the birm*

Well there you go, I got a replacement for the van! An old ford (I know…) cortina ghia, 2Ltr, auto (I know…), poo brown colour, wagon, one owner, 145 000kms on the clock, pretty tidy except for the small prangs on the side from the 88 year old bloke I got it off obviously being too old to drive…$1250. lets hope it gets me from A to B without hassle!.. but then again it is a motor vehicle…

The island.

If you haven’t seen it yet, I recommend you do. ok, ok, so it got shocking reviews and is a bit cliché or Hollywood, but I was impressed. It certainly fits well ethically with all the happenings at the moment (especially in Australia), and is quite entertaining. So next time you’re at the video (or should I say dvd) store and dunno what to get, do it!

Two words: PG Wodehouse!

If you haven’t read the adventures of Bertram Woodster and his strapping butler Jeeves I would have to say (in the words of Bertie) “why the dickens not?!” Drop what you’re doing, go to your local library, bookshop, grandma’s or get online and get yourself a copy!!! A special thanks to MT bones for his wise council (“if you haven’t read it yet you’re a tube!”). thanks Micah, I now regret not having read any of Wodehouse’s stuff earlier…my sides R splittin’!!

Fenshui or practicality?

Well after a boring day of lectures and a great night spent with some good friends in Sydney, I picked up doorbell and bec in the overheating dying “bomb”(details in the post below) and went to ikea. We were there for 4 hours, amazed at the size, designs and products that this store had to offer. I’d been there before, but it had been ages! We walked around drooling at the functional and simple designs, wishing we were renovating a house (or even owning a house where we could drill holes in walls and so on). We ended up buying some great gear: lighting, storage, cups, mugs, cutlery, photo frames and a fantastic double story washing-up drainer (unreal! So much space!!). a lot of it replaces older stuff we had, broken stuff, non existent stuff or adds to the feel of “the close”. Fenshui? Maybe, since we could live without it, but certainly very nice, practical and tidy…and I sleep so much better now!

A swan song?

Maybe. I went to Sydney on Friday for a day of training (which ended up being a waste of time: boring stats and data all day, not really relevant to teaching, though there was some stuff on autism, which was interesting but not that relevant to me. having said that the lunch and snacks were very very tasty. Just a pity I couldn’t stop myself from going to sleep, but cause I was trying to I kept writing and wrote the weirdest stuff, a combination of notes, my dreams and then French and stuff I didn’t recognise…)but I digress!.

driving down my motor overheated but I made it ok. I filled it up with water and kept an eye on it, went to the Thomases for a be-ute BBQ and stayed there the night. I met up with doorbell and bec and went to ikea (see post above this for full details).

Coming home the van overheated and I had to fill it up with a total of 20 litres of water, and noticed that the oil was boiling and that the cap had some creamy coloured stuff on it…not good. We almost got home, but the excess smoke and oil splattered on the rear of the van was so bad that we had to pull over 1km short from home. I drove it home yesterday after filling it up with another 10 litres and 3litres of oil. I just made it home.

The cream colour inside the oil means one thing: a blown head gasket, which for an expensive car is only a minor(but expensive) problem. For “the bomb” it means either replacing the engine or getting the shot gun out, putting it out of it’s misery and upgrading to another cheap vehicle…ahhhhhhh, we’ll see what happens!

Did you know that…

111 111 111 x 111 111 111 = 12 345 678 987 654 321

I just thought that was interesting…(and totally pointless and useless)

Coatse(one of the maths teachers from school)’s super tasty potato bake (yum!!)

1)    Cook spuds (slightly undercooked)

2)    Mix 1 packet of cheese and leek soup (continental brand is best) with ½ a cup of milk (125ml)

3)    Pour onto spuds (ahh…that you’ve obviously put in some kinda dish...)

4)    Sprinkle with cheese (lots of you’re me)

5)    45 min in oven (give or take) at “half way temperature”

6)      Enjoy with some grilled meats (at a BBQ for example) with friends (as long as you make enough!!).

We’d planned to go climbing on the central coast (1 hour drive south of newie), so we started off with a hearty brekkie at adski’s (yum!). I made some coffees while adski cooked the good stuff. Tezza and his mate leo turned up and we headed south. It was pretty grey and drizzling. We stopped at a servo and waited for “pommy” and by the time he got there the hacky sack was soaking. We opted for an indoor climbing gym in Sydney. Back in the cars heading to Sydney the rain kinda eased off and the ground looked dry, so we decided to go and check out a bouldering crag on the water. We parked at cowan station and walked down the ridge to Jerusalem bay. It was overcast but warm and dry. At the bottom of the hill we spotted the cliffs, only 100m away…but on the other side of the river estuary. Cause none of us had packed a boat we waded across clear, warm, salty (sharky) waist deep water with our packs on our heads.

We spent the next few hours wading or swimming to the base of the cliff and tried various “problems” all harder than each other. Some of the better climbers amongst us (anyone who wasn’t me) managed to get a few moves in here and there. The slippery rocks, oysters, steep/overhung sharp edged cliffs and wet tevas (sandals) made for quite hard climbing. Jumping into the deep part of the water was also enjoyable. Very clear, very warm and very, very deep (which occasionally got spooky due to all the shark stories of late in down town Australia). The cliff was also much higher than it looked from the water and jumping from the overhung thin roof top was a rush (the old “ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh…breath.. ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh” splash)! It turned out to be a lot of fun and a very enjoyable day. A terrific spot!  

Ok, so I knew I was a little round around the ages maybe, just the usual love handles and pot belly type stuff, but overweight?? Well according to a new machine in the chemist, that’s the word. It asked for height and weight (already at school I was overweight according to their charts) and then told you if you needed the new u-beaut diet thingy. And sure enough, the screen flashed OVERWEIGHT. So there you go, I guess I need to buy some of that miracle new formula…then again, that will happen the day the queen takes out my rubbish bi!

He told me to get ready and put a towel around me and he’d be back in a minute. Surely he didn’t mean totally naked?! What if he meant down to undies? But then what if I kept the undies on and he meant for me to take em off?... I concluded that, since I’d mentioned the glutes that he meant naked…I hopped on the table, put my head in the rest and covered myself up with the towel.

It was a great massage in the end, plenty of work to be done from shoulders to calves, I’m a bit sore today but feel so relaxed! Had a good chat about everything and anything and the music was a good relaxing choice as well. He worked on me for over an hour, so it was well worth it. I’ll have to get another massage some day!