News catch up.

So...we now are down to nine chooks. Keket suddenly died weeks after recovering so well from the quoll attack. We now have 4 roosters and 5 hens. After a month of not laying while they moulted we are now getting a couple of eggs a day again.There has been no evidence of rodents in the house for months and the weather is turning colder. We have had a few frosts which should have sent the snakes into hibernation.The best news is that our neighbours have moved out of their shed and are now in their newly built house eight months after that terrible fire last year.

The shortest day?

So...today was the Winter Solstice down here in the Underworld, the shortest day of the year, however I was teaching 'computer 'coding' at the local school as part of their Science/Technology day and it felt quite long to me!I started the day with the oldest children and worked down through the age groups over six sessions to the Prep/Year 1's.We started off working on laptops but after three groups had worked on them they ran out of battery. By the time the Year 3's arrived I had to continue in a small computer room on 10 desktop computers with two children at each computer. Up to that point the older children had been able to log on themselves but now the Year 3's looked blankly at me so I had to log on to the school system for them.It was the most fraught session of the day as I was on my own. It took some time to log onto the computers and then when I went to find the google search engine I had to sign in again on each computer to get access to the internet. By the time I had done that on the tenth computer the first ones had logged off while the children were waiting! It was chaos but eventually out of a 45 minute session they got about 20 minutes to actually work on the computers.I asked for help for the last two sessions with the youngest children and got an extra pair of hands. I had all the computers ready and signed on by this point, having spent all break time getting them ready, and so the last sessions went quite well.I survived the 'coding' day and on the whole it was not as daunting as I had first expected.I am back at the Stanthorpe school tomorrow for my last two days in their Prep class before I can finally come up for air for two weeks.

For Ian.

Thinking of my family today at the funeral of my sister's husband Ian England.We send love and hugs to everyone and are very sorry that we cannot be there with you.We have a candle burning for Ian here at Frogknot tonight.

At full pelt.

So...I survived a full week of teaching with one more to go and then it is the school holidays and I will be able to stay home for two whole weeks. I cannot wait.It has all gone OK so far although last Thursday I stupidly added to my stress by nipping out at the 1.30 pm lunch break to get my parachute (not a real one, but one I use to play games with the children) from  Roxy and ended up locking the keys in her. To add to the stress we were due to leave for Brisbane after school at 3.00 pm to see the Alan Cumming show. and I was worried that we would now miss it.I frantically messaged Will as I had to go out on break duty and he rang the RACQ and they came within 15 minutes and sorted it all out. Phew!The three hour trip to Brisbane that evening and then the three hour trip back again after the show was worth it as 'Alan Cumming Sings Sappy Songs' was just wonderful. and we thoroughly enjoyed it.There has been more hassle due to the fact that I have been unable to access the online Queensland schools website because initially I was allowed access due to my new part time contract at the local school. Since I started a temporary contract at the Stanthorpe school this week the system couldn't cope with that and locked me out. I have spent about two hours of my rapidly passing life listening to 'hold' music trying to get it sorted by IT support. I needed to get access because I have to write flippin' reports by Wednesday (Ya sucks Boo!).At  a staff meeting on Wednesday for an upcoming Tech/Science day at the local school this coming Wednesday I ended up being given the task of working with the children on computer coding!!!!!!!!!I was overjoyed... NOT. I know nothing about it and it sounded far too complicated but was told that it was easy. Time will tell.Also at the staff meeting I was informed that I am now eligible for Senior Teacher status and was I interested?  If I was it, apparently, means that I have to take on higher level duties which I really don't want to do. The Principal also mentioned that she had the funds for another teacher for another day a week and I wasn't paying attention at that moment but from the way everyone else was looking at me and laughing suggested she had a certain teacher in mind.I just said "We'll talk about it."It has been so nice to have two days at home though yesterday was wet and we had a mountain of  washing from the week to do. Luckily the sun was out a bit today so we got the washing done. I have done all the reports for the Year 2/ Year 3 class that I take for Science but still have to write them for History and Geography for the Prep/Year 1 class and can't because the online Queensland school website thingy hasn't made that class available to me yet.I will leave you for now with a picture given to me by a little crossed eyed girl in the Prep class I am covering this fortnight...I hope the resemblance to a certain German Dictator is just coincidental.

Trips to the Powerhouse.

So...we were in Brisbane at the weekend to see...a Jane Austen spoof at the Powerhouse. It was very funny and Penny Ashton who wrote it played all the characters in it at break neck speed and managed to adlib hilariously as well.I just had to have a picture with her.Tomorrow we are going off again this time to see...'Alan Cumming sings sappy songs.'As this week is the busiest of the year so far for me we are heading off after I finish work at school, we will drive the 3 hours to Brisbane and see the show then drive the 3 hours back again because I am working again on Friday!Mad I know....but sometimes it's good to be mad!