Feeling kind of bummed out today. I was all set to go to Rotorua for a Geography field trip today - grandma set to babysit, bus snacks bought, camera battery all charged - but unfortunately a severe weather warning for the Bay of Plenty put paid to that. Rainfall of 80-120mm and thunderstorms were forecast for today. As most of our work was to be done outside, we didn't fancy dealing with sixty-odd wet, cold & grumpy Year 11's, so we postponed the trip until another time.

Instead of going to Rotorua and having a go on the Luge, I got to go to the dentist. Yay! No major problems, which is good but the I'm looking at a couple of crowns in the next year or two. The dentist was really nice and explained everything very clearly. I didn't have the heart to tell her that I'm moving to Singapore soon and I'll be able to get top quality dental work done for much cheaper than here in NZ.

I'm really enjoying being at home with my girl. Tilda's so funny at times. It's really cool to be able to watch her develop. She's taken a few uncertain steps on her own and is really, really chatty. I don't understand most of what she says but it obviously means something to her. She is able to say some words like daddy, mama, dolly and is also able to make little sentences. Whenever we get her up or take her outside she points and says "wosset?" (what's that?), "lookit det" (look at that) and "whoset?" (who's that?). Note the Kiwi accent:)

The packing and sorting continues, albeit quite slowly. I took two bags of clothes and two bags of books and magazines to the Salvation Army on Monday, which was cool. We've got a bunch of boxes and we're sorting out our books. I have four boxes - books to keep and take to Singapore, books to keep at Mel's parents place (x2) and books to sell or give away. I feel gutted about giving books away! I've also put a bunch of clothes I won't need until we arrive in Singapore in a box and was quite chuffed about how empty the wardrobe looked. Then Mel said, "ooh! I can put my clothes in your wardrobe". All good though because it means she won't have to go into Tilda's room to get her clothes.

I'm sure there was something else I was going to write but I can't for the life of me remember what it was. Can't have been too important. So I'll be off now.

Later:)

News #2

So, no posts for ages and then two in one day! On a roll I guess:)

Since being offered the job in Singapore, which is at a school called Nexus International School Singapore, a few more things have happened. Firstly, Mel has returned to work after a year off on maternity leave. I think she was mostly happy to go back to work to see (most of) her colleagues, as well as having the opportunity to let her brain get back into work mode. Obviously she misses being home with Matilda, but due to various goings on before leaving last year, I think Mel needed to find some sort of closure at work. Also, she makes more than I do:)

Since Mel has gone back to work, I have taken Term 2 off as unpaid leave to look after Matilda. I am really grateful for this opportunity and so thankful that my principal acquiesced to my request. I'm fairly sure that it was done reluctantly, which I think is a compliment as it means I'm valued and it's always nice to know you're valued by the people in charge:) And while I am officially on leave, I will still be doing a bit of work at school to help out around our faculty. I thought this was important as 2 other people were going on leave as well. Also, I could do with the money from doing a little bit relief here and there as I didn't really save enough before I finished. Oops!

On the new job side of things a lot has been going on. Contracts to peruse & sign; forms to fill out; documents to scan and send to HR etc. etc.. It's all good though, as my work permit has been approved "in principle", which means I have more paperwork to do once we get to Singapore. It also means we've been able to book our flights to Singapore. We're leaving NZ on 3 July for Melbourne. We're spending a week in Australia so Matilda can meet her cousins, aunts, uncles and grand-nana. Hopefully we can catch up with some friends as well.

We arrive in Singapore on 10 July and have a week or so in hotel while we look for an apartment. Hopefully this won't be too traumatic as we have friends in Singapore to help us out. Because we're arriving in Singapore a bit earlier than we need to we're going to head up to Thailand for a week on the beach after we have found an apartment and before I have to start work in August. This is one of the main reasons we wanted to go to Singapore. It's such a good place to travel from. Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam are all less than 2 hours away and it's close to Japan and Hong Kong where we have friends to visit. Mel and I have talked a lot about how much we want to go back to Japan for a visit. I can't believe it's almost 10 years since we left!

Between now and when we leave, we have a fair bit of stuff to do. We've decided to rent our house for the time being so we need to clean it out. And we have a lot of stuff, although Mel has been able to get rid of quite a bit already. I think our biggest thing is books. We have lots of books. Lots and lots of books. A lot we will put in boxes and leave with Mel's mum & dad (thanks Jill & Warren!). Some we'll get rid of but it's so hard to get rid of books! We'll take a few with us - mainly ones we've bought at Browsers on Victoria St and haven't read yet. I found 2 yesterday that were bought at least a year ago, and probably more like 2 years ago!

I went through my wardrobe last week and filled a garbage bag with clothes. I was feeling proud of my ruthlessness before I realised there was a whole bunch more clothes in the back of the wardrobe. I must remember to maintain the ruthlessness:)

I guess that's it for the moment. I'm not sure when I'll be motivated enough to write again but I'm hoping this will a regular happening. Well, semi-regular. Maybe:)