South Downs

This weekend started with a very enjoyable 'champagne tasting' evening at Quinny's on Friday. He & Rebecca were excellent hosts & it was very well organised. They had 6 mystery champagnes & sparkling wines which were covered up in wrapping paper. We were all given the tasting notes & had to try & match up each bottle with its description, & also give an estimate of what we thought it was worth full price. The bubbles ranged from Veuve Clicquot to fairly cheap cava. It was quite interesting, for instance there was one that Will & I really liked, & we guessed it to be around £30, & it turned out it was £12. A fair amount ended up being consumed as most people had bought an additional bottle to be drunk between the 'official' courses. The school's resident champagne diva Nat Jones got the highest number correct by guessing 4 out of the 6, but she was gutted that she didn't pick the Veuve! Will & I got a respectable 3 right.

Unfortunately I had to be up at 7am on Saturday morning for a trip to the South Downs with 30 odd fourth form students who were doing their bronze DofE assessment. I did spend a lot of Saturday feeling a bit rough, & it took a nice afternoon nap in the sunshine whilst check-pointing to sort me out. It was a really nice weekend; the weather was great & the kids were fantastic. Their behaviour was brilliant & they all managed to follow their routes & timings correctly, making it a lot easier to check-point them along the way. It is a lovely time of the year & I came across lots of gorgeous bluebell meadows amongst the woods.

We got back at around half-5 Sunday evening & I popped around to Steve & Kate's for a glass of pimms in the sunshine. Unfortunately I just missed Willem who was down for a visit. He started at his new school in London after Easter. If you're reading this Willem -am missing you dude!

Monday night I checked out Claire & Mike's new house which they have bought. It's in Arborfield, so only about 5 minutes drive from our place. It's a lovely place they've got, they really have done well for themselves. I have earmarked one of their spare rooms for Will & I when we are homeless in the 3 weeks before we fly back to NZ at the start of September!

No other news, apart from the touch rugby season starting tomorrow night which I am looking forward to. Have been for a couple of runs on my knee so I'm fairly confident that it will cope OK.

1 week down, 5 to go...

The above was a present from Will's parents, who decided to combine an Easter plus wedding anniversary gift! We broke them open tonight because we had left them on the kitchen bench & it was such a nice warm day the sun had melted holes in their backsides!

I've had a good start to the new term. It's quite sad thinking that it will be my last one at Bearwood. Then again, 6 years is a good amount of time to spend at a school. We had a teacher only day Tuesday afternoon, then the kids were back on Wednesday. The summer term is always my favourite. The sun is shining, every ones spirits rise, plus it is always quite short! We have half-term in 5 weeks.

We had glorious weather this weekend. On Friday night my friend Jon stayed. He had dropped his wife off at Heathrow & stayed the night before driving back up to Scotland on Saturday. I cooked a nice dinner & we caught up over a few glasses of wine.

On Saturday morning after seeing Jon off I played a couple of hours of touch rugby. It was the first real test of my knee & it came through fine. If you remember I tore my medial ligament playing rugby back in October & it has taken this long to repair itself. I went for my first run on Tuesday morning, then went to rugby training on Wednesday night, but obviously didn't do any contact. It was mostly for a bit of fitness & to catch up with the girls. I also spent a couple of hours on Saturday playing Shaun White Snowboarding on the wii. It is great fun, Will & I are loving it! You snowboard using the wii fit balance board & it's fantastic, & very addictive. I also fitted in a gym session Saturday evening while Will was at volleyball, so it ended up being quite an active day!

The weather today was superb & we spent most of it outside in the garden. Will actually did a lot of gardening, but I must admit I mostly sat in the sunshine reading the Sunday paper! It's really starting to feel like summer is on its way...

Married for a year!

Will & I had a very nice wedding anniversary on Easter Sunday. We spent it with Will's parents. It is always lovely to visit them, & we'll have to make sure that we see a lot of them in the 5 & a bit months before we return to NZ. Their house was looking amazing with all the blossom & spring bulbs. This year is the best year in a long time for blossom, particularly for magnolia trees. There are some stunning ones in our local area.

Today was a gorgeous day, it was around 18 degrees which is unseasonably warm. I spent most of it outside in a t-shirt. Will dug our vege beds over ready for planting, & I potted up some hanging baskets. We aren't going to plant a huge amount in the garden this year, just a few early harvest veges. We will move out of our house mid-July just before we go on our holiday to Africa for 3 weeks. We then went to Will's house to replace 3 fence panels that had blown over in a storm quite a while ago & we had never got around to fixing. We did a good job, if I say so myself! We will try & sell Will's house before we leave the UK, so have a few bits & pieces to do to it before it is ready to put on the market.

I am back at school tomorrow, but only for a teacher only day starting at 1:30pm, so it's a fairly gentle re-introduction... Kids are back in on Wednesday. It's hard to believe it will be my last term at Bearwood... It's pretty short as well, 2 lots of 5 & a half weeks, with a 1 week half-term in between.

Last days in Hong Kong

Above is the name of my brother's local MTR (mass transit railway) station, which he lives about 2 minutes walk from. The metro is pretty impressive in Hong Kong. All the stations are huge & super clean, & despite the huge numbers passing through them, they never seemed to feel THAT busy. He lives in a pretty interesting area of Hong Kong Island, above a local restaurant, & next to a fish market. It probably explains why his apartment building always smells of fish! I was heading out for the day on Wednesday when I happened to bump into Warren's landlady Wendy who lives on the 3rd floor of his building. She said that she was heading over to Shenzhen , China, & did I want to come? I had 1 China entry left on my visa, so thought I might as well...

Wendy is a pretty amazing woman, she is in her 60's & is a total bundle of energy. She dances several nights a week, sings, & is heavily involved in the Girl Guides association. She has put her 3 boys through private school in England & is very widely travelled herself. She was heading to Shenzhen as that is where her dance studio is & she has a performance coming up soon. Shenzhen is a pretty wild west frontier type town. People in Hong Kong go there to shop because lots are things are much cheaper in China than Hong Kong. You get the feeling that you could buy anything you wanted there, no matter how illicit... It took about an hour on the metro to get to the border. You then cross the border on foot, & there are huge big shopping malls literally right at the Shenzhen side of the border. Wendy showed me where her dance studio was, suggested that I meet her there at 5pm, & then left me to a few hours of fantastic shopping. I love my bartering, & managed to net myself a few bargains... I met Wendy at 5 & she treated me (as well as her very young & handsome dance instructor) to a lovely Chinese meal. I then returned to Hong Kong by myself as she had another couple of hours of lessons that evening.Thursday was my last day in Hong Kong, & Wendy met me at 9am & gave me bit of a guided tour of a few sights in her car. She then dropped me off at the Stanley market for some more shopping... Next I caught the tram up to the peak, for the iconic vista over Hong Kong. The air quality wasn't great, so my photos weren't as good as they might have been. As you can tell from my mad hair, it was pretty windy up on the sky terrace viewing platform!

Next on the agenda was a return trip to the Citygate outlet malls where I knocked off the last of my shopping. I then, totally by coincidence, happened to be at the waterfront for the 8pm 'symphony of lights' show put on by the Hong Kong tourist board. Essentially it was a few lasers being shot from some of the tallest skyscrapers. It wasn't the best light show I've ever seen, but the skyline speaks for itself really...

On Friday I was up nice & early & caught a 6:10am airport bus that very conveniently left from nearly right outside warren's building. My flight back to the UK was good, but I was disappointed that the same movies from the outbound flight were showing. I had to resort to High School Musical 3! From Heathrow I caught the air-rail bus back to Reading where my lovely husband was waiting to meet me :-) Tomorrow just happens to be our one year wedding anniversary. I can't believe how quickly the year has gone!

Macau

Macau is a strange old place. It was under Portuguese rule until 1999 & is a funny mix of old colonial buildings, and brashy trashy Vegas-style casinos, in the middle of Asia! I loved the old town centre with winding little cobbled lanes & gorgeous colonial buildings, but the rest of it didn't really do it for me.

Warren & Kevin & I caught a 9:30am ferry to Macau & had a few hours wandering around together. They then got a taxi to the airport for their flight to Singapore, & I spent another few hours in Macau. The casinos are really something else... Gambling is illegal in China, & there are no casinos in Hong Kong, so Macau is a huge draw for those that enjoy a flutter... Below you can see Warren's favourite, the Grand Lisboa, aka the 'big pineapple'.

My favourite was the Wynn casino, but only because it had an all-singing, all-dancing water performing water-fountain out front!Tomorrow will be more Hong Kong sight-seeing, and the last weather forecast I saw predicted much clearer skies than the last couple of days, so fingers crossed...

Sightseeing in Hong Kong

Today was a big sight-seeing day, with Warren playing tour guide to Kevin & I. We started off with delicious Yum-Cha for breakfast at one of his local restaurants. We were seated at a table with 3 local women who found us very entertaining! Especially Kevin as he struggled to get his chopsticks under control!!!

We then headed out to Ngong Ping 360 which is a cable car that takes you up to see the big budda. Unfortunately it was a pretty rubbish day, cloudy with rain showers. I can imagine the views from the cable car would be stunning on a clear day. As a tourist attraction, the big budda is a bit lame. Nevertheless, it was attracting a lot of people, especially considering the weather...

We then spent some time wandering around a shopping centre devoted to factory outlets, so I was obviously in my element... I'll go back in the next few days to give it a really good going over without feeling like I'm holding the guys up.We then spent several hours visiting some of the various neighbourhoods in Hong Kong, ranging from local type markets where we were some of the only westerners, to the main tourist drag. We finished off by catching the famous star ferry from Kowloon, back over to Hong Kong Island. Again, I'll probably do it again when (if!) I get a clearer day, because the views of the skyline would be stunning.

Once back in Warren's neighbourhood of Sai Wan Ho, we had a very nice dinner at a tiny little Japanese restaurant round the corner from his apartment. Tomorrow will be another big day as we are planning on getting up early & catching the ferry over to Macau. Warren & Kevin have a mid-afternoon flight to Singapore, so I will bid them adios & get the ferry back to Hong Kong by myself in the afternoon. I then have Wednesday & Thursday at my disposal, before flying back to the UK Friday morning.

Xian

After my 2 days without sleep, I enjoyed a lovely lie-in on Sunday morning. The hostel I was staying in was fantastic. It had a really nice bar & cafe, plus lots of cool little courtyard area for hanging out in. Xian is surrounded by thick city walls, & the hostel was located right next to the south gate.
Once I finally stirred myself, I spent a few hours wandering around the city. The Terracotta Warriors is the main reason most people visit, but it was a pleasant enough place to pass a bit of time. I had a nice walk through one of the city parks where the blossom is just starting to come out. I bet it is stunning in a couple of weeks.I then caught the airport bus for my 5:15pm flight back to Shenzhen airport. This time I flew with Hainan Air, & they were great, I even enjoyed my meal this time round, not a pig intestine in sight... From Shenzhen I managed to get a bus that was leaving straight away to cross the border & take me back to Hong Kong. The bus dropped me somewhere different from my outward journey, but I got a local to point me in the direction of the nearest MTR (underground) station & made it back to Warren's with no hassle. On the Saturday, Warren's friend Kevin who he used to teach with in London had also arrived.

The Terracotta Warriors

When I arrived at Xian train station there was someone from my hostel to meet me for a free pick-up, which was nice. I wouldn't have been in any state of mind after my nightmare of a trip to find it for myself! My room obviously wasn't ready for me that early in the morning, so I stashed my big pack in the luggage room, got a bit of breakfast, freshened up as best I could, & then at 9:30am, headed out on my Terracotta Warriors tour which I had booked through the hostel. It was very cool, although stupidly busy since it was a festival weekend... The sheer numbers of them are amazing, & those are just the ones that have been restored. Thousands more exist that are either a work in progress, or haven't even been excavated yet.

Needless to say, I slept VERY well on Saturday night! I had treated myself to a private room, & it was pure bliss.

Last day in Beijing

Friday was my last day in Beijing, & I started with a trip to Olympic Park. I really do love the 'Bird's nest' & 'Water cube', they are very cool buildings. The place was totally over-run with Chinese tourists, with hardly a westerner in sight.

I then hit the markets... I bought as much stuff as I thought I could fit in my pack, but could easily have bought more... Stuff is so so cheap. I bought a couple of pearl necklaces, some earrings, a couple of lanterns, lots of very cool 'Mao' posters, plus a few other bits & pieces...

I got a bit carried away at the markets, & had to leg it back to the hostel in order to pick-up my ruck-sack & make my way to the train station. The train trip was bit of a nightmare really, I'm trying to erase it from my memories! It turns out that the reason it was so busy & I couldn't get a sleeper berth is because it was a Chinese festival, something to do with the sweeping of the graves, & it was centered in Xian! Of course that meant every man & his dog was travelling to Xian on Friday night... I had close to 14 hours of sitting upright (the seats didn't recline one bit) squished into a carriage brimful of locals. They were sitting & lying down in the aisles, & some of them stood up for the whole journey. There were babies crying, the carriage was way overheated, & a barely got a wink of sleep. All I can say is thank goodness I had my ipod to keep me sane! We finally rolled into Xian at about 7am.

The Great Wall!

Today was absolutely fantastic. We left the hostel just before 7am & drove the 3 hours or so out to the Simatai section of the wall. It was worth driving the extra distance because apart from our group from the hostel, the place was practically deserted. I would go for long stretches without seeing a single other soul. It wasn't as tough going as I expected, although it was pretty steep at times with huge big steps. Parts of it have obviously been re-constructed really well, but other parts were literally crumbing away & you had to pick your way through the rubble! We covered 10km of it, taking in 30 watchtowers. They say pictures say a thousand words, so here goes...

I've got some more time in Beijing tomorrow & I plan to hit a couple more markets. I'm then on the 5pm overnight train to Xi an. It's even worse than I initially thought... Not only do I not have a sleeper berth for tomorrow, I've also just realised that I'm on the slow train which takes 13 hours instead of 11! Every single other train, & there are 4 or 5 of them, were booked out. I'm sure it will be worth it to see the terracotta warriors.