Half-term

It's a nice feeling being on holiday (yet again, I hear some of you mutter...). Speech day on Saturday went well, the guest speaker was Captain Cooney, who is the youngest person ever to walk to the South Pole. He was really interesting, he talked about that expedition, & also his upcoming expedition which is leading a group to the North Pole.

Yesterday Will & I drove to Heathrow to pick up Wayne & Roger, who had had a few days in the Netherlands. I see quite a bit of Rog, as he lives in London & has done for the past few years, but I hadn't seen Wayne in 3 & a half years. He hadn't changed one bit! As some of you probably know, him & Roger are like a couple of boisterous puppies when they are together... They have endless energy & are constantly egging each other on!
I just happened to have a nice leg of NZ lamb in my freezer, so cooked that, along with a mountain of roast veges. I had forgotten quite how much they eat... They (along with Will) demolished the lot, & Roger even had a gnaw on the bone. Wayne flew out to Finland this morning, so Roger dropped him off at Heathrow on his way back to London.
Today was very relaxed, it was a Bank Holiday so Will had the day off as well. We got up late, then went to Will's parents for afternoon tea, which also ended up turning into dinner. His parents are lovely, it is always nice to spend some time with them. As for the rest of the week... I've got lots of reports to write, as my school is quite nasty & has them due in the first day back after the holiday... I'm also planning on hitting the gym a lot, as I've been training really well lately & want to keep it up. Wednesday night is touch rugby with a BBQ at mine after the match, then on Saturday I'm off to Twickenham with Will & a couple of other mates to watch the finals day of the Churchill Cup. It is between England Scotland & Ireland A's, Canada, USA & NZ Maori. They are playing all 3 matches on Saturday, & the grand final will most likely be between the Maoris & England A. I watched the Maoris play on Friday night & it was entertaining if nothing else! They demolished Canada, & 12 tries were scored in the match. I also want to find some time to plan the rest of my South America trip, as it isn't that long till I'm off...

1 day to go...

This school year is going incredibly quickly. I have 1 week off for half-term starting Saturday, then it's only 3 & a half weeks till my summer holidays. Over the last couple of days it has turned really hot. That, combined with all the rain we had last week, has meant the garden is growing like mad! My sunflower 'seedlings' are now up to my knees!! The rose below is the one that Will bought me for Valentines day this year. I can't remember the name of it off the top of my head, but he bought it mostly because of its gorgeous scent. Last night we lost our touch game 7-3. It was against the top team in the league, who I'm fairly sure will win the whole competition. We were sitting in 2nd place, but that loss takes us down to 4th. We play teams who are below us in the next 2 weeks though, so hopefully we'll win at least one of them. Since it was such a lovely evening we had a BBQ round at Stevo's after the match. We called it a night at around 1ish, which isn't quite the 2-3am efforts of old! We might all be getting a bit sensible in our old age... People were quite perky at the 8:40am chapel service this morning, & that didn't happen much during the touch season last year! The 'after-match function' is at my place next week, since it's half-term & all the kids in the boarding house have gone home. It should be a good night...

Woody!

I know I only posted a couple of hours ago, but I've just taken this pic, which I've been trying to get for a year or so! He's a great spotted woodpecker, & one of we think three who regularly visit the garden for feeding. They come several times a day & LOVE the nut feeder, but are notoriously flighty, hence why it has taken so long to get a decent pic! He really is beautiful, a magnificent bird. I know that mum was rather taken with him when over here last April.

Social Weekend

This weekend has been really good for socialising & catching up with friends. On Friday evening there was a cricket match between a staff team from Bearwood, versus a staff team from another local school. A group of us decided to cheer on the boys, & turned up with a bottle of bubbly each. It was great fun... There was a BBQ on the go for the duration of the evening, & the support got more & more raucous as the bubbly was consumed... All the cheering must have paid off however, because it was a comprehensive victory to the home team in the end!
Last night we celebrated Claire's birthday. We had a BBQ round at her new house, then walked the 10 minutes or so into Reading town centre. We found a bar which had a good covers band playing, so settled there for the rest of the evening. The BBQ was lovely; the weather managed to hold, & the food was fantastic, not to mention plentiful! Will had been playing a Korfball tournament in Oxford all day, but met us in town later on, & kindly gave us a lift back home. He is a wonderful man :-) Apologies for the lack of quality of some of the photos. I had my cheap little pocket-sized Nikon out with me, & the quality of photos are nowhere near my much loved but substantially chunkier Canon that I usually use...
Today has been very chilled, starting with a lovely long sleep-in. It's really nice having Sundays all to myself now that the rugby season has finished. Nicola had stayed the night at my place, so we drove round to Claire's to have a cup of tea & pick up Nic's car which she left there overnight. I've got a bit of the Sunday paper to finish, & then, (reluctantly) a small amount of schoolwork, which shouldn't actually take me too long. I can't complain, only 1 more week & I get a week off for half-term...

A touch rugby victory!

Gidday,

We won 6-5 last night in a very tense & exciting match. We did well considering; we are in division 1, most of the guys in the opposition played rugby for the Reading first team, & we also played one extra girl for the whole duration of the match! It means that, for this week at least, we are second in the league. That will probably all change next week because we play the team who beat us 8-4 in the grading game 2 weeks ago.

This week has flown by. I've been battling with a cold the last couple of weeks, but I finally seem to be getting the better of it. Just over a week to go & I get 1 week off for half-term. Then it's only 3 & a half weeks till my Summer holiday!!! My South America plans are coming along nicely... I fly into Quito, Ecuador on July 4th & have 2 weeks travelling by myself & making my way down to Lima in Peru. I meet Will there, & we have 3 weeks exploring Peru & Bolivia before flying home from La Paz (the worlds highest capital at 3660m above sea level!) on August 8th. We wanted to walk the Inca trail, but unfortunately there are no permits available until late August. This was despite me enquiring 3 months in advance which is the recommended time in the high season. Permits are limited to 200 per day, but that includes porters & cooks/guides etc. as well as the actual trekkers. We will probably do the Lares Valley trek instead. It is still a 4 day walk which takes you to Machu Picchu, & you still get the altitude with 2 passes over 4000m. Unlike the Inca Trail, this trek takes you through lots of small traditional villages, so it will be interesting getting more of an insight into traditional Peruvian way of life. Realising that Summer is so close, I'd better actually start some serious training, otherwise the trek will be a nightmare at that altitude!

Better go, I could use an early night. This weekend is my friend Claire's birthday & Nicola is coming over to stay the weekend at mine. The plan is a BBQ at Claire's, then hitting the big smoke of Reading town... No doubt you'll hear more about it later...

Balancing Kiwis!

I love my kiwis, I bought them when I was home for Christmas & they have provided a lot of entertainment. They come with a card showing 14 or 15 permutations, but you can also just play around with them & make up your own. The one above is a 'Lydia special'. I love the fact they look so happy with smiles on their faces...

My weekend was really nice & relaxed. I cleaned the flat from top to bottom, & spent a few hours today reading the Sunday paper. I get the Sunday Times & it's one of the highlights of my week. It has to be seen to be believed, it's pretty much half a tree! Most weeks they have a free CD or DVD , this week they had a 'Anarchy in the UK: 30 years of British punk' CD which might be interesting. I watched both Super-14 semi-finals yesterday & wasn't impressed that both NZ teams lost.

Back to School tomorrow, but it's my best day of the 2-week timetable. I only teach 3 out of the 6 lessons, & have the first 2 off, so it's a nice way to ease into it & set myself up for the week...

Another weekend

Like the pic? My mate Rich sent it to me. It's a sunrise taken from the front door of their new house in St Clair, Dunedin. Not a bad view to wake up to every day!

This week has gone quickly, thanks to the Bank holiday on Monday. It would be nice to only work 4 days a week, every week... We had a really good hard game of touch on Wednesday & just lost 4-3. We played well & were pretty happy, because my team played 3 men & 3 women (for which we get given a bonus point for) whereas the opposition played 4 men & 2 women. Also, we didn't have any female subs, so I was pretty knackered by the end of the match!

We've had lots of rain over the last few days which is much needed. It was an unseasonably dry (not to mention warm) April. The garden is still growing like mad, & my very first rose is out, & it smells divine... The rest of my roses are laden with buds, so it should hopefully be a good year for them...
I'm on duty in the boarding house this weekend, which means I ned to stay in my flat in case any of the girls need me. I don't really mind my duty weekends, it's quite nice pottering around the flat & gives me a chance to get on top of housework and/or schoolwork. I'm keeping an eye on the Guinness premiership rugby final at the moment, then later this afternoon they are showing both super-14 semi-finals on Sky. Go the Blues & Crusaders!!! After this weekend, I've only got one more left after half-term, as I've resigned from my Assistant Housemistress job for the next academic year.

Long Weekend

We've finally made it to the weekend. Monday is a Bank Holiday so it's nice having an extra day off. We lost our first touch game on Wednesday 8-4 against a pretty sharp team. It was only a grading game, but despite our heavy loss we've been put into division 1! It's probably got something to do with us winning division 2 last year... It's now going to be a fairly long season, we'll probably get our butts kicked most weeks! Oh well, I guess when you play a higher standard your own game improves...

Yesterday we went to the Reading Beerfest. It was a really good day out, we arrived about half-2 in the afternoon, & lasted till about 8:30pm. I'm glad we had our free VIP passes which took us straight to the front of the queue, because even that early the queue was already 2 & a half hours. We left at a good time; we had all pretty much reached our limits in terms of beer drinking, it was starting to get a tad raucaus, plus a lot of the beers were starting to run out. We were drinking half-pints in order to sample a decent selection of the 400+ ales on offer. Ones I tried included Amarillo, HBB (it was the initials of one of the guys in our group!), Sharpe's Special, Outlaw Mayflower, Poet's Tipple, First Gold, & probably more that I didn't write down! I also tried my first ever Mead, which is fermented from honey, & also my first perry, which is similar to cider but made from pears. The mead got the thumbs up, whereas the perry was awful. I even found a couple of 'real' Morris dancers to pose with... I baked some blueberry muffins to take along, & Will's contribution was to get them out of the tins & look very cute in doing so...

By the way, HBB said that the caption to the above photo had to be "Lydia wondered if a spit-roast was on the menu" I'm hoping that that will only mean something to you if you're English, & perverted!!! (Goody!)

Today was very leisurely, Will & I are pretty knackered. We've both had a busy last couple of weeks in terms of work. Tonight we watched Shawshank Redemption which is a brilliant movie. I have no idea why it's taken me this long to get around to watching it. I cooked a really nice Jamie Oliver risotto for dinner, my first one ever & it turned out well... Tomorrow we are going to Will's parents for lunch. They live in a small village near Oxford which is only about 40 minutes away. They are great, it's always a very enjoyable visit. I also plan on a bit of time in the garden if the weather continues to hold, & I've also got a small amount of schoolwork to do.