Farewell, Manila!

It's taken me all day to decide what to write for our final post.
I had written 2 full pages worth, then decided I didn't like it. I still haven't decided how to express our feelings about going. They are very mixed. So my 2-page piece got edited down to half a page. This is what's left:

Tomorrow is our last day in Manila. Our two-year contract is up, and it’s time to go home. Life at home seems to be falling into place, which is great, but I’m sure there will be quite a bit of adjustment to go yet.

What are we looking forward to?

The cold weather.
Working again.
Having a smaller house.
Free things in NZ society – parks, playgrounds, libraries, playgroups, toy libraries, schools!
Automaticity of NZ Society – everything can be done online, or at least in the post!

What will definitely miss is people; Our friends here. Jenalyn.
The expat 'vibe'.
Our church.

Farewell, Manila.
It's been quite an adventure!

Emily's Birthday

Yup. Our eldest has turned 5. Here are a few shots from her party. It was a joint effort for her and a classmate, whose birthday is about a month later. The whole class was invited to an indoor playground, and they had a fabulous time.

Getting Fit

So I’ve been getting fit.
You might remember this entry, where I said I just decided to start running, and kept at it. Well, I kept keeping at it, and I even followed the “Couch Potato to 5Km” programme from Cool Running.com. I downloaded some podcasts that someone put together, to listen to music when I was training, and his voice would come over “start running now” or “you can go back to walking now” all throughout the run. The programme is supposed to take 9 weeks – I did it in about 12. It really is a great programme, and I’ve graduated! I can now officially run 5km. Non stop. Takes me a bit more than 30mins.
I finished about a week and a half ago, and I’ve still just been jogging every 2nd day, to keep it up. I found a fabulous site, called MapMyRun.com where you can plot a run onto a streetmap, and work out distances. So I have a 5km circuit ready to run for when we are staying at mum & dad’s, and I will work out one from our house in Mt. Albert.
It’s great being fit, and I’m now back in some clothes that I haven’t worn for almost 2 years! I’m hoping the increased fitness will help when we hit the ground running in New Zealand!
(Excuse the pun…)