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
Saturday, October 02, 2004

Exam week..

Its exam week here and up until now my students are all doing well, I have a couple more groups yet to do theirs but i dont think they will have any problems. I dont even have to correct anything as they are already done and now i can just sit back and relax :-)

At the moment i am waiting for Roberta to get online but she will have to hurry as i will give class in around 5 mins. There are no secretaries at the school there at the moment so she cant get online :-( Maybe she can ring later, we`ll see

Man, my students are already arriving so i guess i`d better do something lol

posted at 11:40 AM by john |  

Wednesday, September 29, 2004

Bono to address Labour conference

U2 frontman Bono will take centre stage at the Labour Party conference.

The singer, the star speaker at the conference, will call for action to combat the spread of Aids and ease the debt burden in Africa.

He is the latest in a string of celebrities to address the annual gathering, including Nelson Mandela, Bill Clinton and Afghanistan president Hamid Karzai.

Bono has praised the Government's decision to increase its contribution to the global fight against HIV/Aids. The UK's overall contribution will increase from £300million a year to £550million a year by 2007/08. The Government has also announced £150million over three years to support Aids orphans.

Bono's speech will take in the work of his Debt, Aids, Trade Africa (Data) organisation as well as his backing for a new campaign called Make Poverty History.

Data has also called for action in Sudan, where thousands of people have been killed by government-backed militias and more than one million refugees have been displaced.

posted at 11:48 AM by john |  

Open mouth, Insert foot..

Prince Philip, married to the queen of england, has visited over 140 countries on 600 state visits and he manages to insult someone on each visit. He's become a sort of expert at it now. Here are some of his many gaffes:

On wives:
"I dont think a prostitute is more moral than a wife, but they are doing the same thing"

addressing a group of deaf British teenagers standing near a loud steel band:
"If you're near that music, it's no wonder your deaf"

Speaking to British students in China:
"If you stay here much longer, you'll all be slitty-eyed"

Quizzing a scottish driving instructor:
"How do you keep the natives off the booze long enough to pass the test?"

Assessing British women and cuisine:
"British women cant cook!"

Feeding apes in Gibraltar, surrounded by usual Royal media entourage:
"Which are the apes, and which are the press?"

On the warring parties in N Ireland:
"As long as they agree on conservation, i dont care what they do to each other"

Describing his then daughter-in-law, the Dutchess of York's bedroom:
"It looks like a tarts boudoir"

Downplaying Britiains 1981 recession:
"Everybody was saying we must have more leisure. Now they are complaining they are unemployed"

Showing compassion upon being told that an Indian photographer covering the royals had brooken his leg:
"A shame it wasnt his neck"

Scrutinizing a far-from-sophisticated fuse box:
"It looks like it was put in by an Indian"

On the horrendous Cairro traffic:
"The trouble with you Egyptians is that you breed too much"

Empathizing with a mother who had lost her sons in a fire:
"Smoke alarms are a damn nuisance"

On the ceremonial robes of the Nigerian Secretary-General of the commonwealth:
"You look as if you're ready for bed"

On Princess Ann:
"If it doesnt fart or eat hay, she isnt interested"

On being greeted by the then Paraguayan dictator General Stroessner:
"It's a pleasure to be in a country that isnt ruled by it's people"

posted at 11:26 AM by john |  

Tuesday, September 28, 2004

Poetry..

Last week i gave some of my MEC groups an activity i which they had to write a poem, but only in a certain way i had given to them. This week i got to read the first ones and they were really good, i think they enjoyed the challenge too :-) A strange thing was that all the guys remembered their poems but none of the girls did, wierd aint it? hahaha! When they are all in i'll make a kind of poster to put up on the walls for the other students to read and be inspired by. Of course i have to get the girls to bring theirs first and then i'll get Roberta to give me a hand to make a poster as she loves to design and create these types of things :-) I'm quite curious though to see what the girls come up with. also my MEC1 guys came up with the idea of making a sort of CCAA newsletter, this i was impressed with as they had some great ideas. I think this is an idea worth running with as they wanna do just in English. We can use something like publisher which designs newsletters and stuff really quickly. I'll talk more with them about this wednesday to get some sort of concrete ideas, a sort of brainstorming session.Hmmmm, Maybe i can squeeze some kind of conversation class out of it?

Reading the UK news here and they are talking about a soap opera called Coronation Street. Its totally crap, wooden acting as bad as any Brasilian novella and apparently they had some soap opera awards and this one came second to a soap opera that is just as bad and now everyone is complaining lol. Man, who watches these types of programs? C'mon people get yourselves a life haha! This soap opera has been running donkeys years, not exactly sure how long though, oh 44yrs according to their site. Man 40 yrs of bullshit and its sad that people have been watching it for so long instead of doing something worthwhile instead.

I have some of my students taking their midterm exams this week, so until the end of next week its going to be one big rush to get everything corrected and at the moment i only have a few students that have done all the stuff needed to take the exam. I'm expecting a pile of exercises to correct, how many of them i will get done though so they can take the exams i dont know as i have many groups. Still its not really my problem lol. They have plenty of time to make their exercises, i'll try though to get as many of them done as i can so they can take the test. I'll get the secretaries ringing around reminding people to bring their stuff for me :-)

As you can see from the article below, Brits love not being faithful lol. I found it really hilarious, lets be honest in these times this isnt an important factor in most relationships anywhere, not just in the UK. Here in Brasil though it seems that girls prefer older guys, i think this is because most young guys think only with their dicks whereas girls know older guys generally want to have a stable relationship. There are many people i know here where the guy tends to be older than his g/f, wife etc. Myself, im quite a bit older than Roberta but we have a great relationship. You will have to guess how many years older though ;-)

Christ, the neighbours have had some arsehole hammering the concrete floor since 7am the last few mornings. Wait until 11pm tonite when i crank up the stereo for an hour or so with some Guns N Roses. These people have no respect for anyone, whether its bonfires or parties until 4am etc, they need to get some noise laws here just like we have in the UK then maybe people would think a little more about how their actions affect other people. Maybe they will get the message if i keep them awake a few nights in a row. You know, i think its because the woman next door is blonde, oh and donkey too hehehe!

I guess i had better go do something here, i have some stuff to prep for my VIP student tomorrow. News headlines and stuff all have to be typed and printed out ready for tomorrow nights lessons. Its real exciting stuff, trust me lol

posted at 8:18 AM by john |  

Sorry State Of Affairs For Cheating Brits

Almost half the British population has cheated on a partner, reveals a relationship survey. Some 47% of the 25 to 34-year-olds asked admitted to doing the dirty on their other half.And the report showed infidelity was a problem of those in long-term relationships as much as for those just embarking on one.

One fifth of those questioned said they had cheated on their current partner, with men the worst at 25% compared with 15% of women.

Of those 20%, a whopping 92% confessed to having strayed before.

Relate counsellor Paula Hall said: "I'm not surprised by the results. Within that age group, you're still deciding what you want from a relationship.

"Although you need to ask what sort of relationship are these people in? Many might be unfaithful because they're not in a committed relationship."

Pubs and clubs were cited as the most likely places for people to cheat, with 27% meeting someone else, while 26% got together with an ex-partner.

The ICM survey for BBC3 also showed that despite the cheating, 78% of women and 55% of men thought to do so was immoral.

posted at 8:09 AM by john |  

Hebe..



This is Hebe, another of Brasils crusty presenters, man this ranks right up there with the campy Xuxa. Terrible show with an audience full of boring ugly screaming women, crap special guest stars etc. I'm amazed that people even bother watching this program, You cannot imagine how bad it is hehehe. Still at her age people arent going to have to suffer her much longer, she looks and probably is as old as a mummy from a tomb. Now you can see the standard of TV here in Brasil, you can understand why people have big families.
posted at 7:48 AM by john |  

Monday, September 27, 2004

Books..

Finally my groups books arrived today so they are going to be real busy now as i hurry up to get back on schedule. Its going to take some serious speed as we are already 6+ classes behind schedule. It'll be easy though as they are MEC students and used to the methodology and wont mind going fast, well i hope they wont anyway lol. I spent the last hour preparing the stuff they are going to be using for the classes, some extra vocabulary too, really informal stuff hehe. But its good for them as otherwise they will only learn very formal english and lets face it no one speaks like that, well maybe the queen of england but then shes a waste of space so who cares.

Roberta goes back to the family farm today for 5 days, i dont have free time to go with her though so its going to be pretty quiet for me until friday when she arrives back here. I have some stuff for her that she can read when she gets back, all of the stuff i prepare for MEC she takes copies of and i prepped alot of stuff this morning for my groups. Of course, its a pain in the arse later when she becomes MEC as she will have already read all of the stuff and i'll end up going and making all new stuff. Not to worry though, i have shitloads of stuff on disk just waiting to be printed off.

anyway off for lunch as i have class soon..


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