NZ +1: Nessie

This is Vanessa, who is only really Vanessa officially, so shall henceforth be referred to as Nessie. Her house (with exotic southern hemisphere plants in the garden) is our base here and this is her welcoming us with open arms.

At some point, you might even get a photo of her cat, Sam.

At Singapore Changi Airport

Well, survived the 12 hour flight. Only the nine hour one to go.

The airport here is very luxurious, carpet up the walls etc. Nothing like the cramped, out-dated conditions at Heathrow.

All needed to eat so despite the offers of sushi and rice with everything, (which I promise is not a cliche at this airport), we went for Burger King. Not very exotic I know, but only equivalent of 6 pounds (no pound sign...) for 3 people. And the man on the Singapore dollars looks bloody miserable.

See you in about 12 hours. Have some photos from the flight to post, but no way of connecting camera here.... (They are now below...)

About 10 hours into Flight 1

This is where we were....



And this is what it looked like



And this is what I was doing...



Having watched three films already, I decided to be cerebral. But I didn't finish it. I post it here only as a challenge for all teachers reading this who, like me, have time on their hands until September 1.

Countdown: Gone...

Booked it...
Packed it...
etc

Bye!

Countdown: Socks Issue

Discover that I actually don't possess any socks which make pairs...

Countdown: NZ-0

Only 16 hours until take off, so I thought it would be a good idea to actually put one or two items in a suitcase. Still have to:

• take car to "safe house" to be looked after over the summer;
• taking advice from the BBC, work my way through my usual pre-holiday OCD list, which includes..."turn iron off, lock windows and patio doors, check iron again, don't leave TVs on standby, check patio doors, turn iron off..." etc;
• decide which books to take for the flight... having read Harry Potter and the Tedious Breize Block, I've gone for... this one, this one and this one, which is actually about New Zealand...
• (discover need to remove 90% of stuff from suitcase to get down to the Singapore Airlines Economy ("Cheap") Class baggage limit of 20kg;)
• drop a laptop into (old) work and be momentarily grateful that I don't have to see another bloody laptop for five weeks;
• have lunch at Don Beni's in Crowthorne;
• get to Crowthorne courtesy of Dave's Taxis, who have already had a coat pick-up to do in Bournemouth this morning;
• (find Harry Potter book has fallen into suitcase; remove it and all is OK.)
• worry about whether I locked the doors and, possibly, about whether I turned the iron off;
• get to Heathrow for about 7pm...

Countdown: Packing not going well

Suitcase still fairly empty. Having Sky+ is proving too much of a diversion.
I won't be here to find out who gets evicted, so please text me.
Right, must do something purposeful.

Countdown: NZ-1

Just in case you wanted to know where I will be sitting for 13 hours...
(Click on the plan and I've been highlighted. Don't worry, it wasn't painful...)

Countdown: NZ-2

Not long to go now, but my office at (old) work still looks like this. Big piles of stuff near the door to go to (new) work, laptops to install software on, huge heap of filin'-n-shreddin' to do, too many chairs etc.





I have found my egg box though. :-)

Countdown: NZ-3

After weeks of being at work in the heat, the first couple of days of the holiday do this. The British weather is acclimatising me for New Zealand.

If you want to know what the weather is like in NZ, use the link at the side. You can then gloat about how much better it is back here.