Father's Day 2020

Happy Father's Day to the most wonderful Dad any girl could wish for.  Dad may have spent most of today not feeling very well due to his tooth, but hopefully the special curry dinner Matt cooked, the trifle Mum made and the 'Make your own Gin kit' I found will go just a little way to showing just how much we all love and appreciate him.

There isn't much to report this week, apart from the fact that the cats have done the first leg of their journey home!!! I know, big news indeed!  We've been waiting for this for so long.  The next 10 days are going to go SO slowly!  The boys flew from Shanghai to Guangzhou on Saturday.  It was a short flight and they are now in a cattery, snuggling together, looking a little bit happier than yesterday.  They have to wait a week to have their tests and blood work done, then they should fly direct to London and land on Wednesday in 10 days time.  We should be able to pick them up from Heathrow after their 8 hour quarantine at the airport.  Then, the fun of introducing them to the house and Lola can begin!  I'm sure they will be cross with us for a few days, but hopefully will settle in quickly.  I can't wait to give them both a big cuddle.

We've been for a few walks in the forest and to the beach this week.

Matt had his final week of teaching at Dulwich this week too.  He now only has one job! Yay!  He will start going into school on Monday afternoons to supervise some classes, from tomorrow.  I'm not sure he quite knows what to do with all his free time.  He said that it was so strange not being at the end of year assembly.  My office sent photos of their last day of term, but honestly, I feel like i've not been a part of Dulwich for such a long time.  Well, it's been since January really.  Lots of teachers who weren't meant to be leaving have decided to leave, so I guess that leaves the school in a bit of a pickle.  A few who were due to leave are now staying, since they can't leave China now because the boarders are closed.  It's all a bit of a mess really.  As it is with every school in the world at the moment.

I found out this week that the summer school that is part of my contract will be happening, but i'm not sure for how many weeks or how exactly it is going to work at the moment.  More information next week probably.  To be honest, it's such hard work in school at the moment, I was quite looking forward to being furloughed for the summer.  Never mind!

Wild Orchids

It's been a good week - quite tiring at work, but at least we have been given jobs to do now, rather than just sitting there watching the kids draw pictures.  We have been getting the books ready for next year and re-backing the display boards for the teachers in their new classrooms.  All very useful jobs.

We've not had great weather this week, but did at least manage to squeeze in a couple of BBQs.  Matt picked me up from work one day and we drove to Wilverley Plain for a walk.  There happened to be an ice cream truck in the car park, so it would have been rude not to get one.  Supporting local businesses and all that.

On Saturday evening, we had the usual online video call with Matt's family.  His Dad had put together lots of old photos of everyone from various weddings, christenings, family holidays and birthdays, and it was fun to look through them all.  It was quite amusing that lots of people couldn't tell which was their baby and which was one of the other cousins!

We all went for a walk today to Wilverley and saw these tiny, wild orchids which are so beautiful.  Orchids are my favourite flower and i've never seen one in the wild before, so it was very special to see.  They were dotted around everywhere, and really are very very small and so cute!

It's been a bit of a wet and dreary week weather-wise, but things look set to clear up next week, which is great.  This was Wilverley Plain today, where the ponies look like they were all social distancing...

Back to Work

There really aren't many photos to show for this week.  I went back to work this week.  I'm now working from 12.30-3.30pm everyday and I have to admit that it really is very dull.  The teacher-student ratio is 1:3, which is absolutely unnecessary, since all the kids are doing in the afternoons is drawing or painting.  I'm doing quite a lot of trying-to-look-busy, but so is everyone else, so it's not really working.  The other teaching assistants are very nice and chatty, but overall I have to admit that this is the most unfriendly place I have ever worked in.  I walked into a staff room full of 8 people one day when I arrived at school and said hello.  It was a silent room, and not one person said anything to me.

Still, I am very glad to have a job at the moment as I know that lots of people don't.

We've now had our mortgage approved and are getting the survey done tomorrow, so house-things are progressing nicely.

It's been a miserable weather week, but at least today is looking more cheerful.  The sun is actually shining and it's quite pleasantly warm.  Maybe some sunshine will put me in a better mood!

Matt and I had a Chinese takeaway on Thursday.  It was so delicious and I didn't feel guilty about it at all.  English Chinese food tastes nothing at all like Chinese food in China, so we'd been craving it for a while.  Yum!

We've been for a few walks along the cliff top, and just this week I noticed that the houses on top of the cafe on the cliff top are colourful!  They are so lovely and cheerful.