Peter Jackson and New Line Cinema have put aside their differences - royalties from the “Fellowship of the Ring” - to join forces with MGM to produce “The Hobbit” over two films, slated for release in 2010/2011, a full 7 years since the release of “Return of the King”.

Hopefully some of the cast will return - most notably of course, Sir Ian McKellan as Gandalf and Andy Serkis as Gollum.

One Ring and all that…

The goals started with defensive errors by the opposition and this continued as Strachan’s long promised outlook of beautiful football came to pass. The good football had a positive effect on the atmosphere inside Celtic Park so it would seem that the appreciation of talent on display comes when some genuine talent is shown!

Fast forward four days and to one of the best football matches I have had the pleasure to watch. The Champions League is the holy grail for club teams and qualification is worth upwards of £10 million to each team. Standing in the way of Celtic’s progression was Spartak Moscow - the current Russian league leaders. Not since Barcelona, had I witnessed such a good team visit Celtic - their passing and movement was a joy to behold at times.

The game started at breakneck speed with the ball racing from one end of the pitch to the other. Aiden McGeady came out of his shell and produced some scintillating dribbling and an end product that has eluded him so often. Then the crazy referee gave a ridiculous handball decision against a prostrate Gary Caldwell with Pavluchenko missing the resultant penalty amid a cacophany of boos from the vocal home support. A few minutes later and a case of penalty box pinball at the other end presented the industrious Scott McDonald with the opportunity to score his first Celtic goal.

A simple corner at the end of the first half cancelled out the opener and Celtic’s away goal advantage from the first leg. Pavluchenko atoned for his earlier miss by chesting down the corner, turning and drilling past Artur Boruc. This, undoubtedly, railed the Polish keeper - made evident by his half-time spat with the nervy and unconfident left back Naylor.

The second half went by in no time as the game opened up. Both sides had spells of possession but it was Celtic who created by far the most chances. There was a 90 second spell where Celtic’s Japanese superstar Nakamura had 3 chances to score - a lob, one-on-one, and a shot from the edge of the box resulting in easy saves and a balloon over the bar. The rhythm of the game was unfortunately punctuated by bizarre decisions from the Italian ref - none more so than the sending off of Spartak’s Stranzl five minutes from time for a last man challenge where there were another 3 Spartak players in attendance.

And so, after 90 minutes, the sides could not be separated resulting in a further half hour’s extra time. Again, it was mostly Celtic trying to make their numeric advantage pay. It almost happened on the 115 minute mark when Celtic’s Dutch striker Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink’s penalty hit the crossbar after a Scott Brown shot hit the hand of a Spartak defender.

Penalty shoot-outs - love them or hate them - are an awesome spectacle. Having never been confident about them before - see results against Valencia and Falkirk - I was expecting glorious failure yet again. All of Celtic’s penalty takers looked calm and collected and all, bar Nakamura’s thunderous effort that crashed off the bar and out, scored leaving Maxim Kalynychenko to score at 4-3 to level it for Spartak. Then the Holy Goalie Boruc dived across and clawed his shot to safety. The stands erupted and 59,000 fans jumped for absolute joy - the promised land had been reached. Pure euphoria flooded from the stands as the famous Champions League music bellowed from the PA system.

Fast forward another 4 days and back to Earth and the bread and butter of the Premier League. A side with 3 changes managed to steamroller a poor St Mirren team to a 5-1 defeat without having to break sweat. The impressive Scott Brown again showed why he is Scotland’s most promising player with his sheer talent and unlimited drive - a new hero for the fans.

All this in just over a week. Oh, and Kenny Miller and Thomas Gravesen were jettisoned to the Premiership and we still haven’t got cover at left back… Would that be too much to ask for after the week just gone?!?!

This week I’ve been re-introduced to “A Curriculum for Excellence” and LT Scotland, having studied them and their resources for my interview way back in March. Both of these have resurfaced across the week in discussions in classes, and will probably continue throughout the year.

As far as the subjects are concerned, we’ve started at the beginning in with 5-14 and Standard Grade Guidelines, even having a go at some sample exam papers. I won’t tell you how successful I was…!

The RE class has been an eye-opener as, having attended a non-denominational school, I was unaware of the true role of RE in Catholic state schools and what is expected of Catholic certified teachers. This may be a challenge for me and my somewhat lapsed faith, but one I am prepared to face up to.

So, one week down, just 35 more to go.

The first speaker’s slides were all far too busy with background images and picture frames around an overkill of text and bullet points. The second speaker tried too hard with gimmicks like animations; specifically one where four web pages are animated then reduced to all fit on one slide. She also used a wireless remote to change the slides, even though she stood beside the laptop for her entire talk.

These “personal touches” distract the audience from the subject matter and what the speaker is attempting to address. I found the following video on YouTube that highlights the misuse of PowerPoint.

Orientation was the name of the game today. There was 3 hours of introductory talks from course co-ordinators, chaplains, learning, SLC and the library - all very informative and some quite humourous! After signing my name to the professional code and submitting to a year of RE, there was an informal meeting with the subject co-ordinator including having a mugshot taken.

The 37 other Maths students and I then headed downstairs for the introductory social event - obligatory cheese & wine - that rounded the day off nicely!

Tomorrow is registration and a talk from Global Student Teaching about the possibility of doing one of the 3 school experience blocks abroad - very tempting…

To add insult to injury - which, thankfully, was only whiplash - the tax disc was stolen and before it could be uplifted by a local scrap merchant was set alight. Only in the last few days has the wreckage been picked up by the council and I await the bill.

Happy New Year…

Dx

A real feast for the eyes, and wallet, I nipped into TGI Friday’s for a cheese steak thing. Fattening but tasty. Didn’t leave much of a tip though as the service was awful and the place was more than a bit grubby. By now I was knackered so I went back to the hostel, checked my email, and headed for bed.

Next morning I headed to Battery Park to get a ticket for the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. It was the hottest day of the year in NYC - reaching 40C - and I was feeling it. Before getting on the ferry we all had to pass through security - the type of security you would expect at an airport with x-ray machines and metal detectors - a visible reminder of 9/11.

The boat across was pretty nice. I could see the Narrows bridge, Brooklyn Bridge and Jersey City as we made our way to Liberty Island. I was beginning to feel like I was a cow being herded such was the way we got off the boat and along the jetty! I had bought an audio ticket so I could learn some more about the island so I grabbed the headphones and followed the little voice in my ear…

The Statue of Liberty is mighty impressive. Plenty of photo ops and the audio tour was very enlightening. Did you know the insides were designed by Eiffel and that it nearly ran out of funding? After leaving Liberty Island it was a short trip to Ellis Island - the sorting office for the immigrants in days of yore! The air conditioning was very much welcome!

After returning to Manhattan, I made my way to Ground Zero. A great big hole in the ground and a very humbling experience. From here it was a short subway ride to Wall Street and the JP Morgan building and the NYSE. My Downtown Manhattan tour continued after a McD lunch to see the Woolworth Building and City Hall from “Spin City”. Walking past the start of the Brooklyn Bridge I ended up at the courts, then Chinatown then I just wanted to sit down! I gave up the sight seeing and headed back to the hostel. In my room I met Lewis and Kate from somewhere English who had taken career breaks and gone travelling for their honeymoon and planning their next stop - Las Vegas.

Next day, after my free bagel and tea breakfast, I headed north to Columbia Heights and the University of Columbia. As I made my way up Broadway, I passed Tom’s Restaurant from Seinfeld! As I walked through College Walk, I was reminded of Columbia’s place in Hollywood - Spider-Man, Ghostbusters and The Sopranos all sprung to mind. Someone stopped me and asked me if I knew where the Law School was as he was on his way for an interview - I must not look very touristy!

Enough of education, I want to climb to the skies! I headed to the Rockefeller Center and the “Top of the Rock” - a better view than the Empire State some say. The views were incredible. It was another scorcher of a day so the visibility was a bit hazy but I could still see for miles around. You get a real sense of the sheer size of New York when you look down at it! I got lunch in a sandwich shop at the Rockefeller Center on 6th Avenue before checking out the outside of the Radio City Music Hall then going shopping.

You can’t come to Manhattan and not want to shop. Due to the heat, I was sweating profusely so I made for Macy’s - the world’s largest department store - to buy some wristbands. Continuing my quickstop tour, I made for Madison Square for a view of the Flatiron building - another symbol of New York and the home of the “Daily Bugle”!

From there, a short stop at Carnegie Hall, before Grand Central Terminal. Possibly the grandest and shiniest train station I’ve ever seen! More name-dropping coming: saw the Met-Life building, Citigroup Center and the Waldorf Astoria Hotel before heading to Lexington Avenue and 59th Street - home of Bloomingdale’s.

Eager for a brown bag of my own, I headed to the menswear department and purchased a Ralph Lauren polo-shirt in the sales for only $50. A walk past many other buildings and shops brought me back to 5th Avenue - the world’s most famous shopping street. I had managed to break my earphones so I went into the Apple store on 5th. Accessed through a glass box with the apple logo at street level, this underground store was full of gadgets - mostly in that Apple white colour. After finding the earphones and surfing for free on the iMacs and MacBooks, I joined the checkout queue where I was approached by a salesman who took my credit card and charged me there and then with my receipt emailed to me - genius!

Continuing my walk down 5th, I nipped into NikeTown where Celtic tops were again in prominence - excellent. Passed Tiffany’s and Trump Tower on my way to the flagship Abercrombie & Fitch store. The four storey store with blinded windows is staffed by only the most beautiful retail workers! The day finished by getting the shuttle from Grand Central to Times Square then home before heading North for Canada the next day.

The diving course in Cairns was excellent. It was all going really well until we started our open water dives. I must have strained myself at some point before my first OW dive because once I got in the water and down to depths where the pressure is much greater than the diving school pool I began to feel a pain in the groin!! At first we established it as a new wet suit and an air pocket had developed. But then we transfered to the overnight boat and not-so-new wet suits. On the first dive the next day the pain intensified and got so sore I had to ascend and be towed back to the boat. But I pushed on and decided to go for the final dive, the one that would make me a certified Open Water diver.

However, once I began my descent I knew I wouldn’t be able to finish so had to go back to the boat. I was gutted! The poor Japanese diving master on the boat must think I have the worst vocabulary in the world because I was not pleased. I was just 30 minutes and 2 underwater skill tests short of my certification. I have a year to complete just one OW dive so you never know, I might do it somewhere else - probably not as warm as the Coral Sea was though!

That was the last dive of my course so we transfered back to the cat to take us back to dry land. The sea was real choppy, so much so that I brought my lunch back up! Once on dry land we waited and waited and waited some more for our DVD of the dives. Once I got my DVD I checked back in to the hostel only to be told that they had fuc**d up and only booked me in for one night when I’d paid for two and there were no more beds. Fantastic. They were keen to blame STA Travel for the screw up and so after getting my refund for that 2nd night, I went to examine some places to stay for the next night before the hostel phone them for me. While doing that I give STA a call back in Glasgow who trace the error down to the hostel itself - damn cheek of the place! They did manage to get me a room, 15 minutes from the city centre. I wasn’t happy but I had a room for that night. After that I went to see Pirates for the 2nd time with 2 guys from Merseyside and a German!

I got up the next day determined to get a room closer to the city centre so I got the girl at reception to try places closer and to some success as a hostel just round the corner had a spare bed. Silly me however took down the wrong address and made for their sister property 2 miles down the road! Only when I got that place’s free shuttle into the town that I realised I’d booked in to the wrong hostel!!! I did manage to get it swapped over though! After that nothing much happened as the heavens opened over Cairns.

On my last day I had wanted to go to Kuranda(?) but the tour left at 10am and by the time I had checked out of one hostel, gone to the other, done a washing to get some clean clothes, I didnt have the time nor the inclination to go up to the rainforest. Maybe next time!

America is… I dunno, dirty! This is my 4th day in LA this week, all of them pretty hot without being excessive although my hostel has no Air Con. I arrived on Monday from Brisbane, my entire day lasting almost 2!

On Monday I went on a limo ride around Sunset Blvd and Beverly hills, pretty cool. On Tuesday I went Downtown (not much to see there, pretty grubby and unappealing) and then off to Venice Beach (full of homeless people). Wednesday was cool as I went to Universal Studios and met Shrek. I went on the backlot tour and all the rides. Yes, I”m a big kid!

After Universal it was on to San Francisco. This is a pretty cool city, completely different to LA. The climate is different for a start even though it’’s in the same state - something to do with it being a peninsula and cold sea air or something. My first day I wandered around aimlessly and slept for a good few hours. Thursday I went a bay cruise and to Lombard Street - a famous windy street that I remember seeing in Nine Months with Hugh Grant!!!!

Saturday I finished my sightseeing in a whirlwind trip round SF including a walk over the bridge and back and some of the famous shopping areas. I”ve got lots of pics to put up but internet cafes round here are quite steep and hostels dont give you USB access, grr!

I”m off to stroll the shops and have dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe!

Tomorrow, New York and 33C thunderstorms!