scary chook

large impulse buys

i was standing in line at the supermarket today looking at the chocolate bars in the impulse buy section when i noticed something weird. next to the chocolate bar rack was a display of kodak easyshare cameras for $169. does anyone actually see that while they're waiting in line at the supermarket and think "ooh, thats what i need. let me just grab one of these $170 cameras."?!?!

big storm

so last nite was really hot, this morning was really warm and humid, this afternoon the lightning storms came. the rain was coming down pretty hard so i thought i'd take a few photos.

after spending several minutes playing with the camera i went in and sat down to listen to the thunder and rain (we have a metal roof so the rain makes a really loud sound, especially during heavy rain)
20-30 min later i decided to take a look out the front door and discovered the footpath (sidewalk) was under water and i couldn't see the 6-7cm kerb at the bottom of our driveway to the road. so i got some more shots (note the wheels of the parked cars in the first photo and the second photo).

our entire road became a river (which make good fun for some cyclists and pedestrians)




by the time i managed to load the photos onto the computer i looked outside again to discover the street is almost back to normal (just a muddy strip down the bike lane is the only sign of high water). the thunder is STILL going (its been booming for over 2hrs now) but the rain is back to a normal shower level and all the disgusting, polluted water that was flooding the streets has passed on to the merri creek down the road along with all the rubbish it picked up along the way (the ducks, platypuses--is that the plural--and whatever other animals live down there aren't gonna be that happy). maybe me and zac can go down to the creek area and get photos when he gets home from work (if the lighning stops-- i LOVE lightning but i'm not stupid enough to go walking in it if i don't have to). i'm sure the water is level is way above the paths and there's gonna be rubbish stuck up in all the trees.

the best way to spend a hot evening

it was still in the 30s at 11pm last nite but next to being at the beach we had a great way of spending the evening. one of our favourite local country bands (wagons) was playing at c.e.r.e.s. last nite so we decided to walk up there and see them. i think c.e.r.e.s. is one of my absolute favourite places in melbourne so it was great sitting outside at the cafe drinking wine and listening to a good band in the hot weather. a lot of people brought picnic baskets and blankets but we didn't really think that far ahead (zac did buy a bottle of wine but i didn't feel much like drinking it when we left so we didn't take it and ended up buying a couple glasses there-- litrally, we had to pay for the plastic cups as well as the wine. but they were biodegradable, compostable plastic and the wine was good too). we did get there early enough to get some chairs up near the front (before people started pulling all the chairs away to add them to tables at the back) and we even managed to save a 3rd chair for 90 min while we waited for a friend to come after she finished work.
it still hasn't got below 21C overnite and already its getting warmer for today (but it did rain overnite and i think its gonna do that a few times today).

today i learned...

...that in 1hr it is possible to:
ride home from work SLOWLY with a flat tire (and not wreck the rim),
take apart the back wheel of my bike and put a new tube in,
put the wheel back on my bike,
ajust the brakes and inflate the new tube,
shower,
scrub hands more with degreaser (the soap in the shower didn't work much),
make and eat lunch,
ride back to work (quickly).

very small kid with very big brains

the kids were driving me crazy this morning. actually it was only about 5 or 6 of them out of 22 but they kept me running. one kid was CONSTANTLY coming up to me (usually while i was trying to talk with another kid) and going "excuse me, excuse me, excuse me...." until i finally talked to him. i told him that people like it better if you use their names instead of "excuse me" when you want to tell them something. the problem was he could never remember my name. i told him about a dozen times this morning and he still couldn't remember it-- but i'd rather have him come up to me and say "what's your name again" than "excuse me". it would be better if he actually had a good question to ask when he came up to me instead of one he hadn't even thought about before he asked it. he was pushing a cart on the tan bark (wood chips in north america) and he came up to me saying "excuse me..." and then asked "why is it bumpy here?" almost ALL of his questions were like that. i started asking him what he thought the answers were to his questions and he could usually give a decent reason for why things were the way they were. between him and a couple boys who kept hurting eachother just by playing to rough and another 2 kids who would throw tantrums everytime they didn't get things exactly their way i was ready to call in sick when i came home for lunch. the afternoon we have less kids and most of the stress-causing ones were gone so i actually got to sit with some of the kids and talk to them while they worked on stuff. one little tiny boy was playing with the big dinosaur figures and he started telling me which ones were which and then he was telling me how the bracheosaurus weighed more than 15 elephants and all this other stuff about it and which ones were carnivores and herbivores... it was amazing (the one he kept calling bracheosaurus, i've always thought was a brontosaurus but i looked at the name marked on the bottom and he's right). it was a good end to horrible start to the day.
also-- the kid that was driving me nuts with his questions did something really sweet for the other teacher. some kids broke a small tree we have growing out of a stump. she asked the kids at morning tea if they could come talk to her in secret if they know anything about it or if they did it and she told them she was very disappointed. while i was at lunch the kid who was driving me nuts apparently rolled a tire that we have in the yard over to the tree and propped it up on the tree so the tree would stand up again. then he carried over 2 large logs and put them at the base of the tyre to hold the tire up. he called sarah over (he never talks to her-- which i find surprising considering he doesn't shut up around me) and said "look, now you don't have to be disappointed anymore. i fixed the tree". he proabably didn't even have anything to do with the tree getting broken, unless he did it by accident cuz he's not a destructive kid.

r.i.p. 1992-2006

zac's ugly, run down, anceint bike finally died 8) he bought the bike for the HUGE expense of $300 in '92 and he's done 2 or 3 great vic bike rides on it and used it for travelling to and from work and to everywhere else. i kept telling him for the past year or so just to get a new one but he was very attached to its weird looking handlebars and the stickers he put on the frame. he replaced a lot of parts on it in the last year (seat, cogs, pedals, about 100 tubes, tires.....) he just replaced the tire 2 days ago after the old one wore right through to the tube and caused a hole in the tube. now its something to do with the chain and all the gears and it was gonna cost more to replace than it was really worth so its dead 8) zac isn't as happy as i am about that thing being put to rest (when i got the sms from him telling me it died, he said it was like losing a pet). we went bike shopping later in the afternoon and he picked out a nice new shiny bike that i really like (i had to take it for a test run too). he said its just not his bike though.

funny words

our entertainment at work today was all the wrong words the kids were using (like the country of "chicken" last week). this moring as some of the boys were putting on a show of some kind my boss overheard the announcer boy say "i'm going to induce dante" (meaning introduce). i was sitting with some boys this afternoon while they were building gigantic block houses and they kept talking about winning the "concert". after a couple of times i figured out they ment "contest" (the "chicken" boy started that one but all the boys were calling it that after he did). they're at a good age for entertaining us with their mispronounced words-- even though they don't usually appreciate us laughing at the humorous side of it.

chicken

we had some belly dancers come this morning and do a bit of a performance for us and teach the kids some dances from greece, turkey, egypt and saudi arabia. later that afternoon while one of the boys was getting his things together for his mum another little boy was talking to the mum about the dances they did and he stated "we did a dance from chicken today!" the mum just got a puzzled look on her face but i knew exactly what he was thinking and i just said "the country was called turkey, linus." it was a great statement though. you could just see the line of thought he went through to get the answer (and he did get the country right when he told his own dad 5 minutes later).

the sound of a rabbit eating grass

we've got some funny kids this year at the kinder. i've had them ask me a lot of weird things and they've had strange reactions to situations. i guess the whole thing is pretty new to some of them though. yesterday 2 boys were playing near each other in the sand. one of them turned to me and said in his high pitched little boy voice "excuse me but luka sounds like a girl." my first thought was "have you heard your own voice? you guys all sound like girls. you're 4." of course i couldn't say that to him and i had to come up with stuff about how everyone has different voices and just cuz luka's voice was different from his, didn't mean he sounds like a girl (and luka didn't sound like a girl any more than any other boy there did so i have no idea what that boy was really talking about anyway). the kids are entertaining for the most part. except this morning when an hour into the session i was thinking of changing my name to the sound of a rabbit eating grass or something. over and over and over again kids were calling me to ask me a question, tell me i had to watch them go across the obstical course (for the 50th time), tell me someone wasn't being their friend, ask me for help or to make something for them at the pasting area..... fortunately the really needy ones (especially one kid who has absolutely NO problem solving skills/creativity-- he just wanted me or other kids to make pasting projects for him) went home at 2 so it made the afternoon nice and quiet. our wed/thurs group is definately gonna be the harder group this year.

kermy

i'm killing time until zac gets home from work with food 8) and i came across this test. here's my results

You Are Kermit

Hi, ho! Lovable and friendly, you get along well with everyone you know. You're a big thinker, and sometimes you over think life's problems. Don't worry - everyone know's it's not easy being green. Just remember, time's fun when you're having flies!

The Muppet Personality Test

1 down, 5 to go

i survived my first week back at work (barely). we only had 1 day (thursday) where the kids were actually there all day (well until 2pm, we didn't do extended hours until 4:45). the other days were small groups for orientations. we've got a few kids that are definately gonna be a bit of a challange this year but for the most part it should be good. thursday we had a couple kids throw tantrums when they didn't get their way, one boy fell asleep at a table (and then cried and screamed at everyone when he woke up until his came mum dragged him out the door 20 minutes later) and when parents started to show up just before 2pm the room looked like a bomb hit it (one dad actually started cleaning up while he was waiting for his son to finish group time). once the kids get a bit more settled and we work out the gaps in the program it should run pretty smoothly i think. fortunately this term is really short cuz of the commonwealth games next month (they coinsided end of term with the games instead of over easter) but it means term 2 is gonna be really long.