A Hectic Week

Relaxing at home - enjoying the last few hours of my weekend. Fortunately work this week is going to be nowhere near as full-on as last week - and I'm not jet lagged, which helps! Luckily one of the classes I was timetabled to teach was cancelled as there weren't enough students registered, but even so I'm not sure how I made it through last Wednesday.

Dhanushka's Mum and Dad were waiting at the airport, but it's a 3 hour drive from the airport to Kandy, so we didn't get home until 11.30pm. I drove part of the way, but really hate driving at night here, so let Dhanushka's Dad do most of the driving.

The flight from Dubai was fine, but tediously long. When we originally booked the tickets the flight was direct from Dubai to Colombo, but for some reason there was a schedule change and the flight was routed via Kuwait. Very frustrating. When I head back to London in September I've made sure I'm not on that particular flight!

One of the reasons work last week was so hectic was because as well as preparing for and teaching my classes I also had some IELTS marking to do. I'd promised I'd do a few writing scripts, but wasn't expecting 15 scripts. Unfortunately IELTS marking has to be done on-site, so I had to fit somehow get it done during work hours - not easy. I'd also agreed to teach the TKT (Teaching Knowledge Test) course, which meant I had a lot of sorting through and getting my head around the materials.

Consequently, Dhanushka and I haven't seen very much of each other. His Mum and Dad stayed for 3 nights and the same day they left a friend of his called to ask if he could stay with us for a couple of nights. Talk about bad timing. Dhanushka is out at the moment - meeting with someone who wants him to do the flower arrangements for their wedding.

This morning I went in to town with Dhanushka as I wanted to have something for breakfast and visit the Temple of the Tooth. As it was sunny I took along my bathers and after popping into work to borrow a DVD, went for a swim. A very pleasant way to spend the morning.

I'll be back in the UK from September 2 and am planning on going back up to the North-East for a couple of days to visit my family again once the course is over. It's a real pity that the course wasn't a week later as that way I'd be able to be there for my Grandma's 90th birthday party. I spoke to my Mum and Dad the other day and they should already be in the North-East by the time I get there - it's been nearly a year since I last saw them.

I had some very sad news last week. Sophie and Carmine's house was amongst one of the many houses flooded in Oxford following all that heavy rain. There's a river at the end of the garden and I had a bad feeling when I saw the news about all the rain. They're staying with friends at the moment, but are hoping to move back home next week. According to Sophie it'll take some time for all the repairs to be done, though - especially as so many people were affected. Hopefully I'll be able to visit them again when I'm back in the UK.