Back to the coalface

Holidays seem like a long forgotten memory now. We have been back in Singapore for nearly two months, and are well back into the swing of teaching and living on the equator.

Our local MRT/Subway station, about 5min walk.

The school year runs from August to June in most international schools, so August represents a fresh start with a new group of student to remember. This year it took me about four weeks until I could confidently remember all of the students names. I still have trouble remembered the names such as Jong In, Sang Hoon, Sang Mo, Hye Jin, Hoang Duy. After a while, I can put a face to a name but my brain is still in a western mindset. Give me a list of Jessica, Emma, Jane and Emily and it would take a week. I am teaching Economics, Humanities and Business Management this year. Humanities is my first junior class overseas. They are about 5th form, the remainder of my classes are 6th or 7th form NZ equilvients.

Other than school we have caught up with lots of people. An orienteering mate Darren was in town running a competition called the Hillary Challenge for Singapore schools. Was great to catch up and see a bit of outdoors stuff. The Minstry of Education in Singapore contracts the NZ Outdoor Pursuits Centre and Darren to run the competion. It is limited to local schools, otherwise the international schools would have a large presence.

I also competing in my first race in Singapore. It was a 5km race around the Formula One circuit which was closed to traffic. I managed a cheeky win, from a field of 4000 people. Pity none of them could really run, as it was a great course andfully closed to all traffic. I ran 16.45 which is slow by NZ standards but somehow fast by Singapore standards. I am always looking for a few more races to enter. I keep missing the cut offs for the big races. The Standard and Chartered Marathon/Half Marathon has closed entries at their limit of 50,000 competiors. Need to plan ahead when the races are so popular and not scheduled until Dec ! guttered

From France to Scotland

After living the high life camping in France we skipped across the channel to the UK courtesy of a cheap Ryanair flight. We thought the flight left from "Paris" but turns out the airport is a good hours drive north in some little village. Anyway we arrived in Scotland fine, struggling to find enough warm clothes and then grabbing a new rental for our few weeks in the UK.

We spent a week driving around Scotland with Rachel's long lost brother and girlfriend Nina. It was good to see Rodney after about 4 years. We left Glasgow after one brief night and headed around the usual western and northern tourist circuit. We visited Loch Lomond drove to stay in Oban for the night on the coast. Then we did a long misson in the rain to the Isle of Skye which reminded me of the remote parts of the south Island scoured with large glacial valleys.

We continued the circuit north checking out Lochness and then eventually to a very grey town of Inverness. From here we drove diagonally south back towards Edinburgh so we could drop off Rodney and Nina at a huge music festival 'T in the Park'. We enjoyed chilling in Edinburgh, literally and metaphorically. It had a nice feel with lots of students, a few tourists and heads of pubs and good food.

Since then we have leapfrogged south to York for a night. I ran around the town for a while trying to avoid what seemed like half of England out for a Saturday afternoon walk. From there we are visiting lots of friends for a week. We are currently in south Manchester visiting one of Rachel's close friends Kat, this afternoon we will head to Sheffield to see Bryn and Piret, orienteering friends and flatmates and do some fell race. Then we will visit Leicester to see friends who we meet in South America before spending out penultimate week in London and Paris before flying back to Singapore.

Exploring Chamonix

With our friends from Singapore we have been exploring the hills around the ski resort town of Chamonix. The town to nestled in a huge glacial valley at the base of Mt Blanc which at 4800m is the highest moutain in Europe. Just to the north is the Swiss border and Geneva and through the tunnel to the east is Italy.

Yesterday after the half marathon we walked up to Lac Blanc which is perched above the valley looking out towards Mt Blanc on the opposite side of the valley. The climb began with a hillside of tight zigzigs and ascended 800m onto a balcony looking over Chamonix. Amongst the throngs of walkers we spotted heaps of wildlife and local deer.

The lake was in a small valley with remanents of last winters snow covering the mountains on all sides. The view from the turqouise lake across the valley was surreal. We ended the walk with another haul accoss an escarpment of rock to a ski station at about 2800m. A good day of climbing.

Today we did the big tourist thing here and caught the chairlift up to a point high above the valley called Angille di Midi. This peak is 3800m and the highest cable car in the world. The views were out of this world and an amazing view into the mountaineering landscape. From this point we caught another cable car across about 4km of glaciers to the Italian side of the Mt Blanc massif. The views down were a little scary as you spoted climbers dodging the glaciers far below. We took heaps of photos before returning back to Chamonix to grab some lunch.

Tomorrow we are off towards Switzerland and then back towards Paris before next weekend.

Running up a mountain

I fortunalty or unfortunalty took up an offer to run an off-road half marathon in the French Alps. The timing was ok. At least I had some holidays in which to get fit and try to develop some hill running strength. I managed ok and trained for a solid two weeks in France before arriving in Chamonix.

The race was a rugged 23km with about 1400m of total ascent, the majority of which was covered in the last 8km's of the course. The race started in the main village with 1,500 other idiots, a large bunch took off from me at under 4 mins per km so I eased off, sensing I should leave a little strength in the legs for the final uphill. I survived the first 13km fine, but began to suffer on the ascent to the ski station at 2300m. My lack of hill running (Singapore's highest is 100m) began to surface but most other runners were down to a shuffle as well. The track was undulating and contouring up along the side of this huge glacial valley. It peeked out to a ski station at 17km after climbing 500m in 2 kilometres. and I scoffed down a couple of cokes and energy drinks. This kept me chugging till the beginning of the next climb which was in the open, along to the finish line perched at another ski run. After a few anguishing moments of cramp I crept across the finish line. 2hrs 37mins was heaps slower than I thought I would manage. The winners did 2hrs but in the end of was glad too survive.

The race was very well organised and relatively cheap. Included was a post race buffer, nice running top and chairlift back down the hill. It was good do a race in another country and will start training again for a 10km race in Singapore in August.

The South of France

Last week we left the middle of France and the Loire Valley to head futher south. The Loire Valley is an old hangout for French Royalty who built a variety of grand chateaux's in the 1700's- 1900's. Today it is a mecca for bus loads of tourists, we just managed to explore a few and stay at a sleepy campsite near the town of Blois on the banks of the Seine.

From here we were a little undecided on where to travel to. We wanted to get south for a bit to check out the Riveria. We stayed a night near some grey looking city of Clarmont - Ferrand very near to Lyon. I enjoyed a big run in the forests and around some volcanoes but we soon headed further south.

We found a campsite between Nice and Cannes on the coast for $15 Euro a night so planned to stay for three days. We checked out some of the resort towns like St Tropez but were turned back by the manic traffic. We spent a good day in Nice and enjoyed wandering around the backstreets, having coffee and checking out the markets. Nice had a great feel with heaps of tourists lying on the average gravel beach.

From Nice we drove via Italy all the way north to the French Alps and the resort town on Chamonix at the foot of Mt Blanc. We are lucky enough to be staying with a friend from work in their holiday house before we head back to Paris by next Saturday.

French Adventures

Armed with our trusty Ford Fiesta we have been meandering our way around the northern parts of France.

The itinery for the first week was wonderfully planned as is always the case, the next three weeks are a little more vague. So far we have visited Monet's house in the quaint village of Giverny, toured the D Day Landing beaches on the north coast and headed west to see an ancient abbey Mont St. Michel perched on a rock in the middle of a tidal bay. Yesterday and today we have toured around an array of huge Chateaux's spread along the Loire Valley in central France.

The best contrast from Singapore is the nice fresh food. We have been cooking up a storm most nights beside our tent, aiming to avoid the expensive touristy resturants. We have been hanging out in campsites and checking out the British and German tourists with their camper vans, satelitte dishes and plug in fridges. Some of the places are a bit deserted, apparently due to the depreciation of the pound in the last 12 months against the Euro.


Rachel loved Monet's house with the gardens and seeing copies of all his paintings in the original house. I enjoyed walking around the surreal American War Cemetary perched above the imposing cliffs of Omaha Beach. Most days I have been out running and Rachel has been writting postcards and reading up in the Lonely Planet on places to visit. All in all, it has been a pretty chilled out trip so far and a great contrast from the bustle of Singapore.

We're all going on a... summer holiday

Going on a summer holiday when you live in a city which straddles the equator does seem a little perverse. I think most places in the world would be slightly cooler than Singapore at the moment so we are escaping Asia for June and July.

We have decided to head to Europe for our long summer break. It was close call. We spent a while juggling up an interpid style trip to China and Tibet or heading to France and the UK to catch up with friends. France and the UK won out and we have nearly organized an itinerary. Nothing like booking and committing to flights to get you motivated.

We are leaving Singapore at the beginning of June and heading to Paris to pick up a little Peugeot rental car. We are packing our tent and a bit of camping gear and intend to drive around France, the top of Italy and Switzerland for about four weeks. In France the plan to is check out Monet's Garden in Giverny just to the north of Paris then to drive out towards Normandy to some of the D-Day landing beaches. After this we hope to head south to a famous abbey called Mont. St Michel near Brittany.



The rest of the plan is vague at the moment. We think we will skirt around the Mediterranean Coast and pop into Italy to maybe spend some time here. Then I want to explore some of the Swiss and French Alps and to do a few missions. We will try to base ourselves somewhere like Chaminox on the French side or Zermett near the Matterhorn but are a cautious about how far our Singapore dollars will stretch.



From here we will drop back the rental and fly from Paris to Glasgow to do some touristy things with Rachel's brother Rodney before heading down through the UK to rendezvous with Rodney and his girlfriend at their apartment in London. Just before we fly back to Singapore we are booked for a little break in Paris with good mates Tom and Kathryn.

Should be a good trip, a little different from the bus journey and empanadas of South America but something I have been wanting to do for a few years. If anyone has any good ideas of places to see in the South and East of France let us know !