TUNNEL GHOST?(Leeman Road Pedestrain Tunnel, York)

On my way to the Railway museum late last year, I walked through the Leeman Road pedestrian tunnel, under the railway lines above. I’ve only walked through the tunnel this one time, and I was anxious to get to the end! It just felt really eerie. I felt the need to continually look over my shoulder and indeed I did; something felt uncomfortable. Despite my paranoia there was not a soul in the tunnel with me. Or was there?

I had forgotten about my tunnel experience, and how much I wanted to get out of it, when the other day at work the TA’s were passing around a mobile phone with a video clip of two girls who recorded themselves walking home from town drunk one night late last year. About 40 seconds into this clip lasting just over a minute there is an unusual, and most certainly out of place shadow. Some reckoned it resembled a skeleton. I saw the clip over the shoulder of a co-worker. Whatever it was, it looked out of place. The girls in the clip didn’t notice anything until they saw the clip the next morning.

SATURDAY MORNING STROLL

(GNER's HQ)

(Pretty fancy digs for the Great North Eastern Railway)(View of the Ouse and its historical landmarks)

(Millennium Bridge - South of York City Centre)

WHEN DID YOU WANT THAT DONE FOR?

May 13th, or Friday the 13th of May 2005, these luxury flats, behind my house at the time, were up in flames. Although the fire did some serious damage, 9 months have passed and the work is not yet finished.

This sort of manual work seems to take a ridiculous amount of time here and nothing gets done when planned.

Example:

When term started at the University of York in October, the University had to put up some forty students in shared reading rooms with cots and no place for their belongings. The company employed to build the dorms designed to house them had not met the deadline! These students, most of whom were international students and therefore explicitly promised state of the art accommodation, were forced to band together with strangers and sign on to independent housing contracts off campus.

Example:

The main girls changing rooms have been out of operation for months for refitting. Again this job should have been completed in October. Hence we have no lockers for storing valuables, etc.
Example:

It took my parents months to have their new kitchen counter, stove and sink fitted before they put the house up for sale. Booked in October for November the man for the job simply didn't turn up on the day. It was eventually completed in January of last year.

I'm sure the solution to this problem is to send people to university, landing thousands of people in debt for a future that they would otherwise still get, while not promoting apprenticeships for the plumbers, electricians, painters, plasterers and builders this country desperately needs. Thanks Tony!

Another 9 months?

Original story: http://ang-ela.blogspot.com/2005_05_01_ang-ela_archive.html

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE

What happen to the good old days when Canadians were quiet modest being who did not rub it in other peoples faces how good they may think it is to be Canadian!?!?! Recently I have spoken to too many Canadians who rave about how great our nation is. Some even go as far to tell me that soon I won't consider England my home... after all Canada is far better!!(?) People shout at me..

"Welcome back to the best Country in the world!"

(spoken like a Stereotypical American?)(British Pride)

Coincidentally, with an increase in Canadian editions of popular American TV shows like Deal or No Deal and Entertainment Tonight we appear to be shedding a stereotype for which the rest of the world once loved us (maybe even adopting another nations stereotype?). Just remember our reputation as a nation is on the line and so to Canadians everywhere I recommend sucking up our pride and avoid others' prejudice.

(You know how in films with old trains the passengers reach their arms out the window to open the door from a handle on the outside? many of GNER's trains are still like that. Fantastic!)

ANOTHER VISIT TO BRIMHAM ROCKS

(Dave, Pete and Lee take to the Rocks)
Typical. When we go in August it's a grey cloudy day (see August 2005) but when we go in January it's bright and sunny, but boy was it cold!!(Pete and Lee)

(Lee Shows us how it's done)
This may be Lee's last visit to Brimham rocks for awhile as he returns to sunny California at the end of February.

BATTLE OF THE BANDS 2006

(Pete, Lee and Dave at Goodricke)

Sounds like Pete has left a bit of a legacy at Battle of the Bands. One of the bands has taken to playing his sea chanties and the Mario brothers theme!! We wonder if it is worthwhile doing a Paul Simon. Taking the rights to the sea tunes and copyrighting them as Simon did with the rights to Scarborough Fair.(Angela and Pete: Ok... so there was some smoothness to your strategy)

I too was remembered for my band involvement as the retarded girlfriend who wore a top reading "BIG PETE... better than Bonham, Moon and Grohl at bashing his instrument" (What!?... He was the drummer!)

HAMPSTEAD HEATH

Yes-I'm still wearing my Canadian hat. And it was well worth it. I was freezing! Then again feeling a bit worse for wear may have something to do with my Leicester Square experience the night before? It's possible to combine the hard working goodness of the third year with the party hard rebellion of the first year.

London's skyline. If you look close you can see the Gerkin on the far left. Although the photos are not much to look at, it was pretty neat to see Londons skyline from a park. This included the London Eye and Westminster.

ANYTHING GOES...

(Alley Shop in Richmond, London)

In big cities people will do anything to be noticed and the same goes for businesses. Without coming out and saying it this clothing shop had an interesting tactic to attract customers' attention. If you're lost as to what white stuff is I can tell you that they aren't advertising milk. Maybe the clue in the bottom of the right hand window is more exclusive?

I WANT A SQUIRREL!

While wandering Richmond we found a park by the Thames that had more squirrels than I had ever seen. Most importantly they were so friendly and unsurprisingly really fat. Some of them were probably the size of Millie.

I wanted to go and buy nuts to feed them but someone wasn't having any of it. Many came up to me to eat out of my hand even though I had nothing. I have concluded that I WANT A SQUIRREL! - much like the rich kid in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

We did have a squirrel... Squirt was great. When I was about 6 years old Mom picked me up from school with a baby squirrel. It had fallen out of a tree and Mom had agreed to foster it for the humane society. We kept Squirt in a cage until he was old enough to live in a bird house in the backyard. He'd bury nuts in between you legs and act puzzled when he returned to find them missing. Calling him to you, he would climb up your leg and perch on your shoulder.

Our neighbour had a painter working on her house one day and Squirt decided to say hello. Unfortunately animals in Canada can get rabies and the man decided Squirts friendly behaviour towards him was a symptom. Terrified he locked himself in his car from the big, bad squirrel.

When Squirt was old enough we let him go at Apps Mill. Apps Mill is my favourite place for walking. As a child I would always look out in the hope of seeing him again.

SEVEN YEARS ABROAD(my walk to campus)

Yes, it has been seven years. About the first 3 months of my adventure are remembered as though it was a dream sequence. Everything I remember about it is so surreal. And, given the amount we gave up to move and the amount we had to take in, I'm surprised more tears weren't shed in those early days.

I had always lived in little city suburbia, so Thorpe Waterville, a village of no more that 30 dwellings in the middle of what felt like nowhere, was a particularly bleak experience. The first weeks we slept on the floor with winter coats, as we hadn't figured out how the central heating worked.

School was awful. Uniforms, an extensively advanced curriculum and a lack of knowledge of the British vocabulary not to mention everyone thought I was American, destroyed any hope of self-esteem. The boys would sing "American Woman" everytime they saw me. When my form tutor (home room teacher) took the register I had to say "yes sir." That and reading Romeo and Juilet out loud in my first English classes used to make me feel so embarrassed for my accent.
On the first anniversary of our moving to England we found ourselves by pure coincidence in the Fox Inn, the pub next door, in the very place, right down to the table, where we had eaten exactly a year earlier. The pub owners, by then friends of ours, recalled to us how they thought we were arrogant Americans that day!

I can honestly say without a doubt that I am an entirely different person for the last seven years. I have learnt and experienced so much and I am exceedingly grateful for that. Yes Mom and Dad, this is a thank you. Thanks for taking a risk that turned out to be a great opportunity for all of us.

I don't know if I will see the full 8 years or that I won't see 10 or 15 years. One thing is for sure I will always be torn between 2 countries I call home.

A PROMISING END?

I got some brilliant results yesterday to mark the 50% point in my degree. Less than 6 months and 25,000 more words to go! I got my first, first class essay too. It used loads of recent journal articles and concluded...

"Lifestyles are learnt in childhood and, regardless of the underlying causes, it is lifestyle that creates childhood obesity. Reversing obesity trends and their consequences for the future should therefore start in childhood."

Hopefully the western world will clue into this before it's too late.

RED HAT GOES TO AEROBICS!

Note the mirrors. They were installed over Christmas for dance and aerobics classes. Any thoughts I had of being a lengthy klutz has been more than confirmed!

MODERN "ART"
This is a picture of the reception at Wentworth College, home of the Department of Sociology, or at least it would be if not for this ready rusted contraption which not doubt cost thousands. A few weeks ago fellow students witnessed this thing being towed through campus to its current destination. Many thought it was destined for a hole in the ground given its industrial purposeful, not to mention unappealing, appearance but no... this my friends is art!

THE RED HAT TOUR(no this is not a retirment club)

The first stop on the "I told you I'd wear it" tour of 2005/06 was Kinver Edge eh.

BA FLIGHT 0092
(Image by Peter Lewis)
Christmas was fantastic but like all good things it came to an end. My flight to London left Toronto on the evening of the 27th but with a rather disturbing delay.

The flight was about to take off after a long taxi to the head of the runway. The engines were powered and ready to go. The lights were turned down in the cabins as usual. The plane retreats from the runway and begins a long return journey to the airport. The pilot turns on the intercom, informing his passengers that we're returning to the terminal to confirm some details. I return to my music. Jamming my headphones on, I ask the passagers next to me to keep me informed of any updates.

Twenty minutes pass. The plane has since stopped at the terminal. My digital entertainment is interrupted by the opening and closing of the overhead luggage compartments in my cabin, where flight attendants crowd the aisles in my cabin rapidly searching for.....

"What's going on", I asked the man next to me. "A passanger was removed from the plane," he said. "What did he look like?" I asked. "He was a young man" he replied, as though he were searching for words he couldn't find. A few minutes pass and the flight attendants seemed to be satisfied with their findings or lack of. I decide to press my fellow passanger for further details. "What did he look like?" I asked again, thinking this man was likely being all politically correct. After a long description, including all but the colour of his shoe laces, I'm told be was likely Muslim.

About an hour and a quarter late, we leave Toronto. Priviledged enough to sit at an emergency exit I asked the flight attendant sitting opposite what the deal was while on the taxi to Heathrow Terminal 4.

Turns out the women sitting next to this young man was a metropolitian policewoman. She figured something was up. Word made its way to the pilot, who had the final say on the matter, and he was off the plane. Woman in the right place at the right time? She seemed to be on to something as the passanger had no checked in luggage. The flight attendant told me that in his 18 years on the job he has never experienced any instance remotely similar or been made aware of similar situations from colleagues.

We don't know what might have happened on the flight if he hadn't been removed. Perhaps nothing but then perhaps he was headed for London for a public display of self-combustion. Either way we will never know.

CHRISTMAS DAY

Brent won't snoop under the tree anymore... If it hadn't been Chrismtas he would have been buried alive!And this is how we will remember it.."These are the best peeled potatoes I have ever tasted!!"Led Zeppelin did a Christmas album, didn't they?You'll never guess...

Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without egg nog (rum) and coffee (Irish Cream).

Blayne rescues Callum

There may have been no room in the inn but the wisemen were ok with that

VIC...for Victory apparently
Laura and Dad have made this attempt at building a snowman.
They reckon it's better, but Brent and I are not prepared to give up the Christmas Eve snowman building competition yet.
Place your votes in the appropriate comment boxes below.
Anyhow off to Grandma's for Christmas Eve dinner.
Let the voting commence!!!!!

O'BEAST the OBESE SNOWMANThis is O'beast, the snowman my brother and I made this morning (Christmas Eve). I had to get some help because he was a bit too heavy to roll by myself. I don't recall snowman-making being that tough as a child!

O'beast has a carrot nose, cat leash lips, nuts for eyes and buttons.

(Brent and O'beast the Obese Snowman)

SIMCOE LIGHTS

When I was really young we would always go to Simcoe to see the Christmas lights. Some of them have been there since my parents were kids. After about 15 years of not going this year we made it. We left Aunt Marjorie's and headed straight for Simcoe Thursday evening.
Can you guess where Canada is on this representation of the globe?

This is one of the old decoration sets. Apparently there was a barn fire in the summer where many of the decorations were stored. Few survived.... but these stoned looking elves survived.

VISITING AUNT MARJORIE'S FARM
On our way out to the sticks there was some pretty nasty snow drifts. Because the wind can travel for acres without anything to stop it, it picks up strength and bring the snow with it.
We had a good visit at Leo and Marjorie's. They and my parents recalled the blizzards of 1977-78. They were so bad that the road you see before you couldn't even be tackled with a Chelsea tractor!!! Leo spent the night with the neighbour two doors down because he couldn't make it far.
(the barn)
His son had to go out to the barn to milk the cows and but he couldn't see the barn from the house.... if he couldn't find his way back Marjorie was ready to shout so he could hear his way back.
My mom in the nearby town had to get the bus back from high school early. What should take 20 minutes took an hour with a pupil sticking his head out the door to tell the bus driver where the telephone poles were as they were buried and it was too snowy to see them.