Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Dinner!

Tonight I left work at 7pm and went straight for dinner. The girls decided we needed to splurge since the last couple days have been HARD.
So we went to TGIF, and bought heaps of food and some pricey drinks. These two families with kids from our school came in and the kids were in full HALLOWEEN costume! they were so adorable. we fussed and waved and ooohed over their cuteness. and when we finished our meal and were as stuffed as possible, the waitress came over and said the mother had just paid our bill. it was Money. i felt horribly guilty, and went out to 7/11 and bought them heaps of candy and chocolate and we gave it to them when we left.
Just when you feel alone and like no one wants you around, this happens and it feels like a wonderful world again. :)

Sunday, October 29, 2006

What happened this week

I MCd the kindy Halloween show on Wednesday morning this week. Hundreds of little kids in costume singing 'If you ever see a monster'. Irrisistable!
Wednesday night sipped Moet and nibbled on salmon squares and blueberry tarts the size of a grape at the 25th anniversary of M Moser, a design company.
Thursday and Friday were wasted being exhausted from school - can all this work possibly be worth anything?? There's challenging and then there's just impossible. and under this workload I'm not getting any classes really done well, they're all just scraping by. I woke up this morning and could only think 'My one curriculum is for kindy. I have to make all my other classes curriculums myself.' How effing miserable.
Anyway, spent yesterday afternoon at the Jade market and bought lots of pretty things. Don't know what to do today but will think of something. TV calls

Saturday, October 21, 2006

Baishawn Beach Photos

Louise and Batch make a mermaid
And manage to finish it
Louise Learns to Cartwheel, with Batch instructing

Louise starting a cartwheel Louise finishing a cartwheel

Our KTV Night Out

So our night at kareoke started like this. Very calm, collected and pretty.

Ms Kathleen Batchelor took the lead as our ktv host of the night.

It soon descended into drunken giggling and screams of Achy Breaky Heart...




Wednesday, October 11, 2006

End of 5 day weekend sucks

Wednesday, first day back at school: Stress and tightly strung nerves = searching desperately for lesson ideas from 8am-11.
11.30 start crying.
12pm decide to skip lunch.
1pm more teachers cry at having to come back to school. v.depressed.
2pm teach grade 9, making travel posters saying Sawubona in South African with Japanese Sumo dancing underneath (no this was not meant to happen. We occasionally get confused in a class that travels as quickly across the world as mine does)
3pm teach grade 7 girls. rapidly descends into gossip session about who has a boyfriend and which celebrities are hot right now. Girls very surprised such an old and obviously fashion-challanged teacher had boyfriend in past. they demand to know why am not married, clap hands excitedly and insist 'we should discuss this'. so cute, i'm utterly disarmed and end up showing bellyring (please god let none of them be telling parents at this very moment what we learnt in travel class today)
6pm leave school, starving from no breakfast or lunch. give gym a miss and head to fried rice place (heard the owner was asking bout me when Batch went up the other night) Owner and wife so nice, am wondering whether to give up job and ask to be adopted and spend year making rice.

Louise Lives Here

Sunday: No gym again. NY Bagels for breakfast. Back home and nursed aching head til 3pm, then spent another 4 hours watching Anne. v good night.

Monday: Ventured out to the beach. Jampacked train and bus rides were beastly. Landed on cool windy beach and learnt how to do handstands! Yes, me, Louise Ryan! Always wanted to do a handstand before i die and had so much fun falling on my butt i could barely move the next day. Will post pics as soon as Julia delivers. Also made a sand mermaid with no arm fat, absolutely symmetrical breasts and Batch gave her face surgery.
Headed into Danshui and got portrait drawn - not the best but cute. Starving, stopped at a tiny restaurant where they didnt have any of the food i knew how to say so pointed to some writing and meal appeared. Noodle soup with all sorts of god things. Highly recommend ordering in this fashion. Then ate 10 inch tall icecream and finished with a cherry cheesecake. v.v.v. tired but great day!

Tuesday, Double10 Day: Finally got to gym to work off holiday excess. Spent minimum time on machines and weights then sank thankfully into spa..then sauna...then steamroom...
Another 4 hours of blasted Anne trilogy - v reluctant but unfortunely addicted. Finished unsatisfactorily and was forced to watch The Natural with Robert Redford to get taste out of mouth, then got dressed, headed out to 101, ate burger king (v.satisfying) and watched The Devil Wears Prada. Fantastic!! Have now decided to spend travel savings on Jimmy Choos and Valentino. MUST look like Anne Hathaway at any cost. v.v.desperate

Moon Festival to Double-10 Day! cont...

Ikea Velvet brown pillow -$20
3 hours of Kareoke and red wine - $30
Mob of sweaty breakdancers to flirt with - PRICELESS!!!

Moon Festival to Double-10 Day!

5 day weekends rock!!

Friday, Moon Festival: Watched 4 hours of Anne of Green Gables, then Wedding Date. Discussed extensively how hot Dermot Mulroney is and exactly what we'd do with that sexy half-smile of his... Spent the night in Da'an Park on a blanket in fresh damp grass watching the bright silver moon in a cloudy purple sky, listening to Nora Jones croon along with dogs frolicking and basketball at 2am.

Saturday: Was up early to get to school and prep for the next week and, more importantly, my FIRST tutoring job! Lesson brought forward an hour and ran over to it in a mild state of panic. Found panic was waste of good nervous energy as my kids are incredibly intelligent and eager to read Amelia Bedelia themselves rather than listen to sweaty Australian teacher read, who they managed to find flatteringly fascinating nevertheless. Hit Ikea for new red wine bedsheets, brown velvet pillow and Ambiance lamp.
Got home and girls decided on secret ballat vote as to whether night would be spent playing Monopoly or more Anne saga. Found secret voting does not inspire quiet nights in and ended up in a KTV suite in fancy dress, singing Kareoke loud enough to worry the bartenders outside (outside our soundproof room). Then headed out to club and was pulled into breakdancers circle. Some very close dancing and now know how peacocks feel as males compete for attention, whoosh-ka! Could barely move, men all over the place and ego boosted no-end.

Moon Festival to Double-10 Day!

5 day weekends rock!!

Friday, Moon Festival: Watched 4 hours of Anne of Green Gables, then Wedding Date. Discussed extensively how hot Dermot Mulroney is and exactly what we'd do with that sexy half-smile of his... Spent the night in Da'an Park on a blanket in fresh damp grass watching the bright silver moon in a cloudy purple sky, listening to Nora Jones croon along with dogs frolicking and basketball at 2am.

Saturday: Was up early to get to school and prep for the next week and, more importantly, my FIRST tutoring job! Lesson brought forward an hour and ran over to it in a mild state of panic. Found panic was waste of good nervous energy as my kids are incredibly intelligent and eager to read Amelia Bedelia themselves rather than listen to sweaty Australian teacher read, who they managed to find flatteringly fascinating nevertheless. Hit Ikea for new red wine bedsheets, brown velvet pillow and Ambiance lamp.
Got home and girls decided on secret ballat vote as to whether night would be spent playing Monopoly or more Anne saga. Found secret voting does not inspire quiet nights in and ended up in a KTV suite in fancy dress, singing Kareoke loud enough to worry the bartenders outside (outside our soundproof room). Then headed out to club and was pulled into breakdancers circle. Some very close dancing and now know how peacocks feel as males compete for attention, whoosh-ka! Could barely move, men all over the place and ego boosted no-end.

Friday, October 06, 2006

Just when you think you're doing someone a favour...

Rotten day today. School was horrible, and its never horrible. all my classes went badly and it felt like the torture would never end. Had to have a work dinner and staff vs boss was a battleground I didn't want to be part of. Terrible for digestion.

Went out to Brass Monkey thinking we'd have a good time but was a bad end to a bad day and i left before midnight. I hailed a cab and the guy started to pull over whne another cab pulled infront of him, trying to steal the fare. I walked around the cab and went to the one who'd been cut out. He seemed happy to have me and decided to practice his english on our way home. I didn't mind and thought he was sweetly enthusiastic. But we got lost from him taking the wrong way and my fare ended up nearly double what it usually is. He was busy asking for my work card and giving me his and charged me the entire amount! Plus a little extra from when i was getting my business card and he'd left the metre running... how frustrating! I ended up feeling disgruntled rather than satisfied and I'm ready for the five day holiday we've just started. Even though i am starting my tutoring job on saturday. I can feel how burnt out I am after test week and getting everything in on time and coping with new students. This holiday isn't a minute too soon. Im going to sleep in and shop and go to the gym and relax. and fill in this blog of course
maybe spend some quality time in Eslite with trashy romantic fiction.