Peck Staff

I have realised that I have not including any of the great people that I work with at Peck. So here they are. Unfortunately I do not have everyone - but here are a few of the ones that I have had fun with!

First is the lovely Stephen -I wish I had fun with him! However, he was my lovely inturn (not sure that this is how you spell it - he is a trainee teacher) but he was only 20 something. Unfortunately his week was last week but he is moving to England to study in Manchester and I have his email address!





















Here are Shavonne (my teamie), Tosha (Curriculum Facilitator), Freddie (PE teacher from South Africa/NZ) and Ms Moore (Kindergarten teacher).

This is me and Shavonne outside school:

This is Libby (Freddie's wife). We play Volleyball with Freddie, Libby, Crystal (who you will see later), Jodie and Amanda.

This is Kim. She is our Grade 3 team leader:

We have been out with Crystal and Melissa quite a few times and they are a lot of fun in and out of school.

This is Jodie and Crystal on one of those crazy fun nights!

This is me and Mirriam - she is in charge of ESL (English and a Second Language):

This is Crystal, Mr Glenn (Art Teacher (and no!) and Amanda. Amanda is from Spain.

Riding, Skiing, Volleyball and Shooting!

The new year brought new exercise activities! Including riding, skiing, volleyball and shooting!

Penny, Paula and myself went off horse riding.

We had a lot of fun, despite the fact we went at a very slow pace. For those who went horse riding with me in Colorado, I was very good and did not hold back the horse like Dave and I did!

So riding was just not enough excitement. So we decided that 10 of us would go to the mountains for the day. For in America taking an 8 hour round trip journey is simply going down the road!

So we arrived at the mountains and bless those who believed they could get on their skies and ride the slopes!

Bless Jodie, who looked like a super model at the beginning of the day!

And like this at the end of the day - bless her!

But she was still smiling, despite spending most of the day on her arse as did lots of my friends.

Like Helen:

However, Jodie and Helen did return to the slopes later. There was just me, her and Helen and I gave them both a few pointers and now they love it and can stay up!

This is Aoife and Hannah. I spent most of the day with them - riding those slopes baby!

Yes, this is me. With my special hat (according to Hannah). I think it is actually quite attractive! Ok well it was warm!

Christmas in Boston then NYC

Welcome to Boston:

Below is a picture of Hannah in the mist! To start with we thought it was a place where people could go to get warm! How neat is that - especially as it was SO cold. However, as we moved through the steaming columns we found out it was a memorial to those who did in the Holocaust! Oh dear! How bad did we feel!





















From Boston we went to NYC - The Big Apple! As soon as we got downtown we found ourselves in Times Square:









































This is the Christmas tree at the Rockafella center:




















The next day was Christmas Day! We woke up, opened our presents and look what I got from my sister Shelley:

















Jackie - A blast from the past! I also got some other great presents and some money to fund this memorable trip - Thanks to everyone!

After opening our presents, we went to the Millenium Hotel in downton NYC. The Millenium in Raleigh was where we first met so to meet here for NYC was very special.

Here is a picture we got taken before we went to our table:
















Where we were staying was near the restaurant where they filmed the outside shots of Seinfeld:
















Our home for the next 7 days we found on Craigs List. All 6 of us stayed in this appartment! But heh it only cost us $100 each for the 7 days! A hotel would have cost us $300 a night! Here is the appartment:

















And here is the cat we had to look after whilst we were there. His name was Israel. Yes the family who lived in the appartment were Jewish!
















During the first few days of our trip, we went to Central Park. It was a lovely place and the film set for so many films. On New Year's Eve I even got to go skating in Central Park - a childhood dream!




































We also went on a tour of other famous film/tv landmarks. This is the outside of the Friends house:





















And this is the restaurant which was in Hitch. It was called Rice to Riches:


















After our tour we ended up at the M&M store:






















Then we bumped into Jon Bon!




















Ok so it was at Madam Tussards!

The next day we headed down town and saw some of the sites!

This is Grand Central Station:

















The flat iron building:






















Wall Street:


















Statue of Liberty:




















From the ferry, this was the view of Manhattan:
















The skyline had completely changed from the last time I was there. The twin towers certainly dominated the skyline before.

Talking of the twin towers, next to the ferry terminal, was this:




















This was the globe statue which was outside the World Trade Center. Next to a building site with nothing but a flame.

At the actual site of where the twin towers were is this scene:



















There are photographs of the actual day. This were both emotional and shocking to see.

In the church opposite (which apparently was damaged at all):























In the church were lots of things that people left around the site after the event, including many police/fire officers badges:


















On New Year's Eve in the evening we went out for a meal in a posh Italian near our house. We then went downtown. We tried to get to 42nd street but unfortunately you could get no where near. However we did find a bar where we met up with our other friends.

This is me and Jodie and yes I had a lovely pair of those 2007 glasses too!

This was a view of the scene at 42nd street from our cozy bar!

This is me, Jodie and Orla:

Me, Martina and Paula:

A group shot of the girls:

Progressive VIF Party aka The Unofficial VIF Party!

So for the VIF Christmas Party I dressed up, dyed my hair red(ish) and had fun dancing the night away. However, the real fun started when we had our UNOFFICIAL VIF party! And to follow are some of the pictures:

But first we had to decorate the house!

Then we had a visit from some friends who sang carols! Bless the Southern Hemisphere people who even have to where their coats indoors!

Then the festivities commenced....

Here is Hannah opening her gift from Secret Santa:

Then the karaoke commenced! The plan for the evening was to go around each others houses having a different cocktail in each!

Here is Jodie and Orla starting off the singing!

Then it was the turn of Danielle and Helen (the girl from University)

Everybody got to have their turn (when they could pull the microphone away from Helen and Jodie that is!)

Unfortunately the party had to come to a premature ending when we received a visit from the Police! Sadly, I do not have a picture of that! I don't think our neighbours really enjoyed our beautiful singing voices! Oh well, at least we had fun!