Europe Itinery

Thought I would let you know where I'm going to be heading in Europe this summer! Here is a simplified version!
1. Arrive in Kent, UK on July 4. (Visiting with friends, doing the British shopping and eating I've missed!)
2. Rendez-vous with 2 American friends (that I work with here in Malaysia) in London, catch the Eurostar to Paris.
3. Paris for 2 nights
4. Over night train from Paris to Nice
5. Nice for one day and one night
6. Train from Nice to Milan, Milan to Lake Como (Italy). Stay in Lake Como for one night
7. Ferry up the lake to Verenna, day in Varenna, then train to Venice (Venice for 3 nights)
8. Train from Venice to Florence. 2 nights in Florence.
9. Train from Florence to Lucca. One night in Lucca.
10. Train from Lucca to Cinque Terre. One night in Cinque Terre.
11. Train from Cinque Terre to Milan. One night in Milan.
12. Fly back to London from Milan.
13. Kent for 2 nights
14. Fly back to Penang, Malaysia!

We have pre-booked all our accomodation in Europe... They are all hostels, but nice quaint hostels! We have managed to book private rooms (triples) so we aren't in a big dorm with strangers! Will keep you posted with pictures, etc.!

I'm going to freeze!

Well, hopefully not! I just looked at the temperatures in the UK - 17 degrees celsius! (in comparison to 32 degrees here...) Aaah! That's like winter! Ok, my British friends out there, please tell me I'm going to have some warm weather while I'm in England! Or I may be borrowing your jumpers and jeans!

Addictions...

Well the painting is done for now... and I've moved onto another addiction... Anyone been watching the TV series Prison Break? Well, Wendi and I have been totally addicted to watching it the last few days... A friend from work has season 1 and 2 (Season 3 has just finished in the USA) and so we borrowed them to watch... Well, when all the episodes are on DVD, with no commercials... it's very easy to just keep watching! So yesterday was Prison Break marathon day... We started watching at 1pm in the afternoon, and didn't finish til after midnight!! (Of course we took a break to go get indian food for dinner across the road!) It's an excellent series, and highly addicting! We're now done with season 1 and are taking a break today and will probably start season 2 tomorrow... (Keep in mind there are about 24 episodes in one season!) My goal is to finish season 2 by the time I leave for England:) Aaah yes but that's what the holidays are all about, aren't they?! Don't have to feel guilty about not doing work... no time constraints... it's a wonderful feeling;) I know soon I will want to feel like doing something contstructive... but for now, this is good...The weather these days has been very conducive to vegging out too... It's been really stormy and rainy and blustery... The sea has been amazing to watch - the waves have been crashing into our yard in the front! Usually the sea is really calm, but not the last few days - it's been wild and crazy!! It's been a nice change from the hot sun to be honest, and I think I'm getting aclimatized, because I actually felt like wearing pants today! (It's a little cooler than normal, but compared to Canada or England it's still fairly warm) If we didn't have summer all year round, I'd be a little bummed about the rain on my "summer" vacation, but to not have to have the ceiling fans on all the time, is actually quite pleasant!

Painting!

Fingers, toes, nails... full of paint:)) I've been doing a little DIY this first week of holidays! On Tuesday I went to Georgetown and got some more paint for my bathroom (yeah, I started painting my bathroom purple in February, and then ran out of paint...) So I've been living with a half -painted bathroom that has driven me scatty... but like I actually had time or energy to do it during the crazy school term! So, yes, I got paint for the bathroom, which then inspired me to paint my kitchen! I actually got my kitchen painted for me - since the school gives us RM500 a year to do stuff like this, I hadn't spent any of it, so decided to hire a painter to do all the work! Now, to date, I have my bedroom (sage green), bathroom(purple), and kitchen (rusty red) done! And guess what... I have been thinking of doing the rest of my living area as well!! Yes, I think I've gone mad - if you see the huge walls I have in my living/dining area, you would understand! So I'm going to go and negotiate with the finance guy at school on Monday to see what I can get done for me - I really don't want to do all the painting myself!! Contractually, I was supposed to have my apartment painted before I moved in last year, but they didn't... and it's due for a new paint job! So... we'll see!
Below is a pic of my kitchen and living room. The lighting was bad in the kitchen, so I had to get it at funny angles!

Countdown is on..

This is going to be a short post... I am "knackered" (as the Brits would say..:) meaning... exhausted... I think I have finally "stopped" and my body has suddenly realized how tired it really is! I am offically done school now - teachers had to go in this last week to finish up stuff... and I had to move all the stuff out of my classroom and all the grade 4 stuff in - so lots of furniture moving and sorting out!! Still loads to do... but at least I can go in any time (when I get the motivation...) and work at my own pace! I am counting down the weeks now until I leave for England! I'm getting excited about it - seeing friends again and having a good cuppa and chat is what I'm looking forward to the most:) Oh and then I meet up with 2 friends from here and we're going to hit Paris and Nice and then Italy for 10 days! I will give you more info of where we're going in blog posts to come! But for now, I'm going to enjoy these few weeks doing little DIY projects and exploring the island of Penang a little more!

Almost done!!

It's Sunday afternoon, and guess what? I'm not at school planning out my week! Know why? Cus I don't have kids anymore! Yes, Friday was our last day! I still have report cards to write.. but there's always tomorrow to do that!!
This weekend was full of events... oh the most important one being my birthday of course:)) I celebrated in style by going to the Eastern and Oriental hotel for high tea with 7 other gals... It was very fun having a girlie tea party! The hotel is a beautiful colonial hotel on the water front, and we ate and ate... typical English high tea, with scones (with jam and cream..), cucumber sandwiches (and an assortment of others..) and a variety of sweet treats to choose from! And of course whatever tea you wanted! It was a lovely afternoon!
We had to squeeze in the birthday event with everything else that was going on at school... All staff are required to attend all the graduation events at school - hence, high school drama production Friday night, Senior tea Saturday morning, and high school fine arts concert in the evening! Plus a bacalaureate service this morning! Ahhh so many school functions! One more - graduation ceremony on Wednesday night... and then Thursday... free as a bird;))) Here are some pics of the last day of school (my class threw me a little bday surprise party!) and my bday high tea..