Amazing Thailand Toyota Triathalon

This triathlon sold out in 3 hours.  I thought there was no hope but Lyndsey got Toyota to get us in.  When I got there I thought I had made a huge mistake.  It had all the pros and was so impressive.  TV crews, amazing set up and about a million people. I had never ridden my bike before this weekend and every bike there was like a BMW and my bike like a 1982 Toyota station wagon.  The sea was rough and the swim long.  I was in panic mode by Sunday morning.  The swim was hard.  What made it harder as there were five level of swimmers set off one group after another.  I like, many women, put myself down and in the medium category and I think most men did the opposite.  It made the swim far more difficult as I had to swim around many poor swimmers.  I ended up coming out with some of the top swimmers, but it was tough.  The bike was awful as I could not work out the gears (probably needed to ride it once before the actual day) and ended up in the small gear for the entire thing.  And it was hilly.  The run I was overall frustrated and hot.  I was hungry and really the last 1km had given up.  I swore I would never do it again but certainly not at this level.  And turned out I cam fourth by 9 seconds (very annoying) and second 30 seconds away.  I could not believe it! As the only one without clip in bike, in the wrong gear, in an ancient road bike, I was happy.

The Deck - Mark and Alan Retirement Party

Next year my department is going to a different place when I started four years ago.  I will actually become one of the longing serving members as we say goodbye to another two this year.  Mark, my head of department, and Alan will both retire.  Of course, we needed to give them a proper send off and where better than one of our favourite spots, The Deck.  We have been a few times here to do the pub quiz and it is always a fun night out.  I divided us into 'Team Mark' and 'Team Alan' and we battled it out.  Neither team did well against the full pub but amazingly we drew and ended up with the same amount of points.  It was a great evening.  They both will be well and truly missed next school year.

Sebastian's Rhythm, Rhymes and Art Day

Yesterday morning Sebastian's class presented Rhythm, Rhyme's and Art day.  I was so sick, but I dragged myself there (I almost passed out during it and dragged myself home after).  It was great to see him perform and see some of the amazing work he had been doing in school.  He was very proud of himself and well worth the energy it took to get me there.  He did so well, particularly in reading, and this had been over the last few days.  He is feeling much more confident to take chances in reading and his confidence is developing.

Sebastian's Bangkok Birthday

I use to feel badly for Sebastian's summer birthday but now I realise he has gotten pretty lucky.  He somehow has milked three birthdays every year.  A Bangkok friend birthday, a Ecuador birthday and then his real day birthday where ever that might be.  This year I was so happy as he wanted to invite our Bangkok community friends rather than his school friends. I love that.  His theme was minecraft/football and he had a full party of friends and even family with Anto there as well.