Dancing in the Funky Fish

RIP Michael Jackson

So, on Friday afternoon I left school as soon as the kids did and met up with Richie, Rowan, Ian and Rachelle at Hyde Park. There was a whole weekend of concerts, kicking off with the Killers on Friday night. ("Hard Rock Calling") It was Glastonbury weekend too so I guess lots of the bands were doing both gigs. The weather was perfect, warm and dry and not too sunny! We had a picnic and beers while listening to Passion Pit and the Howling Bells, and then when the Kooks started we all got up to boogie. I had one of those experiences when you realise that you actually know loads of the songs, even when you didn't realise it.
When the Killers came on it was super exciting, because they are one of my fave bands in the world. We danced and sang ourselves hoarse. I love being in a huge crowd when everyone knows the words and sings along. It must be pretty rad for the artists as well, I imagine!

On Saturday I attempted to do a job application, and then we took the train to Brighton, for Claire's birthday. It was great to head to the seaside on such a hot day. We had a BBQ in their garden and then headed out to Lucky Voice Karaoke. I love Karaoke when it is singstar or when it is in private booths, so you only make a fool of yourself in front of people you know!

After a couple of hours of singing we went out dancing and danced the night away in a club called the Funky Fish. Richie and I were sleeping in a tent in the garden, but the weather was perfect. We awoke to the neighbour having a tribute concert to MJ, playing his hits over and over again, and singing along loudly! We joined in.
The rest of the day was spent lazing in the garden, reading the huge Sunday papers (Mainly about Michael Jackson and Wimbledon) and eating left over BBQ food. We made it down to the beach in the afternoon, and although the water looked lovely, it was still pretty chilly!

Bruce has convinced me that I should go to Bestival in September, it sounds really fun and there is a bunch of us going now. Richie has not been convinced yet!

Eventually we dragged ourselves back to London, and I finished off the job application, and here I am at school on my lunch break. 2/3 of my class are sick today (so I have 3 students!!!- is it swine flu??? There are rumours flying!)
The kids are now arriving back so I will sign off and put some photos up when I get home. :) Steph

Ramblings not about Killers Concert at Hyde Park

It's been so long since I posted an entry here, I couldn't remember the web address, so I had too use Google to find the blog. This would not have been a problem if I was using the 'laptop', it has the blog bookmarked, but I'm using the 'netbook', aka the baby computer. Steph is finishing up a job application on the grown-ups computer.

For those uninitiated with the concept, a netbook in a miniture laptop. They became the craze last year I think. They are basically an ordinary computer with everthing scaled down. The one I am using now is abut 25cms wide, 18cm deep and 2cm high, when the screen is folded in. The keys are quite small which takes a bit of taking used to, however they they are increadibly convinient to carry around and come with build in wireless networking, so in theory you can take them anywhere and use the internet.

This one was the cheapest one I could find, the bottom of the range Acer AspireOne, it cost £198. This is quite cheap, but it is also quite slow. It is actually much slower that the laptop dispite having significantly more ram (1024MB over 746MB) and an apparantly faster (1.6Ghz rather than 1.2GHz) processor. The lack of speed is probably mostly due to the solid state disk, not it's size, but it's speed which incidently is a number hardly aver quoted.

This lack of speed is fine for me because I enjoy (or at least like the idea of) getting the most out of not-top-of-the range hardware. You could get a fast one, but it would cost a fair bit more than an equivilent ordinary laptop. I would only recommend getting one of these as a second computer, mostly for the cuteness factor. If you carry a poodle around in your handbag, you definately need one of these, they do come in pink.

But I have digressed from my original digression. In using the netbook to blog, I needed to first find the blog, so I Googled for 'Steph and Richie'. As I hit the search button, I thought, this is a bit pointless, there is no way our blog is going to be on the first page of Google's search results. But it was, number two, second highest rank in worldwide google searches for 'Steph and Richie'.

For those who don't work in or near the web development industry, this is a big deal. Earlier in the week my boss got a frantic call from the manager of the franch office, 'the french website is no longer on the first page of natural google search results.' There are large businesses that specialise in Search Engine Optimisation that will take large sums of money off you to 'try' and get you on the first page of Google searches, and our little neglected blog is there without any effort. Maybe I am in the wrong business.

But maybe not, if you google for 'Travel blog', 'New Zealander's in London', 'Neglected blog', or even, you won't find our blog at all. The only reason our blog comes up so high with 'Steph and Richie' is because it is a fairly unique phrase on the internet, and quite possibly because blogspot.com, which our blog is on, is fairly popular on the internet.

So as I was saying, we went to a The Killer's Concert at Hyde park last night. Steph has now finished her job app and I now need to pack my bags as we are going to Brighton for Steph's cousins's fiancee's (Alec & Claire are now engaged) Birthday Party. So maybe I'll write about The Killer's gig tomorrow.

Turns out we are crap bloggers

Hello,
I don't even know how long it has been since we updated this. We have talked about doing it quite regularly, but not actually sat down to do it. I should have known really, I could never keep a diary as a child (or a reflective journal as a trainee teacher, oops).

I am still working at the same school, in a secondary MLD school with my 'nurture group'. There is only 4 weeks to go until the Summer! There is a possibility I will be back at the primary site from September, but it is not sorted out yet. I had to write end of year reports for my class when I had only been teaching them for 2 and a half weeks which was pretty crazy. The kids are pretty full on but we are getting there....

Richie is enjoying his job and we are making the most of London, which is really nice now that the sun is out!

We went to Paris during the half term, for a long weekend. We stayed in Montmatre, near the Sacre Cour, with Jill, a family friend of Richie's who has lived in Paris for 30 years. We basically ran around doing all the major sights and eating loads of nutella crepes. Apart from the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, the Pompidou centre etc etc, we went out to Giverney, to see Monet's Garden. It was lovely, despite all the tourists (us!) and really cool to see the water lily pond, and then be able to walk down the road and see the paintings he did there. For me that was a highlight, especially as I had never been before. I think Richie was astounded by all the tourists in Paris - it was a bank holiday weekend, and such lovely weather. I think half of England was there.

I don't think we have been away since then....but still have been very busy! I went to see Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens with Anne. It was a fantastic show, in a huge marquee with amazing projections on the walls and ceiling for the set.

I've been faithfully knitting nearly every week with the black wolf knitting circle. We always meet up at a kiwi-run cafe in central London and gossip as much as we knit.

Last week there was a tube strike, which was quite annoying. I walked to work, and it took 1 hour and ten mins. Richie worked from home. Luckily the next day a few of the lines were running so I could get to the Britney Spears concert (and get home again). Rachelle works for Morgan Stanley, who have a corporate box at the O2 (Old millenium dome in Greenwich), so I went with her. It was awesome. Britney only sang one song (and mimed the rest) so that was a bit pathetic, but I didn't really care :O)

We are currently trying to organise our Summer holidays. We have booked one week so far - flying to Vienna and out of Budapest. You can get the train to Budapest from Vienna or the boat up the Danube River. There is a music festival so we will try and get tickets for that.

We are also going to spend a week camping somewhere in England - maybe Norfolk.

Anyway I will try and update more regularly, and will put some pics up for your viewing plesure.

Well, we have been really busy the last few weeks. After arriving back in London for the start of the Summer (3rd and final) term, I had a couple of days wondering if I was in fact, going to get any work. Then all of a sudden I had a day in a lovely school in the borough of Greenwich - they had a job for the rest of the term, BUT, it took me near 1 1/2 hours to get there - not cool.
So the next day I went off to Islington for a three week placement in the primary a tiny MLD school. The class teacher is a kiwi, along with the deputy head and with an Aussie next door and an American down the hall, Brits were thin on the ground. I had a pretty good time there and it was very casual and friendly.
Just as that placement was coming to an end, the school asked me to go and take over their year 7/8 (intermediate) 'nurture' class in the secondary site for the rest of the term. So, I am working for the same school, but in a different class at a different site - in Angel. Although it is a secondary school, the 'nurture' class is run on a primary model, so I have the kids most of the day. In NZ, year 7 and 8 is still primary anyway. I've been there a week and so far, so good. One more week until half term, then only 7 weeks til the summer hols. I LIKE this 3 term year! You never have to do more than 7 weeks in a row.
Unfortunately, the Summer hols for me means no more money, unless I can sort out some Summer job.

Apart from work, we have been away a lot. We went to Bristol for the first May bank holiday. It was CHOICE. Bristol is really nice - who knew. I am going to let Richie tell you all about it.

My friend Ali (from Wangas) arrived from Kuwait to stay for a few days. She shopped til she dropped and managed to fit in some cultural activities too. Rachelle, Ali and I went to see Chicago in the West End, which was brilliant. Ali's visit was too short but I hope we will get over to Kuwait to see her sometime while we are on this side of the planet.

Last weekend we hired a car and along with my brother Alex, his girlfriend Hollaye, and my cousin Bruce, we drove to South Wales to the Gower Peninsula, for a weekend of camping for my cousin Alec's birthday. It was awesome to get to the countryside.

Easter in Wales,Wedding in Scotland

Hello, Sorry for the radio silence. Since moving into our flat at the end of March, we have been flat out! The internet was finally connected last week, so we are planning to update things more regularly from now on. Some things in this country take forever to organise. Like broadband and a phone line. Anyway, we now have both, so give us a call or chuck us an email!Technology is amazing...

I (Steph) finished up working for Castlebar school the week before Easter. I was quite sad to leave as after 7 weeks I had got to know the staff and the kids pretty well. I wasn't sad to say goodbye to an hour and 20 min commute though!

The first few days of the hols, I just hung about, did some gardening with Hannah, spent some time with my cuz Bruce and my Aunt Val. Bruce and I did some exploring of my local 'hood, and ended up walking along the Thames path all the way to Canary Wharf, just in time to meet Zander for a pint after work. Val and I went to the V & A museum to see the "Hats" exhibition, which was really interesting. I have a new mission to get my hands on some of Val's vintage clothing, stored in her attic....

On Good Friday we went with Rowan and her Aussie friend Jax to Wales. Rowan has a wee car. We went to stay in a 'luxury' caravan near St Davids, in Pembrokeshire. We were in the middle of nowhere, it was lovely! The weather was fantastic, really cold but really sunny (unusual for Wales we are told). We visited the island of Skomer, a bird sanctuary where you can get very close to PUFFINS. It was a bit like Sommes Island in Wellington Harbour. There were also thousands of rabbits on the island, introduced 700 years ago by the Normans, who farmed them. They have had a huge impact on the ecology of the island, meaning very little in the way of vegetation and millions of rabbit holes, which are used by the puffins and shearwaters for breeding.

We also visited the Cathedral and ruins of the Bishops palace in St Davids, and a CHOCOLATE FARM, as well as eating and drinking far too much.

We came back to London for one night, and then caught the train to Edinburgh for Catriona and Chris's wedding. (Steph worked with Cat at Kilbirnie school) We spent 4 days wandering the city, seeing where JK Rowling wrote Harry Potter, among more historic places... It is very beautiful there, although it was FREEZING and each day we wore about 50 layers. It was very misty and atmospheric, especially when we were doing the ghost walking tour and going up to the castle. We spent the morning before the wedding walking up Arthur's seat, where you get 360 degree views of the city and surrounds.

The wedding was fantastic, the bride was beautiful and all the blokes (The NZ contingent as well as the Scots) were in kilts. The reception was in a hotel overlooking the castle and the Princes St gardens.

We got back to London and Richie started back at work, while I wondered whether I would get anything for a couple of days. Not to worry, after 1 day of no news I was then offered two jobs. One in an ASD class in Greenwich, but unfortunately it took me an hour and a half to get there, so althougth the school seemed lovely, I won't be working there this term! The other one is in Finsbury Park, about 35 mins away. The class has 7 students, mostly ADHD, so it is pretty full on. At this stage it is for 2 weeks, possibly longer. It is a very small school, only 4 classes, and 24 students, but seems very relaxed and friendly which is nice.

Richie is going well and has settled into his job at SSL247. I made him go shopping today but tomorrow we are off to explore Epping Forest, provided we can get out of Wapping, as the London Marathon is on our doorstep tomorrow and the roads are all closed!

Work and Home Sorted

Hi All. It has been a while since I last posted. I have been busy looking for work and along with Steph and Rachelle looking for somewhere to live. These things are now sorted, we move into a house today (I've just received the keys) and I start work on Monday.

Our new flat is in Wapping, which is just to the east of Tower Hill. It is a nice second floor, fully furnished, two bedroom property - it will be quite comfortable. I shall take some piccies and post them shortly.

My new job is at a company called SSL247, which I mentioned in an earlier blog entry. They were one of the first places I interviewed at. Despite what I though to be a good interview that lead went cold. I noticed last week that that they were still advertising, so I contacted them and we organised a second "technical" interview Monday just bee. That went well and I was offered a position of "Senior Web Developer". That starts nextMonday. SSL247 sell secure certificates for secure websites, essentially the padlocks. I'll be be improving and maintaining their website.

Steph is well. She has quite a commute from our new flat and where we are currently staying to her current workplace at Castle Bar. We have being staying near Tower Bridge, 15 minutes walk from our new flat since Saturday. Her current job however ends in a week or two and Steph is looking for her next role closer to where we are. There are schools everywhere so there shouldn't be much of a problem. She has also found an agency that specialises in special needs teaching which works with schools in our area - looks helpful.

Tonight we are off to Steph's friend Hannah's place for a dinner party. Hannah was recently in New Zealand getting married.