Happy Birthday Anne-marie!

Hope you are having a most wonderful day!
We love you very much!
See you soon!
Love us Beck Clan
xxxxxx

Our Miss Indonesias

Miss Bali

Gorgeous Ju Ju with her Bali costume - albeit a very itchy set of sarongs....hence the grumpy face in some of the shots!

Miss Madura

The girls were in a schol show yesterday - celebrating all the islands and parts of Indonesia. Annalise was representing 'Madura Island' - she had to wear the national costume and talk in Bahasa Indonesian about the island.

Earth Week

So this is a very common view along many of the streets in Jakarta.
So sad.
This is taken just a few kms from where we live.
Yesterday, whilst walking home from the mall, we noticed that the locals were setting fire to the drains and rubbish alongside the canal.
Because that's what Indonesians do. They burn everything.
And they wonder why the air is so bad here!
Thursday 22nd was the 40th anniversary of Earth Day.
All week long we had Earth week activities happening at school. the kids had great fun and we learned so much about Green issues.
It was also great to hear that the planet was saved so many billions of tonnes of CO2 gas emissions last week due to the volcano disruptions - perhaps we should have a flight free week once a year to help our planet!

Anniversary Surprise

And a surprise it was! (And no, not in the way you think...)

We woke up to the mobile phone alarm clock this morning, and I saw the date and said to Andrew, "Hey, oh bugger.... ?! It's our anniversary today!'

No diamonds. No candlelit romantic atmospheric date planned.

Romantic huh?

Both of us had forgotten.

Is that bad?

Are we losing 'it'?

I don't think so. I hope not, anyway.

I just think we're exhausted.

He's still the man I love completely and utterly - even when I'm completely and utterly peed off/frustrated/annoyed with him! And he with me, when I'm not nagging or constantly nattering in his ear.

However, as my Dad said, HE had no excuse, as the date is written on his stubby holder!

Here's to another year of married bliss.......!

Exhaustipated

We have been really tired lately. All four of us!
I particularly love the picture of Annalise and Andrew - how can Annalise sleep like that?!!
The bottom right photo is of the girls' den that they created yesterday and spent most of the afternoon in. I remember making these when I was little. So much fun! I served them jam sandwiches and lemonade for afternoon tea in their secret hidey place. Very cute!

Grandad's Visit

We had a wonderful time with Daddy/Grandad here, although it was far too short! The girls keep asking when he's coming again! Not long now, till summer.

Kempinski Hotel Easter Lunch

So, in fear of bomb threats at the Marriot or Ritz Carlton hotels, both of whom traditionally serve amazing Easter Lunches (we went there last year, just before the bombing!), we decided to go to the Hotel Indonesia Kempinski, where we had out staff Christmas doo this year.
They had an amazing free flow champagne/wine/beer buffet lunch with a separate kids club full of activities like Easter egg hunts, cookie decorations, painting etc, so it meant that us adults could sit and relax and stuff ourselves silly!
I am full of a cold so didn't partake of the alcohol part of the lunch, but the food was amazing (even though I could only snatch hints of the tastes of the different foods due to snotty-complete-pain-in-the-arse cold!)
Spent the rest of Easter day lounging about doing not very much. We have school tomorrow :(
Happy Easter to all!

Happy Easter!

The girls woke up to find that the Easter Bunny had eaten most of the carrot they had left and that the dining table was covered in chocolate eggs (thanks Grandad and Anne-marie!) and reading books for the girls. Very exciting. Chocolate for breakfast is always yummy!
Happy Easter everyone!

Bahrain it is!!

Sooooooooooooooooooooooo, thank you all for your prayers.We have come full circle.

This is my very first blog post, well over 2 years ago:
Welcome to our blog! It's long overdue - I have kept diaries for the girls during our time in Taipei, but finally got off my bottom to actually have a webpage! Well - our latest, most wonderful (hopefully!) news is: After many glasses of wine (me!) and beer (Andrew!), we have decided to accept positions at North Jakarta International School - YES!! We're very excited.

Who knew that just two short years later we'd have to find new jobs. (More on that in a minute...)

And now, our next news on our lives.

We have accepted jobs in Bahrain. Yeeeeeehhhhhhaaaaaahhhhh!

We are INCREDIBLY excited and know that we are doing completely the right thing for our family. We held out and have the kind of package we have always been jealous of, and will be at a top tier school that has an amazing reputation and a school where our girls will have the most amazing of educational experiences. We will also be BACK IN THE MIDDLE EAST! Yayyyyyy!

Annalise below, singing 'Don't stop believing' - quite apt.

We flew back on Tuesday afternoon to find out that NJIS may NOT actually be closing - a tad ironic and a bit of a shock, but after this past week, we are SO glad we are out of here. I will write more on that soon, but our board of governors came into school on Thursday for a meeting with the parents and let me say it was a trifle angst. In fact, some of the parents even resorted to using the F word on numerous occasions at our board and the games they have played! We have had the police in school all week, interviewing our bosses as parents are suing the board....it's all happening!
However, we can sigh great sighs of relief because we are sorted for next year and are soooooooooooooooooooooooooooo happy!
We really did fall in love with the place when we visited and everyone was so kind and welcoming.
Phew. Things are good.

Oh, except for the fact that all of the school play profits were stolen from my desk drawer over the spring break.
Not good.
My stupidity for leaving it all in there.
I'll have to pay it back in shifts over the next few pay packets.
Life is never without hiccups.

Happy Easter Sunday for tomorrow!
We are having a family roast dinner tonight and then going out with friends to a hotel for an Easter Sunday Lunch with fun things for the kids to do, like easter egg hunts etc.
Should be great!

Green Party 2010

What can I say? It was brilliant fun. Aren't they always?!!

Daddy arrived whilst we were still at our interviews, but it was so good to see him when we arrived. We had to go into school the next two days, but he managed to keep himself busy. He took the girls out for the day on Wednesday and we went out to Barrels outdoor bar for dinner, beers and the jazz band. The next day was our Green party!

We haven't had one for a number if years, but thought it was about time to get it back into tradition!

Our apartment was turned green - all light fittings were green, we put decorations up, I made gazillions of green margaritas, a huge vat of chilli con Carne, downloaded a whole variety of music for everone's tastes and set up karaoke at one end of the room! Even daddy got up and sang!!

We had a ball - no idea what time it finished, but we boogied on down to the end and all collapsed into drunken sleeps! Albeit to say we spent most of Friday feeling bloody awful!

Our Whirlwind Trip

So! We left Friday night, got into Doha, Qatar in the early hours, followed by a short flight to Bahrain, where we were me at the airport by one of the Deputies of the school we were interviewing at. He took us to our hotel - The Novotel - it was BEAUTIFUL! Right on the sea, with a fab swimming pool and a mix of traditional wind tower style buildings blended in with ultra modern decor. Very swish! the CEO of the school met us at the hotel, settled us in and then left us to sleep/relax before our big day of interviews the next day.

We had a great time - albeit very nervous about what Sunday would bring.

In reality, we had an amazing day at the school - first of all shown around the 1200 student Junior campus - OUT OF THIS WORLD!!!! Our girls would adore it. Followed by the rest of the day at the Senior campus (again, 1200 kids, so huge) and a day of tours, interviews, lesson observations and more interviews.

Albeit to say, once we were finished we were exhausted, but we'd fallen in love with the place. The next stage was not in our hands - they had to decide.

Well, we got back to our hotel room about 4pm and then at 5, they rang and offered us the jobs!! Whoopah!!

But, we had to see through the next day of interviews in Qatar, so we told them it was only fair to keep to our commitments and that we'd tell them the next evening of our decision.

We left for Doha in the small hours and arrived, tired but nervous again for another full on day of interviews.

We were met at the airport by the Deputy Principal and taken to our hotel - The Ramada, which was completely over the top gorgeous. If all else fails, at least we had three nights of 5* hotel rooms!

The next morning, Andrew had to be picked up at the crack of dawn but the girls and I weren't being picked up till 10.30pm. Andrew was meeting the Principal, the owners and the board of governors.

We had a leisurely breakfast, followed by a walk around the area to the local 'mega mart' which was just like a UK supermarket - I was in heaven!! Then we were picked up.

As soon as I walked into the school, I could see that the campus was brand stinking new with heaps of potential, but had absolutely no soul! They had been in the campus for well over a year, but things were still not on walls, teaching out of boxes still and echoey and empty. There were 850 student sin it, so not a small school,m but it was as if they had built a campus, filled it up and then worried about teachers. The teaching staff looked worn out and grumpy. Not so pleasant. Anyway. That was my opinion. I hadn't seen Andrew yet.

I had my interview with the Head of primary - she was very nice, but had only been there 4 weeks and seemed a little culture-shocked. I had my tour of the school and yes, I can see it does have the greatest of potentials, but I was thinking 'God - next year will be a really tough year I reckon, if we came here.' Still, I was keeping positive for Andrew, as this was an admin job he would like.

I met up with Andrew and the Principals and Heads for lunch, which was very nice and relaxed, but again, from their conversations, it was clear the school had major problems. We left by telling them that we had the offers from Bahrain and that they would really need to tell us by the time we flew tonight. They said they would try.

Andrew and I spent the rest of the afternoon, discussing pros and cons of both places sitting at the pool drinking beer! The girls were having a ball in the water park swimming pool. I have to say that the list of pros was HUGE for Bahrain, but not very long for Doha. The cons in Doha outweighed the pithy number on Bahrain. So, you can guess who we rang that night as we checked out of the hotel!

Our New Home Come August

Any ideas?
Yet another answer on a postcard please!!