Hello Again,
Not much happening over the last week or so. School is winding down for the summer break. Jake had his end of year prize giving last week and a Year 5 disco last evening. All the sports and after school activities have ended. We have received Jake's end of year report and SAT's results and .... well .... cause for concern. He is trying really hard but not making the progress he needs to. We are looking at making some big changes next year, we'll do things differently. I will get a new dyslexia report done when I'm back in NZ. The prospect of him going to a special boarding school in England is looking like a possibility but we will do everything to keep him here with us first. I'm just amazed that with all the modern resources and facilities here in Dubai that many dyslexic kids and others with learning difficulties can't get an education here. The shameful stock answer when turning these kids away is that the school does not have "the resources" to cater for kids needing sustained extra help. Its not as if us parents aren't prepared to pay for this. We have already paid and will continue to pay a small fortune, whatever it takes to get our children educated.
Anyway, enough of that for now. We are looking forward to a great Year 6 for Jake, his new teacher is a Kiwi, he had a great sense of humour and the kids love him, I'm told he really gets his students excited about all their subjects and Jake is soooo looking forward to being in his class.
As you can see from the photos Scott had his second race meeting last night. We were expecting it to be at the end of the month. The organiser got the dates mixed up and then we were not on the email list that updated everyone on the correct date so it was lucky that they found out in time. The night was hot and humid (they all are at this time of year!). Its very hard on the competitors, hopefully next year there will be no racing during these hot summer months. The numbers were down so the juniors and seniors were combined again, Scott came 3rd out of 3 in the juniors, he got a nice trophy and Dhs500.00 in prize money. Don't even think that it was not much of a place. It was very tough and he certainly deserved to be on the podium. The clutch caused problems all evening and despite being repaired it was completely stuffed by the last race. Scott was racing well but his speed was a little slow. After a spin in the first race he settled down and had an incident free night. This is a huge improvement on his first race meeting, his times practicing during the week were very good so when the clutch is sorted we're hoping he will be back on the pace. Scott enjoyed himself, he is really cool and focused. Grant was working his butt off all night!
This is the last week of school, we are soooo ready for our holiday. Its to hot to do anything much and just getting in and out of the car is exhausting, most days are mid 40C now. I'm looking forward to taking it easy, the traffic is crazy here and it will be nice to be out of it for a while. Still not sure of our holiday dates, the flights were looking OK for mid July so that's still the plan.
I will post a scrapbook layout this week, plenty in the "in progress" folder, nothing finished yet.
Cheers for now!
Friday, June 23, 2006
Excellent Evening Kart Racing
Max, Junior and RM-1 winners in the Rotax Mojo Max Challenge
Third round event.
Sunday, June 11, 2006
Weekend Update
It's been a very busy few days, at last I have a little time to update you on Scott's racing. As you can see by the pictures he looks great in his new kart, he had an exhausting time but also learnt a lot (he came 4th out of 4 juniors). Because of the high temps. the number of participants was low so the race management decided to combine the junior and senior classes. This in itself was rather nerve wracking (for me!!!), those seniors are really fast!
Scott was at the back of the grid for all his races, on the first race he got off to a ripping start but at the first corner some contact occurred and as a result Scott spun out - not the start he was hoping for :( Well, my heart was pounding, to his credit he got sorted out and finished the race.The next 3 races were much the same, he had some good moments but also spun out a few times. After each race Grant was busy making adjustments to the kart to give it more grip and better handling.
At the end of the day on the final 25 lap race Scott was much more consistent and the kart was going well. No more spin outs and Scott did much better!
On the positive side Grant and Scott learned so much, they were pleased that the kart was performing well and now they have made the first step onto that learning curve.
On the negative side - it was just to flipping hot!!! It was 40C in the shade, just crazy. It really was a test of endurance and not at all pleasant. All the competitors deserve medals for making it through the day. The next race is on the 30th of June and it will be even hotter then.
Other news - Jake is feeling much better, the medicine seemed to help and the original shingles patch did not get any bigger and is now quite well healed up. He is happy with his exams so far, I hope the rest are ok for him too.
I have included a couple of scrapbook pages, not everything in this house revolves around karts! I will try to post these quite often. I like to check out other bloggs with scrapbook stuff and will add some of my favorite links soon (got to figure that one out as well) Hope you like these, I love the pink rose that I photographed in mums garden last Christmas time. I probably should be including credits for the elements used in these pages. I'm not that organised and didn't note down where all the lovely items came from. I will work on that, for now it will have to be ok that I acknowledge that only the photographs are my own and all the other stuff is designed by other very talented people.
Thanks for stopping by and leaving comments, I wish I could make you a cuppa while you were here!
See Ya....
Scott was at the back of the grid for all his races, on the first race he got off to a ripping start but at the first corner some contact occurred and as a result Scott spun out - not the start he was hoping for :( Well, my heart was pounding, to his credit he got sorted out and finished the race.The next 3 races were much the same, he had some good moments but also spun out a few times. After each race Grant was busy making adjustments to the kart to give it more grip and better handling.
At the end of the day on the final 25 lap race Scott was much more consistent and the kart was going well. No more spin outs and Scott did much better!
On the positive side Grant and Scott learned so much, they were pleased that the kart was performing well and now they have made the first step onto that learning curve.
On the negative side - it was just to flipping hot!!! It was 40C in the shade, just crazy. It really was a test of endurance and not at all pleasant. All the competitors deserve medals for making it through the day. The next race is on the 30th of June and it will be even hotter then.
Other news - Jake is feeling much better, the medicine seemed to help and the original shingles patch did not get any bigger and is now quite well healed up. He is happy with his exams so far, I hope the rest are ok for him too.
I have included a couple of scrapbook pages, not everything in this house revolves around karts! I will try to post these quite often. I like to check out other bloggs with scrapbook stuff and will add some of my favorite links soon (got to figure that one out as well) Hope you like these, I love the pink rose that I photographed in mums garden last Christmas time. I probably should be including credits for the elements used in these pages. I'm not that organised and didn't note down where all the lovely items came from. I will work on that, for now it will have to be ok that I acknowledge that only the photographs are my own and all the other stuff is designed by other very talented people.
Thanks for stopping by and leaving comments, I wish I could make you a cuppa while you were here!
See Ya....
Wednesday, June 07, 2006
Poor Jake
This has not been a good week for Jake, he is at home sick with Shingles. I have become an instant internet expert on the subject now. Luckily being a child the symptoms have not been to bad and so far he has only one patch on his back and its been really itchy rather than painful. However, because he could possibly spread chicken pox he has had to stay home. His exams start next week so I have had him doing a bit of revision. The doctor has him on some medication that seems to be working so I'm hoping that things will not get worse.
Grant and Scott have been busy with the kart. The engine has been modified and fitted back in, after a few hiccups it seems to be fine. Scott's first race is on Friday and he has been practicing till late at night trying to improve his track times. Grant has been busy at work so now the next time Scott gets in the kart it will be race day. The heat is getting pretty extreme and these karts are operating at the top of their range so I hope the engine hangs in there. The day time temps have been up to 45C and at night its down to 30C but with very high humidity (this makes the track real slippery).
I will take my camera and hopefully get some nice shots to post here. When I figure out how to do that ;)
Scott has had most of his exam results and did super well, I'm so proud of him because he works very hard and takes it all seriously. Most marks were in the 80's except Arabic which was about 30%.
OK folks - thanks for taking the time to read this, I'm going to spend the rest of the day doing the usual housework, sorting out the photos for here and then I will do some scrapbooking.
Grant and Scott have been busy with the kart. The engine has been modified and fitted back in, after a few hiccups it seems to be fine. Scott's first race is on Friday and he has been practicing till late at night trying to improve his track times. Grant has been busy at work so now the next time Scott gets in the kart it will be race day. The heat is getting pretty extreme and these karts are operating at the top of their range so I hope the engine hangs in there. The day time temps have been up to 45C and at night its down to 30C but with very high humidity (this makes the track real slippery).
I will take my camera and hopefully get some nice shots to post here. When I figure out how to do that ;)
Scott has had most of his exam results and did super well, I'm so proud of him because he works very hard and takes it all seriously. Most marks were in the 80's except Arabic which was about 30%.
OK folks - thanks for taking the time to read this, I'm going to spend the rest of the day doing the usual housework, sorting out the photos for here and then I will do some scrapbooking.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)