School Awards

As soon as we had got rid of the children there followed the "End of year party".
Phew - time to relax...
I needed that wine after being Dolly.


Awards at the end of year party were many but one which topped the event was the award to a boss who authorised the seniors' (year 11-13) party - entitled the Jizzmas party.
And still did not even get the clue when the advertising said "Not coming is not an option" and "Do not come on your own".
Ah well.

Last day of term - the hazing!!

"It is traditional," quoth the head of music, as Yule approacheth, "that new staff should do a little performance at the final assembly. Would you mind organising something?"
"Sure," sayeth I, with glee abandon.

So a quick missive passeth from ye town cryer (email) and all new staff gathereth for to apply their great skills unto the task.

And verily did an idea become flesh and runneth away with said new staff.

The school is named KGV which is akin to 9 to 5 by chorister Dolly Parton - she who hath a HUGE talent.

Thus was the idea born and great mirth followed.



New staff, skirted and ready to sing in front of the whole school. Hurrah - ritual humiliations.








Top level maths teacher (left).
Other head of maths (right).






The words:
Tumble outta bed
And stumble to Ho Man Tin
Pour myself a cup of ambition
Yawnin, stretchin, try to come to life
Jump in the form room
And the blood starts pumpin
Start of the class
The children start jumpin
And folks like me on the job at KGV
Chorus:

Workin at KGV
What a way to make a livin
Barely gettin by
Its all marking
And no chillin’
They just use your mind
And we give out loads of merits
Its enough to drive you
Crazy if you let it

KGV, for service and devotion
You would think that I
Would deserve a fair promotion
Want to earn like Ed
But ESF wont seem to let me in
I swear sometimes HR is out to get me
Mmmmm...

You’ve got your dreams
We won’t let em shatter
Youre just a step
On the IB ladder
But you got dreams they’ll never take away

On the same boat
With a lot of your friends
Waitin for the day
Mr Jabal’s emails end
And results come in
An its all gonna roll you away

2nd chorus:

Workin at KGV
What a way to make a livin
Barely gettin by
Its all marking
And no chillin’
They just use your mind
And we give out loads of merits
Its enough to drive you
Crazy if you let it

KGV, yeah, your EE’s gonna eat you
You can swim all you like
But still Rowell’s gonna beat you
You just never know

what Mr Lafferty is saying
And you spend your life
Going funny if you want it

School links

Here are links to various KGV-based youtube links. To give you a flavour of the school.

A photographic guide to KGV Photos here

Each year we have a number of inter-house competitions. This is a link to this years seniors ensemble winners - Crozier. Link to Crozier win Sound quality is terrible but it is worth sticking with it past 2:30.

We have a large Indian population in the school. Some of them call themselves the Brown Boys (think "Goodness Gracious Me"). Brown Boys video

They have a lot of talent - bear with it PANTO 2006

Enjoy!!

Merry Christmas in Chinese

Heather has been learning Chinese language since August. She is doing very well indeed and is pleasing her teacher.

She has learnt to speak, read and write.
This is Heather writing the Chinese for:Literally Holy Birth Happy - you say " Shan Dan Kwai Ler".


For Santa the words mean Holy Birth Old Man.
You say "Shan Dan Lao Ren".

Harley is Pleased

Harley came to live with us having had a rough time. He'd been chained up in a bus station and could have been a very troubled dog.
Instead he is so very grateful for everything we do.



Oh food... Thank you.
Oh water...Thank you.
Oh treats... Thank you.
Oh outside...Thank you.
Oh bath... erm err thank you anyway.
Oh vet.. yes I will even lick you.

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He even loves that cats though they are not impressed by his affection.

Nephila Maculata

The Giant Wood Spider certainly is.
I'm not overly upset by many creatures, but this one give me the willies.
The thing gets massive.

In the spring it appears as a small spider, but by the autumn it is HUGE.
This one made itself a web on the front of the house on Halloween. A very nice decoration, but ewwww.

The pic at the bottom of the page shows the size compared to the thumb. Over 3 inches in the body, add the legs and it is dinner plate size.
In Japan they're called "O-jyorou gumo", "gumo" meaning spider, "O" meaning big and "jyorou" meaning "femme fatale".
The ladies get this big. The boys are only 5mm long.

They get big but their webs are even bigger - stretched to a diameter of one metre between the trees. Far too easy to accidentally walk straight into one as they sit in the middle of their web.
It belongs to the golden orb weaver family, which is why its silk is yellow, and this silk is the strongest of any spider. The one at the end of our garden caught a bat. A BAT!!

Sheung Yiu Village Museum

Sheung Yiu Village is a Hakka village which was built by a Hakka family surnamed Wong approximately 150 years ago. The village became prosperous due to its lime kiln whose produce was much sought-after for use in mortar and fertilizer, as well as lime bricks and tiles for building houses.

Sheung Yiu means "above the kiln" in Chinese.

The kiln has been restored.

It began to decline in prosperity when modern bricks and cement came into use. In the 1950s, the villagers moved away to the urban areas or went overseas to earn their living. The whole village was abandoned by the 1960s.

After the full restoration of the village in 1983, the village was opened as Sheung Yiu Folk Museum in 1984.

The restored building contains a number of typical Hakka utensils and farming tools, and also some displays on the history of the inhabitants.

Surely some mistake...

The pot on the right is for water, the smaller numbered pot on the left is for wine.

Last weekend we went for a walk

We live in a country park, so it seems a shame that we had not explored much so far.
Ian had found a pathway that said it was an easy walk for a family, taking about an hour. There was also a Folk Museum on the way.

We were going to take the bus down the hill to the pathway (about 4km away) but a neighbour picked us up instead.
Here we are ready for our walkies...

There are many hillside shrines like this one.
Not sure what this one is for - it might be the hill god (God of Mountain) or it might be an ancestors shrine.
It is in regular use, incense sticks abound.

There was a God of Mountain shrine here up to 30 yrs ago.















Ooooh this is pretty.
We are close to the sea. Mountain streams abound and run off into the sea all over the park.
All the way along this walk are signs telling us about interesting things.
One here explained the mudflats and alluvial deposits.
You can see the path was concreted all the way - you could have pushed a buggy along it!.
As we stride along the paths more signs tell us about the plant life. We found the sandpaper vine, which has very rough leaves and has been used for scouring. There is a plant whose flower makes tea for gastric troubles - we are going back for that one!

Made it! We survived our first walk and are still in good humour. Hurrah.

Read on to find out about the museum.

Badger and Harley aged 3 months

It has been a couple of weeks since I have updated my blog.
So the messages now may be a bit out of order and piecemeal.



This message is about our puppies. Badger and Harley are about 3 months old now.
They went to the vet yesterday and were very good in the car, sitting nicely. Both are in good health and about Xmas time we can take them for long walkies.

When Badger met Harley

Harley came home and we let Badger out to meet him. He woofed a lot to begin with and was growly. Fortunately Badger was unconcerned. Harley was on his harness and lead (it is a body harness, no collars for the time being) and Badger could approach.
A short while later they did the usual sniffing greeting, approved of one another's bum and decided to be friends.
Badger had taken to play fighting with Heather before this and Heather had been nipped. This is one main reason behind us deciding to get a companion dog. Harley just happened to have his pics out there at just the right time.
Badger and Harley played and played and fought (nicely) and played. Phew.

Harley the good news

So of course we had to have him. On Tuesday of half term, Heather and I went all the way to Central HK on public transport to fetch him home (1.5 hours).
He came from Lamma Island on the ferry to meet us and then had another hour home in a taxi. He was a good boy all the way. He wanted lots of reassurance and cuddles. He was a bit of a koala. Here he is:

Harley Part 2

So we found out that they had been rescued and one pup had gone to a foster carer. The other was at the rescue centre.
It did us no good at all I'm afraid to see this pic...
This is the fluffier pup freed and doing big eyes....uh oh. Showed Ian!!

Harley part 1!

Harley has a story to break your heart. Have tissues handy.
I saw a website plea (not again I hear you cry) that puppies had been found chained up in a bus depot.
"kept chained up at a bus depot, these puppies really need foster parents and/or adopters"
There were photos. I'll add some here.














I recently had Badger so felt it would be difficult to take on another pup.
The messages came faster...
From the cat carer in the area "I heard barking from the car park so I went for a look. Behind many buses I saw 2 puppies chained to the wire netting Their hair was all wet and they were shaking, after feeding they looked a bit better."



Ok, not good. Quick ask around for help.

Badger!

Badger is our little girl doggie.
She came to us on Sunday 5th October. It is amazing that she has been with us for 3 weeks already.

It all started with a website plea for help. 7 street puppies had been seen of which 3 had been rescued. They wanted to go back for the other 4.
I called and emailed and found out that Michelle (rescue lady) was going to try again that Saturday.

So Saturday night we have the call that only 1 pup has been rescued and she is a sweetie.
Sunday we go to fetch her.
Here she is on her first night back with us:
I can't believe she was that little. She still seems tiny now.

And the cats came back...

Hurrah!!
Our cats are home after 4 months in quarantine.
They seem pleased to be back with us, though a bit nervy of the new surroundings yet.

Going for a walk

The weather has cooled enough to make going for a walk a good activity. This isn't something we've done for 3 years as in AD we just taxi'd every where. Walking wasn't pleasant nor interesting.
Wednesday 1st October was Chinese National Day. So we all had a holiday. The weather was overcast but not rainy. So it seemed like a good opportunity for stepping out.
At the end of our road, is a barrier and a path goes behind it - good chance to have an explore.

Heather and Zoe walked up a hill.

This is our view when we stopped for a breather. We looked back towards our street.
We disturbed a boar who snorted at us and ran off.







Ah - this is not the lovely view we expected at the top of the hill. Hmm.








Let's take another route. Stepping out...

This was prettier but there was more road than we had puff, so we'll try this road again soon. I wonder what is at the top!

Our house

Here is our house. We have 3 floors plus a roof. We are very, very lucky.









This is a bit of our street looking down the road from the street entrance.







This is the end of our street looking towards the main road. Here be wild cows and wild boars.

New weather signals

There are three new weather signals we learnt today.

STRONG MONSOON SIGNAL

The Strong Monsoon Signal remains in force.
 Strong winds with mean speed exceeding
40 kilometres per hour are expected from the south.
Gusts will occasionally reach 100
kilometres per hour.

AMBER RAINSTORM WARNING SIGNAL

The Rainstorm Warning Signal is now Amber.
 This means that heavy rain has fallen
or is expected to fall generally over Hong Kong,
exceeding 30 millimetres in an hour,
and is likely to continue.

THUNDERSTORM WARNING

THUNDERSTORM WARNING ISSUED
AT 5:00 P.M. ON 5 OCT 2008
HAS BEEN EXTENDED UNTIL 9:00 P.M. TODAY.
A FEW SQUALLY
THUNDERSTORMS ARE EXPECTED TO
OCCUR OVER HONG KONG.

GUSTS EXCEEDING 80 KILOMETRES PER
HOUR WERE RECORDED AT TAI O
AT AROUND 6:30 P.M.

GUSTS REACHING 100 KILOMETRES PER
 HOUR OR ABOVE MAY CONTINUE
TO AFFECT HONG KONG.

Amber Rain

The depression did hit directly but was not the typhoon we expected. It had lost its wind power.

It still did have a lot of rain power though.
Today it CHUCKED it down.
We ended up with an Amber Rain alert (black rain alert means no school).
The brook is full and flowing well and I don't think the washing on the line is going to dry soon.

Knitting

Knitting - yes indeedie.
There is huge inter-house spirit here. It really involves everyone in all activities.
This time there is inter-house knitting -knitting squares in house colours.
I went into my yr 12 class today (lower 6th) and my lads were all knitting their squares. One of the young men was casting on for another one as he was struggling!
So we did a lesson that let them talk about their maths whilst their hands were occupied.

Bored now...

I think they know we are here!!
There have been no T8s for years.
Last week another one threatened but turned away at the last minute - however we are now at T1 warning - again.
The expected path, as it stands, is turning straight over HK with a direct hit at the weekend.

Now, everyone I know says that a T8 doesn't count unless it gives us a day off work. So we can hope it slows down. However, Monday is a busy day of inter-school CPD, so it would be best all round if she blew over by then.

amazing students

One of the things that never ceases to amaze me is the Culture of the school created by the students.
This week I saw a prime example when there was a full peer leaders day. The year 13 (upper sixth) worked all day with the year 7s (10 and11 year olds).
At the end of the day, the yr 13s had 50 minutes to teach the whole yr 7 (about 75 kids per group) to do a dance in synch.
The energy and determination was astonishing. Even more so was the involvement of the older boys, who chivvied along the yr 7s boys and got them taking part. The younger boys learnt a lot about expectations from those older boys - far more than I could ever expect to teach them.
Watching young men dancing along and encouraging house spirit was mind-blowing.
At the end of the hour each house had a group of 75, 10 and 11 year olds able to dance along to a song and every single child in the year group (275 in total) gave it a good go.

It was also fun to see some of the year 12s (lower sixth) hanging around to associate themselves. It really is cool to be an achiever here.

One more thing - out of the lads who were supporting the kids today, they weren't just the sporty ones. For example, one is on his way to 45 IB points (think 6 As at A level) in sciences and one was close to being expelled a few years ago.

T8 and went

Over night the T8 blew and blew. It was a noisy night as things bumped and clanged and sudden gusts would take off tree branches.

As always though the T8 came and it went.

Fortunately it didn't go too fast and the schools were closed next day.
The teachers were asked to go in if it was safe, but being so far out, we thought it best to work from home. I used the 1 1/2 hours I would have travelled that day on top of my normal work day to get a load of work done. Girls were also glad of a rest as they were a bit washed out.

T8

The No. 8 Northeast Gale or Storm Signal was issued at 6:00
p.m.
At 6 p.m., Typhoon Hagupit was centred about 210 kilometres
south-southeast of Hong Kong (near 20.5 degrees north 114.6
degrees east) and is forecast to move west or
west-northwest at about 28 kilometres per hour heading
towards the south China coast.

Hagupit's outer rainbands are already affecting Hong Kong.
Gale force winds are generally blowing over offshore waters
and on high grounds.

Well I never!!

6 weeks here and another T8 is expected within 2 hours. The pre-8 signal was hoisted a few minutes ago. The issue now is how long it takes to pass over head. Will it still be T8 in the morning? - we suspect it won't.
There will almost certainly be work tomorrow with gently steaming teenagers.
This is the typhoon path - it should miss HK in the main.

Our countryside

One of the first things our new school did was to take us all out for lunch in an isolated cove.
Some intrepid walkers did the 1.5 milk trek and boated back. The rest of us took the boat both ways.




The photos are a reflection of the coastal scenery in the area where we live.



Here is someone enjoying the sea air.

Also some candid shots of my new friends!!


Here we are eating and on the boat on the way back.

3 weeks? that long?

Has it really been 3 weeks since I last posted? Dearie me, I am bad.

Ok, well I'd better catch up with everything. I'll do separate people postings.

As a family, we are close to emptying all the boxes and are looking forward to welcoming our cats back in 3 weeks time.

Girls are doing exceedingly well at school and Ian has found work which fits around Heather's school.

It occurs to me that we've been here just 6 weeks, yet it seems much longer! I've taught a full 4 week cycle and the sun is still blazing. It is starting to feel homely.

There are things we miss about AD of course; our regular Monday Quiz and drama clubs, the great friends we left behind and constant blue skies.
There is lot we don't miss though!!

Views

Here are two videos taken at our Hong Kong home.
Many people think of HK as just high-rise, but there is so much that is stunning, once out of the main city.
The first video is a view from our balcony. The second shows a view in the other direction, from the roof.
Please give them time to load...

Making friends and meeting wildlife

We've made good friends in the village. Basically there are 3 small villages along the road, spread out. It is about a 10 minute walk from one end to the other up (or down) a hill. There are lots of expat kids in the area and the girls made friends straight away.

Last night I walked the girls over to a good friend's place and all the kids went to the rockpools. This is a place off the main road where the river widens and flattens out and there is a swimming pool in the rocks. We had a glass of wine and chatted before walking out to get the girls as it was getting dark.

As we walked home we saw a mummy boar crossing the road followed by 6 boarlets. She peeked her head out of the cover, grunted a bit and went across. We waited til they were well away as mummy boars are grumpy and likely to charge.

In the past week we have seen boars, monkeys, snakes and huge spiders; these things are bigger than a dinner plate. At least I take comfort in the amount of mozzies they can eat. They do just stay in the trees out of the way. There are also lots of crickets which sing in the trees at night. There is herd of cows too, which wander up and down the road stopping traffic.

T9 gone

The T9 came and went.
Though we lost branches from trees (one hit a neighbour's car) there was very little damage.
We had a wet weekend, but as we all had colds it didn't hurt to be stuck inside.

T8 and T9

A T1 was still called last night with a T3 not being called until nearly 9pm.
Therefore it seemed unlikely that theT8 warnings would go up overnight.
This morning our alarm was set for 6am and we woke to a T3 warning still in place - boohoo. That means work.

However, by 6.30am the pre-8 warning was issued. That means that a T8 will be hoisted within 2 hours. (Warning was traditionally, and is still given, with flag patterns of white and green, hence the "hoisted", luckily we have TV and internet as well now!)

A pre-8 means school will be closed. T8 went up at 8am and we went back to bed!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Afternoon
A few minutes ago the T9 signal was raised.

This means that winds are expected to increase
significantly as Nuri moves closer to Hong Kong

This is the link to the info...
http://www.hko.gov.hk/wxinfo/currwx/tce20080822134526.htm

8.40pm T3 posted

A T3 warning means that "This means that winds with mean speeds of 41 to 62 kilometres per hour are expected."

Government Typhoon tracking states that " Nuri continues to
move closer to Hong Kong steadily. Strong winds are
beginning to affect offshore waters.

"According to the present forecast track, Nuri will be
rather close to Hong Kong tomorrow.  The chance of
the Gale or Storm Signal No. 8 cannot be ruled out."

Serious hiding under duvets needed I feel.

A bit about fridges

Our school is famous for its fridges.

"What is so exciting about fridges?" I hear you ask. Well, there are 4 main fridges.
You can put your food in 1. One has chockie. One has soft drinks cans.

One has wine and beer!!
We were advised not to drink in school hours!! Teehee.
However it is helpful if there are parties or when in desperate need!!

Eh up!

So there have been no typhoons in HK for many years.
All of a sudden there were 2 in 6 weeks, just before the summer and again in August.

Guess what!!
Another T1 warning has gone up - the typhoon is expected to make land in the early hours.
We are battening down the hatches.

Best case scenario, a T8 warning gets called before we leave for work in the morning. Then we can go back to bed.

Worst case scenario, a T8 gets called while we are at work and we have to keep the kids at school 'til it lowers. This has been overnight in some rare cases. Yuk! Soggy teenagers on Friday night.

We shall see...

Here is the predicted path - that orange cross is Hong Kong.

House location

Hi, I'd like to share a Google Maps link with you.
Link:
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?hl=en&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=104105653126419139327.0004538f8f1320574b651&ll=22.430091,114.327174&spn=0.00962,0.019312&t=h&z=16

This link takes you to the map reference for our new house.
You can see that it is a long way off, but also in just a glorious place that the extra travelling is worthwhile.

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New things we did today

Today was my first go on the MTR, the Hong Kong equivalent of the tube, but efficient and clean.
We used the MTR to travel to and from the Island for cat visiting.

On the way there we took a taxi to see the catties, but on the way back we were brave and hopped on a bus. It said it was going to central station, which is where we wanted to be.

The Octopus card came into its own. You just charge it up and use it for your public transport. That meant we could get on the bus without concern.

It all worked out well and we did find the Central MTR station without difficulty.

Cats!!

We went to see our cats today.
They are in quarantine for 120 days, their release date is 9th October.
I was worried about what I would find, but they seem well and playful. The kennel was immaculate.
It is reassuring to see that they are coping so well as it was a tough decision to send them over.
The girls and I were VERY pleased to see them.

Weather update

The weather has abated to tropical storm level. We can now go out and about - phew.
It is still very yucky out though.

1st level 8 Typhoon

Today we have our first ever Level 8 Tropical Cyclone! Also called a typhoon.
We knew they existed but hadn't expected such excitement so soon.
Two days ago the level 1 warning went out which means the storm is centered within 800km of Hong Kong and heading this way. Taxi drivers warned us it would rain the next day. It did rain yesterday, but it was warm rain and not blowy.
We didn't see the level 3 raised (strong winds), but in the night last night it blowy and wet, often loudly so!!
This morning we woke to gale force winds and big rain. It is fabulous to watch in comfort.
The Level 8 warning looks like this:




This one means the storm is coming from the SE, which means it is still coming this way.
Very exciting!!

Winds from 80 - 130 km/h have been recorded. So as we have been told to stay inside and keep the curtain closed (reduces the chances of flying glass)...

... guess who went for a walk to take pictures??

Left is the island from Kowloon,
see the fab clouds.


And here is the Island during the rain...







As Ian made his way the the Star Ferry Pier - (warning issued specified "don't go to the pier as it is dangerous") the only other idiots out were camera crews.

This poor reporter had to wait for the bigger gusts and most rain to do her piece to camera.







More info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hong_Kong_Tropical_Cyclone_Warning_Signals

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Sai Kung Country Park

First impressions of the area are that Sai Kung town is not unlike Bedford. There are about 30,000 people, with a town centre and suburb areas. SK town has everything you might need - supermarkets, swimming pool, library etc. The road to SK from Kowloon is a bit like the A5 in Wales, windy, green and mountainous.

Here is a HK map which shows the location of the main island, Kowloon, where I will work and Sai Kung in the east.

Once through SK you go further out to the country park. This road is windy and there were cows on the roads when I visited. In fact, my ears popped as we went up and down the side of a mountain. It is hard to explain how stunningly beautiful the area is. If you can imagine a warm Snowdonia that might cover it. It is surrounded by trees and the road is cut through.


This map ^ shows the country park in Sai Kung, you can see the large area to the east. The house I saw is close to the "Hike 4" on the picture.




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