the Sydney harbour

A lot of the sight seeing we have been doing centres on the harbour; it is so beautiful! On Saturday Micah and Anna took us to Manly Beach. We went there on the ferry and then we bought some fish and chips and walked along the beach. It is not really warm enough for swimming but there were quite a few people surfing. When we were coming home on the ferry the sun was setting.


Today Ant and I went out for a walk; first we took the train to Circular Quay, where all the ferry wharfs are. The best view of the harbour, Micah says, is to be had from the train station. The view here is from across the platform.


We then took a ferry to Cremorne Point and started to walk along the point. We saw some stunning buildings and very lovely gardens. We saw these beautiful flowers.


And we also saw lots of sailing boats.


And to finish, here is a photo unrelated to the harbour. On Saturday evening we went for a very enjoyable game of Australian rules football at the Sydney cricket ground. It was so much fun! I was astounded. The game was very close and we all lost our voices from cheering and hooting.

Sydney sight seeing

Ant and I have been out several times now to the city. Last week we went into the city and stopped at David Jones foodhall (a posh department store) for a picnic, which we took to the Botanic Gardens near the Opera House. We really enjoyed walking around the Opera House and the harbour and seeing the bridge nearby. Then we walked around the Rocks area of Sydney and then over the bridge. From the bridge we got this great view of the Opera House.


The bridge walk was really excellent--a nice brisk walk with great views. We felt pleasantly energetic afterwards. (We have not been sight seeing every day. On other days we have been relaxed and not doing too much at home with Micah and Anna!)

marriage

Last week my grandparents reached an amazing milestone: sixty years married. They are pictured here with their five children and five children in-law. The picture is taken in the back garden of the house they bought when my dad (standing directly behind Grammie and Grandad) was an infant. I am so pleased for them and hope that I can also reach such a goal. (Although even if I am married for my whole life, we might not reach our sixtieth anniversary!) We feel pleased that we are now quite close to our five year anniversary.

relaxing

Micah and Anna have a big world map on their dining area wall. They have small sticky dots that mark the places they have been (which is defined as at least one night). Ant and I were talking at dinner today about where we have been (Micah and Anna were out so we were on our own.) Until now, we have visited places only in Europe and North America. And this is the first time we have visited the Southern hemisphere. On our return journey we get to spend three days in Hong Kong. This is a picture we took in the Hong Kong airport because of the rising hills behind the plane. We are looking forward to a totally different cultural experience when we go there.


Australia feels like quite a similar culture. The supermarket feels Canadian and the train stations feel English. Today we slept really late and relaxed at the apartment; we didn't go into the city at all. (Daytime TV seems to be the same types of things as well.) We picked up a few things at the grocery store across the road for dinner. On the way back we walked through this small park. Micah and Anna's apartment building is the white brick building hidden behind the trees at the end of the park on the left. (You might need to click on the picture for a bigger view!)


I cooked up a small storm in the small kitchen.


I was trying out a recipe I read online today, Butternut Squash and Red Lentil Dal. Yum. Micah and Anna have the biggest and most diverse spice and herb collection I have ever seen. I could make anything using their supplies.

welcome to Sydney

Wow--the massive journey is over. And actually we don't feel too bad. What I thought might be 24 hours of continuous, awake travelling was actually two night flights with a short day in between. We took off from Heathrow at about 11 pm Friday night. We were served a nice meal and then we straight away took sleeping tablets and nodded off. (Ant and I were both determined to sleep and Ant had also survived an extremely busy week at work.) I think we managed to sleep for about seven hours! Then we had breakfast and the flight landed in Hong Kong at 5 pm local time: Saturday. We walked around the airport while the plane was refuelling. Then we boarded again and took off for our second night flight. Another evening meal and then sleeping tablets and off to sleep. We slept for another five hours and then landed in Sydney: Sunday morning!

Micah came to pick us up at the airport and helped us get to his apartment. It's so great to see Micah and Anna again! Their apartment looks like a real home. Here is their photo wall (all held up with velcro!).


We walked over to the shopping centre over the road and got Micah and Anna a TV set top box so Ant can watch the Grand Prix tonight. Micah enjoyed reading the translated instruction manual.


We are going to have a little nap now. Hopefully then we will be able to stay up for the rest of the day. So far, so good with the jet lag.

packing and away!

Well, we leave for the airport shortly. Ant and I have had a hard time filling these suitcases. They are so roomy and virtually weightless. We are also more modest packers than ever before. So in an effort to fill up my case I added extra pyjama bottoms, and a completely frivolous pair of shoes.


We have checked over and over which airport it is from which we are leaving. I feel confident we will go to the right one this time! I am more than a bit nervous about the long flight. I have got two audiobooks (The Most Wanted Man by John le Carre and Fortune's Rocks by Anita Shreve), one very large novel (The Constant Gardener, by John le Carre) and one book of short stories (by Carol Shields). I have a Healthy magazine that I have been saving as well. I have my iPod and my computer. Ant brought his own reading and also cribbage and Flux (card games). And there will of course be movies and music on the plane. I also have a supply of Nytol, a sleeping aid. I am determined to get some sleep on this flight. I am sure we will be exhausted, but any sleep is worth it! We arrive early on Sunday morning, so we have the difficult task of staying awake all day when we first get there. I hope Micah will poke me!

a day of rest

I spent a lovely Sunday today. A few weeks ago we were studying the Sabbath in our home group. I think we all become much more convinced that a day of rest, worship, and serving God was an essential part of our lives. Today I really had a good day or rest. After church I bought The Observer (the Sunday version of the Guardian). I had planned to do this because of the Observer Food Monthly magazine that I wanted to read. After lunch Ant was trying out his new Wii game and I was curled up on the couch with my many newspaper sections, including the Food Monthly. I think I sat there, reading, for about an hour and a half. It was so nice to relax properly--quite often I am quite driven to do chores when I am at home, or to worry about them if not actually do them. This was a nice change that I think I will repeat again soon.

Other parts of my nice Sunday included a great church service, veggie laden food, baking a loaf of Irish Brown Soda Bread (below), and doing a little clearing of clutter. How was your Sunday?

getting ready for the holidays

Ant and I went out and did a handful of errands today. The most important thing was that we needed new suitcases. We are travelling to Australia next weekend and the baggage restrictions are tighter than on our usual flights to Canada. So we bought the Domo Sub-0-G cases--apparently the lightest suitcases in the world! The two cases we bought were the same outside measurements as our current big cases (although the shop sold a bigger size!) and they only weigh 2.65 kg each. Our current big cases weigh 4.6 kg (American Tourister) and 5.6 kg (Samsonite). The luggage allowance is one 20 kg bag each--so the bag is now only 13% of the allowance instead of up to 25%.

We also got some earplugs, and we intend to try them out this week. We got a small luggage spring scale, so we can take it with us and weigh our luggage before our return trip as well (we are so nerdy!). Ant got some books for the trip. We bought two compression bags to try out--they hold about two sweaters, and they have a one-way valve so you can squish all the air out after sealing the bag.

We are starting to get really excited. We are both desperately in need of a relaxing break from work. We can't wait to see Micah and Anna and a few other friends as well!

happy birthday to Ant!

Last week it was my wonderful husband's birthday. It was the ninth anniversary of his twenty first birthday...! I love his big smile and how he makes me laugh. He always knows how to perk me up and he's so supportive of me. I love him. x

upcoming baking?

I have never been a big baker. But I am starting to warm to the idea of making some bread (Mum, are you proud?). Here are a few recipes I reckon I could try since they are all rated easy in some aspect--time spent or work involved.

Irish Brown Bread--It's a quick bread, so I think it will suit me. No proving time required. And it's whole wheat.

No-Knead Bread--You mix it in the evening and bake it the next morning, in a pot. Sounds strange. It is talked about on every food blog.

Faster No Knead Bread--An adaptation that takes a lot less time.

Mother, don't be too proud, though. I am still just thinking about making bread. No dough has yet been made!

career building

This week I spent a day at a maths teaching conference at the University of Hertfordshire, just north of London. I presented this poster stand during coffee breaks and also got to attend some sessions and lectures. The stand next to mine was a lot more colourful and this meant I didn't get into too many conversations with the delegates! But it was fun to go there and learn a few things.

complete these quotations

Recently I have been struck by two things I have been reading. Both were surprising to me in the way that the sentences ended. (The quotations aren't alike in any other way. Just their surprising endings.) See if you can complete the quotations.

First, from the booklet, Deep Progress in Mathematics:

All students have the right to, and are capable of, full engagement with the subject [of mathematics]. Outstanding features of mathematics which make it interesting, and which make learning easier, are __________....

Secondly, from The Prayer that Changes Everything, by Stormie Omartian:

My desperate plea was that I would never lose the most valuable thing in my life. I can't imagine anything more terrible that to live life again without ________. ___________ is the most wonderful of all the gifts the Lord gives us.

First, I was reading about deep progress in maths and was surprised that the authors were about to tell me what it is about maths that makes it accessible to low-ability learners. I was expecting something about its use in everyday life; that's certainly what the curriculum harps on about at the moment. But instead I was offered a much deeper idea. The quotation finishes this way:

Outstanding features of mathematics which make it interesting, and which make learning easier, are the inter-connections between different topics and representations, and the relationships between and within mathematical structures.

So there is something about maths that I love that is also something that can make it appealing to learners and even ones who struggle with maths. So part of my job is to bring these connections to the fore and help young people discover, or at least, see and appreciate them for themselves.

Secondly, I've been reading (off and on) this book about praising God by Stormie Omartian. It has 45 short chapters about reasons and times to praise God. I knew the ending to the sentence above because of the chapter I was reading, but I was still a little surprised! The quotation finishes like this:

I can't imagine anything more terrible that to live life again without the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the most wonderful of all the gifts the Lord gives us.

I have recently been asking the Spirit to guide me more often. And to prompt me to follow through. I am so excited that I have started being more obedient to the Spirit, and so he is starting to lead me more. So today I was praising God for his most vital gift of the Holy Spirit. And asking him to continue to lead me and help me follow.

a few food photos

Here are a few food pictures from Mum and Dad's recent visit. We were at Salisbury Cathedral having a snack and I saw these wonderful fruit bowls. Aren't they great?


This is not a great picture but represents a really great memory. We wanted Mum and Dad to have scones and clotted cream while we were in Salisbury. We went to a cute little cafe that seemed to be run by only one woman. She was cooking, taking orders, and serving. We had to wait a ridiculously long time to get our scones, but they were freshly baked and delicious! Yumm, clotted cream. Soooo delicious.


We saw this sign in Salisbury and I knew it was Ant's life motto!

recipes

It has happened that I am desperately behind with blogging. So many big things have happened that being behind is putting me off starting again. There is nothing for it but to take up from here, filling in the holes bit by bit. The two big events that have happened since last time: seeing Jayme (and Donald and their darling Maya) and visiting with my parents.

Well, so let us turn to tonight instead. I wrote a new recipe in my new recipe book. I made this amazing chocolate cake for one in a mug--Ant's special dessert to celebrate the end of a hard work week. What a nice treat that only took moments to make!

Chocolate Cake for One
4 T flour
4 T sugar
2 T cocoa
1 egg
3 T milk
3 T oil (or half oil and half applesauce)
pinch salt

Grease the inside of a mug. Mix the dry ingredients in the mug. Combine the wet ingredients and then add them, mixing well.
Microwave on high for 3 minutes. Let stand for 5 minutes before turning onto a plate.

Ant was very impressed and so was I! And so I wrote it into my new recipe book. I really love it--Mum and Dad bought it for me when they were here. I filled my first cooking notebook (the pink one) a few months ago and wasn't sure what to do next. But this lovely lemon book solves my problem!


The only difference for this new notebook is that I am only going to write in recipes after I make them. I ended up with a few too many in the old book that were inspiration but that I never made.

On Dad's suggestion, here are the top recipes from "Sarah's Kitchen, Volume 1".

Ginger Noodle Soup
Pumpkin Cheesecake
Beans and Bacon Casserole
Cuban Black Bean Soup
Mushroom Paprikas
Sonya's Minted Lamb Burgers
Bacon Fried Greens
French Onion Soup
Roasted Onion & Parsnip Tarte Tatin
Spicy Red Lentil Soup

beauty in everyday life

I recently bought this new water bottle. (It's a V&A Museum product that I bought at my local garden centre.) I think its beautiful print will help me to carry it everywhere and use it consistently. Isn't the print lovely? It's a historic wallpaper design. It was designed by a man named William Morris in 1884. He said "Have nothing in your houses which you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful." This is also my Mum's philosophy--she is an expert at filling her house with beautiful and useful items. I have lots of her photos in our home--beautiful pictures of flowers, especially.

This week Mum and Dad have been staying with us and Mum helped me totally spring clean my kitchen and improve it. So I hope to post again later about my new item of kitchen furniture and the reorganisation of my cupboards. I also got new plates and napkins--ooh, the excitement!

an ode to Helen

Your birthday was a memorable meal.
You helped me with my weeding.
You share seedlings with me.
And you like to eat my food.
Thanks for washing up afterwards.
You inspire me to be more green.
You like to talk about God with us.
You are also hilarious!

looking around

things I am looking forward to:
Mum and Dad are coming to visit.
I get to see Jayme and Maya and Donald soon.
Hopefully everything will go well at exam season and I can put on my proud teacher smile.
The salad in the big green box is almost ready to be harvested.
There is a small chance I will be able to grow several vegetables successfully this year.
Monday is bank holiday and Ant and I can practise our German together.
The older you get the more you learn.
There are so many good books waiting to be read.
A quiet afternoon means my brain can rest and meander.

things I am glad are now in the past:
The stress of the last few weeks has been grinding me down.
Ant did all the washing up today.
The dark and cold weather is over now (mostly, in theory).
Being an adult with a good job means I am no longer living hand-to-mouth.
My thirtieth birthday is long gone (since I have been inflating my age by five years since I started teaching).

germinating

One small success! I planted twelve courgette seeds in this egg carton and all twelve have germinated! I need to keep them inside until they have five or six leaves then they get a few nights outside before finally being planted.

Last weekend I also planted carrot and beetroot seeds outside. My salad box has started growing and there are radish leaves up. (I hope I will also get some radishes this year.) Stand by for more news! I am hoping that I will grow a green thumb this year as well.

Easter and the rest of life

A bit of a more comprehensive update today!

Spring has well and truly arrived--woohoo! Last Sunday Ant and I hosted a big Easter lunch and afterwards the boys went to play snooker round the corner and Pari and I took a nice walk around the neighbourhood. This is a picture of a magnolia tree in one of the front gardens on a street nearby. So beautiful! There are other trees also blossoming at the moment. When we eventually own a house I desperately want to have a magnolia tree.


I have spent my Easter holiday doing quite a lot of work related things. I went to work for two full days of revision sessions and also for one and a half days of my own work. But I feel relaxed and more organised.

Yesterday after lunch I went into the city and headed for Sir John Soane's Museum. It is a little gem of a museum--it's the private house of John Soane (1753-1837), an architect who collected everything realted to architecture and design. It's full of busts, statues, parts of columns, decorative stonework,and so on. I wasn't able to take any photos inside, but you can see some of it on the website.


I visited there for the first time last month and took this photo. Today I saw all the things I didn't have time for before, and afterwards went to a cafe around the corner for a bowl of soup and a pot of green tea. (I was also reading maths education articles and making notes!)


After my little lunch I headed to the nearby British Museum. I have been there lots of times but always find something new to see. Today I visited the India rooms and then went up to the far back corner for a special exhibition about intimate portraits. The smaller drawings and pastels were fascinating. I liked that the expressions of the sitters were often very frank. Unlike larger oil paintings, designed to flatter and impose, these were smaller sketches which generally showed affection. Here are two of my favourites.

summer, or is it winter?

Ant and I booked our summer holiday--to Australia! We are so excited to have taken the plunge. We are not terribly looking forward to the 23 hour plane journey to get there! It will be great to see Micah and Anna, though, and a few other friends that live in Sydney. And also we will stop off for a day and a half in Hong Kong on the way home.

Ant is excited that it will be winter there so he will get some respite from the heat here. Hmpf.

Wales

I have been in Swansea, South Wales for four days this week at a conference for maths teachers. Don't laugh! It was a really fantastic time and I feel much more inspired to be a good teacher and try to do new things that help expose the mathematics I am trying to teach and to help children mathematise.

Amazingly, there were four teachers from Nova Scotia at the conference and it turned out that one of them is a girl with whom I went to high school! There was a good mixture of researchers and teachers at the conference and the sessions were run by all types of folks. The sessions were really valuable, but also beneficial were all the meal times and coffee breaks when I talked with people. Since I went on my own, I said hello to anyone who made eye contact with me and ended up meeting lots of interesting people with lots of interesting ideas. All of this really made me want to be a more reflective teacher.

It was my first-ish* time in Wales, and it was interesting to see the bilingual signs. Sometimes the Welsh looked like an anagram of the English. The Welsh have a lovely lilting accent when talking in English, but sometimes is was a bit hard to underatnd what I was being told.

The University was across the road from a beach that looked out over the sea--my first view of the sea in some time. I enjoyed a windy walk along the beach, tugging my suitcase, as I headed to the train station at the end of the conference.


________________________
* I have been to Wales once before, but only for an afternoon. It was while my family were travelling in England and my Dad and I stopped in Hay to visit the many bookshops.

growing

I'm going to have another crack at gardening this spring. Our back yard is split into two sections: the right half is ours and the left side is our neighbours. We have a small paved area and a little section of raised beds. I was only minimally successful growing in containers last year but I am determined to have another try.

Last weekend Helen, and later Pari, came over and gave me the kind of advice I needed to hear, "Just go for it. Rip out the things you don't want and plant something else." Helen and I got down on our knees and pulled up all the overgrown things that were crowding out our small back garden and we chopped back a couple of trees (or large shrubs?) that hang over into our garden. We bagged up all the garden waste and then planted a few potatoes that had been sprouting in the pantry.

Today I was out at the shops and found out that our local pound shop sells garden items! I started to pick out a few things and got chatting to a couple of nice ladies who were also perusing the items. One said, "I buy the flowers here every year and they always come up beautifully!" Another said, "Oh, dear, you must buy freesias, because they smell the best." So I started picking up loads of things, as you can see! I got some fruit bushes: redcurrant, gooseberry, tayberry, blueberry; and a shrub called escallonia, which has lovely red flowers on the box, and I bought freesia and iris bulbs as well as lily of the valley, columbine, stone crop (small pink flowers), and lupins.


Well! Hopefully some or even all of these will grow in my little patch of dirt and also in the containers. I still want to get lots of vegetables as well.... I'm not sure if I have space for all of this! But I figure some of it might die and some of it might grow.

tourist destination

I was in the tube station a week ago and did a double take when I saw familiar words in an unexpected place. It turns out that New Brunswick is advertising in the Underground! New Brunswick! I might imagine that BC or Alberta would advertise here, but, really, NB! It was lovely and surprising to see the shots of NB--who wouldn't want to go on a seven night break to Fredericton? :)

Note that Canadian Affair (the charter airline) is now advertising that it has government backed holiday protection. I suppose this is to counter your association with Canadian budget airlines and bankruptcy, as Ant and I experienced too well this past summer in the Zoom debacle.

paperchase

A new discovery in London! There is a Paperchase flagship store on Tottenham Court Road. When I found this out while I was in the city a few weeks ago I was enraptured with the idea. A massive, beautiful shop, all full of stationery! Pens, pencils, notebooks, dividers, organisers, office supplies of all kinds!... Ah, I was in love from the moment I walked in.

I was on the hunt for a notebook with squared paper inside and I found a huge array. I picked a black, soft cover notebook with 200 pages. I also bought some purple marking pens and wanted to buy so much more.

Upstairs there is a coffee shop and a furniture section! I loved these clocks, and think that one would be a great present. I know what to get for the next big event someone has.


It is my plan to visit the Paperchase flagship store every time I am in the area from now on... and buy a nice pen every time!

highlights from Basel

Pari and I had the pleasure of travelling to Basel, Switzerland last weekend. It was so easy to get there and I was amazed by how wonderful a short trip like that could be. I was only there for one night but it was excellent to be away somewhere different. On Saturday we started off by walking around the old town, centred on the Munster, the cathedral built out of beautiful red blocks of local stone. We climbed up right to the top of the bell towers and looked out over the city and the Rhone river.


The church was set out with hundreds of these lovely wooden chairs, with many different patterns on their backs. I was amazed by the beautiful workmanship.


We walked all along the river, though the quaint streets. We visited the Tinguely museum--Jean Tinguely was a sculptor who made moving contraptions, like this fountain outside. All the bits were spinning, or sweeping up and down and water was spraying in every direction. There is also a Tinguely fountain in the centre of town.


Inside the museum this was my favourite piece. When you pressed the button on the floor it animated, with all the different bits playing an instrument--gongs, cymbals, a piano, and so on. It was noisy and celbratory.


On Sunday we were walking around the old town again and suddenly this marching band appeared. We followed them around for a while and found that another band sprung up from a side street.


Over the next several hours, marching bands were walking around everywhere. They were all playing different songs, going up and down in all directions, sometimes several were passing us at once. It was all part of the winding down of the city festival earlier in March.

Canterbury--part two

Pari and I visited Canterbury Cathedral--it's the real reason to travel to Canterbury. And stunning it was too. There was a university choir and orchestra practising when we arrived and that made it even better. They were singing Hayden's Mass in Time of War, although I couldn't make out any of the words.

St Augustine's Abbey was my other main attraction. These tiles are an amazing example of the workmanship that was put into it over hundreds of years and many stages in its life. It is now ruined and what's left of it is a UNESCO world heritage site (along with the Cathedral and one other church).


I thought you might also be amused by this road sign. I'm sure St Augustine is thrilled to be have so many things named after him: an Abbey, an area, and a roundabout!

Canterbury

Pari and I spent the weekend away in Canterbury. It was fantastic!

I am rushing around now to get sorted for work tomorrow so I shall just post two pictures and say more later. The top one shows St Augustine's Abbey and the bottom shows Pari outside the town walls. We walked lots, ate lovely food, and saw the Cathedral and the Abbey and the Roman museum. It was a very relaxing weekend.


Now Ant is back from Switzerland and I am focused on work again. Another busy week begins.

overworked, but content

I had so much marking over the half term break that I had to bring it home from work in two installments. The suitcase was the only way I could get the second half back to work; I couldn't actually lift all the marking I had done! I found it quite funny to return home on the train with my empty suitcase in the evening.

But on a positive note, I have some projects coming up that I am very excited about. I am hoping to do some research about maths A level participation at the school and I'm also taking part in a working research group about trigonometry. So although I am busy, I am enjoying things at work. I wish there was less administration (Matt says I need an adminion) and I could do with less marking. But I am learning and trying new things, which I love.