23rd February 2010 (Tuesday)

Only confirmation of the day is that the Non starts school next Monday. We learned as much when we went in briefly to pick up the folder of reports I'd left with the school councillor to glean as much as she wanted from. Tomorrow we go back in briefly to pick up a hat and so on from the school shop, and when we can we'll borrow the car and go to the uniform place in town and buy the uniform. That's about it. They seem incredibly well organised - they said, we'll start on Monday (as if that's delaying it considerably), but we'll have someone to take care of her ready - while we're waiting for extra funding to come in we can apply for temporary funding. Temporary funding!!! Good good, one would even think that here they actually want to take care of the kids that need some help and get to the bottom of the problem rather than sweep them under the carpet as fast as possible. Surely, that's not right? Wouldn't you want to delay any payments if at all possible? To make life hard? To go round spreading gobbledegook from which the children benefit not a jot and loads of people waste huge amounts of time on?? Surely, that's the way to go about things, not just apply money quickly where it's needed. I don't understand this Australian system at all. Anyway, Monday it is. I can't TELL you how much the Non is looking forward to it. She waves at the school every time we go past, pats the green snake on the wall every time we drop into the office (this is the painted one, just to be clear), and is looking at the calendar eagerly to the 1st March. She's also started making up stories of 'if you're NOT GOOD, they'll chuck you out of school and make you go home to your mummy and daddy, so you'd BETTER NOT do THAT!'. Offences that might lead to this terrible calamity include (so far) poking people and frowning at them.

Terrifically quiet day for the girls today, the Mr had to go a a radiation safety thing ALL DAY today (incredibly the wrong timing, his grant has had almost no time at all). Soon after our very short excursion to the school we quite literally shut up shop - I closed all the windows, drew the curtains, closed the garage door, everything to try and keep the heat out. There are no shutters in this place, makes a big difference. Just white curtains which don't do a great deal - but I guess are better than nothing. Even so at about noon we were pretty sweltering and I filled up the bath quite high with cold water and we both jumped in. There is no AC and we couldn't get hold of any fans - it seems the whole of Australia and its suppliers has run out of them and there are none to be had, even for ready money. This livened things up considerably, and if push comes to shove and things are really hot I thoroughly recommend it as a relatively cheap method of keeping sane in very hot conditions. The thermometer's been regularly at 36 degrees even at 9 p.m., no idea what it would be during the day (we rely on the car one). Anyway, as the Mr has this 'training' thing on the whole day he couldn't come home and lend us the car, so we were confined for the day. I've lost count of how many books we've read - that girl is frightening. 'Right, well that was a good one. Shall we read another one now, or do something different?' 'Read another BOOK!' "OK, so shall I read one or would you like to read one?' 'ONE FOR ME TO READ, I'LL read IT!' - on and on. Apart from that, our usual work.... it's also frightening just how many workbooks she's finished since coming to Australia. It's getting to be quite a thick pile. I think by the time she gets to school it's going to be absolute.... child's play, by comparison to what she does at home. As for what exactly I'll be doing at home, with no child to educate, no house to clean (well there's nothing in it, nothing to do), and of course (minor consideration) no social life is another matter. I might even have to start looking for a job. Or writing a book. Or both.

Can I just say, LOVED the pics from Pie, MANY thanks, absolutely gorgeous as usual - I wonder how long they've been sitting there before I saw them, must remember to check that site more often. Lara loved the Dora/Nora/Nea ones in particular, I think. Can't believe how springy it is in LA already. It's only February!! In the UK that's the glummest part of the year - cold, dreary, windy, and you're at the very end of you tether and the winter STILL has more biting cold and misery to throw at you, with no hope of warmth in sight. And it's wet, and icy, and cold, and DARK. Ugh.... shiver. Yup, I'd rather be jumping into the bath to cool down like a hippo, and dodging redback spiders encamped on the front door quite permanently (daren't approach without very long-distance insecticide so it's just sitting there, quite literally), than waiting until 10 a.m. for dawn and scraping ice off the car at midday, and wearing every layer of fleece that I can find. Bring on arachnids and aridity, better than being frozen to death.

Boredom has suddenly set in. Lots of love to all, V xxxx