Long, long weekend

It has now been 5 weeks since I have been back from Chile, & it has been all go at school. I have survived the report writing season, knocking off 130 odd reports in a couple of weeks. While I was away in Chile Will had a friendly little visitor to keep him company...

He also did a good job at planting up some winter colour...

I am back into my rugby. I spent the first couple of weeks since returning from Chile on the bench, but have started the last few matches. This weekend we had a bye which was much appreciated by the body!

At the moment we have a Chilean house guest staying with us. Claudia is the teacher travelling with the 12 girls who are partaking in the return exchange from St Margaret's British School, Chile. She is staying 2 weeks with Will & I, before staying the last two weeks with another staff member from school. She has been a superb house guest, very easy & helpful. The other day I added an extra little welcoming touch to the chicken & leek pie I cooked for dinner...

Last Tuesday we had the Rugby World Cup visit my school. Hopefully (touch wood) it will be around a bit more over the next 4 years...

This weekend was a long one, celebrating the Queen's Birthday. My school also gave us the Tuesday off which was most appreciated. On Saturday I helped Will with our chicken fence. He had hired a 2-person post-hole borer & we concreted in several posts, all ready to attach the chicken wire too. It was hard work using the machine to dig the holes & lugging 25kg bags of concrete mix around! Who knew that digging holes could be so satisfying...

On Saturday evening we went to the rugby, along with Lucy & Paul, plus my rugby friend Hiria & her niece. It was Hurricanes v Lions & luckily the good guys won... Claudia really enjoyed it, it was her first big rugby game ever. Afterwards we had a very nice dinner at Wagamama's. We used our entertainment book to get buy 1 get 1 free main courses which is always a bonus! That is Claudia below on the right.

Sunday & Monday were both pretty chilled, pottering around the home after nice long lie-ins. The weather was pretty awful this weekend, very wet & grey. I did get out for a couple of hours on Sunday to play badminton with my Wellington Masters crew, then on Monday I took Claudia shopping.

Today has been a good town day, doing loads of bits & pieces that I can't usually do during a normal school day. I started off with a physio appointment at 11am for my dodgy knee, then took in some banking, shopping,  present buying etc. before finishing with a 1 hour deep-tissue sports massage. The massage was great, even though the masseuse couldn't quite believe the state of my back & shoulders... That would be a few months (years!) of rugby & badminton then! He spent a good part of the hour sorting them out, then got to my legs & thought they were just as bad! I probably should make a sports massage a regular part of my regime...

Tomorrow it's back to school, but a nice short week that should fly by. Then it'll be only 4 weeks until I get a lovely 3-week holiday. Bring it on!