Week Eight, Term Two

An attractive apartment that I go by everyday, basked with the sunrise.

Parent/teacher breakfast.

A possum in the local park.

Paul, Barry, Carol, Bev, Alan and Jim.

Monday, May 30-June 3^rd.

This week was report crunch time, they are due on Thursday. I stayed after school Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday until 7 or 8 and got them all done. On Monday we learned that we had to give a progression point (grade level mark) for ICT. This was news to Carol and I and any other teacher that was new to the school and then on Thursday we learned that we had five other things we had to assign points for as well. Things like Civics and Citizenship, Science, Communication. None of which we had been told about before. As Ian used to say: "Live and Learn and Die and Forget It All." So a few more little things to do and then we have the parent interviews.

On Thursday night I went for dinner at Graham and Tess's again. I arrived as Tess was feeding Edward and Finlay. We talked for a bit before Graham got home. The boys went to bed shortly after that and we had a great coconut curry stir fry. We sat around until ten talking. We are planning a weekend away in July to Mount Beauty and Tess and I are talking about doing a 10k run in Melbourne. Then I drove home.

I got to school a bit early on Friday, as the parents of my class and Claire's were putting on a breakfast for us and the kids. Lots of parents showed up with their kids and food. It was packed. Our supply principal came too. It was nice to see the community spirit of the French parents. Nice time and then the bell rang and school started for the day.

Sport was good today too. After a very cool morning, it became sunny and warmed up nicely to about 14. Gilles and I run the soccer event, he takes the boys and I take the girls. I like working with them because most of them don't really know how to play, because boys hog the ball and the field and the girls don't get a chance. When it is just girls they are eager to learn.

I went to the art room to see what my class was doing. We have a very talented art teacher, named Melissa, with her own room, with lots of space and supplies. She has the children producing heaps of beautiful art. Then Claire and I sat and talked about reports and the kids.

At lunch I went for a walk to a nearby park and watched some water birds in the pond and then found a possum in a tree. I got some great shots of him.

 

After school Carol and I walked to the local bottle shop where she bought wine and beer for the evening. Then I drove her from school to her condo on Little Collins Street in the CBD. We joined Bev in the 15^th floor condo and had a cup of tea with some wine and crackers and had a good catch up before Barry and Jim showed up. Shortly after that Alan and Paul arrived. The four men are all good guys, Barry and Jim have been together for 30 years and Alan and Paul for 16. Barry and Alan are retired teachers and Jim is still working as a principal. We all had a drink in the small condo before walking down the laneway to Waiters restaurant. Apparently it started as a place where waiters from other restaurants went for good food after their shifts. Now it is a trendy Italian place. I was accosted by the head waiter (owner?) because I was wearing the AFL Collingwood hat that Cassie had given me. He asked me if I 'barracked' (rooted for; root has a very different meaning here!) for Collingwood. When I said no I was Canadian and the hat was given to me, he told me to give it back and told me I couldn't wear it there (I think he was only half joking). I took it off. We had a great meal and lots of laughs. Later I asked a young waiter if he would wear the hat and walk up to the other guy, and he said he would never wear it. When I explained that to the owner guy, he told me it was his son. Oh well, I thought it would be funny. The owner gave me the whole bill - $149 for seven people, very reasonable (I didn't pay the bill, we split it). After dinner we all divided up and I drove back home for a good sleep.