The Hill & the Beach

Me and Lisa walked down the hill for the first time today. We spotted loads of cool plants and flowers.
Lisa walking down the hill. This is the part of the road that was broken on the day we arrived back in August. Our car slid down here on the loose gravel. Now it's fixed it's fine. For the record it took us ten minutes to walk down, and it took me 15 (very sweaty) minutes to walk up.
One of the cool plants we found on the way down the hill. Not sure what it is, I'll let you know when we find out.We were hungry when we arrived at the beach so we hit the Snack Shack.Lisa scoffing her chips (don't tell mum!) and toasted sarnie.
This little guy liked the look of our grub. They are very common down on the beach.
Later on I took a canoe out for an hour and pottered up and down the coast checking out good snorkelling spots.
Brendan and Bernadette came up for dinner this evening. Danny's famous chilli. Cheers!!!

Two Beaches and a Pool

After a hectic shopping trip into Victoria we headed over to the other side of the island to chill on the beach and do some snorkelling.
This is the view over Victoria from the road that takes you over to other side of the island.We arrived at the beach and Lisa set about the important task of building stick houses in the sand.The conditions were not good today for snorkelling, so me and Lisa played about in the waves and went for a swim.

On the way home we stopped at our local beach and bumped into some of the teachers from the International School. Spot Karen having a drink under the sun shade.
Lisa entertained herself in the kiddies pool.
It had been a tiring day! I spent the evening listening to the amazing reports coming from Fratton Park. Pompey 7 v 4 Reading. The world has gone mad!

Mango Lolly

We went to town to buy some snorkelling gear after work today. After my great find yesterday I was keen to try and find some more treasure! We popped in to the Pirates Arms for a swift drink. Lisa was asleep, so it was nice to sit and have a chat about stuff. Brendan and Bernadette turned up so we spent the rest of the afternoon supping beers and chin wagging. We got home and had our usual round of home made mango lollies.
Check out Lisa doing a 'cool dance' (that's according to her!)...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikIuVT8G4PI

Frisbee

We met Brendan and Bernadette on the beach this evening. They lent us some snorkelling gear, and I found some treasure...a frisbee!
Karen & Lisa trying out the new frisbee from the deep.

Al Mare

We stopped at the beach for a swim on the way home from school today and got some dinner from the Wednesday Bazaar. We ate on the beach before joining some of the other teachers in the Al Mare pub to watch the sunset.
Dinner on the beach. Fish keebabs and chicken curry.
We wandered along the beach to the Al Mare (the white building) where we met some of the teachers, had a drink and watched the sun go down. Apparently there are whale sharks out in the bay, so there is a plan afoot to go snorkelling with them (they eat plankton so no danger). I'll keep you posted!

Drumming and Fodys

One of the kids brought a drum kit to school today. He didn't know how to play it, so I now have a new role, 'School Band Drum Tutor'. Band practise is on thursday. I'll let you know when they'll be playing at Wembley!
Lisa showing me how to play the drums.. 'like this daddy'.
Lots of Fody's about today. This is the most common (and most noisy) visitor to our balcony. The red ones are the males. They spend most of their time chasing the (brown) females around.

England v Australia

After school on mondays I run an England v Australia football match. David (top of the picture) captains the Aussie team, and I am captain of England (had to happen one day!)
England won again this week (of course). My team is in the colours. I played on Team Aussie for the second half because they were losing so bad!

Lisa's Birthday

Lisa was four on Sunday 23rd Sept. We were up at 6am opening presents. Many thanks to everyone who sent something all the way to the Seychelles for her...
Some of Lisa's friends from school came round for a party.
The first activity was crown making. Here they are showing off their crowns. Lisa, Sissy, Jade & SashkiaThen we had Pass the Parcel.
Karen laid on an excellent birthday tea.
And finally the yummy banana birthday cake. Check out the video on YouTube...
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=A7EJ3sYIX3c

Top of the Island

We decided to head over to the other side of the island today to visit the Port Launay Area. On the way over we stumbled across an old deserted children's mission with a great views of the highest mountain in the Seychelles and down the west coast of the Seychelles.
Karen and Lisa trekking out towards the Mission Viewpoint. Behind them is Mourne Seychellois (Mount Seychelles) which is the highest mountain on the Seychelles at 905m (approaching 3000ft).This is the Mission Viewpoint. There used to be a children's mission up here, but now there are just a few old walls, a nature reserve and this viewpoint (which was erected for the visit of the queen back in the 1970's) It is a lovely cool spot with a great view.
On the west coast of the island we found endless mangrove swamps.
We spent the afternoon on Port Launay beach under the shade of a Takakmaka tree. The water was calm and perfect for swimming and snorkelling (although we don't have any snorkelling gear yet).

I went round to a friend's house in the evening to watch the footy. The Liverpool v Birmingham game was dull, but what a game between Man C and Fulham (3 v 3).

Dinner at Pirates

The end of a very hectic week. We were in town getting a few essential party supplies (ssshhhh) so we thought we'd stop in at the Pirates Arms for our tea. It was buzzing with the after work crowd. There was no table, but we sat down with Tim the PE teacher. He had stopped in for a Seybrew after a tennis coaching session.
Karen went off afterwards to one of the teachers houses for a girls night in?!?! I am expecting her to turn up in a taxi at some spooky hour!

Swimming

Another busy day at school, although most of my students were more interested in talking about Jose Mourihno than doing any work!
We stopped at the beach for our usual after work swim. That white head bobbing about is me.
We found Lisa a pink bucket, so she as happy as Larry. We built about another hundred sandcastles.

Tuna & Red Snapper

We treated ourselves to dinner out in Victoria this evening. Lisa was asleep so we took the opportunity to indulge. Karen had the tuna and I had Red Snapper with Creole sauce. Very nice too.

Karen chilling out in Victoria. She is sitting where our newspaper man sits in the morning. He runs over and passes the paper in through the window as we drive past. The paper is called The Seychelles Nation. http://www.nation.sc/

This the road from Victoria to Beau Vallon. We drive home this way every day leaving that big hill to the right.

As usual (for a wednesday) we met the teachers in the Al Mare pub on the beach for a sunset drink, and to hear Russell's latest tales of near death encounters with undersea life!

Hard Days Work

Yesterday I started my football club at the school. The kids were Year 10 and 11 (14-16 year olds) so they were pretty quick, but they still fell for the old tricks! One of the other new teachers, Dave from Australia, took one team and I took the other. Great fun but very tiring. (We won of course!)

I went for a swim on the way home which was a top way to cool down (I recommend it the Coalie lads!). I was so knackered when I got home I fell asleep on the balcony sofa. That's why there was no blog yesterday.

Today we have been working hard at school. Here's a shot of Karen and Lisa in the library (Mrs Fellows' Library!)...

Weekend Report

We've been chilling out in the house and on the beach this weekend while Karen & Lisa have been recovering from the flu. We also followed the Pompey v Liverpool game on the web. I've got some Liverpool fans in my class at school, so it's a shame Kanu missed the penalty.

Me and Lisa took some photos of the plants in our garden from the balcony..

This one is called a Parrot Flower. Although we've never seen parrot on it.

That's our coconut tree. We are waiting for a coconut to fall off!

This is a banana tree. People use the leaves as instant umbrellas when it rains.Nice sunset this evening (about 30mins ago from the balcony) over Silhouette Island. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silhouette_Island

Flu!

Karen and Lisa have been laid low with the flu today. They went to see the doctor and he said there is a flu bug going round. It's just like the start of term back at home! Finger crossed I won't get it. Our landlady came by today and when she heard about the flu she got her gardener to pick some fruit for Karen and Lisa from our garden. So Karen and Lisa have been scoffing star fruit and bananas. Lisa says "Star Fruit are better than medicine".

Baobab Pizza

This evening we treated ourselves to dinner at our favourite pizza place on the beach in Beau Vallon. Baobab Pizza is built on the beach, the floor is just sand. Pizza in your hand and sand between your toes!
Had a walk along the beach afterwards, splashing in the waves and watching the fruit bats flying around above the mango trees. When we got home there was a new visitor on the kitchen curtains....
This moth is about 6 inches long, it's more like a bird than a moth!.....

School Report

Well this is my classroom. The students are a group of Year 13 (17/18 year olds) working on their A-Level Computing Projects (still in Visual Basic!). Most of them hope to go away to foreign universities next year.

This is the view from my classroom at break time. The primary kids are in green, juniors in blue and secondary in white. The sixth form have no uniform. Lisa's classroom is on the ground floor behind the big tree.
This is the view if you pan to the right. Up the stairs to the hall, with the dots on the wall. Karen's library is under the hall.

My after school football club starts on monday, so the Pompey shirt will be coming out and the kids will be learning some of my top tricks!

P.S. Come on England (vs Russia) tonight.

House Building

Lisa building houses on the beach with some of the other kids who hang out at Beau Vallon beach.

Todays sunset from the balcony.

Ready For School

Lisa and Danny ready to set off for another day at the International School Seychelles.