Jo's Blog: November 2007

birthday fun!

It's been a while since I last wrote. It was my birthday on Tuesday, so me and Jenny went to Disneyland on Sunday! it was so much fun. I wanted to reaquaint myself with my youth. It was good because I'd never been before. We were warned by sooo many people that it was rubbish as it could fit into the car park of the proper Disneyworlds, and that was a bit annoying, as it made me a little worried about something I was SOO excited about. But it was awesome. It was better than what i was expecting. The rides weren't exactly Alton Towers esq, but the Carousel is ALWAYS fun. And Space Mountain was better than what I'd been lead to believe. What we did enjoy immensly were the shows. We went to see Lion King, which again, I wasn't expecting much seen as I've seen the West End version. But it was really good, a little cheesy, but I loved it. A the Mickey's Philomajic orchestra was so good. it's one of those 3d movies where you're reaching out trying to grab the flying plates from Be Our Guest. But the funniest bit was when the champagne corks are popped and then there is gust of air from the seat in front of you, oh and when the buckets of water fall over and you're squirted with water. You think you're safe as it's a movie. lol. The parade was great as well, as was the lighting of Sleeping Beauties castle. We didn't stay for the fireworks as we were so tired and had school the next day.

On my actual birthday people at work bought cake and cupcakes and I got a few pressies which was nice. And in the evening I went out to dinner at the Gold Coast with Jenny, Mandy and Bessa from work. Had an indonesian curry which was really nice. yum.

umm, otherwise schools been the same, still loving it. Oh my Bible study at the secondary school is going well. They're quite quiet but they'll come out of the shell I'm sure.

Looking forward to the weekend. Me and Jenny are staying in a hostel on the Island so we don't have to do the dreaded bus journey home late only to have to go back in the morning.!!

Disneyland

I'll write more later - Jenny and I went to Disneyland to celebrate my birthday on Tuesday 27th!

a very excited Jo on the Disneyland express

excited Jenny

mickey was surfing the water, it was moving

the Lion King

fire

elephant

Tarzans home

On Cinderella's carousel

on the madhatter's teacups

big kids

I'll write more later - Jenny and I went to Disneyland to celebrate my birthday on Tuesday!

Wedding party meal

All us gappers were invited to the wedding party for a friend of a friend of Eban's Principal.

Pun choi - Chicken, pork, veg, mushroom, shrimp, octopus...

Photos taken by other people of the 180 retreat

Right, well this weekend me and Jenny went away on retreat with 180 and it was a great weekend. But on the way there i broke my camera. I stupidly sat on my rucksack smashing the inside of my camera. I can't see what i'm taking a photo of, and my camera doesn't have a eye thingy. So I'm shooting photos blind. It still works luckily.

Anyway the weekend was great. Lots of fun and games. Sardines, dodgeball ( I ached for days) rock, paper, scissors (the body edition) with pegs, shooting skittles out of noses (i didn't do that one,) getting egged. Possibly my highlight! ;-) oh and a workout session 9-0clock Sunday morning. I think i did more exercise that weekend than i have done in 3 years. I ache.

It was great getting away from normal life and getting to know people at the 180 better and spending time with God. The quiet times were great as were the worship sessions. It was great when we first arrived singing in the open air at midnight (under the scariest rope bridge i've ever seen.)

Oh i experienced my first Hong Kong bbq. like a campfire, with sausages on sticks, and other forms of meat. was great fun. oh and smores. I made some fantastic smores!!!

Shame we had to come back to normal life, but my body couldn't take the exercise anymore.

Early morning sit ups

Shoshages

Egged

Pegged

180 Retreat - awesome!

I will write more later. I broke my camera at the weekend so couldn't take any of my own pictures. Here is a link to Jenny's Flickr account - thanks so much Jenny!

Anybody got a spare digital camera? LOL

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jennyhwhite

Happy happy happy

Jo is so happy she's found some Branston pickle!!!

More photos - from Jenny's camera

Views from the coach

Buddah

I don't write anything for weeks, then you get two notes in two days. Today me and Jenny had a nice lie in, we'd planned on going to Lantau Island finally ( i go to the Ferry Pier everyday on my way to school, but still had never taken the ferry) but we weren't planning on going to the Buddah as we'd had a lie in. So we left about 1 o clock.

The ferry was nice, much nicer than the one we took to Lamma Island, and the weather was nicer. I'd underestimated the weather today. What with us having a cold start to the month, I'd put on jeans and my new boots and borrowed a cardigan from Jenny. But i was boiling today.

We didn't see much of Tung Chung (on Lantau island) as planned as we decided to try and go the Buddah. I'd been told it was only a 15 minute bus journey. It was an hour as there was lots of construction. But it was still quite a pleasant journey. The views were amazing, although the bus would only stop at bad photo opportunities which was annoying.

it was a shame that the sky lift is out of order, it has been for months as one of the cables fell down (it's a long way down), no one was in it though. the cables would have taken a much more direct approach to the Buddah.

Anyway, to the Buddah, finally. It was huge, and the stairs were a mission, but it was well worth it. I was boiling in my lovely boots. However although the weather was lovely, the photos haven't really done it justice as the sun was behind the Buddah. A rather strange chinese man, decided he wanted his photo taken with both me and Jenny, individually, holding his hand, and wanted lots of photos. Was strange and scary, but I couldn't stop laughing. What else can you do?

Inside the Buddah there was a exhibition and what i think were shrines, there seemed to be lots of memorials to dead people on thin rectangular tiles. Couldn't really understand much as it was all in Chinese.

We came back home and Jenny managed to call pizza hut and order takeout, which is good, as i don't have the patience on the phone. So we're staying in with a bottle and watching an ER boxset. Still feeling ill. But have had a lovely day! xxx

A cold and a picnic!

So it's November now, can't believe how quickly time is going. It's going to be Christmas very soon. What's also a surprise is the change in weather. November 1st arrived, with winter uniform, and very cold conditions. probably no less than 16 degrees, but the kids all had their big coats and scarves on. The wind I think makes it seem colder. But it is still a shock coming from the mid twenties.

Along with the weather comes the sniffles. I had a streaming cold come Monday evening, and couldn't stop sneezing, change in weather and little kiddies germs, are probably the major factors. Tuesday morning I felt awful so I called in sick. I didn't have that many lessons at all that day, so I knew I'd only be asleep in the office. I was asked to go to the doctor to get a sick note, which just seemed so silly.

My experience in England, you don't go to the doctor with a cold and you certainly wouldn't get a sick note for 1 day. An employer wouldn't need one. I just said that I didn't think it was serious enough for the doctor, and promised I would be there the next day, I just needed to rest. Exhaustion over the past few months was also a factor.

So I went in Wednesday morning clearly still ill, and got one of the sars masks. Bobo, said that they understood the culture difference with the doctor, but people here do go to the doctor with the cold, get tablets and the doctors give sick notes easily. So they took me to the doctor, I still felt silly, but if this is what they do, ok. Was given loads of tablets for two days, and the school sent me back home to bed because they wanted me all ready for the picnic today. I'm not sneezing non stop any more, and I don't feel like I'm going to pass out anymore. So either the tablets are working, or the good old, old fashioned bed rest did the trick.

Today was so much fun. The whole school and their parents went on a trip to Tai Po Waterfront Park, which is about 1 hour away by coach. It seemed a logistical nightmare when we arrived this morning to be told that 27 coaches would be taking us. So many people. So I went to K3C. the bus ride in the morning consisted of playing BINGO and giving out prizes, singing and explaining what would be happening. There was a great atmosphere. The parents all seemed to be enjoying themselves. How often to parents go on school trips in England??? They were certainly needed, as the teachers could no way have handled all those kids. The day consisted of activities such as the parachute game (I used to love that game as a kid) and getting the kids to sing songs and put a dollar in a machine that would have an egg with a toy drop out. And they have to say what it is in English.

As I said it was great that the parents were there, as the kids spent a lot of their time with them, esp during the picnic hour. That gave us English teachers to go up ( a rather ugly) watch tower to look at the view. The weather in the morning wasn't pleasant, rainy, but by the time we had arrivied it wasn't raining, which was great. The park was really nice. I might go back and hire a bike and look around some more. But thats exercise... and we all know how i feel about that.