My life

Maddy found this on the internet, kind of fits!

Next Job

The original idea was to go back to the UK for Maddison to take her A levels and qualify for the student loan by having 3 years residence. We applied for a lot of jobs in the UK over the past few months and found that, although we have the experience they wanted, going to interviews was costly and disappointing. So we decided not to apply for anything else until June so we could interview when we got back. In the meantime here were a couple of jobs that looked interesting that we did apply for, one in New Zealand as we’ve always fancied going there and a couple in the UK. As chance would have it Geoff got the interviews for the UK jobs and I got the interview for the New Zealand job and after 458 hours of agonising consideration we took the New Zealand job which starts on July 29th!

At the moment we are working our way through police checks, medicals and the final form. Being here means everything is not going smoothly and causing the occasional headache, added to that I am stage manager and in charge of costumes for the school production of Hairspray which opens for 3 nights only on May 27th and the kids don’t know their lines yet!

If you want to Google my new school it is in Reporoa in the Bay of Plenty, halfway between Mount Doom (Tapua) and Hobbiton (Matamata).

Wrest Park

Our final stop on the way back to Hatfield was Wrest Park, we arrived 7 minutes before the hall closed so only got to wander through some of the grounds. Green stuff, water features all the things we don't see at the moment. Then onto Ivy's for Chinese take away for dinner.

Houghton House

After seeing Steve and Helen for food we drove to Leeds to spend a night at the Travelodge in Colton so we could visit Mum and Dad for lunch. Traditional Wood food, soup and a sandwich followed by home made scones and cake - wonderful stuff.
On the way back to Hatfield we drove to a couple of English Heritage properties and Geoff got to see how truly exciting it is trying to match the road map to reality!

Clifford's Tower

From Bolsover we drove to York and parked at the Designer Outlet to get on the park and ride into York. We did all the usual things, once round Clifford's Tower, the Disney shop, the model shop,  . . . The list goes on, and then back to the Designer Outlet for a fish and chip dinner and onto Hull to sleep at the travelodgehotel.

In the UK

We flew at 5pm on Friday and apart from a small problem with the hire car that took a good half hour to sort out, the six suitcases and us made it to Ivy's in one piece. Bacon sandwiches for breakfast on Saturday and the north to Bolsover Castle to see the 17th century dressage. Unfortunately the 1pm show was full and we wanted to move on before 3pm so we will return later in the year when we have more time to spare. We did wander round and were treated to an amazing hail storm that covered the ground as though it had snowed.

Felucca Ride on Sinai Day

School is over for the next two weeks so to start the holidays we went on a felucca ride with Brian, Liz and Lisa. Maddison was busy organising her friends for their own outing so she stayed at home.
We went south down the Nile as far as the church of  the Virgin Mary where the Holy family are said to have set sail for southern Egypt.
Then back to the straps and into TGI Fridays for lunch where we were joined by Amir and Margret and Sara.