The Diary Of John
What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans, and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty and democracy? - Gandhi
Friday, December 19, 2003

Only one more day to go :-)

Just one more day and im on vacation, thats just great as i get four weeks off from work to spend doing whatever i want for a change lol. Alot of it i think i'll spend with Roberta if we can get the time. I am going to visit her parents farm after xmas which will be nice :-). Also i have to try making a start on some portugues lessons, i think that i can get Roberta to give me a hand with this though :-). For my naturalization i have to speak and write in portugues so this is number two priority at the moment.

Anyway im here suffering at Sobradinho in this bloody heat, theres no one here at the moment apart from the idiot dipshit cleaner and the three...... well i use the word secretaries just because i cant think of a foul enough word for them right now lol. I have to give extra class today and then tomorrow a normal lesson to my TT2 group and then i am finished and i wont ever have to step foot in this place again apart from teachers training and stuff. I'll be FREE.. FREE.. FREE!!!!!!!. Today is really just to get my students up to schedule so that on saturday they cant ask me to come back to give any more xtra classes and stuff. There is also another reason too... my job is simply to finish the lesson plan now and by saturday it will all be done. But of course there will still be all three exams to give and there will be no one here as all teachers will either have left the school or be on vacation lol. So who will give these tests?.. yeah u guessed it the dopey secretaries hahaha. They have had no methodology training so they are going to dtruggle their arses off to try giving the tests and all the while my students are going to be giving them hell about not getting it all organised. For me though, personally i can see the funny side to this hahaha. I'll encourage my students to use their newly discovered bad english words to make the secretaries hurry along too if you know what i mean ;-)

Hmm for some reason my cell phone will not send messages to Robertas cell phone. It was working just fine earlier on but now its just refusing to send :-(. I hope that it gets sorted out soon, i think though maybe Robertas inbox on her phone my be full so that could be causing it. I texted her mom to ask her to tell roberta to have a look at her phone hahaha. Tomorrow after class ends we are going to visit the Parque De Cidade (Whenever i say this Roberta has fits of laughter, must be my accent i guess lol). we will be able to have a lot of fun there, usually there is always something happening at the park and even if not it'll be great to get to spend some time together as Roberta has been at her parents farm for the last few days so tomorrow will be catch up with kisses day ;-). Sunday will be movie day so maybe we will see American Pie 3 or something else. Roberta loves movies as much as me but really for the two of us it will just be to share some time together. We will get to spend most of the weekend together as i will have no more classes to give.. well apart from helping Roberta to study to take a test to jump over TT1 to pass into the TT2 group in Planaltina but i think that will be easy for her to do :-)

Hahaha my cell phone is sending messages, i guess her inbox is finally emptying lol. Give me a second or two here okay? :-)

im just downloading direct x here as someone has been deleting it from all of the computers. I cant understand why they have done this as alot of program rely on direct x. I guess it was probably one of the secretaries to stop the students installing games and stuff like Ragnarok that seems to be installed on just about every computer i can see here. In fact i am going to try it out later on after i finish this posting lol. My friends tell me that its very addictive so i am curious to see exactly how it plays and stuff. The other school still doesnt have internet yet, the modem is up and running now and i think they are waiting for the phone company to get it all sorted out now. I hope that they get it sorted for when my vacation time is over so that i can use the internet to pass the time away, well the time that i am not spending with Roberta as we try to spend alot of time together because of her returning to her parents farm alot during vacation time.

Oh i see they have settled on the design for the new trade center. it actually looks quite good although it will be few years i guess beofre we can see it in real life as its is planned to be the largest building on the planet. but someone will come along and beat it, it always happens. But do we really need all those high buildings, after all we have seen how easy it is to knock one down :-(. Still i will enjoy seeing it when it is built just to see if it is as spectacular as the drawing they have on the internet.

My god they really need to teach the idiot cleaner how to read as she just spent around ten minutes trying to find my folder, talk about having the brains of a gnat lol.

Time for me to get moving here as my students will soon be arriving :-) Have a great weekend okay? :-)

posted at 2:39 PM by john |  

Post for Wednesday - Internet not working lol

Man its hot here in Planaltina this morning, im melting at the moment and its only 10am so you can imagine how hot it will be by this afternoon cant you? I'll have to get some bags of ice i think to stop myself from melting down into a puddle hahaha

This lunch time i will have lunch with Roberta, we are going to try to find a place thats nearer i think than the one i usually use because its going to be red hot and neither of us will want to walk all the way there by mid day. I just found out that a party we were going to Thursday i wont be able to attend as i have to do a certain amount of standby hours until the end of the semester which means im not going to be released until Saturday. Oh well never mind, into every life a little rain has to fall.

I have to give the final oral lit tests this afternoon, they are easy though as most of my students have advanced or master english levels to for them really its just a formality. I'll tick over while doing this though or i will end up with loads of free time to myself and nothing to do here especially while the internet still isnt working.

I got some new stuff from off the internet to have a look through that maybe i can use some of next semester, i have to get it printed off now so that i can read at home instead of only on a computer. I am hoping that they will have some new or at least different things that i can try out with some of my students next semester. This semester one of the students parents told me that the director said i didnt do enough extra stuff with my students even though i had prepared loads of it but couldnt get the school to print or photocopy or help me set up to use any of it. Next semester i'll just use the stuff regardless of what they say as i will get it in the neck no matter what i do i guess lol.

I have to get the rest of that roll of film used up today so i can give my little friend Joao Pedro his photo as he is always asking me about it hahaha. I will definately have to get the roll used and into the store as they will do hour service for me then i can see the huge smile light up his face when i finally give it to him hahaha.

I guess i had best get off my arse here and go get ready to go to meet Roberta for lunch and see where we will decide to go. Also she has tests this afternoon so i think it'll be nice for her to have fun and relax before they start. I'm outta here... lol

posted at 1:51 PM by john |  

Wednesday, December 17, 2003

Some new photos for you guys :-)

An unemployed guy can afford this? lol


My parents love xmas decorations


As you can see my brother has sent me a few new photos so i posted just a couple of them here, there will be more later on okay but hes busy at work at the moment so it'll take him just a little time to get around to snaping some more off.

At the moment i am wasting time here at CCAA Sobradinho, its so boring but i have to be here in order to get paid lol. Just sitting on my arse typing and surfing the net and watching the secretaries as the screw up over and over again lol. Its so funny to see four people screwing up things so badly and even managing to suck at doing that too hahaha. Obviously they werent hired for their intelligence i guess lol. The nice thing is that the terminal is free so i get to use the net for a couple of hours just to catch up on emails and also on the news too. I see that Jackson here might get away with not being charged with abusing more kids, it says the case looks dodgy but i think hes been spreading money around again to buy himself off the hook. also the want to give Saddam the death penalty too but i think this would be a bad idea as it would turn him into some sort of strange martyr. It'll be interesting to see what will happen with this guy.

Okay hi to Tatiana and everyone else, Everyone who reads this site i hope you guys have a wonderful xmas okay and dont go getting too drunk lol. I dont drink which is always great as it means that i remember all of the embarassing things that people get up to at parties :-). Theres nothing better than waving around the photos knowing that people are going to squirm right? hahaha

My day so far has been just great, i spent yesterday evening with Roberta's OM3 group and we went to a pizza house to celebrate the end of the semester. It was loads of fun and i hope that i get this group next semester too. Not just because of Roberta but because i like them all very much, they are fun and like to have alot of fun as well. anyway this morning i went to the school to collect my stuff that i left there last night and found that Roberta had left me this lovely letter hidden away in my bag that was just so sweet :-). We had lunch together earlier on too so i got to meet her mum and dad which was great. this afternoon roberta has three exams in her nurses course so i guess now she must be really busy. Ill buzz her later on just to say hi as she wont be in the city this evening as she will go back to her parents farm and find out how the exams all went. Maybe i will put some photos on here as soon as i can get them developed and scanned okay? :-) she will arrive back here on sat morning so that we can plan some stuff to do over the weekend. Sunday is going to be movie day i think, saturday we will decide after i have finished giving class in the morning and returned to collect her from home :-).

My brother was telling me that its going to snow maybe in the Uk this week and that its already freezing there. Its a little strange as we never have snow here.. not suprising as its a tropical country thuogh hahaha. I suppose people can go dry slope sking here or something if they like. Personally though i love the hot weather here, its nice to know that i wont get colds and flu and all the other crap that i used to get all of the time in the UK. Mind you not smoking three packs of cigs a day helps alot too i guess as i have been off the cigs for a long time now :-)

Okay i had better see if they have anything for me to do, if not ill probably just get back online again or ring Roberta to suprise her :-)
posted at 1:02 PM by john |  

Monday, December 15, 2003

Boring!!!!!!!

Well i have just about finished giving my oral tests here, i have to wait though for some of my students who are going to arrive later after 6pm. So you can imagine its pretty boring here at the moment. There is just me and the four witches who fortunately are downstairs making potions in their couldrons (Just think of Bruxa Keka four times over hahaha). There isnt anything to do here though apart from post on my site so here i am again lol.

Well thats not true as i also got a phone call from roberta which was nice and also got time earlier to send her an email card too that was sort of cute. I hope that she likes it when she checks her email at the school later in the week :-). I'll give her a buzz later on after i have finished class around 10pm as she has to return to her home this evening :-(. Oh well you know what they say right? 'Absence Makes The Heart Grow Fonder'. It'll be nice to talk on the phone, who knows i might get to practice my portugues a little too :-). We have a party at the weekend, something that'll be good fun :-)

Its still red hot here at the moment, having to wear this black CCAA teeshirt though isnt helping as it makes it seem twice as hot :-(. To get home and get under the shower will be great as the air conditioning here is just in the classrooms so here in the teachers area its like a sauna and i dont have time to go and get a coca cola from the bakers as my students will hopefully arive soon. Then i will be able to go and get something cold to drink.. Yeah!!!!!!!

We had a visit earlier from one of my students who is having time off after the birth of her baby. I have some standby classes to give so i can use this to give her the extra classes she will need in order to take and pass the final exam of MEC3. The nice thing is that hopefully she will bring her son to visit us too, another Kodak moment :-).

I must remember to try to use the roll of film this week as it needs to be developed as Joao Pedro who lives down the road from me is driving me crazy wanting a copy of his photo that i took the other week lol. hes very cute and funny and he thinks its great because i can talk a little portugues with him. Hopefully Roberta will be able to help me to pick up a lot of portugues so my vocabulary will improve.

My cell phone is beeping again, the TIM network is very slow today and it is taking ages for messages to get sent and collected by people. I guess this time of the day must be really busy for some reason or other. I sent these messages ages ago and it says that its just got around to delivering them so soon it will beep to say that Roberta has read them :-). I'll still ring later on though as although i like the messages i like to speak in english too and Roberta loves to practice her english :-)

My students will be here soon, i had better finish here and post. plus the dipshit brain-dead cleaning woman is floating around and man i just cant stand the person. Later guys okay? :-)

posted at 2:40 PM by john |  

President Lula first head of state to support an arms trade treaty

Brazil's President Lula has stated his readiness to play a key role in pushing for an international treaty to control arms.

President Lula agreed to work with Amnesty International on this and other initiatives in a meeting held with the organization's Secretary General Irene Khan.

Ms Khan presented to the Brazilian President, the Control Arms Campaign which was launched on 9 October by Amnesty International, Oxfam and the International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA). The campaign aims to reduce arms proliferation and misuse and to convince governments to introduce a binding arms trade treaty.

"Brazil's support for an international Arms Trade treaty reflects President Lula's concern about arresting human rights abuses flowing from gun violence in Brazil, as well as his strong interest in Africa where the use of small arms has been disastrous," said Ms Khan.

She welcomed President Lula's unequivocal response to: "...undertake all efforts to build a network and create a positive balance in favour of arms control."

President Lula pledged his government's support to Amnesty International: "We will be your partner for this and other initiatives."


I thought this was interesting, it was on Amnesties website. Nice to see the Presidents trying to get something done here about the amount of young people dying every day here from guns and violence

posted at 12:21 PM by john |  

Im having a great day today :-)

My day is just great today, not even the idiot secretaries can spoil my day today no matter how hard they try. My weekend was just great, i spent alot of it with Roberta though :-). It can only get better right? hahaha

Yesterday We went to visit sobradinho as there was nothing at all happening in Planaltina.. you have to believe that we live in the most boring city in Brasil unless you count Planaltina Goias lol. anyway we just spent the evening wandering around the city which was just great, sharing coca cola and visiting such exciting places as the bus station hahaha. Its a little hard to find anything to do here though on a sunday night as everywhere seems to close very early.

This morning i went to see the place where Roberta is right now taking her exams for her nurses course, its just a few minutes walk from where i teach so its great for me as i can nip there to visit any time i like and she lives just a few minutes walk from the school too :-). Theres going to be a party there on Sat night so it'll be fun to get to meet all of Robertas friends and have some fun at the same time :-). I'll take the camera with me as there are bound to be some kodak moments :-)

This afternoon is oral tests, as you can see i am so animated about spending the whole day giving oral tests to people who already speak excellent english. we are talking boring with a capital B here. I think they should let me design a test for the students as they are getting bored with having to do the same stuff over and over again for the last 5yrs or so. I'm sure that i could give them something alot more fun to talk about with me :-)

Just a few more days to go and then it will be vacation time, i actually get to have some days off which is nice and just standby hours in Planaltina as well so it's going to be nice. the days that i have to give standby hours i can just get Roberta to come over to the school and we can watch dvds with popcorn and stuff, its going to be alot of fun. I will try to get my standby hours made so that i have time to go and visit the farm of Robertas parents as its quite a distance away from Planaltina. I've never visited an orange plantation before so i can get some pics for my parents as they love to see these sorts of things :-). They have mangos there too,i wonder if they grow papaya as well 'cause i love papaya hahaha

I guess i had better go and see if they have anything for me to do yet, if i dont ask the stupid secretaries dont tell me and then i end up running around all over the place trying to get organised. Maybe i should ask if i can be chief secretary as i know i could do ten times a better job than the ones we have now. Unfortunately though i dont think that my breasts are big enough for me to qualify for the job. Plus only unintelligent people get to apply to be a secretary in CCAA Sobradinho lol

Later guys and gals okay? :-)

posted at 11:44 AM by john |  

Sunday, December 14, 2003

The internet is full of news today

Well it looks as though they managed to capture Saddam without any fight from him at all, i dont think though this is going to put an end to all the problems there are in Iraq though as there are so many of them. At least though the people of Iraq wont have to worry about any reprisal attacks from Saddam for supporting democracy. It'll be interesting to see what will happen now and see if there will be less attacks and fighting.

Anyone know a good barber?

Looks as though hes been through the mill a bit doesnt it, i think though that we have to make sure that he is treated properly or we will be seen as simply being as bad as he is. Ill be watching the net to see what will happen with The Butcher Of Bagdad..

Anyway today is a beautiful day here in Planaltina, this morning i went to the fair just for something to do and also to take a few photos as my parents back in the UK love seeing pictures of this place :-). This afternoon i think i'll just relax as later on i will go to the bus station to meet Roberta and then the two of us just have to think of something to do. As you can imagine there arent many interesting things to do here in Planaltina even at the weekends but iam sure that we will think of something :-). I definately have to practice typing messages on my cell phone though as it seems to take me ages just to type the smallest message hahaha. I must be getting old i guess ;-)

**Playing - Growing On Me - The Darkness**

Man i love this group, its easy to see why they are being talked about as one of the best rock bands of the moment :-) My students have been busy copying this cd like wild fire because its very difficult to get British cds here in Brasil.. Well i would say next to impossible actually. Good thing my brother is into rock in a big way and gets hold of all the good stuff and sends it to me :-) I'll have to see what other new stuff he can get a hold of for me. I like to give the my students something a little different to listen to so it helps them to practice listening to english. The Darkness are British too so they use very different pronounciation that american rock bands so i think its interesting for them to listen and try to figure out as many of the words as they can. I must try to get a list of all of the lyrics to all of the songs from the cd. I'll get them off the net later on and maybe i can get one of the secretaries to print them off for me next week :-) Sometimes i cant hear everything they say so its nice to have a set of lyrics to go with the cd for me as well as the students lol. I also like seeing how the students understand the lyrics as one can hear and understand in a completely different way from another which gives things for discussion in the lessons.

My students have been organising conversation classes for themeselves in Planaltina too as there wasnt any demand at CCAA Planaltina this semester. They have got a few guys from the Mormon church to give them a hand with classes which is great as they get to practice with many people and i just dont have the time to do the classes all of the time at the moment with it being the end of the semester. I joined a couple of the classes though and they are having a lot of fun :-)

I have just 7 more days and i am free of CCAA Sobradinho, i dont even have to do the standby hours there which is a blessing. I am still having serious problems there including having my classroom door locked by the very dim (stupid) cleaner and then having to get a person to translate to all three secretaries and a teacher that was also there that my students were going to call their parents and go home which soon made the four of them find the key and get the door opened. Yeah, i know they are just Pathetic but who cares hahaha :-). You know something, you would have thought the teacher Sara would have realised by now that we all know she is the one who spies on the other classes and reports back to the four witches, i guess shes not as clever as she likes us all to think hahaha :-). Still there will be a lot of new teachers at this school as i know of at least four or five that are very actively seeking new employment before the start of the new semester. I dont get why the directors arent doing something about the secretaries or the idiot cleaner as people and also students are looking for new schools. Im not the only one to get out now, last semester my friend Alex also dropped this school but was lucky to get offered place at CCAA Recife. R$20 an hour too within a few minutes walk of the beach, thats what i call a good job lol.

**Playing - love Is Only A Feeling - The Darkness**

I have to do just some oral tests and then literature book tests and then my students are all free for vacation apart from one group who are very behind and we have to try to complete everything within five hours through friday and sat next week. They can take the exam with anyone as Sat is my final day there but they will all be fine i am sure :-) I will just leave on Saturday and not tell them its my last day as alot of the students there i get along with really well and to be honest i will miss these guys alot. They are alot of fun and very crazy too :-). It'll be a little sad i think this day if they all know so i'll just email them all or something to say goodbye. I dont want all of them beating the crap out of the idiot cleaner or secretaries hahaha :-). Still they could always practice their 'Bad Words' at them instead as they have an extensive vocabulary now.. (Someone let them have a look through a dictionary of sexual swear words.. dont know who that was though lol)

Okay im off to get something to eat as im starving and to get those lyrics... Enjoy your weekend guys okay? :-)

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