Kidnapped by my High Flyers (7-9yo).
The Summer outing today was the local cinema to see Ice Age3 in 3D...almost all of the teachers went along on their day off and I was immediately pulled along by some of my HF class, kidnapped in reverse and even was treated to a coke and a share of a huge bucket of popcorn.
Domestic work in the afternoon, supermarket and then relaxing on teh balcony with the breeze and a book and a glass of Italian Pinot Grigo.
Not much else has hppened this week, just teaching really. | | FuTian Stadium - our current training ground for the SZ Celts Gaelic Football Club.
Facinating that locals DO exercise,around and around and around the tartan track unless they are stopping to watch crazy people 98% foreigners running, kicking, handballing and crashing into each other. I was on the defending end of a clash with my boss's boss and she's smaller than me but she knows what she's doing and Irish too. Great to run around again after two months of sedate exercise but the legs are stiff two days later.
The stadium was built for the World University Games in Sz in 2011, the facilties look excellent (and it's on a bus run from my place which helps). | | SZ had a typhoon cross through overnight last week and the damage was mild considering the wind and rain, the worst since 2003 I think with winds greater than 140kph. The new trees they had JUST planted blew over, not suprising with the short root stock they have. The photo is the workcrew tying things back up again.
We all hoped for a day off due to typhoon alert but it blew through too early and too quickly to close the school to limit risk to staff and students travelling...still no closure for AH1/N1 virus either. It might be thought an overreaction but imagine having to treat over abillion people if you can reduce the risk of spread by quarantine it seemsto have worked but given the WHO has stopped counting the cases, the Centre for Communicable Diseases has said if you think you havei t stay home and don't mix with others and only go to hospital if its worse... still only 166 people in SZ have been identified, most at border crossings so perhaps its working - till winter when they might have developed the vaccine by then.
My apartment stood up well, with an early morning inspection of the wind and rain noting the pot plant fell off the window ledge with th ewind. I'd brought everything in from the balcony but I do know of people who lost their washing in the wind.
That same night I'd been at the Xpats bar (run by 2 Aussies, 1 from Adelaide) watching the rugby, was chatting to a bloke who had an IT guru break the drough for social networking sites and blogs....that's why i can do this myself - this week anyway....a suprise for dad he doesnt have to do it for me.
Just remember, if you want to find my old blog site google Vonny sans freedomfriday and you should see what came before.
Last night (Tuesday) went with Liz to see Harry Potter film ( half price Tuesday here too). We both enjoyed it. We then met a bunch of other teachers for a meal ( yummy noodles and shrimps /prawns from a very traditional place). Where else can you wander through back streets as a group, drinking longneck Tsing Tao beers while walking and end up with a delicious meal costing not a lot. Then onto Demon Bar at Coco Park ( lots of bars) and then, onto a night club in Lohou. Needless to say, I didnt last that long in the flashing lights, duff duff, thump thump loud loud music and smoke filled room. Taxi - home at 3am and i was only going to the 7.15 session of the movies! Lucky Wed is our day off hence all the teachers out on Tuesday night.
Domestic day, housework, washing, grocery shopping and people watching. Back to school tomorrow for two full days , a light Saturday and a heavy Sunday and no roster yet for next week. Maybe next week a trip to HK, maybe even overnight so I can go to Ned Kellys????? Wait for the roster.
I watched in facination today as a lady used a net to try and catch her supper (in the supermarket fish tanks)-live fish , eels, turtles....live chicken restricted since avian flu...I can just imagine a chicken getting away from the "butcher" in the supermarket! Add to this kids without nappies, splits in their pants just suddenly peeing in the trolley, kids walking in squeeky shoes with flashing lights, people with their handbag dogs , christmas carols in July and its all too easy to forget what you went out to buy!
Still waiting for confirmation of some leave to drop home in late Sept, early October... will advise as soon as I know... book the table at a local pub for a veal schnitzel gravy and chips....and roast pork with crackling (and no pigs ears!)
The Sun got eaten by the dragon today but in SZ we had a partial 70% which was dimmer than usual rather than dark, just as I was surfacing after the latenight out. | |
Last week on my day off I headed out to find a geocache , the only one listed for SZ. Didn’t quite find it yet, but found a lovely Botanic Garden to wander around in relative peace
a pagoda surrounded by eucalypts
This week on my day off , I bought Paddington a summer outfit to replace his tatty outback singlet and baggy shorts. Note the PB size “crocs”. Needs the bush hat and sunnies now. He was happy to sit on the balcony and view the kids in the pool.
Still looking out for a Chinese style outfit for him, might have to get one made?
Looking for strange things here’s a few signs… this one attached to a fence post (condoms?)
car wash/detailing … automobile beauty
Macdonalds delivery bikes very posh compared with most and the riders wear helmets (not necessarily strapped up but it’s a start) Maybe Ronald McD could do the pedaling?
This morning on the footpath outside the apartment you could buy fruit/ veg/ eggs/ get your knife, axe or whatever sharpened, buy some noodle dish, tonight it was DVDs, plants, furniture, fruit, veg …the sharpening man must not work nights – no lights?
The constant is the recycling, the people who collect card, bottles, wires, building bits n pieces and effectively salvage anything worth something… hard living, but nothing goes to waste.
A spelling “game”
That’s it for now, I have an “observed” lesson to plan , the 1/4rly assessment for performance management .
Thanks to Don for the interface with a blog for now.
| | Oddities in SZ
Sorry dear readers…. Social networking and blog sites are all in a state of disarray here, no facebook except through a proxy which you can’t write to, intermittent access to some blog sites…
Posting off the original of my acceptance letter, story in itself – posting is a half day chore…..
I’m in disarray too, adjusting to my life after TAFE, as I have just divorced from the SA Government after 30 years, taking a package offered in late June.
Now all the dilemmas of best investment of my “nest egg” as I am officially unemployed in Oz, and never sure how long this current work will remain ( or my patience/passion for it). taken by Luke in a crazy moment, yes it’s upside down as taken.
Teaching is now into Summer, that crazy season where we work 6 days a week and collapse for 1 ( called a day off). It’s all daytime teaching though so we get to see the evening… nicest light between 6.30 and 7.30pm ( viewed from the balcony through a G’nT with a book). Friday night has a new meening unless you have parent teacher meetings scheduled for 9am. ( mine so far are pm) so we went out for a “few” beers last Friday to Window on the World, bar street.
Von and Riley ( from NZ)
Liz (UK)and Lindsay (NZ)
Last year I was itching to get to HK on a day off, now it’s not so urgent but I will need to go soon to chase down some new paperback releases. I’m currently reading all the Sherlock Holmes stories, quite a read and very proper English I must say.
| | Von with a glass of red, sitting next to Jacques (EF Foreign teacher from Sth Africa) and on my other shoulder sat "Sharkey "(NZ) - roll on the Tri-Nations! We are three rugby fans too. It turned out that many of the EF teachers were there for a night out and we naturally "hung out together" - so it was more than just the three of us from our school amongst the Xpat crowd.
The comedy was as expected, very standup, while we were sitting in theatre style described as feeling like a wedding...after the comedy we all moved to the VBar for more beverages ( 1 included in ticket) to listen to the live band Boz (Aussie) - not bad.
The venue was the Crowne Plaza - rather posh, I wish I'd been able to take a photo of the pool area near the VBar-really swanky. At least being a posh hotel, getting a taxi home was easy.
Tody then was a slow start, a gentle treadmill session at the gym and a hour relaxing in Starbucks reading the Sth China Post...trying to decide if I should go down for a short refreshing swim ? | | |
| Note to self....mind the floor rug .....the day the floor has been polished!
I inherited Hannah's IKEA floor rug which suits the apartment quite well and absorbs some of teh dust that gets trekked in from the balcony...but the floor was polished today by someone organised by my landlady which makes it slippery under the mat!
Today was a stay at home tidy up day waiting for the floor man to come so I decided to order the bulk drinking water too (that came almost as soon as Alan had sent a TXT to tell me it was ordered....can't do that on my own... mayo (no) Chinese good enough to get the message through.
I can order Eggplant, dumplings, ask for chopsticks because they all have the same sound (DZA ending which I seem to be able to pronounce!). Counting is helped by fingers and calculators.
I bought a plant and have no idea what it is except that it was only 10RMB and smells pretty.... I bought it from the mobile garden shops on tricycles which Jen dubbed treecycles....does anyone know what a cyclamen looks like? I'd like to buy a cyclamen plant from the treecycle..... check the photo and let me know....
One thing about living in China where reading material is mostly not in English, the urge to read lends itsself towards books long since forgotten or never read like The Jungle Book and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Hound of the Baskervilles, roll on the next pay month and a day trip to HK bookshops. | | | I have been told the photo is of an Anthurium plant (cheers Sandi) | | | What does a cyclamen plant look like? | | |
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