Our first mandarin tree

Today June the 26th 2011 we bought our very first Mandarin tree. We bought it from the Plant Barn and bought some pots too. Ellen, Hannah and I transplanted it in to a larger container and we hope it will take root. We also bought a lemon tree too, or as Ellen calls it - a melon tree.

Ellen on the balcony

Ellen in her school uniform posing on the balcony. She love the uniform of Cockle Bay.

June 20th

Still no internet, VODAFONE are useless at letting customers know what is going on. I have spent hours of my life trying to get this sorted. This week I was given complimentary tickets for EDEN PARK to watch the Blues, what a great set up. Free rail transport for rugby fans with tickets! The fridge has been fixed though. 

Jo went for an assessment on her toothache – its going to cost $2000 to fix the mess the UK dentist has left behind. 

The children love school and happy to be speaking English. In fact Ellen said the other day how happy she was that it wasn’t against the rules to speak English!!! Iwan sent me a power point father’s day card too even though it is only fathers day in the UK. The girls bought me cooking stuff to make Welsh cakes. I made Welsh cakes for my class for a treat after an assessment and they went down brilliantly. They seem to be quite popular over here!

June 11th

Still no internet – VODAFONE are doing nothing about my predicament. I have had three different stories and no-one is taking responsibility for my internet connection. Each time I ring it is someone new who makes false promises to find out what is going on and nobody does anything. Not one person has made contact with me to explain the situation; I have needed to contact them on every day this week. I would NOT recommend Vodafone to a friend. Internet is 1 week and 1 day overdue. Our fridge has also packed in and I am full of cold.

June 6th

Our container arrived this Thursday.

Container PICS…

It was fantastic to sleep in our bed. We hadn’t slept in a proper bed for 3 months. My back is much better sleeping on a proper bed. The MAF inspection went well with only one decoration being taken for destruction. The tent passed and I am now planning where to spend Christmas. I would dearly love a day by the Sea on Christmas day. But we will see. The house is now more of a home with our belongings in the right places. It is good fun opening boxes to see what we packed and brought with us. The amount of clothes we have brought is astounding – you just don’t realise what you have until you see it crammed in to boxes. DVDs are a brilliant find as we have only one TV channel at the moment, which is not a very good signal. Perhaps I need to find the TV aerial amplifiers. I know we will need to buy a digi-box at the very least to get free digital TV. SKY TV seems the way to go though. The dish is already set up for that. The girls all now have a bed to sleep on. Amelia is sleeping on the steel framed bed from Petra (thank you Petra) – we all miss you, Dave, Rhiannon, Lorna and Elle and of course Chilli. Hopefully we will see you soon. 

More container photos

This weekend has been a mixture of weather. It is a long weekend for the Queen’s (official) birthday. I really don’t understand why she needs two birthdays! But since I get an extra day off from school I am happy!

School Next week is assessment week – all year groups have exams or assessments. What a good idea I think. Assessment Week. You can have your class for a practical assessment or they can practise an examination. Teachers revolve around this assessment. It is not a bitty system it is all geared to the assessments. So assessments mean something. I still love the matrix idea of the NZ curriculum for Technology. Choose from the matrix what you want them to learn BRILLIANT! No more being tied up by a GCSE in DRAWING and COLOURING IN but you can concentrate on TECHNOLOGY instead, or other areas of the curriculum to make up the credits you require. Much more flexible much more appropriate for the cohort of the kids

The girls are loving school. Amelia cycled to her school yesterday to see who was about. It is about a mile and half away and she cycled! I was very pleased. The rest of us went to the pool. Ellen’s throwing of the ball was good. Ellen has received her first certificate in school and is reading every day at the moment. She is reading everything. It is like she is self taught! This week the school had an open morning for parents to come to the classes and see what is going on so parents can support the teaching at home. The school is following a Thinking skills programme from Singapore which the children all participate in, then there were music lessons. Jo went and thoroughly enjoyed ‘little thinkers’ a little like P4C by the sound of it except children are encouraged to think outside the box. To see the same thing in new ways.

Bucklands Beach and the Star Fish

One Saturday afternoon we took the girls to Buckalnds Beach. It was a cool (15 degrees) and windy afternoon, but that didn't stop the girls finding something to investigate... These are some of the images of our afternoon to Bucklands Beach.