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.