After a long time searching...

After a long time searching we located the piece of art that was the one! This is it’s story:

Andrew saw a picture he liked in Greytown only a few days after the wedding. He apparently showed me it but I didn’t remember a thing, I was still stuck up on cloud nine also know as wedded bliss. When I had finally come back down to earth Andrew and I started our serious hunt for the right piece of New Zealand art. We both knew this was going to be a challenge, as it had to comply with a list of criteria. A= has to the work of a New Zealand Artist. B=It has to be an original C=It really should show a landscape or something New Zealandish. And finally for the hardest criteria of all. D= we both have to like it!

So the hunt began, Andrew searched the internet and I, well….. I went shopping with mum to Queensgate. However, I did suggest that we go the Gallery over in Eastbourne at Days bay on our way to visit some friends. The Van Halen Gallery always has a variety of artwork on display. And there it was…….I saw the picture that I knew we had to have. The only bugger was that it was a print. With all of the generous contributions from friends and family we could hardly buy just a print. Or could we? I called Andrew over to show him, fingers crossed that he also liked it. That is it! Yelled Andrew. I know it’s perfect isn’t it! I am so glad that you like it.

So to cut a long story short. The Gallery rang the artist Debbie Hoare, an Eastbourne local and asked if she still had the original for sale. She said yes but it is in a gallery over in Greytown. So it turns out that Andrew had seen the original over in Greytown. They arranged to sent the painting over to Eastbourne and we managed to take it with us to Singapore all with a day to spare.

Today this wonderful scene of Wellington looking from Eastbourne hangs proudly in our home in Singapore. It reminds us of home and all of our friends and family that shared the best day of our lives with us. Thank you all so very much. xxx

The Singapore Zoo

We have just enjoyed a long weekend so decided to head to the zoo. Rach was keen to see the animals and I was keen to try out my new birthday present camera.

The Zoo is a very polished tourist experience and rather humane for a Zoo. Lots of the animals are wandering or climbing around without fences. The monkeys were all free to roam around, with I guess some well thought out strategies to keep them from straying too far. The orang-utans where handing out on this island where you could walk through on board walk.

Its taken us nearly a year and think we have finally done most of the local attractions. We need some more long weekends to explore a little further towards Indonesia or Malaysia. Lots of friends headed off to resorts over the weekend, and to nice beaches a couple of hours north in Malaysia.

It is now exactly a year since we moved out of our place in Claremont Grove and began our shift. How a year flies by.

Teaching with laptops

Since moving to Singapore, Rach and I have both been teaching in a full laptop environment. Each kid in our Grade 9 and Grade 11 classes have laptops which are linked to the wireless network. The laptops have sure altered the way we both teach. Rachel is now a convert to you tube and enjoys finding geeky videos for Geography. I now use a variety of blogs and school ICT stuff to make the learning a bit more interesting.

For both of us it has been an excellent opportunity for developing our craft as teachers and will be a nice string to our CV's when we eventually move on. I have recently presented a bit of research on the effectiveness of laptops. The conference was for all of the Singapore schools and it was a great chance to network, and to also begin the path towards maybe beginning my masters.

Evaluating The Effectiveness Of Laptops In The Classroom

View more presentations from Andrew McCarthy.

Cross Country racing

I took my gaggle of cross country runners to the Singapore International Champs this week. It was held at the American School of Singapore which was a bit too urban for a cross country race. Nevertheless heaps of kids from the other schools competed. The race was dominated by the kids from the American School. The school has about 3,000 students and a very modern and bling campus. Wouldn't mind having a full athletics track, Olympic size pool and artificial turf at our school. We didn't have many kids running. Our school has about 550 students, which is tiny compared to the seven big schools here with between 2000 and 3500 students.

Our Under 14 girls team with their 3rd place medals (plus random Curtis sneaking into the pic)

A weekend workshop in Bangkok

A few week ago we headed to Bangkok for a weekend of curriculum training for the International Baccalaureate. Both Rachel and I are now teaching a middle years class ( Grade 6 - 10) so spent three days in a workshop learning about Humanities / Social Studies, assessments and or sorts of other dull teaching material. This is about as close as we will ever get to a business trip so we made the most of it.

Our workshop classroom at the New International School of Thailand, boring.

We stayed in a great hotel in central Bangkok in the district of Sukhumvit, about a 10 min walk from the school where the course was run. The hotel was amazing value compared to the some of the hotels that was stayed in whilst in Europe.

Our hotel suite, huge lounge, kitchen and the king size bedroom.

We enjoyed the chance to network with some other teachers from around Asia. We met teachers who work in Beijing at a rather prestigious international school, the Western Academy of Beijing. http://www.wab.edu/ We also befriended people from Laos, Thailand and Indonesia. The growth of international schools in Asia is exponential at the moment especially in India and China with more multinational companies setting up in those parts of the world.

Lumpini market and food courts, the girls are out shopping.

We didn't get a huge chance to tour the city but did escape on Saturday night to the night markets in Lumpini. On the same afternoon, 30,000 red shirt anti government protestors where heading into central Bangkok a year after the riots when the airport was closed for week. We managed to get across town on the subway system which is brand new and very efficient. From what we heard Bangkok is not quite the wild west of Asia that it used to be. Still plently of interesting stuff that contrast against sterile Singapore. Think we might head back for a long weekend soon to do some shopping and check out the temples and attractions.

Formula One Night Race

Along with a mate from school, I headed along to the Formula One last night. Friday was the cheapest of the three nights so we grabbed tickets. At $38 for a walk-about ticket it was a bargain. For the same privilege, a walkabout ticket on race night is $128. A seat in a stand begins at $300 up to $1,200 per seat along pit lane.


The atmosphere was electric and the city spectacular under lights. The 5km night circuit loops around an area called Marina Bay which contains numerous attractions such as the Esplanade theaters, the Singapore Flyer and the grandiose Fullerton Hotel. We happily walked around during the first practise session and found plenty of good spots to watch the cars rush past. The bridge across the harbour was a good place to see the cars hit 300km/hour and then brake for a 90 degree corner. In between practise sessions everyone congregated in the central Padang cricket ground for live music and waited for the late session to begin.

The highlight of the late session was a crash by a Renault driver in the same spot as the now infamous accident when Nelson Piquet Jr crashed on team orders to help Fernando Alonso, another Renualt driver win the 2008 race. An unexpected part of the race for me was the live music running throughout the weekend. Friday night was headlined by Katy Perry, who incidentally didn't turn up to the stage. We could figure if this was a good thing or a bad thing. Perhaps she was stuck in a bar kissing a girl or trying to find a F1 boyfriend. On Saturday night, Travis is playing.


I didn't have my camera, as Rachel took it back to NZ, so have borrowed a few pics from Flikr.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kimiraikkonen/

Reminiscing about summer holidays

We have been travelling heaps lately, think Rachel is on first name terms with the taxi drivers at the airport. Our summer holiday in Europe was still pretty amazing and a great break. Can't think of anything better than driving around, camping and eating far too much food. Here are some favourite pics of our June/July trip around France then the UK.

Exploring the walled city of St Malo on the northwestern coast of France. The city was destroyed by allied bombing in the Second World War but has been put back to its original form and style, piece by piece.The American war cemetery at Ohama Beach. A place that is famous for just one day in history, when the allies captured the beach on D Day and fought to break the German's hold on France.

Out walking in the French Alps with Mt Blanc forming a backdrop. Fairytale forest and majestic mountains.

The late evening summer sun playing on the buildings in central Edinburgh .

Rach at Euro Disney outside of Paris... who would have guessed?