2 July 2014
We arrived in New Zealand yesterday morning. Apparently, so did winter! After one of the warmest Junes on record, we arrived to strong winds, lots of rain and the occasional sunny break. The temperature was about 12 degrees. A big change from the humid 30 degrees we left in Singapore. We had been preparing Matilda for winter by talking about it for the last two or three weeks. When we got out of the airport, she asked "where is the winter?" :) Something of coincidence is that today marks exactly 2 years since we left New Zealand for Singapore.
In some ways I find it amazing that 2 years has passed so quickly. A fair bit has happened in that time.
23 November 2014
Again I've been having trouble finishing off my blog posts, as you can see. From starting this post in the 3rd week of our 'summer' holidays, it is now four weeks until our Christmas holidays! This year has started off really well. Our roll has grown significantly and is now approaching 750. With the growth in numbers has come an injection of new staff which has been really positive. Quite few of them came from another school here in Singapore, where they weren't treated particularly well by management. They all seem pretty happy at ours:)
We've done some traveling over the last six months. We took my mum and dad to Cambodia in April which was really cool for them. Then in July we hit NZ and Australia for 2 weeks each. We caught up with a lot of family and friends in both places which dulled the cold somewhat. Although it was very chilly in Australia, with several frosts while we were at mum and dad's place. On the the third or fourth night we were there, Mel said me as we go into bed, "I am so sick of having so many blankets on!" :) Since being back in Singapore, Mel and I have both been able to do training courses overseas. Mel had three days in Phuket in September and I was in Nanjing for 5 days at the end of September. I love that our principal encourages us to do lots of external professional learning.
It was great to get back to Singapore and officially move into our new apartment. We didn't want to leave The Hillside as we really liked it, but our landlords decided to put our rent up by $100 a month despite the market slowing right down to the point where several neighbours were given reductions by their landlords. A bit silly really because as far as I know the place is still empty nearly five months later.
Our new place is great. We have a ground floor apartment with a patio front and back. Which means we can have a bbq! Also, we are much closer to school, which is great for Tilda as she started nursery this year. I can literally ride my bike home in 5 minutes! The pool is also very nice and we have a water slide.
Christmas will see us back in Australia for a couple of weeks and then Mel & Tilda will head to NZ to see her mum and dad, as well as Rose and her girls. They are excited about that. I'l be hanging out in Melbourne for a bit to catch some cricket and catch up with some people.
That'll do it for the moment. Hopefully I can post more soon(ish)!
T
Showing posts with label Melbourne. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Melbourne. Show all posts
Sunday, 23 November 2014
Monday, 9 July 2012
Catching Up with Friends & Family
After several edits of our bags while we were at Mel's mum & dad's place, we managed to get our stuff to around 70kgs for the 3 of us. It meant we had to take out some stuff we wanted to take. In the end, we put a bunch of stuff in a box that Mel's mum will bring up for us or we'll collect when we return to New Zealand.
Our last little while in NZ was wet!
It rained solidly from Monday night until after midday. The little creek that runs through the farm was over flowing big time, creating a small lake and covering the road. For some reason the cows were very intrigued by all of this and most of them walked into the water up to their bellies. Then they buggered off. Weird.
The flight to Melbourne was ok, although it seemed like 1 out of 2 people had a cold and were coughing up a storm. I couldn't believe how many people didn't bother to cover their mouths when they coughed. Needless to say, Mel & I both picked up colds and have been sneezing and blowing our noses non-stop:(
Tilda was not keen to sleep at all. We put her in the bassinet, but she insisted on standing up so she could look at everyone. Especially the wee baby in the bassinet next to her. She cried a bit, but it could've been a whole heap worse. Despite being absolutely knackered, she was great while we gathered our baggage, went through customs and picked up the rental car.
We had booked a night in a motel that was reasonably close to the airport. Unfortunately, we had no idea that roadworks on the Western Ring Rd mean that ALL the left hand exits (where we needed to go!) were closed. We ended up taking the most epic detour ever. We didn't get to the motel until 11pm instead of around 9:30-10:00. The bonus was that Tilda had a good sleep in the car:) The motel was nice - clean, tidy and very quiet! Luckily we were able to give the wee girl a quick drink, change her nappy and put her to bed without too much drama.
The next day we headed up to Wahgunyah to stay with my mum & dad, with a smallish detour via Kyneton to see our friends Josh & Bri. It was great to see their new house and introduce them to Tilda, as well as pass on a present for their impending little one. The drive to mum & dad's was pretty uneventful and Tilda slept most of the way.
Over the next few days we caught up
with some friends here in Wahgunyah, as well as Tarawingee. It was great to meet Fiona & Adam's new twins and introduce Tilda to their elder daughter Chelsea. My brother Chris & his family came up to stay and Tilda was able to meet her cousin Hudson, who was born 3 months after her. Hudson was a little unsure about Tilda as she just wanted to cuddle him all the time:) By Monday morning they seemed to be firm friends, with Hudson following Tilda around the house getting into mischief! It was really cool to see the reaction from Hudson when I brought Tilda into the kitchen in the morning - he was totally excited to see her.
On the Sunday, we had lots of family come for lunch. Tilda was able to meet her grand-nana, aunts, uncles and cousins. She was terribly excited to have more kids to play with and by early evening was extremely tired. Despite a couple of protests, she went to bed and fell asleep very quickly.
It was great to see everyone as it had been 18 months or more since we had seen them. Dad cooked multiple roasts on the BBQ and lunch was awesome. It was almost like Christmas, but without the presents and hot weather. It's been really cold here since we arrived. We've basically had 5 frosts in row. Singapore looks better and better each day:)
Today is a quiet day. Time for some last minute washing and then repack the bags before we head back down to Melbourne. This time on Wednesday we'll be looking at apartments. Hopefully the searching won't be too traumatic:)
Ciao for now.
Tony
Our last little while in NZ was wet!
Tilda was not keen to sleep at all. We put her in the bassinet, but she insisted on standing up so she could look at everyone. Especially the wee baby in the bassinet next to her. She cried a bit, but it could've been a whole heap worse. Despite being absolutely knackered, she was great while we gathered our baggage, went through customs and picked up the rental car.
We had booked a night in a motel that was reasonably close to the airport. Unfortunately, we had no idea that roadworks on the Western Ring Rd mean that ALL the left hand exits (where we needed to go!) were closed. We ended up taking the most epic detour ever. We didn't get to the motel until 11pm instead of around 9:30-10:00. The bonus was that Tilda had a good sleep in the car:) The motel was nice - clean, tidy and very quiet! Luckily we were able to give the wee girl a quick drink, change her nappy and put her to bed without too much drama.
The next day we headed up to Wahgunyah to stay with my mum & dad, with a smallish detour via Kyneton to see our friends Josh & Bri. It was great to see their new house and introduce them to Tilda, as well as pass on a present for their impending little one. The drive to mum & dad's was pretty uneventful and Tilda slept most of the way.
Over the next few days we caught up
On the Sunday, we had lots of family come for lunch. Tilda was able to meet her grand-nana, aunts, uncles and cousins. She was terribly excited to have more kids to play with and by early evening was extremely tired. Despite a couple of protests, she went to bed and fell asleep very quickly.
It was great to see everyone as it had been 18 months or more since we had seen them. Dad cooked multiple roasts on the BBQ and lunch was awesome. It was almost like Christmas, but without the presents and hot weather. It's been really cold here since we arrived. We've basically had 5 frosts in row. Singapore looks better and better each day:)
Today is a quiet day. Time for some last minute washing and then repack the bags before we head back down to Melbourne. This time on Wednesday we'll be looking at apartments. Hopefully the searching won't be too traumatic:)
Ciao for now.
Tony
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