Feeling Old!

Gidday,

I had a good birthday on Tuesday, the big 3 0... Unfortunately I had to work (my birthday is usually in half-term, but that was early this year...) but I still got spoilt. I got some lovely presents from Will, and he cooked me a nice meal in the evening.

I've survived my first week back at school. It absolutely flew by... Only 4 & a half weeks till Easter holidays! It's a pretty manic time at the moment because school reports are due tomorrow. I'm pretty much on track, but it's still going to be a late night tonight!

I'm just back from rugby, we had a friendly against Farnborough, away, and comfortably won 36-0. I'm not actually feeling that battered & bruised which makes a nice change! We had a really tough physical training session on Wednesday, & I could barely walk on Thursday & Friday! It was an enjoyable game today, I got around the pitch OK, despite the fact it's been over 4 weeks since our last match.

Right, time to go & knock these last few reports off...

Weekend in Bournemouth

Will & I had a nice weekend at the seaside. We drove down on Friday night & attended the wedding reception for one of Will's ex-project students. Saturday was Will's birthday so he got pretty spoilt for the day. We went for a nice walk along the boardwalk, then had a wander around the Bournemouth shops where Will chose his birthday presents. He wanted a dress watch that also had a stopwatch etc that he could use for coaching his sport. As you might expect, that was pretty difficult to find, so I ended up buying him a dress watch AND a sports watch! We then drove a few miles round the coast to Poole. The big attraction there was a visit to the Poole pottery factory shop where we got a few bits & pieces. It must be a sign of a) advancing years, & b) domesticity, that a visit to a pottery shop was one of the highlights of the weekend! We stopped for a bottle of white wine for our hotel room on the way home, but there was no fridge in our room, & the supermarket was out of ice. English supermarkets don't tend to keep wine in fridges like in NZ... In true kiwi spirit we fashioned a very acceptable ice bucket out of a bag of frozen beans! Later that night we went out for a lovely chinese meal at a restaurant near our hotel.
We left at about half-10 on Sunday morning as I had to meet at the rugby club back in Reading at 1pm. On the way home I got a phone-call saying that Alton had cancelled, so that was pretty annoying. I was really looking forward to the game, & it was extremely short notice; they cancelled about 3 hours from kick-off. The bonus was I had a whole afternoon to potter around, sort the house out a bit, & get ready to go back to school.

It's back to the coal-face tomorrow, but then it's only 5 & a half weeks until Easter holidays. Believe me, I'm already counting!!!

Half Term

Gidday,

I am enjoying half-term, & being a lady of leisure for the week. So far it has been very relaxed... Lots of sleeping-in, going to the gym, & cooking nice meals for Will. Yes, all very domesticated I know! I do enjoy just pottering around at half-term though. I don't tend to travel during them & it is a good chance to get on top of everything.

On Monday night we went to dinner at Steve & Kate's, who are friends of ours who also live on-site. It was a lovely meal & ended up being a fairly late night, which was fine for everyone except Will who was the only one who had to work the next day!

Last night we went into London to see the Lion King as a Valentines Day treat. It was absolutely superb, I would recommend it to anyone. It is done using masks & puppets, &
the costumes are just fantastic. I found a few pics on google images that I hope Disney dosen't object to me using!

This weekend we are off to Bournemouth which I'm looking forward to. It will be nice to have a weekend away. I've got a rugby game on Sunday which I'm also looking forward to, as we haven't had a match for a couple of weeks. This is a 'friendly' (if such things exist in rugby!) against Alton, so will be a good chance to blow away a few cobwebs without any pressure.

I have been enjoying the Six Nations rugby that is on at the moment. Josh Sole, my brothers good mate who plays flanker for Italy had a blinder in the match against England. He got mentioned on the front page of the sports section of the Sunday Times as one of the stand-out players, so that has to be good for him. Warren got to catch up with him the day before the game, and also met him briefly after the match. Sky has also been showing quite a few super-14 games, but unfortunately the Chiefs aren't off to the best of starts...

By the way, the snow that was forecast on my last post arrived, & plenty of it as well! I took a pic of what my backyard looked like when I woke up. No more news from me. Happy Valentines day everyone!!!

Waitangi Day

Gidday,

Unlike probably most of you reading this, I had to work Waitangi Day today. It did happen to be a mufti day at school so at least I got to wear my All-blacks jersey... In the past we have flown the NZ flag from the tower at school & had the place under Kiwi rule for the day, but this year the flag was at half-mast for a scholar who left last year & was killed in a train accident at Wokingham station. His funeral was on Monday & somehow we didn't feel it appropriate...

It's only 3 days until half-term where I get a weeks holiday. I can't wait, I'm pretty knackered at the moment. School has been quite busy, the weather has been cold & miserable, & I've been struggling to shake off a cold the last week or two. More snow is forecast for Thursday morning, so hopefully it will happen. I'm not doing a huge amount over half-term, apart from sleeping in, chilling out, & training hard at the gym. On Tuesday 13th Will has booked tickets for us to go see the Lion King in London as a Valentine's day treat, so I'm really excited about that. It's the one show I really wanted to see. We have also booked to see Faust on 31st March. This production is being held over 5 floors of a disused London Warehouse & the audience is free to wander. I have a friend who is a drama teacher & she absolutely raved about it, said she has never seen anything like it. It made the top 5 'must-sees' list of the Sunday Times, so must be pretty special. The last weekend of half-term we are spending in Bournemouth. We're going to the wedding of one of Will's friends on Saturday 17th Feb, & that also happens to be Will's birthday. My birthday is 3 days later so we thought it would be nice to book into a hotel for the Friday & Saturday & make a weekend of it.

No more news from me, keep in touch, it is always lovely to hear from people, even if it is just a quick hi. Roll on half-term!!!