2008 - The Year That Was

Here's a little slideshow I created of my 2008...

And also, mostly for those based in the UK, you might enjoy Rich's New Year's Quiz for 2008 - click here and enjoy!

Christmas 2008

Well, yesterday was truly a magnificent day, a really fab Christmas, complete with heat (but not too hot all the time), food, swimming, more food, presents, trailbikes, BBQ, and oh, did I mention the food?

Here's a little slideshow of our exploits - PS the two little girls are Marcella (Beck's girl) and Bethany (Mel's girl). Marcella is the older one (2 years old) with the pigtails.

Enjoy Christmas - Aussie style!

Singapore Sling and the Big Welcome Home

No, this post is not about the drink. I just couldn't think of anything else to add to the word "Singapore" - and "Singapore Fling" sounds like something dodgy was going on... so "Singapore Sling" it is...

Usually I like flying. I really like the excitement of knowing that in a few hours you'll be in some exotic destination, with a fab holiday hopefully mapped out in front of you, great fun and silliness to be had. Maybe I'm a bit crazy, but I like the idea of not being able to do too much, just sit there, have food and drinks brought to you when you like, watch a few movies and so on - its a forced relaxation, and for someone like me, who never ever relaxes, its just perfect.  Or should I say, its just perfect - for a few hours.

But on these silly long haul flights, 13 hours to Singapore and so on - it sure gets old very quickly.  And then uncomfortable, as you struggle to find any sort of temperature regulation, or any sort of comfortable position to sleep in - we all know there's no where near enough room in economy class.  Especially if, as is always the case for me, the Murphy's law of airline travel applies, which is - You'll always have some dipstick sitting in front of you who has to fling their chair back as far as they can so you can't eat your food or watch your personal tv, or freely breathe the air around you...

It always happens to me!  Why?  You've then got 13 hours cooped up in the tiniest of spaces, soooo uncomfortable!  I'm not normallly claustrophobic, but I seriously nearly flipped out on this one! It was just too hot, too cramped, too unpleasant for words.   And the worst thing was, the stewardess managed to remember to ask ME to put MY seat up for the 'food service' for the chick behind (who was having a special meal so she got hers ages earlier than the rest of us) - but never remembered to ask Mr Fatty Fatty Fat Fat to put his up when I got my meal!  Soon put that right, mind!  

But anyway, after an indeterminable time, we finally arrived in Singapore, which was brill.  We got there around 2.30 or so in the afternoon, faffed around a bit getting our bags and going through customs (have to remember that if you're laying over for more than 24 hours you can't check your luggage straight through to Brisbane - which suited me this time, as I have a load of Wensleydale cheese to give Mum), and then made our way to the Singapore stopover counter for the bus ride to our hotel, Furama Riverside.  Incidently, Furama Riverside doesn't actually appear to be near any river... just a trickle in a drain canal outside...

Anyway, the hotel was really lovely - they'd upgraded us to a deluxe room (to be fair, I'd hate to see the size of the regular room), which was nice - the pool was gorgeous, and there's a spa there (I got my eybrows done as I know Beck will comment on them if they're unruly).

So I had a bit of a relax and then it was time to go off and meet Jun and Zabrina for dinner.  We went to a place in Potong Pasir, a real local sort of eatery type place, and had the most amazing Chinese food.  Then we headed to Clarke Quay and had a bit of a wander and so on, and I experimented with my new camera taking photos of the bridge.

Jun and I at Clarke Quay

The next day I decided to go to the Botanic Gardens, as I have never been there, and do some more experimenting with my camera.  I had a fab time, but boy, was it hot!  I was just melting, and at one point, I'm ashamed to say, I had to actually sit down in the shade and try and cool off for a few minutes.  Fortunately then it rained a little, bringing a brief but welcome respite from the heat.  After this, I hit the Orchard Road for some serious shopping!

Some of my Orchid attempts

So it was quite late in the afternoon when I returned to the hotel.  Unfortunately Mal had not been well all day so she had phoned up and asked for the late checkout (6pm) - and they'd given it free of charge!  How good is that?  So when I got back, I packed and re-packed my bags (Agnieszka would tell you that is something I quite regularly do whilst on holiday), went to the spa place for an eyebrow tidy-up, then Mal and I hit the pool.  Oh how lovely it was!

After this, we checked out - and Mal went and hung out in the restaurant / cafe and I went for dinner with Jun and Zabrina (Mal didn't feel well enough to come for dinner).  We had this strange Japanese curry thing - everything in the restaurant is curry, its quite strange - but actually quite nice - and then I had to literally fly back to the hotel in a taxi so we could get our shuttle to the airport.

Zabrina and I at Mr Curry

We made our flight in good time, and it was a pretty uneventful journey - aside from the fact that, being a midnight flight, I only got 2 hours sleep - because they keep the lights on for a couple of hours after take off, and then wake you up again a few hours before you arrive.  If you factor in that the flight is only 7 hours, with 2 hours either side, you've only got a maximum of 4 possible sleep hours - and that's only if you can actually manage it in the confined space.

So, we arrived in Brisbane on time, and then it was the big customs palaver.  Australian customs are renowned for their diligence in not allowing many things into Australia.  Last year the little Hitler man confiscated my Wensleydale cheese, but I wasn't about to let that happen this year.  No way.  I phoned up well in advance to find out if I could bring it in!

No this time, the thing I was most worried about was my reindeer skin that I had bought in Finland.  But it was all ok - the worst of it was a few quick quips about it being Christmas Eve, and how can Santa fly his sleigh if I've got Rudolph in my bag?  And then it was all ok, and we headed off to the exit.

Oh boy, what a reception we got!  Everyone was there, Mum, Dad, Beck, Mel, Lach, Haz, Marcella and Grandma.   And when they saw us, they spontaneously broke forth into a very embarrassing rendition of "Give Me A Home Among the Gumtrees" - oh how I wish the ground could've swallowed me up then!  No actually, it was very sweet - and lovely to see them all.  And then Lach and Haz ran over to me and started covering me in Australian flag stickers - to 'decontaminate' me - and draped a dirty great big flag over my shoulders - and then it was off to the car.  That was the next surprise, Dad had hired a minivan so we could all travel together, and it was like a mini roadtrip.  They had chicken crimpies, chocolates, drinks, streamers, balloons, whistles... you name it, it was there.  It was soooo sweet...

We dropped Mal off at Nanny's and that was when I got to say hi to Nanny and Grandpa.  After that, we headed back home where I literally crashed.

What an adventure!

The party bus 

-Mum, Lach, Grandma, Beck, Mal, Me, Mel, Bethany (Marcella is behind Mal but you can't see her)

Grandpa Drews and I

Nanny and I

Marcella 'smiles' for the camera!

The One Where Kylie Nearly Misses The Plane

So in my previous blog I left you with basically Katie, Andy and Laura dropping me off at Mal and Ken's so we could head off to Heathrow.

What then transpired was a near disaster...

You see, Ken hasn't been very well this past week, and has actually had to have time off (very very VERY unusual for him).  So when I arrived at Mals at around 2.30pm, bearing in mind we wanted to be at the airport around 3.15, we basically took the bags straight out to the back porch and dumped them all there.  I then went to say goodbye to Katie, Andy and Laura, and then came back inside.  Mal said something about having to carry our bags down the back as Ken wasn't well - I misunderstood her at first and thought she was talking about when we get to the airport, which I thought was odd as Ken always drops us off at the drop-off lanes and then leaves.

So I didn't think any more of it until it was time to leave - and then I realised what she'd said.  So I grabbed as many bags as I could, and headed off down the back yard.  Mal grabbed some bags, and basically Ken followed behind.  I thought he was carrying some bags too.  We dumped them in the car and then headed off for Heathrow.

Once we arrived at Heathrow, we unloaded, said goodbye to Ken, who then drove off, and I ran off to get some trolleys whilst Mal stayed with the bags.  We loaded our luggage up on the trolleys and set off for check-in.

At the check-in counter the chick, who to be honest, was just more than a little stressy for her own good, asked about how many pieces of carry-on luggage we had.  Now I had checked the Singapore Airlines rules on the website, and it distinctly said that you could have 1 carry-on, plus a number of 'free' items - including a garment bag, a handbag, a laptop, an umbrella.... yada yada.  So I'd planned my carry-on stuff with that in mind, and I had a backpack, a laptop and a handbag.  Therefore I announced to the stressy chick that I had 3 bags - and she freaked.  Well, she would - she's the stressy chick.  

But as I went to hold them up, I realised a grave, terrible thing.  My backpack wasn't there...  MY BACKPACK WASN'T THERE!!!!!! Where could it be? It's got my hard drives, my big camera lens, my camcorder, my money, all my clothes for Singapore.... where is it?  I left Mal at the counter, arguing with the stressy chick about how much hand luggage we had, and I raced, literally tore through the airport, back outside to where we had unloaded the car.  Frantically looking around for any staff, I rushed up to the first I could find and practically screamed at them "Have you seen a black Targus backpack?"  No, he hadn't - maybe I should try the police.  I ran to them, but again, no luck.  They suggested going inside to the information counter - and they hadn't seen anything either, or had anything handed in.  Aaaaggghhh! 

I raced back to Mal, we finished our check in of our regular luggage and then tried to think what might've happened to it.  And that's when I realised it - no one had gone back up the back yard to check that all the luggage had been taken from the porch.  I hadn't done it, I had assumed that Mal and Ken, having followed me down the yard, would've done - and Mal said she hadn't - so I could only assume that probably Ken hadn't either.  I had actually thought about it at the time, but thought they had brought everything, so I didn't bother.  Why oh why didn't I go with my gut instinct?

Thus began the frantic phoning of Ken - but he never answers his mobile, and most definitely not when he's driving - so what to do?  We decided that, as we had a little time, rather than just go through Departures, we would have a quick coffee, keep trying Ken, and make a decision once we'd heard from him.

However, it took Ken a good 45 minutes to get home, and even then, because it was so dark, if the backpack had been on the porch, he mightnt've noticed it.  I went off again to ask airport staff about whether they'd seen my bag, and when I got back to Mal, she'd finally got on to Ken - and fortunately, he had my bag.  She put me on the phone to him, and in the background she was saying "he's really sick, he can't come back out here with it", but at the same time I was saying to him "well, how can you get the bag to me if not now?".  There was absolutely nothing for it, unless Ken came back out now, it would've been extremely difficult to get the bag back - and with all the important things in it, it would've been a real pain to be without it.  So Ken, being the trooper he is, jumped straight back in the car...

I sent Mal through Departures and told her to please try and hold the plane, or at least, not to go without me (but with Mal's panics she assured me that would not happen), as I knew that we would be cutting it very close to the mark if Ken managed to get back to Heathrow in 45 minutes - and that could only happen if the traffic remained good.  According to our boarding passes, our plane was due to board at 5.15pm, and we'd managed to get on to Ken a little after 4 - so theoretically it could work.  It was just whether it would work in practice.

But hallelujah, Knight in Shining Armour Ken rocked up with his Cadillac cavalier at 5.10, and I raced back in to the terminal, flew through customs, dived through the scanners (even the silly shoe one), and made it in time.

What a lucky break!

So the moral of the story is - always check to see if you've left anything behind...!

The Wrap Up

Well, after a very stressful few weeks, the madness is finally all over. No more time for procrastinating, the packing has to be finished, farewells said, and off we go.

The weekend was particularly busy. On Friday, school finished at 1200, but not for us. Still so much work to do for the 'handover' to the new guys. And then it was off to hear our girls perform with Kinetika at the Royal Festival Hall - they were totally fab, too - and then off to see the Lost and Found Orchestra, which I really enjoyed as well. The Lost and Found Orchestra is run by the same people who did Stomp, which was brill - and its much the same sort of concept, which is making music using unusual instruments, like bits of rubber tubing, water bottles and so on. The opening number was a bunch of people banging on some cello cases. I've embedded a few clips here which I found on youtube of the performance:

Then Saturday, I had to go into school, because I didn't get everything finished on Friday, plus also the girls were doing exams. I managed to get my stuff done by about midday, then headed off for lunch with Heather in Wimbledon, as I had to try and bank cheques and cash. Fortunately I managed to get that done - no mean feat, as I had a load of coins because of collecting for Erik's leaving present - and no bank counter was open at the time. So we asked a load of street vendors if they would exchange my coins for notes, which they did - such a relief.

After our banking expedition / lunch, it was off to Katie and Andy's for take away and the Muppet Christmas Carol with Katie, Andy and Laura - and then off home to finish packing. Suffice to say 3am came and went, and I was still packing...

Sunday was the big one - kids band and Adult choir at church, which I was directing. Actually I need to mention a few things about the Army. I didn't finish telling about the fabulous leaving do that Jo organised for me at Jimmy Spices a few weeks back, which was just wonderful. This place is awesome, you can have food from pretty much anywhere Asian - plus some British / Italian stuff - so I had heaps of sushi, Chinese food, Indian kormas, a bit of roast beef and some yorkshire pud, man, it was soooo delicious and soooo wonderful. Plus what was really touching was how many people from church came! We fair booked out half the place!

And then the most touching thing though was the Kids Christmas the next day - the kids band was on in the afternoon, and then after the service, we had a bit of a party and a movie (one of my favourites - The Santa Clause) and then they presented me with the most gorgeous watch, one of those Citzen Eco-drive ones - I was so touched.

So anyway, I said my farewells, had a quick bite at Katie and Andy's, and then it was off to Mal and Ken's to then head out to the airport...

The Adult Choir

The Kids (Kidult?) Band - so many kids were away that a load of adults had to step in...!

Final Music Concert

Well Wednesday saw a very busy, and very emotional, final Music concert for myself and Erik.

The day started off with Erik and Mat heading off to Brooke to set up for the concert during period 1.  I had tried to devise a schedule of rehearsals but it seemed that it didn't suit everybody, so it was quite difficult to juggle it all around.  Eventually a reasonable solution was found, so I took advantage of the 'free' time in period 1 to finalise the programme and get it printed.  Mistake 1.  The Murphy's law of school concerts is that you should never print the programme until the absolute last minute, as there are always changes.  Oh well.

The rehearsals throughout the day all ran very smoothly, and contrary to my usual form, I didn't appear the least bit stressed (although I will admit, I was a bit).

So the start time comes, and then we have a mini-freak out.  There's no-one there.  To be fair though, that is quite usual for our concerts, as, in the words of my girls, we run to 'Brixton time' - which means that 6pm is really 6.30 and so on... its a habit I've been trying to break for 10 years, but with very little success.  Surprisingly though this time, it was the school governors who were late!  And there was a surprise guest too, our previous headteacher - who had the vision and foresight to direct funds into the music budget and get the second specialism running - without her our department would really be nothing.

So we managed to kick off around 6.15pm, and I will admit, for the first part we seemed to be firing through the programme at an incredibly brisk pace - quite unlike our regular concerts.  I actually thought we may finish well within the alloted hour and a half.

However with the arrival of the concert band for their numbers, we soon lost pace again, as the pieces they played were a lot longer than I had anticipated.  We played 'Instant Concert', 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' (leaving off Mvt III Violet Beauregarde as no-one could really play it) and 'The Blues Brothers'.  Then I gave my little speeches, made my presentations, including an impromptu speech to Erik as I hadn't really planned to say too much about him at this event, as tomorrow night would be the big staff farewell - and the pressureful speech moment.  After this, the band wrapped it up with 'Pirates of the Caribbean' and that was that.  Or so I mistakenly thought.

The Deputy Head got up and said, "You don't really think you're going to have the last word, do you?" and then up got Nana, who read out a lovely speech to Erik and I.  Phew, that over, I thought we could go home.  No, up gets Mat - and suddenly Myrtle and Funmi, past students from 2 years ago, come out of the audience with their instruments, and the whole group performed an arrangement of "Land of the Silver Birch" for Erik, and "Waltzing Matilda (coupled with a few bars of "Auld Lang Syne") for me.  It was a complete and utter surprise, and I had no idea of how they managed to even pull it off - although I found out later that the students had all stayed back for rehearsal the day before until 5pm - how lovely that they would do this for us.  I was deeply moved, and of course the tears started to flow - and then out came the gifts.  I was overwhelmed by the generosity of the students and the instrumental teachers - they gave me the most lovely amber earrings, and the string orchestra had arranged a photo and frame of them at Bowles, and other students gave me individual things including chocolates, and teddy bears, and perfume... it was just overwhelming.  And the teachers gave me a gorgeous box with 2 mollard conductors batons - these are the best in the business - with a lovely inscription.  I was truly moved and touched.

Afterwards we went to the Dark Horse for our Christmas meal, just yummy - and then it was the time to say goodbye to all the team... so sad....

So I just want to take the time now to say thanks to all my students, and thanks to all my team - I love you guys and I will miss you terribly... please do stay in touch.  All the best.

Procrastinating Yet Again

So I'm right now supposed to be packing. Which means that I'm blogging instead.

I know things have been quiet on the blog front recently, and I'm sorry for that - but if ever you want to busy yourself up, leave the country. There's just too much to do! And no sleep to be had, which makes one more and more emotional - which causes tears at the drop of a hat, especially during leaving speeches and so on... but more on that later.

In the meantime, be aware that yes, I am still alive - only just - and will update the blog upon touchdown in the lovely Bris Vegas.

Merry Christmas!

Spoons

This past week I've been on our annual music camp to the Bowles Outdoor Education Centre.

The week was just fab, with a few exceptions. I have to say we will never ever again use that coach company. First of all, the guy couldn't find the school - he was just using a regular A-Z after all - but hey, its marked very clearly on the map so why he couldn't find it, I just don't know. I guess some men just don't know how to read maps, do they?

Anyway, the pick up time came, and went - and still no coach. Finally we made contact on the phone, and found out he was parked outside the church about a 15 minute walk away from the school. What a dope! So I had to send June down to find him, and then direct him to the school - which then presented problem number 2 - the luggage.

You see, Erik had asked for a trailer, and had been told by the company, no, it wasn't necessary. He checked several times, pointing out it was a music camp, the kids would have instruments - but they reassured us that we didn't need it - and that the drivers don't like towing one anyway.  So the bus eventually turns up (we'd booked a 79-seater so they sent us a double decker bus - but from the outset it was clear it was not designed for 79 passengers and their luggage, let alone 79 passengers, luggage, and musical instruments...! So we had a devil of a time getting everything on the coach. We ended up with instruments stored in the toilet, kids sitting on top of instruments, tubas on kids' laps and so on... for a 2 hour or so journey to Tunbridge Wells... how ridiculous is that? And then 20 minutes into the journey I get a phone call from the head honcho at the coach company complaining that the driver feels unsafe with all this luggage stored as it was, and requesting I book a trailer for the return journey. I soon set her straight, we should've had one from the word go. Then she tried to tell me it would cost £60 extra for the trailer - but because I wasn't in the office and couldn't pay in advance, she wasn't sure if they could do it. I mean, come on? We're away for 4 days - how on earth can I arrange payment in advance, and even if I could, why is that necessary? Its a school, its not going anywhere, if we default on the payment you could look up the address very easily - and seeing as we'd already paid some £1000 for the coach, why can't they just assume they'll get their money?  So, she said she'd phone me back if there was a problem, and seeing as she didn't call back, I assumed all was good.

We arrived then at Bowles and the kids quickly got into the swing of the routine.  Food, music / activities, more food, music / activities, more music / activites, free time, more food, more music / activites, then evening activity.  I have to say I was a little apprehensive at first as we had more kids on this year's camp than ever - but my fears were most certainly unfounded and everyone threw themselves into all the activities with such willingness and gusto, that an absolutely fab time was had by all.

In fact, this year it was so stress-free from the point of view of the kids' behaviour, but yet so labour intensive for the staff (as there were many more rehearsal slots and often several staff had to run two bands, so when the kids were doing outdoor activities, you often didn't get to be with your band but were running sectionals with another band or something) - that we decided to 'spice it up' a little.  This meant that at the start of the day, someone would come up with a word or phrase for the day, which you had to somehow get into your rehearsals or announcements in public.  So, the first day, the word was 'spoons'.  I have to say, I think I won that day, although Andy did come a close second with his singing of Mary Poppin's "Spoonful of Sugar" during one rehearsal, where he accused a girl of 'spooning the note' before telling another girl that she would get better if ... and then he sang the song.  My spoon mentions came more during the dinner time announcements, where I outlined suitable acts for our "CEBS Factor" evening - including, of course, playing the spoons - or when I told the girls they needed to get an early night's sleep to stop getting ill, as we didn't have any medicine jugs or spoons for them... I'm sure the kids must've thought all the staff had suddenly flipped out with all these mentions of 'spoons'!

The next day the saying was something like "I've never heard it called that before" which actually I think Jim and Andy won - to be fair, by default, as I didn't really have the energy having been up til 3am the night supervising our little treasure's bedtime...

The final day I just gave up on completely.  The phrase was something like "hot and cold" - and I just didn't have the creativity anymore to wangle that one into everyday conversation.  But the game "Spoons" sure made for many laughs at the staff table!

The talent evening on the Thursday night was just fab.  So many kids got up and did acts, and they were really good too - and then the staff did a few numbers.  Ruth and Jim decided to play the 'Trello' - which consisted of Ruth, the cellist, pressing down the valves on the trumpet whilst Jim blew the notes, and bowing the strings whilst Jim pressed the strings in the right position.  Very funny!

And then Erik got up and did a soppy number, 'You Raise Me Up', which had some kids in tears (and to be fair, me too - but probably not just because of leaving CEBS but also because it was played at Grandpa's funeral).

Anyway, it was a top night, and a totally fab camp, and I will keep it and my girls in my heart forever...

Ms Grant beating me in the sledging!

The cake the girls arranged for us

The staff band and "Ole Joe Clark"

Jim and Ruth and the "Trello"

It may not look like it, but I am hard at work here

My lovely girls and colleagues

Stop The World, I Want To Get Off! (AKA kmuki's Whirlwind Few Weeks...)

Stop the world, I want to get off! Oh my goodness, I would just love to have a night in, for a change...!

If you ever want to guilt your friends into spending some time with you, leave the country. Seriously. And that goes for rellies, too.

Let me see, for the past few weeks I have:

* karaoke'd my little heart out at Lucky Voice for Erik's farewell do

* spent the equivalent of a 3rd world country's national debt on a day trip to France with Erik and Natasha

* enjoyed a huge Sunday lunch with Mal, Ken and Jeff at the Toby Carvery, Epsom

* experienced a German Christmas market, Ping Pong dumplings, and heard Abdullah Ibrahim at the world famous Ronnie Scott's Jazz club with Heather and her husband, Johnny

* attempted to do my best Kenny G impersonation with Mat's soprano sax at band practise - and dismally failed, but hey... it was fun... sort of... - but only after playing Tuba with the Salvo's at the lighting of the christmas tree in Wimbledon by St Raphael's hospice

* had the most glorious leaving do at the Skylon restaurant, Royal Festival Hall, with my work colleagues - and enjoyed the most magnificent views of London whilst feasting on chicken and avocado salad, roast duck with puy lentils, and yummy chocolate brownie... fab!

* recorded some 27 students performing their GCSE coursework in front of parents, family, friends - and colleagues

* spent a lovely couple of hours with good friends Jessie and husband Rich at Wagamama's after wandering around the German christmas market again...

And all of that in just one week! Phew!

And next week is no better - I've got a leaving do with the Sutton SA crew tonight in Epsom, Kid's Christmas services tomorrow (my band is playing), shock, horror - a night off on Monday night (although Agnieszka wants to meet up), then we're taking 70 odd kids on a 4 day outdoor team building music camp extravaganza to Bowles Outdoor Education Centre...!

No wonder I say, 'Stop the World, I want to get off!' And I've still got silly boxes to pack!!!!! Aaaaggghhhhh!