So, I apologise for my unannounced absence. It was completely unintentional but it happened never the less. Hopefully no one missed me too much and I am now back.
International school norms for the Summer break normally involve the school paying for your flights and you heading back to your country of origin to a place you own or your parents and staying as long as possible. Others may use their flights to head elsewhere and have an adventure or you may defer your flights until Christmas, work at a Summer school and stick around. What you don't do apparently is only holiday for half the time and spend the rest where your school is enjoying family time and indulging in whatever it is you wish to do. Apparently this is rather unconventional and evidently what I have done.
Like many teaching families only one of us works full time and we didn't keep our house. An extended break in Europe for us despite accommodation and extreme generosity from family and friends is still tough. We also went a little crazy with our holidays this last year as we hadn't traveled much outside NZ since landing there and probably left booking these flights until a little late. Saving is important to us and we could have gone far crazier but we chose to save and this impacted on the summer trip and will also impact on our choices this next academic year.
Was the trip too short? We were away just under 4 weeks. We both saw our families and friends and had a week in Paris. Yes, ideally there were many people we would have liked to have seen or people we would have loved to have spent longer with, but that wasn't to be. It is really nice catching up and spending time with people but it was also at times a logistical nightmare. We were in different parts of the country and didn't see each other for over 2 weeks, which incidentally is the longest we've been apart, and we haven't lived in the UK for so long that there was an element of culture shock to our return.
Despite having grown up in the UK so many things seemed foreign and I couldn't even begin to imagine myself in a lifestyle like those on display. Family homes were one of the oddest as we downsized so drastically that we had both forgotten how much normal people own.
I achieved lots in the UK. I was in 3 different locations, found out how bad my Chinese hairdresser really is, bought a vintage Aquascutum coat and binged on culture. I saw Mamma Mia, Wicked, The Commitments, Billy Elliot, Tosca at the Royal Opera House, Jeeves and Wooster, Fascinating Aida and Paul Merton's Impro Chums. I loved spending so much time in the theatre and that really made my trip.
My husband's highlight aside from being able to breathe easily was seeing his family and friends. He did very well in helping to restock on some of our favourite veggie supplies as well as marzipan.
My concept of a holiday is experiencing something new and exciting, having an adventure, challenging myself whether physically or mentally and maybe relaxing at some point. Visiting doesn't quite fit my definition, but I am glad that I did it even if it wasn't long enough according to most of my colleagues who can't believe I would consider returning so early!
Thank you to everyone who was a part of our visit to the UK and went out of their way to make it special and sorry to my parents for the last night being spent in A&E.
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