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.