The British Chamber of Commerce Ball 2019

This week, for the first time in AGES, went by really fast.  I feel like I am really making some good progress with my students.  They are actually learning things (yay!) and my introduction of reading-for-pleasure lessons is going unexpectedly well.  Maybe that weekend away last weekend really did help.

We also had Teacher Appreciation Day at school this week, where the parents bring in snacks and generally make a fuss of us.

We've put the fluffies on a diet this week, since Snowball especially is looking a bit podgy around the middle.  We've changed their food schedule, and the amount they are getting. We're also trying to exhaust them into sleeping through the night by playing with them even more than normal.  In a search for balls, I had a look under the beds, then decided to look under the sofas too. This is what we found...

That's 27 hair bands in case you were wondering!

On Friday, Matt was out at the Year 13 prom.  Andy and Becky came over for dinner on Thursday, and Andy taught Matt how to tie a bowtie.

Saturday night was the British Chamber of Commerce Annual Ball.  Our school had two tables booked, and the tickets were given out to the senior leadership team.  The theme was the London Underground, and it was either fancy dress or black tie.  Everyone went for black tie, except for one group which happened to have Ann from my office in it! She dresses up every year, and this was the fifth year in a row that her group has won best dressed.  They were dressed as Piccadilly circus, a group of more than 20 all in circus dress.  Ann and her husband were terrifying Victorian style clowns, which I am going to have nightmares about!

The night was really good fun.  Some of our students from school were singing and painting scenes from London.  There were casino tables, and we were all given 3000RMB in chips.  We managed to win 12,000 betting everything on black on roulette, and Matt won an 18 year old bottle of whiskey.  So he was a happy bunny.  There was also a bottle of Johnnie Walker Black Label on the table, and a bottle of Baileys!   There was a very good live band, and dancing, and a 4 course sit down meal, which included an amazing starter of crab and mango.  Then there were fish and chips and mini burgers and sausage rolls at midnight!

It was a really good evening, especially since it only cost us the price of a cab there and back!

It was fun to get dressed up too.

I wore Mum's fabulous salmon-pink dress, and got lots of compliments on it.  I was worried about being overdressed, but everyone was in full on black tie, except of course Ann's table.

Today, we are just resting and having a quiet day.  It is absolutely hammering it down with rain, and is the perfect day for a movie and a takeaway,  with some cat cuddles thrown in for fun.  Bliss. 

Sheshan Sofitel Oriental Hotel

We went away for the weekend, but before we get onto that, here are some (rare) in-focus photos of our gorgeous Sooty-puss, who is, as I write this, sitting on my lap (also rare), purring away (not so rare - he's quite a purry puss).  Snowball is currently blobbed out on the sofa, in you were wondering. We've put him on a diet, realising it had become necessary after his nic-name changed to dough-ball.  Anyway, we had to get a new water cooler and it came n a huge box, so Soots was a very happy boy.  He does love a box.

Oh yes, and it was Wendy's birthday in the office on Thursday, so we had cake...

Anyway, back to the hotel.  We decided that we needed a break from everything and since HR still have our passports we could only stay in Shanghai.  Luckily, on the other side of the city there is a fabulous hotel with a fake beach.  We booked on Thursday night and by Friday night we were there, relaxing by the (very very cold) pool.  We got a half board rate, so had two delicious buffet dinners, and two delicious buffet breakfasts. In between, we were executive club, so we had afternoon tea and free drinks from 2pm.  Delightful.  

Our room was gorgeous and the hotel was lovely and quiet.  We didn't even leave the hotel grounds once.  Just what we needed to relax, with only 5 weeks to go until a very busy summer holidays!  Looking forward to it.

School is pretty good at the moment, although still very busy.  My students make me laugh constantly, and I really feel like I have made a difference to some of them, which is something I didn't feel last year while still learning the job.  Maybe I just have amazing students this year! I shall definitely be sad to see them go off to year 5.  The year 3s coming up definitely need some work!

D'Oscars 2019

This week has been absolutely exhausting, mostly because of Friday evening, when the whole of Junior School was there until 9.30pm. It was of course the D'Oscars, our school's version of the Oscars ceremony.  All of the students in Junior School make mini movies and then there is a super grand ceremony to announce the winners.  It's a very long evening, and we have to sit with the kids, who end up getting extremely bored - especially if they just have to sit on a bench for 2 and a half hours watching other people win.  There are 8 categories, which to be honest is 4 too many; one for each year group, 3, 4, 5 and 6 - that's fine, I totally get that.  But then there is a category for overall performer - that's one child out of 500, an overall video from the 24 videos entered - a little unnecessary, a video winner from the other schools we have around the world - really no one cares about this as we don't know any of the students or teachers from the other schools, and a family category - this one I actually quite like.  The end family movie was amazing!  And it was won by a family with a child I know, so that was nice.  

Each category is judged by a real-life movie producer; some Chinese, some British, for example one category was judged by the man who produced Independence Day!  They send a video message, then someone from the school presents the 6 finalists, then the finalists are narrowed down to 3 and we catch clips from each.  Then the winner is announced and they come up on stage to get their D'Oscar trophy, then we watch the full winning video (up to 10 minutes long), then the two runners-up come up for their medals.  And that's just one category.  There were 8 categories!  Plus a 3 part movie (10 minutes each) made by the Head and Deputy Head of Junior School (actually very funny and well done).  Then there are thank you speeches.  It's a very long night!

The actual movie-making process starts in September and lasts quite a few weeks.  This year, the school really cut back on the movies taking up class time, which was much better, but last year it took over weeks and weeks of lesson time.  Last year, I spent 3 weeks with one EAL class just making their movie with them. It took every English lesson I had with them, every day, and then only one movie per class is chosen (not mine). What a waste of valuable learning time.  It does seem to be a bit parent-focused.  As you can tell, i'm not really a fan.  I don't appreciate my lessons being cancelled randomly so that kids can make movies.  I sound really boring, don't I!

Oh well, it's over for another year.  I'll only have one more to sit through before we leave China for good.  I slept until midday on Saturday to recover from this week!  Only 6 more weeks to go until the summer holidays, yay!

Here we are at Pie Society...

Cats and Brunch

Here is a lovely photo of Sooty and Snowball being odd-balls, sitting in the shower, staring at the walls!

At the weekend, Matt and I went for brunch at Funkadeli's and for ice cream on Sunday at Godiva.  Very indulgent, luxurious ice cream. It's amazing!