Lionel's Birthday

Lionel is now another year older and another year wiser...

He decided that he wanted to spend the day in London and so on Saturday we caught the train up to London for the day. We had decided to walk through the parks from Waterloo Station to Hyde Park for lunch. We loved walking up through Green Park and St James Park with lots of green space and the trees changing colour for Autumn. Josh had great fun spotting squirrels and at one stage he had one come right up to him.

I love all the unexpected things which can happen when you are wandering around a place like London - much better than the crowded touristy events. My favourite unexpected event today was at Wellington Arch (near Hyde Park corner) when we saw the Household Cavalry riding up through the arch, after being at Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace.

We had lunch at a cafe by the boating lake in Hyde Park, unfortunately there was a cold wind by this stage and so we ate inside. Lionel loved being in Hyde Park and with it being so big you are away from traffic noise and you don't feel like you are surrounded by lots of people.

From Hyde Park we headed to Harrods - quite a different feeling as it was noisy and crowded! However, Rebecca wanted to take the boys to Harrods and the kids had some money to spend here. The choice was so huge that they found it quite difficult to make a decision about any purchases, but they both came home with something.



On Sunday we were invited around to friends for lunch and we were treated to a good Sunday roast and an afternoon with some new friends!

Waterpolo

Rebecca played in a Hampshire Under 13 water polo tournament yesterday. She was in the Basingstoke 'A' team and played really well. There were five teams in the tournament and Basingstoke 'A' won all their games and so came away with the shield.

Here are a couple of photos of Rebecca.

Rebecca's Swimming

We went to the Reading B grade swim meet on Saturday night along with hundreds of others from the Hampshire area. This meet is at about the same standard as the A grade meets that Rebecca was involved in with Southland. She swam really well and came away with a gold medal for her 100m butterfly and seven personal best times!! Josh & I should have a gold medal for sitting in the REALLY hot pool for seven hours...

Josh & I went along to the Open Night for high school (The Vyne, same as Rebecca) last night and he begrudgingly thought it might be alright to go to high school next September! He had a great time in the Maths and Science departments and did lots of activities on the interactive white boards throughout the school. I was very impressed with the Head of Year 7 teacher and it is her specific job to visit the Year 6 students in their schools to make their transition to high school smoother. She is going to make an effort to include Josh in some of her Year 6 activities at the local school and any activities at The Vyne which would be suitable for him.

October 2008

Josh & I had a fantastic time at Intech last week and in the end I had to drag him away without 'playing' with all the activities. Intech is a large version of 'Science Alive' in Christchurch or 'Scitech' in Perth, both of which we have thoroughly enjoyed. We had great fun looking at the viscosity of different fluids and doing different experiments with a variety of fluids. We have also made contact with a homeschooling group who occasionally book science class shows at Intech and so we can go along to some of the group activites they do, so that will be good.
Josh & I have been out each week doing the fitness circuit at Eastrop Park (some parts of it get easier, but we hate the chin lifts!!!) Athletics on a Thursday night is great for Josh and really pushes him, his coach is fantastic but she will only continue with this group as long as there are the numbers and apparently the numbers drop off now that it is getting darker and colder.
Rebecca continues to love being at school (even with a grumpy geography teacher). However now that the mornings are darker and colder it is harder to get out of bed! She has an inset day (teachers only day) next Friday and half term break is at the end of October - then it will be the count down til Christmas...Rebecca gets 2weeks holiday at Christmas.
Rebecca has a B grade open swim meet in Reading tomorrow and so it will be great to see her swim in an individual meet and get some UK times recorded. We also have our club winter meet coming up in December and Rebecca is keen to enter the 800m and 1500m so that will be interesting.
We have been busy planning our summer holiday for next year...a long way yet I know but we have NZ friends coming over (Jane & Hannah from Invercargill) and we are going to Italy for 3weeks and so to book villas in Tuscany you have to be in early. So we are really looking forward to that and it will help us get through these cold, dark months as all our friends in NZ & Australia are enjoying the beach, lake, camping and sunshine!!!

September 2008

The sun is shining today, which we are very pleased about...but there is a definite chill to the air in the mornings and the evenings are getting dark earlier and earlier - Autumn is here.
The new school year started last week and Rebecca is now attending a local high school - The Vyne Community School. She went down last week to sit entrance tests, then it was off to buy a school uniform and she started at school on Monday. Rebecca is in Year 8 and is loving the wide range of subjects that she is studying - English, Maths, Science, PE, Art, Drama, Music, History, Geography, French, Religious Education, ICT and D & T (Design & Technology). She came home very excited last night because they got to light magnesium over the bunsen burners in Science and their Science teacher had combined some other substances to make terrible smells (which they all thought was wonderful...)
Rebecca catches to bus to and from school and so she leaves home at 7.30am and is home again at 3.15pm, the bus stop is only about 3 minutes walk from home so it is great.

Josh is enjoying being at home, but the level of work has increased and I think he quite liked the idea of the science Rebecca was doing at school... who knows he may even go to high school next year when he will be in Year 7. We are off to Intech (a great science discovery place) next week and so hopefully there will be options for him to do lots of hands on stuff down there. Josh's French lessons started last week - a bit of a shock to the system but we will get there, and he has joined an athletics club which is on a Thursday night. Josh felt his lack of fitness last Thursday and so he and I have done a fitness circuit one day this week and went for a run yesterday (it will be good for both of us!)
Rebecca & Josh have both joined the puppet team at church which they are enjoying and they have two major events coming up - in October they will take part in a European Puppet Festival and in December they are going to be part of the entertainment at a birthday party, as well as being involved in family services at church and Christmas events.

Lionel at Twickenham

This was one of my 'things to do' - Twickenham to watch the rugby. I had been hoping for it to be the All Blacks but a double header sounded good and it certainly proved to be.


The adventure really began when we changed trains at Clapham Junction, the busiest station in Britain, we can believe that after Amanda & Josh squeezed on to one train and Rebecca & I had to catch the next one. Fortunately for Rebecca & me the next one was a Rugby special and was virtually empty before our horde joined it. We got back together with Amanda and Josh at Twickenham Station, not before they would have watched hundreds of people go past. It was then time to flow with the tide of people down the closed streets towards the ground, the only gaps being people dodging the horse manure from the police horses. Past the scalpers, the Referees links sellers (yes you can get a radio link to the Referees microphone for five pound), stopping only to buy a programme and the obligatory bag search to enter the ground. Once in we grabbed some overpriced food and then made our way by Escalator to our middle tier seats in the South West corner of the stadium. The atmosphere of the fully enclosed stadium was grat as the London Irish supporters, complete with drums, filled our end of the stadium with sound. The view was pretty good from anywhere only interrupted by the constant flow in and out of people on a scale which I had never struck while the game was going on. It was obstructing because leg room was not great so everybody in a row had to stand up to let people in and out, which obstructed your view if you were within two to four rows of it. I'll put some of it down to the fact it was a doubleheader and supporters from all teams were mixed in together. It was something different from crowds I had been a part of in Australia and New Zealand.


To the contests - a good win for London Irish, who we expected to include former All Black and Southland Clarke Dermody (he must have an injury from preseason) over London Wasps, last season's champions 26-14. Then Harlequins (featuring Nick Evans) beating Saracens with Chris Jack 24-21. The rugby was certainly a better standard than the Air New Zealand Cup but not up to Super 14 yet but the difference is shrinking. I thought they can't have a bonus point system by the way Wasps played out the last 5 minutes but they do I discovered later. Therefore maybe its the length of the season that changes the express need to grab every point, as the competition that started today has its final in May next year.


London Irish v London Wasps at Twickenham
Crowd: 52,087

What's been happening...

Summer holidays are at an end for UK schools and weather wise summer is at an end too. According to the newspaper, August 2008 was the dullest and coolest in English record - oh yay!
In the last couple of weeks Rebecca, Josh & I have managed to get out and about along the roadsides and hedgerows and picked blackberries. We have found a great patch not far from home and so we have been enjoying fruit smoothies and apple & blackberry pies (yum).

Much to Lionel's delight rugby season is starting over here and so this weekend we are off to Twickenham to watch London Irish v London Wasps, it is a double header with Saracens v Harlequins to follow. It depends on the conditions as to whether we watch both games. We also have tickets for All Blacks v Wales at Millenium Stadium, Cardiff in November, unfortunately that will be the only All Blacks game we see as the price of the tickets was horrendous. Lionel is really keen to visit the major sports stadiums and so he is really looking forward to these games.

After much talking, soul searching and prayer we have decided that school is a better option for Rebecca than home schooling. Once we made the decision for her to go to school we thought it would be an easy thing to enrol her...NO. Most of the schools are over subscribed and especially schools with a really good reputation. After many phone calls (and again lots of prayer) I spoke with a school in our zone and they have a place for a Year 8 student and so we have a meeting there on Monday - we will see what happens...

Josh will continue with home schooling and we have lots planned for the term including French lessons, football (hopefully), scouts (on the waiting list), swimming and trips to various places including a great science & technology place with lots of hands on activities.