Christmas Holidays are Nearly Here!

Almost Christmas time. I can't believe how fast the first half of this academic year has gone. Just amazing. We have 2 more days at school. Well, it's really 1.5 days because we finish at 12 on Friday. Then we have buses to take us into town to a place on Singapore River for our Christmas do. Quite looking forward to that:)

Term 1 felt kind of short. Teachers were at school for most of 10 weeks but the students were there for 8 weeks. We had quite a few new teachers starting this year and there was a nice positive vibe about the place. This was a good thing because there was a little bit of negativity at the end of last year. In general the negative have people moved on.

We went to Japan for the first term holidays. It was the first time we had gone back to Japan since we left 9 years ago. Mel & I were both really excited to be going back. We had a good time visiting the places we used to hang out although some places had closed down. The place I took Mel for dinner on our first date had moved and was difficult to find. We were really disappointed to find it only to find out that it had closed in April. We didn't do lots of sight seeing but we did manage to catch up with lots of people which was really cool. Tilda loved playing with the other kids. It was interesting to note that we (the parents) didn't really seem to have changed much. But the kids had grown up lots! We did quite a bit of shopping for things that we can't get outside of Japan. I also bought new lens for my camera which was very exciting for me:)

Kobe from the Ropeway

Nunobiki Waterfall

Tilda loved the ropeway!

Funky roof at Sorakuen Gardens

Term 2 has absolutely whizzed by! Which is both good and bad. It means that the holidays are here already. But it also means that the last 2 or 3 weeks have been crazy busy with all kinds of things to tidy up before Christmas. One of those things was our first Days of Nexellence event. This is a day when we take all our Year 7-9 students off timetable and give them are series of activities to complete related to a central theme. Our theme for this event was a murder mystery.

Although it was a lot to organise, it was worth it because it was an awesome day! The kids loved it. There was a really positive feeling all day. It was great to see the "too cool for school" kids get dragged into participating in the activities by the others. Our school is a Mac 1:1 school so ICT is a big thing for us. The whole event was based around digital technology. It was cool but the online activity was massive to the point where our server was starting to become overloaded. We had live stream TV to broadcast breaking news and to share information with students, clues hidden in a Minecraft world and we used a Twitter hashtag (#daysofnexus) to share information vis Twitter. Several of us were tweeting solidly all day and just as we were finishing up, #daysofnexus was one of the top 10 trending topics on Twitter in Singapore which was really cool. And as of 9:30ish tonight, it was still in the top 10:)

We are heading back to NZ for Christmas on Sunday night. Mel is looking forward to being able to drink wine at a decent price and Tilda is really excited about seeing the animals and Granddad's digger on the farm. I'm looking forward to chilling out and not thinking about school for a while:)

Well nothing much else to say so I'll be off. Merry Christmas and all the best for 2014!

Holidays

So the holidays are coming to an end. We have to be back at school on Thursday. I guess it's not so bad as the kids don't start until the 12th. We have 5 or 6 days at school to get prepared which is good. Especially as they're broken up with a weekend and a couple of public holidays. Not everyone agrees, but I don't mind spending a few days getting organised. It means I can not worry about school for most of the holidays which is what I did. I'm quite looking forward to the new school year. Last year was pretty tough with a lot of ups and downs. I think we'll be better prepared this year and as the second half of the year was generally positive, hopefully we can maintain that positivity.

Our holiday has been good. We spent time in Vietnam and Thailand. Vietnam is a really interesting place. It was funny to walk around and hear Vietnamese people saying "g'day mate" in fake Aussie accents. Equally funny were the people who would say "oh c'mon mate" when you said "no" to whatever it was that they were selling. 

After a couple of days in Saigon, we spent five days in Hoi An on the central coast. Hoi An is an old port town that has a world heritage listing. It was an important port until the 18th century when the river it sits on changed course and the port was silted up. The central part of the town has been preserved in a sense, though once the world heritage listing was granted a lot of locals sold their properties and moved out. The shophouses are now mostly bars, cafes, restaurants and souvenir shops, with the odd museum thrown in.

 

Old shophouse in the old town of Hoi An

 Looking out the window at Green Mango in Hoi An.

Boats on the the Thu Bon River. The eyes are supposed to help the boats see danger:)

Cultural Festival on the banks of Thu Bon River.

We enjoyed Hoi An. We found a good tailor and had some copies of clothes made. The lady in the shop was totally besotted with Tilda. She has two boys already and is desperate to have a girl. When we picked up our clothes she was so stoked to get a cuddle from Tilda that she gave her a wee dress, which was really nice of her. And of course Tilda loved the dress because it was mostly pink.

After leaving Hoi An, we flew back to Saigon from Da Nang. Tilda missed out on her sleep so she was a bit grumpy on the plane and didn't settle for a while when we put her to bed at the hotel in Saigon. We flew back to Singapore the next day and she missed her sleep again. So she was pretty worked up when we got on the plane. She was so tired that she fell asleep as we taxied on the runway and slept for a third of the trip. She woke up suddenly and was upset again but some snakes helped settle her and she was good for the rest of the way home. It was really interesting to see Tilda's reaction when we got back home. She so happy to see her bed and toys again. We got her bed early (not long after 6pm) and she didn't make a peep until about 8 the next morning. 

About 10 day later we were off again, this time to Thailand. We went to Khao Lak, a place we'd been before so it was really nice to go back again. We didn't do much except swim and sleep. It was awesome for the first 5 days or so. Then Tilda picked up some kind of tummy bug and was really sick. The poor wee thing couldn't hold much down, so we took her to see a doctor in Khao Lak village. After three tries we finally found a doctor that was open. She gave us some medicine to stop the vomiting, which help a bit. Unfortunately that evening Mel got sick too. I suspect it was because she was holding Tilda when she threw up a couple of times. Needless to say, the last full day we had there was pretty quiet. Such a shitty way to finish our holiday. Oh well, our trip trip to Vietnam went really smoothly. And in all the travelling that Mel and I have done over the last 12 or 13 years we haven't had too much go wrong besides the odd cancelled/delayed flight and lost luggage.

Since we got back from Thailand, we've mostly just been hanging out. We've visited some of the museums in Singapore. Perhaps more of that soon:)

That's it for a bit.

Ciao

Tone

Thailand

Today we flew to Thailand. We're staying in Khao Lak for a week. We've been here a couple of times before and it's good to be back. The hotel is really nice although it's starting to show its age. Tilda was a champion all day, despite being cooped up in her baby seat, pram and on the plane. When ever she got the chance, she charged around like a mad thing so I think she's pretty tired now. As always, the hotel staff are smitten and want to cuddle her and stuff. She's pretty accommodating most of the time. 

The staff are really friendly and super helpful. Especially when I realised I left my ATM card in the ATM we stopped at on the way. Dumbarse!! The lady who checked us in made sure I called the bank in Singapore to cancel my card and told us not to worry and enjoy our holiday. Anyhoo, the card is cancelled and I will have to get a new one when I get back to Singapore. Oh well, could be worse  I guess. 

So we're looking forward to chilling out by the pool and on the beach. We'll probably get the odd massage here and there too:) Vietnam was cool but our trip probably wasn't what I would call a relaxing holiday. Not much else to say right now, so I'll be off.

Ciao

Tone

Some photographs from Saigon

                                         

                                                  Saigon Post Office with Uncle Ho

                                        

                                                                  Mel & Matilda

                                            

                        Giant map of southern Vietnam and Cambodia 1930's telegraph network

                                        

                                            Late 1890's or early 1900's map of Saigon

       

        

                                               Saigon town hall & statue of Ho Chi Minh

A Trip to Vietnam - Part 1

We decided to chill out for a few days after school before we headed off to Vietnam. Our plan was to spend two nights in Saigon before heading up to Hoi An via Da Nang. It was exciting to go back to Vietnam after three and a half years. Mel and Tilda hadn't been before so it was exciting for them too.

The flight to Saigon is only an hour and a half which is cool. It was good to get out of Singapore for a bit because the smog was getting worse each day. The smog was being caused by bush fires in Sumatra and unfortunately the wind direction meant that the smoke was being blown directly over southern Malaysia and Singapore. I felt for those who were stuck there because it got really bad while we were away. We were keeping an eye on the situation online and the pictures we saw were pretty bad. According to the National Environment Agency the PSI reading was over 400 which meant it was hazardous to health.

The other thing about clear air was it made for good photography. I love photography and I love taking photos from planes because it gives you a perspective you don't usually get to see. I guess it looks like a really big map, which feeds my other passion, geography. Although it was a little cloudy but I managed to get a couple of good, geogeeky shots:)

Smog at Changi as we taxi to the runway

New motorway being built through rice padis

Confluence & meander in the Mekong Delta

I was going to write more and put in some more photos but I can't do what I want and I'm getting pissed off so I'm going to leave it there for the moment. I will try to add more tomorrow.

Later

Tone

It's the end of the year!

I can't believe that the school year is done, but I'm glad it is. Term Four was a bit of an epic at 11 weeks long. It was quite different to last term in NZ. In NZ, once the senior kids had left everything wound down nicely until the last day which was the highlight of the year. It was always a teacher only day. BBQ bacon & eggs for brekky, washed down with a cold ale or 10. Faculties put on skits to mock each other and senior management, which was always fun. Here, things actually seemed to ramp up as we moved through May into June. I'm not used to writing reports in Term Four! I'm fairly sure that I have never been this tired before. We finished the year with a free-flow beer & wine/bbq buffet night at the Hyatt. Funny night. Some people were feeling seedier than others in the morning:) I should point out that it wasn't me as I had to take Tilda to gymnastics in the morning.

Mel, Nat & me at the Hyatt. Good night!

The year has been pretty hard in lots of ways. I guess moving your family from one country to another is always going to be challenging. However, I've really enjoyed it. School here is easier in most ways compared with Fraser. I loved working at Fraser but the challenging kids there were on a whole other level compared to the kids I work with now. And I just saw a good example of this on Facebook. A colleague at Fraser posted that he had confiscated a ladder off a kid at school today! Made me giggle:)

Even though the holidays have just started, I'm actually excited for the next academic year. I really think we're on the verge of something very good and this coming year will make or break us. A little daunting to be sure, but I'm looking forward to it. I'll be teaching all the Geography classes which is cool.

But back to the holidays! We are heading off to Vietnam tomorrow afternoon which is exciting for Mel as she's not been before. We're looking forward to some time by the beach and checking out the old town of Hoi An.

Hopefully I will have more to say when we get back.

Tone

Christmas Holidays - actually it's March now! And now it's June!

16/6/13

Third time lucky:) I'm not going write much as I don't seem to be able to finish this post as it's been going for 6 months! I've just added dates to the bits I wrote at different times. There will be another soon.

24/3/13

I started writing this in Bangkok just before Christmas. Obviously, I never finished at that time. At the moment, we're in New Zealand at Mel's mum & dad's place after spending a couple nights in Hamilton. We needed to sort some stuff out and it was a good opportunity to catch up with some of friends & colleagues. We had lunch with some of Mel's former colleagues on Thursday which was nice. On Friday morning, I went into my old school (Fraser High). It was really cool to see the people I worked with for 5 years. It was awesome to sit in on 13Geo with Nicole. Most of the kids in the class had taught at some point in my time at Fraser. It was a very chilly 8 degrees when I drove into school. I don't miss the cold. At all!

22/12/12

I meant to write this a week ago but never quite got there. Mel & I have been on holidays for a week now. Although last term was only eight weeks it felt a lot longer and the last day of term was a very welcome sight. I was really looking forward to a few quite cold beers but both James & Shaun (my usual drinking mates) were off home for the holidays the next day. As luck would have it, as I was walking out the gate rather forlornly I ran into three of my colleagues who were heading to Holland Rd for some drinks.

It was really cool to dissect the year so far with people I don't usually have a lot to do with. The beer was cold and flowed freely! And expensively. Check out our bill.

The week end was a quiet one at home. We chilled out and got our gear ready for a short trip to Bangkok. It was great to go back to Bangkok after 3 years. We were last there before all the riots in 2010. It was good to see that the city was energetic as ever. As we drove in from Don Mueang (the old airport) we were surprised to see a lot of construction going, which I guess is a sign of prosperity to an extent.

We were staying at a hotel in Siam Square which is the centre of Bangkok. We didn't really have any major plans except to visit a couple of restaurants we like. The first place we went to was Le Buchon. This restaurant is down one of the seedy Soi's in Patpong and is full of girly bars. The staff looked somewhat bemused when we walked in with Tilda:) The food was as great as the last time we went. The next day we went to Gianni's, which isn't in such a seedy location. The food was brilliant and the staff were all taken with Tilda. One of the waiters was quite enthralled because he has a daughter about the same age.