The Pursuit of Happiness

I got my heart broken this week. Twice.

Hollywood broke it when I saw The Pursuit of Happyness. Will Smith is brilliant but his son stole the show for me. I suppose it was the pairing of them together actually. Christopher, the son is so trusting in his father as he tried to put a brave face on and work a way out of the poverty trap they were in.

Yes, it is obvious and yes, you know what is coming. But it did make me wonder, when you only have $21 left in the world and no one else to turn to, who is going to stand with you?

That was the first time.

The other time my heart got broken? When I spoke to one of my students about how he was getting on and he told me he wasn’t happy in school.

Still working on fixing it.

Vote early, vote often

I am just picking out my order for the election tomorrow. Ever keen to take part in the democratic process of deciding which people I want to represent me in the talking shop (or lack thereof) that is the Northern Ireland Assembly, father is voting by proxy for me. Of course, this could mean that he goes in the booth tomorrow and votes entirely for his choices, but I trust him implicitly to carry out the wishes of his only daughter.

I really like voting in elections. Moreover, I think it is important to vote in elections. Plenty of people in the world have no say in who represents them, what laws will affect them or how their country will be run. We do. Of course, a lot of our problems come after we put the X (or in the case of tomorrow, the number) in the box and this puts plenty of people off voting.

The way I see it however, if you decide not vote, you are giving up your right to complain about what happens in the world around you. It’s time to sit up and pay attention; every election matters. Never say that your vote won’t change anything. For every apathetic eligible voter who didn’t bother, there’s someone who went out and voted the exact opposite way they would have done.

You have an opinion, you have a voice and you have a hand that can write numbers in a box.

We elect the people to represent us.

Museums: where History comes alive?!

Don’t you just hate the way weekends just disappear in front of you. On Friday I have so many good thoughts of what I am going to get accomplished and invariably I get a tiny percentage of it done. This weekend was substantially more productive than last however, and I have photos to prove it.

The museum trip on Saturday went well. I got the information I needed and even had time for some shopping. Plusses all round.


How stinking does that river look?


I shall bore you with the museum trip: two pits discovered in 1986 show the Sanxingdui civilisation's burial rituals of burning and disfiguring items before burying them in Sichuan area of China. Sichuan was thought to have been cultural backwater but this proves that it had a very sophisticated culture of bronze casting giving a big ya boo sucky boos to all the nay sayers. It also proves that civilisations developed apart from Yellow River Valley. This mask with its protruding eyes and oversized ears are believed to represent acute eyesight and hearing. The beak like nose shows the importance of birds in their religion. You're lucky, my second years got an afternoon trip and a lesson about this stuff. I'd love to say 'yawn' but I'll toe the party line and say 'History is great!'.


I thought these were more fun bronze statues, looks like it was a bet, 'I'll jump in the river butt naked if you will!'

On Saturday we went for dinner on the west of the island. The land in the distance is Malaysia the lights you can see on the right is from the bridge linking the two. I still cannot believe I am here sometimes.

Apparently people sail into the marina from all sorts of places, Australia, Indonesia and Thailand mostly. Oh how the other half live.


We talked to one of the crew of this beast of a boat (yacht? ‘scuse me Alan if I have that wrong). Three people own it and sail around the place in it, arriving then partying. All a bit James Bond. It has room for 16 guests and 17 crew. We arrived in time to see the night’s takeaway arriving, the chef was on holiday. Oh, that was the other thing, they get six months on board and then two weeks at home. But I suppose while they are away they spend no money and can send it all home.

I have also got my March 07 playlist underway. I don’t think I have told you about one in a while so this marks the happy return of hearing what I am listening to right now.

Breathe (2am) – Anna Nalick – Grey’s Anatomy has introduced me to and reminded me of more great music this past year than I can remember.
Wonderful Tonight – Eric Clapton – there was a wedding on at the Marina on Saturday night and the band played this, pure wedding cheese.
Suddenly I See – Is KT Tunstall off conquering America, I haven’t heard a peep from her in ages?
Meaning – Gavin DeGraw – He did the One Tree Hill theme and some other ok stuff.
Here With Me – Dido – Love Dido, what has she done since Life For Rent? Maybe her and KT are off writing together?

Right, I think it is bed time for Tinas.

Sometimes you are just glad to make it through the day

I woke up at 7.14am this morning. At that time I am normally half way to school. Swear words. At least when you start the day that badly, things can only get better (what ever happened D:ream anyway?)

So yay, now it is officially the weekend. Tomorrow I need to take a trip to a museum, occupational hazard I suppose. But I will be doing my level best to sleep in in the morning. So long as that yappy dog doesn't get all riled up. Although, I wish he had this morning, around 6.15am would have been great.

Yay it's Friday! Crap, it's Friday!

Friday is my worst day. I teach 7 out of 9 periods. I have exactly one of those lessons planned (and when I say 'planned' I mean a rough scrawl of possibilities written on the back of another sheet with no actual route through sorted).

Nice one Tina. Definitely winging it then.