Extended Update

Well, I have moved house, and we are nearly settled in. I have been working hard at school placement, and I am now at the end of the second week of it. My classes have been going great, there is no doubt that I know everything that I will need to teach music classes, now it is just the classroom management side of things that I need to work on.

Kitty loves this house, she runs around jumping out from behind doors. She still sleeps at night with us.

It has been soooooo cold! My car was covered with ice this morning and when I poured water on it, it had refrozen by the time I got in the car. I am sleeping better now with the electric blanket on.

Well today is the day when I pack up everything in a big pile ready to move tomorrow. I thought that I had gotten rid of a lot of things when I moved, but there has been a remarkably large amount of stuff to pack into a small supply of boxes. I think that I may need more, but it's a bit late for that. I might just buy some green bags from the supermarket.

My kitty has been asleep on me for the last hour, all curled up under my dressing gown. I really need a new dressing gown because kitty just loves to lick this one to death and I end up with big wet marks all over it despite constantly saying no. Ohhh big yawn. Having this kitty is like having a practice baby, except kitty was toilet trained when I got it. It gets into things its not supposed to, wont eat the food I give it, constantly wants attention, needs to be told no all the time, and is showered with love and affection all day.

Brekkie time.

Oh, I lost a kilo! Yay! I have been so hungry all the time, despite what I eat. I am going to try protene drinks for a while, see if they help through the day.

Moving Out

Its been a while since I felt like writing. I have been having trouble with my house, we got to the point where living with so many other people was just too crowded. I have been looking at rental houses all week, and we have been offered a great house at a great price. He should be ringing us up to tell us whether we can move in. Otherwise it will be back to the estate agents to look for something else. I am really excited about moving out, as much as I love Netty like family, I can't live in one room anymore. It will take some adjustment, but I am hoping that we will be good friends like we always have.

I have one more week on holiday before we all go back to placement. I am looking forward to getting into the classroom and trying out my skills. It is such a nice looking school, and it will be great to have on a resume. Everyone was really nice when I arrived, and I am excited about playing with some of the bands that they have there.

Ohhhh, I am going to finally set up a music area, nothing there but my horn and my music. The house has a piano, which I am very happy about. I hope so much that they let us stay there. I want to start moving things out this week. Do some cleaning and get the house organised. My house organised. THe house work hasn't changed, the bathroom is still dirty, Steph did some of it but not properly. I am feeling in limbo at the moment, waiting to be ready to move.

Holidays

I am offically on holidays, but it doesn't feel like it much. I have been working a lot, I did an 8 hour shift the other day. I should get lots of money next week. Kitty is booked in to the vet on Thursday, she is going to have an imunisation and have her bits done, and I am thinking about microchipping, but I don't know if it will be worth it. It's not that much money, and in the event that she does get out and go somewhere, we have a much better chance of getting her back. Its such a nice cat that I would be very upset if something happened to it. Its asleep on my legs at the moment.

I wish the warmer weather would hurry up and come back. I don't like winter much, and it is cold in my house today.

I was able to cross off quite a few things from my to do list. I paid a few bills, and booked the cat in, and I am going to book in to donate blood next week. I am really nervous about it, cause I remember how horrible it felt last time. I struggle with it cause they always seem to have trouble finding the vein and then getting it to run enough. The last time the nurse had to move the needle around in my arm and I felt it scraping. Ewwww, not nice! However, true to my nature I will do it again. It is a good thing to do. I will just have to see about how my overseas travel will affect it. That just occured to me then. But the US is a safe place to travel to.

I had a very nice steak last night. Meat seems so expensive. That is one of the wonderful things about the farm, we had a beautiful silverside roast the other day from the farm. It would be a lot of money to buy it in the supermarket. So if you are reading this Rosie, it was a nice roast, and I got a congratulations from Mark cause he liked it lots. I even made a fantastic white sauce to go on it. Thats one thing I can make well in the Kitchen.

Houses

Mark and I went and looked at houses in the new housing developments, wondering if it might be a good investment to buy one now, and then ten years later it would be worth a lot of money. But we found that it was a long way from the centre of the city, and there are a lot of things that you need in a house that you find isn't included, or they say they are including it for a great deal, things like floors and windows and walls. Important things like that.

So we were looking at houses in surrounding suburbs to see if there was anything in our price range, and there are houses out there if you are prepared to shop around suburbs. We will have to take a small two bedroom house because that it all we can afford in the surrounding suburbs. But the few houses we looked at are close to trams and trains and close to where Mark is working. We'll have a look and see if we like them. I know that I am ready to live in my own house with just me and Mark where I can have some cupboards for storage, and a spare bed for people to stay in, and a spare room for practicing. Notice how everything is about space? I love living with Netty, and now that we are settled in things are working o.k with the kitchen and bathroom, but when I talked to her this morning about houses she agrees that she is ready for a house with just her and Aaron, ready to start making a home, and move away from the share home environment. I feel like there are two houses squished into one house at the moment.

Weight Check

Still 86 kg. Oh Well.

Nearly at the end of the paper tunnel

I am nearly at the end of the week, where all the assignments are done and I am free for a while, except for the lesson planning I have to do. I will ring the school I am going on placement to next week and have a chat with the teacher about what the class is learning about and where I can take them next. I am feeling a bit aprehensive about this, for a few reasons, I haven't really planned a unit of work, I don't know anything about these kids, its a boys school, and I felt so confused and unsure about myself last placement. But I know that everyone else is in the same boat. When I get there and meet them I will hopefully find that they are not so bad. I am looking forward to meeting the teachers and students. It is the classwork that I am unsure about. But only because I haven't done it before. I will keep telling myself that I am an expert on music and theory and stuff by now, I have worked very hard to know all the stuff that I do about it. I am smart and mostly quick thinking, and I know how to explain things to people. In a working environment I am organised and tidy, at least at Safeway, and I know how to work as a team. Surely that is enough positives to outweigh the negatives. I will be fine once I have been there and started it.

A very sad thing happened the other day. The next door neightbours dog got into our yard and killed our bunny. The dogs had chased it out of the cage and around the yard until it died. We were too late to save it by the time that the neighbour had come next door and knocked to let us know. I don't know how things are going to go when we go over there and talk to them, but for the sake of my cat and our peace of mind they had better do something pretty damn good. Steph loved that bunny to bits. Its a shame that she has that stress on top of her exams.

Its the same thing as when Berlioz died, the feeling that something is missing, like when I put the cat out on its lead and it jumped up on the cage to watch the bunny like it always did, only there wasn't a bunny there.

Yes, I did say put the cat out on the lead. On a harness. We live inner city, and the cars got our last cat. Since I have done it, let the cat out only on the lead, it doesn't mind, putting the harness on means going outside. And the few times that it has gotten out, or Mark has let it out to run around without it, it doesn't go far at all, being used to a short distance it can go on the lead.

I love my Kitty.

I like my kitty

I am almost buff

Going to the gym has been going great! I have been going on average 3 days, and now I am up to 30 minutes workout. Ten minutes on the bike, and 20 mintues on the steppy thing. Its kind of an air walker thing, but better than those things on danos direct.

Anyway, on wednesday I get a fitness assessment, and a program for the cardio and weights. They'll show me how it all works and I can start using the weights. I have been a bit nervous about using it, I have just been sticking to the cardio section. The gym I am in is good, it is never busy whatever time I have been there, but I am starting to notice the regulars. I did the right thing getting this membership.

CURRENT WEIGHT IS: 86kg.

One more week of school and I am out of there! For a few weeks anyway.

Uni makes no sense sometimes

Things have been crazy crazy crazy here. I have been working lots, and I have been going to classes most of the time, and I am getting sick of the whole uni process. I have to find passion to keep going for another year and a half, another three semesters of the same old same old it feels like. There is too much talk and too much useless stuff in lecutres and workshops. There is this one guy on friday that is the worst offender. He waited until the last 10 minutes of class, a three hour class, to talk about our assignment coming up, and to give us an example of what the hell he wants us to write. Its all sooooooo vague and sooooooo stupid.

However the end result, teaching in a class successfully, is going to be worth going through all this dodginess. For want of a better word.

Life in my house goes well, we are settling in with eachother well, I really like having someone to study with, not that we studied much at the same time today.

Mark got a lot of gardening done yesterday, and I got all our washing done. I love clean sheets. We have been outside a bit enjoying a rare bit of sunshine.

21st galore

I had a great time on the weekend, two 21sts. THe first one was Katrina's and it was good because there was a lot of my family there. I spent most of the night with Jill, took her out to the pub and got her a few drinks, we talked and laughed for ages. I like being with her a lot.

The second 21st was Netty, the girl I live with. The party was o.k, it was fun to dress up and talk to a lot of people, but it all went tooooooo late and we didn't get out to dance until 3am. The speeches didn't get going until 11pm, and I didn't make much of a speech in the end because I was aware of everything dragging on. But I sang my 'Netty song' which everyone liked.

Felix my cat stayed at my parents place, and had fun playing with Miffy all weekend. I wish I could have two cats so that they could entertain eachother when everyone is out, but this house is too small and we couldn't fit another cat in here. Not that felix takes up much room really. I love my kitty.

Working Out

I got a gym membership yesterday, and today was the first time I went. I think that I have a long way to go, but I am happy to have started something. I was feeling like it was time to get moving, I am less and less happy looking at myself, and going into a clothes shop is impossible. Its already hard with my bust line, then add into that size 14/16, and there is nothing I feel like I can wear. I don't like the bulgy bits.

I'll put on here a weekly summary of how things are going, and a weekly photo, to see how I am changing. A few weeks of work should see some improvement. I have never been active, and only had a membership once, but it was hard to get to the gym cause I had to drive into town to get there, and then my car broke down and then the membership was over. This one goes for 36 months. Sounds like a long long long time to me.

Wish me luck with this.

I am finally better, the garlic remedy worked for a little while, and I think helped open the airways, but it took another two days to run its course.

I got my new placement, am going to be at a boys middle school. It should be an interesting experience, I don't remember much about what boys were like at this stage of school, I didn't start taking any notice of boys until at least year 10. At least this time I have plenty of notice this time, I can go to the school beforehand and meet the teacher and the classes so that I can get better organised, and know what kinds of things I'll be teaching for three weeks. This placement is 15 days.

Today is a lazy day, I'm still in my P.J's laying around. There is big contraversy on T.V over the end of the football, no-one can hear the siren, usually it's really loud, but someone must have turned it down, or something was wrong with the sound. The most contraversial thing is that it resulted in a draw. It will be interesting to see it discussed this week. Everyone is very confused.

Cures that taste bad

I had a remedy suggested to me by Steph, who lives with me. She said that I should eat a garlic clove, better than taking garlic tablets. So first she made roast chicken, and roasted heaps of garlic, and the next day I felt a lot better, my nose cleared up and then it was just a head ache and funny throat. But it came back yesterday, and my nose was all blocked and it was making it hard to sleep. Not to mention my nose is all sore from blowing my nose heaps. SO this morning I thought that I would try eating more garlic cloves to see what it would do. It was hard though, trying to swallow bit of garlic with my weetbix. Ugh. Yet, my nose is now clear, and my throat feels a lot better. Half an hour and I felt better. I can still taste the garlic in my mouth though... its not a remedy I would try convince many people of.

My cat loves me. My new haircut looks pretty good too.

Uni

Do you know that I only have five more weeks of uni before I am back on break again? I feel like I am always on holiday. Then after the five weeks, I have six weeks off, and then placement for three weeks.

I taught piano yesterday, and it went really well. The students made great progress during the week, and it was easy to teach them more about music. They remembered the facts that I taught them.

I have been really sick this week, I felt like I had a sandbag on my head when I laid down to go to sleep. Steph cooked chicken for dinner the other night, and roasted me heaps of garlic that I ate whole. I'm not sure if it made the difference, but the next day it was almost gone. I still have lingering effects, but should be gone by tomorrow.

SIck of being sick

Ohhhhh, I am sick sick sick. My head it all blocked up with stuff, and I can't get my nose to clear at all! I hope that it goes away soon. Sudafed isn't having much effect, neither is the panadol.

Never the less, it is Netty's 21st, and I am going to get out of my P.J's and go into town with her and steph and aaron. I think we are going bowling. That should be fun.

My kitty is sitting here with me watching me type. I love my kitty.

Living with Mark is so far pretty good, everyone is adjusting to having someone else in the house, it's easy cause mark doesn't take up that much room. I watched a movie today in my cinema room, its just fantastic. I watched the Notebook, it is sooooooo sad and romantic, I love it.

Home Theater

Oh Broadband is a wonderful thing, no more waiting around for five minutes hoping the page will load. Now, click and you're there!

You should see the set up in mine and mark's room now; stereo, 106cm plasma t.v, dvd recorder, surround sound. Its like having your own cinema. Everything is sooooo big now! Pity we couldn't get an advert editor, then we would be really cool. I think that we will be watching a lot more dvd's now.

Netty's birthday tomorrow! Yay, 21!

Ahhhhhhhhh!! I haven't been blogging for ages, I am back at home now and using a dial-up connection at the moment. I swear it took me 15 minutes to get the page to load just so I could sit here thinking about what I am going to write. Inspiration fails me some times, and I think that I don't have the energy to post something. There is always something to write about, its just it seems a lot of effort to then go and write it all down.

My kitty, Felix, is growing up beautifully. She really is a georgeous cat, its sitting on my lap at the moment, in a daze, looking up at me.

I am on holidays this week, still in P.J's and its after midday! I have done some washing and the dishes though... so not all bad!

Mark has moved in with me, and he is working very hard this week. He hated the store he was in, and is liking this manager a lot better. He has had a few weeks off work on sick leave with depression, living by himself in a strange little country town didn't suit him so well.

T.V is so horrible at the moment, I need more dvd's or more x-box games. Netty and Aaron are back from their little holiday in the country this week, and are bringing some cool games with them.

The kitchen is very full now that we have another person in the house. The old crappy fridge we have at the moment was often full to bursting with four of us in the house, so with an extra I got Mark to bring down his old fridge, and we decided to keep it as well as the old crappy one. As long as they still work they are good fridges. Until I have my own house somewhere then they will do nicely.

Co-incidently my room, with another person in it, seems less full. I have thrown out a LOT of stuff, or I just haven't gotten it all back yet from wherever I stored it. I'm washing the sheets today, but otherwise I've been able to make the bed when I get out of it. (well, eventually).

Promise not to let it go so long before the next post. XO.

If you haven't seen this show, you are missing out. I have only managed to see it on T.V a few times, but it really appeals to me.

This is the best site I have managed to find yet.

http://simplebliss.net/dontpanic

Placement

I have been staying in the country for a few weeks, I am out on my first placement at a highschool, seeing how the other half works. I like the role of the teacher, and the few classes I have taught so far have worked relatively well. There have been some things that I can improve, but the teachers I am working with have given me so much help and information. I don't know how they can give up their classes and let me teach them, and make a mess of it. But I guess that they are all not far out of school themselves, and they are giving back what they had when they were student teachers themselves.

Today I am teaching kids to play chords on guitar. Not to mention that I can't really play guitar myself besides the 4 chords I am teaching them today, but by the next class I will have to have learnt something else. I taught a theory class yesterday, and I felt really good about it, the class didn't go wild, and I think that they learnt something. The other class, the discussion, didn't go so well, I rushed through the discussion because I was so nervous. I still feel a bit funny about it, because I stopped talking when I got to the end of the notes, and realised that I should have taken more time. I have to get rid of this feeling that I failed a little. Because the discussion went well, I got answers to my questions and they didn't talk too much.

Its Marks birthday on saturday. Yay! he'll be 24. oooooh, old.