Helloo helloo hello all, hope you're all doing well,
Well bit of a busy day today, for us, one thing and another. We did two school visits, and this combined with the usual round of work and so on plus a quick dash to the beach (albeit very curtailed), made for what seems to us in these holiday-like times quite a dash.
First one was Kotara South. Very nice school, small (180 kids only), on top of a small hill, slightly inland, area is evidently very residential and quiet - all houses pretty uniform and medium-grade but all very well cared for. Kids quiet, principal very no-nonsense straight to business but very accommodating with it - said it wasn't a problem if we were out of area, could apply anyway, sent us away with a whole pack of stuff on the school and kindergarten in particular, in short, pretty nice. The reason we picked this one was because they have the NSW centre for deaf children there - and therefore of course they would be reasonably knowledgeable in the care of children with communication issues. All of this seemed to answer to expectations, and we were very pleased with it overall.
The one in the afternoon was the Junction school - much bigger, noisier, in the middle of town. This is the school that we're currently in the catchment area for. I came prepared (personally) not to like it very much mainly because of these two facts, but actually it is also pretty tempting. What a larger school may loose in calmness, it gains in ability to organise a multitude of different activities and groups. All the kids seemed very forthright and well-behaved, and the staff seemed pretty bright-eyed and chirpy and nicely full of beans, which is always a good sign. The deputy head (whom we spoke to) was in charge of all the Special Needs aspects - this means special needs needing help, and special needs as in particularly advanced. As the Non would no doubt probably fit in both categories (the discrepancy between her age and her reading age is forever growing, and rapidly), and the deputy head was entirely prompt and aware that many children fitted in both categories, this was also promising.
Tomorrow morning we've got Merewether Heights, and I think we might try and drop by New Lambton and pick up an out-of-zone enrolment form (they won't give us an interview as we're out of zone, we'll just have to try and seen what little we can of it on the sly). Still waiting to hear from Hamilton South. This last sounds very interesting - theoretically and on the phone, at least.
In between this we sandwiched in a nice bit of work, a little bit of shopping, and we picked up the Non's desk which had arrived while we were away one day and had been waiting at the post office. Just as we were about to go out for the evening beach, it started pelting it down with rain, so we cowered indoors until it stopped and then dashed out for a quick swim. Seems silly to not want rain when you're in the water anyway, but actually it gets your towels wet and besides it gets jolly chilly, too. Anyway, despite this, we jumped into the big pool for a 'quick dip' and there was some very good (well by her standards) swimming performed by Ms Grainge. It seems that FINALLY, purely by trial and error rather than by any encouragement, it's dawning on her that 1) you really DO move forward with greater ease and speed if you have your legs near the surface of the water and 2) it might sometimes be pleasurable and profitable to be able to move forward with relative speed. The appreciation/realisation of a single one of these aspects alone appears to be insufficient to trigger adoption of strategies to facilitate implementation. And, I suppose, it's logical too. That girl certainly doesn't swallow any old bullshit one throws at her, whether it's worthwhile or not. I guess in the long run that's something to be thankful for, even if it is a little time-consuming at times.
I think that's about it for any 'news' - and I feel my eyelids getting stickier and less inclined to open by the second... can't imagine how un-riveted the readers must be if this is the effect it has on the writer. Mind you, perhaps they haven't taken on quite as much ...err... liquid nourishment... as the writer. Alcohol is after all very calorific, I'm sure it's purely the digestive process kicking in that's causing the somnolence. Of course. Lots of love to all, V xxxxx
Well bit of a busy day today, for us, one thing and another. We did two school visits, and this combined with the usual round of work and so on plus a quick dash to the beach (albeit very curtailed), made for what seems to us in these holiday-like times quite a dash.
First one was Kotara South. Very nice school, small (180 kids only), on top of a small hill, slightly inland, area is evidently very residential and quiet - all houses pretty uniform and medium-grade but all very well cared for. Kids quiet, principal very no-nonsense straight to business but very accommodating with it - said it wasn't a problem if we were out of area, could apply anyway, sent us away with a whole pack of stuff on the school and kindergarten in particular, in short, pretty nice. The reason we picked this one was because they have the NSW centre for deaf children there - and therefore of course they would be reasonably knowledgeable in the care of children with communication issues. All of this seemed to answer to expectations, and we were very pleased with it overall.
The one in the afternoon was the Junction school - much bigger, noisier, in the middle of town. This is the school that we're currently in the catchment area for. I came prepared (personally) not to like it very much mainly because of these two facts, but actually it is also pretty tempting. What a larger school may loose in calmness, it gains in ability to organise a multitude of different activities and groups. All the kids seemed very forthright and well-behaved, and the staff seemed pretty bright-eyed and chirpy and nicely full of beans, which is always a good sign. The deputy head (whom we spoke to) was in charge of all the Special Needs aspects - this means special needs needing help, and special needs as in particularly advanced. As the Non would no doubt probably fit in both categories (the discrepancy between her age and her reading age is forever growing, and rapidly), and the deputy head was entirely prompt and aware that many children fitted in both categories, this was also promising.
Tomorrow morning we've got Merewether Heights, and I think we might try and drop by New Lambton and pick up an out-of-zone enrolment form (they won't give us an interview as we're out of zone, we'll just have to try and seen what little we can of it on the sly). Still waiting to hear from Hamilton South. This last sounds very interesting - theoretically and on the phone, at least.
In between this we sandwiched in a nice bit of work, a little bit of shopping, and we picked up the Non's desk which had arrived while we were away one day and had been waiting at the post office. Just as we were about to go out for the evening beach, it started pelting it down with rain, so we cowered indoors until it stopped and then dashed out for a quick swim. Seems silly to not want rain when you're in the water anyway, but actually it gets your towels wet and besides it gets jolly chilly, too. Anyway, despite this, we jumped into the big pool for a 'quick dip' and there was some very good (well by her standards) swimming performed by Ms Grainge. It seems that FINALLY, purely by trial and error rather than by any encouragement, it's dawning on her that 1) you really DO move forward with greater ease and speed if you have your legs near the surface of the water and 2) it might sometimes be pleasurable and profitable to be able to move forward with relative speed. The appreciation/realisation of a single one of these aspects alone appears to be insufficient to trigger adoption of strategies to facilitate implementation. And, I suppose, it's logical too. That girl certainly doesn't swallow any old bullshit one throws at her, whether it's worthwhile or not. I guess in the long run that's something to be thankful for, even if it is a little time-consuming at times.
I think that's about it for any 'news' - and I feel my eyelids getting stickier and less inclined to open by the second... can't imagine how un-riveted the readers must be if this is the effect it has on the writer. Mind you, perhaps they haven't taken on quite as much ...err... liquid nourishment... as the writer. Alcohol is after all very calorific, I'm sure it's purely the digestive process kicking in that's causing the somnolence. Of course. Lots of love to all, V xxxxx
Hello to bluebottle land! Sorry, so few words from me recently- it's better now. Of course now that the Bill Bryson has been read ( unfortunately, I have no more of his, he is so entertaining, I wish all history books were written in his narrative style- makes the whole thing so interesting) combined with your blogs makes Australia a lot more clear in my head. Good about the schools- they seem so clean and nice big rooms, nice courtyards- tough decision, especially since it sort of determines where you have to find a house- I guess they have the district permits like they do here, but as you know it took me half a year to get one- don't know about there. Hope you can have a sniff out at Lambton since you were saying that it would be good for the Flea's work place. I love her standing there at the whiteboard- what was she saying? Very bold indeed, don't know how Leo would have handled it at her age. Although she is almost five, I can't believe it! Good job swimming- and the Mr Crocodile in the sand- wow! Trust auntie Ninja would make something so pro, my kids were oohing and aahing, I've had so many parks and sand in the past 6 years old that I generally spew some sand toys around the place and command "well go off and play then"- horrible ain't it. Anyway where was I- I have given up with the crazysale site, it just won't listen to my requests, so if you could send a paypal account or something, would be much obliged- I wanted to save you the trouble of buying it yourself but it just DOESN'T. I wanted to get the desk for her too so please put that in there- is it the colourful one? Anyway, great reading as usual, so nice of you to sit down every evening, I thought of contributing with a blog but I know that by the time the kids go snoring at about 9 I generally collapse, then make the final round of food for Mako, clean up a tad and am ready to plonk down on the floor, I just know I couldn't keep it up.
ReplyDeleteSorry I have to cut these up since they allow only so many characters. Where was I. My comparative silence recently was 1 on Monday last we got the puppy, and all in all to cut a very long week short, I gave him or sold him into better hands yesterday. He was beautiful, loving, good with kids, everything one could hope for- but a puppy. I was ready for the challenge and had made up my mind that I CAN DO THIS- and failed miserably. It was just SO much. He would wake up at 4, go out for a freezing nights wee-wee, stand around for ages in a corner outside so that he got the idea, no go. Wait for an hour, give up, go inside then he pees on the carpet. Put him outside while I clean him up, starts barking. Put him inside, he wakes up Nea and leo at 5 in the morning, then all havoc brakes loose. Make 3 lunches and pack the boys off, in the meantime 6 more accidents around the house, crate him, then he shits in the crate- in 15 minutes before school have to bath him- in the meantime Nea has sniffed out the crate and is busy making puppy-poo piramids on the floor. Needless to say now she has to go for a shower. And so on and on till about 7 in the evening- my kids seemed like angels to take care of after it. I told myself " I told myself so" many times and came to a deft conclusion of- this is no going, at least not until Nea is at least at school or something for 3 hours or more. In any case Derry was our faithful pooping companion, I grew to love him very much but oh well, it's better this way. He went to a huge house with rolling gardens and a huge family, where there are umpteen people around to take turns to take care of him, which is as it should be. So endeth the Derry Saga, but will be remembered as a enlightening one. Will post some pics on the my family I guess.
ReplyDeleteIf that wasn't enough, the day before he went I was feeling so sorry and helpless that I went to my favourite occupation in time of distress- cleaning, and decided to open a new can of oven cleaner I had purchased at the local store- OH MY GOD. I never even read the label since it just had "cleans superbly, nice citrus smell" on the front, started cleaning- thought, Wow this is some nasty stuff when I breathed it in, covered up my nose and continued for another 5 minutes scrubbing until suddenly I realized my right hand was throbbing. Hurridly looked at the back of the can which said "WARNING- hazardous, can be fatal"- contains sodium hydroxide"- without delay went to wash my hands but with horror realised that it wasn't washing, but rather a stick slime was steadily rubbing off parts of the skin. Call poison control who kindly say that PuT THAT THING IN THE HAZARDOUS WASTE NOW, open all windows but sorry there is nothing you can do to reverse the acidic reaction- wash all your clothes and go out to breath fresh air. In the mean time more skin comes off. That is, it's not really peeling if you get my mean, just ... melting. It was a damn horrible feeling. Just then Derry comes in and pees on my foot. Excellent. Anyway, all in all it's still rather painful, I think I might have even lost some of my fingerprints- Mako and I afterwords joked that I could be hunted down as a dangerous criminal.
ReplyDeleteStill a bit bandaged up but no greater burns as far as now is concerned, that's why I couldn't really write yesterday. Trust Piefie, hey. But HOW on earth they are allowed to sell that stuff- I was chatting to our landlords just by chance and they shrugged their heads and said "Just give them a buck and they'll sell you anything"- which seems to be the case. Mental note- be a lot more careful next time, and stick to good old Lysol.
Anyway there it is, hope to get one in tomorrow again and looking forward to the new one- Lots of thanks and love as ever, XOXOXO Pife the SMALL
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