Crazy Cow Rulz!!!!.

I am not being abusive nor am I suggesting Mad Cow by any other name, lol. I have in fact bought a pair of pyjamas that are purple with friesian cows leaping all about with the word crazy interspersed. (for those without a farming background, they are friesian cows because they are black and white in random patterning, heh, heh). Under the 'nearly too much information' heading, I am not usually a pyjama wearing type person, however, am girding myself for cooler temps in NZ and think they may be a tad more visitor friendly than my usual diaphanous winciette nighty's - am slightly moving up in the 'wincy' fashion stakes, lol. I had been describing them to the workmate as my 'silly moo' pj's till I saw the word crazy on them again, and am thinking I like the 'silly moo' title better. (As I was tidying my wardrobe the other day, I did find a pair I had forgotten I bought last year for camping. They are red and white vertical stripes, so picture if you will, a XXL candy cane - not a good look, so they may remain in the wardrobe as they were an impulse buy).

The Bishop was here for Mass on Friday night attending the staff/student dinner beforehand. It is still very much - 'it's Friday, so must be fish' - out here, though I understand that rule has been relaxed in the Catholic church for some time. (There was one slight faux pas when it was noticed that there was bacon bits in the Caesar salad, lol.). There was cheesecake, fruit salad, and two flavours of ice cream for desert so the students were well pleased. (Lent, what Lent, lol). It was nice during the service in the 'prayers of the faithful' that prayers were said for those sick in the community and they included Clive back in NZ!!!!! Like I said to Mum, it never hurts having a bob each way, lol.

News re Clive, is that the second op went well, and he has been returned from Middlemore back to Manukau Super Clinic and though tired, with a few memory lapses due to the anesthetic, he is doing OK.

Have been 'autumn cleaning' sorting through my cupboards and boxes pulling out things to take back to NZ. I am back to work this evening until Wednesday morning, then the Geraldton run and then I am done till next term. Have been up to school this morning as we had reports to do before tomorrow morning - the whole 7 of them! - and this is an interim tick the box type report so even easier again. Came home and watered my garden and am now wondering why I started with the planting when there will be nearly three weeks without me here to water them. Not brilliant thinking there! Maybe able to transfer the containers to one of the staff who will be staying around while I am away.

It was the end of daylight saving this morning. After my spit/snarl last year because nobody told me, the workmate had it written in the diary, written it on the calendar and reminded me again on Fri so I was all good to go this year. My computer also managed to change it's time automatically which it did not do last year. I do have trouble reprogramming watches - the digital ones have buttons that seem to do everything but change the time and when by trial and error, I finally get the sequence right, the date is out of wack, and I have set the alarm for some ungodly hour in the night/morning. When I bought this watch I got the staff at the shop to set it right - at least it is now off the 24 hour clock that I somehow found the other week by mistake when trying to get the light to come on it during the night!!!!! To save more stress when I do my cross country/international travels, I have a second watch that tells NZ time which I keep to wear when home. I find having a couple of $2 shop watches works wonders and if they stop, I just bin them. (Although not pretty, the digital numbers are usually big enough to guess, when I can actually activate the light component, in the dark, without my glasses on, lol.

Have just read my nieces food blog - (on my list of blogs that I follow and well worth a read as is her mother's/sisters blog on Argentina) which reminded me of my latest find last week .... Jelly Beans from the chemist that you can buy in a KILO bag!!!!! OMG, they are very yummy. My particular new favourite is the chartreusey green, apple tasting ones. How long does it take to eat a kilo of JB's - well, replacing several meals during the course of ingesting said bag, it took four days (hey I was doing a lot of book reading in that time and the two seemed to go together). During this episode, I realise I have this particular way of eating JB's by their colour starting with least favourite to favourite colour. So, for those playing at home and for this particular brand of JB's, it goes: orange, yellow, pink, red, blue, purple, green, white and finally black. I found at the same chemist, they have bags of black only JB's, though probably only 100gm size (forgot to check but had them like an order on the side when I felt in a particularly black JB mood, lol.) How much did this epicurian delight cost - from memory it was $12 (cheaper than a cup of coffee per day, heh, heh). I forgot to say they are a decent sized JB and not the hard, smallish ones of some cheaper varieties. I will leave you pondering upon your own personal attack on JB's, lol.

Just a Short One.

Am kind of back in the land of the living. After doing 8 days straight at work with two days in Geraldton between shifts, by yesterday, I was feeling somewhat like a zombie - hence the long space between blogs. I went to Gton on Tuesday this week - back to the Dr's again for the WM who is now on the way to being sorted - much relief all round that she has a bug and not something more serious. I stayed up at school today and hopped back into bed, sleeping most of the day away and feel I have caught up with myself somewhat.

The skyline is very interesting at the moment - I was sure I saw smoke last week as I was driving and felt a little nervous at what might be the cause. The fire ban came off on March 18 and so farmers have begun to burn their wheat fields in preparation for plowing. It was quite bizarre driving towards the smoke only to find it was always that bit further over the horizon again. This week going to town, many of the paddocks looked singed. In my naivety I thought you just stood at one end of the paddock and set fire to it - it would seem however that there is a more controlled way of doing it than that (which makes sense as there are still bush fires burning in other states!). I also commented on how the Red Indians would have been so successful using smoke signals back in the day - you really can see smoke for miles and miles when the countryside is relatively flat, lol. One of the upsides of all the smoke in the air is the blood red sunsets that we are having at night.

Have been having quite a bit of trouble with my internet connection over the past week up at school. Not sure what has been causing it - skype calls have dropped and although my wireless has shown up as being connected to Bigpond, I have not been able to get on line. Much spitting an snarling from me as it has been VERY frustrating. Luckily I bought a cheapie word game CD thingie last week that does not need internet connection so have been playing that for hours instead.

The WM and family are down at Bindoon until tomorrow evening. They have taken a group of students to visit the school which is run by the same honcho's as us. Bindoon is about an hour up from Perth and also an Agricultural College. We have had a couple of seniors already move down to take up courses that started a couple of weeks ago and one of our girls from last year is there. As part of the closure of the school, we are working to have all the students enrolled at other schools by the end of the year.

I am sitting in my sleepover room up at school writing this, not long after speaking to sister Kay in Argentina on Skype!!!!! How amazing is that - note to self - now have to look good at night time too in case she pops up again. Kay was in a classroom and had me speak to the students she was working with. I have put her blog on my post - Kay in Argentina - for those who are interested in how she is going and if you want to have a laugh at her foreign experiences. Her blog explains that she is on an AFS trip for a month learning Spanish by immersion, living with a host family etc etc. Have already spoken to the WM at Bindoon - too easy indeed.

It is 9 sleeps until I am back in NZ again - just worked that out tonight. I have a straight through flight with Air NZ back and as I am flying Qantas on the way back, there is a stop over in Melbourne - havn't been there before, so will be adding new stamps to my passport. I will arrive back here on ANZAC day with two days before school starts again.

Mum has been in touch this week several times with updates on Clive since he had his op last week. Unfortunately, this amputation has not been as successful as the last one and tomorrow Clive is back in theatre to have a further amputation above the knee at Middlemore Hospital . Amazingly, he has already been doing exercises and was up on the parallell bars today!!!. He made the decision to go back into theatre tomorrow rather than waiting until Monday when it could be done at Manukau, for the best chance at recovery. All the best Clive for the op. It sounds as though you have a good team working with you.

Had better get some shut eye again - we have a staff and student dinner tomorrow night with the Bishop who is coming for a last visit before heading off on his sabbatical.

Blue Heelers or Not all Policemen are Nice!!!

Have had rather a few action packed days this week. Wednesday was the town run. Got away at 9.30 and had several stops in Mullewa before we got to Geraldton. Got to have a bite to eat about 3pm and got back here as the phone was ringing with the WMH inviting me up to dinner. Bliss. There was steak cooked to perfection (have finally got him cooking medium rare from the boot leather, well done, he was used to, lol) roast pumpkin, carrots, potatoes and cauli with brocolli and cheese sauce. Had barely taken three mouthfuls when the phone rang. It was the WM telling us that the roof was leaking (there was no rain) and water was dripping on the enclosed verandah floor. Sure enough - there was the water, dripping through the (electrical) exit sign, with a large WET spot on the carpet and more forming. The hatch up to the roof was padlocked so I got on the ph to the fix it bloke, the Brs and the Principal. Found we had a key to the roof after all, so WMH and WM got on the roof, to see water flowing out of a tank. They switched something off but even more water was coming in. By then the Brs turned up (after more calls to fix it bloke) and between everyone, managed to find another switch and there was something about a ball cock - suffice it to say, the water ceased flowing on the roof and it was deemed safe to let the girls back in the house. (We had shoed them downstairs in case another ceiling decided to give way, lol). When I first rang the Principal, he was in the middle of cooking his dinner - good I said, mine was congealing on a plate next door!!! Once the water was stopped from the top of the roof, we returned to eat the by now extremely cooled dinner. I was so hungry, couldn't wait for the microwave, besides the steak tasted great cold and I didn't want to over cook it.


I stayed and watched Australia You've got Talent semi finals and Criminal Minds and then walked home with my NEW torch. I got a dinky LED light torch last weekend and it worked perfectly - not a snake or fox in sight, lol. I checked some emails when I got home as it was only 11ish and I had the day off next day. Well, the WM had sent me a challenge on Facebook with some word puzzel game so I had to have a go, then I beat my own score and then did better. At 2.30am brother Brett popped up on skype as he was just getting ready to go to work in NZ. Had a quick chat and after I had beaten the WM on one lot of puzzels (I had found another two and gave them a workout too, lol), I went to bed and read for a bit, probably turning the light off about 3.30pm. Yay, sleep in in the morning! Tuis (yeah right!!!!)


The phone went at 7am waking me up. Slithered across the bed to reach it before it cut out and lo and behold it was the WM - "I'm dying, didn't get a wink of sleep last night, have made a Dr's apt in Geraldton and I need you to drive me in" Good oh, I'll just wake up and be up.....

Got dressed and headed up to school just as the DP was leaving his house so caught a lift up with him and headed straight for the coffee machine. Had two double shot cappucinos and then a normal one in the space of 30 mins to go with the two crumpets I had snarfed down before I left
We set of to Gton and I was still not wide awake and the WM commented I had not changed gear once until nearly at Mullewa. OMG, I was driving a manual again after the luxury of the Brs new automatic car. Oh well, after some trouble with the gears, (I seemed to have trouble with the sequence) we had got through Mullewa on the open road and I was zooming along reasonably wired when this car came towards me with flashing lights. Were they flashing at me? Should I stop? Yes to both questions the WM said. I pulled over and the said car pulled up behind me and there was a cop at my window. Have you got a licence (open wallet so packed full of receipts etc I could not find my licence immediately and in fact had forgotten what it looked like). You were speeding madam, 123k. Heavens to Betsy was my reply (thank God they had not got me at the 14ok I had been doing). Had I had a ticket before (more laughter, as it was 36 yrs ago on the Southern motorway going to a wedding and I didn't get off that one either) I was then asked to blow a breathaliser and was laughing so much (already thinking how this was going to look in my blog,) I had to do it twice. Meanwhile, cop number two was walking round the car - and proceded to default ticket it for the windscreen that was broken. When asked who the car belonged to I said hers, oops, it came up in the WMH name (will have to have a word to him about women's lib and dual names for ownership etc), so by now I looked like a blithering idiot, possibly drunk (with tiredness) driving an unsafe car that I couldn't identify ownership of!!!!! I think they thought I wasn't taking them seriously enough. The upshot was $150 fine and two demerit points. The WMH had 10 days to get the windscreen repaired too - (fortunately they were covered by ins). It was a buggar of Toyota proportions but could have been so much worse. It was a bit of a shock afterwards when I realised that I must truely be getting old as for the first time, these guys were not so hot in uniform, quel disappointing realisation - arrrrhhh.
It was an expensive day in the end as I found two new shops whilst the WM was waiting for her apt - one a gift shop, and one a scrapbooking shop - they do say no good turn goes unpunished.

Click go the Shears.

Am up early today as four of the girls are going crutching/shearing this morning until lunchtime. They have a cooked breakfast at 7am. I imagine it will be hard work if the temperatures remain in the 40's like the last few days.

Not sure what the atmospherics are up to but was not able to connect to the internet at all last night and am only on one bar this morning! However, my time was not wasted - I spent over an hour last night helping one of the senior girls with her homework, and had my youngest girl do some reading out aloud to me for practice. These girls who are in yr 9 and yr 12 respectively struggle with work that I would have been doing in Std 3 & 4 (yrs 5 & 6). Many of our students have missed chunks of their schooling life and it is difficult to work with them with many of the basics missing in their schooling. I was talking to my year 9 girl the other day when I received a beautiful book on Egypt from a dear friend in NZ, and she had never heard of Egypt, didn't know what a pyramid was, had never heard of the 7 Wonders of the World, .......... . It is not just general knowledge of the world they live in but their own country as well that they know so little about. However ask about Rianna and Chris whoever and you will be told all the details of why he beat her up and why she left him!!!!. Makes me very glad for the wonderful schooling and the encouragement to learn I received at Kariaotahi Primary School, and View Rd Primary School back in the day.

I spent most of yesterday not far from the cell phone as I was awaiting news about Mum's Clive. On Friday Mum txtd me to say the decision had been made to amputate his 'good' leg. The ulcer that began late January, was not healing and getting progressively worse. Clive was able to go home for the weekend and from yesterday morning at 7am Aussi time I got regular updates as the day unfolded from being in pre-op to surgery, until around 1.30pm Aussi time to say that he was back in recovery - as Kay said, with more wires and leads than a rock band. So far, so good. He had done remarkably well after losing his right leg and apart from driving the car, was pretty independent - even to the point of getting on a ladder (and you thought we never knew, lol). He has gone into this op much fitter than when he had the first op so the hope is his recovery goes well. I did remark to Mum that Douglas Bader escaped from Colditz with no legs, flew a plane and played golf once he got his prothesis legs!!!! All the best Clive in the meantime as I know Mum will be reading this to you.

Other than numerous phone calls to NZ and being on skype a lot over the weekend, it was reasonably relaxing. On Saturday morning went with the WMH and boys to Morawa to do some shopping for a change. We had just got off the dirt road onto the main road when the WMH said snake! I was busy talking so missed it and we decided instead of turning back (it was an ex snake) we would look at it on the way back. Did the rounds of the four shops that are open on a Saturday morning - the hardware/gardening shop, the stationery/ gift/ lotto shop, the clothing/material/wool shop (think miniature Duthies, Waiuku folk) and then the IGA for a top up of groceries. To complete the outing, we then stopped at the local cafe/bakery for a cappucino and something to eat. Unfortunately we were too late (1pm) for the home made pies - I only eat homemade ones these days - so settled for a foccacia bun with chicken, avocado,etc etc.

Finally got back to the ex snake and in Crocodile Dundee terms - this was a snake (compared to others I have seen). It was a metre and a bit long and about as wide as two fingers together ( hey, you have to use what you've got, lol). There was a tyre mark about 20cm from its head where it was extremely flat to the ground. Bearing in mind, I have been told every snake is poisonous in WA until it isn't... I stood about a metre away from it again, with arms stretched out to take a photo and SOD! the camera had no battery left. As I hopped (leapt) back up into the car, I then saw one of the camels on the farm opposite to where we were parked - arrrhhh no camera going and this was the closest and best I had ever got to the camels that live there. It seemed to be a very large beast and was grazing under a tree. I think the second one may have been lying down, as there was a rather large rock shaped looking something that we could not quite distinguish that could have been the companion. Apart from an ex fox closer to Morewa, that was as interesting as the drive was.

Got back and flopped on the couch and watched two DVDs before wandering home. Watched 'The Bucket' with Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman - a light entertaining movie - with Jack playing his usual angry man who softens roll that he does so well. Sunday did some house cleaning and tidying and put up new curtains. There were some spare ones going up at school so I now have trendy tab drop curtains in the windows which has lightened and brightened the place up. I had finally got organised and planted out some basil and spinach earlier in the week - the basil has survived but the spinach perished - I think I was a week too long in getting the seedlings in.

One of my missions since I got back from holiday this year has been to enroll at the Australian Catholic University in Brisbane for the Associate Degree in Residential care. I managed to get my records of achievement from Waikato uni and Waikato Polytech and in speaking to the course co-ordinator yesterday, I will get 10 credits for my prior learning which means I only have to do 6 papers to get the degree and I can probably do three next semester. I thought I may as well while the numbers of the girls are so few. I have to laugh as I can hear Dad saying 'you're the most educated unemployed person I know'! and this was after doing a secretarial course and just before I went to university for the first time (for my fortieth birthday present to myself). It's to be hoped that there will be further employment at the end of all this, lol.

Its still reasonably cool so think I will walk back down to my place to water the plants that are still alive. I will stop on the way downstairs and have a cappucino from the 'you beaut' coffee machine that would put the average cafe to shame, that was gifted to the school from .... somewhere.... I am sure we will be taking a mortgage out before we are through to keep enough coffee beans to hand to keep it going. It grinds the beans, zooms out frothy milk and adds shots of caffine to your mug. You can do cup or two - usually need to push the two cup button for the coffee mugs we use, heh, heh. I see after reading my nieces blog it is St Patricks Day today - in the news free bubble that we live in out here, that had nearly escaped my notice. Will go downstairs now and give the Catholics grief, lol.

The Killing Fields or midnight madness, lol.

Have had a couple of interesting walks home this week. On Monday night the WMH invited me up to dinner as he had found a Rogan Josh mixture to try out. Very tasty indeed it was with none of the powdery feel to the meat that usually goes with that dish. I'm not sure what happened during the day, I got home, hung out washing, started to read a book around 10.30am and woke up at 5pm!!!!!! Anyway, back to dinner which was superb. It was a relatively nothing night on the telly so decided to have a game of Buzz which we havn't done in ages (I won, heh, heh). And then it was Boston Legal, so watched that and then wandered home about midnight. I walked home because it was near a full moon and quite light out. Just as I was walking towards the oval, I saw three shadows running across the ground - my first thought was that it was someone's dogs, then as they stopped and took off again - I realised they were foxes. I did wonder for a moment or two whether they would circle round and have a go at me, but then realised I had the wrong beast, wolves do that so back to foxes again so continued home a mite warily just in case, lol. Made it home with no further ado.

Tuesday night was a repeat performance at the WM's place - dinner and Tuesday night telly - all good. Walked home around 11.30pm due to presence of fuller moon than the night before, when I noticed a blaze of lights down at my place. As I walked closer, I realised the next door neighbours had their outside light on in the front of their place, and as I got closer again - their back yard was also well lit . There were three dead kangaroos hung off a steel pole while they were being skinned and gutted. I knew they were not sheep as there was an extra appendage which is what I first noticed (the tail!!!), like an extra very long leg and then noticed the small ears and kangaroo shape, lol. Not what I was expecting at all. I arrived just as one was being gutted, very reminescent of growing up on the farm and seeing sheep being killed (when I could still bare the sight of blood and gore, lol). These were for dog tucker as the dog does not like other meat if you please. Chalked that one up to another very Australian experience!!!

Whilst on the subject of livestock, the students found a baby snake outside the staff room after school - it is now an ex snake, not sure which brand of snake it was, but we were told in chapel tonight, the mother snake could be nearby - great!!!! Just what I need to hear after walking about the place at night - also heard that snakes are nocturnal - even better!!!!! Maybe I will take the offer of the car to drive back and forth until further notice.

Am in the process of booking tickets home for Easter. I think I leave here on the 3rd April arriving NZ on the 4th at 5.30am and leave on the 24th. I have a feeling I fly straight through to NZ but on the way back do a stop over at Melbourne airport - woohoo - not been there before so that will be interesting. I am told the airport is in the middle of nowhere (probably like Auckland airport compared to the city) but that is OK. Anyway, will confirm all that once I get the printout in my hands.

Did a run into Gton on Wednesday. Had a detour at Mullewa that went away from the town and then back around a huge shed and bins for wheat, doubling back into the township. It looked like we were driving alongside a creek/river bed for part of it which you would never know was there otherwise. There is huge roadworks on the road to Tardun just past the turnoff from the town - a road has been straightend. Yesterday, the detour was because there was work on the road where the railway lines cross the main road. Wheat is STILL being trucked and railed out of the bins just outside the township so goodness knows how many tonnes were harvested in this part of the district.

The rest of the trip was uneventful , then got a message late afternoon to say the girl we went in to pick up from the airport had missed a connecting flight and would arrive today instead. It meant Br and I were back here by 6pm instead of 8pm so I was not unhappy about that. Didn't do any grocery shopping this time, just a fruit and veg stop - am onto gala apples at the moment as they are the only fruit under $4k. I did get some grapes, peaches (white), nectarines, plums and potatoes as well - mostly 2nds and ready to eat so am feeling very virtuous and healthy.

Glad to see NZ can offer some livestock stories of its own - loved the bit about the bird's leg and claw on your car Kay!

Bats in the Belfry (or in the verandah!)

Just when I thought I had seen most of the foreign livestock this place has to offer, I had a ginzu knife experience (but wait, there's more!). I was seeing the WM off the premises on Friday night after chapel when she saw something small flying about the verandah. She thought it was a small bird but at the same time she was saying that, I was thinking, its awfully dark for a small bird to be out about. Just as that thought was bouncing from the neurons to the synapses, she said "it's a bat" followed by, be careful it doesn't fly into your hair!!!!!!! From a distance, it looked like a small black triangle about the size of a mouse with wings if you get my drift. Visions of Vampire bats et al went before me and I knew, if it did go for my hair, I would probably have a heart attack on the spot. I crept to the light switch and turned it off, turning outside lights on to encourage it back outside but it seemed to like where it was perched (Silly me, bats LIKE the dark!!). It was on bedtime for the girls, so zoomed around, locked everything down, slid carefully past the area it was attached to and locked myself in my room for the rest of the night. Thankfully, by daylight it was gone.

It was a quick week last week with some of the kids coming back on Tuesday after half term and the rest are still drifting back. I had a girl from up north to pick up on Wednesday evening from the airport who was just getting here for the beginning of the year, and there is one still in the wind to come - maybe. At the same time we got our return girl, two more left so we are steady at 6 girls for the moment.

On Thursday I decided to cook dinner seeing it was my day off. I looked in the freezer and decided upon a piece of corned beef. No problem there, left it to thaw and put it on late afternoon to cook. What is corned beef without Edmonds Mustard Sauce however? Herein lay the problem. I am without an Edmonds cookbook. I have bits of one (about 36yrs old), but not with me. In a Eureka moment, I decided to google Edmonds Mustard Sauce and would you believe it, there were multitudinous hits for the same. I read the first two hits - both had the same recipe which was as I remembered it - yay, all was saved. The WMH has cooked corned beef for dinner before but has done a white sauce and good manners have prevented me from casting aspersions, lol. Had the meat bubbling away merrily and proceeded to put in potatoes, pumpkin, carrots and kumera into the pot and sat down for a read. I checked the pot some time later - arrrhhhh, there was no bubbles and I had the gas on full tilt. Have I mentioned before that I HATE cooking with gas - yes, it had run out. Dilemma no 2! Fortunately, the DP had gas on at his place, (even though he had left the stove on 200C the day we all went to the beach, for the entire time we were away) and in a short space of time after transferring pot and extras to his place, was able to rescue us from having partially raw vegies ( though perfectly done meat).

I have also mentioned before that Aussi ingredients do not necessarily taste as good (the same) as ours - brown vinegar in particular. DMC Malt vinegar - I may have to bring a flagon back with me. It is called Brown Vinegar here and it tastes like cats pee in comparison to DMC. The mustard powder was not Coleman's either ..... Needs must however, and to the Aussi palate, they would know no better (heh, heh). It would not have won any prizes at a Country Women's Institute soiree but it did go well with the meal. I noticed in the google hit that one Aussi pub over here has 'stolen' the recipe for the Edmonds version of Mustard Sauce and it is a hit on their menu.

I rang No 2 son the other day to see how the new grandson was doing. I asked whether he was walking, talking and ready for school yet (you know, being the genius that he will be!) to which No 2 son immediately replied, - he just has to sit his licence and he will be able to drive to school , LOL. I miss that sense of humour that is peculiarly family/home indeed, though I do get plenty of laughs here too -(usually at my expense!!!).

Had a relatively quiet weekend - no car wheels falling off and an unremarkable trip to town and back with the girls, for a change. Did a spot of shopping in the morning and then went for two games at the Ten Pin bowling range. My first game was rubbish but managed to come second (out of four) in the next. The game was hilarious as one of the girls who is reasonably slight, did such a massive bowl the impetus kept her going sideways across three other lanes - which resulted in hysterical laughter all the way round. Fortunately there were only two other lanes going and neither close to us otherwise there could have been carnage.

Speaking of carnage, I took the girls down to the boys' boarding campus this afternoon (while the boys were away) to deliver some goat pellets we had picked up the day before (as you do). First stop was the goats enclosure which is at least three basketball courts (fenced) and a shed. My colleague let the goats out and one promptly hopped into our van, onto the back seat and then jumped outside through the side window. We then visited her abode to see a new kitten that she had picked up last week and her pet snakes - I kid you not!!! She has two she keeps in her bedroom - pythons and not poisonous. She got me to touch one under it's stomach where it was actually quite soft, but could not bring myself to touch its head or have it draped over me. There was a bulge in its stomach that was an ex mouse! fed to it the night before and its meal for the next week. Finally got the girls back into the van and headed back to school. On the way to and fro, there was a reasonably sized ex kangaroo lying to one side of the road, killed sometime between yesterday evening and mid afternoon today. On our return trip we saw something sitting on the carcass, and thought it might be a crow. I slowed the van down before we passed the carcass and realised it was not a crow but an eagle instead. What a magnificent bird. The wedge tailed eagle is quite a shy and we watched as it lifted off the body, spread its wings and flew in front of us and then circled off. We waited for awhile but it did not come back so may have had its fill or been too nervous to come back. It would of course be the one time I did not have my camera with me, - Murphy's Law indeed.

The rest of the day has mostly been spent blobbing out watching a TV series called 'One Tree Hill', and no, it is not a story about the rise and fall of the pine tree above Cornwall Park, in Auckland NZ, but a town set in America (where else), the story line following the lives, loves, and hates of a school basketball team/ cheerleader squad/ and their families. The girls were fixated and I have to admit to watching several episodes myself - ghastly though the story is.

Am sorting out flights home for Easter, and should have some news on that some time this week. Great to talk to several members of the next door neighbour's family at home today as they celebrated their March birthdays. Was told today we are now officially in autumn, so looking forwards to field mushrooms and picking pinecones for the fire when I get home.

A Day at the Beach!

Have turned down dinner at the WM's tonight to come home and catch up on some emails. They are having fish that were caught today at Dongara, off one of the wharves. We took two vehicles as my neighbour (the DP) came too. By the time we got to the beach (had a later start) the WM's four children and the WMH were already fishing. There were two fish in a bucket and a third being caught as we arrived. I use the word fish advisedly - they all looked about eight inches long max with most around the six inch size. Some people passing by said the first lot of fish they caught were cod - a dark brown, reasonably round wee thing - have no idea what the fish we caught in the afternoon were called. I even caught one but threw mine back!!!. It was a silvery, yellowy, white creature and not anything that I recognised. I think the next time I go to the library I will get a book out on Aussi fish as none of us knew what we were catching!!!!!! I have to admit that though I caught the fish, I did not bait any of my hooks or touch any of the beasties that were caught as they were extremely fishy smelling and the bait was a mixture of(dead) prawns and small things that looked like sprats. I did enjoy the whole hunting and gathering part of the experience but will invest in some rubber gloves I think before I do the wild life touching, killing and gutting thing - although am ok still with other people baiting my hooks and doing the icky bits, lol.

Have come back a tad sun kissed as it was a beautiful day. We took food with us and had a grazing type morning tea with a picnic lunch. I had taken a book with me and read that under a tree in the shade while most of the troops went for a swim later in the afternoon. Drove back to find some large puddles of water along side the road nearer school and on one road there was bits of branches and small bushes broken over the place. It looked as though a storm had gone through which will that we have had two days of rain now.

I was up at the WM's place yesterday afternoon minding the kids while their parents went into Gton shopping, when there was this huge boom, followed by a torrential downpour. I went out onto the verandah and looked out over the farm to see forked lightening rip through the sky to the ground in spectacular fashion and then 6 beats later, another huge boom. We were meant to go to a house warming in Mullewa last night at one of our ex staff member's new home (the other kiwi here), but got rung to say there was no power and not likely to be any until 8pm. We got a call from another staff member who lives roughly where I saw the lightening strike, to say they were without power too. Lucky for us, no worries here and a good amount of rain for the water tanks. We ended up by staying at the WM's and having a combined dinner with what we would have taken to the barbeque. I had a lovely surprise when I received my belated birthday present from the family - a 12 cup bodum coffee plunger with two bags of coffee. We had a brew of the 'Gloria Jean's' caramel flavoured coffee after dinner and it was delicious. Gloria Jean's is a well known brand name over here apparently and meant to be a good one - so far, so good.

Had a London Bridge moment last week when it looked like a beam in one of the common rooms in girls' boarding was coming away from the ceiling. Over a period of several days, what started as a split in the paint became nearly an inch wide split and cracks appeared in the boxing around the beam, with the light fixture appearing skewed. I let the 'fix it' bloke know and next thing, the whole area is blocked off from the girls and the beam has been braced with wood until it can be mended this week. I thought initially it was a concrete beam, but have since been told it is a wooden beam surrounded by wooden boxing which has been covered to look like concrete to match the building... Anyway, as we have so few girls, it was not a huge blow to us. I have moved everyone, plus the office up the top end of the house and will now wait to see what they find when the ceiling gets looked at this week.

I got to see the new grandson last week. As I wrote my last post, his parents were trying to get me on skype so have been able to see him in the flesh so to speak. He was pretty much asleep but very cute with his hand up against his cheek while he was cuddled into his Dad. All is going well according to his parents - am having to wait for more visuals as their computer is in at the Dr's to be fixed after getting a virus.

Saw the first kangaroos today since I have been back (that were alive and not ex kangaroos on the road). There was a mob of 6 in a paddock just before we turned onto the main road back to school with another one in a paddock a bit further on. One theory is that because there is so much feed for them at the moment with the wheat stubble etc from last year, they are not having to venture out so much for food. It has made travelling much easier but I still keep a wary eye out on the roads close to school.

Tomorrow (Monday) is Labour Day here, so a stat day included in our half term. I am trying to catch up on a slew of emails and want to see if I can get my TV connected. I have got a digital box thingie that I need to get reception at the moment, as there was an extra one not being used by the girls - hopefully it will work. If not, I am able to watch DVD's still and will have to content myself with that.

Am feeling a mite peckish so will go and see what I can rustle up for dinner.