Family and RAF

My weekend in London has gone from strength to strength. Not only have I got to spend time with great friends but also spent the day with family on holiday in London. Vicki, my first cousin, her husband, Hottie, and their sons Nicholas and Luke, are visiting from Barbados and as luck would have it not too far from Nadia. So today we decided to meet up for lunch. What I did not realise is that this would also include a fairly long tour of the RAF museum (i was kinda hoping we would end up in the mall).

 Previously, I would have thought

 ...the RAF museum would bore

 me to tears.

 But actually I enjoyed it, learnt a lot (Hottie is a wealth of information) and

he assured me my Dad would be impressed.

We then had a lovely lunch, that I enjoyed very much, a tiny bit more than the museum but that is only because the RAF did not provide wine.

All round a lovely afternoon :) And I just may try this museum thing again...

Mummy's First Girls Night

I am so happy that I got to be the first one to take Nadia Manning-Thomas out after having beautiful Saba. Nadia is one of my closest Bajan and all time friends, we have spent the last thirteen years living in different countries but have always managed to see each other and remain close. It was a doubly good night as one of my other nearest and dearest joined us and I have now been lucky enough to see Shelly two weekends in a row. We had a great night, good food, fantastic wine and people in a bar I could actually communicate with :)

Oh and a special thanks to David, who we left with a very unhappy Saba (she obviously wants to spend every moment she can with Aunty Amanda).

Saba Thomas...

...is a very happy girl today to finally meet who will certainly become her favourite Auntie. And Auntie Amanda is equally excited to meet Saba, who can only be described as the most happy beautiful, smiley baby girl ever (well tied with Jodi, of course). We are going to have a fabulous time bonding over the weekend, even if it is a bit cooler in London then Auntie Amanda would have liked! (oh and also great to see the parents, Nadia and David ;))

School's Out

Yippee, in a few short hours, the summer holidays will officially begin!  Yesterday was the last day with the kiddies and today we are just dotting some i's and crossing some t's.  And what a great year it has been, my colleagues have been fantastic, the students are brilliant and I have learnt so much.  Before I came here I was so concerned to teach at a private school, I always swore that I would never do this.  In fact, I think I can be a bit of a reverse snob sometimes.  But I have learnt so much this year, kids are just kids, and they all have their growing pains, no matter how much money they don't or do have.  It has been a real eye opener for me and although I would still like to teach  less fortunate children somewhere in my future, my time at this school has helped me to grow as a teacher and also as a person.

One of the Science teachers had us at her amazing flat for drinks and BBQ.  It was a great way to kick off the celebrations that will continue for the next seven weeks!

The Point Is...

the Mathematics department will never be the same.  Today is the last day of school and the last day that our department has the privledge of having Elena and Asa in it.  Next year they will be moving to the new middle school and we will somehow have to manage without them.  I am going to miss them both terribly, Elena's  'The Point is..' comments, her bad directions and her general Italian beauty and Asa, her organising me, her support and her general Swedish beauty.  Last night we had a dinner to celebrate these ladies (also Zuzana, who will still be with us part time, but will be running the middle school!), it was a great way to end the year and I cannot believe in a few short hours my first school year will be done!

Welcome

to beautiful Alexander Levy Grisetti, born June 19th 2012 to loving parents Brian and Fernanda.  Aunty Amanda finally got to meet the little fella yesterday, and he is gorgeous.   Everyone is happy and healthy.  The parents, of course, were only slightly disappointed that they could not name their child after me, so instead they decided to give him the same initials, ALG.  Welcome Xander, and I cannot wait till you get a bit older and Aunty Amanda can spoil and corrupt you :)

Baby Xander's last days in

So excited to meet Aunty Amanda

France and Beer Pong

When I have visitors for a short time, as in only a day or two, I really carefully plan their time. I want them to leave feeling they saw and did a lot in their stay. The minute I heard Shelly was coming, I started making our plan.

We started the day

in my favourite French town.

We had a lovely lunch (which is kind of lucky as forgot to feed her dinner) and then headed to

Mark's (above, teacher) annual beer pong tournament

a very cultural event.

We lost, very badly, champions above.

The evening even included a little music (Patrick will be so disappointed that he left shortly before). Day one was a very busy day, and I think fairly successful. Day two is looking beautiful and about to begin :)

The Luck of the Irish

was not on side yesterday as Shelley was delayed last night, getting us back just before midnight. It did not deter us though, and over a few bubbles and hours we put the world to right and solved all our problems (although this has created a new problem this morning, little man drilling in head)

The perfect pressie, look closely at the box :)

Lily's

You know how sometimes you look at something in awe of how beautiful it is. Well I have been doing that all week with these Lily's and today they are looking exceptionally beautiful (and no I am not in love). Maybe because it is Friday, possibly due to memories I associate them with but probably because I am so excited that a beautiful friend at the last minute decided to fly in tonight for the weekend!

ISB Sports Day was a day..

... I have been nervous about since I learnt of my role, Basketball Referee, I really thought I would look fairly ridiculous and unfit reffing high school.  Further, I am very indecisive, was it a travel or a foul or did she just double dribble...  But I did not take into account the power of the whistle, with that whistle whatever I said was the final word.  Therefore, I ended up really enjoying the day, I was totally biased with my reffing,  totally making some unfair calls to help the under dogs, it was great.   I also thought it was great that the boys and girls all did the same event, there were no 'boy' sports or 'girl' sports, which is something I really disagreed with in England's physical education system.  And finally, the best thing about the day is that the weather was fabulous, something very rare at my previous sports days.

The  Reffing Team

Chilling by the pool, a very relaxing afternoon

Italian Feast

Last night Maria hosted an Italian feast in honour of two of her friends visiting from her old school in Romania.  As usual loads of yummy food, drink and people. I even got my own special Amanda dinner :).  It was a great way to end a fairly full weekend but I must admit I cannot wait to climb into my bed immediately after work...

I have never seen Lola scared of another dog before, but she was definitely fairly terrified of this Yorkie

Patrick and William (after much begging and pleading) of course gave us a show

International Fair

What a fantastic day! Brilliant food, drink and people from all over the world.

Bloody Ceaser's from Canadian stall :)

Ellie visiting Argentina

Some sangria

Stopped by Asia

Of course went to UK

A little German

A lot of time spent in France...

But definitely the place to be or the Nationality of choice

was Sweden.