Bulgaria with Noodles

There has been a lot of hullabaloo in the UK about a Maths question that appeared on this year's Year 6 (Grade 4) SATs paper for Mathematics. There was a big article about it in the TES. It's not that hard. It took me about a minute to solve. The trick, of course, is to understand that the two squares should not be the same size. Maybe that is why the examiners put the word "different" in bold type . (Do teachers ever tell their students to read the question, I wonder? Maybe they do.) The students should also know that there is not much point in panicking, crying and wasting a lot of time on a question that only carries one mark if they really have no idea what the answer is. This is just common sense and good exam technique. All of the exam papers that were ever written have had some questions that were harder than the others, so there were some that could have been done quickly and easily, while there were some that were more challenging and time-consu...

After church today I had lunch at a Chinese restaurant with Beth and Dave Kanelos, who were leading the worship. What really made it special, however, was that we had a real live Chinaman to keep us company during the meal. And, better still, Isaac Huang is from Shenzhen. In fact, he goes to the OCT church and knows quite a few people at SIF, Shenzhen International Fellowship, our church during our five years in SZ. Of course he knows Heidi, but then every Christian in Shenzhen knows Heidi. It was so strange (and so enjoyable) to hear someone speaking English with a Chinese accent and occasionally chatting with the restaurant staff in Cantonese. Isaac politely tolerated the few (very few) phrases of Mandarin that I still remember. The other strange thing was that meeting Isaac showed me how much I miss China. Five years is a fair old chunk of your life, I suppose, and part of me wishes that we were still there. Lianhuacun Park, Bill, Julia and the extremely naughty Diu...

Irena flew back to the Crimea on Friday morning. Now it is Tuesday and I am really feeling her absence. It is not a problem when I am at school, as there I usually have more than enough to do. (This morning I had the added joy of Grade 5’s charming company, with a double lesson of cover for a missing French teacher.)  No, the problem comes at the weekends, when I have time on my hands and I do not know what to do with it. There is just a big empty space. Coming home to an empty apartment is horrible as well, but being on your own for a few hours after a busy day at school is not quite so difficult as a long weekend. This weekend was extra-long, as we also had Monday off from school. It was Bulgarian Army day. Irena is probably with her mother, whom we usually refer to as Mamulichka , at her country house just outside Simferopol, usually called the datcha. Well, Mamulichka’s datcha has no Wifi or Internet connection, so that would explain why I have not had any mes...

This is one of my favourite photos of me. I remember reading somewhere, "Never complain about old age. It is a privilege that many people never have." So yes, I am getting older, but I am so blessed with good health and, of course, my dear wife, Irisha. And here she is, looking beautiful (as usual). Anyway, congrats to me on getting to the big six zero and yes, we are very predictable and so we had my sixtieth birthday lunch at The Happy Grill . (Salmon with roasted vegetables and a carafe of okay Chardonnay.) Patricia, Suhail and their daughter Danielle had lunch with us. Thery are some lovely Christian friends from IBC, the International Baptist Church of Sofia. Danielle is a medical student and Suhail is a nurse. A great photo of two great ladies!