Half Term!

Half term has been lovely and relaxing.  At the beginning of the week, we went to the Duisburg history and culture museum, which was interesting.  It could have done with a few more labels in English, then again Duisburg doesn't get many tourists.  As you can see, the weather was not brilliant, and for some reason we had decided to cycle, and ended up very wet indeed!

This is a photo of Matt's preparation for his friend's visit this weekend.... a crate of beer!

On Tuesday night we went to see a Champions league match at the Schalke stadium.  We went with someone from school and his brother, and we had a really good time.  It was very cold, but at least they put the roof over the stadium.  The match ended 4-3 to Schalke, from a penalty in the last 30 seconds, so it was quite exciting really.  I haven't seen any live football for ages, so I really enjoyed myself.

Below was a flag that came down from the top row of seats and was passed from person to person until it was unfolded.  It was easily the size of half the football pitch, and was pretty cool I thought!

The end of the week has been lovely for Matt, having his mates here, and less great for me, since I have been trying to work on my article, while not being very well at the same time.  It doesn't make for a great combination.  

Back to school on Monday, which i'm actually looking forward to!  It's Halloween on Friday so all of the Primary school dress up.  Have a look next week to see my costume!

Nearly half term!

It's been rather an eventful week leading up to half term, which is finally here!

One thing I forgot to mention from the week before last was the visit from Duisburg Zoo.  As part of Science Week, the Primary School decided to study the rainforest, and rainforest animals.  Some people from the Zoo came in to do a talk on rainforests and they brought some creepy crawlies with them for the kids to have a look at.  We stroked cockroaches, and millipedes, and I had a cuddle with a boa constrictor snake, and I got very very close to a tarantula!!!  There was no way I was going to touch it or hold it, but I got about two feet from it, so I was quite pleased with myself!  That is very brave for me, since I really hate spiders!  It was a good day, and all the kids donated one Euro each to give to the Zoo's Duisburg Grass Snake conservation project.  The Zoo have promised to come back and do a talk on Grass snakes, with a few along for the talk!  That should be fun!

Last week was quite a long week, in the lead up to half term.  We had parents evening in Primary on Wednesday.  I didn't have to stay until 7pm like the teachers did, but it was still quite hard work, lugging boxes of stationary around, tidying and sorting out the storage cupboard, and then doing a stock take on all the stationary.

On Tuesday, I was out of school on a trip with the Year 6s, who are currently studying the first world war.  We went to a fantastic exhibition on 1914, which was set up in an old coal mine, in Essen.

To get into the museum we had to take an open roof cable car up this tunnel (below).  The museum was set out over three floors; the first was pre-war, the second, during the war, and the ground floor was post-war.  We had a tour guide, and while it was fascinating, the tour lasted a bit too long for the kids.  It was an hour and 45 minutes, which is just a bit too much for an 11 year old!  The industrial setting really went well with the themes of the museum, and I really enjoyed myself.  We let the kids run around a play ground for a couple of hours after the tour, so they were all exhausted by the time we got back on the coach!  It was a good day, and nice to be out of school.  I work with some of the Year 6 kids during Maths and English lessons so they know who I am and I enjoyed having a chat with them in a more informal setting.

Outside of school it's been an interesting week too, starting with me going into the bedroom on Wednesday, and a light bulb exploding all over the room.  Glass went absolutely everywhere, including a few fragments winding up in my chest!  We spent the next two hours hoovering and washing and finding bits of glass everywhere!  We have just had a visit from an electrician, who said that the lights hadn't been looked at for 40 years, and that the wiring was all messed up!  It's fixed now, so hopefully there will be no more nasty surprises, and we can stop shielding ourselves in anticipation before we turn a light on in the flat!

On Friday night, we went to a house party for a friends 24th birthday.  It was nice relaxing, and not having to worry about school for a week.  We went home at midnight, but everyone else headed out to Dusseldorf, apparently not getting home until quite late the next morning.  We made a good call going home, because we were able to have a sewing/playstation day without feeling ill!

I'm very much looking forward to the week ahead, being able to relax, do some sewing and work on my article.  Matt's mates are coming to visit at the end of the week, which I know he is really excited about.

Strictly Coleslaw

This week has been exhausting!  Everyone is really ready for half term!  Only 5 more days of work to get through before we get a whole week off, and we have some lovely visitors.

This week I started cycling to work.  Here is how it went:

Day 1: Knackered

Day 2: Really knackered, but 2 minutes faster

Day 3: Mega knackered/exhausted, but 2 minutes faster than day 2

Day 4: Pretty much asleep on my bike.  Everything hurts.  Possibly even slower than day 1

Day 5: Got the tram

Not bad all things considered!!!

Friday night at the pub after work felt very well deserved.

Last night was Strictly Coleslaw night.  A few girls from work came over to watch Strictly and one made amazing coleslaw.  We had pizzas and wine and then listened to 90s music.  A great night all round!  Matt went to a brewery and then a weird rock club in Duisburg.  He didn't get home until 2am, and had brought one of the group with him because he missed his last tram.  3 people went to sleep in the flat, and 5 woke up in it!

Next week should go quite quickly.  I'm being observed by my boss tomorrow, then possibly on a year 6 trip to a museum on Tuesday.  Parents evening is Wednesday - everyone has to stay until 7, but I get to go at usual time, plus we have a half day so everyone goes to the local pub for lunch.  Should be a nice day for me.  Then it's Thursday, which is nearly Friday, then it's a whole week off! Woop woop!

Home Sweet Home

This weeks blog title is so called because my home sickness well and truly disappeared last week, for two reasons.  One, Mum came to visit, and two, Mum brought a sewing machine with her for me!  My flat really feels like home now that I have a little sewing machine humming away in the evenings.

We had a bank holiday in Germany last week, on Friday in order to celebrate Unification day - the day that the Berlin wall came down - an excellent reason to celebrate with a day off work!  Mum flew out to Cologne on Thursday, and I met her after work at a lovely little B&B style hotel right on the river Rhine (literally, we were about 50 feet from the water, with a lovely view over the river too).  We had a nice dinner in an Italian restaurant under the shadow of the great Cologne cathedral, and had an early-ish night.

On Friday, we had a hard-core sight seeing day.  Cologne cathedral is very beautiful.  It has some fabulous stained glass windows, and an interesting history that includes being heavily bombed during the war.

We were so long in the cathedral that we had to leave half way through our visit for a service to take place.  We went back in after the service (a hot chocolate from McDonalds for us) and finished off admiring the lovely building.

We decided to hop on a little land train to take us to the Botanical Gardens where we could eat our rolls and donuts, but we managed to get on the wrong land train.  We ended up walking much further than we were meant to, and a 15 minute journey took us an hour in the end!  Still, we made it to the gardens, and they were stunning.  There were lots of hot houses to enjoy, and we even saw a Red Squirrel (we have grey ones in the UK, but red ones are rare).

On Saturday, we went into Dusseldorf on the tram for a wander around and some shopping.  We found a lovely farmers market, and had yoghurt and musili for lunch from one of the stalls.

I had such a great weekend, and I was very sad to see Mum off on the train on Sunday.  Still, Christmas isn't too far away, and at least I have my lovely hubby and my lovely sewing machine!