Wednesday 21 January 2015

January

Not the start to the year I needed, being sick for 2 weeks, not eating or sleeping well and still not right. Something dodgy was eaten and its not been good for me. But everything continues.

I have just completed another year of Indonesia and now I embark on my 9th year here. I  left merry ole England in 2007. I returned in 2007 and 2010 and thats been it. I guess I do miss the place and with a teacher there over Christmas just gone, felt a bit more homesick than normal, but then when I read the news and see the weather reports and the happy status updates that seem to never appear on Facebook, I am still more than glad than ever that I am still here. My new contract carries me into my tenth year away from England and so at some point this year, I can start to celebrate the end of the old and the beginning of the new. 9 years does not really seem that long but it is. So many things have happened and everything has changed but life outside of England is still amazing, if not the same but with the weather!!

As normal I decided to carry on working and did not rest between contracts. I never moved house due to the lack of houses available and I paid the rent for another year so thats that. I did achieve all the results at work and hit all the targets for the first time ever and that has made me very happy and shows what we can do with the right people. However, moving into 2015 the game is afoot as the targets and challenges have become harder and the challenge greater, all of which sounds like fun.

I also waved goodbye to my old Samsung Galaxy tab which I seem to have had forever and bought a new shiny Tab which is slightly smaller but super fast and fun to have. Jeremy now seems to have commandeered it and so when possible I spend some time a day playing Lego Duplo Trains and Fisher Price games on it and the way he is learning to play the games is astonishing because he is picking up the routines and movements to do things. The time he spend on the tab is limited to around 80 minutes a day because I think it is more important he does everything else and plays and explores and covers the world in ink and crayon, reads books and runs about. However the skills he develops can only aid him in the future and it is helping eye and hand coordination and also making sounds and identifying things.

Speaking of eyes, I took an eye test. I have had some headached and a little bit blurry eyesight now and again probably due to reading a lot on my tab and then switching to me phone which is small and my eyes are complaining. Apparently I am +1 which meants that I need to have some reading glasses. Clearly a sign of age. Glasses first and then buying some comfy cardigans in Next so that the  image of the kindly old teacher will come to fruition in time!! But I will have to think of getting some glasses soon. Interesingly you can go to any Glass store or Optics and have an eye test for free.

Other things which have happened recently include the non arrival of Christmas cards in England, which posted weeks before Christmas have failed to materialise and that has annoyed me. I have sent them but who knows where they are.

The price of fuel has fallen again which is good and the price is less than 40p a litre at the moment but the taxis have not dropped their prices but instead all are the same price per km now so there is no difference between them. Blue Bird interestingly though seems to have taken on a whole army of new drivers, all of which are unable to get the house, get to the big malls, know how to go from here to there without apologising and apart for that being annoying, waiting for taxis is a pain especially when they keep calling the house to ask where we are....

So to cheer us up, some happy snaps of Jeremy.




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