Gidday Mate

Well here I am at long last back on my blog spot in TARDUN, Western Australia working at a co-ed boarding school. For some of you this will be a bit of a rehash so you will have to bear with me. Tardun is 1 1/2 hours from Geraldton which is on the coast up from Perth which is about 5 hours away from here. The two nearest towns and I use the word advisably are Mullewa (30mins) and Morewa (45mins) at least 30mins of travelling on dirt and gravel before you hit bitumen roading. Tardun is in what is know as the wheat belt and at Morewa there are huge ovals surraound by what looks like unpainted sheets of tin, alongside the railway tracks. These ovals are filled with wheat when it is harvested. I landed at Geraldton Airport (think Rotorua for size) and got taken for a quick look at Geraldton before heading to the school. Geraldton is a well kept town, houses with gardens or at least shrubbery and trees. The ocean runs all down the coast and it looks spectacular with lovely green water as you drive alongside it. There are two mall type areas that I have found so far with a smaller area like the warehouse area at Pukekohe just a little way out of town with a Bunnings just before you get there. The Bunnings set up is exactly the same as Hamilton, how refreshing to go into a shop and know just where to look for what you want, but I digress. This is sparse country with nothing that resembles grass as we know it anywhere that I have seen. The dirt is similar to the red dirt of Pukekohe and goes for miles, interspersed with acres of wheat feels that are all stubble at the moment, much the same as a number one hair cut. Interspersed with all this is scrub that looks very similar to tea-tree but I think is called mullee scrub, and then there are other shrub type things that must be able to thrive off fresh air. The place is in the midst of a two year drought with very poor crops last year. The sheep I have seen, well think shrunken, dirty brown looking things - hard to believe their fleece would be good for anything nor do they look as though you would get a good feed off them. That goes for the horses I have seen, all look as though they could do with a good feed.
I have a cottage that goes with my job. Think one bedroom batch at the beach. At the back door is the washing machine and tub, directly in front of the back door is the bathroom that has a shower, loo and handbasin. To the right is the kitchen that has a bench, three cupboards on the wall, three cupboards under the bench and three drawers. There is a gas stove and I have a microwave, and a fridge. There is a 4 seater table that will extend. It is warped and have not managed to get it sitting entirely flat yet and there are 4 chairs. The living room is next with a couch in it and then there is my bedroom with a bed in it and a built in wardrobe all along the wall. There is air-conditioning in the lounge that has some vent into the bedroom and a ceiling fan in the bedroom, lounge and kitchen. My claim to fame is the verandah which is off the lounge and runs the entire length of the cottage. I have another house beside me, one across a space looking from the verandah and three across the way when looking out my kitchen window on the other side of the house. Once I learn how to put photos on this I will put some in to show you all.
The original school building, convent and chapel all look like something out of a movie, like a Mexican mission. Girls boarding is in the original boarding building that has the new library upstairs where the original dorm was, with admin and the kitchen underneath. Upstairs there are wide verandahs down both sides of the building (made of ?stone/concrete). Some of the rooms have french doors that open onto the verandahs, with some of the verandah enclosed at one end to form other rooms. There is 5 airconditioning units in the ceilings with ceiling fans in most rooms. I share a sleep over space that has a kitchenette, small sitting room and bedroom with shower and loo of it with the other person I work with, which is off the end of one of the verandahs. Upstairs you can see for miles and miles. There are heaps of buildings around the site, classrooms, the equine center, woodwork and metalwork rooms, an old bakery, laundry, housing, and further afield is the shearing shed, gardening area, a dam, cemetary and then the boys area further afield again. There is a swimming pool on site but in Australia you have to have a bronze medallion to supervise at a pool. My colleague is going to go for it but as I haven't been a pool other than the polar plunge last year at Dio, for over 20yrs, I may never be fit enough to get it. The first thing you have to do is swim 400mtrs in 13 mins. I have to see if I can still swim first LOL.
A new girl has just turned up and have been asked to open up and find a bed for her so will sign off for now. More later.
Lynn