South Island trip

Life for me is run on impulse! My cousin who lives in the South Island suggested a couple of weeks ago to come and visit her a week later. I was on 2 weeks of school hols, so thought what the heck and booked some flights! I'm lucky I've teens who are independent and can do their own thing!

I flew into Christchurch - these photos are taken over the South Island. I spent a night catching up with a Christchurch friend, and drove out of Christchurch the next morning without really seeing any of the city. My cousin drove up from Dunedin to pick me up and we spent the next 2 days meandering down the South Island through little townships, back to Dunedin!

 Man, petrol is expensive in the South Island! Yes Australians, this is what we are paying over the ditch! Up north it is around $2.37 a litre at the moment....

 First stop outside of Christchurch was to buy a packet of broken biscuits from Cookie Time. These biscuits are good, but evil. Guess what the teens want for Christmas? Luckily they do mail order!

 And then driving along to Ashburton, where the stunning Ashford wool and spinning shop is. Ashford is known worldwide for their spinning wheels and weaving looms. The shop is heaven! And believe it or not, I actually walked out of there without spending a cent on any wool or anything else! I did have an afghan at their delicious cafe, which is worth a visit alone if you are not into wool hoarding...

 Love this....

Our destination for the next 24 hours was the delightful (and new to me) South Canterbury township of Geraldine! Oh my gosh - it was such an incredible little township! I could seriously have knocked off all my Christmas shopping in this little country town! It was wonderful! We had lunch at Nosh for $13 each - beautiful food and gardens and spring blossoms!

 I was over the moon to find a New Zealand made shop full of goodies and picked up this cheesecutter hat for the 14 year old for his upcoming birthday. I was thrilled, as it is hard to buy teenage boys gifts I think!! These are made here in New Zealand by Hills Hats.  It was an amazing shop full of NZ made things! Decent quality, which can be hard to find these days!

 And socks to send to my sister-in-law in Switzerland!

 We found the giant jersey in the Geraldine visitor's centre.

 And a few photos from around town - We stayed in the just opened motel Black on Grey, which I highly recommend!

Geraldine is also known for Barkers - there is a fabulous factory shop there. Plus Talbot Forest Cheese, of which some came home with me too! Such a sweet little town, with plenty to do and see! Lots more photos to come of the next 2 days!

Winners of blog giveaway

Oh my gosh - time flies! I've just spent the first week at my final practicum - this time with an amazing year 5/6 class. I've 3 weeks of sole charge teaching coming up! I'm learning a lot and pushing myself a ton especially with maths!!

The winners of two books are - Linny for the Cath Kidston decorations and Linda for the Mollie Makes Christmas one.

Please e-mail me at Kimberley@atkinson.org.nz and I'll throw them in the post asap! (some days I have long staff meetings after school, so won't be able to make the post office that fast!).

Have a good week - I've been away, so lots of photos etc to share!

Mollie Makes / Cath Kidston Giveaway

I've been going through my bookcase - I need to clear space, as there is no new bookcase being bought in this house, BUT there are too many books to fit on the bookcases.... roll on 2019 classroom :) !

I found these 2 brand new Mollie Makes Christmas books, bought a few years ago and am kidding myself if I think I am actually going to make anything with/from them! The decoration one comes with all the bits!

I also found a Horrible Histories writing letter kit - someone must have a child/teen who might like this!

Leave a comment below telling me which one/s you'd like and I'll choose winners in a weeks time! Open internationally. Please make sure I can e-mail you easily for address too :) (one prize per person!)

October

Thank you so much everyone for your lovely wishes re my new job! I'm thrilled! I'm filling in the oodles of paperwork for it right now.

University is OVER! Like, as in, no more lectures or assignments! I'm waiting for something like 10 or so assignment grades to come back, then final grades!

The maths exam was *okay*. I've honestly no idea how I've done.... It was a fair test and I stayed the entire time. My great mates were waiting for me to finish and then we walked down to the pub (well I walked to the pub via the bookshop....)

I've finished these and in 24 hours have finished another one too, and then cast on my next one! I'm making a few for Christmas gifts as people have gone ga-ga over them! (They're fruit and vege bags for the supermarket).

I actually went to the supermarket for the first time in a month today too! It was all about uni the last month or so...! My husband does so much for me!

I've written about 10 letters since Thursday night too - this was today's pile going out...

 I went here today - ugh - not sure what it more traumatic - teeth cleaning or maths exams....

 And OH MY - I'm SOOOOOOOO excited about this! I won tickets to see the incredible Australian singer Paul Kelly at Neil Finn's studio on Friday night - oh my! This is going to be wonderful!!

 Spring has sprung!

 And a cheeky little impulse purchase from Kate Sylvester yesterday - I'm in love with it!

 And I started reading this! I am even more outraged with the Australian government and their treatment of refugees - I got to page 10 and had to stop reading! It's unbelievable that what is in this book is actually happening! I've since picked it up and it's harrowing reading! My dear twin brother bought it back from Australia for me last weekend.

 Sorting out magnetic lettering...

And I can't believe i have no more uni work to do. And I've 2 weeks of freedom to do whatever I want , when!!! Yippee.

I actually did skip across the campus on Thursday after exam and yell out yeehah when I saw my mates :) !

Happy week everyone!

I got a job for 2019 !!!

I saw my dream job/school advertised on Friday morning; flicked in an application within half an hour of the job appearing; had a phone call from the principal on Monday afternoon; a just over an hour interview this morning; then 10 minutes later a job offer!

I am SO SUPER< SUPER< SUPER happy!!! I'll be teaching a classroom of either year 1, 2 or 3 children! I'm blown away by the school and the opportunities! It's in a low socio-economic area, with a 4-5 year ERO cycle (Ministry of Education checks up on schools every 1-4/5 years depending on their circumstances - 4-5 year cycle is exceptional! It's like the UK Ofsted), huge vege gardens, orchard, a bike trail and many bikes at the school (many children do not have these at home), huge community involvement etc! And in my own classroom - not a modern learning environment.

And (cue hysterical laughter from all my librarian friends), the school is just around the corner from the Scholastic shop. So I , OF COURSE, had to go and do a celebratory shop for my future students. It is awesome knowing a general year level that I will be teaching now!

days

From my phone this week .....

All I want is for the next 3 weeks to disappear. FAST. What i really want out of those 3 weeks to be gone is the maths exam... maths sends me into a total HUGE state of anxiety. I'm just hoping I don't start crying in the exam. I am having extra help at uni. It's not just me who is finding this new maths hard. We have to unlearn all we learnt donkeys years ago.

At least I know new stuff is getting into my brain.

I have HUGE amounts to do in the next 3 weeks.

The house is a tip. The letters are piling up. Little knitting is being done.

Today I went to the Nisa pop up store in St Kevin's Arcade. Nisa makes underwear sewn by former refugees. The quality is superb. There are complaints that it is not cheap. It's made in New Zealand. It's made by former refugees. I'm buying it for those two things alone! It's gorgeous stuff and gorgeous organic fabric and gorgeous colours. 

maths. I'm spending hours consolidating what I do in class at home. This is a think board....

 My side of the bed.... ha !!! It'll stay like this for the next 3 weeks... it might even grow....

 Friday saw 2 x A+ grades and 1 x A grade. YIPPEE.

 OOh my favourite subject again....

 Laughed my head off in the library when I saw this. A book for me!!!

 new purchases. Adore!

 It was cold every day last week. The woollens got worn a lot!

 maths at school....

And another week gone. Probably another finger nail or two gone too.... ARGH!