Hong Kong

I arrived in Hong Kong on Sunday morning after a good flight with Finnair. I've never flown with them before, but I was pretty impressed. I managed to pass the 9 or so hours away by watching Slumdog Millionaire, Australia, & Quantum of Solace. My brother wasn't able to meet me at the airport as he had attended the Hong Kong sevens all day Saturday & had had a huge day/evening, he reckons he got in at something like 3:30am! However he had given me directions to his flat & I managed to find it without any trouble.

After getting some food Warren & I made our way to the stadium for the finals day of the sevens. It was an enjoyable day, despite NZ getting knocked out in the quarter-finals. Warren was suffering a bit from the day before so we boycotted the infamous south stand where his friends were continuing to party, & instead had some nice family time high up in the east stand. Fiji ended up beating South Africa in the final. They played some fantastic rugby throughout the day & thoroughly deserved the title.Today was fairly chilled. Warren is still teaching this week, so I pottered around his local area. I visited a couple of fantastic shopping malls, one of which was 6 stories high with its own ice-skating rink! I also had a wander around the very trendy SoHo area, & travelled on the worlds longest escalator/travelator. It takes people from the central city up to the wealthy mid-levels residential area. I rode it for 18 minutes! I also went up to the viewing platform on the 43rd floor of the Bank of China building; the cities 3rd highest building. I was also planning on heading up to the peak for the famous vista over the city, but the queue for the tram was a bit long for my liking. I'll do it when I get back from China.

Tomorrow I head to Beijing for 4 days, & then Xian for one, to see the Terracotta warriors. I'm really looking forward to Beijing in particular, my brother raves about it as a city & has hooked me up with a few things to do/places to eat. I've been enjoying the food over here, but will probably be a bit sick of rice by the time I go home...

The view above is from the roof terrace of Warren's flat. He's got a nice 3-bed apartment in a great location on Hong Kong island, close to everything you could possibly need. However it's cheap because it's on the 5th floor & the building doesn't have a lift!

Dartmoor

I had a nice time on Dartmoor with the silver Duke of Edinburgh group. We drove down straight after school on Friday, arriving at around 9pm. After pitching our tents in the dark the staff adjourned to the pub for a couple of pints of the local 'jail ale'. We were staying in Princetown which houses one of England's maximum security prisons. We returned to our tents at around midnight to find them totally covered in ice! It was a FREEZING night!!! Luckily my trusty Kathmandu 4-season down sleeping bag saw me through OK...
I was woken in the morning with a nice cup of tea delivered to my tent. The guys who run the DofE are very well trained! Saturday was a stunning day, unseasonably warm for the UK in March. Geordie & I went for a nice walk, we started behind the 3 kids groups, but managed to catch them up & overtake them. We came across a lovely thatched cottage, so I've included a photo for mum, who was quite taken with them when she was over here!
The timing was perfect on Saturday. We saw the kids into their campsite, then returned to our pub to watch the last couple of six nation rugby games. It was good to see Ireland take out the grand slam for the first time in 61 years.
Sunday was pretty chilled. The kids were mostly walking over open moorland, so we would wait where the footpaths intersected the road to check that they all came through OK & were on the right track. The waiting around gave Curto a chance to fly his kite!
We had a picnic lunch in the beer garden of the Warren House Inn, which claims to be the 3rd highest pub in England, & also claims to have had a fire continuously burning since 1845!!! It very conveniently looked out over the part of the moor the kids were walking on.

Sunday was also chilled, with more check-pointing, & a bit of walking. The kids were wild-camping at a disused farm, so we walked the 2km up to the campsite & back to check that it was OK. Once all the groups had arrived & had set up camp we returned to our campsite at the pub for a nice pub meal & another couple of pints.

Dartmoor is full of quaint narrow lanes, so it was rather 'interesting' as we travelled along in the school minibus to see an unmanned flock of sheep coming towards us, being followed by another vehicle. The sheep were literally penned in by the 2 vehicles, so decided to take the first gate they came across. You can imagine the surprise of the home owner who came out to see why her front garden was being invaded by sheep! I hope they eventually made it back to their rightful owner...
Dartmoor has some lovely scenery. The Clapper bridge at Postbridge, above, is thought to have been built around 1300AD. I also like the Dartmoor ponies which roam wild on the moors, plus the letterboxes that are set into stone walls.

The kids had another day of walking on Monday, & they all did really well to be at the rendezvous spot by the set time of 2pm, ready to travel the 4 hours or so back to school. We arrived home at around 6:30pm, tired, but happy after a few days of fresh air & sunshine.

I had yesterday & today at school, then tomorrow I have a teachers only day, before my 2 & a half week Easter break. Tomorrow night a large group of us from school are staying the night in Oxford & going out on the town to farewell Willem, who starts at his new school in London after Easter. Coincidentally, it is the school my brother taught at when he was living in London. On Saturday I fly to Hong Kong!!!

Homeward Bound

This post is a few days later than usual, it has been busy times...

As some of you know, we have decided to move back to NZ. Will has signed the contract & it is on it's way back to Victoria University as we speak We'll probably fly back around the 2nd of September. The university is arranging the flights which is nice. When I left NZ 7 & a half years ago I never imagined that I would be flown back home for free! Then again, I hadn't quite planned on bringing an English husband back either!!! I have officially handed my notice in at school. We break up for summer early July, then I'll be a lady of leisure until school starts in NZ at the end of January. That's assuming I have no problem finding a job in Wellington! I am looking forward to back to back summers...

So, between now & September we have a huge amount to do. Top priority is sorting out Will's immigration stuff, as the job is dependant on a legal right to work in NZ. We are also going to try & sell Will's house before we leave the UK, so we need to do a bit of work to it before putting it on the market. Then there is the small matter of shipping all our household effects to NZ. The university has offered us a generous relocation allowance which is very nice. I think they REALLY wanted Will for the job! We need to be out of our school accommodation by the end of July, so will need to get things shipped by mid-July as we then have a 3 week holiday in Africa.

That's all the news really. School has been pretty busy as ever, but one week today I'll be on Easter holiday. I'm heading to Hong Kong & China for just under two weeks, arriving home in time for our one year wedding anniversary on April 12th.

This weekend I'm out on the silver DofE expedition on Dartmoor. We leave Friday straight after school, & return Monday night. The staff camp in a field right next to a pub in Princetown which is very convenient! The weather the last few days has been lovely with a real spring feel to it, so fingers crossed it will last...

An eventful week

On Monday I had my citizenship ceremony, meaning that I now hold dual nationality. The ceremony was nice. It was held in the council chambers at the Wokingham district council. There were about 25 of us becoming citizens & we each had to stand in turn & make our oaths of allegiance. We then all stood together & said our pledge. It did take me back to my brownie/girl guide days! They had a couple of dignitaries who made a couple of speeches, then we stood for the national anthem.

Ironically enough, it was Monday night that we heard that Will had been offered the job at Victoria University in Wellington. They have put together a good-looking offer for him, & we have a few things still to work through, like hopefully negotiating a slightly later start date, but we are thinking that we will probably go. It's too good an opportunity to turn down really. We have one week left before Will needs to sign the contract.
On Saturday night we hosted a party to celebrate my new Britishness. It was a good night, with the last of the guests leaving at around 3am. It did mean most of today was a write-off! We did a bit of pottering around & cleaning up, but I did feel the need for an afternoon siesta to catch up on a bit of sleep. Will had a korfball match in Basinstoke that he had to ref.

That is all my news. School is going well, I managed to get all my reports in on time, so it's a great feeling having them finished. I only have 2 & a half weeks left before my Easter holiday, & my trip to Honk Kong & China to visit my brother.

Reports, Reports, Reports...

Very short & sweet this week, as all I have done is write report after report after report! The last of them are due tomorrow. I've got a few more still to do, but at least the end is now in sight (for another term at least!).

No news about Will's job yet. He is not overly confidant & thinks he would have heard something by now if they wanted him... We shall wait & see... Should hopefully know either way sometime this week.

I've got a half day at school tomorrow, because in the afternoon I have my British Citizenship ceremony. Yep, from tomorrow on I'll have dual Kiwi & British citizenship which is quite exciting. One of the first things I'm going to do is get my mitts on a UK passport. You never know when it might come in handy...

Right, back to these reports...