people singing English lyrics, well i say singing but making simlar noises at the right times is more accurate, I suppose I sound equally stupid singing there songs, thats why I don´t. So I was trip leader, group leader again. I thought I knew where it was, but the alcohol was blurring my usually clear thoughts, and we walked round for ages. I eventually finished the kebab, then lost all hope of finding this bar. At this point I saw no ligth at the end of the tunnel, and I wanted to play football. The hiccups decdided that it would be a really good time to come back and bug me some more. They were outstaying there welcome. I decided it was time to go home, sleep it all off. I told Pauli and then I was on my way. I waved at loads of cars, they waved back. I realised I was not actually at a taxi rank so I walked to one and went home, hiccuping all the way. Drinking is not big and clever, especially when it comes in litre glasses, ok? If your wondering the hiccups do continue, I have got them now, maybe I´ll have them forever, a heard a story once about a women who had them for 32 years, all her life. She said she was used to it, no problem. I hope that person isn´t me in thirty years. In three days I will be saying "hiccup, shoot me, hiccup, shoot me, hiccup". Without a doubt. Anyways, that´s enough. Turns out football wasn´t even on this morning, the tide was in, thats how water polo was invented I think. That´s the biggest problem when you play on the beach, that and the sand everywhere. But I guess it wouldn´t be a beach otherwise, who knows. I´m going back to bed.

2005-01-21T12:04:00.000Z

"El litro"

"The top ten films of 2004"

2005-01-19T13:56:00.000Z

Having finished the year having seen loads of films than I have the whole of my life, partly due to dvds costing 20p(0.30€) in China thank you, I found it hard to remember any of them... but here is the only 7 that I can remember seeing and enjoying the most, so in reverse order...

In 7... Lost in translation - Excellent start, trailed off.
In 6... Last Samurai - I want to be a samurai when I grow up...
In 5... Kill Bill 1&2 - shamelessly grouped together, awesome, should´ve been higher.
Innnnn4... Zatoichi - blind samurai master kicks everyone ass, amazing ending!
In 3... Hero - Jet Li goes nuts, then gets a conscience, oufff.
And in 2.... School of Rock - Jack Black finds his niche, funny as hell, a good one for the family.

And numero uno is....

Anchorman - One of the funniest films I´ve ever seen, never laughed s much in a film!!! Well done there, I´m sure your happy with your appearance as my top film!! Hmmm...

2005-01-19T12:48:00.000Z

Kill Bill Vol 1

2005-01-19T12:45:00.000Z

School of Rock!!!

2005-01-19T12:42:00.000Z

Last Samurai

2005-01-19T12:39:00.000Z

Hero

2005-01-19T12:33:00.000Z

Anchorman

2005-01-19T12:30:00.000Z

Zatoichi

Never write in red...

2005-01-17T12:28:00.002Z

Welcome to my blog, ladies and gentlemen. I have decided to hate blogs, like I hate McDonalds. But I actually do both, which makes me a big hypocrite! Well the word was made up for someone right. Truth is that people more important than me have been hypocrites and it is ok to hate something which brings you benefits, right?? I don´t think I actually use the word "hate" correctly, I think "get annoyed by" is more appropriate, but thats less exciting and has more letters!

The colour of money

2005-01-17T12:28:00.001Z

So now I´m in Gijon, earning some dough and living the dream. I´ve been here since September and it´s pretty cool. Not sure I want to stay though, although I have found a good reason, I´m definately staying to the end of the ol´contract at ´the academy*´. After who knows, maybe another country, or back to Inglaterra to settle down, I much prefer the first, but settling down is supposedly a good idea, sooner or later right, possibly later. Theres so many exciting places to see, things to see, people to meet, things to do, blah, blah, blah. Those of you who don´t know the gaps between my birth 16th April 1981 and today then I shall try to fill you in with the interesting stuff, don´t worry I´ll try miss out the boring stuff, and skim over the important stuff, hope you enjoy it.
*Liverpool Language Academy

Just a half for the lady...

2005-01-17T12:28:00.000Z

So just a half doesn´t really apply to this bar in Gijon. Having spent a few nights there drinking 1 litre glasses of there finest ale, for 2.5 Euros, and one evening in particular where we stole the toilet sign for ours in the house!! We were quite loving this new bar!! It is in fact quite hard to lift a litre with one hand!!! It´s funny what a litre of beer can do to you at the end of the night!! But our muscles have now evolved! So we went in the other night as ususal, me and Paul, two litres please, in spanish of course. The barmaid cooly as you like grabs this glass and starts to fill it, we look again and relise thats its this massive 2 litre glass!!!! Fucking hell!!!! We were like "Whoa!!!!!", just a half please, were driving!! So were feeling a little feminine!!!

My blog

2005-01-10T21:47:00.000Z

Welcome to my blog, so you can keep up to date with everything I have been and I am doing in life. Hope you like it.....

carolina

2005-01-10T12:56:00.000Z

www.burbujagalactica.blogspot.com

2005-01-02T19:47:00.000Z

Carolina, unaware of papparazzi, thinks about underwear...