Counting down.

Two things made my time at Hemel Hempstead school rather pleasant. The first was that most of the students were relatively nice, and particularly better than I had been led to believe about Hemel. Second, was that right from day one I had a finish point in sight, and knowing you are only going to be there for a short time before a long holiday is a good way to find a smile. Overall, it was a good experience, expanding my knowledge by teaching physics. If I had been staying in the country longer I probably would have stayed.

Since finishing at HHS in late October, I have been attempting to sort out my life in preparation of emigrating home. I have four boxes ready to be shipped off to NZ, a lot of my possessions have been sold or given away, I have reclaimed tax for various years (and waiting for money), closed various accounts and payments, and generally just streamlined things.Now it is just a case of enjoying my last few weeks here before I fly out.

How am I going to do that? Well so far I have been into London a few times, variously for touristy things or partying. Went to see Nightwish after a day at the Natural History Museum. Things I learnt there: Dinosaurs are cooler in person, their domestic sheep does not look like a sheep (neither is their Red deer red), prehistoric armadillos are weird, they put a lot of detail into decorating that place. Nightwish were as expected, awesome. On the sporting front, in TKD I have progressed to red tag and won a silver pattern trophy and bronze sparring trophy at the BUTF Open tournament. My final LARP event was damn cold and not much got done but it was enjoyable overall. Legion are better as a larger group though.

Next week I am going to Norway for a week. First to Oslo for a few days then up to Tromso to try and catch the Northern Lights while out dogsledding one evening. Should be fun, albeit expensive. That will be followed a few days later by my leaving shindig then the multistop flight home. Fingers crossed my bank account holds out for the final few weeks.