Quote of the Week

There is an extraordinary charm in other people's domesticities. Every lighted house, seen from the road, is magical: every pram or lawn-mower in someone else's garden: all smells or stirs of cookery from the windows of alien kitchens.

C.S. Lewis, Time and Tide, 16 June 1945

Addicted

I seem to be becoming obsessed with entering competitions - what's that about? I hardly ever win - and I think I write a pretty good '25 words or less' ...

Countdown to Christmas

1st December is summer here in our neck of the woods - the only problem being this torrential rain and the brrrrrrrr weather! Christmas is creeping like a stealthy little beetle - and I just know that it is going to take me by surprise like that elusive cockroach under the fridge!

The big problem  issue for us in December is that there are 3 birthdays - Arty-Mum, Mr Chop, and Disco Stu - (aka Mum, No. 2 son and my little brother) - Mum is pretty easy, Mr Chop is OK too, but Disco Stu is VERY difficult. Anyone have  hint for a gift for my architect brother?

The big news on our family is that Disco Stu and the Legal Eagle are engaged!!! At last - after about 7 years of togetherness he proposed in HK on their way to Europe for a 2 week jaunt (as you do!) - can't wait to see them tomorrow morning when they fly back in - apparently her ring is just the same as Arty-Mum's - just twice the size - must be a whopper.

Growing Lizards

Quirky Boy has just returned from his friends' - The Kooky Twins' house - they had a fabulous time making up a dance for the Talent Quest at school this week. We called in at the shops on the way home for super glue to mend my shoes (don't ask) and Quirky Boy decided to spend that little bit more of his birthday money on a lizard which hatches from its egg and magically grows when placed in water. He and Mr Chop are now not-so-patiently waiting for the ugly thing to grow - yes, watching it! Now I can't stop watching them because I am petrified Mr Chop is going to grab the thing and swallow it, then it will make his stomach 10x the size it is now as the lizard grows! Yes, high drama here!

Phew! Head Spinning

Life is BUSY! Is it living in a big city? is it just us? Returned from our monster driving expedition in one piece - except for a bruised ego because we were asked to leave by the grump (Father-in-Law) after approximately 26 hours - Mr Chop pulling the motorbike onto himself probably didn't help - nor did the highly contagious conjunctivitis both boys came down with, or the fact that the manic streak re-appeared in Quirky Boy. Oh dear ... That aside, we had a lovely time on the road and actually enjoyed our time in the bush - so beautiful to see everything so green and lovely - never seen it like that before.
Have hit the ground running, though, since we've been back - ended up in Melbourne last Wednesday at the Connect2Mums conference - really made me think about the cloistered little world of teaching I have been living in for all these years. More to follow ...

Off On a Road Trip

We're off tomorrow for a week in the outback - well nearly, anyway. Off to stay with Papa and Bibi at their patch of land in the bush - when they sold the sheep station a couple of years ago they kept part of it and have put a shed up and were meant to have a house there ... hence our trip .... but alas the house is not ready so we'll all be shacked up together in the shed ... oh dear - thinking of suggesting a night at the prairie - talk to you in a week! x

Holidayyyyyyyyyys!

Was at a course last week, all about teaching music using 'Orff' techniques - it was a very intense week with around 36 hours of very intensive peer teaching and learning activities, all graded and critiqued etc. Felt like being back at University. Was very worthwhile, though - and really enjoyed catching up with people that I haven't seen for years - even a couple of girls I was at Primary School with!!! But now it is over and I have my qualification and I have a week of holidays followed by my term's sabbatical - hooray!

New Weekly Post - Op Shop Finds

One of my favourite things to do is poke around in second-hand shops, looking for a bargain. I ALWAYS find something interesting - and generally a bargain, to boot. So, my new weekly post is going to be ... letting you know what treasures I've uncovered for the week.
* Bally Handbag - excellent condition - signature fabric in navy with leather detailing - unfortunately missing a handle, but easily rectified, I think. Worth about $400 ($12)
* 'Morrisons' yellow and white striped t-shirt - super cute and worth about $120 ($12)
* vintage Liberty of London square silk scarf with cute print of children playing - never unpacked from its little cardboard sleeve - worth about $100 ($2!!) - this is the find of the week!

A Good Day ... All things considered

Had a good day today, I think! Every year the Year 1 boys put on a musical performance - led by yours truly. Today was the dress rehearsal and it went swimmingly. Phew! The little ones are very cute and take it all so seriously. We had all the other year groups in the auditorium to watch and when I asked them at the end to raise their hand if they had participated in a musical when they were in Year 1, it warmed the cockles of my heart to see three quarters of the entire auditorium (and that's a big place) with their arm waving around. Keep forgetting the cumulative effect that teaching has on children - I bet none of them will ever forget that performance.
I do have control issues, and unfortunately am working with another teacher with similar issues - has not always been smooth sailing (including a highly offensive FaceBook message declaring I was behaving like a High School student - hmmm), but we seem to have struck a nice balance this week - luckily.
Also, as I was driving along in the posh suburb where I teach, I noticed someone had left at the side of the road a beautiful white wicker rocking chair - perfect condition, too!!! Score! Picked it up, no dramas. Hope someone wasn't moving house ... oops!
Ahhh - performance tomorrow - wish us luck!

... and the Winners are ...

Hooray! We won best-dressed couple!!! Really just won by default, I think. They left the judging until the end of the evening and the compere asked 'Who's a couple around here' - in that voice that really says 'I have no idea who to choose, so someone make it easy for me'. I madly waved my hand ... et voila! We won a day at the Polo - right up Country Boy's alley (in his best white shirt and navy pinstriped shirt)!

Dress Code - Sharp

Does that mean wearing a necklace of a dagger? Perhaps not ... Coutry and Boy and I are off to a fancy magazine launch in Double Bay this evening. There will be prizes for the sharpest dresser, best hair and the most glam couple ... all very Eastern Suburbs. Will try to post a pic of my outift - may as well get in on the action!

Orange by Name - Green by Nature (for more reason than one!)

In Country Boy's and my eternal quest for the happily ever after, we booked a weekend away in the country town of Orange - a 4 hour drive west from our place in Sydney. I managed to make contact with the daughter of some old friends of Mum and Dad's - she lives in Orange with her Deputy Mayor husband and their three boys - one of whom is just one day younger than Quirky Boy. I was very excited about seeing her again - the last time was when I was about 15 and she was a fun kind of gal. Perfect match with her politically interesting hubby and three boys to have fun with.
Should have suspected that the trip was slightly doomed when I had to collect Mr Chop from daycare early on Wednesday due to vomit. Oh dear ... In typical optimistic fashion, we still decided to go - and had four days of vomit - from both ends, unfortunately. The lurgy struck Quirky Boy down as well - and Country Boy had  a touch of it, too. I figured that I was doomed, so go stuck into the pizza and other delicious gross  takeaway we bought, thinking "Oh well - It will be good to have my strength up" (haha - lovely excuse!). But ... I have been saved!
Boys are all fine - just quite washed out all the time we were away. I managed to get through about 500 pages of my book and have come home feeling strangely relaxed! If we had stayed home, I would have found a million things to do - so there's the silver lining!

Blaarrgggh!

The countdown is on until I hopefully have a term's leave from school. The 'big ask' is on tomorrow - let's see how it goes. Will keep you posted!

What a Beautiful Day - Thank You, Sydney!

What a beautiful day to be a Sydney-sider! Have had such a lovely weekend - not a bad mood in sight, which is such a relief, taking into account a devastating set-back with the musical production on Friday (followed by some terrible piano playing for the Transition boys for their Grandparents' Day performance), dinner out with the girls which can be a bit fraught with 'look how much more fabulous my life is than yours' kind of talk, single-parenting on Saturday night (Country Boy went to the footy and didn't get home until 3am - The Bad Influence was here from Singapore) ... but today at Clifton Gardens more than made up for it. The best part was the super-easy parking - even when I had to leave to pick up fish and chips, my same park was waiting for me when I returned!!! This is AMAZING for Sydney harbour-side parking. When can we move to Mosman??? Please, please, please ...

Meeemmmmoriesssss ...

Have just been in communication with the wee little sweeties who were in my Year 3 class in my second year teaching - they're about 21 now. They were such a dear class and it warmed the cockles of my heart to  hear from a few of them again ... Really loved teaching then ... and loved those little people like they were my own. Gotta love Facebook!

Aaarrrggghhh!

In my effort to procrastinate I have worked out that apart from one full year off on maternity leave to look after Mr Chop, I have been at school since I was 4 years old - that means 31 years of my life being ruled by bells ... starting to froth at the mouth at the thought of it!

Needless to say, I am a little sick of the whole thing.

On a serious note, my Principal stood up at the Staff Development Day earlier this term and started banging on about how lucky he is to have such a dedicated staff of professionals who truly care about their job and have such a passion for educating the young men of tomorrow and how "our boys deserve the most dedicated teachers". All I could think of was that I wanted to be somewhere else - I didn't have that passion - and I felt fraudulent sitting there smiling and nodding with the rest of the muppets.

I entered teaching straight from Uni, and entered Uni straight from school. No rest for this little bird raised with a strong Protestant work ethic. Gap Year? What Gap Year? Mum and Dad are both teachers who rose to quite high ranks in the echelons of the Department of Education. To say my arm was twisted at 17 to go into the profession is quite the understatement - try 'wrenched from the socket'. I was good at it, though and teaching really does come naturally to me. I gained a first class honours degree and was offered a permanent job straight away in the town where I grew up. I loved the idea of moving away, but Dad's pull in the upper reaches of the Department ensured those apron strings remained tightly knotted.

Story TBC ...

Country Boy's Confused

We're an exciting lot, we are - listening to the Retro Music station on a Saturday night. Country Boy just confessed that he always thought that the words to that "If you like Pina Coladas" songs went "If you like being a koala". Kinky, eh?

He then proceeded to tell me all about the plot of the song ... ummm ... durrrr!

Hence the Name ...

Caught Quirky Boy trying to put on his track-suit pants on yesterday morning. All good - except for the fact that he already had a pair on ... "Oh, yeah ..." (stunned silence as all this computes through his brain) ... AARRRGGGHH! How can this child have a reading age of 12 at 6.5 chronological age, but be unable to realise whether he's dressed or not!!!

Musings from a Simple Girl

Feeling the pressure here for the first Blog post to be fabulous. Not sure I can guarantee fabulosity, but can certainly guarantee correct spelling - will that cut it?

I read the other day that Blogs generally fall into two categories - aspirational or ... can't remember the other term - perhaps it was inspirational ... Anyway, my aim here is to be more 'inspirational' - perhaps not in the classical sense of the word, but more 'Gee, I am inspired to make better choices than this bird - she really fucks it up, sometimes!'

I am a 36 year-old girl (have only been 36 for a month or so, but have actually still been telling people that I'm 35 - 35 is a good age to stick with and hey - I think I can pull it off!), living in Sydney, mostly happily married (you've caught me on a good day - Country Boy gave me a sleep-in), mother of two very full-on sons (Quirky Boy - nearly 7, and Mr Chop, 2.5), part-time teacher of music at a stupidly posh school for boys and general dogsbody in Country Boy's business. I love bargain shopping and dare I say am quite the aficionado at finding a good deal - especially in the clothing department. I often wonder what that says about my past lives. I cry at the drop of a hat - those stupid shows where the best 12 singers get through only to be mercilessly judged for eight weeks by the public - yep, flood of tears, RPA - can't actually watch it for fear of flood damage. I especially tear-up when listening to music ... quite tragic really. I am a very loyal friend, colleague and daughter / grand-daughter /sister - except when you all piss me off, which is fairly often, come to think of it (more of that to come) and I guess I am quite like-able - hard for one to be objective about these things, n'est-ce pas?

Anyway - here's hoping you'll return to see what I'm on about tomorrow! Perhaps musings on 'Gee, I've spent 31 years of my life ruled by bells - time to get the hell out!' - enticed??? Hope so! xxx