Rugby, Rebels vs Force

 Male and female Chestnut Teal

 A male black duck.

 The AAMI soccer and rugby stadium. It has the conventional rectangular field, all other fields here are oval to accommodate Aussie Rules Football, or Footie.

 Edward and Graham, at Edward's first match.

Saturday, May 28^th.

I had planned to go to a farm stay out in the country. I found out about it from a supply teacher here whose sister owns it. I phoned on Thursday night ask about it and said I would phone to confirm on Friday, but by the time I phoned her back someone else had booked it. I'll go there another time. I thought I'd go somewhere else but when I woke up this morning it was raining. So I stayed home and did some school work, groceries, and relaxing. In the afternoon I went for a short bike ride along a city trail where I watched these ducks in the water. In the evening it rained some more and I just watched some TV and headed to bed. It was the first washout Saturday, I have been very lucky. But the weather has definitely gone south, with a high in single digits today.

Sunday, May 29^th.

When I got up I phoned Graham told him I had not gone out of town after all and he said that was great news because he was going to a rugby game this afternoon with his son Edward. We had talked about us going sometime, so he invited me. I drove to Heidelberg and met Graham, Tess and their boys at a local restaurant. We had brunch, before Graham, Edward and I took the train to the CBD. The match was between Melbourne Rebels and the Western Australia Force and was pretty even. The sport is very physical and interesting to watch. Graham helped me understand some of the rules. We sat in cheap seats in the end zone which is always a weird perspective as the game is either coming at you or going away. We had a good time and Edward behaved himself very well for a three year old. He seemed to really enjoy the game. We took the train back to my car and then I drove home for the evening.

Week Seven Term Two

Week Seven May 23-27^th.

This week was quieter. Not much happening at school or in the evenings. I was doing some marking and some work on the reports which are due in two weeks.

In class we were working earnestly on the 'Where do we come from?' social studies theme (not puberty). This unit is the history of Australia and is interesting and something new for me to teach as it covers the sad history of the aborigines, which is not dissimilar to the way the North American natives were treated. It also teaches the students about life in 1700 England, the poverty, the over crowded jails and the solution that created Australia. Britain decided to transport their criminals to the newly discovered continent. This solved two problems, the over crowded jails and how to protect British claims to the island and stop other colonial powers from trying to take it from them.

The First Fleet as it became known was commanded by Captain Phillip sailed from Portsmouth May 13, 1787, to Tenerife in the Canary Islands, to Rio De Janairo, then to Cape Town and finally arrived nine months later on January 20, 1788, at Botany Bay in New South Wales. There were eleven ships carrying more than 1480 men, women and children onboard. Although most were British, there were also African, American and French convicts. There were eleven births on board and numerous deaths as well. This was the start of the first of many penal colonies. As a class we have been talking about, reading about and watching videos of life in the colony and the hardships they faced in a new country so far from home.

Between 1788 and 1850 the English sent over 162,000 convicts to Australia in 806 ships. Also found out that the British dumped convicts in the American Colonies too, until the American Revolution whereupon they refused to accept them and Australia become the next logical place. Live and learn....

Dandenong Ranges National Park

Driving around trying to find Jim's. This wasn't much help.

Some of the 1000 steps.

 The forest at the top of the mountain.

 The path and other views on the nature trail.

Saturday, May 21^st.

I woke up late and took my time getting organized. I was invited to a brunch at Barry and Jim's place. They are the two principals from the International Teacher's Association I met when I first arrived. Bev and Carol were going too. Carol had sent me the e-mail with their address. So when I got up I decided to go and programmed my GPS. They had not told me what suburb so I assumed Melbourne, and you guessed it, after a long drive I wound up at the wrong house. I don't think that I wrote before that I had broken my phone a couple of weeks ago and as a result I had lost my contacts, including Jim, Barry, Carol and Bev's mobile numbers! Melbourne is different from Toronto in that there are lots of suburbs and they have many streets with the same name, so without the suburb you might find a number of Bellevue Streets and they are all over the city. So I had no way to finding out where their house was. I texted them by difficulty and then gave up and drove home again. I would have liked to see them, but it will have to wait for another time. I went for a bicycle ride around the neighbourhood checking out a few of the trails in the area before going back home to a quiet evening of domestic stuff, like laundry, tidying, grocery shopping while watching a bit of TV.

Sunday, May 22^nd.

Another really nice day today. It is still pretty warm and mostly sunny, but windy. I decided to go for a hike at Dandenong National Park. This is a popular park where a lot of people go for the 1000 step climb up Mt. Dandenong. This is a commemorative climb to remember a battle in Papua (now Papua New Guinea) the Second World War, when the Australians were given the job of stopping the advance of the Japanese on the island, and to honour the Australian soldiers who died there. The trail on the island was called the Kokoda Trail. The hike consisted of about a kilometre walk up hill to get to the steps. Some hike it, others jog it. Then a fairly steep and constant climb up the steps. I thought there might be a view at the top, but there was not, but there were a couple more trails to follow. I took one trail around the summit through the gum tree forest which was blowing in the wind. Then I went back down the alternate route which has no steps just a paved path. At the bottom I did another 3 kilometre hike on a trail that went up for another good climb into a 'living forest' as it was billed, and then down again back to the parking lot.

From there I drove home where I bought my groceries for the week. A bit of a quieter weekend, but I needed rest after last week and to get ready for the upcoming week of reports.

Week Six Term Two

 There are always at least five games of soccer and footie on this field. I have no idea how the kids keep it straight. Surprisingly there are few injuries or fights.

 Steve and Jill Schneider, our Australian hosts and Jean and John from Ottawa.

 Kids art done by my class with the art teacher.

 Underwater hockey.

May 16-20^th.

I had a good week at school over all. Claire and I had a couple of parent interviews of kids whose behaviour we want to see improve. We handed in three reports so that they could be approved before we undertake all 44. (We were told they were excellent and to proceed.)

On Wednesday, I went to the Palais Theatre to see Eric Burdon and the Animals. The theatre was built in 1927 and the outside has fallen into disrepair. There was talk of tearing it down, but I heard on the news the other day that they have decided to refurbish it. Inside there is a large balcony with a great incline for viewing, large leather seats and lots of leg room. The accoustics were great. Eric Burdon came on with his team of young hired gun Animals and proceeded to play a number of Animal hits and some new Burdon material. He played Spill the Wine, Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood, See See Rider, Monteray, Anything, and a tribute to David Bowie that mashed Space Oddity with Sky Pilot. One of his new songs was Forever 27, a tribute to all the young rock stars who died at 27, Morrison, Jones, Joplin, Hendrix, Cobain, etc. It was great to see him, but sad too. His voice was still strong and distinctive, but he looked old. He was stooped and shuffled around the stage. You could see he wanted to dance but couldn't. I looked him up on Wikepedia and found he was born in 1941, so he is 75! Kodos to him for traveling and performing at that age.

On Thursday, I was invited to dinner at Steve Shdfdf's house. He is a member of the ITA who invited all the Canadian teachers from the southern suburbs to dinner in February but had to cancel it. This time only me and John and Jill could make it. Steve's wife Jill made a great meal of pork, with vegetables and a apple/banana crumble for dessert. Steve and Jill had done an exchange to Canada in 2010 in Bellville and loved it. They had returned to Canada last year to visit their friends. SO we spent a great evening talking about Canada, Australia, teaching and travel. I hope to see them again.

On Friday night I was invited to come and watch an underwater hockey match at a pool in Monash University. I had to bring my bathers again and get in the pool to watch. One of the players had an underwater camera and asked me to video the action. There were a number of players who had played in the world championships in South Africa a couple of months ago. The teams start at opposite ends of the pool and the forwards swim hard to the middle and then dive to where the puck is. They have short sticks and wear a protective glove on their shooting hand. They seem to keep the other hand at their side and out of the action. Again they wear masks, snorkels and flippers. It is a fast paced game with lots of scoring. The 'net' is a long, short piece of metal laid along the end of the pool. There is no goalie and therefore there is lots of goals. The puck which is heavy makes a loud clunking sound when it hits the metal. The players play positionally but obviously have to surface to get air and then return to the action. Sometimes they stay at the surface and follow the action before returning. The pool is shallower than the rugby pool, but is still too deep to stand. Interesting note: after the game the pool employee raised the floor of the pool to make it shallower. He couldn't explain to me how that works. I enjoyed the match and being in the pool.

Anyone looking for more info about underwater hockey, check here:

http://underwaterhockeyaustralia.org.au/

Mansfield and Mount Buller

Small tumbleweeds caught on a fence. I saw a news report of houses being overwhelmed by them somewhere in Australia.

A couple of old farmsteads.

A woman hunting carp in a shrinking lake with a crossbow.

The summit of Mount Buller, a ski resort here in Victoria.

The beautiful shades of late afternoon sunshine on the drive home.

Sunday, May 15^th.

I lounged around this morning enjoying my comfortable digs before deciding to drive southeast to the town of Mansfield. Just before my destination I came across a road bridge and a rail bridge that were built to cross a good sized lake, but the water is seasonal and now the lake has shrunk to a very small area. I watched a woman in camouflage hunting carp with a crossbow. This area is the end of the largest rail trail in Australia, the Great Victorian Rail Trail that travels east from Tallarook to Manfield, a distance of 134 kilometres. A few weeks ago I rode 40kms from Tallarook to Yea. I decided today to drive to the eastern end, Mansfield, and see what it was like before bringing my bike up on another weekend. The town was another nice small Australian town, but the first thing I noticed were ski rental shops and there were lots of places to stay. I discovered that was because one of the biggest ski regions in Victoria is 50 kms out of town on the top of Mount Buller. So I decided to drive up there. Who could resist seeing a ski resort in Australia?

The road up the mountain was very scenic, narrow, steep and winding. I wouldn't want to drive up it in snow, as there are very few guardrails. Up at the summit, there is a good sized ski resort, with multiple chair lifts, runs, condos, restaurants, rental places and even a small university campus. It felt like a ghost town as, although it was cold, there was no snow yet. I walked around and explored before driving back down and heading back to Chelsea via the secondary roads. Got home in time to grocery shop and get ready for the next day.

Nagambie

The main drag of Nagambie.

Skul races.

A monkey puzzle tree. They have very sharp and hard needles that supposedly bother monkeys, hence the name. They are not a natural Australian species.

Saturday, May 14^th.

At school on Friday I was talking to Joel and he told me he was going to his family cottage for the weekend. He talked about the area and how much he loved it up there. They waterski and kneeboard and we had talked about me coming up to have a go when it gets warmer again. I asked if it would be okay for me to drive up there and have a short visit this weekend just to have a look and said I wasn't sure if I would actually come up or not. He said okay and he gave me his mobile number.

When I got up on Saturday and the weather was warm, I decided to go. I called him and left a message saying I would be there is a couple of hours. When I got to the town of Nagambie on the Nagambie Lakes (which are really reservoirs and not natural lakes) I checked phones messages and found this weekend wasn't good for a visit as his fiancee was sick. Since I was there already I went for a walk around the town. I noticed an ad taped to a store window offering a 'luxury condo' for a hundred dollars a night. I phoned the guy and had a look at it. It was in an complex right on the lake with a great view. It had an infinity pool on the grounds. The condo was really nice so I decided to stay here for the night. I spent the day wandering around town and along the lakeshore. I watched a lot of skuls rowing in races. There were one, two, four and eight rower boats. I think they were all from schools in Victoria. I saw an area where they are putting in a large subdivision that will change the area in lots of ways, both positively and negatively.

Later I lounged in the sun by the pool reading Bill Bryson's One Summer (fabulous read) before going to the grocery stuff for some breakfast stuff and fruit. It was a great day to enjoy the weather and just relax. The sunset was spectacular and looked like the lake was on fire. I had dinner in a local dinner and went to bed early.

Week Five Term Two

 After two weeks writing narrative stories the students are typing up their good copy.

This is the tram stop where I get off to catch the train back home. That is exactly where it stops, on a corner and the pedestrians cross to the train.

 Instead of monster homes they build a row of houses on one building lot.

 Houses here do not have ashpalt singles, they have ceramic or metal tiles (and no basements).

A week's worth of Woolworths soups eaten with a small can of flavoured tuna on top of a kale salad. Easy peasy.

May 9 to 13^th.

Another week of school goes by in a blur. The weather was cool, windy and wet. This week I got my first cold and although it felt like it might become quite bad I managed to nip it in the bud with sleep and taking it easy at night. Don was away the whole week recovering from his plague. I didn't ride the bike at all this week because of the weather and my energy level because of my cold.

The report card system is finally up and running and we have started talking about them. We have been asked to write one high, one medium and one low student report so that admin can see if they like what we have written and if it makes the curriculum.

I spent the evenings at home relaxing, typing and watching some television. I can't believe the crap that passes for prime time entertainment. I think it is even worse than back home, with endless 'reality' shows, ridiculous cooking shows and their version of that long time ludicrous game show 'Family Feud'. They are advertising a new reality show where contestants are blindfolded to see if there can be 'Love at First Kiss'. And there is another dating show where the participants parade around naked with all their naughty (or interesting) bits digitized out, as they talk and flirt with each other. Makes you wonder who is watching this crap (other than me that is).

A large number of suburbs in Melbourne have been designated as high density areas because they know that Melbourne is expected to grow by leaps and bounds in the next decade and they need space to put people without eating up their farmland. They seem to have an aversion to condos in the suburbs, so when a lot gets sold they either build new houses in the backyard or knock down the original house and build a row of four or five from the sidewalk to the end of the lot. I live in one such development. I wouldn't mind finding something like it at home, a small row house.

The only social event this week was a staff party at Libby's house in Parkdale. Unfortunately, only Carol, Bev, Shawna, Ann (the French teacher who picked me up at the airport) and I showed up. Libby's partner Margie was there of course. Another couple attended as well, a teacher (and her husband) who worked previously with Libby. The rest of the staff either thought it was an inconvenient location, or had family duties at home or were starting to write their reports. I felt bad for Libby. We had a good time regardless.

Meaningful Plates

Friday, May 13th. 
I should be cruising off to Port Dover today!

Most countries, provinces or states have phrases on their car license plates, but here in Victoria they have four different ones. I took these photos because I think all four speak to me. The last one, on my CRV definitely represents me.