Back to work wendy

Day two of being back at work, I'm exhausted already but glad to be back. I'm enjoying the new role so far although it takes up a lot of time, but the initial response has been quite positive.

The second week of the holidays had its ups and downs. I'm very glad that I spent so much time with Lister on Sunday as during the week I got that dreaded phone call from Dee. The poor thing was lying on her side gasping every few seconds and looking absolutely terrfied. We got her to the vet but by the time we arrived her heart had stopped. The vet tried massage, which was sweet, but we new she wasn't in for much of a chance. It was hard because she was still twitching but her time was up. We drove to mum's old house (Ally's now) in the Basin. The house looks so different as Ally was preparing to lease it now that she's living in Kinglake. We buried Lister up in the garden, right up the very back where the view over the valley is stunning. She's along side Megsy and Freddy and has a fruit tree planted over her. I'm glad we still had somewhere to put her. She still looked like a kitten sometimes even though it was almost 15 years ago when John found her with the rest of a litter in an abandoned house. Then came the drama when Ally and John had another of their infamous rows and Lister ended up in the pet shop. Of course she was rescued and became part of the family. On Sunday she had been sulking in her carry cage, she'd pretty much been hanging around in there since they had taken her and Kesha up to the Basin the week before for a visit. So I had taken her out to the aviary and set up more ramps and hidy places and high vantage points. As soon as I put her in she was climbing around, exploring and then sunning herself.

Aaron was back to work on Thurday. I did lots of reorgansing at home after we had the carpet guys in to replace the carpet in the office. There was also some other cleaning up after all the new downlights that other Aaron and my Aaron had put in. I love all the new dimmers and the extra lights. Of course there are more plans ahead!!!

On Friday I spent a fair bit of time at mum's with Dee having a big tidy up. All the things that mum struggles with now, like reaching to clean the shower or cupboard fronts. I'm going to try to get there more regularly.

On Saturday Dee and I went for a walk/hike through the hills near the Basin. It was lovely to catch up properly, even though we were pretty slack and only did the short track.

On Sunday I met Rach for coffee at Knox and when she went off to the footy I went to the movies and saw Priceless. It was my first time going to the movies alone, which is something I've always wanted to do. I figured Aaron wouldn't mind as it was a romantic comedy - not his favourite genre. I, on the other hand, loved it.

I finished the last two books in the Ellie Chronicles - Incurable and Circle of Flight. Although I'll miss the characters I'm glad it's finished - John Marsden has taken up too much of my time and the books are far too addictive - besides, I'm too old to read them and I'm not teaching English this year so I have no excuse. I've almost finished Introduction the Bhuddism and I've bought a copy of the Hand Maid's Tale (at last) so I'm looking forward to starting that.

Best be off and head for home.

Wendy

Happy Hols

Hello,

I'm currently enjoying the peaceful end of term one holidays but in this quiet time have cheekily borrowed a friend's internet to catch up on the blog. Sad to say that I'm actually missing work at the moment, not just the internet connection, but the truly amazing team of people I work with and our great kids...who would have thought I'd ever say that about year 9s but it is true, they're great.

I've been able to catch up with some of the boz crew a couple of times these hols...many of us seem to be spreading our wings and trying new projects, Katie, Jungy and Mandy are settled in new high schools and Pez has moved up the ladder to uni work (it sounds amazing; pure teaching with none of the hassles of uniform, ringing parents and report writing - but not for me I think) Rachel also has some career moves in the pipeline that I think she will excel at. No one ever stands still for too long in life so I'm glad to have time to catch up and see that the friendships I made over the years are still there even though we are spreading further afield.

I haven't been near the gym in weeks and have decided that food is my new best friend, just as well looks aren't everything eh???

I had an amazing experience yesterday when Lorraine took me to a Buddhist retreat in Monbulk. We receieved an empowerment from Manjurshri (must check the spelling) and learned from an amazing buddhist monk teacher from the uk. He was so interesting and entertaining and made so much sense. To actually experience laughter and joy within a temple was so far removed from my other hideous religious experiences involving temples. It made me realise that there is so much more to this life and universe than what we see and understand at this time. However, I am being very cautious and taking things in my stride. I'm glad that I have been exposed to this teaching though, it has made me realise how unimportant the things I have been clinging too really are. Possessions, people, anger, hurt...these are all just contributing to the delusions of our mortal (grotty) minds. I no longer feel sad when I think about selling the house as it is not important, we cannot take such things with us and it makes no difference if I'm in a modern home with all things that open and shut or living in a hut on a mountain side five miles out of Nepal...its what I do with my life, how I treat all living things that really matters. I've been reading a book by Geshe Kelsang Gyatso that talks about basic Buddhist principals and at the moment I'm reading about past lives and Karma. I think, if this is true, how sad it is that human life can be seen as so cheap, that people murder each other, fight wars, kill their own babies or even take their own lives! To gain a human life is so precious it is so sad that it can be wasted so easily. Anyway, enough of that...this is about our lives in our home, not about my explorations in to various forms of spirituality...that's for another blog perhaps.

Also on the subject of reading (and religion for that matter) I just finished Ayaan Hirsi Ali's autobiography. What an amazing woman she is, to have faced so much adversity and cruelty and to have come out not just a survivor but a fighter for the rights of women and political expression!!! She tells her story in such a lively, engrossing manner, I could barely put her book down. Of course now I need to read the Caged Virgin, which is a collection of her essays and hopefully find a copy of the short film that she and Theo Van Gogh made that led to his death and all the threats against her. Also on my reading list these holidays is Incurable (part of the Elly Chronicles) by John Marsden and if I get time I may go back to reading a Month in the Country.

Well, this blog is meant to be about the house and it has been all hands on deck this week. Our three month maintenance period is up so the house has been filled with trades this week and hopefully next. It has been very exciting, our new (correct sized) downlights look very elegant and the touched-up paintwork looks great. I love walking into the house as the "new house smell" (even better than new car smell) is stronger than ever and I feel the excitment I felt when we used to come and visit during construction...only now we live here. But as I said earlier attachment to material things only causes delusions so I must not get too carried away. I will however be glad when I can start on my native garden as in time it will provide habitat for insects and birds.

I have also had time to head out on some day trips. We spent a day in Healesville, navigating our way around hedge end maze. We stopped in at the new Beechworth Bakery (yay I don't have to drive to echuca now) and also tasted some exellent wines at the cellar next door and picked up a scrumtious pinot gris (perhaps this will be my autumn favourite). We stopped by Pet Penache on the way home and scored an invite (along with Ross) to the home of the lovely, gorgeous and gracious Sue and Geoff. Lou Lou has grown unbelievably, Bandit gave us a most joyous welcome and poor old Ziggy just takes it all in his stride. Sue and I polished off the pinot gris and a couple of chardonnays before the evening was through. At least Max will be happy as we bought him a lovely new futon. Hopefully I will wander up again next weekend and may pop into the Ivy in the hope of running into the charismatic Derek.

We saw 300 at the movies on Friday with some of the staff from Boronia FS. An interesting film, it annoyed Aaron, but although it may not have been 100% historically accurate I did appreciate the attention to detail with the costumes of the Spartan Warriors. I also convinced Aaron to go to the Irish with me where we happily downed some Bulmers and I sent a farewell toast and text to the lovely Jess who was flying out to start her new life in the UK.

What else can I report on??? Not much I fear. I really should finish and give back this connection.

Happy Easter to one and all.

Love Wendy

Walking with The Dinosaurs

Walking with the Dinosaurs was an amazing visual and special effects spectacular at Rod Laver arena which we really enjoyed - although I think Aaron was more impressed with the Bose speakers than anything else due to the way they were utilised to create atmosphere ie your seat shook when T-Rex took the stage. I found it very interesting although it seemed to end way too soon. Sarah looked bored after awhile but most of the kids around us looked like they were having a great time. I even saw kids from my current school and some from my old school so at least it was something that would appeal to a range of ages.






A great night out.

It's a beautiful day...

I'm sitting outside on the merbu deck at a cafe table. There is a pleasant breeze, and the soft white and green hues of the eucalypts look stunning against the clear blue sky. I can't believe I'm at work!!!

withdrawal symptoms continued..

Hello again,

I've hidden in the conference room for a little while during lunch. I now have an office but the wireless network doesn't extend out to the centre yet...but I am always patient!!! :)

We had a nice weekend. All three of us were home. I actually took Friday off thanks to a killer headache, Aaron was pretty wrecked when he got home Friday morning due to the rather nasty truck roll over he attended. But by the evening we were both feeling better and headed over to Knox for dinner and to visit Roy and Lorraine.

On Saturday I woke up at 6 (despite going to bed at 3) so got lots of washing done, walked Max and tried my pilates DVD. I went to the gym and worked out for a couple of hours, then some of my girls talked me into doing the pilates class so I was there for longer than I should have been.

We did some shopping then came home for a movie night. We watched the surprisingly funny, She's the Man. Of course it is based on my favourite play but I was impressed at how well it was interpreted. We watched the first half of Click but we were all pretty tired after about half an hour.

Sunday morning I tackled more housework then was sent off to yoga by Aaron. When I got back he'd done lot's of work so that was lovely. After lunch we watched the rest of Click, walked Max and headed up the hill to visit Sue and Jeff. We stayed much too late and when we got home Sarah and Aaron crashed! I stayed up to make dinner for Monday night but then I was straight to bed myself.

I've been sticking to my guns with my New Year's Resolution. I've caught up with Caz (Moods), gone out with Marilyn and Bec (Moods again) and even went to the city for Mel's birthday (Belgium Beer cafe, Blue Train and PJ's). OK so I'm not exactly a social butterfly but I'm getting better at it!!!

I better be off and eat some lunch.

Will update again soon (I hope)

Wendy

Withdrawal Symptoms

Aaron and I are officially suffering withdrawal symptoms with the lack of internet at home. It's not much better on the work front either as I've been flat out and Aaron hasn't been in the office for about two weeks. So I'm grabbing some time now for non-research purposes...shhhh tell no one!

So what's been going on in my incredibly exciting, dynamic and spontaneous life??? Not much...and Jess has just offered to make me a cup of tea so I'll finish this update later.

MWAH

Back in the swing

Well I'm back at work...week three...and still loving it. My new role is great and I'm getting to know the 200+ kids in year 9. This time next week we should have our building and offices. We had a quick tour last week and it's all very exciting. Yipppeeee!!!!

Progress on the house front. We have a garden shed and we can fit both cars in the garage now which is nice. I'm still finding junk in boxes and chucking stuff out. It's very liberating. Had to have a major clean up yesterday after the wind blew in what seemed like several tonnes of dust and dirt. It was a very windy day and hopefully not a regular occurrence. (Who am I kidding, it's always windy here!)

I enjoyed my weekend, all by myself!! I rode from Chelsea to Brighton Beach on Saturday. There were some stunning views along Beach Road and some hairy moments with cars. On Sunday I did a yoga class but started to feel dizzy, unfortunately after lunch I became ill and that pretty much wrote the day off. It wasn't till about 5 that I felt well enough to tackle the post gale clean up.

I realised that the official completion date for our house (Jan 29th) has come and gone. I'm glad we were ready well before then or I'd still have stacks of boxes to face instead of the few that are hidden in the spare room. I intend to have a lot less junk by the next time we move!

Situation with stalker getting worse as is now playing stupid stunts on the road. I've been told that this is a bad sign that the behaviours will escalate, so moving sooner rather than later is back on the cards. Ah well.

Best be off and back to work...I have a circus booking to make!!! :)

Diamonds on the soles of her shoes

I never have thought of myself as a huge Paul Simon fan but I believe this is my second post referencing his work. This particular song has been in my head today as the wonderful, talented and generous Mr Pannell cut our diamonds in the driveway. It looks great but I can see why few people get it done as it is extremely labour intensive. I hope my roast pork was thanks enough, although I don't think it comes close. Peter has done so much for us and I've really enjoyed him staying here (he always says please and thank you and remembers to send compliments to the chef...a very good influence on Aaron).
We have a letter box in progress, I enjoyed laying a course of bricks but I'm glad that ultimately we'll be rendering it. Our electrical fault in the en suite has been fixed up and thankfully, unlike our neighbours, we didn't have to endure two roof fires before it was fixed. Although insulation doesn't burn as such it does stink your house out when exposed to sparks and flames. They have also had flooding since they moved in due to faulty plumbing and further problems when their builders bricked in the wrong wall and they had to wear the cost to fix the mistake!!!! They are lovely people and I'm really glad to have met them. I hope this is the end of their woes with PD.
Tomorrow we celebrate our nation with Australia Day. I'm happy that we're in our home and living the "Australian Dream" as they used to call it. Hopefully the powers that be at the reserve bank won't turn the Australian Dream into a nightmare next time they meet. Everyone is predicting another rate rise but it is an election year so who knows???
Back to work on Monday!!!

Hols nearly over

Well it's the second last week of the holidays and I'm getting that excited but terrified feeling I always get when a new school year is approaching. It is always great to catch up with work friends and this year I am very excited about the new project I am involved in. Anyway, enough about work I've still got a week and a bit of freedom left.

Not much going on at the house. Peter cut our stipple yesterday and I'm not sure when our driveway will be laid. Soon I hope. I've been really good at chucking out stuff I don't need, I think it is sense of security of having a home at last, or maybe it was the anguish of moving so much junk!!!! Anyway, I'm letting go of a lot of emotional and physical baggage.

We have some progress on the maintenance stuff with the house having spoken to the big boss at Metricon Victoria. I'm really impressed with him as he had a plumber round here to install our tank within an hour of speaking to him. A big improvement on Bruce!

Around the estate it is business as usual. They are currently scraping sites in the next road down, they are also doing soil tests in the swampy part, so it looks like progress all round. They are working on some more of the roads. So although I'm losing some of my walking and riding circuit as new houses are started on, new parts of the estate are opening up for Max and me to explore.

Well best be off, I've got a giant house to vaccuum before my visitors arrive.

See Ya

MWAH!

Scorcher

The temperature climbed right up today with Aaron's car telling us it was 43 degrees!! We were in the car after the power cut because the air con in the car is great, unfortunately I didn't like the idea of driving around when traffic lights were out and the radio was reporting multiple accidents. There was also nowhere to get fuel. When we got home the house had only warmed up by one degree so even without the aircon it wasn't too bad.
So what about the house???
Well I'm not posting photos yet as I'm running on Peter's dial-up at the moment but I'm happy with the progress we're making. We have some decking out the back and our stipple concrete was poured along the side yesterday. Weather permitting we should get our driveway soon. I love the stipple down the side and it has created a perfect area for a courtyard citrus garden with Mediterranean overtones. Peter even poured the slab for our letterbox.
I'm still getting used to the incredible bursts of wind we have here, one has just whipped up a load of dust now so it's shut the windows time. It makes me want to read Montana 1948 again as I think I would appreciate the characters a lot more now! Or maybe I'll just watch Twister instead. Our wood chipped back yard has made a big difference to the amount of dust blowing into the house.
There has been quite a bit of progress in the estate. Some of the site scrapes done between Christmas both had their slabs poured the first week of the new year and one now has frame and roof trusses. A porter loo and site scrape or two have been completed in stage 4 and a lot of houses have had general work done on them. Tradies started very early today, I heard one truck at 4.30, probably so they could finish work early in the hot weather. I was actually surprised to see anyone working at all today but there they were.
Well, I feel a bit guilty hogging the internet so I'll sign off now. Hopefully our internet will be sorted soon as we have switched ISPs, until then....

Happy birthday deanne

I can't believe it but it's been 20 years since the little peanut came into our lives. The baby isn't a baby anymore and isn't even a teenager now. I'm so proud of her and all she's done. I just hope she makes more of her 20s than i did of mine. Happy birthday dee. Love you lots.

in other news sez came home last night. Poor kid is really sick so i spent the night checking on her. She's sleeping peacefully now so hopefully the tummy bug has passed.

andrew came to visit yesterday and then roy lorraine and the kids came over too. Roy built a work bench in the garage and lorraine helped me with sarah's room. Andrew shifted some mulch for me and peter worked on the deck. Aaron came over and fitted off some power points in the garage. I feel so spoiled having such great friends.

going to move some more mulch now before it gets too hot then off to celebrate with dee

Making this house a home

Well i'm absolutely exhausted but that's ok. We spent two days having way too much fun with the dingo we hired. The dirt was all shifted and the garden much flatter than before. There was unfortunately a shocking dingo related injury, poor aaron got blisters on both hands!
i finished off the new clothes line, yes i am excited as now i don't have washing drying all over the house. Unlike olinda our washing actually dries here and very quickly too.
We had some mulch delivered today to cover the back garden, peter finished adjusting our blinds and we've put some temporary flooring out the back.
Chris and josh came to visit today and apart from getting very lost en route from seville they loved the house and came baring gifts, i am now the proud owner of a bonsai which i will endeavour to keep alive!
Sarah comes home tomorrow night so i'm trying to have her room all set up for her.
Bye for now

Farewell 2006

I'm still posting from my phone next bill should be good.
What a year it has been. We've joined the ranks of mortgage payers and said farewell to renting. I've left my job and started afresh at a new school. Aaron bought a sexy new car. Sarah started theatre classes and bowling lessons and also changed schools. Deanne finished her first year of uni. Ally's band's been getting loads of gigs. Max had a cancer scare. I've lost 10% of my body mass. I've made some gorgeous new friends. We've moved into our lovely new home. So that's about a brief run down of 2006 i wonder what 2007 has in store.
Have a happy and safe new year.
Love wendy

Busy busy busy

Well so much for my theory that tradies don't work over summer. The estate has become a hive of activity since boxing day with brickies chippies painters and sparkies all hard at it. Even road crews and site scrapers have been working. Max is loving his walks across the paddocks and vacant lots and i've been enjoying cooking and entertaining with an oven that actually works! Peter has done a fabulous job on our fences and aaron should be moving the excess dirt from the driveway scrape any day so i can soon make a start on the front garden.
We're off to get some new blinds today and to have a look at other odds and ends. Hard to believe the year is nearly over.

New house ..but no internet

Hi all.
This is a very quick update as i'm posting from my phone. We're loving life in our new home. There's still lots to do such as the drive and decking not to mention a thousand fix ups by metricon homes. I won't pass judgement just yet!
It was fabulous having a christmas eve dinner with family and friends and we enjoyed a boxing day celebration next door.
Hopefully internet up and running soon but in the meantime i hope everyone enjoyed the festive season and i wish you all a happy and safe new year.
love wendy

What's Going On???

Hello,
With the silly season fast approaching it has been a busy couple of weeks.
Report writing has, of course, featured prominently for me, although I find the package/system at my new school far superior to that of my last so it was a lot less stressful than I had imagined!
Sarah had her end of year concert for her drama, singing and dance class. It was a wonderful performance and she did us proud. Nana Jean and Deanne came too and had a ball.
We had fabulous seats with a perfect view of the entire stage and no tall people or women with hats in front! Sarah did so well with all the songs and is really starting to develop a love of performing and a presence on stage. She looked fantastic up on the stage and there was one number where some of the others were watching her to get the steps right. There was one routine that she didn't seem to know, she told me she was away when they learned that number, which was odd as I have taken her to class every week this semester. As it turned out it was something they did on the weekend workshop. But all in all it was a fabulous performance, I guess all those long hours waiting for her to finish rehearsals every week were well worth it!
While we're on the subject of Sarah performing on stage...I had half the office staff searching the school for me on Thursday as Sarah's school had rung to talk to me. It turned out her carols concert was this Thursday not the following and Sarah was devastated as she had told us the wrong date. Fortunately, I had no classes that afternoon as the year 10s had finished and I had all my In Lieu classes in the morning. So I dashed over to her school; and there she was, practically folded over the fence watching for my car. You should have seen how happy and relieved she looked as she and her friends raced along the fence line to meet me.
The carols concert was great and all the kids looked like they were having a wonderful time. Even the teachers gave a performance, which brought a smile to my face...it was Summer Holiday by Cliff Richard and it reminded me that holidays are fast approaching.
When Sarah and I got back to my school we got even more good news. Not that I like to talk about money (it's just not the done thing) but my pay slip was in my pigeon hole and I knew it wouldn't be pretty as I joined the strike action last week. The timing was terrible and I was dreading the truth...but to my surprise I was actually paid considerably MORE than usual as there was an adjustment in my salary with almost 6 months arrears to be paid....take that Mr Howard and your disgusting IR laws!!!!
I went to a great retirement do that week as well. It was for Anna, Rod and Andy from my old school. It was at a restaurant near by so I walked there (great idea as I got really spooked on the way home). The evening was wonderful. I was able to catch up with my dear friends and colleagues. As much as I know I've made the right decision in moving schools I miss these people so much.
Sandra's speech on behalf of Anna was marvellous, she really has a gift for public speaking and Anna was of course incredibly witty. It is a sad day for education when someone as talented, passionate, intelligent, caring and brilliant as Anna leaves the system. I just hope she takes to writing so I can continue to learn from her. Enjoy your retirement Anna Banana.
Well, there's been lots of other things going on but it all escapes me now so I'll just give you a quick house update.....




























































































Physically, everything is just about ready to go, or so it seems. Of course no one works in the building industry this time of year and the banking industry doesn't seem any better. Then of course there's all that council stuff not to mention the estate approval and a surveyor or valuer from the bank. Ahhhhhhh!!!!!! It seems unduly complicated, for example, you can't get the final bank cheque until you get the certificate of occupancy...but what do you need in order to get that all important certificate??? You guessed it...the final bank cheque. And somehow you have to get about 50 different people out to come and inspect and check everything and issue insurance and heaven knows what else....and we thought the building stage was challenging! So we'll have more agony waiting for all the paperwork and other red tape to go through. There are also some minor touch-ups around the place and of course the all important installation of appliances and our water tank(just try to get a plumber this time of year), which of course they don't install until the day before you move in because of all the thieves who pinch things from unoccupied houses...just look at what happened with our doors and the trough. Still it is getting closer and we celebrated after our walk through with Bruce last night by grabbing a take away and eating a delicious family meal in our beautiful home.

Excited

I'm so excited I can barely breath...can't explain yet but possibilities hang in the air.

See ya

Reports reports reports

I have so much to post at the moment but really don't have the time to upload photos and give an update on all that is going on in the family.

However, I need a break from reports. I swear they were invented by someone who was jealous that teachers get school holidays. I really dread this time of year, all the work that comes in at the very last minute, agonising over whether or not to pass or fail that borderline kid and avoiding the temptation of saying what we'd REALLY like to say.

At least the report writing program is a lot more user friendly than the one I've used in the past, still it's completely new which means I'm having to familiarise myself as I go. Oh well. It's not so bad, I'm on my last class. Tomorrow I just need to calculate attendance, proof read (hate doing that on a screen) and make sure there is isn't any work around that I haven't counted.
Of course there's also the usual domestic engineering and lugging boxes of garden waste to the top of the drive before the green collection. I'd love to mulch it all for the garden here but I cannot.

Well need to get back to it.

See you soon with a proper update.

Wendy

Report Writing Day

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH......................................................................


Need I say more???

Food Addict

I can't seem to stop eating lately. Food, food and more food. I'm too frightened to go near the scales...a) I'm frightened of what they might say b) I'm frightened of what they won't say..they may just break under my substantial girth! I must be close to 90 KGs!!!!
I don't seem to have any energy to exercise and I'm hungry or just feel like picking constantly.
Oh well...the silly season is upon us so there's no point fighting it. I'll just have to make yet another new year's resolution. I've got one month to eat drink and be merry!!!
That's all.