Three Weeks

just another three weeks. It's been one and a half weeks taking each day as it comes. Last monday i woke up and for some reason the thought wasn't "school again for another week, like it normally is. Nope - this time it was "just one day, one day to get through." that was over a week ago now. that day must've been the worst so far here in New Zealand. each day was "just one day to get through", and it seems to have carried on into this week too.

Today was a day closer to pay day and one day closer to the end of term :-)

I tidied up my room, set up for the first class. even had a moment of inspiration where i added extra into the lesson so the kids can learn different instruments in the lesson. They were pretty good at the activity too. Funnily enough, i'd left my brass instrument in the car after band practice so i brought it in and took a few minutes at the end of the lesson to introduce them to the 'baritone'. they loved it - definately better than just having pictures. Oh, and there's an audit being taken for all the instruments and i've discovered after 3 terms at the school and having searched all the cupboards to see what resources there are, discovered that the school owns some flutes, violins, a clarinet. Goodness knows where these instruments are hiding 'cos i've checked out all the music supplies in the place and there definately ain't no flutes or violins!!

i've started up a school band though and we had a practice today. the band consists of 5 keyboards, 2 guitars, two drums, one kit, one recorder. a bit random if you ask me. mind you, having had maybe 5 or 6 practices with them so far, they don't sound too bad. I think i must be the only music teacher who has a school band made up of people who don't read music - notes or rhythm - don't have anything to practice on, and don't know how to follow a conductor. Scrap that last one - i'm sure there's plenty professional musicians who don't know how to follow a conductor.

bit of excitement in the afternoon. Defence police were out, guns and all. seems there was a raid in a house, or something similar. that got the kids excited too seeing as they weren't allowed to stay outside and they also had to stay a little longer till the road was opened again. luckily it was only a few minutes.

i did a little learning this evening too. Been brushing up on Java skills and managed to get a program working that i'd been stuck on. very exciting. unfortunately, that was the exercise from week 1 of this course. hoping that i don't take so long on all the other weeks, otherwise i'll be here for a few years figuring out loops, booleans, etc. crazy stuff!

after tomorrow i'll just have one more day and then the week will end. oh joy!!

more of the same for me :0)

An Interesting Life??

figure i'll take more notes and leave it up to others to decide whether my life is interesting or not. Today's day is almost done...

woke up this morning at 8.30 to get ready for the day. it's saturday - shouldn't i be having a lie in?? i guess you could class it as a lie in, 'cos i normally get up about 7am. mind you, i like to think of 9am the perfect time to get up on saturday.

so i leave at 9am to go meet people in the brass band. we're marching in the Henderson christmas parade and meeting at 9.45. the petrol tank is at it's lowest and i'm hoping not to have to make the phone call that says 'sorry, can't make it, i've run out of petrol and broken down on the motorway'!! managed to stop for petrol before that happened, thank goodness. found the meeting place, met some other band members and hung out for 10 mins with them before we all went to where we were marching from. we get to wear some lovely green uniform with a hat - it's a bit different from the fancy uniforms we wear in the UK.

so began the march - managed to keep in time and in step too. oh, and being 20km away from the school i work at, i stil managed to bump into one of my students who recognised me and said hi. weird.

finished that - walked back to where we started and where the cars are. then went to a mall with a few folk from band for lunch. If you want to know more about the band look up the website for waitakere city band. it's been updated recently with a whole load of stuff. after lunch we had a concert and social for 'silver friends'. That's the people who give money to the band for free. pretty good system going for sponsership in the band. i think it's great to have a bunch of followers of the band who bring friends to concerts and make the circle of sponsership (money) bigger.

bit of a social so that the silver friends know who they're helping out, then everyone leaves. it wasn't too bad actually. one guy who i spoke to at the concert we did last week managed to remember me and we spoke for a bit. also tried to speak to another lady who seemed to enjoy the concert, but she wasn't picking up on the conversation vibe that i was trying to emit.

chat, chat. for someone who doesn't have too much to say i don't do too bad when i have to. I had to stay 'cos i'd asked the conductor for a brass lesson so we were having it after the concert at his place. Nice drive - very nice drive. great view from the house too. and i learnt how to improve my playing better. hopefully i'll use it and practice more.

then straight on to do some visiting teaching with one of the girls from church. We go round to a couple of the ladies from church just to visit and see how they are. It's a great support system when people actually do it. means that everyone that goes to church will have someone they can speak to if they need to, or need any help with anything. or even just a friendly face in the middle of a hard life.

wow - that was a whole 12 hours of a day i've just mentioned. i got home just after 8.30pm and sat down to look up some stuff online. i've got an even earlier start tomorrow... will tell you about that one tomorrow :-)

photos

this is a cute guy i found a photo of :p
well, i realised the other day that i had a few photos that i can share with the world. one of the flatmates has a scanner/printer/fax so i made use of it the other day.
here's a couple pictures of lucerne and couple of other interesting ones:


making fondue in switzerland: heavy stuff!! where's the chocolate fondue?