A union

A friend who is dear to my heart asked that I upload some photos of William and Nava's wedding. Here is a selection of some of my favourites, and also a link to an album of the photos that I think turned out the best...
It was a wonderful day, and the memories will stay with all who were present for the rest of our lives.







Link to Album: http://s599.photobucket.com/albums/tt75/202becki/William%20and%20Navas%20wedding

RUN...

Rockwall

Water Water

Moments passing

A collection of some photos from Plymouth that I decided to have a little play with last night..

V8 Supercars

Playing around with some old photos on iphoto..

Watcha looking at?

A bird with a shifty look, and black also.. Perhaps he is a petty criminal caught in the act? Not sure, but thats the feeling I get..

Tower Bridge

Managed to get a nice shot of Tower Bridge in my trip to London a few weeks ago. The Thames was at low tide so that enabled me to get down onto the pebbles of the riverbank and take a series. This is probably the best shot.

Absorbing the light

Enjoying Summer

End Of School Year

Another School year has finally come to an end. Yesterday the children were all bundled off home, after giving many flowers and chocolates to their teachers. Including me... My table at home has a pile of chocolates on it which I dont think I am ever going to be able to work my way through, mainly because i've never eaten that much chocolate in my life...
Now all the staff are at work again today, trying to forge our way through the mountain of paperwork in front of us. It is amazing how many sheets and books you find in drawers, on shelves and in cupboards. It literally becomes mountains, with some of it dating back to years before I was even teaching here..
Hopefully over the next two days we will be able to work our way out of this paper jungle. Then finally gaining freedom into the world. To prepare ourselves for next year and the new adventures that will begin..

The Little boy on a walk - (a story of virtues)

One day...
There was a little stick boy who went for a walk down his street to the shop.



As he was walking down the street he saw a man trying to put money into his pocket, sadly the man didn't notice he dropped a euro. Luckily the boy saw this, and as he was HONEST the boy picked up the coin and gave it back to the man.
Continuing down the street the boy reached the corner. Standing on the corner was a lady who was wearing very little clothing. The boy was very CHASTE and proceeded to walk past the lady with his head held high in the air, he would not be ashamed.
Finally the boy was nearing the shop he had set out for. As he turned the corner he saw a black man. Instead of sticking out his leg and trying to trip the man the boy showed his TOLERANCE and smiled at the man, saying "Good day".
Thus he arrived at the shop with a greater capacity than when he set out...

this story came as a result of being asked to mention 3 virtues.. I am dedicating it to Danny and the great night of discussion we just had :D

Its only monday but dont forget!

Don't you hate it when no-one remembers to remind you of events and/or anything else that is important to not stuffing up ones day.



All the best for the coming week, and don't forget to try and stay cool..

Sometimes life can be ohhh sooo.... hmmmm whats the word???
maybe this picture will jog ones memory

OHH THATS IT!!

Awkward

All because its an empty feeling monday....

Life is a collection

"Life Events are like stamp collections, as you collect them it seems uninteresting, but in the end you have an impressive collection" (Katrina Rohr)
I was talking to my great friend Katrina today, about our lives and what we have done so far, when she made the above statement. Instantly I was blown away by the sheer insightfulness of it. It is such a true thing to say, the fact of the matter is that to us our lives always seem somehow complicated and boring, when in fact the opposite is rather true. When you talk to friends you think 'Wow, if only what I was doing was as interesting as that', when in fact that isn't what we should be thinking at all. All our lives are interesting, and we are all being dealt the experiences we need to have and have also chosen for ourselves. My decision to return to Slovakia to live has changed my life massively from the direction it was originally going to take. In the future I will be able to look back and say, 'hey I was successful at that, I did something interesting for a few years there' and that will make me proud. At the moment its a hard slog, and I dont look at it that way, even though really I should. We all should.
Out of all the collections we ever make, our lives are by far the most important and the most interesting. They define who we are as human beings, and shape the people that we become. If it wasnt for these collections, well you could be a very dull person. Its the only collection I know that is added to no matter what you do, fail at a job, it added. live somewhere but then move away, it added. Love and then it falls apart, still added.. Such an interesting thing.

Our collections make us individuals, they define us, they reveal the true us. We can never hide them, and really, with such a beautiful thing in each of our possessions, should we really want to?

Perceptions

This weekend, many families around Slovakia spent some of their time at a cemetery, to commemorate a holiday of the dead. It has connections to the Catholic Holidays of All Saints' Day (November 1) and All Souls' Day (November 2). Personally for me, this Idea of going to a cemetery and celebrating the lives of family members is a foreign idea. It is not something that really happens in Australian culture. When someone first told me of the weekend I thought that it was a bit of a strange thing, why would you go and spend time somewhere like that? Cemeteries in most peoples mind are spooky places, that are not really ventured into. Especially not at night. Then I started to think, why is this such a strange thing? surely it is a beautiful time to spend with living family, and also remember those that may have played a large role in your life, or at least contributed to your family being the group of people they are. In my culture the last time most of us will think of a dead person is when we go to their funeral, we dont visit gravesites, and if we do, it is very irregular and not for a substantial amount of time. Why is this? because we are so concerned with a material world of the living. To me this seems to show how many of the people I come across here are quite open, often comfortable in who they are and on the whole nice people. For me it seems to stem from they know their own backgrounds very well, they are comfortable with where they have started and are able to look foward to the future.. In western culture we spend alot of time looking for where we have come from, because we never held onto it. Then there is a thirst for knowing what people as close to us as our grandparents did as a profession, because we never bothered to actually find out. Maybe this is why now we have so many tv and radio shows who are exploring the pasts of peoples lives, and finding out about heritages. In this quest for material wealth and self gain we have forgotten about the most important things in our lives, family...
TO take this whole matter a step further I was reading the paper today, and found that in Taiwan people are now beginning to hold "living funerals". These are often held by people who are suffering from a terminal illness, which has left them in the final stages of life. It is seen as a great way for the person to find closure and be able to face death with renewed courage. Now, again, froma standpoint of a person that sees funurals in the traditional standpoint, this seems like a strange idea. However, again, it doesnt necissarily mean it is wrong.

I guess what I am trying to say is, perhaps we should learn from these other people. We should be celebrating each other as people, not just caring about ourselves. If we all cared about each other and our families like these people obviously do, then wouldn't we all be much better off and perhaps more complete people than we are now?

October is Over

So this is the end of October, and I didnt get to blog anywhere near as many times as I would have liked to. This has come from a combination of just being so busy with so many things happening in life. This month was the first month when I have found myself teaching full time, my own lessons. I am now a head teacher in first grade, teaching English, Math, Social Studies, Computers, Drama, Library and also Assembly lessons has meant that I have had barely enough time to think about myself outside of planning lessons, teacher meetings, parent meetings and all the other things that go on around the teacher life. This week was a week of, but still I didnt get huge amounts of time to relax. I am still trying to do university via distance education and we also tried one last time to get the, thorn in my side, car registered. On that issue the originality check place told me that it is basically impossible to register this car as there is no previous papers and with two VIN numbers stamped onto two pieces of metal with no-one telling them which VIN to use, the car is unusable. So basically at the moment thats over 2000 euro of mine down the drain. We just have to hope that with lawyers and things something can be sorted about getting my money back from the guy I bought it off. That will be a long process so now I just have to sit back and wait and see.
The best news of recent times that I have heard is that my parents are coming to visit here between December 21st and January 23rd. So I am really looking forward to that, we have already planned a trip that will take in Innsbruck, Zurich, Dijon, Paris, Frankfurt, Munich.. and also some small trips to Vienna and Prague. I cant wait until they come here and I can finally show them where I live, the friends and people I know here. Its going to be amazing to show them this place in winter, even though it will be freezing cold, Im sure they will love it here. After seeing them in Summer, I really thought that it would be a year or maybe two more before I saw them again, and to have this happening to end the year is a real treat. Its going to be amazing.
So next week it is back to the mad house of usual life. The week break has felt like stopping to take a breath of fresh air while running a marathon, its a great feeling, but just before you start to move again all the tiredness hits you. You firmly set your vision on the goals and try not to think about the weariness you feel. That is how we all feel when it is time to go back to work....

Weekend Wonders

This previous weekend has been absolutely great. On Saturday I finally just got a chance to relax at home, sleep in and then relax and watch some tv. Finally after the whole day Lucia managed to motivate me enough to go and buy some extra things to cook a nice dinner. At Terno we bumped into Gudrun and Peter, Its great to bump into friends when you least epect it. What made this chance encounter even greater was that we were then invited back to their house to watch an episode of IT crowd, and also Black Books. Peter also made a delicious soup for dinner, it was lovelly. Today I then got to pick up a new coffee table, only 15 euro's.. A great deal considering it looks almost new and has a glass piece in the middle of the wooden framed table top.. IT is going to go well with my new sofa when I finally manage to get one. By far the biggest news of today is that Lara has returned to Slovakia for a week. Yes our favourite fin has arrived to be back with us. This meant that this evening I journeyed to Farah's place to see her. This also meant that I got to spend time with Lucia, Ludo, William, Nava, Lucia, Imogen, Lua, Mike and Farah... along with many others.. The short time that I was there was very enjoyable. It was great to be able to catch up with such a great bunch of friends and just relax, forget the world outside and just be comfortable being who we are around each other.. Talking about many silly things and laughing at nothing in particular. What an excellent weekend, with excellent people... Now to get back to reality and the week of work ahead....

An Angel Visits

Today while teaching my lessons in grade one, My desk at the staffroom was visited by an unknown angel. How did I know I was visited?.. well the appearance of a jar of coffee and a yellow post-it note informed me... the message on the note read, This is for you... just making sure you wont run out of coffee.. S... I was puzzled. Who could this be? who would be wanting to leave me coffee on my desk. My heart warmed thinking that my coffee needs would be well and truely satisfied for the next few weeks. With such terrible weather outside, this jar seemed to shine, smiling at me, knowing how much I wanted to mix it with some hot water, milk and sugar, and enjoy that tasty beverage the way it is meant to be...
Warmed by the thought that this gift had appeared onto my table, I went to my next lesson, to be granted my next gift for the day. All the students had practiced reading their books overnight, and today they could all read the story easily. I was overjoyed..
Later at lunch, I began to think, perhaps it was a representative from YYYAAAAKKKKUUUBBBSSSS *flem* that had swung past quietly to give me some new coffee to make up for being robbed the other day at the potraviny.. I started to get worried, how could they possibly know where I worked?? I could hear the mission impossible tune start in my head, Shiftily I looked around the corridor, and was about to start my dash up the corridor for the staff room when Sandra, our lovely receptionist approached me and asked if I liked the coffee, with a wry, smile. Suddenly I knew what the S on the note stood for. Laughing I thanked her for her heart warming gift.. Instantly I felt relaxed, changing my mood and having a merry walk up the hall.

So thankyou to Sandra, our school receptionist. Always smiling in the corridor, and now giving me some coffee.... This more than makes up for being robbed the other day..
I guess we have a angel for a receptionist then. :)

Her Gift...

Daylight Robbery

On Tuesday I finally got paid for last months work. Its not the date of the pay that was the problem, I always knew I would be back for over a month before pay came in. The problem is, once I got paid I decided that I needed some food. Ok I admit, I was mostly after more coffee, which I had managed to stretch out until the day before. So I toddled off, with my happy little face on, down to the local potraviny. Now this Potaviny is basically a small store that is run out of the garage of a local elderly couple. Usually it is quite nice to go there, they have a few shelves filled with things, and you have to stand on one side of a counter and use slovak to tell the lady what you want.. On Tuesday I was extremely pleased with myself, I managed to order Bacon, Eggs, coffee, sugar, coca cola and milk Using my slovak.... But then disaster, the total come. 15 euro for the lot. I was stunned. Who is this lady? is she really a nice old lady or some sort theif.. Looking at the top of the coffee jar I found the reason for my high bill. The Coffee, it had cost 9 euro's on its own. This coffee was only 200g worth, not like i was buying gold coffee either, just regular Jacob's.. or YYYAAACCCKKKUUUBBBSS *lots of flem* if you are in slovakia. When I looked up the lady had a balaclava on. I knew it I though, Ive been robbed.. Awkwardly I moved backwards out of the store, the Icy Gaze of over 100 years practice following me out, daring me to say a word. That gaze still haunts me now, so much so that I am slightly scared to mention anything about it now. My only comfort is that im sure the potraviny lady doesnt know my name, nor have internet connection herself.
All the way home I wore my sad face, unhappy that the coffee had cost me so much.. Just to put this all in perspective, I have been managing to do a weeks shopping each week for the past few weeks for only 15 - 20 euro a week. So to spend 15 euro on so few things.. I am sure I was robbed...
The Coffee:


Sad Face :(

Lucky Moment of the Week

Imagine being this guy, your doing 170km/h about to turn into a corner, uphill, over a blind crest with walls on either side of you,, suddenly you loose the rear end,, what happens next??



Not only to miss all the walls, but also be missed by the 30 other cars that are coming over that crest at over 170km/h is an amazing moment...
Thats this weeks winner of Lucky moment of the week :)