Chirk Castle

We have had the opportunity to get around lately and the weather has been reasonable. So our first adventure was to explore Chirk Castle. The National Heritage Trust is a great undertaking where many castles, manors and other places are open to the public. It is free to trust members and we joined while still in NZ.

The castle had magnificent walls and dates back to the 13th century. We ventured in and toured the living areas. This is what many of the locals call posh. It was great for the kids as a teddy bears was hidden in each room. 

Later a show was put on for the kids involving a knight in armour and lots of children with sticks. Sophia hopped on her horse, raised her lance and charged the knight. She went so fast that having hit the shield so hard the knight fell over which I suspect was part of the act. Later we found the armoury and the kids enjoyed the opportunity to dress themselves up. There was also an array of weapons to try.

Our favourite was the dungeon. Very simple with just two rooms at the bottom of a circular staircase. We also wondered around the gardens immaculately kept.

Feet on the ground in Wales,(Well almost!)

I'm wiring (do you like my u.k vocab), to be in contact with everyone!

We are now in our furnished rental with a young family to our right. Holly and Megan (3) are already bff's, and Jules is coaching James (7) in football. Peter his father is grateful as he has been trying for years to create some  football interest in his son. Sophia has made a friend with Katie, she is 3 doors down and also 9. Its amazing how having a steady stream of kids through the house can make it seem like home. Neighbours in our attached bungalow are nice as are our self confessed 'canny' neighbours across the road.

Holly and Megan both 3yr years old

The last 15 days have been a whirlwind of call centres, cut of calls, all in an attempt to set up the phone/internet/t.v, register at the medical centre etc, all the basics of life,... after hours on the phone we have all of the above now despite the need for a visit from several service men. The first service man on day 2 of being here, informed me that the leaking gas levels were alarmingly high and that the house could have exploded and possibly the one next door. My reaction was disbelief, I was all a bit overwhelmed considering we had just slept a night in the house.

Anyway,... too much to do to get too concerned. Finding a suitable school has been a challenge as there is a bulge in numbers in year 3 students, so we have a 4 mile school run. Was really hoping to be able to walk to school with the neighbours but it is not to be. We are however entitled to a taxi service as they can not provide schooling closer to our address, so as the kids settle I will take advantage of that. The parents and teachers at the school have been very welcoming, one day I was literary swarmed with hand shakes, questions, talk; very nice. It is a small school Northop Hall (178 chn), and has a simple site with an old church in the back drop... I almost expect to bump into Aimee, Kylie, Tracey in the playground. Its the usual school run chat with a few "oh we are off to Greece for a wedding this week", and "our holiday in Turkey was hot"...or from our librarian 2 mins down our street "you wont see me next week, I'm off to Cyprus for a week". :)

"Ah mum, not ready for the photo yet!" No 'fixed' playground , joining the PTA next week, hoping to join fundraising for onsite playground.

I've had three families simply knock on our door and introduce themselves, with offers of help. Louri who has 3 children similar in age to ours just lives around the corner, her house was burnt down last dec after their dishwasher blew up. She is bi-lingual, so I'm hoping to learn some Welsh while here to satisfy that pint of welsh blood running through my veins. Almost a week ago while following her home from a holiday programme, I got mildly lost ( have had to give myself a sit down map reading inservice since!) After this event...she turned up at our house just to make sure I had got home...bless her! It was rather funny when 2 days later in her drive a driver stopped to ask me for directions!! What was even more amusing to me was that I could give them as I already knew where the local golf course was!

Stephen Parrys extended family have sent us house warming cards, have taken us on a tour of the area and have taken us out for afternoon tea... we have had 2 dinner invites in as many weeks, so I think its fair to say that we are surrounded by a friendly bunch.!!

I'm making an effort to articulate my words as sometimes I think words are missed, the girls are picking up different terminology and also welsh which is taught at school. Its all a bit of a challenge at times. Getting used to driving the picturesque yet narrow roads, indicating with the left lever rather then the right (Mmmm Holly couldn't stop giggling one day when I couldn't work out how to turn the blasted window wipers off, and when I finally did the back ones started!!) All this change...(Loving ASDA Sarah!!) has got to stimulate more brain growth?!

The few runs that I have managed to squeeze in are along those pathways that cut through farm land, I feel really lucky to have access to them only 2mins from our front door. Henry has explored the rolling hills on his bike, he tells us that the roads continue through the paddocks and that you have sheep on either side. I can't wait to get up that high to experience that and the view!

Managed a good run this morning after dropping Holly at nursery. She looks ever so cute in her uniform. The teacher told me later that she cried for 13mins (she had clocked it!) When I collected her she looked really happy and proud of herself and her picture.

It was a tragically boring run with squirrels scurrying past my path and the occasional badger...o.k, the badger was a stretch ;)...I jumped in the car at 9.16 and locked our Skoda @ 9.22am and entered the 160 acre woodland which is named Wepre Park. As I glided past Ewloe Castle, and under the over hanging trees I amost expected to run into Robin Hood!

* p.s boring run  is really code for all of the housework/job hunting I'm doing ;) ;) if you are talking to Henry.

After school today we are looking forward to seeing Sophia, she has just spent 2 nights at Nant Bwlch Yr Haearn an outdoor education centre. I have been so impressed with her adaptability, she has slotted in and gone off to camp after only 4 days at school!! Jules is doing well, she however had a really teary day on day four of school here, I softened up and took her home as she was soo upset and also has a good dose of a cold. On the following monday she cried again, it was soo hard for me as she is generally so 'tuff' about everything...so I knew it was hard! I had to remove myself emotionally from her and be firm. The teacher at the end of the day said she had a good wail, but after that was quite happy. On the Tuesday she said in the car  on the way to school "mum I feel like I might feel a bit like I did yesterday morning", I said thats o.k, she had a little cry in the car and then started telling Holly about how she was starting on Wednesday. When we arrived she asked "do my eyes look red", they didn't and she happily walked in holding Hollys hand. She is very brave and I think the fact that Soph is away at camp makes it harder.

xS

First Week of Teaching

Its certainly different teaching in an English school. Well maybe not that different. Will I ever get used to wearing a suit and tie? I certainly wont be playing much sport out on the field with the kids.

The kids are great. They are very polite and even the lower streams are intelligent. The school has an entrance examination. There does seem to be a real emphasis on knowing rules and process. Every time I ask the question "why" I usually get blank expressions. I have a student who is new to the school and has immigrated from the states. He has a much better concept of why mathematical concepts work.

The staff at Kings are very friendly and it has made my start here much easier. I have even been dedicated a buddy who loves Rugby and is Welsh. Rugby isn't big here. The school is covered in soccer fields, maybe 10 and there is 1 Rugby field. I only wish I could have spoken at the sign-up meeting. I have been given a two period weekly slot for sport as part of my allocated timetable. Of course it is to take a soccer team.

Here's a photo of some of the Maths faculty. Neil is in the middle being the Head of department. Very relaxed. We do work long hours tho and I usually get home by 6pm. It takes me 20mins to get out of my suit and into my riding gear and 30mins to bike home. 

We are given a free lunch every day. It is to die for and will be motivation enough to arrive at school each day. They have cooked meals and enough fruit to even keep me going. So much for trying to loose weight.

Nothing is Easy in the UK

We have been in the UK now for 10 days and things are going very well considering. People are very friendly and helpful. Kings is great but I have only had a teachers only day so far.

However, anything you try to do is a massive hassle. We are yet to get our phone, internet and TV working. It would be unfair to call BT (Brittish Telecom) a dinosaur as that would assume it moves. It took them a week to flick a switch. Then it didn't work, so having rung them they informed me there was a fault, "well done". They are going to take up to 2 weeks to send an engineer to fix it. Can they have a contact number please, "yeah right".

The call centre is in India. I have rung them about 6 times. A couple of them were pointless as they did not do as they told me they would. You keep getting answers like "we are so sorry for your inconvience", "I understand your frustration" and a number of other apologies. Having rung them so many times it becomes very apparent that they are trained to give certain well learnt lines. In my last effort I asked for complaints. I must have asked 5 times but each time got one of their learnt lines. I gave up and asked for there internet wi-fi department. Again I was given the lines but kept repeating my request to each reply. Eventually he relented and I was transferred through and spoke to a Scotsman. What a difference. I was given a reinbursement to the wifi I had been purchasing and informed how I could use internet remotely.

We have tried to enrole our kids into various schools. We were informed by people to turn up on the teachers only day. A week later Sue turned up to be told that she needed to call the council who deal with all enrolments in Flintshire the area we live in. We rang them to be told they were too busy and it would take time; they had nothing to do the previous week. To make things worse most schools are full for Julia's age. I hate to imagine which school they are going to suggest and how far away they are. We have a temporary solution at a school 4 miles away.

The principles are very friendly though and we are going to contact 3 of them once they have seen if any of their year 3s have not turned up. If they have space in a room it does not necessarily mean they can take extra kids as there overall cap may be reached. Apparently all the new enrolments happened in December.

On  a brighter note we went for a very nice drive out in the Wirral and found a Tram Museum in Birkenhead. The kids got a ride on a 1920's doubledecker tram. They sat in the front section which was open air. We also got great views of Liverpool over the water.