Who knew tennis could be so riveting!!! amongst other things

It is amazing how much one can pack in to a few days when living in the back of beyond. Friday, I set of with the WM to Gton as she had a dental appointment to attend and school uniforms and books to buy. The other main reason for being in town was the commissioning service at the Cathedral that afternoon for all the Catholic schools in the area. We had all got to the Cathedral at 2pm which was on the board back at school only to find that the service was not until 3.30pm. What to do,what to do - a late lunch for some was in order and I took the opportunity to do some speed shopping in town for two new shirts and 3/4 length pants to start the school year. The service when we returned was interesting - lots of singing - nothing that I recognised at all, but lovely to hear an organ playing. The Cathedral is something to behold inside - the walls are all gray and light gray horizontal stripes with orange and white striped painted bricks? around all the arches ( and there are many) which gives it a very bumble bee sort of look and not restful at all to contemplate. It is a shame because the building itself is very cathedrally with a domed ceiling, arches, stained glass windows and all the trimmings - just a very odd colour scheme indeed. There was a bit of a bun fight after the service at the parish hall so went for a minimalist graze and a beer (the aussie influence coming in here, heh, heh). We decided to make a complete day of it and stayed on in town to go to the Camel Bar for a pizza dinner which was absolutely delicious, followed by a walk along the beach front again before returning to school.

I was up at 7.30am the next morning to head back into Gton with another colleague as neither of us had done our grocery shopping the day before and our 'quick trip' cost several hundred dollars between us as we set ourselves up for the year with food and sundry items such as pots and pans, dinner sets and glasses (colleague, not me with that). Got back in time to defrost the fridge and clean it out for all the meat and beg I had bought, then back up to dinner at the WM's and to watch the womens' tennis fianl with Serena Williams beating Saffina in a very quick time.

Yesterday, (a mere 46o around noon), the WM's family and I assisted our newly promoted DP to move abodes to a house right opposite me. This involved moving out from his house next door which was an old caravan and leanto into a three bedroomed abode with a decent kitchen, living room and inside laundry - such are the small pleasures in life. Furniture was lugged back and forth and the satellite dish so TV could be connected which was a main priority. In the midst of this, I was trying to spring clean my own abode which became even more of a job when I dismantled my current bed which was a very old wire wove and exchanged it for a slat bed with head and tail board that is like a mid sized four poster - so many places to hang things off, lol. I sleep on a divan at school and I think the change from hard to soft mattress was giving me back ache so have had to let go my nostalgic trip down wirewove memory lane!!! The plus is that I now have a queen mattress on a queen frame instead of the queen mattress and double frame with the ww bed. As soon as the bed was made and room tidied, I have to admit to a nana nap because the heat and exertion made me decide on a siesta under the fan with the aircon on full warp speed. Even so it was only 10o cooler inside when I checked the thermometers.

The big event last night was the Federer/Nadal final in the tennis, with NZ playing the aussies in cricket (watched in the ad breaks, lol). The good news is NZ won the cricket - played in Perth, and the bad news for those of us who were backing Federer, is that Nadal won the final. I kid you not, there were times during the match when I was looking through my fingers as some of the rallies were that nail bitingly scarey. I have never seen tennis played with the intensity that those two played and it was a grand spectacle indeed. It was incredibly moving at the end to see Federer bought to tears, such was the high regard the Australian fans have for him which was mentioned by those giving out the awards as well as the standing ovations he recieved. Nadal did deserve to win in the end, which was a mamoth task playing 5 sets after a 5 hour marathon two days before. What impressed me most was the sportsmanship they both displayed once the match was over. Very moving TV indeed.

Today was up early again to set up the boarding house for the girls' return, whilst trying to maximise the cooler morning temperature. Just as well as it was gaspingly hot this afternoon and I was dripping wet just moving about the place. Fortunately, during the holidays a very 'you beaut' new airconditioner was installed in our sleepover room - which has been set on a hoar frost temp of 18o all day. It is bliss, so will happily sleep with my duvet on tonight, the only downside being the noise of the said aircon but I will live with that. I think today was hotter than yesterday but didn't get to look to properly compare. So far we have 6 girls back. It seems there have been floods up in the Kimberlys today and they are cut off without land line or cell ph coverage according to the news tonight. One of our girls is still stuck out bush somewhere as a river has risen that she cannot cross so we are expecting her back later in the week.

I nearly had a heart attack in chapel tonight. As I was listening, totally focussed on what the new principal was telling the students who had returned, the WM tapped me on the back and said very quietly pointing to the floor at my feet 'snake'. I believe I froze and could not move for several moments as I then espied a very small snake about the size of a no 8 knitting needle, slither in a snake like way, under the pew in front of me. Once I had ascertained the size of the snake and parts of me would move again, I slowly lifted my legs in one smooth movement, horizontal and rested them up off the floor on the pew I was sitting on. I am not sure whether it was my movement or the way I was intensely focussed on where the snake was slithering to that caught the attention of the Principal, but as he raised his eyebrows in mid talk, I managed a strangulated gasp and said in a loud whisper, "SNAKE". He paused, complemented the students on how well they had been paying attention and dismissed them and then he called a couple of male staff up to check what sort of snake it was as it had finally reached the corner of the floor and was looking for somewhere else to crawl.

Apparently it was not a poisonous snake - and one of the men killed it by taking off his shoe and beating it to death there and then. That is now my second chapel/snake experience and I would hope the last!!! The thing is, I keep expecting something huge when talking about snakes, and they are so small, hence you could be on top of one before you knew it.

I am not having a good wildlife week as last night narrowly avoided a large spider whilst on the way to the bathroom. I usually head there and back in the dark, knowing the way, as you do, but last night as there was stuff everywhere, for safety sake I turned on a light - all the better to see this flopping huge spider run through the door from the laundry into the kitchen. I backed up into my bedroom where the trusty flyspray was and standing about 6' away, gave at least 30secs blast to where the spider was lurking, shot to the loo and then back to bed. Have not looked for a body yet, will wait until I have the vacuum cleaner in hand which is about as close as I want to get to the dead body parts. The joys of summer and returning to a house where the continuous blasting flyspray has run out during the hols!!!!!

A final mention must go to the wonderful news that the Otaua Village Preservation Society were successful in their submissions to halt the building of a waste oil processing plant in the heart of their rural village just out of Waiuku. The waste oil people may challenge this decision but how fantastic that with all their money and expensive consultants, they were beaten by the passion and common sense of a local community that registered amongst the legalese also bought to bear on their behalf.