Our birthdays in New Plymouth

A few photos from out recent birthday trip - more to follow on flickr.

All Blacks

Hi,

Just a quick one - I managed to get some All Black's to our school this week. Luke McAlister, Conrad Smith and Isaia Toeava.

When I introduced them to the year 8's I was so intent on getting Isaia's name correct I screwed up and called Luke McAlister, Luke Wilkinson. I would be embarrassed if I knew who the hell these guys actually are. Sometimes it's good not knowing!!! ;o)

By the way, in case you didn't know - New Zealand were beaten by France here at the weekend and that was a shock result. Luke and Isaia were two players who made a couple of big mistakes - so perhaps they can forgive mine!

I think seeing myself next to these guys I might have to get myself down to a gym sometime really really soon.

All the best,

SB.

Famous ex pupils

Just a quick one - I was delving about the internet today looking for interesting things and found out that an ex pupil of St. Mark's is doing rather well for himself. Lord of the Rings and the new Star Trek movie to name but two.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Urban

Sickness

Hi folks - I am off work today having finally crumbled under the weight of the avalanche of germs primary school pupils carry with them. They aren't the most hygienic of creatures and it seems like all of them have some sort of illness at the moment - forget swine flu - Wellington Cough seems to be the fashionable illness at the moment and I have it.

To tell you the truth I have actually been trying to get rid of this cough for a good number of weeks but have finally decided that enough was enough so I went to the docs ($60 for 10 minutes) and got some antibiotics ($20). and I am staying at home today in an effort to recover in time to drink beer this weekend. ;o)

Things are still going well here (apart from the illness) and we are gearing up for our next big holiday - not sure exactly what the plan is yet but Clare is going to arrive in a few weeks from Sunny Scotland and we will be trying to cram lots in during her stay. Exciting stuff.

The photos above are from our trip to New Plymouth - katie's camera is having a wee illness of it's own at the moment so these photos were taken with my mobile phone. Photo 1 is of the bread capital of New Zealand (what's the bread capital of scotland? Anyone know?) and the second one is of Mount Taranaki - which was really stunning. (Mount Doom in Lord of the Rings.)

Right - I am off to get lunch and get back to bed - will write more later - hope everyone at home is doing well! Stay healthy people and remember.....you're better off healthy and in bed than struggling out to work and becoming a swine flu statistic just because you didn't want to let anyone down at work. Eat well, exercise, get some sleep - stay away from primary school pupils (for legal and many other reasons too) and you should be able to avoid any pandemic coming your way. (and the police)

June already?

Can't believe it's June. Where have all the weeks gone?

We've been busy as usual - Katie starting her new job and moving seamlessly into her thirties. And I've been continuing to work long Kiwi hours at school and have had 350 reports to write for the pupils - not to mention getting another year older myself.

We had a great weekend last weekend with Ian and Lorna up in New Plymouth - Katie had no idea that they were going to be there so it was a nice surprise for her. I think the biggest surprise was that she was going to have to do an awful lot of driving to get us there on the Friday!

I'd like to say that we did all sorts of touristy stuff and went for long walks but to be honest the weather was so cold and wet we just had to sit in the pub - what a shame eh? ;o) Mount Taranaki (Egmont) is near New Plymouth but we didn't actually get to see it until the Monday when the clouds had gone. It was stunning. We did try and drive up to the visitor centre which is on the side but the road was closed due to heavy snow.

We're already looking forward to the next holiday we have which is pretty much the whole of July (at least for me) and in that month Clare is visiting from back home and we have Steve and Shona's wedding too. We're hoping to get to go skiiing or something but we'll keep you posted on our plans.

We are also starting to look at our September/October holiday which will hopefully herald a trip to the Islands somewhere - Cook Islands that is.

That's about it for now really - it's funny how uninteresting our stories get once we both get jobs and are back to working hard again!

once something extra exciting happens again we will post it immediately - promise.

Speak soon,

StephandKatie

p.s. and don't forget you can skype us if you have the equipment!