Saturday 12 September 2009

New country, new job, new hobby


Blighty once more. It has taken me a little while to adjust to England again - reverse culture shock after all those years in S.E. Asia. However I have my feet firmly under the table now and life is good.
I'm still teaching English, for a lovely school in York, but only in the mornings; afternoons are for my new job: Resource Manager for the school. I am sourcing and writing IELTS questions, writing exercises for the school's guided e-learning site, training teachers on IWBs, the school has 4 shiny new Promethean interactive whiteboards. And a hundred other varied little tasks. Very refreshing after 10 years plus of teaching. Best of all, the job carried a payrise.
Now the new hobby, it's not really new but something I have returned to after far too many years; cycling. I cycle to work in the city consistently voted Britain's most cycle friendly place. There are traffic free cycle lanes into work, 20 minutes travel time along the river side, versus 30 plus minutes of stressful motoring followed by truly unbelievable car parking charges. Leisure time too is pleasant by bike, I have taken to the national cycle network around York for pleasure, the English countryside is so green. I had forgotten the myriad shades of green, the smells of nature - mushrooms not in a supermarket, squirrels, fish jumping.
England, a poor substitute for New Zealand, but way better than Thailand in so many ways.

1 comment:

hirondelle said...

glad to hear you are settling in, gives me hope that there WILL be life after Thailand (if I ever get out that is :D )