In the Weekend...

Nothing much happened.  I cooked a chicken pie and apple pie on Saturday and painted some British light cavalry. We also did some gardening.  This is a boring post but I have nothing much to add.  Life continues

Someone with a few physological problems

A few soldiers

In my Jammies at 4.30

Today I came home early after going for my doctor's appointment. (nothing sickness related) and decided to just blob out. So here I am sitting at the computer in my pyjamas.  Mari is heating up a tea which I had make previously and the kids are playing on our iphones and generally avoiding their music practice and homework.

Two New Doctor Who Books

That brings me down to the final 10 books! I have another four in my sights, so that will be 143 books up until the end of the TV series in the early 80s.

An Olympic Week

Monday... New class of Saudi Students + After School Class
Tuesday... Agents from China + Dinner at the Polytech Training Restaurant. (Really good tucker)
Wednesday... UMAT+ Saudi class grows to classroom max.
Thursday...Worked late
Friday... Big morning tea, bought desks and a chair for the new office, Exec meeting for Education Dunedin. I have the heady task of countersigning cheques for the trust now.  I don't know what it means but it does give me a little insight into the deeper working of the organisation.
Saturday...Cooked Chicken Tarragon and Apple Pie while the kids were at music+ did this blog

Doctor Who Takes Europe and Asia By Storm

Doctor Who in Japanese

and Korean

and Italian

Friday the 13th

Nothing much happened until Friday (today.) We had the electricians in today for the full day. They installed new lighting in a couple of classrooms and the front lobby.  We now have lumens to burn. They also installed a number of plugs and cleaned up the front area to free it from unsightly power cables.  Also we are getting a new set of blinds for the new staff room for Monday or Tuesday.

We also have changed our school staffroom into a classroom and changed our meeting room into a staffroom. Actually, we still have a pile of furniture to shift so that is going to be a job for Saturday.  On Monday we have a special group of Saudi students in on a 4 hour per week 2 month contract to study for IELTS. That means that we will be at full capacity again (at least for a short time).

If that wasn’t exciting enough we managed to squeeze in free flu shots for the staff after three as WELL as a staff meeting!!!!

Can ANYONE live life as close to the edge as I do!!

 I seem to take similar shots from year to year but here they go again.  This is a shot looking East over the Pacific and the direction of South America. Once you get over the horizon there is nothing much apart from waves for the next 3 thousand kilometres so from that direction there isn’t much shipping to be seen apart from the odd cruise ship heading down to Stewart Island and then up to Australia.

 

One of the problems with the city is the sheer number of heritage buildings which were built during the goldrush era 1860-80s which are not really suited to become commercial premises. The city council wants to keep them but no business really wants to move into them. They can be done up but without massive upgrading they are not really worth buying as an investment.  The vicious circle means that they stand unoccupied and not looked after – but can’t be torn down because they are heritage buildings. In fact about a month ago one of the frontages of one of these buildings collapsed onto the street without any warning. The city council is going to have to bite the bullet and allow a new Dunedin to emerge rather than keep some of these cute but unusable dinosaurs.

This is a shot of the Otago Daily Times building. Ancient –still used and very pretty. I walk past this lovely building every day and wish to stand at the top of that cupola just to see what the view would be like.

 

This is a shot of the Cobb and Co Restaurant and the balcony where the Queen stood when she visited Dunedin in 1953.  It seems that the new owners of the building have blocked off the door the the balcony where Her Majesty stood.

I lied.

Actually two more exciting thing happened.... I bought four new second hand Doctor who books - Namely Mission to the Unknown ,Planet of the Giants,Edge of Destruction (Doctor One) and Paradise Towers (Doctor Seven)

AND I did my first Facetime with my wife and my brother up in Auckland and it was cool. My wife and I have got prepaid Iphone4s which means we are not on contract but pay as we use the service. I am unsure if we are billed by the minute or if it is free if we are both using WiFi. The cool thing about facetime is that you can wander around the house while you are talking. My bro in Auckland was able to wander outside and show me his cars and jet ski which certainly couldn't have happened on a A Skype using PC.

New Webcam

In my mundane existence I don't get to do too much new stuff. But it all changed today when I was able to pick up a new webcam.  The plan is to Skype other PTEs and talk about assessment and moderation issues. We have kicked around the idea of having Skype meetings around New Zealand for us to come to a kind of collegial consensus about assessment issues but now it will move with greater speed. I picked up the Logitech HD Pro Webcam C910 which looks a whole lot sexier than my old one.

This is the almost complete French army...

Actually it is a bit of a mixture of Wurtemburgers and Nassaur troops but the majority are troops from the 1812 period. Not sure how many there are but there are well over 1000 infantry. Now all I need is a gaint wargames table to set them all up on... New house may be required to put soldiers in. Now there's a thought.....