I am the ODD one as well...

It was grade 4, Mrs. Johnson in the first cubicle behind St, Christopher’s School (the old school, the one that no longer exist).  It was there that we were asked to draw our dream house.  We were able to design a house using our imaginations.  We could include anything we wanted, any type of room or furniture desirable.  We were 9 years old.  As I look back on this embedded memory of good old St. Christopher’s I can see that Alex was not the only odd ball child of the family, I ranked up there as well.

I remember thinking, how joyous this assignment was going to be, as did the rest of my classmates.  I remember hearing the buzz of excitement around me while Mrs. Johnson distributed the manila landscaped papers, “I’m going to have a water slide that starts at my bed and goes all the way to the pool outside!” shouted Marco.  “Well mine is going to be bigger than yours!” exclaimed Christine.  My excitement was a little different.  I remember being excited to include vaulted ceilings and natural hardwood floors to my dream house, I hadn’t thought of the size or of any outrageous waterslide ideas.

It’s wild, but all I was excited about was sketching my house.  I was excited to use the handy symbols for doors and windows, that dad had taught me.  I couldn’t wait to put my skills to work!

Anyway as my classmates erupted with excitement and started to fill their empty pages with colourful outrageous elements, that no real house could accommodate, I took out my ruler and pencil and began scalping a rather decent regular house.

Prior to this lesson, our family friends had just recently bought a new home.  It was Dave and Sue, they had bought a beautiful newly built home right behind the school.  At that time it was probably one of the nicest homes I have ever been into.  I decided then, that this was my dream house, and I went on to sketch a very similar model to their house on my page.  My furniture, yet beautiful was practical.  My rooms had sky lights, not swimming pools, and my yard had a garden, not an amusement park.

This is my first ever memory of my love for architecture.  Other things come to mind, such as, always adoring Brie’s Victorian set house found just off of Riverside Drive in Windsor.  I remember the rest of my friends excited to go to Brie’s parties to well, party.  I was more excited to get a glimpse of the original re-furbished stair case, or the cute little powder room situated in the living room.  Yes so there it is, I am just as odd as Mr. Alex Washbrook.

Anyway, I have been thinking about my odd obsession with architecture lately, for a few reasons.  Firstly, anyone will agree with me when I say, England has a distinctive architectural element.  Their houses are all extremely, if not totally, the same.  On arriving here, the first thing Ryan and I commented on was the similarity to all the homes.  I remember the train ride into Newcastle from London.  I looked over groggy eyed from the 30+ hours of travel, and asked Ryan, “So, what do you think of England so far?”  And he answered “Well for miles now, all I have seen is red brick homes with clay shingled roofs”.  That is what we continued to see for the 4 hour train ride, well mixed with the odd field that housed sheep by the hundreds of course.

 

Once we settled in our house in Newcastle upon Tyne, I began to realize that it was not in-fact our imaginations.  All the houses in England have a similar if not exactly the same look.  The only way that a house in England can define itself, Ryan and I have come up with, is through the colour of the door.

I captured this photo so you get the idea of how similar the houses are to one another.

Don't be fooled, this is not the same street as the photo above!! This is a different street.  Do you see the difference??? Neither do we.

Therefor the hunt begins, what colour door would you prefer to make your house different?

Green door?

French Door?

Red Door, Black Door?

Lime Door?

Oh and my other obsession, name your home.  Instead of a number address many name their houses.  When filling out profiles for the bank or bills, they don't even ask for your address, they ask for your 'House Name'.

If I lived on this street, I could see myself walking into the wrong house!

Yellow Door Perhaps???

Not only has it been the similar houses that have got me thinking about architecture, oh no, it’s been a few other oddities.  

Yesterday, Ryan and I went to the Hancock museum.  It was a great afternoon date, to learn more about Hadrian’s Wall and Ryan loved seeing the irregular sea-life come alive.  But, to tell you the truth I was more interested in the building itself.  I was marvelling over the original floor boards and the vaulted ceiling and the re-finished beams, to even notice half the time that we were in a museum! Ohhh geezzz... what an odd ball.

A few other date nights that Ryan and I have been able to enjoy lately includes our visit to the Tyneside Cinema.  Here in Newcastle, the Tyneside is much desired by the locals.  If you talk with a Geordie long enough, they will ask you, “Have you been to the Tyneside yet?”

With all this hype we decided we needed to take in the Tyneside Cinema, so we ventured out and visited the Tyneside to view ‘The Artist’.

The Tyneside is like no other modern day Cineplex.  It reveals an old fashion theatre with the old red velvet seats, and curtain screens.  Also it has a 1920’s art deco feel throughout the cinema.  It has a theatre space called, ‘The Circle’.  In the circle the seats are like Minnie couches and you are in a private area with your group.  We did not sit in the circle because it was just the 2 of us, but I for sure wish to do this in the future.

You are able to drink alcohol in this theatre, which mad Ryan happy.  I on the other hand have given up alcoholic beverages for lent.  To my surprise though, the Tyneside is home to not only a swanky art deco restaurant but a lovely cafe as well, so as Ryan found happiness in ciders and beer, I found in my mint latte.

A Glimpse of the Tyneside.

Inside, I made Ryan pose next to all the old equipment.  He never seems impressed with me when I ask him to pose.

The art Deco feel.

In the Cafe.

At the bar.

Gorgeous!

Here are some other fun photos of the week. 

I thought I found Kraft Dinner!... In a can.... oh well can't be that bad, or can it be?

Epic FAIL!!!!!!!! Oh it was bad!

Our Let sign is up!  Come let our place !! We are Canada Bound!!

Spring!

More name's of houses.

Ryan made a wonderful spaghetti dinner.  The only thing is that it could have fed 8 people, so we have been eating for the last 4 days straight.

This is the next night! haha.... I still love him and love what he does while he is in the kitchen alone for an hour! YUM!!

Spring... On British Mother's day at the Hancock.

The biggest hot-chocolate

And would you like a massive amount of cream and marshmellows with that? WHY YESS PLEASE!!

NO PHONEMES!!

Oooookay!!!! So, England primary students work heavily with phonics, to the point that when you ask them to spell a word, the students say the phoneme (or pronunciation of the letter sounds) instead of just saying the name of the letter.

It is strange to say the least, and serves for great entertainment.  

An example:

Ms. Wash: “Oh my love!  What is your name?”

Students: “T-a-sh-a”

Ms. Wash: Turns around to giggle

Ms. Wash: “That is great Tasha”

Alright! Until you say, AMANDA THAT IS TERRIBLE! No, no I am not, because this continues on into the junior grades!!!

Imagine a 10 year old making random phoneme noises sounding like an alien instead of saying, “My name is Josh”.

I am praying that Canada, while I have been here, has not adapted this ridiculousness.  It is extremely challenging trying not to laugh at a child making phoneme noises at you.  

It gets even worse at times!  You see, the students have become so accustomed to making these phonic noises, that they have it down to a tee!  The only thing is, they say them too fast, and Ms. Wash is left STILL NOT KNOWING THEIR NAMES ARE!!!!

Example:

Ms. Wash: “What is your name?”

Student: “ja-i-esh-u-gh”

Ms. Wash: ummmm.... “okay, so what’s your name?”

Here are some pictures from my favourite school!!!  I have had a rash of 'not so favourite schools' lately so... I am trying to think of the good!

I am currently working at this particular school with the deputy head's class.  We rotate who teaches, and who take small groups to prepare them for their SAT's (or what we know as EQAO).  

I even love the building! It has beautiful vaulted ceilings inside and is just so lovely!

View from other side.

The kind of class you can do anything with!  They are soooo well behaved!

 

Keep calm and eat Chocolate.

Keep calm ‘panic’ and then carry on.   

To my lovely readers, most importantly to ‘me mum’ who has enriched herself in some England history via You-Tube.

Believe it or not I have visited Barter Books.  I am certain that I have not yet blogged about my trip to this fantastic dream land.  It has lattes and books, what else must I say. 

After reading a fellow bloggers rant about her love for Barter Books, it had become first on my ‘I want to do’ list.  That was in October sometime.  This wonderful wish came true around the Christmas holidays.  Although it came as a surprise, which made it even better!  

All respects go to, once again, Mr. Alecks (Daniel’s new name) for taking me.  He had planned a castle tour of Alnwick (pronounced annik).  This castle, among other things, was used in the Harry Potter movies.  I was really not that into going to see this castle, because frankly I cannot understand that enthusiasm about wizards.  I am also not that into castles.  I have become accustomed to seeing ruins all over Newcastle, even in our own neighbourhood! I do enjoy Mr. Alecks’ field-trips though, and that is why I jumped into the Volkswagen (Folks car, that’s for the German! Haha) and headed off!

To our sad surprise, the castle was not open for the winter season, so we visited the extremely touristy gift shop.  This of course was not a happy ending, until...  Mr. Alecks’ said, “I will take you to a famous book shop down the street, they have lovely lattes”.

I was almost speechless!  I think I also started to shake out of excitement.  “Ah...Dan this book shop, did it used to be a train station?” 

Well my loves, I should have taken more photos, but this is all I have of this lovely splendid place!  I do hope to re-visit again.  Perhaps the rest of them can go to the castle and leave me there with my non-fat vanilla spice latte with whip, and a book next to the fireplace.

And our adventure begins...

This toy train, out of commemoration for the old real train, circles around the entire book store.

Ryan, not looking as enthused as I was!

The infamous 'Keep Calm and Carry On' poster in the back ground, as well as the train.

Mr. Alecks' photography skills

Yay!!!!!

I'm not too sure why this was there. It is a well, and there was actually water in it.  Ryan and I, as smarty pants we are assumed that is was for the dogs to drink.  As there was many there that day.

This 'Windsor' sign was right outside Barter Books.

You find flocks of shipe everywhere, especially between here and Scotishland.  'Shipe'  we have discovered, is the plural form for sheep.

The tree house at Alnwick Castle and Amy's long mane of ginger hair.

Part of the tree house

Amy's photo shoot

Mr. Alecks shaking the bridge frightening Ryan.

Ryan pretending not to look frightened about the bridge

Bum shot... Ryan, Amy, Mr. Alecks

 Until next time, keep fit and have fun!

So... It’s spring in Newcastle upon Tyne!

Overnight it has turned into spring and it has been a breath of fresh air!

Living in England and dealing with the lifeless dull weather has put a damper on our journey.  It has been cold, but hasn’t snowed and has been damp every day since November 1^st!  This is why I am soooo excited to have this gorgeous weather to blog about!

All this week I have thought I was running late, because it was daylight before 8:30am.  Today the sun did not set until, 6:30pm.  This is delightful, because, those of you who have been reading or have been in contact with me since being over here, know that the worst part so far has been the sun-setting at 3:00pm and not rising until 8:30am and then even, being overcast for the entire day!

With this darling weather I decided to walk to Jesmond and visit a few places (library, post office, Tesco).  I even brought the camera to make this journey fun!  It was grand until... I ran into a group of lads, no older than 13 years of age.  There were about 6 of them.  They were all on their bikes.  I was in an alley on my way from South Gosforth to Jesmond when I spotted them.  I was thinking, ‘oh jesus here we go’.  You see, if this was in Canada I wouldn’t have noticed them.  Here, in Newcastle, I know how these children think, I mark their literacy, I hear what they talk about during break time, and I know what they are capable of.  Anyway I tried to ignore them, as I was trying to look for some great shots for my camera, but no, they couldn’t be respectful human beings they had to go and ruin this gorgeous day.  

The first boy put his hand out towards my head and made some sort of noise, or grunt, or whatever (it could have even been Goerdie for all I know! Haha) then his mate went by and chucked something at me.  I didn’t know at the time what he had thrown, but all I know is that I could and would not let these twerps get away with ruining my day!

I was fuming...  I turned around and said, “Who threw something at me?  Which one of you threw something at me?  The boys all stopped and turned toward me.  At this time I was thinking, ‘what the hell am I going to say to them anyway?  What am I going to do?  I couldn’t show that I was scared or completely gone mad, so I just kept walking towards them with a serious teacher look.  One boy said that it was ‘so and so’ and pointed to his mate who was cycling away.  I just stared at the one who talked to me for a long silence, a long enough dramatic stare until I could feel that he was just as uncomfortable as I was, and then I turned around and continued on my way.

I can’t tell you why I reacted the way I did.  I would have never thought I would do such a thing.  I don’t know what it was, but I felt that I needed to do something, anything to show that they are disrespectful.  Of course I understand that they probably do not care, or are not thinking ‘oh my, I was disrespectful’ but I do believe I surprised them by at least doing something.  It was probably my accent that made them stop in their tracks but whatever at least I made them see that I mean business. 

 After walking away I found out that it was chewing gum that was thrown at me.  Yep!  That is right, in my hair already been chewed by someone else.  I wanted to puke, as I tried to rip it out.  Thankfully it was at the bottom of my tresses and thus was easily removed.  Next time I am taking his picture and warning him that I will take his identification to the Bobbies! 

Here are some pictures of my neighbourhood.  I tried to take pictures of the things that are different here.  I have become so accustomed to these things that I am forgetting about how they are actually unique.  It was close to sunset so forgive me for the darkness.  I plan to take more to add here during the morning and afternoon, but for now enjoy my walk to the library.

This, believe it or not, is a school.  Most of the schools that I have taught at look like old Victorian house just like this one.  I have not unfortunately worked at this school.  It would be a dream though because it is right down the street from us!

Every time I see this sign I think, 'that would not work in Canada'.  We would see this as a verb.  A sexual one at that!  What this is trying to explain, is that there is 'SPEED BUMPS' ahead.

This is an England speed limit sign.

This just makes me want to climb it more to find out what this paint is actually capable of.

This 'T' symbol is to signify a dead-end street.

Getting a wee bit dark here.  This is post 'gum throwing' incident.  Anyway I took this to show how they put street signs on walls instead of signs.

When we first arrived here I thought that the Brits have areas for 'disabled cars'  I was wrong...

All the sidewalks look like this, and they do not refer to sidewalks as sidewalks.

Another street sign.  Low to the ground and not on a post.  This caused and has continued to cause great frustration when looking for schools!!

Give way, is their yield.

These are at every cross walk.

See... I wasn't lying

Instead of renting, they 'let'

what street are you on?.... umm let me walk down the block a bit and look on the side of a building to figure that out.

A nice post at the edge of the corner... picture it!  It really is lovely.

I felt as if this tree captured the 'spring like temperatures'

I was inspired by this lovely weather to make something ‘spring like’ for dinner.  I decided to try something from Pinterest, and I have pictures to show you my new recipe for tzatziki chicken wraps.

Alrighty then!  You start off with peeling cucumbers...

Add white wine vinegar, lots of fresh garlic, salt and pepper, lemon juice, and the cucumber to natural yogurt.  Let the sauce chill in fridge for at least 30 minutes.

Add crushed garlic, red wine vinegar, olive oil, dried oregano and salt and pepper to chopped chicken in pan.

And voila!  This is supposed to be pitas not tortillas, but it is hard to find pitas here.

Yum yum!  The only thing is that our microwave decided to stop working...  Ryan doesn't come home for another 3 hours!! He may need to enjoy this cold... YUCK!

Until next time...Happy Pinning Pinteresters!!