Sounds Like I'm Dying... - 10th-17th February

This week, certainly a mixed and out of the ordinary one for such one that was supposed to be spent at school. My cough has seemed to be getting worse and worse since it started after Christmas, I don't think spending nearly 27 hours in a week in a cabin would have helped very much. But this week has provided both it's joys, hardships and perseverence.
Coming back to school was always very strange and difficult at times when I was a student at school, throughout my school career so I was able to understand the fact that the children were not as engaged and quite remembering of all that I had taught them in the last term in the first week as they were still trying to get back into the 'school mode'. This was especially difficult for the K1 children, as I saw just trying to get them to come to school in the first place was a difficulty, as they returned from their first big holiday since starting school. It was slightly easier than after Christmas, which had been their first holiday since starting school, but there was still evidence of children who were struggling to realise it wasn't just a 'half a year' deal, no they were here for the long haul. It is very hard at times not to feel bad for them, given that they are 2 years old and very much still children. But you have to put a straight face on and let it happen, it is something that I have grown to realise I just have to deal with now.
Following a huge day of seeming to want to hack up my lungs on Monday, I only managed to last a single lesson on Tuesday morning before being sent home with sick leave by the doctor. My cough was much worse after my holiday and I spent the afternoon relaxing, sleeping a little and trying to give my body the much needed rest to get better. Wednesday was spent cleaning my room which was very much relaxing as I needed to do it badly and it was good to see my room pretty spotless. Of course there is always a reason behind these things and mine was the fact that an old friend of mine from school, the gorgeous Lucy, arrived in Hong Kong from China on Thursday!!
Lucy was at school with me and it has been wonderful getting to catch up on her travels, I heard many wonderful and often wacky things (when it came to food that is) about China and it sounds like an incredible country. I am definitely planning on making a trip there when I can this year, it isn't something to be missed.
On Friday afternoon, the teachers who weren't teaching lessons, travelled over to a primary school not five minutes away where the next day, we were holding the 'Celebration of the Latern Festival and the Inaugaration of the Parent-Teacher Association'. Our job was to unload all of the things that we would need for the event and then to put them up. This involved unpacking a lot of homemade laterns, created by the children, and attaching them to strings where they were hung from the ceiling in the outside area where the adults and children could come and play games, earning small prizes for the children, another thing to be set up. Lots of the laterns were wonderful and looked very impressive, a lot of hard work had clearly gone into them. I didn't get to see the finished product however until Saturday morning as I had to travel back to teach 2D their PE lesson and then, because Will had stayed on at the primary school, had to teach 2E, a class I didn't know at all but who turned out to be an enthusiastic group of children who tired me out VERY quickly! Isn't that what 3 year olds are supposed to do anyway?
An early start on Saturday saw all of the teachers back at the primary school for the event. Having helped set up the arts and craft area, fetching buckets of water to dip the painbrushes in, I went upstairs with Ivy and Pet and were up with a group of K2 children who were going to perform a dance. We had to help them get ready, they were already wearing their costumes. The biggest challenge that day came in the form of having to put powder on their faces. I presume it was some kind of foundation or something...you can see why it was a challenge! I have only had experience of putting on makeup during school plays and that was only ever the bare minimum so then trying to do 20 3 year olds kids was a little bit manic but I managed it and almost got it completely right...almost being the key word here...while the kids rehearsed and then went onstage to perform, I was left in charge of the room to keep an eye on the bags and while I was sad not to get a glimpse of what the children were doing, I wasn't even sure if I would see it at all even then, it was a good time just to sit down and chill a little bit.
On Saturday evening, pre-drinks were held at our flat before there was a big trip to LKF. As Ruth was leaving the next day, it was natural that we had to go and hit the district one last time. Sadly my lungs were clearly not up to it so I was around for pre-drinks but stayed behind and let in Ruth and Lucy at 5am the next morning, thanks to them forgetting the keys...most people were there and it was a great, relaxed atmosphere. Lucy got on swimmingly with the rest of the group and while it was confusing at first having two Lucys, it worked itself out. I went to bed, exhausted and glad to be asleep.
Sunday was joyfully lazy but it was a sad day as well. Lucy and I offered our assistance as best we could to Ruth who had to fit all the clothes she brought with her and everything she had bought while out here into 30kg of hold luggage. Yeah...it was never going to happen and so there is now a couple of bags of clothes outside her room but she's given us permission to take anything we want which is always a bonus when you get free clothes! We all headed in to Town Centre for one last meal together and the Yuen Long crew, Will, Willow, Ben and Katie joined the three of us at Euro Go-Go, a European cafe/restaraunt where we feasted on lots of delicious food!
It was very much tearful and heartfelt goodbyes to Ruth from there and I was sad to see her go. She's been a wonderful flatmate and while it is a little daunting knowing that I have the flat on my own for the next five months, knowing that I will have people around me and visiting me at various points, is much more of a comfort. Katie and I waved Ruth off in a taxi to the airport and crashing back into bed ensued once more.
I hope that my cough doesn't deter me from any more work this week and that it gets much better, it is far more irritating now than anything. I had a chest X-ray on Saturday so I will see if that brings up anything in my chest that might actually indicate something is wrong further than a cough that has lasted a month and a cold which has now crept up on me.

Until next time,
Batkinson xx

Cantonese word of the week: pronunciation: melega?; translation: what is it?
Quote of the week: "Love is like the wind. You can't see it but you sure can feel it." Landon Carter - A Walk To Remember
Prayer points:
- my cough is starting to bug me now more than anything and I would really like it to heal
- for a continued easy transition back into school life

Clearing up the kid's homemade lanterns after the Lantern Festival

 The view across the harbor from Ferry Pier, you can barely see the difference between water and sky!

Red Bull and Vodka, I'm still not convinced that it's a good combination, especially after seeing the hyperactive side effects...

Tom laughing at...something...

Becky trying to avoid the camera!

Ruth and Tom, such lovely posers for the camera!

Mark and Ruth for the last time...

 Tom and Will at pre-drinks before hitting LKF!

 Lucy H looking gorgeous, trying to open a bottle of something....

   A last meal with Ruth at Euro GoGo in Town Centre

Goodbye from Ben and Willow

 Double trouble! Two Lucys in town...

 Last group shot, oh gosh the expression I'm wearing....

Goodbyes from the Yuen Long crew

Goodbye from Katie

the last shot of the two of us as flatemates, really gonna miss my first ever flatmate!

  I love Lucy's cooking, and her Chinese sweet bread is no exception! Condensed milk maybe not such a fan of though...

I think we might have to start giving up on this paper chain...it really doesn't want to stay up....

what better way to finish a Monday than with a slice of Chocolate Decker cake from A1 Bakery?!

Cambodia? I Must Have Spelt England Wrong! - 27th January-9th February

Okay, so as may or may not know, I may have told a half-truth about going to Cambodia...yes, Ruth went to Cambodia and Vietnam, apparently it was rather warm. I however, have spent the last few weeks telling everyone that I was going to Cambodia however in actual fact I came home for Chinese New Year! It was a wonderful surprise to my family (although I don't know whether "I don't understand, why are you here?" counts as my siblings being happy about me being home or just plain confused, I think it was a bit of both) and as Chinese New Year is all about spending time with your family, I decided that there wasn't any other place I would rather be.
I didn't update the Monday I was back because, aside from wanting to spend time with my family rather than on the computer, I am sure you have no interest in how I spent the three days between the last blog update and actually leaving for home. Trust me, it was rather stressful as I didn't have much hold luggage weight and I wanted to bring quite a bit back including my new ukulele!
The flights home were rather nice. I had not flown with Aeroflot before and after wasting a lot of time at Hong Kong airport, I found myself in a comfortable aisle seat (which I always prefer) and on my way home. We had a wonderful stop off in Moscow which was rather exciting as I have never been to Russia before and while it wa -14 degrees Celsius outside and the snow was thick on the ground, it was toasty inside the terminals and I found myself spending the small amount of Russian roubles I had been able to change from GBP, on an ice cream which was both rather weird and rather nice. The flight from Moscow to London was much shorter (3hr 15 in comparison to 10 hours) and I have to admit it was a perhaps rather hyper from being so tired me that found herself on the London Underground, on my way home!
I did feel slightly bad for turning up at 11.30pm when Al had school the next day but after the initial shock had worn off, it was wonderful just to collapse into bed and sleep! Having rung Mum, who was away at the time, to let her know I was here, I then rung two of my closest friends, the gorgeous Tiff and Shancy, who proceeded to attempt to burst my ear drum with the level of noise they emitted when they found out I was here! We met up and after discovering it was going to be a fruitless attempt trying to get tickets for Corialanus, we went for Italian food and then back to Tiff's for a sleepover. It was wonderful to see these two again and it was the start of a wonderful week, seeing friends and family who I hadn't seen for nearly five months!
Sunday was spent at church, both at St Peter's with the monthly family lunch followed by watching the start of the 6 Nations (and continuing to despair over England, the match having been watched yesterday) and at HTB Onslow Square where it was a great surprise to my friends and wonderful to see so many of the people that I had grown up with and had grown to know and love over the last few years. The week completely felt as if I hadn't left.
After a couple of days of relaxing, walking the dog and making choclate brownies at my brother's request, I found myself at HTB Students on Tuesday night. I hadn't actually been to one of the term time meetings but I was overjoyed to feel so welcome by both new and old friends, feeling warmly greeted and then accepted into the 'Connect Group' who adopted me. With delicious food, great company and a challenging talk from Pete Greig, it was an awesome evening very well spent.
On Wednesday, I got the pleasure of seeing another of my friends, Naomi, after she had finished work. She treated me to a cupcake from the Hummingbird Bakery (for those of you who aren't aware, these are the most delicious things in the entire world!) and we spent a lovely hour together before I headed off to the theatre. Having failed to secure tickets for Corialanus (again), Mum and I popped down the road and managed to get rather good dress circle tickets to see Matilda the Musical, something that while it wasn't Mum's cup of tea, it was something I had wanted to see for ages. The young cast were stunning and a very much enjoyable night out at the theatre, something I haven't been able to do since I left London. A review of it should be coming to the 'Practise for University' blog post in the next week.
On Thursday, I was treated, despite the awful weather, to see my dear from Jemima who is also travelling, I look forward to her hopefully coming to Hong Kong in the near future. We haven't seen each other for nearly 7 months so it was fantastic to be able to catch up and just relax in Caffe Nero with warm drinks and excellent food. Afterwards I travelled back to GCH, my alma mater if you wish, to go back and visit. It was very strange coming back as an 'Old Grey' but it was lovely to see many of my old teachers again and to see a few of my friends in the younger years who are still there! After that, Shantelle and I travelled back to Tiff's where I finally managed to get her Christmas present to her (oh well, I think July is when it gets a little ridiculous but two months late is fairly acceptable) and we spent a couple of hours getting to have a last chat and much laughter before I flew on Friday morning.
It has been very strange coming back to Hong Kong. It now feels like a second home so it felt no different to going back to England and although I made the mistake of falling asleep for nearly 5 hours during the day, resulting in not getting to sleep until 6am the next morning, I was ready to go back to school this morning.
I look forward to seeing what this half of the year brings. It was 5 months exactly on Friday since I had been in Hong Kong and I can't believe that I am now half way through. Ruth is leaving us on Sunday to go back to England (a very long and complicated reason would have to be issued which even I am not sure of the whole story) so it will be very strange. However I have a fellow Old Grey, Lucy, coming to stay with me in her travels across the world so I am looking forward to catching up with another wonderful friend from home.

Until next week,
Batkinson xx

Cantonese word of the week: pronunciation: mo fan; translation: absent/not here (used to indicate a child is not in class)
Quote of the week: "No story lives unless someone is willing to listen." - JK Rowling
Prayer points:
- that the kids come back refreshed and ready to learn
- that I don't suffer from jetlag as I did when I first arrived - it hasn't been too bad so far but who knows
- for healing for my cough. I have had it for over a month now and it doesn't show many signs of getting any better...

Chinese New Year decorations outside school!

When up in the air, expect it to be -40 degrees Centigrade outside...that's too cold for words!

Looking out over Russia, it looks incredible! Maybe one day I will be able to go further than the airport!

Sunset as we touch down in Russia...is that en route to Cambodia?

Sign for an Irish Bar, the translation in Russian...in Russia...right...

Well you learn something new every day, here's Burger King in Russian!

My first sight of snow for a while! -14 degrees outside in Moscow and I'm inside, toasty hot and licking an ice cream!

Looks a lot more like England than Cambodia...

 Making these again, haven't done them in a while and it was SO good to get back to baking!

Such a treat getting to see the awesomeness that is Matilda the Musical at the Cambridge Theatre on Wednesday with Mum!! Not something I've got to do very often while in Hong Kong!

Sad goodbyes to these two, again...gonna miss these two crazy cats so much! Again!

Brunch snack of Hoisin Duck wrap (getting in the mood a little...) before heading back to Hong Kong!

Taking the cold weather back to Hong Kong with me via -4 degrees in Russia!

Why do I get the feeling that Aeroflot are proud to have the Winter Olympics in their country? The covers on the seats certainly say something...

 

She must have really missed me if I come home and find her curled up on my bed, in the coldest room in the house, rather than on Ellie's bed!