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Published: March 8th 2009
It's that time of the week again!
Well it's Sunday afternoon/evening and yet again it has been one crazy week!
Last Sunday evening was finished off with the Mission Bay Jazz festival which was a beautiful end to the week and included fish and chips (or Fush and Chups as they say here - battered Snapper... mmm) amazing music and beautiful scenery!
This week began with a laugh! After arriving at school every morning, we go and help to count out the fruit and distribute it to each class ( I think i have explained before that the government here provides the school with free fruit everyday - nice!) Well some of the parents also come to help get the job done quicker. One mum of a girl in the reception class is usually there with her younger daughter Summer to help and on this particular morning, Summer took a liking to Ben. She proceeded to chase him around the kitchen for a good five minutes and having then caught him refused to let go of his leg! The rest of my morning was spent helping various staff with general admin, photocopying etc (so not much different from home
really!) In the afternoon I helped Ben with his drum lessons which was great fun, one boy in particular; Davin is getting really good!
After school, Robyn picked me up and took me to Mt. Roskill primary school where we both took part in a Ukulele workshop taken by Mike Jackson (the Australian Uke Guru!) His son was also there to help and was fantastic at the uke. He played Israel Kamakawiwo'ole's version of Over the Rainbow (which I am currently learning) as well as some of his own compositions. It was brilliant!
Tuesday was another busy music day including various music lessons with elastics, my group of Gifted and Talented children in which we were doing some clapping/stamping/jumpingy rhythms and putting them in sequences, they really seem to enjoy it! Puriri team choir is going well, it is a little difficult at times as there are simply SO many of them involved but they are making a good sound and most are very enthusiastic about it! The afternoon at school was relatively uneventful and after school - well read the previous blog entitled 'Always buy a cookie...'
After that little hiccup, we went down Ponsonby road after dinner
to watch Daniel playing at a bar called 'The Grange' he was playing at something called 'the JD set' and was filmed and on 'Juice TV' on Wednesday evening! Some of the children came into school on Thursday and told him they had seen him on tv playing! Pretty cool eh?
The rest of Wednesday involved my Gifted and Talented group again, more music lessons and elastics games and Kauri team choir! This was great fun as it is a smaller group than Puriri team and they are obviously that bit older. They were making a fantastic sound and I was so pleased by the end of the rehearsal!
After school on Thursday we a group of us were sitting down by the computers in reception and started talking to a german guy by the name of Flo who was advertising a club called 'Fusion'. This club was focusing on getting backpackers out to have a good time and was offering FREE alcohol for an hour that night. Well we thought! We can't possibly turn down Free alcohol! So we all got ready and made it down to the club in time to get our free drinks and
have a good night! We were met by Flo and he managed to talk Susie into taking part in a game. The game basically involved retreiving various items and not being the last to return with them. If you were then you had to either forfeit (losing the prize of a bar tab all night) or lose an item of clothing! We did our very best to help susie retreive these items including belts, phones, bracelets, a black bra, a hat, a pair of knickers and various other items and it was down to the last two, her and a brazilian guy. The final challenge however was to down a pint of beer and she was unsuccessful! We had a fantastic night however as all drinks (when they weren't free) were buy one get one free! So a very cheap and entertaining night was had by all!
Friday was an interesting start having had a late night none of us were particularly energetic but it was still a good night and in the afternoon, Daniel and I were finally able to start using 'Music Maker' a computer programme that we are using with 8 Kauri team kids and creating
a soundtrack for the new promotional video that the school are making! In the evening Gemma, Milly and I stopped off at food town and bought food for a group meal. We got home and the three of us prepared all the food and i cooked Fahjitas for 9 people - an interesting task but good fun and there was plenty of food for everyone!
The weekend began with a trip over to Waiheke Island. Famous for its food and wine we made our way over to a market in a place called Ostend on Belgium St! There we saw some fantastic food and found a great little jewellery stall where Tess was able to buy some necklaces for her friends at home. From there we managed to get a bus over to a place called Onetangi where we found a Vineyard by the name of 'Wild on Waiheke'. The three of us had just enough time to do a quick wine/beer tasting session before jumping back on a bus to the ferry and back to the hostel. We then got ready and left for Eden Park. The Auckland Blues were playing rugby against the Natal Sharks in their
Soo Tropical!
Waiheke Island Vineyardfirst home game of the season and we had managed to get 6 tickets for $39 total which comes to about £2.80 a ticket! Very nice! The seats whilst not luxury were adequate and we got to watch a rugby game southern hemisphere stylee! The skill levels of the Blues players were unfortunately likened to that of the current England team at times and neither side played particularly well but it was a great afternoon out nonetheless. We managed to get a free bus back into midtown and jumped off just intime to see the start of the Sing Sing! a big event in Auckland Festival involving a group of people from all the Pacific Islands singing, dancing and playing with some fantastic percussion in a big free concert in the middle of Queen's Street! It was a great end to a busy and fantastic day!
The end of this week started off relatively quietly, Milly and Tess went back to Victoria Park Market to buy some souvenirs as they leave this week and I took the time to do my washing, wash my sheets, tidy my room, write my diary, finish my book (the third one in the
trilogy - fantastic fantastic books!) and sort out my photos etc...
Just before 12, Tess, Milly, Ben, Gemma and myself were picked up by a 'Bush and Beach' tour guide and after picking up various other tourists from hotels around the city, we made our way out to the Waitakare Ranges and Rainforest and the Black sand beaches. We saw some fantastic views, walked to a waterfall, went to Piha beach (which has mega waves and rock formations) and saw a Kauri tree (absolutely Mahusive!) all in the space of 5 hours as well as having the most amazing Pie on the way in Titirangi (I went to a market there a few weeks ago) and tea and biscuits included! A great afternoon well spent 😊
And well, that just about rounds up the week! I have just 8 days left working at Owairaka which is very sad as the Staff, children and parents are all fantastic and always so friendly. I then run off around the South Island before returning safe and sound and hopefully a bit more tanned to 'Sunny' England!
Keep smiling and I love all the messages you send/POST! :P
Love
to all xxxx
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Emma Woodruff
non-member comment
!
You must be having a superb time. Do you know how I know? Well how many exclamation marks there are in your entry? = 40!