Christmas in April, a 21st party, and Anzac Day

First week back at work and I can already tell that this term is going to be fantastic, simply because the weather has been amazing and I get to spend most days outside so hopefully i'll get a bit of a tan!! (ever the optimist I am..)

Because it's the summer term the sports have changed so no more netball, and instead the kids are doing cricket and rounders, with a little bit of athletics on the side. The changing of sports has actually been quite educational for me! I've learnt how to play rounders, and I've learnt some of the rules of cricket (tho the scoring still confuses the heck out of me). I also now know how to throw a javelin properly – and while learning to do it properly I have realised that i'm not as terrible at throwing one as I always have been!

Okay, so for those in New Zealand, you will understand me on the next bit. With the weather here getting warmer and the mornings getting lighter, I wake up and the sun is streaming through my bedroom window and my room is all warm and nice. It feels like christmas. The only thing is that here, sunny weather doesn’t mean christmas. So on wednesday morning when I went down to breakfast with a massive smile because it was proper warm weather and everyone asked me why I was so happy at 8am, and I replied saying that it felt like christmas, I got some very odd looks. They just don't get it!

The weather on wednesday meant that for the first time I wasn't freezing at forrest school, and I really enjoyed it because the kids all made bread and then cooked it on the fire, so of course I had to make some too (and god it was good!)

The forrest actually looks alive now! And it smells very strongly of garlic, because that's what all the greenness is. 

That night for whole house night we had a barbecue on the field and it was soo nice (again, it felt like christmas... in April..) and then after everyone had eaten, the kids all played a game so all I had to do was supervise – basically I sat on the field and talked to the other members of staff..

Thursday I wasn't quite so lucky with the whole evening games thing, because I somehow managed to get roped in to a game of football. Now I am shocking at football, and the kids here are crazy good, so I spent most of the game trying to stay away from the ball to save myself from the certain embarrassment that would follow my trying to play. This strategy would have worked if the other teacher hadn't realised my plan and then ruin it by passing the ball to me every chance he got..

I know I said the weather was amazing, but this is England after all... Thankfully it fined up in the afternoon for cricket

Friday was an interesting day for me. It started off just like normal, but when the afternoon/evening rolled around my facebook and instagram were full of posts about anzac day. Up until then I had pretty much forgotten about it, and it was just a weird feeling that no one else knew about it. Saturday was even stranger because it was the first Anzac day in years that I didn't wake up for the dawn service, simply because there wasn't one. However despite the fact that I was on the other side of the world from my home and from everyone that knew all about Anzac day and what it means to New Zealanders and Australians, I had never felt more proud of my nationality. A couple of members of staff asked me about it because there was a bit on the news about it, and It felt so odd to have to explain to someone what Anzac day was, because back home everyone knows exactly what it means, and what it represents.

That afternoon I caught the train down to Weymouth for George's 21^st party, and I spent the evening eating way too much food and laughing at all the embarrasing photos (I dread to think what will reappear at my 21^st...) And because I sound funny to everyone here, I was asked a lot of questions about New Zealand and sports there, and if I knew the words to the Haka. It kind of made me realise just how much culture New Zealand has, and how people here have no idea what a Powhiri is, or a waiata or things that I didn't even realise were so unique to New Zealand until I left. The thing that really astonished me was that in England, and apparently everywhere else, mince and cheese pies are not a thing. How can they not be a thing!? They're the best type of pie and they seemingly dont exist anywhere but New Zealand!? It blows my mind!

The birthday boy blowing out the candles.. This was the only photo I took hahah

After less than 24 hours in Weymouth I was dropped back at school by Rob, and I pretty much spent the rest of the weekend in my room on my laptop watching Netflix...
I was also a good daughter and skyped the parents for nearly an hour and a half (we had a lot to catch up on apparently..) And then that was my weekend over..
This morning I had to get up early (the horror!) because it's school photo day, and the only photo I was needed for (the boarders photo) was at 9am.. So I got up and had a bacon roll for breakfast which made me a little bit happier, but only a little bit..

Now because I spend nearly every day in a tracksuit, everyone was quite surprised when I rocked up to the photo wearing a dress (!!!!!) its quite funny because now when I wear jeans and chucks, it really feels like I'm dressing up...

And that's this week done! I do apologise for the lack of interesting outings and brilliant photos (I do realise just how modest I sound) but now that I'm back at work it's back to the not-so-interesting posts!
So until next week then!