Paula's last days of school, and then to Lords

Kia Ora!

well, long time, not blog. Sorry.

But, it has been the holidays for over a week now, and I have been relaxing and hanging out with Mel and Tim who have been over here.

The last day of the school year went well, except for beign a little hungover from the 'leaving' party on the Thursday. Ops. Never mind. Still managed to find enough energy to party on the Friday night. Very hard to say goodbye!!!! And some of the cards the boys wrote!!! :(

So, then after a great first weekend of the holidays, Mel, Tim and myself went to Lords to watch the last day of the test between England and South Africa.

Great surroundings. Great company. But, as my Dad would say, the cricket was like watching grass grow.... sigh. never mind.

So, yes. the last weekend, I went to a 1950's style Hen's night for one of the teachers getting married in a couple of weeks. Was heaps of fun!!!! We did bowling, and danced and it was a great night.

Although, there were only 4 of us teachers left at the end of the night, the hen went home early, and her sisters and friends followed... so, the other teachers decided that for the last 30 minutes, it would be Paula's London version of a hens night. so, we danced the macarenna (don't ask) and headed on home.

Well, thats all for now. Alex is still working on his band postings.

Love to all.

Paula.

Paula's school camp in France

So, two weeks later and I have finally got some time to write about my little escapade to Normandy. (I am really sick of writing school reports!!!)

So, very early on Monday the 9th June, I made my way to school and jumped on a bus with 5 other teachers and 50 year 5 boys (thats 10 year olds...) and we drove down to Dover and hopped onto the train to go through the 'chunnel'. What an incredible piece of engineering that is! we drove onto this train in our double decker bus and sat there while it sped through under water to Calais. Very cool. But kinda boring after about 5 minutes of tunnel. Nevermind.

Once we got to France, we had another 6 hours of bus ride to get us to the chateau where we were staying, but once we got there, it was cool. We were met by our two French guides who proceeded to speak to the boys in nothing but French for the entire trip, which was interesting for Miss Wightman and her non-French speaking capabilities. yes... fun.... thank goodness the boys could interpret the instructions!

So... Tuesday, we spent the day at the main Chateau, which was about an hour away, where the boys had fun making bread, climbing the walls, doing circus skills and some even did orienteering. It was beautiful weather, so Miss Wightman had fun sitting in the sun relaxing!

Wednesday we went to a traditional French market, which was fascinating. Unfortunately, my batteries ran out on my camera at this stage, so I didn't get any photos of all the amazing cheeses, sausages, fresh fruit and vege, fresh fish, the HUGEST paella bowl I have ever seen, and heaps more cool stuff. Oh well. In the afternoon we went to Mont St Michel. What an absolutlely fascinating place. Here is a link if you would like to find out

http://mont-saint-michel.monuments-nationaux.fr/en/

Thursday we went to Tapisserie De Bayeux. Which was AMAZING!!!! I did think of you mum! I might have even got you something for Christmas..... but you will have to wait! No photos allowed. Sorry! In the afternoon we went to a zoo. Which was cool, as the boys all managed to go around the place in thier own groups, but Miss Wightman had fun wandering about and talking science stuff with them!!! :) Got to see some pink flamingoes and also some otters being fed. Then it was back to camp and all the boys had a dress up contest, they were told to dress up 'French' and the teachers had to judge. How hard!!! the winner was a boy who had gone all out as the hunchback of notredame. Very Cool! then for dinner we had... escargo!!!!! And yes, Miss Wightman did try them! They were okay, very garlicky!!!! which helped I think. the boys absolutely adored them, and they even wanted more!!! After dinner we all went for a short walk to the beach, where some boys played football, some tried burying themselves, and the rest of us (including Miss W) went foraging along the beach. Was great to be a science teacher outside the classroom, trying to find cool things on the beach.

Friday it was home time, and yet another long bus ride back to London. Then home to an empty house as Alex was in Italy. :(

One more thing.... last weekend I went and hung out with Alex and the London Scottish pipes and drums as they prepared to March through London, from Horse Guards Parade ground to Wellington Barracks. The Territorial Amry had a big pagaent to celebrate 100 years. So... I got some good piccys of Alex in all his gears... :)

Alright Oslo...

So the weekend 31st of May we were off to Oslo Norway to see the sights and also see a concert.

We traveled through terminal 5 Heathrow with BA and it was surprizingly hassle free, if you listened to the news you would think this was a miricle.

We fly 2 hours or so to Norway where the Customs officer said "Oh New Zealander we don't get many of those"

we then had a short ride through lushish green country side to the outskirts of Oslo.

The Next day after doing an interpretation of the Norgwegian ticket machine we got off the ringen tube line at Majorstruden and walked through the town. In mid 20 degree heat (since when was Norway a hot country!) We saw the changing of the guard for the Norweign kings palace. Less showy than the Queens but still the guards change...

... That is where Alex got up to, so I will try annd finish up. :) P.

After we watched the interesting changing of the guard (that included the new guard marching all the way around the palace grounnds to change each guard over) we wandered about through the palatial grounds which were stunning! (lots of half naked sunbathers!)

After the palace we wandered through the city looking at shops and being touristic. Found some nice coffee though... :)

We headed back to the hotel to get changed and have an early dinner before finding our way to the stadium where Kiss where playing. Well, yeah, we were miles too early (all Paula's fault!) and the line waiting was already very, very long. So we sat in the sun and waited for the gates to open. We waited. And we waited. And we watched some idiot pass out from too much 'something' and be carried out on a stretcher. And then we waited some more....

finally we got in. Yah! We decided to flag the warm-up band, and get something cold to drink. But then we saw Kiss. It was quite cool. I knew more songs than I thought I would and wanted to Rock n Roll all night... (hehehe)

(i'm sure Alex could fill this bit in better than me, but he is in Italy right now, so can't help me!)

One weird thing though was coming out of a concert at 11pm and it still being daylight. odd.

The only real down side to the night was trying to find our way home afterwards. Having missed the last metro, we had to get a taxi. Never mind.

So, then we were onto Sunday. We decided to catch a ferry across to Bygdoy (although the o is supposed to have one of these / through it...). Which was cool. We wandered up to where there is a Viking Ship museum. Amazing!! there were 3 repaired viking ships that were used for burial tombs. Some very fascinating pieces that were in pretty good nick considering how old they are!

Anyways, then we managed to catch a bus for free (the driver was the only person we found who did not speak English) back to the city and onto a train back to the Airport and a short flight back home.

All in all a great trip. Really liked Oslo, nice City, cool vibe and friendly!!! :)

Next updates will be Paula's school camp in Normandy and Alex's band trip to Italy. (bets are on as to who will write theirs first!)

Love to all.

P.

A good Saturday walk in the park

Hi all!

Well, not much has been happening about these parts. Life has been tottering along, the days have been getting longer and warmer, which is nice.


Unlike the photos I have been getting of my new nephew, all wrapped up nice and warm in his knitted woolly gears. One lucky kid to have so many family members who can knit!!!

Enough gossiping.


Today was supposed to be the nicest day out of the long weekend, so Alex and I decided to go for a nice walk. We walked from home all the way up to the top of Hampstead Heath to Kenwood house for some chocolate cake. A long walk for chocolate cake, but it was very good chocolate cake!




This is Kenwood House, looking pretty in the sunshine :)

Alex looking up towards Kenwood house, by the very pretty lake.


mmm.... chocolate cake...

The Rhododendrens were looking FABULOUS!

FABULOUS!!

Anyways, pretty boring. It is now mid term break for me for a week, and we head to Oslo next weekend, yah! That should be exciting. :)



Hope all is well in the world!
P. and LX.

ANZAC Day and the Antiques Roadshow (photos to come!)

... well, not at the same time!







Friday was ANZAC day, and being the good wee kiwi bunnies we are, we dragged ourselves out of bed at an astonishing 0330 to catch a bus into Hyde Park corner and the NZ memorial where dawn service was to be held.



It was a fairly good service, the first to be held in front of the NZ memorial, and now it is going to alternate between the Aussie and the Kiwi memorials each year. A few interesting things...



*it was very dark



*it was very early



*there was a choir of school kids from Australia



*they weren't very good



* there were HEAPS of people there



*its the first time I have not heard people singing hymns at an ANZAC service



*the taped music was not the best (why couldn't they get a band?)



*the last post was played by a person from the London Irish Guards band (are there seriously no Kiwi's or Aussies's in London who could play the last post???? and if they could fly 2 bus loads of kids from Oz to sing - badly - surely they could fly out one more person to play the last post????? sigh...)



*the poor piper who almost seemed forgotten was playing his lament after the ceremony had finished and the Ngati Ranana were singing a waiata....



*it was the first time I have seen the words to the Australian National Anthem



*it was the first time I have tried to sing the Australian National Anthem



*I cannot believe how rude the Australians who were standing next to us were, they talked all the way through the NZ anthem (did I do that to their anthem? hmmm? did I? did I? sigh...)



*I ran into people I knew... hehehe....



*lastly... there is NOTHING open to buy a cup off coffee at 6am in the morning in Kensington...







Anyways, yes... made it to school and actually managed to teach all day (I don't think I would want to do that again any time soon...) And Alex actually survived his 10-6 shift - which I think is more impressive!

Then Saturday. And we decided to have another early start (although, not 3am...) and we managed to catch a train to Windsor. What a loverly train ride. I managed to get through none of my marking because the scenery was so nice. When we got to Windsor, it was quite busy. Not only did we manage to see the changing of the guards (with a drum and fife band) but there was a welcome home parade for about 500 soldiers of the 1st battalion, Coldstream guards, which made the town VERY busy, but was very interesting to see. It was such an amazing day that we both ended up sunburnt, very naughty!!!! (and quite odd, considering it was snowing only 3 weeks ago!!) We didn't visit the castle this time, as I have a friend who is going to lend us his tickets (its about £20 to get in!!!) as tickets are annual. We had a very nice lunch, sitting in the sunshine outside the castle and then had a wee wander about Eton (since some of the boys I teach will be going there!!!). We will be going back!!!!

We then had a nice ice cream and jumped on a bus to go to Ascot. Why would we go to Ascot?? Because the Antiques Roadshow were filming there!!!! A once in a lifetime opportunity to see a program that I have seen at least a hundred times (thanks to my wonderful mother!!!!) being filmed, very cool!!! I also decided that I would go and have the one valuable thing (grandma's engagement ring) that I have over here with me valued, just for the sake of saying that I have done it!!!! Think we might be in the background of someone else being fimed, so keep an eye out for the Ascot 2008 Antiques Roadshow episode!!!!

Then it was a rush home so Alex could go out to a dinner with the London Scottish Band.

Phew, what a weekend!!!!

Love to all!

P.

Last Day of School Holidays - Paula

And I have been doing the teacher thing and procrastinating writing this blog, so, my apologies.

We have been getting up to a few adventures over the past few weekends, so I will update them backwards.

Last weekend, IT SNOWED!!!! Yes, it snowed, in London. In fact it was eough to stay on the ground around our area. So, Alex got woken up by an excited Paula jumping up and down. Well, I am not really used to snow...

Picture of our back yard and Alex on the front steps - in the snow (just before he threw a snowball at me...)

Also on that Sunday, we decided to make an effort and go and see the Olympic torch relay. Well, yes, that was a wee bit interesting. Stood outside the British museum ( in the cold, melted snow conditions) and I'm not sure about Alex, but I certainly felt a wee bit unsettled. There were plenty of free Tibet protestors and there were also plenty of people who supported China's point of view. So, the politics were a lot more interesting than the whole 5 seconds of seeing the flame go past, with its entourage of about 40 police and bodyguards. I do have to admit to laughing out loud when I saw the number of people surrounding the flame. It was one of the funniest things I had seen in ages!

can you see the flame??? And some of the free Tibet protestors

Right, well the weekend before that (the 29-30 March) was a fun weekend. We got up early on Saturday and made a mission out to a car hire place. The part that was even more fun, was trying to navigate Alex back to our flat! We made it back safely and set off North to Nottinghamshire for my friends wedding.

Well, yes, the wedding... Just a small church, really... Celebrating its 900th anniversary later this year (it is also going to be on Antiques roadshow, so keep an eye out!) It was fantastic!!! Southwell Minster. Absolutely amazing! And to be able to see a wedding in there was awesome. Especially with Clare's choir singing her up the aisle and performing throughout the service. Very nice. Then there was about a 40 minute drive to the reception in Lincolnshire. This was in a marquee attached to George's parents house. Very nice. :) Had a great time.

On the Sunday, we decided to go back to Southwell (we had found a very nice cafe the day before and wanted to have a wander about Southwell). It was a loverly day, sun shining, not much wind, beuatiful! After Southwell, we drove to Barkston, where Mum and Dad lived for a year when they came out here. We wandered about a bit, parked by the post office (I wonder if it was still the same one Mum used?) and finally found the right street. Wandered down until we found the house that we think Ma and Pa lived in. After that, we deicided to eat our little lunch in the chair on the village green. Very nice. :)

Alex sitting in the village green. Mum and Dad's house (I think...)

The Barkston pub. Is it the same Dad?

Then we headed home and called into St Albans on the way. Had some very nice dinner after deciding that we had seen enough of one cathedral that weekend and we will have to head back to St Albans some other time.

Right. Last interesting thing... Easter... Well... yes... We planned to head up to Suffolk over Easter for a nice quiet, sunny weekend away. However, we did not expect lots and lots of snow... But we got LOTS of snow.