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 Singapore. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Singapore. Show all posts
Sunday, 23 November 2014
Thursday, 19 December 2013
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:)
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:)
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| Kobe from the Ropeway |
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| Nunobiki Waterfall |
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| Tilda loved the ropeway! |
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| 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!
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Monday, 29 July 2013
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
Sunday, 7 July 2013
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
Wednesday, 19 June 2013
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.
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
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| Mel, Nat & me at the Hyatt. Good night! |
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
Sunday, 11 November 2012
Four months in Singapore
Yesterday marked four months since we arrived in Singapore. Mel and I were talking this morning that it seems like ages ago that we got here. But it at the same time it feels like the time has whizzed by.
I think the biggest change has been in Matilda. She is nearly 18 months old now and is definitely not a baby anymore. She seems to be learning new words everyday and is starting to make short sentences regularly. The other day she said "I don't like it" when she was offered some food and she regularly says "I need this" when she wants something.
Walking has become important too. When we head down to a local cafe for brunch Matilda insists on walking as much as possible. It's roughly a kilometre to the cafe and she walks about halfway without too many problems. She took a tumble this morning though and scraped her knees and fingers. While we were eating she kept holding up her hand with a pained look on her face. Poor poppet:(
We seem to have more public holidays here which is nice. They try cater for all the main ethnic groups so we had a day off last month for the end of the Hajj for the Muslims. This Tuesday is a holiday for Deepvali which is a Hindu festival. We get Christmas and New Year as well. Actually we get two New Year holidays because there's 2 days off in February for Chinese New Year. There are some others as well but I can't remember the details.
Mel and I went into town last night for dinner and to see the Deepvali lights in Little India. The bus was absolutely full! To the point where we were not stopping. I reckon we missed a third of the stops. We had dinner at a really nice Indian restaurant and then wandered around a bit. There were loads of people around and the lights looked pretty cool. The bus trip home wasn't as busy:)
School is ok. We have an inspection for our EduTrust certification. The school needs this to be allowed to take international students. Without this we would have to shut up shop. As you can imagine this is causing quite a bit of stress. Although they aren't actually interested in our teaching practice they want to interview some of the teaching staff, as well as the admin guys. Everyone was worried on Friday as that was when we would find out if we would be the "lucky ones". Thankfully I missed out but Mel is gutted because they asked to interview some of the part time staff. She's only been there a month! They also want to see another of the part timers. She only started on Monday and has had a fairly stressful start to her job!
I can't think of anything to say right now so I'll be off.
Later
TONE
Walking has become important too. When we head down to a local cafe for brunch Matilda insists on walking as much as possible. It's roughly a kilometre to the cafe and she walks about halfway without too many problems. She took a tumble this morning though and scraped her knees and fingers. While we were eating she kept holding up her hand with a pained look on her face. Poor poppet:(
We seem to have more public holidays here which is nice. They try cater for all the main ethnic groups so we had a day off last month for the end of the Hajj for the Muslims. This Tuesday is a holiday for Deepvali which is a Hindu festival. We get Christmas and New Year as well. Actually we get two New Year holidays because there's 2 days off in February for Chinese New Year. There are some others as well but I can't remember the details.
Mel and I went into town last night for dinner and to see the Deepvali lights in Little India. The bus was absolutely full! To the point where we were not stopping. I reckon we missed a third of the stops. We had dinner at a really nice Indian restaurant and then wandered around a bit. There were loads of people around and the lights looked pretty cool. The bus trip home wasn't as busy:)
School is ok. We have an inspection for our EduTrust certification. The school needs this to be allowed to take international students. Without this we would have to shut up shop. As you can imagine this is causing quite a bit of stress. Although they aren't actually interested in our teaching practice they want to interview some of the teaching staff, as well as the admin guys. Everyone was worried on Friday as that was when we would find out if we would be the "lucky ones". Thankfully I missed out but Mel is gutted because they asked to interview some of the part time staff. She's only been there a month! They also want to see another of the part timers. She only started on Monday and has had a fairly stressful start to her job!
I can't think of anything to say right now so I'll be off.
Later
TONE
Wednesday, 3 October 2012
On the bus
Mel's mum & dad are here a for while which is cool. Last Friday they very graciously offered to look after Matilda so Mel & I could go out. We went to a smallish school do for a bit and then headed to Holland Village for dinner. Holland Village is a popular place for drinking and eating. We had Mexican for the first time in ages. It was great:) Thanks Grandma & Granddad!
As we were siting on the bus on the way home I was looking around at the other passengers. I realised that there were 3 or 4 of them that I see regularly on my way to school. Most people tend to go to work or school at around the same time each day so it makes sense that you would see them regularly. I think this is true of every commute I have had - from the super crowded trains in Japan to driving myself in Thailand and New Zealand to my bus trip here in Singapore.
As Mel and I talked about it I started to tell her about the different people I see regularly. There are of course my colleagues who live in the same area as me. No offence but they're kind of dull because I know who they are.
The first regular I noticed was "elegant Chinese lady". She is always impeccably dressed and always looks aggrieved to be travelling on public transport. Especially when she doesn't get a seat. There's also "wannabe elegant Chinese lady". Not quite as well dressed and less aggrieved about taking the bus.
One of my favourites is "surly uni student guy". He always sits in the same seat. And alway in the aisle seat with his bag on the window seat to stop other people sitting there. Most Singaporeans are too polite to try and sit next to him. But not the middle aged ladies. They have no problems in forcing him to get up and move his bag so they can sit down. In fact, I suspect they quite enjoy it:) But not him. The look on his face is pure anger. Cracks me up every time!
The other person that makes me giggle is "sleeping Malay woman", who travels on the Number 170. This bus runs from Johor Baru across the causeway in Malaysia right into the CBD. It carries the day labourers and others who do most of the shitty jobs like cleaning toilets. The 170 is always full. Always! And "sleeping Malay woman" must get on early because she is always in the same seat (in front of the exit door). And she is always asleep. Not just head down, eyes closed asleep. But full on, head back, mouth open asleep. I am positive she snores.
Another funny one is "cuddly teenage couple". They sit as close as humanly possible snuggled under a jacket. The air con is always on on the buses and sometimes it gets a touch chilly (even for chubby foreigners like me). But these kids are covered in goosebumps and shivering hard out. They have their arms around each other and the girl has her head buried in the guys neck. The first time, I was surprised when they got off and I saw that they were actually separate people.
There is one woman who I find somewhat disturbing. "Religious Korean woman" sits there with some of kind prayer book in her hands. I know she's Korean because the print on the cover is Korean. She has a kind of cycle. First she opens her book and reads something. Then she looks up and starts talking under her breath. I assume she's praying. Next she moves her head from side to side like she's stretching. Then she yawns. A big wide open mouth yawn. Then she she goes through cycle again. She usually manages 2 or 3 cycles before I get off.
Good times:)
T
As we were siting on the bus on the way home I was looking around at the other passengers. I realised that there were 3 or 4 of them that I see regularly on my way to school. Most people tend to go to work or school at around the same time each day so it makes sense that you would see them regularly. I think this is true of every commute I have had - from the super crowded trains in Japan to driving myself in Thailand and New Zealand to my bus trip here in Singapore.
As Mel and I talked about it I started to tell her about the different people I see regularly. There are of course my colleagues who live in the same area as me. No offence but they're kind of dull because I know who they are.
The first regular I noticed was "elegant Chinese lady". She is always impeccably dressed and always looks aggrieved to be travelling on public transport. Especially when she doesn't get a seat. There's also "wannabe elegant Chinese lady". Not quite as well dressed and less aggrieved about taking the bus.
One of my favourites is "surly uni student guy". He always sits in the same seat. And alway in the aisle seat with his bag on the window seat to stop other people sitting there. Most Singaporeans are too polite to try and sit next to him. But not the middle aged ladies. They have no problems in forcing him to get up and move his bag so they can sit down. In fact, I suspect they quite enjoy it:) But not him. The look on his face is pure anger. Cracks me up every time!
The other person that makes me giggle is "sleeping Malay woman", who travels on the Number 170. This bus runs from Johor Baru across the causeway in Malaysia right into the CBD. It carries the day labourers and others who do most of the shitty jobs like cleaning toilets. The 170 is always full. Always! And "sleeping Malay woman" must get on early because she is always in the same seat (in front of the exit door). And she is always asleep. Not just head down, eyes closed asleep. But full on, head back, mouth open asleep. I am positive she snores.
Another funny one is "cuddly teenage couple". They sit as close as humanly possible snuggled under a jacket. The air con is always on on the buses and sometimes it gets a touch chilly (even for chubby foreigners like me). But these kids are covered in goosebumps and shivering hard out. They have their arms around each other and the girl has her head buried in the guys neck. The first time, I was surprised when they got off and I saw that they were actually separate people.
There is one woman who I find somewhat disturbing. "Religious Korean woman" sits there with some of kind prayer book in her hands. I know she's Korean because the print on the cover is Korean. She has a kind of cycle. First she opens her book and reads something. Then she looks up and starts talking under her breath. I assume she's praying. Next she moves her head from side to side like she's stretching. Then she yawns. A big wide open mouth yawn. Then she she goes through cycle again. She usually manages 2 or 3 cycles before I get off.
Good times:)
T
Saturday, 15 September 2012
3 Weeks to go!
So there's only 3 weeks until the end of Term 1. Everyone is pretty knackered as it's been a pretty full on term and we're all looking forward to the holidays. As I said in a previous post, the school is still sorting out systems and such. It's kind of frustrating in a way but I think this year was always going to be like this. I don't mind too much because I reckon the positives out-weigh the negatives.
Mel's mum & dad arrived on Wednesday night. Mel is happy to see them. So is Tilda as she has more people to show off to:) She is quite the chatterbox now. I think she is getting frustrated at times because she is trying so hard to communicate but isn't sure about how to get the message across. At the same time it seems that everyday she is learning new words. I suspect in a year or so that we won't be able to get a word in edgeways! She's been really chirpy over the last 3 or 4 days which is great as she had new teeth arriving which was very painful for her.
Mel's sister and family are coming to visit as well. They arrive in a couple of weeks. They're staying at hotels mostly, including the Marina Bay Sands which is very flash! Mel is looking forward to that as it'll will cool for Zoe & Emma to see Tilda. She loves them so much and gets so excited when she sees them. The girls have seen pictures of the pool at our condo and are looking forward to swimming in it:)
Mel is starting work at school in couple of weeks. She is picking up a 0.5 load of Business Studies classes. She's quite excited to be earning some money and using her brain again:) School is happy because it releases some of the senior management team from part of their teaching load and that will give them time to work on systems etc..
The process has been a bit stressful in some ways as we have had to hire a maid, or 'helper' as they're called in Singapore. We looked at childcare but it was very expensive, which is a pain. The Singaporean government are telling people they need to have more babies, but it costs too much. I spoke to a couple of the women at school and they said it's far cheaper to hire a full-time, live-in helper. We weren't that keen to have someone live in. Pretty much all apartments in condos have maid quarters - a small toilet/shower room & a very small sleeping area. We use ours as storage space so it's pretty full. Having someone live in also means that I can't get about without a shirt:)
We interviewed a few people. The first 3 came together and although they seemed nice, didn't really convince us. The following weekend we interviewed 3 more. The first was really nice and Mel & I felt comfortable with her. The second had been advertised as a "simple girl" and simple she was. I felt really bad for her because she didn't understand the directions that Mel gave her and I had to walk down the road to find her. We were just about to give up when came across her in a 7-11. We weren't confident that we could trust her to look after Matilda properly and counted her out. The third woman was nice and seemed competent but not quite as good as Lorie (the first one.
So we called Lorie and told her we were keen to hire her. And this is when the stress arose. Her previous employer wouldn't sign a form we needed. The agency wanted us to pay $600 or they'd send Lorie back to the Philippines. Lorie was very keen to work for us and would look for work elsewhere (mainly because she'd have basically 2 days a week off as opposed to usual 1 most employers allow. In the end it all worked out and Lorie is starting tomorrow.
The process was very instructive in a way. A lot of employers and all the agencies treat the domestic workers very poorly. They are treated like a commodity. In fact, one agency that Mel spoke to actually used the analogy of "buying goods". The conditions that some employer impose on their helpers are almost draconian. One day off a month, no cell phone, no contact with people outside the family. The list goes on.
I'm looking forward to the holidays. We don't have any huge plans as Blair & Rose will be here and I'm off the Malaysia for a few days over the middle weekend. There are a group of us from school going to visit our sister school in Putrajaya just outside Kuala Lumpur. They opened a few years ago and are doing quite well. They set up a 1:1 MacBook programme which has been successful. Our school is planning the same thing so we're going to see how it works. Then we have a 3 day IB training course in KL. I'm really looking forward to the course because I think it will answer some questions I have about the IB Geography course. I'm au fait with the content because geography is geography but there is lots I don't know about the nuts & bolts of teaching an IB course. After that it's a week chilling at home:)
Today I'm meeting the some of the lads from work at bar in town. Time for a few quiets and some sport without our good ladies and kids. There's some rugby on (NZ vSA) and more importantly, Collingwood are playing the Eagles in the 2nd semi-final. I think this will be a pretty tight game. Looking forward to it:) Go Pies!!
Later
TONE
Mel's mum & dad arrived on Wednesday night. Mel is happy to see them. So is Tilda as she has more people to show off to:) She is quite the chatterbox now. I think she is getting frustrated at times because she is trying so hard to communicate but isn't sure about how to get the message across. At the same time it seems that everyday she is learning new words. I suspect in a year or so that we won't be able to get a word in edgeways! She's been really chirpy over the last 3 or 4 days which is great as she had new teeth arriving which was very painful for her.
Mel's sister and family are coming to visit as well. They arrive in a couple of weeks. They're staying at hotels mostly, including the Marina Bay Sands which is very flash! Mel is looking forward to that as it'll will cool for Zoe & Emma to see Tilda. She loves them so much and gets so excited when she sees them. The girls have seen pictures of the pool at our condo and are looking forward to swimming in it:)
Mel is starting work at school in couple of weeks. She is picking up a 0.5 load of Business Studies classes. She's quite excited to be earning some money and using her brain again:) School is happy because it releases some of the senior management team from part of their teaching load and that will give them time to work on systems etc..
The process has been a bit stressful in some ways as we have had to hire a maid, or 'helper' as they're called in Singapore. We looked at childcare but it was very expensive, which is a pain. The Singaporean government are telling people they need to have more babies, but it costs too much. I spoke to a couple of the women at school and they said it's far cheaper to hire a full-time, live-in helper. We weren't that keen to have someone live in. Pretty much all apartments in condos have maid quarters - a small toilet/shower room & a very small sleeping area. We use ours as storage space so it's pretty full. Having someone live in also means that I can't get about without a shirt:)
We interviewed a few people. The first 3 came together and although they seemed nice, didn't really convince us. The following weekend we interviewed 3 more. The first was really nice and Mel & I felt comfortable with her. The second had been advertised as a "simple girl" and simple she was. I felt really bad for her because she didn't understand the directions that Mel gave her and I had to walk down the road to find her. We were just about to give up when came across her in a 7-11. We weren't confident that we could trust her to look after Matilda properly and counted her out. The third woman was nice and seemed competent but not quite as good as Lorie (the first one.
So we called Lorie and told her we were keen to hire her. And this is when the stress arose. Her previous employer wouldn't sign a form we needed. The agency wanted us to pay $600 or they'd send Lorie back to the Philippines. Lorie was very keen to work for us and would look for work elsewhere (mainly because she'd have basically 2 days a week off as opposed to usual 1 most employers allow. In the end it all worked out and Lorie is starting tomorrow.
The process was very instructive in a way. A lot of employers and all the agencies treat the domestic workers very poorly. They are treated like a commodity. In fact, one agency that Mel spoke to actually used the analogy of "buying goods". The conditions that some employer impose on their helpers are almost draconian. One day off a month, no cell phone, no contact with people outside the family. The list goes on.
I'm looking forward to the holidays. We don't have any huge plans as Blair & Rose will be here and I'm off the Malaysia for a few days over the middle weekend. There are a group of us from school going to visit our sister school in Putrajaya just outside Kuala Lumpur. They opened a few years ago and are doing quite well. They set up a 1:1 MacBook programme which has been successful. Our school is planning the same thing so we're going to see how it works. Then we have a 3 day IB training course in KL. I'm really looking forward to the course because I think it will answer some questions I have about the IB Geography course. I'm au fait with the content because geography is geography but there is lots I don't know about the nuts & bolts of teaching an IB course. After that it's a week chilling at home:)
Today I'm meeting the some of the lads from work at bar in town. Time for a few quiets and some sport without our good ladies and kids. There's some rugby on (NZ vSA) and more importantly, Collingwood are playing the Eagles in the 2nd semi-final. I think this will be a pretty tight game. Looking forward to it:) Go Pies!!
Later
TONE
Friday, 7 September 2012
Been a while!
It's been a couple of weeks since my last post. Nothing terribly exciting has happened. We have settled into something of routine which is good. Tilda has been really good in general. She did have an ear infection which took a little while to get over and is getting loads of teeth at them moment. Who knew teeth were so unpredictable?
Mel has connected with some of the other non-working wives & partners which is great for them all. Mel set up a Facebook page and they are setting up playdates and outings with each other. Being to get to know other people has relieved some of the stress for us both. It's hard to head off to work knowing that Mel is kind of bored at home. I think it's been cathartic for Mel to be able to share her frustrations with people who are going through the same kind of stuff.
School is chugging along ok. I think I might said in earlier post that there were a lot of new staff starting this year (27!). There has been a fair bit of turmoil at the school over the last 12-18 months and there are a lot of things that aren't quite right yet. There are systems & processes that aren't properly in place. In some cases previous teachers didn't leave things when they left (e.g. schemes of work, resources) or if they were left, they were fairly half-arsed.
Probably the biggest issue is our Grade 12's (Year 13 in NZ). These guys weren't treated terribly well by some of the previous staff and so they were quite wary at the beginning of the year. More than a couple had quite the attitude going on. Unfortunately they, in some cases, are behind in their work. And by behind, I mean a term behind not just a week or two. Some will struggle to pass their IB diploma this year, which isn't fair on them. It was very instructive for me when we did a reflection activity after the first day of school. More than one student commented along the lines of "the new teachers seem to care about us", "the new teachers seem to know what they're doing" or "I'm glad they got new teachers and kept the good ones from last year". When I showed my Homeroom partner, we both felt quite sad for these kids.
There some positives though! The school roll is significantly lower than it should be. So our classes are small. The biggest class I have is my Grade 6 Humanities class with 18. I have 12 students in Grade 9 Global Perspectives and 9 in my Grade 11 Environmental Systems & Societies. My 3 senior Geography classes all have 4 or 5 students. On the whole, the students are all pretty nice kids. There a couple of special ones but they're pretty easy to deal with. We certainly don't have the behavioural issues that I saw from some kids at Fraser.
Some other positives? Because there are so many new staff, there's a good sense of camaraderie developing, which is cool. We have drinks on a Friday which is good. Very expensive though and I have to be careful not to get too carried away! This year is pretty much viewed as a transitional year so we have quite a bit of room to experiment with different things. I find that I'm able to use ICT a fair bit more and myself and the Grade 6 English teacher are planning to do some collaborative work next term which is kind of exciting. There's also lots of PD going on. I've done some IB training already and there are 6 of us flying to Malaysia in the October holidays to do some more. Tomorrow there are a group of us off to a Google Apps summit at the Singapore American Singapore.
For me one for the coolest things is the fact that I can watch 3-5 games of AFL footy every weekend. For free:) It's finals time now and my Magpies are playing the Hawks tonight. I'm pretty nervous because Hawthorn have looked good all year. Wait and see I guess:)
Anyhoo, that' it for a bit.
Ciao for now & GO PIES!!!
Mel has connected with some of the other non-working wives & partners which is great for them all. Mel set up a Facebook page and they are setting up playdates and outings with each other. Being to get to know other people has relieved some of the stress for us both. It's hard to head off to work knowing that Mel is kind of bored at home. I think it's been cathartic for Mel to be able to share her frustrations with people who are going through the same kind of stuff.
School is chugging along ok. I think I might said in earlier post that there were a lot of new staff starting this year (27!). There has been a fair bit of turmoil at the school over the last 12-18 months and there are a lot of things that aren't quite right yet. There are systems & processes that aren't properly in place. In some cases previous teachers didn't leave things when they left (e.g. schemes of work, resources) or if they were left, they were fairly half-arsed.
Probably the biggest issue is our Grade 12's (Year 13 in NZ). These guys weren't treated terribly well by some of the previous staff and so they were quite wary at the beginning of the year. More than a couple had quite the attitude going on. Unfortunately they, in some cases, are behind in their work. And by behind, I mean a term behind not just a week or two. Some will struggle to pass their IB diploma this year, which isn't fair on them. It was very instructive for me when we did a reflection activity after the first day of school. More than one student commented along the lines of "the new teachers seem to care about us", "the new teachers seem to know what they're doing" or "I'm glad they got new teachers and kept the good ones from last year". When I showed my Homeroom partner, we both felt quite sad for these kids.
There some positives though! The school roll is significantly lower than it should be. So our classes are small. The biggest class I have is my Grade 6 Humanities class with 18. I have 12 students in Grade 9 Global Perspectives and 9 in my Grade 11 Environmental Systems & Societies. My 3 senior Geography classes all have 4 or 5 students. On the whole, the students are all pretty nice kids. There a couple of special ones but they're pretty easy to deal with. We certainly don't have the behavioural issues that I saw from some kids at Fraser.
Some other positives? Because there are so many new staff, there's a good sense of camaraderie developing, which is cool. We have drinks on a Friday which is good. Very expensive though and I have to be careful not to get too carried away! This year is pretty much viewed as a transitional year so we have quite a bit of room to experiment with different things. I find that I'm able to use ICT a fair bit more and myself and the Grade 6 English teacher are planning to do some collaborative work next term which is kind of exciting. There's also lots of PD going on. I've done some IB training already and there are 6 of us flying to Malaysia in the October holidays to do some more. Tomorrow there are a group of us off to a Google Apps summit at the Singapore American Singapore.
For me one for the coolest things is the fact that I can watch 3-5 games of AFL footy every weekend. For free:) It's finals time now and my Magpies are playing the Hawks tonight. I'm pretty nervous because Hawthorn have looked good all year. Wait and see I guess:)
Anyhoo, that' it for a bit.
Ciao for now & GO PIES!!!
Monday, 20 August 2012
Monkeys!
Our apartment complex is next to a 
nature reserve. There are monkeys and they sometimes come into the complex to look for food. We see them sometimes like a couple of weeks ago when we came back from shopping. There were 10-12 of them and man can they climb!
Today, we were stopped at some traffic lights on our way back from town. There must have been 30-40 monkey casually making their way along a a fence that went around a fly-over on the expressway, across the road and back in to the forest. Tilda was most excited:) Mel & I were amazed at how they were just getting about around a major road without too much stress.
BTW, the photo was taken at our complex. I wasn't quick enough to get a photo today.
Later
Today, we were stopped at some traffic lights on our way back from town. There must have been 30-40 monkey casually making their way along a a fence that went around a fly-over on the expressway, across the road and back in to the forest. Tilda was most excited:) Mel & I were amazed at how they were just getting about around a major road without too much stress.
BTW, the photo was taken at our complex. I wasn't quick enough to get a photo today.
Later
Two weeks in.
We have a long weekend this weekend. I think it's to celebrate the end of Ramadan. Gotta love multi-cutural inclusiveness:) The extra day off came at a good time for me. The teaching staff have been at school since the 1st of August. The kids started on the 13th. I had some training over the weekend before that, which was great but tiring - 8:30 - 4:30 for 3 days. So yesterday was the second day off for me in 2 weeks.
The training was for the International Baccalaureate Diploma course for a subject called Environmental Systems & Society. It's a really interesting subject and kind of fits the degree I did. I learned a lot! But I'm sure there was some stuff that went in one ear and out the other:) It was great to meet some other teachers from the international school circuit and talk about how stuff works in the various schools.
Monday was the first day for the kids at school. I'm the Grade 12 Homeroom teacher and I was excited to meet the kids. It was interesting. Quite a few of the 23 in Grade 12 were what I would call "too cool for school". There were 2 groups that had a bit of attitude - some Korean boys and another group of girls.
Each homeroom teacher has a support teacher. Holly and I did a couple of "get to know you" activities and watched quite carefully. We were content to let them go so we could see how interacted with each other, as well as how they responded to both of us. Suffice to say, we weren't that impressed with what we saw. In my mind I was seeing a reasonably tough year with these guys.
We had another homeroom session ion the afternoon. I had been to watch the Grade 12's in a couple of their other sessions and had spoken to some of the other teachers, as well as senior management. Although it was generally positive, there were a few negatives so I decided I was going to give them a bit of a rark up. No shouting or ranting, just a nice calm but firm talking to. Mostly I spoke about being respectful to each other, their teachers and themselves and turning up on time. You know, "the usual school stuff". And they sat still and listened quietly. Some nodded their heads, while others dropped theirs and looked embarrassed. They left very quietly at the end.
Later I spoke to the IB co-ordinator and some of the other Grade 12 teachers. Over the course of the day they had learned that they were quite a way behind where they should be and they all had a massive workload in front of them if they were to catch up and get their diplomas. Basically, they were shitting themselves!
The next day I did a reflection activity with them to see what they had to say about their first day. There were a lot of positive comments, which was great but it made Holly and I feel quite bad for these guys. They said stuff like "the teachers spoke to us like we were people", "the new teachers seemed like they cared about us" and "I'm glad we have new teachers and they've kept the good ones from last year". These kids had obviously not had much support from most of their teachers last year. I asked a couple of kids about it and the comments were along the lines of "the teacher came in, wrote some page numbers on the board, said "there's your work" and then sat at their desks playing on their computers.
Anyway, things have moved along and we're getting a picture of what the students covered (or not!) last year. In the Senior school they do the IB Diploma in Grade 11 & 12 and the IGSCE in Grade 9 & 10. As they're both 2 year courses finding out what was done last year is obviously really important. Our roll is quite small which is not ideal for the school in the long term, but it's good for us as our classes are really small which means we won't so caught up with loads of marking:)
Our apartment is taking shape and now feels much more like a home. We got a second hand lounge suite and a book shelf thingy, which look great but poor Mel had a mission getting them home. The guy she organised to help turned up and said "7th floor? No you said 2nd floor" which is bollocks because she has the text to prove it. The woman we bought it off wasn't sympathetic either. Long story short, Mel got another (more helpful!) guy to help and she had to help carry part it of down 7 floors because it wouldn't fit in the lift. Poor bugger was knackered by the time I got home and has several sizeable bruises on her arms and legs. I felt stink about not being able to help carry the stuff. But I was able to help put it together and move it around.
I've run out stuff to say for the moment so I'll be off and will try to post more this week sometime.
Ciao for now!
TONE
The training was for the International Baccalaureate Diploma course for a subject called Environmental Systems & Society. It's a really interesting subject and kind of fits the degree I did. I learned a lot! But I'm sure there was some stuff that went in one ear and out the other:) It was great to meet some other teachers from the international school circuit and talk about how stuff works in the various schools.
Monday was the first day for the kids at school. I'm the Grade 12 Homeroom teacher and I was excited to meet the kids. It was interesting. Quite a few of the 23 in Grade 12 were what I would call "too cool for school". There were 2 groups that had a bit of attitude - some Korean boys and another group of girls.
Each homeroom teacher has a support teacher. Holly and I did a couple of "get to know you" activities and watched quite carefully. We were content to let them go so we could see how interacted with each other, as well as how they responded to both of us. Suffice to say, we weren't that impressed with what we saw. In my mind I was seeing a reasonably tough year with these guys.
We had another homeroom session ion the afternoon. I had been to watch the Grade 12's in a couple of their other sessions and had spoken to some of the other teachers, as well as senior management. Although it was generally positive, there were a few negatives so I decided I was going to give them a bit of a rark up. No shouting or ranting, just a nice calm but firm talking to. Mostly I spoke about being respectful to each other, their teachers and themselves and turning up on time. You know, "the usual school stuff". And they sat still and listened quietly. Some nodded their heads, while others dropped theirs and looked embarrassed. They left very quietly at the end.
Later I spoke to the IB co-ordinator and some of the other Grade 12 teachers. Over the course of the day they had learned that they were quite a way behind where they should be and they all had a massive workload in front of them if they were to catch up and get their diplomas. Basically, they were shitting themselves!
The next day I did a reflection activity with them to see what they had to say about their first day. There were a lot of positive comments, which was great but it made Holly and I feel quite bad for these guys. They said stuff like "the teachers spoke to us like we were people", "the new teachers seemed like they cared about us" and "I'm glad we have new teachers and they've kept the good ones from last year". These kids had obviously not had much support from most of their teachers last year. I asked a couple of kids about it and the comments were along the lines of "the teacher came in, wrote some page numbers on the board, said "there's your work" and then sat at their desks playing on their computers.
Anyway, things have moved along and we're getting a picture of what the students covered (or not!) last year. In the Senior school they do the IB Diploma in Grade 11 & 12 and the IGSCE in Grade 9 & 10. As they're both 2 year courses finding out what was done last year is obviously really important. Our roll is quite small which is not ideal for the school in the long term, but it's good for us as our classes are really small which means we won't so caught up with loads of marking:)
Our apartment is taking shape and now feels much more like a home. We got a second hand lounge suite and a book shelf thingy, which look great but poor Mel had a mission getting them home. The guy she organised to help turned up and said "7th floor? No you said 2nd floor" which is bollocks because she has the text to prove it. The woman we bought it off wasn't sympathetic either. Long story short, Mel got another (more helpful!) guy to help and she had to help carry part it of down 7 floors because it wouldn't fit in the lift. Poor bugger was knackered by the time I got home and has several sizeable bruises on her arms and legs. I felt stink about not being able to help carry the stuff. But I was able to help put it together and move it around.
I've run out stuff to say for the moment so I'll be off and will try to post more this week sometime.
Ciao for now!
TONE
Thursday, 9 August 2012
At School!
I've been trying to write this post for a few days now and I'm finding it really hard. So I'm just going to put a few pictures up because I can:)
The first few are of my classroom. The rooms at Nexus are huge spaces! And I'm running out of stuff to go on the walls.
The next couple are of the library at school. It's an amazing space!
Our complex is next to a nature reserve. There are monkeys. And they are not afraid to venture close to the buildings. On Sunday afternoon there were a dozen of them - mums, dads and kids. I didn't think they would climb very high but they are amazing climbers and can easily climb to the 6th floor where our apartment is!
Tomorrow is Singapore's national day which means public holiday:) Looking forward to a sleep in before we go shopping. We're off to buy a bed, a tele, an iron, a vacuum cleaner and a couple of fans. We also want to buy a sofa but I think we'll get that second hand. Hopefully that will be the end of the of the big purchases!
Anyhoo, that's it for now.
TONY
The first few are of my classroom. The rooms at Nexus are huge spaces! And I'm running out of stuff to go on the walls.
The next couple are of the library at school. It's an amazing space!
Our complex is next to a nature reserve. There are monkeys. And they are not afraid to venture close to the buildings. On Sunday afternoon there were a dozen of them - mums, dads and kids. I didn't think they would climb very high but they are amazing climbers and can easily climb to the 6th floor where our apartment is!
Tomorrow is Singapore's national day which means public holiday:) Looking forward to a sleep in before we go shopping. We're off to buy a bed, a tele, an iron, a vacuum cleaner and a couple of fans. We also want to buy a sofa but I think we'll get that second hand. Hopefully that will be the end of the of the big purchases!
Anyhoo, that's it for now.
TONY
Saturday, 28 July 2012
Back from Thailand
We got back from Thailand late last night. It was kind of sad to leave Khao Lak, but that was tempered by not having to fly back into winter. Yay! Again Tilda was a trooper on the plane. She's teething at the moment so she's been pretty grumpy for the last 3 or 4 days. We try to give her a bottle when we take off to help her ears adjust to the change in air pressure. Unfortunately, boarding (then sitting & waiting for the laggers) coincided with her dinner time. Mel had made the milk in preparation and Tilda could see it. And she wanted it desperately, so she had a wee meltdown. Although it seemed like ages and ages, it was only probably only 20 minutes or so of waiting. But minutes seem like hours when you have a wailing baby sitting on your knee. Eventually we got moving and we could give Tilda the bottle and she quietened down straight away. For the first time in a year, she fell asleep in my arms:)
We had a pretty good time in Thailand. I managed to pick up a tummy bug before we left (dodgy cheesecake?) which wasn't cool. Some Imodium and a bland diet helped settle it down and the last night I could finally enjoy some proper food. And happily that coincided with BBQ Buffett night at the hotel:)
The place we stayed was the Le Meridien at Khao Lak which is about 80-odd km north of Phuket. Mel and I stayed there in 2005, when we were living in Thailand. The hotel is literally on the beach, facing the Andaman Sea. It had been badly damaged in the Boxing Day Tsunami and a lot of the staff died. We were there almost a year after and if you didn't know about the the Tsunami you probably wouldn't have seen a lot evidence of it besides defoliated trees. Anyway, it was great to be back there after 7 years and see that the place hadn't changed too much, because the setting is just magnificent.
See what I mean:) The staff were all really lovely and totally enthralled by Matilda. They all wanted cuddles with her. Sometimes she was obliging and other times not so much. I think she enjoyed the attention though:)
So for 6 days all we pretty much did was swim, get massages and snooze. Despite feeling ordinary for the first 3 days or so, it was really relaxing.
That'll do for the time.
Ciao
We had a pretty good time in Thailand. I managed to pick up a tummy bug before we left (dodgy cheesecake?) which wasn't cool. Some Imodium and a bland diet helped settle it down and the last night I could finally enjoy some proper food. And happily that coincided with BBQ Buffett night at the hotel:)
The place we stayed was the Le Meridien at Khao Lak which is about 80-odd km north of Phuket. Mel and I stayed there in 2005, when we were living in Thailand. The hotel is literally on the beach, facing the Andaman Sea. It had been badly damaged in the Boxing Day Tsunami and a lot of the staff died. We were there almost a year after and if you didn't know about the the Tsunami you probably wouldn't have seen a lot evidence of it besides defoliated trees. Anyway, it was great to be back there after 7 years and see that the place hadn't changed too much, because the setting is just magnificent.
See what I mean:) The staff were all really lovely and totally enthralled by Matilda. They all wanted cuddles with her. Sometimes she was obliging and other times not so much. I think she enjoyed the attention though:)
So for 6 days all we pretty much did was swim, get massages and snooze. Despite feeling ordinary for the first 3 days or so, it was really relaxing.
That'll do for the time.
Ciao
Wednesday, 25 July 2012
Getting Stuff Sorted
It's a little over 2 weeks since we arrived in Singapore and it's been pretty busy. Having to find a place to live, find furniture, get our work permits sorted and open bank accounts means we haven't really done any sightseeing or super fun stuff. It's actually been a little stressful at times. But we're getting there!
Looking for an apartment has been somewhat of a trial. We looked at 20 apartments in 3 days. We put in 2 offers and after some fairly drawn out & pretty frustrating negotiations we finally signed a lease on an apartment. The landlords are an elderly couple and I suspect that the apartment is part of their retirement plan. I could see their side to a point but it was stressful right up to the last. Anyhoo, we signed the agreement and moved in on Friday morning.
The main reason we chose this place is its setting. The complex is right next to a nature reserve called Bukit Batok. It's basically second generation jungle and it's right next to us. The day we came to look at the apartment I saw monkeys in the trees and on our first morning there I saw squirrels jumping about. Very cool!
Although the hotel was fine, it was good to have Tilda in her own room as we were getting tired of having sit outside in the corridor until she went to sleep. She has continued to be a wee trooper. She's not complained very much at all and when she has it's been with good reason. The apartment has tiled floors (as is the style in warm Asian countries) and Tilda took a little while to get used to the floors. There were a few crashes and quite a few tears. By the next day she'd got it figured out a bit better. There is a koi pond next to the pool and we can see it from our living room. Tilda loves seeing the fish and starts banging on the windows in excitement:)
One of the first things we had to do was get our resident passes. I cannot believe how painless this was! We had our letters from school, passports and photos. We rocked up at 2:30pm and handed everything over. It all had to be double checked by us, then signed. Last we had to have our thumb prints taken. No ink pads here - all done on a scanner! Once we were done the lady told us our cards would be ready in four business days. So four business days later I went back and picked up our brand spanking new resident passes. No doubt I spent more time in the taxi there and back than at the office!
The next day we went to a bank to open accounts. Again this was pretty painless. I reckon it took 45 minutes to open 3 bank accounts. And they were up and running straight away, complete with debit cards with our names. I used my card 25 minutes later to buy some picture hanging stuff.
Just to continue with the whole efficiency angle, the night before we moved we went to see about getting cable tv and the internet set up. This was at 8pm. I guess it took around an hour to complete the paperwork and the guy assured me it would be good to go the next day. And so it was. The only issue was me plugging cables in the wrong places!
Our apartment is partially furnished (i.e. washing machine, dryer, old tele and few other bits & bobs). Mel spent a bit of time online and we were able to get a bunch of really good stuff pretty cheap. A sideboard, chest of drawers, coffee table (all teak) & a dining setting for about $800. We hired a guy with a van to help pick up the stuff and move into our place. It took 2-3 hours all up and it was hot! Who knew teak weighed so bloody much? I was pretty knackered after that but it was all good.
I should point out that I'm writing this in a hotel in Thailand. We flew out on Sunday for 5 nights at a place Mel & I stayed at when we lived in Thailand so we could chill out before school starts. The flight to Phuket was short. We probably spent more time in the car coming to the hotel than in the air. It's really cool to come here again after 7 years to find the hotel not changed heaps. So since Sunday afternoon, we've not done much except swim and snooze:)
I reckon that's about it for time. I'll put some photos up soonish.
Later
Tone
Looking for an apartment has been somewhat of a trial. We looked at 20 apartments in 3 days. We put in 2 offers and after some fairly drawn out & pretty frustrating negotiations we finally signed a lease on an apartment. The landlords are an elderly couple and I suspect that the apartment is part of their retirement plan. I could see their side to a point but it was stressful right up to the last. Anyhoo, we signed the agreement and moved in on Friday morning.
The main reason we chose this place is its setting. The complex is right next to a nature reserve called Bukit Batok. It's basically second generation jungle and it's right next to us. The day we came to look at the apartment I saw monkeys in the trees and on our first morning there I saw squirrels jumping about. Very cool!
Although the hotel was fine, it was good to have Tilda in her own room as we were getting tired of having sit outside in the corridor until she went to sleep. She has continued to be a wee trooper. She's not complained very much at all and when she has it's been with good reason. The apartment has tiled floors (as is the style in warm Asian countries) and Tilda took a little while to get used to the floors. There were a few crashes and quite a few tears. By the next day she'd got it figured out a bit better. There is a koi pond next to the pool and we can see it from our living room. Tilda loves seeing the fish and starts banging on the windows in excitement:)
One of the first things we had to do was get our resident passes. I cannot believe how painless this was! We had our letters from school, passports and photos. We rocked up at 2:30pm and handed everything over. It all had to be double checked by us, then signed. Last we had to have our thumb prints taken. No ink pads here - all done on a scanner! Once we were done the lady told us our cards would be ready in four business days. So four business days later I went back and picked up our brand spanking new resident passes. No doubt I spent more time in the taxi there and back than at the office!
The next day we went to a bank to open accounts. Again this was pretty painless. I reckon it took 45 minutes to open 3 bank accounts. And they were up and running straight away, complete with debit cards with our names. I used my card 25 minutes later to buy some picture hanging stuff.
Just to continue with the whole efficiency angle, the night before we moved we went to see about getting cable tv and the internet set up. This was at 8pm. I guess it took around an hour to complete the paperwork and the guy assured me it would be good to go the next day. And so it was. The only issue was me plugging cables in the wrong places!
Our apartment is partially furnished (i.e. washing machine, dryer, old tele and few other bits & bobs). Mel spent a bit of time online and we were able to get a bunch of really good stuff pretty cheap. A sideboard, chest of drawers, coffee table (all teak) & a dining setting for about $800. We hired a guy with a van to help pick up the stuff and move into our place. It took 2-3 hours all up and it was hot! Who knew teak weighed so bloody much? I was pretty knackered after that but it was all good.
I should point out that I'm writing this in a hotel in Thailand. We flew out on Sunday for 5 nights at a place Mel & I stayed at when we lived in Thailand so we could chill out before school starts. The flight to Phuket was short. We probably spent more time in the car coming to the hotel than in the air. It's really cool to come here again after 7 years to find the hotel not changed heaps. So since Sunday afternoon, we've not done much except swim and snooze:)
I reckon that's about it for time. I'll put some photos up soonish.
Later
Tone
Saturday, 14 July 2012
We're in Singapore!
So we've been in Singapore for 4 days now. It's very warm, but after the rubbish weather on the day we left, that is totally ok!
We got into Singapore late Tuesday after a pretty good flight. Tilda was really good. She only grumbled a little on the flight and even slept for around 3 hours. We were lucky that there was a spare seat next to us so we could put Tilda between us. Once she fell asleep (on my arm) we could put her in the bassinet. When we tried before she was asleep she didn't like it as it was pretty small. Again she was great as we made our way through customs etc..
The hotel we're staying at is nice. The pool is good and so is the breakfast:) The staff are really friendly and very helpful. And they love Tilda! Each morning at breakfast, the waitresses make a big fuss over her and go out of their way to walk past our table so they can say "hello". Tilda obliges with big smiles. Actually, Tilda has become quite the star. Whenever we go into a restaurant everyone fusses and says "hello". She is loving the attention!
We started looking for an apartment on Wednesday afternoon. School has arranged for two agents to helps us. Sharon and Rachel drove us around on Wednesday and Thursday afternoon. They were so helpful and understanding, especially when it came to Tilda. And she was a trooper as well. She didn't complain at all about getting in and out of the car as we looked at around 16 places. We saw some nice places. One in particular we liked and put an offer in for it but we appear to have missed out. Sharon and Rachel have been really proactive on our behalf and are in touch regularly to update us. It looks like we need to look at some more places in the next couple of days.
We went to the Ministry of Manpower (or MOM) to get our Employment Pass stuff sorted. It was pleasantly not traumatic as we had expected. I think this was due to our experiences in Japan & Thailand. In Japan you had to have everything perfect or they'd send you away. And you could only go at certain times/days. Once I went too late and even though I was in line, they closed for lunch! In Thailand, things were somewhat haphazard and it might ok or not. The woman who looked after us was really helpful and explained everything well. So by Wednesday next week we should have our passes.
This is a picture I took from the pool floor and put together using a cool app called Autostitch.
Later:)
We got into Singapore late Tuesday after a pretty good flight. Tilda was really good. She only grumbled a little on the flight and even slept for around 3 hours. We were lucky that there was a spare seat next to us so we could put Tilda between us. Once she fell asleep (on my arm) we could put her in the bassinet. When we tried before she was asleep she didn't like it as it was pretty small. Again she was great as we made our way through customs etc..
The hotel we're staying at is nice. The pool is good and so is the breakfast:) The staff are really friendly and very helpful. And they love Tilda! Each morning at breakfast, the waitresses make a big fuss over her and go out of their way to walk past our table so they can say "hello". Tilda obliges with big smiles. Actually, Tilda has become quite the star. Whenever we go into a restaurant everyone fusses and says "hello". She is loving the attention!
We started looking for an apartment on Wednesday afternoon. School has arranged for two agents to helps us. Sharon and Rachel drove us around on Wednesday and Thursday afternoon. They were so helpful and understanding, especially when it came to Tilda. And she was a trooper as well. She didn't complain at all about getting in and out of the car as we looked at around 16 places. We saw some nice places. One in particular we liked and put an offer in for it but we appear to have missed out. Sharon and Rachel have been really proactive on our behalf and are in touch regularly to update us. It looks like we need to look at some more places in the next couple of days.
We went to the Ministry of Manpower (or MOM) to get our Employment Pass stuff sorted. It was pleasantly not traumatic as we had expected. I think this was due to our experiences in Japan & Thailand. In Japan you had to have everything perfect or they'd send you away. And you could only go at certain times/days. Once I went too late and even though I was in line, they closed for lunch! In Thailand, things were somewhat haphazard and it might ok or not. The woman who looked after us was really helpful and explained everything well. So by Wednesday next week we should have our passes.
This is a picture I took from the pool floor and put together using a cool app called Autostitch.
Later:)
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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