Dartmoor

On Saturday night I got back from my 4 days on the DofE expedition in Dartmoor. I had heard from Ric on Wednesday night that we had lost our touch final 6-4. Apparently we played quite well, but lost to a better team. I enjoyed my time on Dartmoor, helped by the fact that our campsite was the back field of a lovely pub where we ate each night! I managed to get out on the moors for a nice walk each day. Dartmoor is a pretty special place in that it is just acres & acres of nothingness. We hardly saw another soul the whole time we were there. We were based in Princetown, which is famous for its high security prison which you can see in the pic below.
Being the time of the year it was, there was a lot of livestock with their young around. The sheep /cows/moorland ponies are not bothered by vehicles at all. They happily sat on the side of the road as you drove past...
After one walk we arrived back to the minibus to find a welcoming committee of 3 beautiful big horses who appreciated some of the lush long grass we fed them.Dartmoor is an interesting place to walk. It has loads of features such as stone crosses, standing stones, remnants from it's tin-mining past, & on the last day we wandered around the remains of a bronze-age village which was quite interesting (for a pile of stones!). There was also the odd part where you could easily have been back in NZ
Tomorrow I am back in school for my last day before the holidays, then Tuesday & Wednesday I'm off to the South Downs for the bronze DofE expedition. On Wednesday night Will & I have tickets to see Jack Johnson play Hyde Park, then I am officially on my 8 weeks of summer holiday!!! Ric & I (hopefully) & 13 kids then fly to Borneo for 4 weeks on 10th July. No sign of my passport being returned yet, so hopefully it will turn up some time in the next week or so!

In the final!

On Wednesday my touch team won their semi 7-5, putting us in this Wednesday's final. Unfortunately I won't be able to play as I'm on a DofE expedition in Dartmoor from Wednesday to Saturday. It's a great effort making the division 1 final 2 years in a row! We are playing the same team we beat by 1 last year, although they've been looking good this year, & gave us bit of a hiding when we played them earlier in the season.

Thursday & Friday Ric & I had a emergency first aid course in London. We needed to do it for the World Challenge trip we are leading to Borneo, which is only 2 & a half weeks away. The course was OK, the instructors mixed the theory up with lots of practical scenarios. I did manage to 'kill' myself by not realising in time that one of my casualties was attached to a live wire plugged into a socket...

Saturday got off to a good start with the All-Blacks demolition job on England. The day got even better with the kiwi cricketers snatching a victory against England from the jaws of defeat... They really had no right to win that game, Will wasn't overly impressed with his countrymen! It was a nice day & I spent a bit of time out in the garden. Dave, the cat from upstairs joined us for a bit. He's a very chilled & laid-back puss. They have just had a new baby upstairs so Dave has realised that we are his best bet for getting some attention at the moment!Our garden is still coming along nicely, the beans are nearly as tall as I am now, & starting to get their first flowers. Will tied up the tomatoes over the weekend, which was a good thing because today was very windy.Today we visited Will's parents for Sunday lunch. They really do have an amazing house, & the gardens are always stunning, no matter what time of the year it is. The white rose climbing all over the front & side of the house has to be seen to be believed. We had a lovely time catching up with them today.

Ready for a holiday

I'm pretty tired at the moment & not quite feeling 100%. Not long to go now till the summer holidays though, so it's just a case of hanging in there. Friday night we were meant to have a BBQ at Nat's place, but I arrived home from the form 2 parents evening with a blinding headache & really not feeling good. Will went & represented the Brownes & had a good night, whereas I had a lovely night snuggled under the duvet on the sofa watching Charlotte's Web & other assorted light relief.

Saturday morning I enjoyed the All-Black's victory over England. You can't beat a good bit of Pommie bashing!!! I then headed into London to catch up with my mate Roger who got married that morning, & was having a casual drinks/food/reception thingie back at their place. After hanging out a few hours there I met up with cousin Renee & Jeremy, & had a really nice time catching up with them. It was a good day, & I didn't get home till after 11pm.

Sunday I enjoyed a nice long sleep-in, then had bit of a sorting day around the house, doing lots of odds & ends & housework. Will had gone into London to have lunch with a visiting professor from the States who he has collaberated with in the past. He had open day at the uni for most of Saturday, so we didn't actually see much of each other this weekend!

The garden is still coming along nicely. It's looking better & better as more flowers start to bloom. The runner beans have gone a bit mad & are almost as tall as I am now! Our peas are starting to develop pods which is exciting, you can see them in the pic below.

Ups and downs...

It is a great feeling having all my reports finished... Things really are starting to wind down now. We've only got 2 & a half weeks of school left till the summer holidays, but I am away for a week in total on 2 DofE expeditions, one to Dartmoor, and the other to the South Downs. I also have 2 days in London with Ric on a first aid course we need to do for World Challenge. Add to that 4 days of College exams for everyone, & there isn't actually much teaching left to do!

Yesterday I passed my Life in the UK test, but things started to fall apart when I rang the Home office to try & sort my visa, which expires in 4 days time! It's all a bit complicated to go into detail here, but basically, due to having to reschedule my Life in the UK test by a week, I am unable to get my indefinite leave to remain in person (where you receive it on the day) like I had planned. The woman I talked to was very sympathetic, but said I would have no choice but to make a postal application, where they say the minimum clearing time is 4 weeks. This is bit of a problem as I leave on our World Challenge trip to Borneo with 13 students on July 10th! School was fantastic today, they covered all my afternoon lessons for me so I could rush around & gather all the documentation I needed, in order to get the application in the 4:30pm post. It was bit of a mission... You need bank statements, pay slips, a letter from my employer stating that they still require me, but the worse was having to document every time I have been out of the UK in the last 7 years! This was a nightmare, especially since I didn't have my old passport for reference (it 'disappeared' from our hotel room in Gambia). I did the best I could, & managed to get it sent away. All I can do now is wait, & hope that they appeal to reason & process my application as quickly as they can. If not, I might have to make alternate arrangements & perhaps meet the rest of the group in Borneo, when my passport is returned to me.

On the positive side, we won our touch game last night, & have booked a 2 V 3 semi-final, thus avoiding the top team who are pretty much unbeatable. We got a hiding in the pool match from the team we're playing in the semi, but it was half-term & lots of our team were away. At least we'll give it a good shot..

Glorious weekend

The weather this weekend was fabulous, especially today when it was at least 25 degrees with clear blue skies. Unfortunately I've had to spend the whole of the weekend writing reports, but at least I was able to do it on my laptop, sitting out in the garden. They are due tomorrow evening, & I am pretty much on top of them. I have comments for one class still to do, but I have a couple of free periods tomorrow afternoon so should be able to knock them off easily... I had a bit of light relief Saturday night when Will & I attended Ben & Anna's engagement party. Ben used to work with Will at Reading Uni. It was a really nice evening.

Today Will has been fantastic, doing loads around the place while I sat & wrote my reports. He started by doing all the washing up which we have neglected the last few days! He also put a couple of loads of washing through...
and put together my sun-lounger which we bought during the winter from Ikea when it was on sale for £25, down from £100!!! I do love a bargain, & am sure that it will get lots of use...
As if that wasn't enough, he also made some pancakes for dinner. I do most of the cooking in our house, but he is much better at pancakes than me... You can see it being tossed in the top left corner of the bottom pic...
He has well & truly racked up some brownie points today!!! However he did also get a chance to relax...

Anti-climax...

I am not a happy bunny at the moment. I arrived to sit my life in the UK test this afternoon, only to be told that the computer system was down & all tests booked for today had to be rescheduled. The earliest they could offer me was 17th June. I did point out that my work permit had actually expired by then, & they said they could squeeze me in next Wednesday, so I need to wait another whole week. It's very frustrating because I did a lot of swot last night & was well & truly ready for the test. Oh well, that's life I suppose... I should be fine, the document the school has got has said I can work until 31st July, it's only the visa in my passport which states June 16th. I won't be leaving the country until July so everything should work out OK...

On the plus side, my touch rugby team finally won a game today! Yay!!! We won 7-5, which should put us into 4th. Will & I are just back from a few celebratory drinks at Ric's. We have been quite sensible & left relatively early, just as the gappies are starting to concoct some cocktails! It was a reasonably tame night, not like the 3am efforts of old where you would be in chapel at 8:40 Thursday morning with a raging hangover (if you made it at all!).

Life in the UK...

Half term went far too fast for my liking... Unfortunately the weather wasn't too flash. This weekend was quite nice though, & on Saturday Will & I had an epic day in the garden. We went out at around 1pm, & didn't come in until 8pm, at which stage I decided I had better cook some dinner! Things are growing nicely thanks to the warm weather & all the rain we've been having. My first petunias & pansies are out which I'm excited about. I do like my flowers...

Over half-term I realised that my work permit expires on the 16th June, & that it wasn't very far away!!! By marrying Will I have a right of abode in the UK, but not necessarily a right to work. Because I have had my work permit for 5 years I am entitled to apply for 'indefinite leave to remain' meaning I can work, & can come & go as I please, as long as I don't leave the UK for longer than 2 years. It is the first step before citizenship, & then I will be able to apply for a UK passport. Before applying for indefinite leave to remain you need to sit a 'Life in the UK' test, which is what I've been swotting for tonight. I'm booked in for it on Wednesday afternoon. Some questions are things that even Will doesn't know (& he knows pretty much everything!).

Sample questions...

1. What is a quango?

A: A local police officer

B: A non-departmental public body

C: Another name for the Lord Chancellor

D: The name of the British citizenship ceremony

2. Why were recruitment centres set up in the West Indies in the 1950's?

A: To recruit workers for textile factories

B: To recruit workers to build canals

C: To recruit workers to build railways

D: To recruit workers to drive buses

3. What is the maximum number of hours that a child can work on a school day or Sunday?

A: eight hours

B: four hours

C: six hours

D: two hours

4. When did the church of England come into existence?

A: In the 1440s

B: In the 1530s

C: In the 1640s

D: In the 1750s

5. What overall proportion of Britain's African Caribbean, Pakistani, Indian and Bangladeshi communities were born in Britain?

A: about half

B: about one quarter

C: about one third

D: about three quarters

You get the general idea... In case you are wondering, the answers are 1B, 2D, 3D, 4B & 5A

The test is 24 multi-choice questions & I need to get 18 or above to pass. George, another kiwi at school sat his a few months ago, & he wrote extensive revision notes which have been coming in really useful. My dodgiest area is to do with the European Union, European Council, European Parliament & European Commission, & what each of them does! Fingers crossed I pass... You are allowed to sit it as many times as you want, it just costs £34 a pop!

I don't have any other news really... Survived my first day back at school today. The seniors are now all gone, so it's pretty quiet around school. We break up for summer in less than 5 weeks...