Friday, January 23, 2009

What's coming up in 2009

We are looking forward to the year and it will be great having lots of New Zealand visitors!
Here is a brief look at our year (as we see it at this stage...)
February
14-21 We are renting a cottage in Marazion, Cornwall for half-term break
28 Rebecca is swimming in the Hampshire County Championships this weekend
April
3-11 Rebecca is in Italy on a school ski trip
10-13 Lionel & Josh are in Normandy, France visiting the D-day beaches
4-19 School holidays
May
4 Mum & Dad arrive
16 Guiness Premiership Rugby Final at Twickenham
17-22 Our friend, Mike, visits from NZ
July
23 School Summer Holidays
28 Our friends, Jane & Hannah arrive in UK
August
16 Lionel, Amanda, Rebecca & Josh fly to Pisa, Italy for 3weeks in Tuscany with Jane & Hannah
September
4 Fly back to London for Lionel to go back to work
27 Amanda, Rebecca & Josh go to Amsterdam, Brugge, Brussels & Paris with Jane & Hannah
November We fly back to New Zealand to find work and settle in Christchurch ready for Rebecca & Josh to start school in 2010. Yahoo!! This is never far from our thoughts now!

There are gaps here and there are many places we want to visit and things we want to do before leaving the UK but at this stage it is all dependent on work for Lionel until October...we will keep you posted!

Monday, January 19, 2009

Rebecca & Josh at school

Rebecca & Josh started back at school on January 5th for the second term of a 3 term year.
Rebecca is at The Vyne Community School which is a co-ed comprehensive school, for ages 11-16, in the centre of Basingstoke. Chineham is in the catchment area for The Vyne and so there is a school bus service which Rebecca uses. The Vyne was opened as a school in 1555 and the buildings which are used now were built in 1940. The Vyne is a specialist 'College of Performing Arts' and so has extremely good teachers and facilities in art, music and drama. The school day finishes at 2.40 and then there is a session until 4pm where pupils can be involved in extra activities - of course Rebecca is fully involved and on Tuesday has entered a cooking competition where they learn skills throughout the term and then have to present a 3 course meal (working with a partner), on Wednesday she has acting academy, on Thursday is hockey! Outside of school hours she has swimming on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday; waterpolo on Friday and on Tuesday she also has puppet group and a youth cell group at church!
It is a busy life...
Rebecca coming home from school - don't you dare take my photo!

Josh is at Four Lanes Community School which is a Year 3-6 junior school in Chineham and is only a 5 minute walk from home. He has a fantastic teacher and, although he complains about getting up and having to go to school, he is being stimulated beyond what I could do at home. The school environment is challenging him to look outside of himself and he is learning to get along with a variety of kids his own age. Josh is in Year 6 and so he is one of the big boys in the school, he has only been there for 2 weeks and so is still finding his feet. Josh is also involved in the church puppet group and he goes to fencing on a Wednesday night.
Josh ready for school on his first day.

Saturday, January 10, 2009

Winter is here!

This past week has been bitterly cold with temperatures hardly reaching positive figures during the day and down to -7 degrees Celsius at night. Each morning as Josh & I walk to school we have either been walking through snow flakes or walking carefully along pavements which are like ice skating rinks. It is a dry cold and is actually alright to be out in, and the grit trucks are always out doing the roads and so we have had no problems with icy roads. Last night when we came out from the swimming pool the small ice particles falling from the sky looked like glitter falling and it was rather pretty. Josh & Lionel walked down to the shopping centre this morning and here are some photos that Josh took.