Oh my! How August flew by! I remember the day it started... It was August the first. I walked into the staff room and someone was putting candles on a delicious mud cake. Thank God for big staffs because they have lots of birthdays! In any case, I asked with enthusiasm, 'Whose birthday is it today?' and the reply was that of a lovely collegue and all horses' birthdays. HUH? Well, yes, August 1st is the day every horse is one year older.' It turns out that all working and racing horses age together on August 1st to eliminate either confusion or paper work. I asked what happens if a horse is BORN on August 1st, and they said, well, we're not sure really. What about a horse that is born on July 31st. Of course, it would be one year old the next day. AHHH!! So, of course I had to eat a few slices of mud cake to celebrate ALL birthdays, human or otherwise.

My Knight in Hairy Armour

I've been waiting for this moment. Hoping it would happen while I was cleaning, or perhaps having a warm candlelit bath. I've heard he shows up when you're not expecting him. Waiting and watching from a distance and then BAM! He's in front of you! Exposed and lovely in his glamorous glory. And as the fates would have it, he appeared before me one night. Just as the chocolate chip cookies were burning in the oven, I opened the window for fresh air and there he was. A true blue and BIG huntsman spider. I was THRILLED! Those of you who know and tolerate me will understand the importance of this event. One cannot come to Australia and not meet the spider of their dreams. But, I must say that upon laying eyes on this arachnobeast, I got freaked out! He was big and moved fast and did NOT like to be bullied with my persistant poking. After he hid behind Frog's dog food cans, he moved into the open dishwasher, only to be trapped by a large spoon and air lifted to safety. It was as I had always dreamed it would be!

Potato Olympics

Athletes relaxing before the big race

Ahh, the joys of term 3. We all collaborated to make a plan to cover every aspect of the Olympics in London from writing letters to the athletes to figuring out the influence of friction in sports. It was well received and I learned an enormous amount! Then, in the lower grades, they had the very spectular Potato Olympics. Two hundred children went shopping for the exact potoato that would bring glory! Then each potato was decorated with appendages, kid made and otherwise. I actually ran into a little girl, Beth, who I've mentioned before in Woolies, the supermarket. She toured me around to show me all of the different types of potatos and which kind she chose. I asked her if a yam would be a suitable choice and she replied, Well of course! All potatoes will do their best. Over the course of the Olympics, there were many events taking place outside, under the Digger James playground, on the turf and the undercover areas. There was even a bowling event which I watched one morning. Potato athletes were bowled down the hallway and knocked over as many pins as possible. Afterwards, I chatted with a few top contenders to see what their secrets of success were. Well, it turns out that after the many outdoor events, one potato owner expressed that it wasn't such a bad thing that his potato had lost a couple of arms and a leg. It rolled rather well. Another said that even though she gave it more of a toss than a roll and it cracked, it was successful. Yet another commented on the fact that even though his had lost every body part, it was a winner. I agreed, saying that at least it could still see as it had a few extra eyes. He smiled and agreed.

Chit Chat
Right, so let's say you need to wrap a present, you go to the drawer for sticky tape. Gee and I thought all tape was sticky. But, you could use chewy instead, which is banned from every kid's mouth in school. Going to the drive thru bottle shops is easy for a quick box of VB (Victoria Bitter beer) AND you can pick up the ice blocks for the kid's pop at the same time! And when you get home, you drop all of your purchases onto the bench in the kitchen, that is of course, the kitchen counter. If you're getting puffed out from listening to all of the gas bagging I do, I'm sorry. I'll shut up. But, I'll share my jaffers and clinkers with you when I get home if you read this! Clinkers, by the way, have different colours when you bite into them, Green is no, Yellow is Yes, and Pink is maybe. They are great decision makers. Jaffers are little orange covered chocolate balls rolled in red candy. Mmm... And if you can't eat them all now, you can take them for Ron. Who's Ron, you ask? Well, I'll tell you LATER ON! It's just easier to shorten words here. Like going in to get your medication, you hand in your script. Jinxing a situation is to mozz yourself. And dogs don't wag and dob. That's what students do, skip school and tell on each other!

Warm staffie puppies of one of my students

All Creatures Great and Small

It seems like everytime I turn around, a story with an animal is waiting to be had. I'll start with a nice young guy named Josh.

One Saturday morning, we headed out to Bonnie and Emma's Wanganui soccer match. It was a less chilly morning, and Frog agreed to come along for a pre-game walk through the sports reserve.

We were toodling along, Frog sniffing peemails and me, counting all of the different varieties of birds flicking about. Suddenly a young man, about 20, comes along with his STAFFIE puppy. Awe, how cute! I love staffie puppies and all staffies actually. In anycase, his dog was unleashed and ran off to join a game of Footy being played by young boys. His dog was rolling around, chasing the footy ball, generally causing chaos and the referee wasnt quite sure what to do. The dog's owner seemed to be walking at a brisk pace quickly in towards me and Frog, without much concern for his pup. So, as he approached, I said, Gee, I think your dog is taking up a new sport. But, he replied in exasperation, HE'S NOT MY DOG! He didn't know whose dog it was, but it had been following him for 2 km and let me tell you, this little pooch loved him! The pup came bolting over, jumping up on him and bascially pretending that he was owned and loved by this young man. I asked him where he was heading, To Macca's of course (THat is McDonald's for us homies). There was a big highway he'd have to cross. Josh was his name, as he introduced me and looked at me needing advice. Right then, I said, now look. You cannot cross the highway and have him be hit. And as you can imagine, the staffi sat and looked up at him just at that point.

A staring staffie

We both sighed. Here, I said, you can have my leash and take him with you, tie him up while you get your Mclamb burger (yes, lamb) and then bring him back to where you started. Josh was fine with that and in the end smiling and starting to actually enjoy the pup's company as I watched them cross the footy and soccer fields to Macca's. I wonder if they are still together?

Then there was the kangaroo attack. A coworker's uncle was running and training for a marathon along the same path that he's run for 20 years. Suddenly, a kangaroo hops out in front of him and boings up the road, but suddenly comes to a hop stop. It turns around and bolts towards this fellow, only to knock him down, scratch him and generally beat him up! He got up and ran around a big gum tree, but the kangaroo persisted in the take down. Finally, he grabbed onto a fence and held on for dear life. The kanga gave up and moved on, only after this runner took quite a severe beating.

It's Swooping Season and the birds are all out in full force. Everyone is a bit freaked out by the thought of being swooped. Plovers and magpies are the worst, they say. But, seeing that my magpie family is well fed and has learned to sing on demand, I don't feel threatened by their presence. The plover on the other hand, is a common bird in large grassy wet fields, like where our recent House Sports day was held. Be safe, they say. Wear antennas and big eyes on your head, they say. One of my students said she knew somone who had their eyes pecked out. Oh, and they had a big scratch too. Hmm...I take all stories with a grain of salt.

But, I'm proud to say that my dysfunctional magpie family will soon be expanding their brood! Not sure where all 6 of them will sleep as those teenagers should have been gone looonnngg ago.

And then, there are the feral cats. When Posie, the duck's friend was stolen from our duck pen, all of my students replied, Oh, that's the feral cats. They do that alot. Then, one of my more industrious students decided to make a mini career of catching feral cats and selling them. Last he told me he hadn't caught any, but there were sightings. Seriously, there appears to be a multitude of feral cats in Victoria. Upon further research, I found these unmitigated headlines from various sites.

TOO MANY FERAL CATS IN VICTORIA

Feral cats in Victoria

Feral cats are present in Victoria as in the rest of Australia and there have been hundreds of reported sightings, yet no proof of the existence of big cats has even been established.
Ok, you get the picture. Wierdly enough, when we came home from Cairns, there was mystery white cat hair out on the patio furniture and an unmistakeable white whisker. Perhaps Posie's sidekick did succumb to a feral cat snack attack, but I have the answer for those cats that are rounded up.

And lastly, a large congregation of black spiders had set up condo residences throughout the winter months. I usually am in favor of having them around to keep down the flying insect population, but MAN these guys took over every corner of the windows outside. And, too boot, they spin a very sticky silky web that is darned hard to get rid of. But, a grand case of serendipity hit me the other day as we were walking through the 'Cheep as Chips' bargain store. The ULTIMATE COB WEB REMOVER 5000! With an extendable handle and sweeping circular brush, one can take down numerous webs in the blink of an eye. Plus it came in pink!

Now, for a more peaceful wildlife story. In our grade 5/6 classes, the students were studying biomes and animals. One hundred students were all given a biome, either tundra, marine, grassland, rainforest or desert. Then, they made paper mache animals in art classes and wrote reports on their animal. The reports were then made into powerpoints and given a QR code. Parents could come in and scan the QR code with their Iphones or use the school's Ipods and suddenly, their reports would come to life on the screen! I have to admit that it was BRILLIANT! But the best part was the displays of each biome and the animals in them. Here are a few of my favourites.

Check out the antlers on this caribou

Ah, the joys of a 7-11 slurpee only in Melbourne

On to other news, every time we go to Melbourne, we pass this dilapitated structure coming into the downtown. The first time we saw, we thought it must be some sort of transport device for the cargo ships that come in on the Yarra River. The next time we saw it, we thought maybe it was a new kind of crane. But, in fact, it is what it is. An old dilapitated ferris wheel built by a Japanese business man, meant to rival the London Eye, but he didn't install it to safety standards and doesn't have enough money, or worry to remove it.

The Fanciest Affair in Shepparton

Next to the Shep Bowling alley is this little underwear shop

When Emma announced that there was a formal dance for Year 10 students, I started to have shortness of breath and weak knees. I was VERY excited for her, but at the same time, knew that she would need...THE DRESS! This, I must say, was worth the biggest Brownie badge ever. That of helping your daughter find the right dress. Yes, I wear this badge with pride knowing that 3 different cities, many kilometers walking and thousands of dresses later, (well, ok, maybe just dozens), we found the beautiful dress that made for a magical night with her friends at 'The Wool Shed'.

Arts and Culture

Recently we had a great treat in Mooroopna, which is the next town over. Wanganui high school students put on an amazing rendition of Fame and blew it away! Emma and Bonnie's friend, Keenan was in it. Wow! It was fantastic and kudos to that staff (and all staffies) who put it together. Anyway, on the way there, we decided to stop for Take Away dinner. There are a variety of little corner shops that do this. You just stroll in and order a deep fried dinner and out you go. But, we didn't really think about this as we stepped out into the chilly air, looking around for a place to eat. In the end, we plopped ourselves in the dark across the street at the water tower. Yum..and brrr. Advice: Best know where you are taking Take Away food before hand.

Father's Day

We wondered why it was so hard to find a card to send home to Dad's for Father's Day last June. That's because here, it's the first Sunday in September. Now this created a problem for me because Brian's birthday was two days later! He's usually the one who freaks out because he has to think of 2 birthday presents for me as I'm a Christmas Eve baby. But, in the end, he got spoiled with new loot both days! The Grahamvale Father's Day stall was opened in the library once again, and the kids got to buy all sorts of goodies for their dads. A popular item was a stress ball. Go figure!

Frog refereeing from the sideline

Soccer News

Well, winter sports are done now. Soccer, Footy and netball are wrapping up with the Grand Finals. Emma's Shepparton United Team didn't quite make it to the final game as they lost in an overtime shoot out. Then, the girls' Wanganui team lost the Grand Final game to Grammar School Gold, once again in a sudden death shoot out! All of us parents were screaming and puffed out on the sidelines. It was an exciting season for both teams and I am SO GLAD we all got to be part of it. We met such a great group of people!

Grahamvale Highlights
Lucky me, I got put into the McDermot House here at GPS (Grahamvale Primary School). I could have been a Hick, Doyle or James, all houses named after Diggers in the WW2. But, thankfully, the house gods were smiling down because our house colour is red. Now, red isn't a colour I have much of, and when they said that we dress up in our house colours to show spirit, I had no trouble sifing through my clothes to support our winning house team!

It was a great day AND the plovers didn't get us!

Book Day was a wonderous event in sooo many ways! All the students prepare costumes based on favorite book characters and dress up...ALOT! Wow, I was impressed with the imagination and detail of the costumes! It seems like a much better version of Halloween for a few reasons. First, it's warm out and you don't have to cover up your costumes with snowsuits. Secondly, it makes kids open books. Thirdly, instead of feasting on sweets (although I do like that) the kids spent the day making art based on different books. At the end, there is a parade of art and costumes and the winners of a National best year's book titles are announced.

Brian's Report Card
Being a house husband has it's perks, but they slowly fade away and leave one wanting to hang up the apron and get out of the kitchen. After a spell at the Cannery, Brian had a few months of being Frog's entertainment for the days of winter. But, good things often come the bad things, so when our heater wasn't working and we put to rest the dead reptiles that caused the problem, the repair man spent a couple of days installing a brand new one. Brian was happy to have some company and many stories were shared as our repairman was a wealth of information. The following day, Brian had a job offer. It seems that he mentioned his line of work and BOOM! he was hired the next week to run the finances and book keeping for Dickson's Airconditioning and Refridgeration. He's full time and we car share--Yes, a family of 4 can live on one car! In any case, one afternoon when I picked him up, his boss wandered out to the car and we started chatting. He said, That husband of yours has been a blessing! He's changed our lives here! I replied that it was too bad we have to leave in 4 months, and he said, Well, you might be going home without him. A+ on his report card!

Looking out the Window at School
I have the luxury of facing out onto the busy highway that crosses in front of our 150 year old school! Living in an agricultural bowl, there are many interesting things that come by on a daily basis, and usually bring with them an assortment of smells. There's the multi story sheep trucks, where you can see the sheep actually looking out over the top of the carrier. There's all the little piggies going to market, there's the various large semi trailers carrying freshly canned fruits and vegetables. There's the small farmers on tractors and the REALLY BIG TRACTORS! And, the occasional swimming pool goes by to be placed in some lucky family's backyard. To make matters really noisy, there's the train tracks that run along side the highway, and as soon as the train comes, all hell breaks lose because the kids rush to the windows to count the cars and compare answers afterwards. Sheesh...all in a day's teaching.