Welcome to Katanning

The start of our big adventure- how exciting!


Driving down south is much greener and lusher than up north (look in the distance- sweet view)


The scenery flies by when the speed limit is 110... ;)


"Welcome to Katanning" it took us a while to fit both our heads and the whole of the word "Katanning" in but then we used our brains (we have degrees!) and realised we needed to go from an angle.


The Daily Grind- the place to be.

It was all smiles and laughter until we saw where we were staying...

(These photos actually make the place look amazingly beautiful) Shazza Rey expands more on the conditions of our flat... Did I mention the people before us had small (dirty) children and dogs? And our bathroom floods everytime we have a shower or flush the toilet... nice.


We promptly starting moving furniture and got out the domestos (thanks Soheila- life saver!)


Not so smiley faces now...

I'm too tired to post now about school, but stay tuned for my saga with Carl!

The National Public Toilet Map

As you are aware by now, Shaz and I are off to Katanning tomorrow. I was asking google for a map of Katanning and I stumbled across The National Public Toilet Map... It's GOLD! I especially like the Trip Planner, where you can plan a route from nearly any starting point to any destination in Australia. The system will identify the quickest route (by road or on foot) and create a list of nearby toilets.



I was conversing with a respected friend of mine who inquired as to whether this is an initiative that exists in other countries too or if Australia is the only weak-bladdered nation. I decided to do some research... According to Wikipedia:

The National Public Toilet Map is part of the Australian government's National Continence Management Strategy (NCMS). The map allows more Australians with urinary and fecal incontinence problems to live and participate in their communities with dignity and confidence, by making it easier for them to find information about the location of public toilets.

More than 3.8 million Australians are estimated to suffer continence issues, including families with young children. This represents 18% of the Australian population.

How very interesting... AND useful!! :P

I'm back!

Firstly I have to send my condolences to poor Shazza Rey for her recent loss...

Secondly, I dont have time to blog right now because I have to pack for 5 weeks and all I have so far is an empty suit case and a load of washing on!! Hopefully a more detailed account of our adventures in the outback will come when we have a moment to spare sitting around in Katanning... At the moment here are some pics:

Back seat bogans with typical (perhaps even a little on the bushy side) scenery behind us.


Austin Downs: This is where we stayed for the first 2 nights, these are the shearers' quarters; very "rural"...


A "special" liquid.


The kids were so so very cute! Unfortunately some of them do not have "permission to have their photos displayed in public" consent forms signed so we either have to fuzz out their faces or just not post them. At some schools all the kids already have these forms signed though.




Hill 50 minesite: they dig up and refine lots of gold there!


Sweet red dirt/pebbles...


Sunset on the coast in Geraldton: I took this photo sitting outside our dorm.

For a more complete overview of our outback adventures check out Kristen's post .

It's all about the Outback!

So I was gonna post about how we're going off on a rural trip at the crack of dawn tomorrow morning but Shazza has said it all in her post,the real Australia.

This is one of the scenes we used to paint in artworks that basically represents the land out there- although I'm pretty sure those mountains are imaginary and just make for an easier horizon to paint (not entirely made up though I did see them when we went to exmouth so they do exist)...

Meanwhile I havent finished packing and I have to leave my house at 5.45AM tomorrow so I should probably get cracking... I might squeeze a post in next week before heading off to Katanning- who knows!

Meet Aref

Check out this video, very cool!

“Aref”: Meet an average 8 year-old kid from Botswana. He loves soccer and trampoline and runs around the yard with his friends. Everything about him is normal – at least until he opens his mouth...

Real-life copper

A dear friend of mine, Anisa, lives in London and is engaged to a real-life British copper. They're visiting Perth and he had a spare hat so he brought it as a gift to Nat who's in the Police force here. The Label says "Metropolitan Police"...

How cool is it??

Under-wiping

I am an under-wiper... windscreen that is! For some reason I must have the windscreen wipers on the lowest possible speed for the amount of rain that there is. I would even prefer to give a one-off wipe every now'n'then rather than have it on a higher speed than needed. It's not like it saves power or energy by having it on a low setting but I just can't handle it when its excessively fast- it's not logical! I have even been know to turn down other people's wipers when I'm a passenger in their car (I can't help it- don't judge me). I think that you should have it on a low setting so that you dont "waste" the faster setting on light rain and take it for granted and then when you get heavy rain you will really appreciate the fast wiping. Coz like, if its sprinkling and you're on super fast, where can you go when it starts to bucket down? ...nowhere!!

Multi-tasking. There's no law against taking photos and driving at the same time is there?

Perhaps this reflects my attitude towards life and making the best of what you have and not taking things/people for granted...

Nobody likes needles...

I have a 5 hour break from uni on Wednesdays so, since home is too far away, I go visiting. Yesterday Shanthi and I took Alenna to get immunised and it was SOOOO traumatic! Poor sweet Alenna, she was crying so much I thought one of her lungs was gonna come out!
I'm glad I went with Shanthi for moral support!

I dont have any photos from that because I'm not heartless and I was trying to comfort her rather than take photos of her in pain... but here are some other random photos of Alenna.

Scitech - Science Discovery Centre

Doesn't that sound FUN??!! I really AM a nerd...

I was eating my yoghurt in the car yesterday on the way to Scitech. I volunteer at Scitech as a "sciguide" which means that I walk about the floor and interact with the people there, helping them "discover" stuff about the exhibits... I figured, since its all about science and teaching, that it would be a good thing to get involved with to keep me in touch with teaching science to kids (its actually far more fun teaching stuff to their parents but what can you do)...

The feature exhibition at the moment is called Eaten Alive, I took videos of 2 of the exhibits.



It can be kinda scary for little people when the animals suddenly start moving...



There are themed areas spread out across Scitech, in one area they focus on the brain and tricking it (mostly visual) so they have this cool "perception tunnel" where you're in a tube and there are little lights that spin in circles around you that make it look like the tube is spinning but then as a result of this your eyes send a msg to your brain that tell you that the bridge that you are walking across is actually moving; its sooo hard to walk straight in that thing, I've never been drunk but I think it would feel a bit like that...

They also have these cool pots that spin around... of course they're not just pots, you see that right?



Ps. there is no sound, we bought this digital camera before the days of videos with sound.

Deadlines

Nobody likes deadlines. Well thats a lie, sometimes I can only ever do something if there is a deadline (otherwise procrastination takes hold and I never get anything done)! But essentially, I don't like having to hand things in by their due date... I once got an extension that was indefinite (remind me to give new due dates to students who ask me for an extension), in fact, I don't think that I ended up handing it in at all!!

But basically its fun to ignore due dates- it gives you a sense of control...

This isnt me ( I just found her on google) but I DID eat my yoghurt in the car!

Yesterday I ate some yoghurt that's due date was 13/3/06. Am I going to die? Well it tasted OK, and it wasn't fury or fizzy, so I think it was OK...

I couldn't help it- Shazza, its all your fault!

I was thinking of buying this shirt...

I might get it later though...

Two dips or not two dips...

When it comes to chips, carrots, spring rolls, and dips/sauces I'm aware that it is generally un acceptable to double dip, but is it fine to turn the chip around and re-dip the other end (the one that has not been in your mouth)? Not too many people have a problem with the double dip of hte back of a chip...

More controversial, however, is the spoon in the jar of nutella. Imagine you're going in for a scoop of nutella (we all know the best way to eat nutella is by the spoon full), after you've enjoyed the smooth, creamy, chocolaty, hazel-nutty delicious mouthful, you feel like a bit more, you take your spoon and go in again... WHOA!! Is this acceptable?? Are you expected to get a whole new spoon for each scoop? then how many spoons will you go through?? Or do you wash your spoon in between each scoop? But that means you have to dry it and go through that whole hassle each time you want more nutella...

This nutella was a travel companion for friends of mine, it DEFINITELY got rescooped...

The ordeal that I witnessed was relating to the rescooping of the nutella spoon. In my opinion, its fine, and kinda like yoghurt, you dont get a new spoon each time you get a scoop of yoghurt (but you DO if its one of those family sized yoghurts that everyone eats from)... hmm so I think if its your own nutella go for it- rescoop away! But if this nutella is owned by someone else, or only partially owned by you then I feel it is necessary to receive the expressed verbal (or written) consent of all owners of the nutella before you proceed to rescoop.

What is the rescooping/double dipping etiquette?

I found my wedding photographer...

now I just need all the other ingredients necessary for a wedding...

All photos courtesy of Pertl; if you would like a copy please ask him for permission...

"Boys are not dumb, they're just annoying..."

I'm doing a unit titled "learning difficulties" and Sarah (yes Shazza's favourite person ever) is our tutor. She cleared up something that is a common misconception; boys are not as smart as girls at lower school level. Boys were getting a reputation of having reading difficulties because they would always be getting sent to the special reading help class thingo... But what they found was that when they did the assessments the boys were doing FINE on the reading tests, in fact, they did better than the girls that were getting sent to that class!

What it came down to is that it was not so much that the boys were having more difficulty reading but that those that weren't reading were simply being annoying and disruptive and the teacher would send them to the special class to get them out of their hair!!

Some people call that ADHD... but that's a whole other story!