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I don't really know what to call this post. A week ago a lunatic went on a gun rampage at two mosque's in the South Island city of Christchurch, killing 50 innocent children, women and men who were going about their daily lives in a peaceful way. This senseless event has shaken our country and made everyone look at themselves and how they view others. We've had two memorial events at school in the past week and I'll say that I'm glad I have five year olds as there has been little talk from them to prompt me to say more, of which I'm thankful.
There is a lot of anger and disbelief with many saying "this is not us". Our prime minister Jacinda Ardern has shown incredible leadership around this, with her face even beamed onto the world's tallest building in Dubai as a mark of respect for the dead and her.

May the world come to its senses and nothing like this ever happen again in New Zealand. Jacinda has moved fast to ban all military style weapons - I don't understand why anyone needs a gun personally. We now have armed police outside mosques/schools etc - this is NOT New Zealand - I'd never seen any police armed here, until this hideous event happened.

Singapore

8 weeks ago we were in Singapore. it really seems like a lifetime ago! It was such an incredible city - I could truly easily live there  if it wasn't for the HUMIDITY! I'm a hot person and walking out of aircon for as little as 10 minutes there did me in! I learnt very fast NOT to wear skirts or dresses in such humid weather or I'd pay for it fast! I travel very lightly, but didn't really count on clothing sticking to me! We ended up in a routine of going out early morning (and things open much later there - even finding breakfast to us was challenging - we basically went to the local Food Republic every day!) , coming back around noon, diving into the swimming pool to get cool, a change of clothes and then repeat a few hours later, and then back late at night for the 3rd swim or shower! I easily went through 2 full changes of clothing a day. I hence ended up at a Uniqlo finding $S10 shorts and buying multiple pairs (as I seriously travel very light - 4 of us coming home had only 47kg of luggage in total and we did shop too!), plus some stuff for my work wardrobe. I also shopped at Muji (stationery and tees) and Kinokuniya - OMG what an INCREDIBLE HUGE, HUGE, HUGE bookshop! Thrilled to find Chinese New Year books for school! I also went out to the IKEA to find some stuff for school.

These photos show the downtown area on our first day there. We were totally blown away by the cityscape - well the entire city island really. It was so easy to get around, so very safe, so some days we all just split up and went out own way to see our choice of musuems etc - my teens are happy at roaming around cities by themselves and the MTR train system is the best! 

The only really busy part of the city to us was Orchard Road - otherwise to us it seemed to be pretty uncrowded - even mostly empty train stations/trains. 

There is sooooo much to do - we stayed 6 days which was enough, as by then the heat had exhausted me! 

More another day - I highly recommend it for a holiday with a family of teens!

A month has gone by...

I started school with 4 x 5 year olds on January 29. As of March 1, I have 17 x 5 year olds!
My days are crazy. They are mental. 17 x 5 year olds - many of whom are not ready for school and not ready for an hour of maths, an hour of writing, an hour of reading. It can be "sit down. Stop touching me. Sit down. Please do not hide. Please do not touch the stapler. Please do not touch the sellotape. Why are you eating MY lunch? I don't know where your shoes are. I don't know where your bag, lunchbox, jersey, hat is. Sit down. Do not kick or hit him/her. Sit down. Let's talk about keeping our hands to ourselves. Please do not rub out your neighbour's whiteboard. Stop stroking my leg". It is EXHAUSTING .

60 hour weeks. Attempting to teach 17 x 5 year olds to write/ do pencil grip all by yourself, to make sure you have all 17 of them all the time, lots of hugs, you're awesome, you CAN do it ( and you will! ;) ) , we just do our best, many with limited vocabulary.....

I feel like I repeat the same things over and over and i do have a firm voice (of which I totally get sick of using, but when multiple crawling around, hiding, hitting, saying no etc etc...) but it is HARD!

I think primary school teacher workloads, the mental strain , the pathetic pay etc is totally under-estimated. I have NO idea what my family are doing. I'm falling asleep after being at school from 7.30am to 4.30 - 5.30pm every day and then with shit Auckland traffic where it can take 45-90 minutes to drive a pathetic 17km home...

It IS awesome, but boy am I whacked! And let me see - it's the weekend. I still have to plan for next week.....