Study, what study????

Am in week 2 of a school term without any kids and it is like having one long weekend, except I am feeling I should still be at work, somewhere, lol.

Am in full procrastination mode as three lots of papers have arrived from the Catholic University in Brisbane and the first five assignments have to be completed by 31 August. Hence, my washing is up to date, dishes are done, bed is made, and today I even SWEPT the lounge, lol. I did however sit outside in the sun (20C) this afternoon with a classical CD playing whilst I did one assignment's readings. If I could talk my way through the assignments, I would have had them done, lol, but am having to do some retraining to get pen to paper, so to speak.

Have had an extremely frustrating week regarding communications - I know it has been some time since I have had a Bigpond/Telstra meltdown so shouldn't have been surprised. Wondered why I hadn't heard from anyone up at school the other day and it wasn't until a neighbour called in to see if I was ok, did I realise that my house phone was on the blink. Scrambled under the desk, turned it off at the wall and on again and hey presto, connection. In the meantime, the laptop would not connect to the internet...... tried everything I knew, then gave up and rang bigpond and fortunately got someone who talked me through a convoluted process that worked - praise be. Not only that, I ended up with 4 bars of reception when I usually only get two - small mercies indeed. It doesn't help when trying to write my assignments, that I have the laptop on a slant across the table with the aeriel near the window, with the curtain pulled back, to maximise reception, lol. All good now though.

The first week back here after the holidays has been spent with most mornings up at school. My task last week was to type the names of every child who had ever left the school in the year groups their files had been stored in. Then helped the WM scan photos of days of yore to be added to a host of photos on the computer to make a DVD which will be played at the wind up Chapel Service for the Brs and past pupils/staff etc next weekend. Have seen some amazing photos of the school when it first began. They are a slice of social history when you see the clothes they wore, machinery used on the farm, how they farmed - starting with horses to the modern tractors of today and everything in between. Saw heaps of photos of the construction of the the school building and then the classrooms as they were built. We have barely scratched the surface but hopefully there will be a bit of everything to show the changes when the DVD is finally burned. Other staff have been working on the grounds, packing up books etc. Last Friday night went up to school for a shared barbeque dinner which was nice. We had three 1/2 44 gallon drums with fires going so we got dinner cooked and kept warm at the same time. A couple of shearers who were staying on site came to share the fire and we found out two of them were old boys, and also related to one of our current staff. It was interesting to hear some of the stories they had of the old days.

Saturday got to go to Geraldton and FINALLY got my haircut (last one, the last time I was back in NZ). The lass that did my hair noticed I had cut my fringe myself in the meantime, lol and has tidied that up and given me a bob style cut that will be ok if it is 10 - 12 weeks before the next cut. Tried a new eatery for morning tea called 'Streeters' which occupies a corner site facing the beach at the back Marine Terrace. Was happy with what I got and the service was good which is just as well as I heard over the telly the other night that 90% of eateries in Geraldton are under par. Went and got some groceries after the hair cut and it was back at to school again as my neighbour who took me in wanted to get back before dusk.

In between all this, I have been involved in my latest addiction, lol, which is facebook. The WM got me onto it some time ago and I first got hooked on a game called tetris which meant arranging blocks of shapes to form lines in a grid, then there was wordpath, making words out of random letters in 5 mins, bejewelled, breaking eggs, and best of all Farm Town where you build a virtual farm. Playing these games has replaced for me the solitaires and mahjong of old and are great time wasters though I prefer to think the skills needed to play these games are staving off alzheimers (that's my story and I am sticking to it, lol). I am in competition with several people (it is all right, I will not out you, heh, heh) so there is an element of challenge to each game which keeps me competing, lol. Farm town has been a little more. A good friend who shall remain nameless got me to join the game as her neighbour. With trepidation, you know, in case somehow I got sucked into some wierd cult game, I gingerly went through the ropes to begin the game then hello, hook line and sinker, I was in competing has hard as I could go. This will sound like gobbildy gook to anyone who has not been enticed into playing such a game. I started off with a peice of land with a few squares of ground to harvest, plow and reseed. Gifts of trees and animals started arriving from my friend. The trees fruited and earned me money as I sold the harvest. Initially I did all the jobs on my farm myself, again very nervous to get someone else involved , but, as you earned more money by getting people in to harvest your property, I took the plunge. To do this, one visits the market place and picks a random person (forgot to mention, you create your own female or male personage, give your self a name and can choose hair, eyes, and other facial features to suit - all wear the same clothing ,lol)

Well, the first person I picked was great, did the job and went away. As I had more to harvest and got different people, some would chat and want to know where you lived, what you did or just wanted to pass the time of day - so, my world has expanded. I have talked to aussis, kiwis, americans (the most are american), singapore, and in fact have noticed there are people from all over the world on line at any given time. The WMH became a neighbour of mine and then it was farms at 40 paces as we have compteted furiously to get to the highest level, getting the biggest farms, going up the levels and last week, I got the mansion!!!! (Have to be on the highest level to get that, - the WMH beat me to level 34 but I got the house first, lol)

I have had some random people become neighbours ( which earns you extra advantages rather than using random people all the time0 and have lots of laughs as we compare notes. It's like having cyber penpals on a level. The WMH and I share a couple of neighbours and have done stealth missions when trying to beat each other to the next level. Have to say, I do smile that luddite that I am, much preferring older technology (except for dishwashers, lol) I have found this a lot of fun. So, if you cannot find me at home, try facebook, you can run, but you can't hide, lol.

Everything here is continuing to grow apace. Lawn mowers are being heard which is not a sound I am familiar with anymore. It is looking like my lawn will get its third cut this year, when last year, it only had one, lol. Verdant is a word that comes to mind in fact, where crops and grass are growing like Topsy. I noticed that towards Geraldton last Saturday that the Canola crops are just starting to flower. Tourists (people with campervans and caravans, locally known as terrorists, lol) are starting to trickle into the district. I think there were six cars on the road last Saturday on the way back from Mullewa, so much so, we commented something must have been on, lol. The tourists will be here for the wildflower season which starts next month and will go through to September. It is still cold at night but are starting to get some glorious days. There was a good sheet cracking wind today so got washing on the line.

It was Happy Birthday this week to my dear friend Peg who has reached 90yrs, Mum and Clive who are 75yrs and 70 respectivly. Managed to get to talk to Mum and Clive on their days, though my phone went flat in the middle of the coversation with Clive. Both of them are on skype, how amazing is the technology we have come to since they were young. Mum was on the telephone exchange when phones were still wooden boxes on the wall and now she txt msgs with the best of them, lol. Happy Birthday and well done to you all. Clive is up on two legs again, having done three weeks of rehab learning to use his second prothesis. Again an amazing effort in such a short space of time.

Had better sign off and get to bed, just noticed the time. Will try and get some more photos next week.