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Published: November 14th 2008
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Hello blog fans, well have we had a busy week? Well have we? Seriously I am thirty four now and can't remember ..... now where was that list Jo gave me of what I had to put? Ah here we go:
Poppy
B'day
Cinema
Football
School Blazer
New Class
Beard
Alarm Clock / Painting / Shirt and Tie / Rugby Shirt
School Trip.
Well thanks for reading it enjoy the pictures and Jo will be back soon!
Oh .... apparently that isn't enough ..... so let me start again ..... "During the week beginning Sunday the 9th of November, in the year of our lord 2008, we have achieved lots. It all began when William got up at 0515 asking if it was time for football yet .......
So eventually we went to football at 1100 and William practiced watching the ball while playing (which we constantly reminded him from the sidelines, but I think it may be counter productive as he spends most the time looking at us instead), always a good start for any footballista. He did manage to slide tackle himself as he was about to kick the ball, which was funny because he
was stood in the only muddy patch there was on the pitch at the time, and looked at the ref pleading for a penalty (I am starting to think he is taking the 'I am Ronaldo' stuff a bit seriosly)!
Later in the day we went to the flower market and Joanna was given a poppy, by a man that I would confidently identify as having been a Yorkshireman (always was good with accents - especially silly ones)! We were there to finish off Sophie's pottery course as it was time to paint all the stuff she had made. William decided he wanted to start too so it was going to turn into a right little family crockery manufacturing business. Unfortunately the guy who runs it decided that they weren't allowed to. We aren't really sure why, they were a bit busy but he was saying that one of her things wasn't ready to paint yet, but he would let her make something else if we paid for another course!? Anyway the end result was the children cried, the chinese pottery schools' own Gordon Gecko lost out on our repeat business, and we had a look around the xmas
stuff before going home.
On the Monday (10th if I keep the gag going), Sopie started her new class. She has now moved into Grade 2, and is in class 2A. This coincided with the weather turning a little colder so she wore her blazer to school for the first time .... what a smart young lady ... she looks like butter wouldn't melt in her mouth .... just don't turn your backs, not even for a second!
Beard fans should be warned that I am currently doing all I can for the anti beard lobby by actually trying to grow one myself right now .... well I am 34 after all (well I was on Wednesday anyway)! Those of you who know me well will remember that the last time I seriously tried to grow a beard nobody noticed. In fact when I tried to do it in Afghanistan (so as the local tribesmen would take me seriously and wouldn't think I was a girl), it was decided that my efforts were counter productive and were undermining the entire war effort.
Anyway, did I mention I am 34 .... I forget? Well on Wednesday (12th), I
turned 34! Still so young I hear you cry, you must have had a tough paper round! "You don't look any older", said Joanna, "happy birthday" said Sophie (looking for a pocket money increase), "how do you ever get to be that old" said William?!! I received some lovely presents from friends and family, thank you all. The highlight being a painting recreating the front cover of Tintin and the Blue Lotus, a shirt and tie from Anne (very cool indeed - now all I need is a job), and an england rugby shirt from my own mother and father - in family size! Oh and a pink mosque alarm clock from Kevin and Victoria which has already proved indispensible in getting my tired old bones out of bed in the morning. In the evening we went to the cinema and saw the new James Bond film 'Quantum of Solace'. Very good indeed, and excellent that it was in english, although you do feel slightly silly going all the way to the cinema to pay 20 times the price of buying it from the man outside our front door.
On Friday (14th), I accompanied William on a school trip
to ..... I don't really know .... some park a bit outside Shanghai. This time it isn't just me and my old age's fault for not knowing, I asked around a bit and nobody else seemed to know where we were either! However, location besides it was a really good day, really warm sunny weather (sorry UK readers), and not too busy. Activities included; bird spotting (anyone who knows William can guess how that went); bamboo boat ride (or should that be 'the boat which is clearly about to sink anytime soon and do you feel lucky punk' boat ride); lunch; bouncy castle/ climbing bouncy castle thing/ giant slide/ toilets (look up the definition in the Oxford English and then look up pit); go-kart ride; digging for potatoes; and finally a chocolate frappucino from Starbucks on the way home, followed by McDonalds toilet stop (see above) - gotta get my corporate sponsorship commitments in!!
So now its Friday night and Joanna has just brought me a glass of wine (she knows what to do to get me off here), so she will no doubt massacre my text and leave it reading like a 5 year old chinese boy who
hasn't studied english.
Ciao.
Peace Out.
Bai.
Ok well I have nearly finished marking my Grade 5's spelling worksheets and I thought I would check Ian's old man work at the same time. Luckily, my red pen didn't need to do too much work....as I am sure most of you are all chortling away as much as I am now, I am not changing a thing (not that you guys would know anyway!). I just have to add that I am so very thankful for the end of this week, it has been one hell of an emotional rollercoaster. I have not been well, the teacher's cold got me already and I had to take Tuesday off. Ian complained cos I kept putting him off his work with my sniffing and coughing, but we both got lots of work done. I have to take this opportunity to say how well Ian is motoring with his MA now, I think he might even be enjoying it!
Last night was my first Parents' evening Asian style and it was interesting indeed. The students left early and out first parent arrived at 2.30pm. My first opportunity for a wee break
came at 6.05pm and then me and Tina managed to find 35 seconds to go and investigate the banquet that had been put on to try and keep us poor teachers going, but sadly it was cold, congealed and way too fishy for my liking so I grabbed a banana and went back to my parents. Luckily we were able to leave by 7.15pm (some of my colleagues were there until 8.30pm!) and we today subsequently went by in a total haze. Asian parents are totally hung up on scores and cannot get round the fact that we are trying to build the children's skills more than just making them learn facts which they might or might not ever use again. To be fair to my Year 3 teacher, Mrs Robertson, I have been using the times tables she taught me oh so many years ago to help Sophie this week as she goes through the hell that is Math! Anyway, Tina and I managed to survive the onslaught and some of our colleagues were lavished with very generous gifts today......how come we always miss out?!!
So, back to the wine and marking now...we are watching the ATP Masters
Tennis on TV, we didn't make it to the venue sadly and it is only half an hour away.....I am surprised Ian forgot to say that we did book tickets to see Kylie Minogue at the end of the month however.....how amusing it is going to be to see Ian and my friend's husband sitting there while me and Nazli boogie away in the aisles....I think a few G&Ts will be called for!
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