World Champion Kiwis!

I thoroughly enjoyed the rugby league world cup final, there is nothing like a huge upset win to the under-dogs. Good on ya boys, nice work!!! This weekend has been very quiet. I've been battling a cold all week, so this weekend was about taking it easy & a bit of R&R. Will & I had nice long sleep-ins on both days. Saturday I just pottered around, as I was feeling pretty miserable! The rugby league cheered me up, but I was a bit worried watching the AB's game against Wales. I thought they were pretty woeful in the first half, but luckily they managed to get their act together in the second. Will wasn't overly impressed with the hiding that the Boks dished out to England.

Today we woke up to find it had snowed overnight! There was heavy rain all morning so it didn't stick around for long however. Today was another day of pottering. I did a few bits & pieces of schoolwork, but had purposely not bought home much. It was one of those days where I'm not quite sure where it went!

I don't actually have much news at all, so will call it quits. One of my shorter posts!

Willem's party

Last week I seemed to solely exist on this earth to write reports. However I got there in the end, and it was a great feeling handing the last one in today. No more to worry about for another term! Yippeee!!!

I did let myself out of the house on Saturday night to attend Willem's 30th birthday bash at school. That's me with the birthday boy above. He is a South African who teaches business studies at Bearwood, but unfortunately he is deserting us in April for another school. By coincidence it just happens to be the school in London that my brother taught at while he was there. Talk about a small world...

The party was great fun. Will & I made it home at about 2am, Steve & Kate reckon they were 4ish, and Willem didn't get to bed until 7am the next morning!

Highlights included Jonesy and Sarah trying to teach Enners, the Welsh director of music, a few cheerleading moves...

While Stevo kept everybody entertained in his own inimitable style...

Luckily it was an exeat weekend so there were no kids in the boarding house to witness any tomfoolery.

No other news, just counting down the 3 & a half weeks until the Christmas Hols. Bring it on!

Rugby & reports...

That pretty much summed up my weekend. On Friday night I had a hot date with my husband, the couch, a bottle of wine & a movie. Very nice it was too... We hadn't had a cosy night in with just the two of us for a while.

Saturday was mostly about writing reports, although I did find time to watch the England/Pacific Islands rugby match, followed by the AB's v Scotland. AB's played OK, but not enough Dan action for my liking. They only gave him the last 10 minutes! I also had a really nice skype call with mum which was cool. I love the fact that I can see & hear her, in her house, on the other side of the world.

Sunday was yet more reports, then I had a long skype call with my bro in Hong Kong. Was nice to catch up on all his news. I am looking forward to my trip out there next Easter. I then went to watch my rugby team play Portsmouth. They had a huge 61-0 win. It was very frustrating being on the sidelines, I would have loved to play that match! The latest on my injury is that I now have an appointment with a specialist at the knee clinic at Royal Berks hospital on December 15th. It was the soonest I could get, but I suppose at least school has broken up by then.

Sunday night was more report writing, with a break to whip up some pumpkin soup for dinner from one of our home-grown ones. Very nice it was too. I then stayed up late, you guessed it, writing reports. I met the first report deadline today, but that was only 5th & 6th form, of which I only have one class. The real pressure will come on this week/weekend where I have loads & loads of junior reports to write for next Monday. It'll be a busy week me thinks...

Tonight I got my hair-cut by trainees at one of the local vocational universities (kind of like poly techs back home). It was great, a cut & blow-dry for £7! The girl I had did a great job, although her supervisor did tell her she needs to speed up a bit, as she spent 2 hours on the cut, & it was really just a trim! I was supposed to get highlights done as well, but they hadn't told me I needed a skin test 48 hours before-hand. I have now re-booked the highlights for next Tuesday night. Their salon is open till 9pm each night which is brilliant.

Back to School

The good news is there are only 5 & a half weeks until the Christmas holiday! Yay!!!

I had a very good weekend. On Friday night quite a large group from school went to our local pub, the Walters Arms. It had changed hands & been closed for ages, but Friday was opening night. We've missed having a pub within easy walking distance. The new owners have done it up nicely, they have turned it more into a nice restaurant/wine bar type place, as opposed to a local boozer. The new menu is vastly improved.

Saturday was great for catching up with people. We had a visit from cousin Renee & her fiance Jeremy who were visiting from London. It was great to see them & hear about their exciting travels over the summer. Then I had Nicola arrive, who I hadn't seen for positively ages, & then Claire & Mike also came over! Nicola stayed the night so I cooked a ginormous lasagne which we washed down with a couple of bottles of red. While preparing dinner the house was plunged into darkness due to a power-failure, so we made it nice & cosy with loads of candles everywhere. Luckily we have a gas oven so the lasagne could still cook! I called the school emergency maintenance number & the guy on the phone rang the electrician for me, then was able to talk me through how to get some power back on. There was still a fault with sockets in most of the house, but at least we had lights. On Sunday they sent the school electrician over and he managed to get all the sockets working except the ones in our bedroom. There is something gone wrong with them, & he is expecting it to be quite a headache to sort. We are making do without at the moment...

Will, Nicola & I spent most of Sunday morning doing some school/uni work before Nic headed off. I was actually quite impressed with the amount of work I did during my 'holiday'. I marked the book of nearly every kid I teach, plus made bit of a start on my reports. I had an enjoyable first day back today, but it's going to be a pretty manic 2 weeks with all the report deadlines looming.

Happy Halloween!

My first ever home grown jack-o-lantern! A few kids who live on-site are coming around trick or treating later.