Welcome to summer holidays! I am now basking in the glow of the completed school year. I can't believe I now have month to just do what ever job is available and take some time off in between. It will be so relaxing. Of course I will be extremely short on cash but that's the trade off. I have never been good at spending less but I am doing my best to keep things on track. Luckily there are loads of free museums and such to occupy my time. I will also need to cut back on all the expensive cheeses I have been buying, haha. The Canada flags in this picture are part of a campaign to encourage tourism to Vancouver. It is right beside Trafalgar Square, I was surprised to see it.

Birthdays

I had a lovely birthday party yesterday with a few friends. There was lots of cake, champagne and good tunes. And to think I was planning on staying in last night! I am extending my birthday for approximately two weeks and will be having several nights out with various friends for one more week. I went out to dinner at a lovely Thai place where we say and ate for about two hours. The food was delicious. I couldn't stop eating it long after I was full. The windows had all been removed from the front of the restaurant so it had a nice breezy coming through. It is light so late into the evening so we could just stroll around and have a nice time after dinner. The restaurant was in Earls Court, called Krangtap. Krista brought some delicious desserts from the Hummingbird Cafe as well. I love desserts that come in a box with a ribbon around it! It looks so fancy and you just know you will enjoy what ever is inside. Yes, I am often a victim of marketing, haha.
The 30th was Jack and Vic's birthday as well. I phoned them but they seemed uninterested at best. They have been heavily involved in escape plans from the house recently causing hard feelings between them and the humans of the house. At any rate they are now two. I have missed them a lot recently. It would be nice to have them sleeping on my bed at night or running around the place in the day.
It was Nana's birthday this week and this weekend will be Aunt Jess's birthday as well so I wish them all the best! I'll see you at Christmas.

School ending

So since I last wrote I was pretty much just riding out the end of the school year. I had been sick for a few weeks as well and needed a break. I also got bit by a bunch of spiders that caused an added bit of irritation. It looked like I had the chicken pox for a week or so. On the second to last day of school, the staff had a party to celebrate the end of the year and say good bye to all those leaving. There 25 teachers going! That's a pretty huge turn over! And apparently they are only replacing them with about 10 people. The year 7 intake will be quite low so they just don't need all the people I guess. The theme of the party was pirates. The staff proceeded to get quite drunk and danced the night away until finally collapsing on the gym floor and falling asleep. It was quite a sight the next day. There were all these hung over pirates laying on the mats in the gym. Everyone just crawled back to the staff room in desperate search of coffee. It was quite amusing. I don't know why they didn't have it on the last day instead. On the last day we just basically herded the kids into rooms and tried to keep them there until lunch time when they were free to go. I was sad to say goodbye to some of the kids and there was quite a few staff members who were very nic people as well. I am sure I will bump into them as I continue to supply teach on Fridays.

Visitors

I has the good fortune of a brief visit with a friend from Japan this weekend. We worked together at the same elementary school for two years. Kieko and I spent a lot of time together and I did a homestay with her family over Obon (the festival where your dead relatives are honoured). It was a great time and something I will always remember from my final days in Japan. Interestingly enough we also share the same birthday. She is in England on a language course for two weeks. She came to London with her classmates for the day and I toured around with her and two other ladies. I saw some things that I hadn't been to before or at least not in the last 10 years. We went to Hyde Park, Covent Garden Market, Buckingham Palace, and a load of other places. We did a boat tour of the Thames as well which was very relaxing. It was a very weird experience to be in another country with people I know from a completely different setting. It was quite surreal. I wasn't sure which one of us was out of place. It was such a nice time though. I miss Japan quite a lot some days but I don't think I would want to work there again. I would just like to be there on an extended independently wealthy holiday. It seems like a lifetime ago that I lived there now. But really it was just three years ago to the day last week that I moved out there. You just never know where you'll end up these days.

Here we are loaded onto the boat. This was the first time the weather cleared up all day. It was perfect timing for the boat trip though. We were all so relaxed. I had been making them do a lot of walking all day, mostly due to the fact that I am can be a bit directionally challenged sometimes.

This is a monument to Queen Victoria outside Buckingham palace. It is the spot the royals look down on when they come to the window to address the public or wave at them or watch what they are up to outside. Everyone crowds on top of this monument to watch the changing of the guards.
Here's me and Kieko at the gates to Buckingham Palace. I always look enormous beside Japanese people. I always wanted to stand in the back of group pictures and the like but I don't mind with my friends.