Cycling, singing and politics.....

They say that a week is a long time in politics, well this week I found out that three days can also be a pretty long time…… As a part of my regular updates at work I have to give a brief update to the local councils on how work is getting on the Waikato Expressway (the project I’m running over here). We’ve been cracking on pretty well actually and are just waiting for the Minister to visit us next month so that he can announce that some work is actually being brought forward so we would be in a position to finish the all the road by 2020. Anyway the current ‘official’ timescale was that it will be finished by 2025, so not to steal the Minister’s thunder we presented the 2025 completion date at the local meeting. Now I’m not saying that it was a quiet news day in the Waikato – but they decided to run with this as the lead story…………….

I was ‘invited’ to visit the Beehive – (New Zealand’s Ministerial Office in Wellington) to explain to the Minister what progress we were making, which was actually a really useful trip. I dusted off my suit and gave the Minister a run-down on what was going on and we all came away happy – he knew a reasonable amount about what was going on and was looking forward to coming up to Hamilton in March. Harry – my Regional Director – muttered something about me looking like an innocent choir-boy!

On Friday the team and I took a minibus tour along the route, stopping off at an 1863
battlefield (which the existing road destroyed - Ooops), several major junctions (which are currently inhabited by fields of cows), and spotting who has built the largest houses close to the route on the naive assumption that it would never get built.

Saturday saw me compete in my first mountain bike race – the “Black Stump” I opted for an 18km team race and the social cycling group I’ve found ‘No Boring Bits’ fielded a couple of teams. It was a tough old course, either steep and long uphills or muddy and steep downhills – but after all New Zealand is known for its hills. I put in a creditable 1hour 51minutes making me the 15th 45-55 male in the 18km race – other more roughty tuffty cyclists did 30km and 40km but 18km was just perfect for me.

Chris started work on Monday at a school in Cambridge, working with a partially sighted 8yr old who seems nice enough. And then she’s got one afternoon assisting with the school orchestra - but it's run by some lady who's been doing it for over 20 years, so she probably wants to keep on doing her own thing –who can blame her. She's leaving at the end of the year, so Chris will bide her time till then. And on Fridays it's choir - apparently between 60 - 80 kids are expected, which is pretty impressive. Chris managed to speak with the assistant who helped run it last year and was told, "we don't do action songs" and later "we don't sing in parts" Well, Chris will see about that!


Chris writes….
I never thought I'd say this, but it was a good feeling to be back in the classroom! A bit strange not knowing anyone - pupils or staff, when I knew the name of every child in the school at Kineton. And they're much more unusual names to learn, so I've got my work cut out - and it was never my forte. It's also frustrating not knowing where anything is, or even what some things are - crayons are Jovis - a brand name I think, while a toka (or something) is a tray in Maori, and on Thursday I knew how to say good morning - but I've forgotten that one too. It seems that occasional bits of Maori are dropped in - the teacher might say 'be quiet' in English, but 'sit down' in Maori. Just to keep us on our toes!

Richard auditioned this afternoon for a part in the local AmDram production of Oliver. I think he'd be suited as Mr Bumble!! It'll be a big time committment if he does get in and that added to the cycling at weekends and the drinks after work means I'm going to have to mug up on my maths and science to help the girls with their homework. I was struggling with sets with Lana last week - all those funny symbols that I'd forgotten the existence of!

We're continuing to enjoy Rudo the dog. He's very placid but a bit of an escape artist, so we've spent hours and hours reinforcing and now electrifiying the fence. He's very friendly with the dog next door and seems to find the pain of the electric shock as he wriggles under the fence worth it for the pleasure of playing with his ladyfriend! I'm getting into a routine of taking him for walks in the morning before school and as that's 100% more exercise than I did before I'm hoping to see the benefit. I also get some good runs in too, when I have to chase after him to stop him getting to someone's picnic before I get to him. He's usually very good at coming when I call - but not when there's a picnic in front of him.

Summer seems to be drawing to a close - at least, the rain has started again, so I'm assuming that was it. It was extremely hot and humid - unpleasant really - but no doubt we'll soon be longing for it.