Adventures down under

Apart from both working loads to save lots of money for our adventures we have also been enjoying life in Melbourne.

We have been taking full advantage of the bar in our complex that has a happy hour. The other Friday they were offering a free glass of Champagne to all ladies. Chris contemplated dressing in drag (he could have got advice from our drag queen neighbour!!) but he thought better of it!!

A couple of weeks back we went on a wine tasting tour in the Yarra Valley. They taught us how to swirl, sip, slurp and spit (we didn’t bother with the latter). We made friends with a couple of Aussie girls from Melly who were a good laugh. We exchanged numbers and have arranged to meet again this week. They will be able to show us some of the best bars around Melbourne!

I have to admit that the weather has definitely changed and become more autumnal. We still get sunny days but it is also chilly (oh well we will have good weather when we go to Queensland). The Easter bank holiday weather was very typical i.e. lots of rain. On Good Friday we were forced against our will to spend the afternoon in the pub (It just didn’t stop raining!)

We have visited a few tourist places namely the National Gallery of Victoria and The Australian Museum of the Moving Image (the sort of places we all seem to visit when the weather is not good enough to go to the beach!). We also watched an act from the comedy festival called Hip Hop for Dummies which was quite good (taking the mickey out of white kids that want to be black!). We are hoping to catch some more comedy before the festival ends.

On Saturday we went to the Crown Entertainment complex to go ten pin bowling for a laugh. To get there we had to walk through the casino. The bouncer stopped us and asked for I.D (I think you have to be 21 to get in). Chris showed his driving licence but I didn’t have anything. “How old are you lady?” the guy asked. “31” I replied. He then asked for my date of birth. “Man you look young!” he said. He had made my day right there at that moment. He didn’t think I looked 21 (must be because I am still carrying my puppy fat around!!)

We have also made plans to visit other places in Victoria. We are hoping to visit the Great Ocean Road, the Grampians, Bendigo, Echuca and Ballarat.

We have now started to plan our adventures after leaving Melbourne. Firstly we are visiting Adelaide in June (whilst still living in Mel). At the end of July we are leaving Mel and flying to Tasmania to spend 5 days exploring Hobart. Then we are going to fly to Sydney and spend 4 days there. Then we are going to put our large luggage into storage so that we can do the backpacking thing around Queensland without lugging suitcases around.

We are going to leave Sydney and fly to Cairns on the 6th August. We are then going to buy greyhound bus tickets so we can travel and explore all the way down the East coast. You can get on and off the bus whenever and wherever you like. We are hoping to visit Hervey Bay, Magnetic Island, Whitsundays, Frazer Island, Rockhampton, Surfers Paradise, Noosa, Coffs Harbour, Byron Bay etc. We are planning to arrive back in Sydney around the 30th of August! After that we will settle in Sydney and find somewhere to live for three months. We are also hoping to visit Alice Springs, Uluru (Ayres Rock) and travel on the Ghan Train up to Darwin.

Then of course we will be looking forward to the arrival of the Baileys down under that’s when the party will really get started!!!!

That’s the plan, we can’t wait to put it into action. Meanwhile we need to work, work, work to save as much dosh as possible!!

Bye for now

Donnie

G'day Mates!!!!!!!!!

Again I have been rubbish at keeping my blog up to date but I have been working so so hard lately. The days of Donnie the waster have well and truly gone (well until we leave Melbourne and head off on our adventures!!) The work itself is enjoyable- I get to do the nice part of teaching with no paperwork! The down side is getting up at 5.45 in the morning!!!!! Yes Dad in the morning!!!!

I have continued to work at the same school in Berwick doing CRT work (supply teaching to us poms). So far I have taught prep (rec), Year One, Year 3 and Year 6 (11 year olds) .The older year 3 kids (8-9 year olds) were not as bad as I thought they would be- I just had to be a bit meaner to them- I soon won them round. The other day I also had Year 6 (can you believe it Jules!). Admittedly I only had them for one hour in the computer suite (basically they knew more about the computer program than me so they got on and basically ignored the pommy teacher in the corner!!)

The other day I also had to be the music specialist (how funny is that Jules! - you know me and music). I had to teach all the prep kids a very patriotic song called ‘The Green and the Gold’. It tickled me to think that maybe the preps will be singing it in assembly with a slight brummie accent! Indeed one of the mothers of a kid in prep said that when her child read to her, she pronounced a couple of words with an English accent! The mother thought it was “so cute”. Think of what I could do if I was here long term!!! They would forget G’day and “no worries mate”. Instead they would say “Alright bab” “Ta ra a bit!”

In the last seven weeks I have worked with kids from 6 months old to 11 year olds- I am definitely gaining good experience down under! I still like the preppies (rec) and Grade 1s the best! They are cute and say funny things! The other day I greeted a Grade 1 class and explained that I was not an Australian so probably sounded different to them. “Nah” one aussie kid replied “you’re just English”. It was the way that he said it that made me laugh! It’s actually surprising how many ex British kids there are at the school. In every class there’s a couple of kids who used to live in Britain (lots of Scots- they will do anything to escape the crap Scottish weather!!).

It’s a sad fact that none of the kids have heard of Birmingham- they only know London and Edinburgh! They always ask if Birmingham is part of London?! The younger kids have asked me if I know the Queen!! Yes I have tea at her house every Sunday I told them!!! I am going to make it my mission to tell them all about Brum (excluding the dodgy bits)

Anyway I will sign off for now

Donnie the Worker!

Teaching down under

Hello there! I have just completed my first week of teaching at a school in a South- East suburb of Melbourne called Berwick.

The bad news is that Berwick is a one hour train journey away. So I have to get up at 5.45am in the morning!! I catch the 6.45am train from Southern Cross station (only five mins from our apartment).

The good news is that there are only 17 kids in the class (one child has left) so the teaching day is easy! Also in Australia the children are taught by specialist teachers for Music, Art, Library, R.E and Sport. This means that the children are collected from the classroom by a specialist teacher giving the class teacher (namely me!) lots of free time to do very little! During a week each class teacher must get about five hours of non-contact time. It makes good sense for certain subjects to be taught by specialist staff. I will be writing to Tony Blair on my return to suggest that we adopt the same system in our schools (all for the good of the children of course!)

Anyway, the staff at the school are great- very friendly and helpful to me. The kids like our kids are lovely and a joy to teach. They still think that I travelled all the way from England just to teach them! The strange thing is that they call me Donna (all the teachers are addressed by their first names here).

I am really enjoying teaching again. I am doing all the nice parts of the job without the stress of planning at the weekend and completing mounds of paperwork!! (The planning and resources were all left ready for me)

Chris and I treated ourselves to a yummy meal last night. Although it is supposedly Autumn we were able to sit outside to eat. They had a Jazz band playing; I’m sure you would have liked it Dad and Mom I’m sure you could have slept through it! (only joking). Chrissy boy enjoyed oysters, duck risotto and Tiramisu, whilst I tucked into Caesar salad, seafood linguini and Dutch pudding. All washed down with ……………a nice bottle of red of course!!

Next weekend we are going wine tasting in the Yarra Valley. (Mom, Dad and Deb we can do this in Sydney visiting the Hunter wine region).

Love to all

Don