Holiday planning begins

On a trip to the library to renew our membership I was inspired to borrow some travel books on Africa. We have finished 3 weeks of term already so in just 8 weeks time we will be off to Darwin for a week. We have those flights booked thanks to a Jetstar sale. Next weekend we are trying out a spa resort on Batam and in the middle of Feb we will return to Bintan for the annual MAE weekend. Looking ahead we plan to go to Africa in the 2 week June break but it is such a big country! So much to see and do! If any of you have some suggestions we would surely appreciate the help. Thanks to Bob and Barb we already have some starting points to consider. A colleague from Darwin teaching days has a home in Zinkwazi Beach, a small town on the north coast of the KwaZulu-Natal province. We are following up an offer to stay there for a few days.

Since the K2 classes have been working on a Birthday theme it only seemed appropriate that I put my name on the January birthday balloon wall displays last week. Low and behold on Sunday the first of my students arrived with a piece of chocolate cake for me. 

How could anyone say no to that face? That was promptly followed by a pair of ear rings from the second student! Now it is getting ridiculous! 

And of course I wore them for the rest of the class. I didn't have the heart to tell them my birthday is actually next week! We'll have to have a party and play pass the parcel. In the evening many staff met at Wine Bos for the first official Social Club function for the year. No other excuse other than to meet up. Once again there was a good roll up and after a steak and chips dinner (which is the Sunday night special) we introduced a few of the 'newbies' to the wine fairy at Park View Square. Now I have to confess that these images were taken on an earlier visit because the ones on that particular night turned out somewhat blurry. Maybe the camera needs a service, or maybe the photographer had trouble focusing.

This week's group walk took us back to the Chinese and Japanese Gardens at Jurong. It was a lovely cool morning once again. We are enjoying moderating winds which is most unusual for Singapore. With Chinese New Year approaching the gardens were a little more dressed up than usual with red sashes on the horse statue and the guardians. 

You can actually see Deb and Michael Canaways Condo in that shot above but they didn't join us. Deb had better things to do, like the ironing and Muchael was out for a run. He met up with us for as we sat down for a drink and lunch in the hawker stalls at the finish. Eric didn't join us this week, he had arranged to meet the installation guys at our place wso they could upgrade it for fibre connection. In the afternoon we met up with Kev and Fran from Hampton, Melbourne who are spending a few days here. We didn't realise how close they were to us when we were in Black Rock last month. Kevin was with us in Butterworth and, like us, made the most of his three years there. After many years as a Principal in Melbourne he retired and now runs a business advising schools on OH&S. He keeps in touch with a number of the other teachers from RAAF School Butterworth and will be joining us at the reunion on Penang in September. We met on the river at Clarke Quay then had dinner at Zam Zams in Arab Street, eventually parting after the retelling of many old stories at Molly Roffey's in Bras Basah.

On Tuesday Eric had his camera serviced while I went for the annual skin clinic check up and then we had the first of the 2014 Great Race Mtgs with Heather and Michael at their place. Organising this event last year was a highlight for me and so I am very happy to be joining the committee again, but this time as second fiddle (well, at least I am going to try). We established a few ideas on paper and then went for dinner at Wild Oats on the banks of the lovely Punggol Lake. You will no doubt learn more about the walking trivia quiz (somewhat like the car rallies of old) as the weeks of planning progress.