GUnitSJ's Homepage

GUnitSJ's Homepage http://www.zorpia.com/GUnitSJ Sat, 11 Oct 2008 07:07 EDT Sat, 11 Oct 2008 07:07 EDT Zorpia.com My Summer of Work http://www.zorpia.com/GUnitSJ/journal/1584700 This Summer I had a goal; and that goal was to become a LIFEGUARD! To become a lifeguard i needed my Bronze Medallion, First Aid with CPR 'C' , Bronze Cross and my NLS. Today i acheived my goal and was awarded my NLS meaning that i am a trained and qualified lifeguard. All the work i did this Summer came off and i can now earn $10-12 an hr! Personal http://www.zorpia.com/GUnitSJ/journal/1584700 Sat, 02 Sep 2006 15:59 EDT R.I.P Marbel ? - 2006 June 17th http://www.zorpia.com/GUnitSJ/journal/1548525 My dear pet guniea pig Marbel past away today. Today like most other days we put her outside to be in the sun with her little green house. Unfortunately she was put in the shade but the shade retreated leaving her in the scorching heat her house, which acted as a greenhouse! She was found by my mother outside her green house in the sun. We think that she died of heat stroke but she may have been scared to death by our cats even though she was behind a cage wall. The last time i saw her she was milling around the cage eating the fresh grass under her feet. The sad thing is that i expressed my fear that her cage was in the sun and she may get hot. I even went as far as thinking of moving her cage...Alas i didnt and i will regret it greatly i even feel that if i had moved her she would still be alive. Personal http://www.zorpia.com/GUnitSJ/journal/1548525 Sat, 17 Jun 2006 21:11 EDT My Autobiography! http://www.zorpia.com/GUnitSJ/journal/1463666 The Early Years Warning if you dont have the time for me DONT READ!!My parents first met in Calgary, while my dad was serving for the British army in Alberta.  After a while of seeing each other my mother agreed to marry my father Simon Collins.  They married a year and a day after first meeting each other.  At the time of marriage my mother was pregnant with me and I was born 6 months later.  I was born on October 6th 1989 in the town of Ascot in Berkshire an hour from London.  I was a healthy 10lb 6oz baby.  We lived Windsor for 2 years which would be the first of 2 times we would live there.  At 6 weeks old my mother returned to Canada to show visit her hometown Scotland, Ontario.  After returning to Windsor we moved to Middle Wallop for 6 weeks where my father a helicopter pilot training course where his hearing was not up to the standard required.  My father then returned back to his army regiment the Scots Guards.  We then moved to Edinburgh, Scotland where my fatherâ€™s battalion was stationed.  (A battalion consists of 600 men).  At this time Iâ€™m 3 years old and this was the time when I can remember my first memory.  It was attending a daily nursery which at the time I called â€˜the penguin schoolâ€™.  I called it this due to the fact there was a big picture of a penguin outside.  Although I can not remember people from the nursery I do remember what my first school trip was probably.  It was to a sea life centre where I can remember walking through one of those submerged tunnels where fish would seem to swim around you.   In July 1993 my mother and I returned to Canada as my mother found the military life difficult and lonely as father went away for weeks on end.  We returned to Scotland, Ontario where I attended pre-school.  I remember being happy at that place and I think I was happier there then in Scotland.  It was at this point that I wanted to live in Canada.  Also in the winter of â€™93 it was my first white Christmas as a child, it was just so much snow for me to see Iâ€™m not sure if it was the first snow I had seen but it was magical for me at the time.  We then retuned to Windsor in April 1994 the latest place of where my dad was relocated to.  Though we only stayed in Windsor for 8 months I remember it most fondly when we were given a cat which we named Shadow.  We love that cat and still do to this day.  Also in Windsor I started school for a few months only to move in January â€™95 to the big city, London.  I went to Frith Manor School for until June where I would move again. Middle Years This time it was to the Catterick Garrison.  Here I went to my third school in 2 years, called Le Cateau for month to realise I wasnâ€™t finding it to my liking.  Also in â€™96 my mother gave birth to my younger brother, Bryce Thomas Charlie.  In Catterick I had my first run in with kids giving me trouble, I was a quiet child and some of the other kids didnâ€™t like that.  Well there was this one boy called Nathan I think, and though I forget the reason why he wanted to fight me Iâ€™ll never forget that day.  This is what happened: my mother answers the door and there is a group of boys asking if they can fight me!  My parents said it was up to me if I wanted to fight him and to stand up for myself.  I decided I would fight Nathan and I knocked him down and beat him.  I then went to a small village school where most of the kids also had fathers in the army.  We then moved to Camberley, Surrey 1998.  At this time I was 9 and was going to my fifth school, I was starting to get fed up of making friends only to loose them a year or so later.  This new school was College Town and the first school where I made good friends.  I had two main friends Dale and James we had great times together, their dads were also in the army.  Though we loved it there we once again had to move, this time to Whetstone, London.St. Maryâ€™s Westbrook   During the summer we were talking about boarding schools for me.  I decided that I had that I had enough of making friends and loosing them.  My dad liked the idea too as he didnâ€™t have that chance when he was a boy seeing his brother go.  So it was agreed upon that we would look for boarding schools in the summer we visited 2 schools both were on the south coast.  The first was strict and uniformed.  I viewed the dorms and saw the kids werenâ€™t allowed their own bed covers!  Also we then talked to the head mistress, if I was ever going to join the school the chances dropped dramatically when she gave me a speech about bullying â€˜we donâ€™t tolerate bullying, any bullying will be severely punishedâ€™, next school please.  The second school I visited was St. Maryâ€™s Westbrook.  It was not the biggest school and was much smaller than the previous school I visited.  The school was clearly better then my old school and so it was decided that I would stay for a week to test it.  I was placed in dorm 6, where I would have many happy memories.  In my room as far as I can remember was 2 brothers Paul and Mark Spencer, 2 Zambians Kups (his nickname) and Bupe, as well as some other guys cant remember them.  At this time I am in year 5 or the 5th grade and was the first school were we left the classroom to go to other classes.  I was in math class and they had those classic desks, the ones with a lid and ink well.  Well I found a hole in the bottom of the desk and put my finger into the hole and it got stuck!  To my embarrassment they had to get the science teacher in with a pair of pliers to free my finger!  At the sight of those pliers my finger came loose much to my relief.  Iâ€™m pretty sure the kids in that class remembered me for the finger thing when I returned this time to stay for good.  When I returned to the same dorm I remember all the people in the room because I would spend the next 1 and half years with these people in this room.  There was Joe who just joined the school like me, Kups, Bupe, (both I felt resented me when I came for the taster week), Ishaq and Haroon. With Joe I connected with him the most probably because he was from a military background.  In the boarding house there were many different nationalities including English, Dutch, Zambian, Nigerian and the Cantos.  In later years the Cantos would come to dominate which I will talk about later. We had a great time in that room talking after lights out playing games.  Near the end of each school year we had sports day.  Though I wasnâ€™t into sports much at the time I was in the running to win one of my events.  Since I was tall I could jump quite high and I checked the record book and I was nearly jumping the year 6 school records.  Unluckily for me my nerves were shot and I only managed 2nd place.  After year where sadly most of my friends left the school because of the Kent Test, in England you take this test to go to grammar school.  At the beginning of year 7 a new boy would join the school, Tom Lawson.  He would become a great friend of mine, but in the first week or two he was so nervous; it seems so ironic that he would later become captain of almost every sport team he joined and probably the most popular kid in school.  That year a lot of the European students left leaving the boarding school with the majority of the students being Cantonese.  More Cantonese students had arrived and they had begun to separate themselves from the rest of the house.  The head teacher, Mrs Watson, in future years we would discover the secret to the conspiracy.  It turns out that the school earns an extra $2,000 for each Cantonese student.  This is because the extra amount of money is for EAL â€“ extra English lessons.  By the time I left the school there was 2 British kids in a house of 50!  What was even stranger was that she could afford a BMW, a BMW Z3, a Porsche and a Mazda on a head teacher salary? Though she was married he must have worked some job! Throughout my time at the school I had trouble with authority when I was told to do something pointless and even they agreed with me occasionally that I was right.  But my main problem was food.  The food was the worst I have ever had to taste for almost every day for 4 years.  At one time I refused to eat the food I was served it was the weekend so I just went out to the stores and bought lunch.  I dreaded every meal of the day, except when I knew it was a theme meal e.g Oktoberfest, Christmas.  I could tell you many horror tales but hereâ€™s two of my favourite.  My friend Bupe was drinking his orange juice when he splutters, he looks in the bottom of his cup and what does he find?  Baked beans, all of us are outraged and we come with him up to the cooks to show them.  The cook simply shrugs and gives him a new cup of orange juice.  My other favourite was with the cooking staff.  I and this other boy called Stuart go up for our food and this drunken cook refuses to serve us!  He says â€˜Youâ€™ve already had your food!  This is your seconds!â€™  What was funny about this cook was                       from Newcastle and they have a strong accent which sounds Scottish.  So me and my friends realised who this cook reminded us of Willy the groundskeeper from the Simpsons!  The cook was so convinced he had served us that he even swore on his childrenâ€™s life!  Me and the other boy refused to eat the food we werenâ€™t served and one of the teachers bought us fish and chips.During the school year I was fed up with the school. I wanted out and took a test for Duke of Yorks a military school not far from St. Maryâ€™s it is one of the best schools in the county.  Since I wanted to join in a difficult year there was 10 places up for grabs and about 100 taking the test to fill those places.By this time Tom had managed to convince me to like football so it was good that it was the year of the world cup.  I remember talking about each England win with Tom or with the cricket team when ever we went on away matches.  England had reached the quarter final against Brazil.  Everyone was watching the game but to my distaste they were mostly supporting Brazil. They could barely name the England team let alone the Brazil team.  When England scored first I stood up and yelled jubilantly in the other peopleâ€™s faces.  Then disaster struck, Ronaldinho took a free-kick far away from â€˜scoringâ€™ range.  David Seaman had allowed the free-kick to float over his head and into the goal.  I was distraught, and typically everyone gets up and starts yelling and hitting me.  England went on to loose the game while Brazil continued on in the tournament to win.  At the end of the school year I would travel to Canada to stay with my grandparents and would stay at their trailer up north.  I would go fishing with my grandpa for hours on end.  After that I would swim in the lake diving off the dock with other kids.  At night I would go to the barn I with tons of snacks and watch a movie under the stars, while trying not to get eaten alive by mosquitoes!  Sadly last year they sold the trailer.                                On the way back each school year I would take a train with some other kids from the school.  Well this time I met a Taiwanese girl named Amy.  I remember her struggling               with her bags and offered to help her.  She said thank you and her guardians thanked me telling Amy she should come to me if she needed any help settling help.  I liked this girl and was friends with her for the 2 years she was at the school.  I had had girlfriends before but none I had felt as strong as Amy.  I wanted to ask her out but she had eyes for a number of other guys. She also made me incredibly angry on a couple of occasions.  Twice I was at home with friends and she phoned my home phone and mobile.  She said â€˜hi Sean could you pass me on to your friendsâ€™.  I was so angry I just hung up on her.  I made up her and phoned her sporadically after she left.  She even came to my house a couple of times I took her to the movies and into London for a day out.  That was April, that day I asked her out but she turned me down saying that I was leaving in July for Canada. At the same time Amy arrived the Canto population was increasing.  But 2 good guys came to the school that year Chris and Alex Kim brothers and from Korea.  I was best friends with them, probably because they had lived in the States and had been â€˜Westernisedâ€™ and they could speak perfect English.  During my time at St. Maryâ€™s I saw 5 different boarding masters for my 5 years at the school.  Some of them I liked others I loathed, as I have already said I had a problem with authority so it would only natural I would have trouble with them.  The first was a Mr Moores, also incidentally all the boarding masters were also head of sports.  Mr Moores was no different and he was a disciplinarian.  He was the boarding master who refused to give me my pocket money if I didnâ€™t eat my food.  I remember when ever something went missing he threatened to tear apart our rooms and a couple of times he did.  At the time of his regime I didnâ€™t like sports very much and he disliked me because of it.  I disliked him too; he left St. Maryâ€™s after a year to join our rival school Dover College.  Some believed he left for a higher pay, he was fed up with loosing sporting games and perhaps the most probable he was encouraged to join Dover College by Mrs Watson.  Next we had this one guy no one really liked and he didnâ€™t particularly like us either.  I canâ€™t even remember his name but when he left I had more respect for him.  He had put up a team sheet with a list of names of people from the school but had changed them for fun.  The slot where you would put the opposition team he had written: Dover College when ever they have the same amount of Chinese students as us!  Transport: when ever we buy it!  All those who read the sheet had a good laugh; unsurprisingly a teacher took it down.  It was obvious the reason why he left; he was sacked by Mrs Watson.  Then there was Mr Riley he didnâ€™t like me either it was mutual.  He was white and came from Zimbabwe he was left his home in Zimbabwe because of President Mugabe.  He was backed by the South African gap student who I also didnâ€™t like!  Thereâ€™s not much I can say about him, I just didnâ€™t like him, he made fun of me in front of my friends despite being a teacher!  He just didnâ€™t think he was doing something wrong, despite seeing that no other teacher did this to me.  Near the end of my third year at the school I confronted Mr Riley and told him how I felt about him; at the end of the summer term he left the school.  This time it was believed that they just didnâ€™t like the school or Mrs Watson.  But before he left he threw us a leaving party for them I remember being slightly guilty for not liking him but going to the party.  On the train home Mr Riley phoned the Kims who were with me.  They urged me to say bye and I did and made my peace with him.  Again we had to adjust to a new boarding master this time it was a man by the name of Mr Dales.  Another strict teacher who would shout at you for almost no reason.  He was the eldest of the masters and wasnâ€™t a surprise after the fourth year he stepped down from head of sport to let in another boarding master Mr Boyd.  Mr Dales was head of boarding and the girlsâ€™ house while Mr Boyd was head of the senior boysâ€™ house.  There were 3 houses girlsâ€™, junior boys and senior boys.  Almost immediately I liked him.  He worked for the students, always trying to get us more stuff for our house.  On some Fridays he would buy from his own money food and drink for us and a video, I had a lot of respect for him and I felt bad when I let him down.  During his reign there were only 2 British kids in my house me and Kevin, us 2 and Chris Kim would often go and talk with Mr Boyd about what he would love to do to the house.  Even though I was leaving I was sad to hear that Mr Boyd was leaving too.  Mr Boyd told us that Mrs Watson was indeed behind his departure.  That man was a legend.  This one time the food was so bad and in small quantity he ordered the whole senior boys house like 20 pizzas!  I have a lot of time for him.   During my time at St Maryâ€™s we all lived for the weekend, each Saturday we would go to town and buy â€˜tuckâ€™ i.e sweets, chocolate, crisps, fizzy drinks and ice-cream.  Those days I will never forget, going to town buying food going to the beach and looking at the girls.  Every Saturday night there would be a movie and all the houses would get together watch the film and eat our â€˜tuckâ€™.  And of course we dreaded Sunday as it meant the next day was school, I still feel that way to this day.  If your wondering why I use the word â€˜tuckâ€™ it was because they used to limit how much food we could have and the food was put in a â€˜tuckâ€™ box.  Mrs Watson saw this â€˜tuckâ€™ box to be a way to generate more money, so she made it compulsory that we must â€˜haveâ€™ a school â€˜tuckâ€™ box.  They looked good until we found out the price, Â£50 in Canada which would be roughly $110!Though we loved the weekend there was no better time then the end of term.  One of my favourite ends of terms was a winter one.  The gap student on duty was told he had no future at the school due to Mrs Watson.  So it was only natural he wouldnâ€™t care what we did at night at the end of term.  It had snowed that evening and everyone in our house wanted to go outside and have fun.  So after lights went out we all snuck out on to the roof of the drama studio and had a snow fight!  Then all of a sudden the gap student burst out of the fire escape door, we all stopped and stared he then made a snow ball and threw it, we all cheered and continued on snow fighting. After Tom had introduced me to football and after that I was more into sports and I started to become better at sports.  Though I certainly wasnâ€™t a squad player for the school I managed to make the teams a couple times.  My first selection for a sport team was for the cross-country relay team.  The run was at Dulwich College, the track was just over a mile long and I wasnâ€™t as fit as the other kids.  Without saying much I did terrible, though by the time it was my turn to run we were already last.  That was during the autumn term.  It was also the autumn term when I made a sub appearance for the hockey team (not ice hockey!).  During yr7 I played for the cricket team my one favourite perks for sport teams were away games.  I loved sitting on the bus with the team talking about school and how badly we would loose by!  Also after the match there was â€˜teaâ€™ which was normally my dinner if it was large enough or I could take enough back with me for later.  During my time at St Maryâ€™s I took fencing lessons and became the best in the class.  I twice had to fight in front of the school for fencing against my friend Chris.  We both agreed we would go all out to win, luckily on both occasions I won otherwise I wouldnâ€™t be able to leave the room without being jeered off stage.  With the fencing club we also had matches with other schools I won most of my duels but when I lost I always demanded a rematch!  Lastly my passion; football I was lucky enough to play a good few matches.  I played goalkeeper most matches for the school and some times I played good and others not so.  But I also played centre back, left back and centre midfield.  I think it was my first match the ball was crossed in from a corner and I had my arms above me and handballed it, thus giving away a penalty kickâ€¦It was also that match I did a two foot lunge on a kid younger then me, but for my defence he wasnâ€™t wearing shin pads, I raked my studs across his shin!  He was bleeding and taken off while I was sent off for my x-rated tackle!  On a Saturday afternoon there was nothing I would prefer doing than playing football for hours on end with my friends.  Games could be calm or they could be reckless. The best games were when the overseas students would play and see some talent from Spain, France, Germany and even Mexico.  In 2003 a group of kids from Japan visited our school as part of an exchange.  To my delight my parents allowed me to go on the exchange trip to Japan.  There were 20 places up for grabs so it would only be a small group which would be best.  My parents would pay for the trip as long as I paid for my spending money.  On the day of our flight at the airport we managed to find a celebrity, her name was Joss Stone.  She was incidentally going to Japan too on the same flight as us, we talked to her and she gave us her autograph and even signed one of the guyâ€™s shoes and a bag!  On arrival In Japan we had just gotten off a 13hr flight and now had to travel another 5hrs by train.  We also had to drag our bags from Tokyo all the way to Aomori City where we were staying.  When we got to the hotel most of us collapsed on to our beds and went to sleep while others explored.  I woke up at 6am in the morning and found that everyone else was awake and had been for hours.  That day we visited a school not the one we exchanged with, it was interesting to see schools in different countries and how they ran.  The next day we went home with our foster family, to make me feel at ease I also had a friend with school go with me a Cantonese boy called Jason.  I liked him and was happy he came with me with our foster family.  That week in Aomori was very good we were even on local TV if I had the chance to return I would most definitely do so.  We then had to return to Tokyo where we visited some of the famous sites.  I enjoyed Tokyo very much but the best part was when we found this street called Takeshita Street which was the fashion street of Tokyo.  We were allowed to wonder around and we found a hip-hop, rap clothing store.  We went inside and because we were foreigners too they gave us discounts on their clothing, which was probably the closest we would get to a true â€˜gangstaâ€™ they were from the US and loved 50 Cent.  On leaving Japan I was sad and wished we couldâ€™ve stayed longer and hope to visit Japan again.  Last Week at St. Maryâ€™sFor me to remember people I picked up a scrap book and asked people to write down a good bye message, Iâ€™ve still got the book and I was able to fill it up.  During the summer term the school has a number of overseas kids and this year was no different.  There were the Germans, Spanish and French.  I liked the Germans most and had the best time with them.  Unfortunately that term I think I was suffering from insomnia because I just couldnâ€™t get to sleep and I missed out on some great days.  But one of the teachers I miss most was my English teacher Mr Doyle who I may have talked about earlier.  We came in for our class and he says â€˜hey kids I havenâ€™t had breakfast yet so how do you feel about coming back to my place for breakfast?â€™ we all jumped for the opportunity.  So at 10:00 am we were sat in his house eating breakfast listening to Cold play.  It will be that moment that I will always think as synonymous with Mr Doyle.  But my favourite night of the week was Friday; we all went out for the night.  First we went to the beach and it was still quite warm and one of the girls swam all the way out to one of the buoys.  After that we went to pizza hut and what was so funny was there were 10 of us and we just walked in and asked â€˜table for 10â€™.  We were able to get a bunch of tables and had a memorable meal.  At the end of the meal it was storming outside and the street was empty.  As we ran through the empty street it rained and we laughed, that was probably the best day I ever had at the school.  But to my disappointment I was still loosing sleep and it was decided I would leave school early.  It was strange I was happy to be going home but disappointed that I couldnâ€™t complete the school year; I left a week early.   Personal http://www.zorpia.com/GUnitSJ/journal/1463666 Thu, 12 Jan 2006 15:44 EDT Kids,oldies,Arabs http://www.zorpia.com/GUnitSJ/journal/1448349 Who else is fed up with these little kids who hit on much older people? Damn it pisses me off!  Today for example this kid had posted a comment saying 'hey your pretty hot, heres my msn addy'.  This boy was 14 while she was 18!  Whats more they do this to almost every girl with a pic they think they can get away with.  Same with the old men this one guy was 50+ and from the middle east there seem to be countless guys posting comments at girls sites saying 'you pretty, here my email/msn' or almost anything else you could think of! post here if you agree.... Zorpia Related http://www.zorpia.com/GUnitSJ/journal/1448349 Fri, 16 Dec 2005 17:01 EDT