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.

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.

A day in London

Yesterday (30th) we spent the day in London. Lionel and Josh have been really looking forward to this trip as they have been wanting to visit the 7-storey Waterstones book shop...and yes they did manage to spend lots of money! We were lucky to get Lionel out the door so that we could get to the Garrick Theatre - he would have been quite happy camping there for the rest of our time in the UK!
We went to 'Zorro' at the theatre and all thoroughly enjoyed this show with fantastic characters as well as lots of aerial stunts, sword fights and pyrotechnics.
Josh: the show was really interesting and fun, my favourite bits were when there were 7 Zorros on stage and lots of sword fighting, favourite character - Sergeant Garcia.
Lionel: non-stop entertainment, I loved the sets and the magic bits especially when Zorro disappeared, favourite character Zorro.
Rebecca: loved the Spanish music, dancing & and costumes, favourite character Inez.
Amanda loved the whole entertainment package - music, set changes, sword fighting and my favourite character was Inez.

Christmas in England

Christmas Day has been and gone and although it was very strange being so far away from friends and family at this time we have had a good week. The build up to Christmas over here was much more relaxed than what we were used to in New Zealand...we only had Christmas to prepare for and think about rather than the mad end of year rush.
On Christmas Day we opened pressies in the morning before heading off to church, we then had some time to play with our new toys before going out to a local hotel for Christmas dinner. I had turkey with all the trimmings (I have to say I didn't eat the pile of brussel sprouts on my plate...) and a yummy dessert (not as good as Mum's pavlova though). Then in the evening we went over to the neighbours for drinks, so it was quite a social day.
The 27th felt more like a NZ Christmas as we visited friends for the day - we went for a huge walk followed by another Christmas meal of ham, new potatoes and salad!!!
One good thing about having Christmas over here is that you get to enjoy the lights that people decorate their houses with because it gets dark so early (4pm)...It is very cold but unfortunately not a white Christmas.
We have spent time this Christmas thinking about the birth of Jesus, enjoying being together, and thanking God for our friends.

Littlehampton

Amanda, Rebecca & Joshua went down to Chichester to watch the Youth Theatre production of 'A Christmas Carol'. It was a great show and we really enjoyed it - Josh loved the way the floor had moving sections, trap doors and props being lowered from above. We stayed the night at the youth hostel in Arundel - an old Georgian house (and not a lot had been done to it...) and then this morning we went to Littlehampton for a walk on the beach. It was very pleasant and only a few people out walking dogs...not at all like it would be in the middle of summer with the crowds and the amusement arcade up and running! It was great to get some sea air into the body and I feel quite refreshed after being at the beach.

Brooklands Museum

Flying the Vickers VC-10

Beside the Hawker Hunter

On Thursday 18th December me and Mum went to the Brooklands museum to see concorde. We also saw a Wellington bomber that had crashed in Loch Ness. There was also a Hawker Hunter. I sat in the cockpit of the concorde and a Vickers VC-10. The Vickers VC-10 was a private luxury plane that belonged to the Sultan of Oman.

from Josh

Concorde

What have we been up to...

Lionel continues to be busy at work. His job is to continue until the end of April and the possibility is that he will have work of some sort there after that and so that is really good. He is looking forward to a break over Christmas - finishing on 24 Dec and going back on 5 Jan.

Amanda is busy keeping everyone fed and clean, schooling Josh and trying to organise some travels for us in 2009. I will also write a Christmas letter sometime...

Rebecca is loving school, youth group, swimming and water polo. She had winter champs for swimming at the weekend and swam really well, finishing with all personal best times, 2 bronze medals and 2 times for the Hampshire County championships. She swam so well that the head coach has moved her up a group (no early mornings yet, just 4 evening sessions and 8am Saturday morning).

Joshua is continuing with learning fencing and is making the most of his final two weeks of being home-schooled. He is off to the local junior school in January and will be in one of the three Year 6 classes. Schooling at home was going well, but he reached a point where he was settled in England and was feeling confident in himself, so he was ready for more than just the two of us at home!