The Police of Penrith Australia

On the December 2nd weekend I flew solo to Sydney to visit Darren, Kelly, Aussie Dave, and Angela and left Nicole to her marking. They live in Penrith, close to Sydney.

The second day involved numerous beverages that the Aussies call 'beeh'. I didnt want to be rude by rejecting their hospitality, so I imbibed every one offered. Before I knew it, the world was swimming and normally silly ideas like riding a shopping cart home became strokes of genius

I don't remember much of what happened afterwards but Darren and Dave were nice enough to give me these photos of the events later that day to jog my memory.

From what I remember, the police were quite nice and helpful and sent me on my way once I had sufficiently recovered my cognitive and walking skills.

Victoria is Burning

We live at the red dot (Geelong, Victoria.) That cloud is not a cloud, but a veil of smoke.

There are fires burning to the north east of us. They are worried that all the isolated fires will link up and create a massive "SUPER FIRE" the likes of which have never been seen.

New Zealander firefighters have been called in and John Howard will deploy defense forces.

Scary! More on this in the near future...we actually drove about 20 kms away from some of the larger fires today - two towns we visisted were so drenched in smoke we couldnt see beyond 100 meters (Glenrowan & Beechworth - both are near Benalla on the map below.)

Take a look at this map from the Statewide Fire Situation Map to get a better idea of how pervasive these fires are!




Then go visit this link to see which fires in Victoria are 'contained' and which are 'going' (in other words still out of control.)

Before and After

BEFORE

AFTER


In other news, Darren now has a blog!

70 Meter High Fire Lookouts in Giant Tingle Tree Forrests

I have the weirdest phobia, a fear of heights. Whenever I get on an open cliff face, a high balcony with only a rail to separate me from a fall, or similar heights where there is a risk that I could jump off, I get a giddy feeling in the pit of my stomach and have to grip onto the railing for dear life. It's odd, too, because it's also almost a pleasing feeling, kind of like being 'high', if that makes any sense.

In any photo of me in such places, you will always see me gripping onto something (usually with both hands) with either a giddy look or a look of concentration. It's a fact.

Yet, despite this phobia, I've managed to abseil and sky dive. I get the wickedest high when I do things like this and usually laugh like a maniac all the way down. It's a wonderful feeling.

Unfortunately, it's also stopped from doing things I would have liked to have done. Namely, in the south part of Western Australia, there are still giant Tingle Trees left that reach heights of almost 100 meters. They're the second or third largest trees in the world - simply enormous. Until just recently these giants were used as fire lookouts. These are now open to the public - anyone can climb up to the fire lookout on the bicentennial tree (the highest fire lookout of them all) at a whopping 70 meters up. Nicole and I made it to the first platform at 25 meters. At that height I found myself gripping the railing and quite unwilling to go any higher.

Give me a harness, a parachute, a bungee cord, something, anything mechanical, as a support system and, dammit, I would have made it!

For shame.

he's a housewife anyway

when i got home from work this afternoon, damo said, "Oprah had a really sad show on today." it's too bad he's picked up the stereotypical afternoon tv habit but not the vacuuming, dusting and laundry habit. can't complain too much though because there's usually a good supper (curry) ready to eat when i get home from work and the dishes are often done.

in other news, some of my year 9 boys were complete jerks today but afterwards i went out on yard duty in the year 7 area and felt a lot better hanging out with my kids (note the possessive). as one teacher remarked today, "They grow on you, don't they, those year 7s? Like fungus." I just stroll from group to group and even if I don't teach the kids, they all say hi and want to chat for a bit. Back in Canada, I won't even know 1/2 the kids I pass in the hall. I'm going to miss these guys, despite all the heartache and annoyances from the start of the year. misty eyes.

Mr. Crikey

Wow. Yesterday, Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter, died after being stung by a sting ray in the chest while filming a tv segment for his 8 year old daughter's show. The kids at school are all a bit shocked and sad and it's all the news is reporting on--it's the Aussie Princess Di (although far more lovable and annoying).

What's the reaction the world over?

Cinco de Mayo

I just got back from a very nice weekend in the city (i.e. Melbourne) with a few other exchange teachers. Americans, Canadians, and British celebrated the Mexican independence with maragitas and salsa. Then we went for yum cha (dim sum) the next day and out to the comedy festival that night. Melbourne, and possibly all of Australia, does not have spectacular sushi (this is the collective opinion of the Canadians) but they do have good Chinese food. Damo thinks it has to do with WWII--Japan was hated for many years after Kokoda (and the larger threat of their almost invasion of Australia) . Kokoda is like Gallipolli of WWI for the Aussies. One word just sums up so much tragedy.

We were at Flinders station when one footy game was over and another was soon to begin and everywhere you looked were fans decked out in their teams colours. The MCG holds something like 100 000 people so you can just imagine the crowds. It was so exciting! Next week will be my first AFL match: Freemantle vs Melbourne.

Always wash your hands after being out in public. This little tidbit of information comes courtesy of the little drunk 13 year old who puked on the train, left her soiled tissues (given to her by some nice person) on the seat and then spit up again by the door, wiping her mouth on the handrails. Who does that? Well, drunk little girls obviously. Too gross. How many people unknowingly touched that the rest of the night?

Cdn Politics

Do you know what's weird? Stephen Harper is our Canadian prime minister. I was reading the Aussie Time magazine and there was a quote from him, and, really, it just threw me for a moment. Harper? I haven't lived in Canada since he became PM so therefore it's not real.

Broken Hill

We completed a major road trip over the Easter weekend (about 2000 Kms round trip.) It's funny - when you're on vacation it seems like no distance is too far. At home, it's the opposite, any distance is too far.

Broken Hill is on the western edge of New South Wales and is actually closer to South Australia's capital of Adelaide. It's a city founded because of its enormous silver deposit. Since then they've developed a thriving artist community as well. We couldnt help but think Nat would love the place, except for the flies, and the heat, and the cold, and the barrenness. But other than that...ya.

Just outside of Broken Hill is Silverton whose population peaked in the ealry 1900's and then crashed. At its peak it had over 2000 homes. All that's left now are piles of bricks, a bar, and a few other buildings. The other buildings are, by and large, are local artist's galleries. In addtion to being a ghost town, Silverton is also where Mad Max II was filmed.

Can you tell which one's the REAL mad max??

school, surfing and spare time

Today I was called "mom" in class by a student--second time this has happened! It is rather funny but it's also a bit disconcerting because this hasn't happened to me before. Damo tells me I must be looking matronly.

While I still get this knot of reluctance (not quite dread) in my stomach when I think of going to work, it is a lot better than when I first started. It's just not as good as the holidays, of course. The kids are starting to get a bit more self-sufficient, settle into the routine of school and they are starting to listen to me. There are a few yucky malicious ones and the loud energetic-ness of grade 7s is a bit too much at times (12 year old boys don't talk, they shout), but overall, we're getting used to each other.

In other Nico news, I have now stood up on a surf board! It only took me four outings whereas Damo was up by the end of the first lesson but I'm a slow kinesthetic learner.

In other Damo news, I think he's addicted to Australian game shows. We might need an intervention.

Speedos...Time for Some Booze!

There's only one way to respond to Nicole's post with photos of men-folk sporting overly tight speedos. With booze...and lots of it! It's the only way to drown the images that have been forever etched into my brain. I mean it was bad enough being there, but having it reinforced with photographic evidence. Arg. It's enough to make a grown straight man cry.

So...ya, booze. Um...that's not booze, but it is the wonderful fruit (different from the 'fruits' in Nicole's post) called 'grape' that becomes the second best booze - wine. We hit Penola on January 20th. It's the gateway to the Cooawarra wine region renowned for its Cabernet Sauvignon and to a lesser extent its Shiraz. Since I had driven the whole way from Sydney down along the Great Ocean Road (over 3000 KM in total) Nicole had the pleasure of chauffering me around to all the cellar doors! We only hit about 8 or so but I was nicely buzzed by the end of it - and the price was right - FREE!

Now, that's better, clearly booze. This was taken after a wonderful dinner later that evening. We met Cathy & Mark at a pub who invited us over for Kangaroo steaks and wine. Never knowing when enough is enough as Wray and Marsh, and, well, just about anyone in the Calgary gang, can attest to, by the time this photo was taken we had made our way onto scotch. The walk home back to our cabin was quite enjoyable. Nico the babysitter looking after a completely innebriated & stumbling damo. Kangaroo steaks are yummy, I don't know why there was that big outcry when it was found that Aussie made pet food had kangaroo meat in it. Boohoo. There's over a hundred million of the things hopping all over the place. It's not like you're eating a panda or something.

And, to clearly wash the images of the previous post from everyone's mind, here's one for the boys.

Oh...hehe...let's try again here...someone not from the 1970's Russian womens' hockey team.

Ahhh...much better...someone that would make even the overly discerning Fearman proud! The horrors of the previous post are now clearly washed from memory and we can all sleep easy once again. Your welcome.

speedos on display

(photos carefully selected by Nico)

This is the action we saw this past weekend at Lorne for the surf rescue part of Rescue 06, the world lifesaving championships hosted this year by Geelong and area. As expected, Australia and New Zealand cleaned up in this portion!

These photos are from the flag race finals where one person is eliminated each round.



This is the ready position in the final round--between a Kiwi and a Japanese. The competitors have to jump up and turn around.









Then they race across the sand . . .






. . . and dive for the plastic stick thing. This photo is from the previous round where Australia got eliminated but it just shows you how brutal it can be at the end! The Kiwi triumphed and the Japanese second place finisher broke into tears (overcome by getting second place or losing first place, we're not sure).




Here we have the boys ready for the swim competition--the Team Canada competitor is the one with the solid red cap. There were lots of speedos on display but that's clearly not a fashion faux pas when dealing with world champion lifeguards.





And finally, the champion taplin relay (swim, board, kayak, race) team: the Kiwis perform a haka, derived from a traditional Maori celebration (or war) dance. This is the dance where they stick out their tongue.

catching a wave or two

Surfing is SO much fun! We had our first lesson down in South Gippsland with the other exchange teachers. It started off with some on-the-sand practice of jumping up on our imaginary boards.





Here we are ready to hit the surf with our foam G-boards--these are study and somewhat soft, just for beginners like us. They were really slippery and a bit unstable though. (Or maybe that was just my lack of balance?) Later, Damo tried out our host's $1000 plus fibreglass board and said it was much better, like surfing on a tub. There we are, running eagerly to hit the waves! We're the little people on the right.


No action shots of us catching a wave but here's an action shot of Damo waiting to catch a wave! Quite exciting. He's a bit braver and, by the time our lesson was done, had made it out further than me to catch the good waves--good because you get to ride them for much longer. Even when we couldn't get up to standing position or squatting on the board, it was just exhilerating to speed along atop the water.

language lessons

So here, it's okay to ask for a rubber in class because you're just asking for an eraser. Pencil crayons don't exist ("Which one, Miss? Pencils or crayons?")--they're coloured pencils. Markers are also textas. Binders are known as folders. Quotation marks are inverted commas and periods are full stops (sounds like a telegraph!). Thongs for flip-flop sandals, bathers or cozzies for your swimming suit, jumper for sweater, tea is a whole meal.

Rs are ignored so bee, bear and beer sound the same, as does weed and weird. I live near Melbin not Melbourne, and hope to go to Cans, not Cairns.

Everything is lovely, I reckon.

Tears over Spilt Milk

Today, at recess, a little Year Seven boy (12 or 13 years of age) couldn't get his lock open. He was so upset, he was crying! Poor kid! Some of my 'integrated" kids (aka 'coded' or learning disabled) almost cried today as well because we were looking up words in the dictionary and they 'hated it!' and just couldn't do it until I came to help them both with each and every word. "Miss, miss, I can't find environment! It's not on this page!" "Well, this is the ent page so we have to turn over to the next page . . . yes, there it is! Good work!" In the same class, I discovered a student with anger management issues after he hurled markers at his group--kicked him out, found him bawling when I went to chat with him.

I am so not used to this age group! Tears everywhere! Immature behaviour! Lack of basic skills! They tell on each other! I think I will be developing my nuturing side a lot more this year, along with my patience. However, these little guys can be cute too. The students all have to wear uniforms--adorable! The girls all love my accent ("That's Ms. Cameron. Isn't her accent lovely!?!") and all the students ask lots of questions about Canada, including whether I speak Canadian! I spoke a few words of my awfully accented French and they just thought that was SO exotic!

The Year 9s are okay, even though they all hate Australian history, the subject matter of this course. There's one pisshead (pardon my language, Mom!) who's an exception--he's notorious so I have much sympathy from the other teachers. As the Aussies would say, he's feral.

Drowsy Drivers Die

It's been a long time! We FINALLY got internet hooked up in our new home and now can update re: our adventures so far.

In brief:

• Penrith for four days. Hung with Darren and Kelly who were nice to put us up. Saw some kangaroos suffering in the sweltering 45.5 degree heat. We comisserated with them.
• From Penrith to Sydney for two nights accomodation at the Four Points Sheriton hotel (free thanks to Nico's parents! gracias!). We saw a hell of a lot in a whirlwind tour that went from 9 am til 10 pm at night. We bought a 'See Sydney' card which let us into most attractions all for one low price as long as we saw them all on the same day...we really saw too much so that by the third museum it was more about saying we went there than actually absorbing anything useful.
• Rented a car in Sydney and drove down the coast swimming at numerous secluded beaches. Stopped in Ulladulla for two nights to enjoy wine and good company with Tony and Jo. We had our own suit in their house. Awfully nice of them.
• Onward to Melbourne and Geelong our new home.
• Puttered in Geelong and battled a massive hangover. The hangover won for a day.
• Took our new Suburu (it's David's but it's ours for the year) and headed out down the Great Ocean Road. It starts at Torquay - the home of Billabong, Ripcurl, and the 'best surf beaches' in the world...like Bell's Beach.
• The Great Ocean Road is the most stunning road trip I have ever done. Better even than the Redwood Forrest trip in California. The road is carved into the side of cliffs hovering above the ocean. It's only 300 KM but it took us over three days to do it as we stopped every KM or so for yet another stunning vista. We handfed a wild koala. No he didnt fall and just cause he was wild doesnt mean he was ravenous so no one lost any fingers.
• From the Great Ocean Road to Penola the gateway to the Coonawarra wine region known for its Shiraz and Cab Sav. I love the latter, Nico the former. We stopped briefly and hand fed wild possums. They are even cuter and less dangerous than koalas. We met Mark and Cathy who invited us to their house for a huge Ozzie feed that included Kangaroo sausage and steak. It was yummy despite how cute they look in life. Nico ate a cute and cuddly animal - someone please harrass her for it. Mark, funnily enough, is a Yank from Oregon and moved here in 73 to pursue teaching and to avoid the Vietnam war. Super great people. I battled a massive hangover yet again the next day. The hangover came in second.
• From Penola back to Geelong where Internet hookup became possible! Woo!!

That's the brief version, many more stories to come.

Some Ozzie Facts:

• Ozzie's do not pronounce the letter R and thus the word wierd sounds exactly like the word weed. This could lead to confusion back in Canada if I ask someone for a bee.
• Speeding is not tolerated in Australia. The speed limit IS THE SPEED LIMIT.
• Overstaying your welcome by 1/2 an hour at a parking spot is a serious offense and leads to a $75 fine.
• Driving drowsy is frowned upon. Some roadsigns "Drowsy Drivers Die" "Drooping eyes? Powernap now!"
• As anal as Aussies are about speeding, drunk driving, illegal parking, driving while drowsy, they are the opposite about bee's. The passengers can all have bee's in the car as long as the driver is under 0.05.

That's all I got for now!

The Damo.

hot rods and huntsmans

we're in ulladulla right now, a cute little beachside town south of sydney, sleeping in a real bed (hoorah!), thanks to damo's friends, tony and jo. tony is a wine buff so we drank lots of kick ass wine last night and celebrated the day after my birthday (happy birthday me!). after this contact with the world over via internet, we're going to hit the beach again in our attempt to get rid of our sun reflecting pale white skin!

the past weekend was spent in canberra, the nation's capital. it's this neat designed city so it's full of green spaces (in theory, but was bone dry so they were all brown spaces), random public art and beautiful or weird buildings.

highlight: war memorial--a big, thorough, interesting, spectacular museum covering all of australia's involvement in what seems to be every major conflict in the past two hundred years.

lowlight: we chose the one weekend that sees canberra host a souped up car festival. we ended up on a crowded tent field in a caravan park with rowdies, young and old, who partied and revved their engines ALL night long. by night three we were cranky with no sleep.

wildlife update: damo killed a big ass spider outside the tent--probably a non-venomous huntsman but we didn't know at the time. damo tried to shoo it away but it reared up and tried to attack the twig (!!) he was using so he smooshed it under his shoe. we're reading a book on aussie's most dangerous animals so are in a heighted state of paranoia right now with anything creeping, crawling or swimming. we've seen a white tip spider in the bathroom of a friend's house already.

lots more to write about--it was australia's hottest new year's day on record (45.5 degrees outside of sydney!)--but we'll update once we hit geelong.

the nico