Work and work

It cannot possibly be 10 days already since I last wrote a post - maybe I am in a parallel universe, lol - or it could it be because I am still working both ends of most days. Have not a day off since I last wrote though have had two only half days, woohoo.

I have just got in the door - not long after midnight, the second night in a row from the residential job. Tonight I had to negotiate round unfamiliar roads back here as there was some sort of drama at the second roundabout on the way home, with water flooding the road and I was diverted. Don't you just love driving around streets you have know idea where you are. I decided to head straight down to the waterfront knowing I would connect up to the main road a little further along sooner or later - whew. Although I miss the great outdoors at Tardun, there is a certain magic driving home along the waterfront on a clear night (which is most of them, lol) with all the lights of the port and the shipping lanes, combined with the lights of Geraldton at night - the colours are amazing and it looks like fairyland. The boys at school told me last week there was to be a special moon on Friday night - it was overcast so never saw it - and driving back tonight, I wasn't sure whether I saw a huge moon with a reddish light on the horizon like an upside down sickle shape but much bigger, or, was it was something to do with a ship maybe - it looked amazing whatever it was.

Last week did not start well, I think maybe tiredness had me at low ebb and missing contact with nearest and dearest due to my crazy work schedule at the moment. It also rained, lol and it seemed that the mood infiltrated both jobs. We had a new boy start at school and two less than compliant ones return so that completely changed the dynamics of the group. We had had a great week the week before so was quite a stark contrast. Kids that have been doing ok turned somewhat feral and the rest of the staff also struggled. We have strategised and debriefed at our Friday meeting so hopefully have come up with some positive ideas to better manage new enrolees and the comings and goings of others. The good news continues re attendance with our best lad reaching his 20th day in a row tomorrow and nearly 10 "ten day in a row" movie tickets have been given out.

I worked all bar Thursday and Friday evening at the residential home last week and that has been interesting too. We had two children arrive for a respite care situation - aged 1 and 4yrs old. It was full on as that meant there was three under four in the house. The 1 year old took her first steps at the beginning of the week she arrived and was doing up to 30 steps in a row by the time she left. I got heaps of work as it was decided to increase staff to three for morning and evening shifts and they had an extra person on nights sleeping over as well. Having the two new kids altered the dynamics in the home as well so reckon I could referee for FIFA by now, lol. I spent most of my time with the two older children so concentrated on homework, stories, and kept them amused with games outside in the afternoon.

We have had a game about snakes and rabbits going for about a week now - which began when I was trying to direct the boys in play without doing too much damage to each other. The round trampoline is on the ground at the moment as the netting needed replacing so that has become a burrow that a snake lives down. One boy was the snake, and the other two were rabbits who hopped near to the snake's lair, who could possibly be caught and eaten. We started with the snake asleep, in hibernation for winter (I have played with artistic licence here as not totally sure of snake facts, lol), then it would be spring, the snake would wake up, and pretend to be asleep so the rabbits would hop nearer and onto the trampoline where the snake would feel the vibrations as they were coming, wake up and with hissing and arm up in the air to be the head and teeth, and would try to leap onto the rabbits and be venomous (the boys word, lol although it was more like vemonous heh heh).

The following day, one of the boys had to go off site so they were a snake short and you guessed it, after one of the other staff had to go do another job, yours truly did not only have to continue to direct the game,(yelling out warnings to snake and rabbits,), I had to BE the snake. I was good at hibernation - ie lying and resting on the trampoline and waiting. One of the rabbits decided to gang up on me with the other and try and get me from behind. Managed to grab one and sink my fangs (fingers) into his leg whereupon he wanted to become a snake too. I was now a snake who got bitten by the other snake and hope you will be impressed to know I died brilliantly - arms and legs in the air,hissing and writhing in death throes to great appreciation from my audience. I thanked the almighty fervently that there were no cameras about, nor any other adult witnesses.

The following day it was decided to play pirates and superheroes again using dress ups. There was only one cape so improvised with a black wrap around skirt that I found and two pillowcases tied round the necks of the two smallest boys. The playground was used to good advantage and there happened to be foam swords in the toy cupboard so there was lots of slashing and sword fighting involved which went down a treat. One of the boys has a very interesting imagination and threads all sorts of stories into his play. Q Lynn, are pirates good guys? Hmmmm, thinking the only pirate that comes to mind of late is Capn Jack aka Johnny Depp so maybe I am biased but isn't he a good guy??? So, we decided sometimes they are good and if they are on the other side, sometimes they might be bad. Note to self - need to read some pirate books pronto. The sword play gave pause to the continuous noise of gunfire that emits from these lads as they spend hours shooting each other and laying waste to the planet. What ever happened to cowboys and indians???? Today the two older boys were being firemen and I had to have my cat rescued from up a tree and then to call them as my house was on fire. It is great to see these boys use their imaginations to play outside - it certainly keeps me on my mettle coming up with new ideas to keep one step ahead.

Last night unfortunately their play came to an abrupt halt as while I was in the kitchen getting the roast pork on for dinner (I know, and I am being paid as well, lol), the boys were playing swimming in the sea and jumping off the playground equipmentinto the sand below when the 3yr old jumped after the two bigger boys and broke his arm on landing. They were being watched by another staff member who immediately gave aid and took him to hospital where by some miracle he was seen straight away. He came back later that night with his arm in plaster happy enough to have been given an ice block by the Dr for being so good when his arm was set. Meanwhile, the two others decided they did not want to come inside for dinner and were going to camp out for the night. I finished cooking the dinner, served up mine and started eating and then decided to check where they were at - they were under the net on the trampoline so fished the younger of the two out, got him inside and when he saw my dinner, he immediately wanted his and the other one followed him so all was well.

The bonus of the week was having Jude come stay a couple of nights. She has a part time job cooking for a rest home just around the corner and coming up from Dongara each day did not make sense. We passed like ships in the night for most of the week until Thursday when she finished by 7pm and I had the night off. She had 6am starts so needless to say, I never heard her go in the mornings and got her to leave the tv on at night so she did not wake up when I got home. She will be back tomorrow I think and this week so far, I do not have any work in the evenings so hope to catch up with her a bit better.

Everywhere you look at the moment, there is news of the federal elections coming up next weekend. I am unable to vote as I am not a citizen and do not really understand the convoluted politics over here. There is federal government and then state government. There seems to be news coverage of Julia Guillard doing the rounds kissing babies, cracking jokes with blokes at work, mooching about schools and not much different with Tony Abott, the main opposition. Not sure either would be my choice if I could vote. Other news of note is that it is 30 years since Azaria Chamberlain was taken by a dingo and her mother Lindy Chamberlain was jailed for her alleged murder. I missed a documentary last week where she and her family returned together for the first time collectively since then to Ayers Rock where they were camping when the baby was taken. It is a case that has always fascinated me coming after the case that divided NZ not long before with Arthur Allen Thomas being incorrectly jailed for the alleged murder of his neighbours. What a toll it has taken on Lindy Chamberlain and her family.


I did catch up with Mum briefly during the week. I snuck on to msn in the morning when I woke up to check if I had any msgs and up she popped so went to skype but was busted as I was still in my pjs while it was after midday in NZ, lol. It was good to catch up on all her news. It is well beyond the witching hour so will sign off. I am working at school in the morning and have set up an anti-hag treatment at the hairdressers in the afternoon. Am really looking forwards to that.

Two in two days, lol

I know, two posts in two days, what is the world coming to. It is Friday night and I do not have to work, though I am working Sat and Sunday at the residential home on the morning/afternoon shift. Like school, working at the home means no two days are the same. Last Wednesday I got called in to work at the home so went straight from school - the last time I will go unprepared anywhere lol...

While one of the boys had a supervised visit in town with family, the other two wanted to go to the beach for a walk. No problem I thought. The boys initially wanted to run along the top of the large bank above the beach so ok, even though I was in jeans and knee high boots it looked fairly ok. Of course, it was not long before the boys wanted to go down on the beach - still ok as I was happy to sit and watch, until the water beckoned. So now I am up a large bank, they are on the beach lobbing sand in the water, then wanting to drag driftwood into the tide, which by my calculations was coming in. Boys being boys, they chose to ignore requests, demands and subtle threats to come back up the bank, until I noticed someone trying to take off with one of their scooters which they had dropped at the beginning of the walk along the bank. They then shot up the beach and I retraced my steps which was fortunate as when I had stumbled over a bush on the way in, the work phone must have fallen out of my bra where I thought I had stashed it! There it was, slightly sandy but lying in the vegetation - phew, grabbed that and caught up with the other staff member who was by now waiting at the beginning of the walk. The older boy decided to give the other staff member (who had turned up in time to rescue the scooter from the family who were trying to nick it), a mouthful of language and stormed off up the path beside a river/estuary that runs into the tide, with the younger boy following him.

Great. Deciding not to follow them along the path in case they would run further away, I took off up the beach, soft sand, puff, pant, lol until I could come up behind them which I did just as the older boy was walking into the estuary with the younger one behind him. There was nothing for it but to go in after them, so there I am, literally boots in all, in swampy water, fishing out smallest child before walking him briskly back to the other waiting staff member. I had to spend the rest of the shift with damp jeans rolled up, in damp socks, while my boots started to dry out. The older boy followed us back to the house thankfully, so it was showers all round once we got them inside.

On Monday when I got to work at the home, the boys had decided they wanted to go for a walk to the beach again (had worn sneakers this time to be prepared) and then to a park. We had the three boys this time and another staff member with me, so off we set up the beach alongside the estuary which eventually became a walking track which led to St Georges beach and a playground - a good 2k walk which took us an hour. The two renegades from the last outing almost ran the whole way, needless to say, I came up the rear with the other boy who dawdled by comparison. Again, another excellent council park with playground, toilets, seats, and a gas barbecue right on the water front. To the left of the beach is Geraldton and north of the beach is the coastline that heads up to Horrocks Beach and Kalbarri. We did not even attempt to walk back but called back to the house and another staff member came and picked us up in the van, as by now we had three very tired boys.

Meanwhile back at school, we have started a project on pollution and recycling. On Tuesday morning after spelling it was decided to research four areas around town to see what rubbish was lying about and what if anything could have been recycled. We went to St Georges beach again so after not knowing that beach even existed, I have now been there twice in the one week. We also went to a council car park opposite Woolworths that backs onto a reserve, some vacant land and the council skate board park. The kids were disgusted with the amount of rubbish we found and could not get over some of the things they found dumped such as fast food wrappings, empty alcohol bottles and cans, cigarette butts, a used condom, plastic etc etc etc. We got back to do a quick debrief before they headed off to a local gym to do boxercise and I headed off to the home for another shift.

Wednesday I got to school to find we were off to Ellendale pool for a barbecue lunch as soon as we had got spelling out of the way. Ellendale is about 3/4hr south east of town. We drove out into the countryside and again through wheat and canola and shrubs just starting to come into flower along the roadsides. Ellendale pool apparently has never dried up, and is fed by a river when it runs and from springs. It is not so much a round pool as more of a very slow moving stream/river surrounded by vegetation on both sides, bull rushes and gum trees amongst other scrub type bushes. It is the first time I have been aware of birds being about, there were bird calls continuously the whole time we were there. I saw a white heron type bird fly off as we drove in and there were ducks on the water - I imagine in another month or two, there would be ducklings as well. The area at the pool is open to campers and there were several tents, camper vans and caravans from people who were camping. There are toilets and gas barbecue there, though we took our own barbecue out with us on the back of the ute. The kids had taken out some footballs so while some of them threw them about, a couple braved the very cold water and jumped in for a swim before eating lunch. We may get out again before the flies start being a major pest so will keep fingers crossed as I did not have my camera with me that day.

Yesterday we had another outing at school - this time we went to the TAFFE careers expo which was a little underwhelming this time. Last time I went, we had a very thorough tour around the campus and got to speak to people in each area. This time we had a lightening tour through four areas and then it was up to folk to go and look at what they might want to themselves. The mining industry was well represented and did an excellent pitch through a video session that we were taken to. Everyone got a sausage in bread for lunch and they had the brother and sister illusionists who were finalists in "Australia you've got Talent" do a show after lunch. I got back to school in time to turn around to pick up my new glasses and go to the Dr's apt for my F endorsement before yet another shift at the home - an extra one as we have two new kiddies in for a week on a respite care set up. And then the flat battery jinx struck AGAIN.

Jumped in my car to head off and nothing - I think I must have knocked the lights on when I got out of the car!!!. NOT a happy camper at all but no time to dwell so raced and got the ute keys,went and picked up my glasses from the optometrists,then to the Drs, so far still on time. Met with the nurse first who did an eye test - (have perfect vision with my glasses on), took my height, weight and my blood pressure. I think it was 112 over 72 which she said was excellent - good oh, round one done. I then met the Dr who turned up wearing jeans, sneakers and a shirt with his sleeves rolled up. What happened to Drs looking like Drs,lol!!! First impressions are that he is ok - he has a sense of humour at least. He did a range of neurological tests, reflexes, peripheral vision, heart and lungs and ticked all the boxes so all good for my licence. He made a comment that I did not see a Dr often and I said I hadn't had a GP for over 20 yrs but along with the licence I thought it was time to do a medical warrant of fitness given my age and stage. He has given me a form to get a fasting blood test which I am to do when I have the time and then make another apt. I told him about my arm which has been painful at times and then he asked what had I diagnosed - I told him tendonitis and he said it was exactly that. Woohoo, all that "Shortland Street" and "All Saints" medical training has paid off lol. (hospital soapies for those not familiar with either of those TV programs). It would seem it does not mend in a hurry, not what I wanted to hear - so have to be careful when using it and I need to get an arm bandage if I am going to do physical work. I went to pay and was told it was $118!!!!! She said something about a cost for the licence but he had made it into a consultation because I had talked about a few other things. Just as well I didn't have my blood pressure taken at that point. I get around $60 back on medicare apparently but was still in shock. I asked how much is it to see a Dr normally and the receptionist said $65 - another gasp. I am surprised they are in business. I think there maybe a medicare component to that as well so have no idea how you would manage if you had a chronic situation. I think the last time I went to Dr in NZ I paid something like $25.00. Note to self - keep well.

I was already meant to be at work by the time I finished with the Dr but also needed to return the ute as the WM needed it later. Neither of them were at home so made a lightening dash to Auto 1, bought a set of jumper leads and headed back to school to get my car going. Good oh, the bonnet lifter switch thing in the ute was broken and obviously not working but there was a wire coming out from behind it. Great, now needed to pull with both hands, (sore arm) and was terrified in case I pulled the whole thing out. Needn't have worried but it did take some force to get the bonnet to pop. Of course the battery was not on the right side for ease of connecting it to mine, so had to manoeuvre about the car park to park at right angles to my car, lift my bonnet up, connect jumper leads to the ute, connect leads to mine, start the ute, out of gear with handbrake on, leap into my car start my car and hey presto it worked. Then had to take the leads of my car, off the ute, move the ute as Nagle boarding school bus was trying to get into where the ute was, re park the ute, then zoom down the road to the WM to drop off the keys before heading to work. Luckily she was home by then, the WMH was in a meeting in town hence having to do all this on my own. For all that, I was only an hour later than I thought I would be getting to the home. At least I now have jumper leads, so I will laugh in the teeth of any future flat batteries (as long as there is someone else around with a car that goes, lol). I probably will not get another flat battery now for years but can live with that kind of Murphy's Law.

Today was another good day - Friday school only goes till 11.30am so after our morning meeting and weekly spelling test, the kids wanted to go sandboarding again so off we went out to the sand dunes. I was wearing my new glasses so getting used to the new graduated lenses so chose not to hurtle down the one in one gradient cliffs of sand but was happy to sit and watch the rest having various successes at getting up and down the dunes. I had worn sandshoes again today, even so it was quite a hall walking sideways up HUGE dunes of sand to get where the kids were. The coastline looked magnificent from where I sat and it was great soaking up the warmth of the sun as we are now in the mid 20's for temp. Am down to two layers of clothing lol.

It almost seems sinful to be paid for having so much fun at work, at either job. We threw out a challenge two weeks ago at school and said we would give out movie tickets for anyone who made it to school 10 days in a row and this morning we gave out four. If they miss a day other than being legitimately sick, their score goes back to zero. We have another four who will get their tickets on Monday and by the following Monday all going well some will be receiving their second ticket. Call it incentive or bribery, lol, the pay off has been an amazing change to how much they have achieved because of the continuous attendance. People who get two or three right on a Monday for spelling are now getting 8 -10 right on a Friday. Two boys have asked to go onto harder words and the participation and the confidence they have gained has been awesome to see unfold. We have taken on two new students this last week and likely to have two more new ones next week so the official role is up to 21 I think. We have gone from having five or six a day turn up to I think it was fourteen today and we have not had under 10 all week. This may not sound like much, but these are kids who have been completely disengaged from the school system from a term to a year in some cases.

Will have two very busy days over the weekend at the home but have Jude coming to stay on Sunday night so will look fwds to that.

Still more

I spent some considerable time writing a post last week, saving it so Icould proof read it the next day before publishing it, and somewhere between save and publish, the whole thing has disappeared into the ether...... not impressed.

The epic continues: Last week was another hectic week. I worked two night shifts at the residential home - 10.30pm to 7am, getting back here to crash on the couch to try and sleep enough to get through the next round. I managed a ph call on the Saturday 24th July to NZ to Mum for her birthday and the following day to Clive for his between shifts. On the Sunday night, I had my last shift at the ff place for awhile and am more than happy about that. Monday it was back at school but had nothing that afternoon - felt like I had a get out of jail free card woohoo. I decided to sieze the moment and went to the optometrist to get my new pair of glasses underway. I do not think the woman working there was very impressed with me - she told me to browse the frames and I said I didnt need to, I just wanted a very basic, no 1 CHEAP pair. She directed me towards some name brands regardless and I had to repeat myself and she still did not seem to get it. In the end with lips like she had sucked a lemon, she managed to come up with a couple of frames and though I liked one pair more than the other, I picked the cheaper pair, telling her I wanted to see, and was not overly concerned what they looked like. As it happens they are pretty much like what I already have so no drama. It would seem I should have two pair of glasses ideally - one for reading and such like and one for all else. I said I had hard enough time of keeping one pair organised and two would be a recipie for disaster - hence me getting graduated lenses in the first place. Arrrrrgh. The good news was however, when she zip zapped my hbf card ( health ins) I received $160 off the price of the glasses which I was very impressed with. Am starting to like this health ins business.

I had thought I might do a quick bit of shopping but as I drove past the university medical practice, I drove round the block and pulled in to see if I could sign up for a Dr as I was in personal warrent of fitness mode. I need to get a medical certificate to update the F endorsement (just try saying that in a hurry, lol) on my licence which will enable me to drive the school mini van. It would seem I was in luck as they have two new Drs taking on patients, so have an apt for tomorrow to start the ball rolling there. The receptionist told me I had the choice of an English or South African Dr, I replied I didn't care as long as they knew their stuff. I have been given to the South African guy so will see how it all goes.

While I was on a roll, I then drove to a dentist I had been recommended. Took a deep breath and entered the building, and met with a very nice receptionist. Filled out paper work and then was told I could have an apt in half an hour as they had just had a cancellation. Immediate panic. More deep breaths and I decided, what the heck, would only be putting off the evil hour so may as well take the apt. I did mention I was not good at dentists, but the receptionist kind of brushed that off with a laugh. Ok. Half a magazine later, a young thing came out to get me, seated me in the chair and then the dentist came in. I said I needed a check up to find out what needed doing, showed him the gap from my lost tooth and then closed my eyes and lay back in the chair after warning him to I was not so good with dentists. So of course, the first part is to open your mouth while the dentist tacker tacks round your teeth with one of those probe things, apart from the sound of a drill, that's that part that I hate most. (Oh, this looks like it needs a filling, gouge, gouge, pain, pain). I am always jumpy in anticipation that as they are tapping, scraping and hooking, they will strike a nerve or what ever. This dentist did not take kindly to my nervous apprehension, and told me he wanted me to open my eyes as he did not like people being jumpy - hmmmmm like I am going to be more relaxed seeing it coming. Too late, my body had started shaking, tears streaming out of my eyes - total involuntary reaction, so shallow breathing like labour lol, tried to get under control, while he stopped and decided to take xrays instead. Xrays I can cope with. Xrays taken, he then asked what I wanted done - it would seem I have to have another tooth out, next to the gap in the bottom front, and then on the right bottom lot, I have to have a stainless steel pin put in where a tooth has fallen half away, cos he can rebuild, and something else to the tooth next door. I was too stressed to take it all in. He has given me a quote for $1500 for the lot that will include a plate to replace the missing teeth. He asked whether I wanted a metal or plastic plate, like I had any idea. I have chosen to go with a plastic one as a metal one would mean a trip to Perth, and a plastic one can be altered should I lose any more teeth. The next decision was whether to wait for gum shrinkage or to put plate in immediately after tooth extraction. It will be put in immediately - I told him I could cope for any amount of time with one tooth missing but two was a step too far as he suggested six months was the time it would take for the gums to shrink properly. He also gave me a script to get some sedatives from the Dr before the next apt. Am not sure when the next step will be taken as I told him it will be finance driven. I can still eat, lol. Still not entirely sure I will not look for another dentist, as if he insists on me being in the chair with my eyes open while he is doing work, it isn't going to happen. Got the apt paid for by hbf though I had to pay $79 for the xrays so I now have had more benefits than what I have paid to date.

On top of this, the saga with the cars has continued. After the new battery in Phil's car, all was good for nearly a week, then went to go to work at school one morning, and the flipping new battery was flat. I have diagnosed that the alternator has packed it in but have yet to get the car to a garage to find out. As my car was still being fixed, the WM picked me up that morning on the bus run for the kids and leant me their car to get to work for the next few days. Got my car back on the Friday afternoon so all was good again. After the traumatic experience at the dentist, I went to the WM's for a restorative cup of coffee, and ended up playing a hand of canaster with the WMH. I noticed the clutch on the car went straight to the floor boards but thought I was just getting used to changing cars again. Tuesday not only was the clutch to the floor but also on the way home from school, it was quite hard to change gear. I rang the garage when I got home and asked did the clutch have clutch fluid and would it cause the gears to stick if it had run out. The answer was yes and yes. I remembered when I had left work at the ff place on the Sunday evening, there was a damp patch beside the car - in CSI mode, I had picked up some gravel to smell to see if petrol had been leaking or oil but there was no particular smell so had thought no more about it buy now wondered if maybe it had been clutch fluid?. I arranged to drop it back to the garage the next morning, the WM picked me up again, and that afternoon I borrowed the work ute as I had picked up a shift at the home that night. It transpired that the the slave and master cylanders on the car had packed it in and the mechanic also replaced a gaskit and spark plugs, so another $344 later, and now am good to go.

On Thursday last week, we had the Principal of the learning centre (school) come over from Queensland where he is based. Two other staff came with him, so Thursday was at school from 9am - 6pm as we had a long meeting after school- then we all got taken out to dinner which made a very nice change indeed. I ended up having the first weekend off work in weeks last weekend which came not a moment too soon. Slept a good amount, did housework, washing, floors etc and started weeding the front garden. I had another round of changing light bulbs - I dragged up a ladder from the back shed as I could not reach the lounge lights with the step ladder. Changed the first bulb, switched it on and nothing. Ok, maybe the two of them have to be replaced at once. Went to put the second bulb in only to find that the bakerlight holder had broken away at some stage so had nothing to screw it into. Made sense why there was no bulb in there already. Not ready to give up yet - there was one more large enclosed down light to go, I clambered up the ladder and unscrewed the light only to find it was in a sealed unit and I could not get into it without possibly breaking it. Then, could not manage to hold the light and rescrew it in so after a few well chosen words, have left the sealed unit resting on the edge of the hole it came from, until I can find someone taller than me or with more strength in their arms than I have to put it back. Fortunately, the new bulbs I bought both fitted into the hall sconces, so I now have two that go there and that is all the light I have in the lounge as the hall is open into the room.

In the midst of this I ended up by having Janet and Jude visit at different times which broke up the afternoon and on the Sunday, Janet and I drove down to Dongara to have lunch with Jude. It was great to see wheat growing on the way down, and the canola has burst into flower so there are swathes of dark green with the wheat and bright yellow with the canola. Shrubs are starting to flower so the wild flower season is not far away. It made me realise how much I miss living out at Tardun, as being in town and working so much, I have been oblivious to the changes in the seasons.

Need to get some shut eye so will close for now.