Nearly the end of another school year and I feel a little more settled with a permanent job in the bag!  Knowing where I am going to be and what I am going to be doing (well, sort of!) is quite a nice feeling.   Mind you, I still haven’t received an official offer of a job in writing, although Vicky, our Principal, did announce to the rest of the staff that I had been appointed so I guess that is something!  All being well I will be at Dio for the foreseeable future teaching French part-time, part-time IT Teacher coach and Outdoor Ed co-ordinator.  An interesting portfolio and quite challenging but, hey, life is all the richer for a few challenges!  But there are still a few weeks to go of this year and they promise to be pretty busy! All those end of term/end of year things that we teachers and parents have to do – summer galas, end of term musical concerts, carol services, leavers’ ball, year 10 Camp, exam marking and reports – life is pretty hectic!

Last weekend the boys and I took part in the Round the Bridges race  – 2km for Gus and 6km for Lachlan and I.  With very little preparation due to injury and sheer laziness, it was a tough race – I hit the wall pretty early and had a stinker of a stitch – Nigel has a very unflattering video of me struggling across the finish line!  However, I still managed to come 8^th in my age group (35 – 49yrs) Lachlan did a better time, (well he has got youth on his side!) and Aonghas was disappointed that he didn’t beat his best friend ( he was 100^th of a second behind him!) but pleased that he beat last year’s time.  All in all a good day out but I am determined to a bit of training for the next one…..!

We have all joined the Hamilton Mountain Bike Club and have been going out on a Wednesday evening for Club night races.  Aonghas and Lachlan took part in the Pukete Spaghetti a few weekends ago and, as well as getting caked in mud, had a great time.  Aonghas has been at the back of the pack on the last few Wednesdays and is struggling somewhat on a bike with no suspension and dodgy gears, but he has persevered and after a particularly bumpy bit last week he said, ” Mum, my balls hurt – I might never be able to have children!”  Will have to look at getting him a new bike but he is at that awkward stage of being just too big for a child’s bike and not quite big enough for a small adult frame!  Trade-me beckons!   At least while I feel he needs me to stay with him I don’t have to go fast! I don’t want to bail and make a fool of myself – well, actually I don’t want to hurt myself, I don’t really care what people think!  Just need to get Nigel going now but he has the excuse of a broken chain on his bike…!

The garden is going well and we have started to harvest our first vegetables – Silver Beet.  There is something special about eating home-grown produce, isn’t there?  Fresh and chemical free.  The Broccoli is almost ready and there are flowers on the courgettes, beans, cucumbers and tomatoes.  The spring onions are doing well as are the leeks and carrots. There is also a selection of “plants with no names” – I planted the seeds and rather foolishly used a water soluble pen to write the labels and the writing washed off in the rain!  Well, I quite like surprises!

We are starting to make plans for the Summer holidays – we have booked to go on the Overlander – the train down to Wellington in the first week of the summer hols.  We will stay with Nigel’s Aunties and have a family get together down there and then home back home for Christmas.  We have the option to spend New Year with some friends in a beach house they have booked but we would also like to go up to Northland as we haven’t explored up there yet.  Will let you know what we decide next post!