Busy Times

No piccies on this post I'm afraid... My camera batteries are flat, & the lead for my charger appears to be mislaid somewhere in the packing & moving home process. I'm sure it'll turn up one of these days!

Last week was mad, absolutely manic in fact. It was partly self-inflicted of course... Will & I did a crazy IKEA trip on Tuesday night. I'm hoping that IKEA has made it to NZ by the time we are back there & ready to outfit our home, I love the place! Our closest store is Wembley in London, which can take up to a couple of hours when there is a lot of traffic on the M4. Will's cunning plan was to leave at 8:30pm. We got there in 45 minutes, shopped until the store closed at midnight, then were back home by 1am! We got loads of very cool stuff, including more bookcases & CD towers to match the ones I already had, a huge new bathroom cabinet (the old one was grotty, plus I filled it all up on my own before Will had a chance to get near it!), as well as some curtains, & some very cool sheer, shimmery drapes for our 4-poster bed.

Wednesday night was rugby training for me & Korfball for Will, then Thursday night I had a new parents evening starting at 5:45pm, which I then had to leave early to do a duty in the boarding house until 11pm. Somehow that week I also found a bit of time to organise our house warming party for Friday night!

The house warming was a really good fun night, so thanks to anyone reading this who made the effort to come along. I made it to bed at around 3am, but some of Will's Korfballers were staying the night & continued partying for a bit longer. I woke up on Saturday feeling a bit rough (must have been the rum punch I was drinking all night...), then had to be at school by 10am to coach my rugby boys! I was very impressed to get back from rugby & find that Will & my friend Roger had done a fantastic job of clearing the whole place up! Cheers guys!!! They had done all the dishes, & even hoovered, so the place was cleaner than before the party!

The rest of Saturday, as you might imagine, was very quiet. It involved a lot of lounging around on the couch watching sport! I took in NZ's semi-final loss in the Twenty20 cricket world cup, as well as all 3 world cup rugby games on offer.

Sunday I had my first league match of the season for rugby, & we got off to a good start with a 24-7 win. Our team looks quite solid this year, probably one of the best Reading Ladies team since I've been at the club, so hopefully we'll have a good season. I was feeling pretty good after the match, so when my mate Ricky asked me if I could make up a foursome for a game of badminton that night, I agreed. It was really nice to have a hit, as it's been a while, but I was hurting all over on Monday!

This week is very sedate compared with last, & then I've got exeat weekend to look forward to, which means no Saturday morning rugby to coach. On Saturday night Will & I are going into London to see 'Mask of the Red Death' which is meant to be excellent. Will gave it a test-run on Thursday night with his brother, to make sure it's not too scary for me! The same company who did the Faust production we loved are doing it, so it should be a good night out. I don't have rugby this Sunday so am looking forward to a nice big sleep-in!

Need a holiday!

Sorry for the lack of contact lately, for some reason I don't quite have so much spare time now I'm back at work... Oh well, only 5 weeks till half-term.

School is good, but busy. My classes seem very nice, but it is still early days... I'm loving the 10 minute walk through the woods to get to school each day. I walk along a lake, through a golf-course, then through the woods, & it's a really nice way to start the day. I mightn't be saying that in winter however! The woods get pretty muddy, but I suppose I have my wellies... I'm also loving the feeling of actually going home at the end of the day, as in my previous flat I had kids living all around me, & I was always aware that they were there.

We had our first rugby on Sunday, the Bracknell 10's tournament that we always start our season with. We played really well, losing only 1 of our pool games. That put us in the shield final, which we won 63-0! Not a bad score for 20 minutes of rugby!! The hard work I've been putting in paid off as my fitness held up, despite the fact that I'm a prop, so not exactly suited to the 10-aside game! Our first 15-aside match is next Sunday. I have managed to do something to my neck which is bit of a pain (quite literally). It's easing up a bit, but still isn't right, & I don't have full movement in it at the moment. I'm getting a deep-tissue sports massage on Saturday which will hopefully free it up a bit. I would hate to miss our first league match of the season...

Not much other news... Will & I are both still loving the new place, although we've both been too busy to do much to it lately. Will has been busy getting his house in a fit state to rent out. We are having a house warming next Friday which should be good. I'm looking forward to watching lots of the rugby world cup this weekend, the AB's are looking HOT. If we don't win it this time round, us kiwis at school are going to take some major stick...

Back to School

Well school holidays are finally over, but I certainly made the most of them. On Saturday night Will & I, plus 4 others, went to the Prince concert at the O2 arena in London (formerly the Millennium dome). Now I'm not the biggest Prince fan in the world, but I got the tickets because I had heard that he is amazing live, & always puts on a good show. He didn't let us down either... It was brilliant, one of the best gigs I've ever been to. He has been around for so long you forget just how many hits he has.

We were lucky enough to hear nearly all his big anthems on Saturday, with the exception of 'Little red corvette' & 'Raspberry beret'. He had rehearsed 150 songs for the 21 shows he is doing in London, & was mixing up what he played each night. We were also lucky to get 6 encores, whereas another friend who went on another night only got 1. He was a fantastic performer, & superbly arrogant with it. At one stage he made a hugely theatrical gesture with his arm & announced "so many hits, so little time..." His band was also superb, especially the saxophonist Maceo Parker who used to be the bandleader for James brown. We also got a surprise guest appearance from the Black-eyed Peas who guested on one of the songs, which was very cool. The O2 arena was bit of a revelation as a venue. It has loads of bars & restaurants, & we also had seats with an excellent view of the stage, which was in the shape of his famous sign. All in all it was a great night out.

Earlier on Saturday Will & I had driven to Dartford. Our new bedroom is huge, & Will planted bit of a seed by saying that it really needed a 4-poster bed... We started having bit of a look, & found a lovely solid pine king-size 4-poster on ebay. We put in a bid & won it for £82!!! It was pick-up only, hence the trip to Kent. Luckily it fully disassembled, & we managed to fit it in the back of Will's car, with a little bit of over-hang. My friend Nic has also just moved not too far from Dartford, so we also combined the bed pick-up with a visit to her new place. There are a few picks of the bed (which we need to get drapes for)& the dining room & lounge of our new house below.

Sunday night we had the traditional hog roast at school. It's a casual party they have each year the day before we go back. It helps the new staff put names to faces, & isn't a bad way to ease back into the school year. Monday was a day of meetings, which was very dull, but a necessary evil I suppose... Today it was only the new kids in, & I didn't have to do a huge amount, so got my classroom sorted & got myself prepared for the new year. Tomorrow the whole school is in, but it's lots of admin stuff like assembly, sorting timetables, checking games kit, getting mouth guards fitted etc. Period 4 is the only lesson that is actually taught, but I happen to have a non-contact, meaning I don't actually start teaching till Thursday. Tomorrow afternoon is games, & I'm doing my usual under-14 boys rugby for the term. It's pretty much rugby overload on Wednesdays as I then have my own training later that evening.

By the way, thanks to Will we FINALLY got our land line sorted. Send me an email if you want the new number... That meant we finally got our Sky+ installed, just in time for the rugby world cup... It's fantastic, well worth the wait.