Dear Kyle, we're up north and I can't make you a card here and this computer is AS SLOW AS A WET WEEK OMG I AM GOING TO KILL IT but I took a photo of some frost this morning, thinking of you as surviving the frosts you've been through and coming out into the sunlight after the long journey *g* how's that!!! xxxxx Happy Birthday darlingxxx many hugs

Survived the Community Dance at school! It was actually quite fun, but the people who go regularly are so serious! They dance around the gym with serious expressions on their faces, concentrating on their cha-chas or their tangos. I had fun even. We made all the supper this afternoon and then settled in for a good evening. My children came along and helped, which was great. I was so proud of them! I had some good dances, mostly with Finn's godfather, who really moves you round the dancefloor with masterful power!

And so it's over. I have had so many sleepless nights worrying about how many tickets we had sold and would we get it all done but it's OVER. Next... billets to be organised... but in the meantime, I deserve a few days off, I think. One more week of holiday break before the next term begins. Have to go north. I was going to go tomorrow but it's apparently going to snow on the route so might wait... we'll miss two funerals if we go, our elderly neighbour passed away and so did an old friend from the community. *sigh* winter deaths...

And so, it's one in the morning, Steve has shot off to bed and now I have five very buzzy teenagers - well, Finn is practically a teenager - to get to bed (my three and two friends who all helped out tonight). I've made them all a Milo. Christy was supposed to be at a party but chose to help us instead. She just got a text from a friend at that party to say the police had arrived. I'm so glad she stayed with us!

Hmmm, I have to be at Mass in eight hours. I think I'll have a peanut butter sandwich...

Work, rep trials, lots of boys sleeping the night, setting up for a Community Dance tomorrow night... long day. And I tried the bookshops today in the Mall. No sign of Nick's new book here. And who cares? No one else I know. Not even Nick. It's ridiculous, wanting to read something you just can't get. It's like Season 4 of Without a Trace, really wanted to see it, can't get it... You know, we're so far from anywhere, I think I'm just about ready to stop bothering with being a fan of anything. It only brings grief. So much grief. I think from now on I'm just going to be a fan of myself. And I'm pretty damn good. I can play music. Piano, guitar, you name it. I can write. I can multitask. I know the Bible and the Simpsons. I can doodle. Ride a bike. Keep a room full of teenagers working. Be nice to people. Dammit, I'm worth my own admiration today. So, in true London Tipton fashion, I say Yay me.

You won't see me around much for the next few days, Finn used up all our bandwidth downloading free podcasts from iTunes. It's free, he said innocently. But it still uses up our bandwidth, I yelled. So we're paying for everything we use until the 15th.

Went to brother-in-law's tonight as he has Blue Ray DVDs and we watched In Bruges and Slum Dog Millionaire. I was really looking forward to Slum Dog as I had read Q&A at the start of last year and I had really enjoyed the structure of the novel. The movie was good, too. Worth seeing for sure. A real buzz of a fast moving movie. In Bruges was amazing - a good example of Black Comedy. Colin Farrell was brilliant. So a good night's viewing all up! But we had takeaway Indian food and now I'm really thirsty.

I want to get the Butterfish book. Want want want. Tomorrow I shall go on a hunt. One day I will write again, me, myself. I can feel it coming already but I'm suppressing it as I don't have time for me and my stuff at the moment. My Principal is being really demanding about a whole lot of things but I even just want to get on with my job... let alone a life!

Well, my bro-in-law had NO heating and we're all freezing so I'm going to bed now! See you.

Another year older I am now. My parish family was great, the whole church sang me a happy birthday after mass (to my total embarrassment) and then a group of us went out for coffee at the Chocolate Frog. I loved my birthday wishes here on LJ. Thank you. That was kind of you guys. And somehow Moth even got a superb e-card sent. Maybe she got Fledge to do it ;-)) THANK YOU!

So I have been having the flu. I'm getting over it. It seems to affect sleep and all that so I'm glad it's holidays now cos I can't seem to sleep when I really need it. I went to work today but came home by about three as my brain slowed to a halt. I haven't functioned properly for over a week now. I know I missed posting Ringbark's birthday card. I hope I haven't missed any others...

I'm going to go to bed now and make more fun of Dan Brown. I wanted to re-read Angels and Demons (the girls at school ask a lot of questions about it all) but God almighty, he's a crap writer. Fantastic ideas and all that, quite brilliant, but his writing is the crappiest crappity crap crap I have read in a long time. Terrible character introductions, hammy descriptions, pathetic scene setting unless he's talking about architecture and art and the saddest dialogue and descriptions you ever saw. I know I write better than him, but I don't have amazing world-challenging ideas like his. But holy hell, how did he get published with that bathwater he calls writing? And Angels was the best of the four I read...

OMG the kitten is destroying the house. Time to put that cat to bed. Goodnight, you guys, keep up the good work.

I have flu. It's probably why I had such a down kind of start to the week. But it's not really bad. Not like Moth's. And I've had the last two days off school.
But *sigh* should be in Perth right now. With Nick's book. I am at home. Without Nick's book.

So... I was sitting on the couch today thinking about things every family needs to know:
If you run out of baking powder, use baking soda and cream of tartar.
If you lose a sock in the wash, check in the elasticated surround of your fitted sheets.
A kitten can sleep in a guinea pig cage. Just take out the guinea pig first.
If you don't have a microwave ring tin, you can put a glass in the middle of a casserole dish.
Meths takes out biro marks on shirts.
You can get rid of hiccoughs by drinking water while blocking your ears. It even works if you're drinking beer. Not that I do. But it was successful at a party one time *g*

Know any other handy hints?

No fun here, huh.

Today we were going to fly to Perth. So I could have bought Nick's book. But we're not going for another ten weeks now. And it might have been warm in Perth; here ...it is not!

The sea was beautiful yesterday, a pale turquoise and flat as a pancake in the harbour.

A great man from our church died suddenly on Saturday so we had his rosary tonight. I had to play the piano, and I didn't know one of the songs. That was interesting *snort* And because the Codfish had had a 'busy day' he didn't even stay to listen to the informal eulogies. He's such a selfish pig.
Another old friend who had strong links to our church is dying in a hospital up in Auckland (she had to go there for a liver transplant). I suspect she will have her funeral down at our church by next week, which is really sad. She's one of the best Good Samaritans I ever met. She used to come into my children's school and take two seniors out each week to help her deliver Meals on Wheels; they never forgot that experience. I have chatted to her about once a month for the last couple of years and I'll miss seeing her around the place. Death is odd. And one of our girls at school leaves tomorrow for two years in Costa Rica. I hope she survives the experience, it's a rough place. My brother lived there for a while and it was... dangerous.

And in Ringbark's honour we had Hell's Pizza tonight.

Good bye. Have... great lives. Do good.

It's been a few days, I think. So much has happened that I'm not sure what to write about and I'm freezing cold and going to bed in a minute! But hey, let's think! My LJ buddy Liz in Oz had her baby, isn't that wonderful? A little girl. It's so cool. My second LJ baby (after Fledge's Jamie *g*).
On a more depressing note, our conference in Perth next week was cancelled due to the flu epidemic (hopefully postponed until next year really) so I can't rush into a Perth bookstore and demand my Nick Earls latest novel :-((( That was going to be my best birthday present. I actually feel really sad about that, it was going to be a... a Moment. I thought, if I'm not writing, at least I can read his...

On other fronts, work is mad crazy busy but bearable. I did my last essay for my first paper in Theology. I passed the others but not like Blue Leaf does, I get marks in the 70s or so! I thought I'd have time to work really hard but no. Life was against me there.
My children are doing fine. They're really very, very good compared to so many others!
It's very cold here at night and in the mornings. We've had a couple of really good frosts so far. It doesn't snow here.

Oh and I got snail mail from KYLE!!! He's doing okay just now and it was so neat to get a letter xxxxxxxxx

Our kitten is brilliant and very nosey. He's into everything and climbs everywhere. We peel him off the heater guard where he's clinging like a commando, we unpick him from the curtains, the back of the couch and our own legs. We rescue him from balancing atop the television or inside Christy's Playmobil palace! We all sneak in and out of the doors because he's not allowed outside yet - another two weeks of this, OMG! Five people in and out of the house constantly makes for some mad dashes for freedom by little Hunter.

I drove past the southern sea today on my way home (I usually go past the inner harbour - because we live on a peninsula, there's sea pretty close on both sides). The sea today was stunning, it was a dark, dark deep steely blue, with huge, smooth swells heading north into the bay, but sharp white surf atop the swells was flying backwards in the face of a northerly - a beautiful contrast of blue and white against the cold sky.

I found this pic of our peninsula
http://www.pestfreepeninsula.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/miramar_aerial_view.jpg
if you look at the big green to the right of the runway, that's the golf course. The green to the right of that, a smaller rectangle, is Finn's school, and just across the road, 'above' the golf course, is a little semi circular park, and our street runs off that park. It's an old pic, our runway is getting longer *g*

Anyway, Nick's book, The True Story of Butterfish... it Will. Be. Mine. one day! sniff...

And on that note, I am going to bed. Good night, my friends.

We have a new kitten. He's really, really cute. I can hardly believe we really have him. He's a tabby and we have called him Hunter. He is a very nosy cat and will probably drive us mad for the next few weeks! But I feel very lucky that we have him. He's a couple of months old so he's fully toilet trained, which is handy. We just can't let him go outside for a while yet.
On other fronts, we've been hit by the 'swine flu' at school - a girl I was chatting to across the desk looking terrible - I told her to go home - and she turned out to have the dreaded flu! That ended with us having to cancel the school dance, much to everyone's disappointment. We had to stand out in the dark and cold last night and tell parents to take their girls home again.

I have much to say but it's late, soccer starts early and I'm tired. Have to put the kitten to bed (we cleaned up a guinea hutch and he sleeps in there when we're asleep or out). Take care, all of you. I guess OzLiz might have had her baby by now?! We're probably not going to Perth in a fortnight so no Nick book for me *sniff* maybe Dymocks will get it for me.

I have Facebook and I have a heap of mostly young friends there, it's really busy. But this place is special to me.

Tomorrow - essay writing time. Aaaaaaaaaaaaargh!

So. I joined Twitter. I am only 'following' one person so far ;-) Some people have started following me which is odd. They must be groupies who just follow people because they don't make their own comments but have several hundred Twitterers to follow. How on earth would one keep up? You'd have to sit at the computer all day reading random comments of 140 characters in length...

Today dawned grey but the sun just broke through this afternoon. I had a pretty busy week. Had to go to the Annual Mercy lecture one night. My Principal and I went out to a bar afterwards and drank red wine. Then Friday night was the drinks with the Archbishop. That event doesn't really make an impression on me, unfortunately. But I had to go. My Principal drove. Probably to make sure I got there.

Yesterday it rained. Soccer was cancelled. Did the laundry. Today I have to get it all dry! Biked to school late afternoon but twilight settled really quickly and I had to ride home on footpaths as I don't have any lights and I was wearing dark clothing! I guess I'll have to return to the classroom for a while today to get more stuff done. Or maybe I'll work on an essay I have due soon.

Swine Flu is proving to be very disappointing here, even though we've had hardly any cases so far. We had to cancel the Mercy Conference in Perth and we can't get our money back on the tickets. So the four of us from school will either go there anyway to just look around at schools and stuff, or try to defer the tickets for another trip of some sort over the next 12 months. What this does mean is I won't be able to get Nick's book as soon as it comes out. I'll have to ask Dymocks to get it in for me. I was kind of looking forward to being in Oz for the buzz. Sad, huh. I've never been to Perth. It's so far away from here. Or anywhere *g* What I'd really like to do is fly myself to Brisbane for a weekend. Wander round Southpark. See the river. Do some Aussie things. I dunno. Maybe Christy and I could have another weekend over there. That was such fun last time. Went to see Nick's play at the Round House. Finding the damn place in the dark was the oddest thing. The taxis wouldn't come because there was a game on at Suncorp Stadium so we had to catch a bus along the Gulag Drag which didn't match up with any of my road maps!! Still, we had a great time there. *sigh* guess I'd better stop dreaming and go do the next lot of laundry.

Mercy Tournament at school today, I taught all day including someone else's class, and ran a sausage sizzle at lunchtime... then we had a lecture this evening at a local church on Mercy from an Irish sister, and after that since everyone else scarpered, my boss and I went out for a wine and a chat until I had to go pick up Christy from art. I'm so freaking tired! Early start tomorrow, St Vincent de Paul street day appeal. OMG!
But I liked this one and couldn't resist taking a moment to think:
FROM blue_leaf
Don't take too long to think about it.
Fifteen books you have read that will always stick with you.
First fifteen you can recall in no more than a few minutes.
Copy the instructions into your own post.

This is what I came up with (who knows how clearly I'm thinking right now) at John's LJ - I may be well educated but I'm not an academic *g* ...definitely an eclectic list - but also books I return to again and again for various reasons.

The Testament by John Grisham
The Bible by Various *g*
Campbell's Kingdom by Hammond Innes
Perfect Skin by Nick Earls
A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth
Simple Abundance by Sarah Ban Breathnach
Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren
The Bourne Identity by Robert Ludlum
The Eucharist and the hunger of the world by Monika Hellwig
Just Shy of Harmony by Phil Gulley
The Golden Rendezvous and The Satan Bug by Alistair MacLean
I heard the owl call my name by Margaret Craven
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
The Bone People by Keri Hulme
*sigh* I love a good book to read. I really do.

So. I joined Twitter. Only for very fan-type interest ;-) I can't imagine anyone would want me to tell them all the mad things I do all day. An update at the end should suffice *g* if I just grabbed the time. I got home late this afternoon (I did the Late Detentions after school and one girl had two so we just sat on for the whole hour!) - minutes after I got home, the girl from next door came over with her homework for help. Then the piano teacher arrived. Then a friend of Christy's arrived back from Oz and he wanted to see Christy and to get me to braid a new rat's tail in his hair!
This is my impromptu effort

I learned it at a market in Broadbeach one holiday, watching Christy get one. I wanted one myself but I was too shy to say so!
So the house was busy. Steve is away so he couldn't mind the chaos! We woke up this morning to find no one locked the back door last night after feeding the pets! I guess there's not much chance of someone coming in that way *shudder* I will lock up tonight, just in case!!!

So. Crappy start to the day but a good finish. Taught Buddhism to young Catholics today *g* And my juniors watched Jesus of Nazareth LOL! A good little tale.
Enough. Gotta go collect people and cook dinner. See you...

OMG I STILL don't get Twitter! I have tried. It's so frustrating. I conquered Live Journal. I can e-mail. I'm slowly grasping Facebook - and occasionally getting it right on the Bebo page Christy made for me. I can text and I used to do the odd online Chat occasionally when I had time to sit at the computer.

But I still Don't. Get. Twitter.

I was at the nick site just now, because I'm getting excited because I'm going to Australia in less than a month and HE has a book coming out and I MIGHT be able to buy it over there. And there was a link to his 'Twitter' page which said he's off to climb a mountain. Now, as a fan, that's cool, I'd like to know what he's up to, I guess. But then it feels like I could get addicted to knowing. Then I would feel like a stalker - but he's providing the information. For - his fans?
Then I have friends who use Twitter. They tell me if they're waiting for something. Or eating food. Or whatever. And that is probably quite interesting for them. Or something. But I don't GET it. Are you supposed to answer? Nod sagely? Just say, hmmm, cool. Do nothing? Appreciate that you know SOMETHING about what they're up to? Because I can't work out how to answer. Mind you, maybe knowing what people are eating doesn't call for an answer. It's just a 'this is what I'm doing'. In which case, I could say, why are you telling us? And I'm not being judgemental, I just don't quite get it. Bebo is mostly entertainment, in a tweenie kind of way. Facebook is, for most of my friends there, a 'let out one's frustrations or achievements' kind of site, which is fairly informative in a minor kind of way (if you don't mind the CIA peeking over your shoulder). LJ is more fluent, you can really get stuck in with some... depth! But Twitter, with its stupid name that sounds like stupid birds, is it just another addiction? Or a great way to keep in touch, kind of. I don't really have time in my work to add electronic details of my day. I don't get down time or even travelling on public transport time. So I guess I don't have time to think about sharing details of my very small, unfamous, unknown, potentially mundane life with the great unwashed. Maybe I should just be appreciative that some people CAN share some details. It could be seen as even kind and entertaining. I guess once I understand the concept better, I might even like it myself.

And should I ignore the fact that Nick has Twitter, or do I risk becoming an obsessive Twitter-Stalker-Fan kind of person even though he started it and I assume actually wants people to know these things? Although since he's up a mountain right now, he won't know what I'm thinking anyway, huh...

So. First Reconciliation this afternoon, after soccer all morning, basketball and flippaball last night, with a bit of work at school at lunchtime today. That was Saturday and it's not over yet. But wonderful weather, albeit a little chilly if facing South. SO I guess something's coming.

News of late? David Bain? Guilty. That's what we say. But maybe no one will ever know. He should be left in peace now. But now, of course, he'll try for compensation. Tennis? I'm so very very glad about Federer - hope he wins the final. Soccer? Chelsea won something. I don't care any more. I pretty much stopped following them when I felt that they became a pay-for-your-players-from-anywhere-factory (not so different from another team I know so well LOL). I used to have a Chelsea shirt, too. Cricket? The Netherlands beat England in a 20-20 match. LMAO. I sound grumpy, huh. I had a week from hell and it's showing now. I just want to curl up in a corner and relax with a good book. Wishful thinking *snort*

The Reconciliation was actually lovely. The children look so innocent as they sit on the stool opposite the priest and as he stretches his hand over their heads to give them absolution, it's really rather beautiful. The children were so nervous too, one burst into tears just before the whole thing started! I'm glad that's done for now though. We're doing Confirmation in September.

And as for the week from hell? Well, I'll get over it. Tough classes. Very bad girls, who are bad for everyone but just happen to be in a 'gang of seven' in my very large class (26 students, one special needs, many ESOL, seven big boys from the college down the road, a real cultural mix, one Vietnamese, two Chinese, one Japanese, one Filipino, three Maori, one Tongan, more than eight Samoan, one Ethiopian, three Assyrian, two Indian... the list goes on). Damn those option lines. I was almost ready to throw in the towel but we really just have to be tough, huh. We just do. I think it's what God would want, even. Struggle, do your best, run the good race blah blah. I just wish it were a LITTLE easier ;-)

COnversation seems to have gone to the dogs on LJ. A comment here and there is about all we can offer one another. Seems hardly worth it, but I love my LJ all the same. One day I'll go back to my Takahe and settle there. It's still sitting out there, waiting.
Today was bad news day. Friends of ours lost a friend at our local Lyall Bay yesterday. He was surfing in the wild waves I talked about. I saw the ambulance go by as we were shopping and said to Christy, 'probably some surfer' and it was. He was young, with little children. He crashed with another surfer and it looks like he drowned right away.
Also on the bad news front, good friends of ours have just split up. Four children, same ages as mine, plus one more. Did they just get sick of one another? Too many pressures with work, family and mid-life crises? Their ways seem to have diverted.
More news, my cousin's sister (yeah, don't ask how that works) has a baby that doesn't seem too right. Worried about him, she put her two year old into a creche to focus on the baby and yesterday the two year old fell from a considerable height, clean fracture right through the top of his femur, full body cast for ten weeks. OMG what a nightmare. We're all looking for toys to interest a busy two year old for five minutes at a time, one that's immobile from armpits to ankle in plaster.
Today was a day indeed. Spent the day in intense pastoral interviews with girls and their parents. Twenty minutes a pop. All day with breaks for food and drink. No teaching but a lot of negotiating. It was exhausting. Then soccer. Then then then... now it's midnight and I'm only halfway through my work. Sad, huh! But I'm happy. I'll cope. And the French Open tennis is just starting on tv... *g*

I'd still really like to be in a quiet hut by a lake doing some writing, just for me...

*sigh* Back I go... see you later. Have a good day. Night. Thing.

I had a pretty good long weekend (Queen's Birthday weekend) although I didn't do the schoolwork I intended... it was freezing weather all weekend with frequent hail/snow showers all Sunday. I did a lot of driving around on Saturday/Sunday. Funny thing, a few years back I thought a friend was going to come out to visit from Europe. At the time, I started looking at the city with fresh eyes, thinking of places I could show her. But she never came. Trouble is, I never got out of the habit of looking at places and sites and thinking, oooh, she'd like that one. Even this weekend there were a couple of times when I thought, oh, I'd like to show off that view...
One was coming down from Wadestown. The city is suddenly just below me as I curve down through the trees, the 'cake tin' Stadium directly below in all its glory, the sparkling sea, the rail yard, the city curling around the edge of the harbour, it just looked so beautiful.
(this was a sunnier day!) Later, dropping down what always feels like a near vertical slide to Lyall Bay from View Road, dark sea at the foot in the twilight, lights on the runway ahead, trolley lines waving in the wind. The bush on the hill rising above the soccer ground, with twenty different shades of green crammed together and loud clacking tui in the depths of the trees. And today, with wild southerlies, the huge rollers into Lyall Bay, right up to the dunes, volcano-like sea-spray erupting fifty feet high or more on the breakwater, salty sea covered roadway, and blue sky above freezing cold southerly air straight from Antarctica. I wanted to share. My friend, whatever you're doing now, I don't know but you missed a real treat not ever coming here. This place is so beautiful.

This girl was in my class just over a year ago. Now she has passed away.
I think it's really sad when people don't think they deserve enough dignity to hold on to life. Or don't have any hope. Or are just terribly sad. How incredibly sad she must have been. I feel so, so sorry for how she must have felt, over there in Australia. And for her family here, still at our school.
My young Facebook friends who were her friends are starting a fund to help her family bring her body home. Cool, huh. I'm so very impressed with them. We do have a great school community. We will bring her home. But it's sad. Life is so precious and so fragile.

Jenner

Dear Hannah, for you!
( Read more... )

I'm using a different laptop tonight and it's very different. Huge fonts, a small typing area, no colours on the screen... it's odd. Still, no worries, it doesn't really matter, huh. We had Open Day this afternoon so the school was really buzzing. At the end of it I was totally exhausted. But life goes on and there was a lot to do at home this evening. I've written an entire mock answer to an assessment for my Ethics class this evening, on this laptop, so that was quite a bit of fun. It'll help the girls to see what to do - they each have to study an issue of justice - I did Peace, since no one in the class is doing that. They're mostly looking at things like child trafficking, prostitution, racism, euthanasia, any awful things going on in the world.
The house over the road is for sale. The old Greek lady has decided to go back to her village, live with her daughter. Her olives are just about ripe so it's a shame she'll be leaving them behind. I'm not sure ours are as good. We've had so much wind and rain this week, I haven't even uncovered the rabbit for about ten days.
And finally, I'm going to bed early. Lot to do tomorrow. Finn is bringing home a billet from some posh school up north.
Speaking of posh schools, we went to his open day at his college on Sunday. Very nice. It'd definitely suit him better. SOOO undecided... but leaning towards it because it'd suit his learning needs the best and surely I have to consider that. I can, after all, look after his soul. And his family will keep him grounded, for sure.

So buzz buzz life goes on. Wherever you are, I hope you're fine. I'll leave you with one of my quotes from one of my favourite people, Oscar Romero,
"Peace is the calm, generous contribution of all to the good of all."
He also said, "There aren't two categories of people. There aren't some that were born to have everything, leaving the rest with nothing, and a majority that has nothing and cannot taste the happiness that God has created for all. The Christian society that God wants is one in which we share the goodness that God has given for everyone."

I've been watching the flooding in Queensland and NSW. It's horrific. I looked through the pics on The Australian Gallery and can hardly believe how widespread it all is. So many lives must be in complete disarray. I even saw pics of places we have been to. We hit flooding when we were on the Gold Coast January last year - it rained so much, and the weather was so bad, the entire length of the Gold Coast beach was closed and when we went for a drive inland we encountered this

but it looks like every river or stream over the entire region is flooded. What's amazing is the madness? of the drivers who try to ford some of these flooded roads. The power of water is phenomenal and cars are not that invincible - and as one of my colleagues will say, as his taxi was swept up in the tsunami in Thailand, 'they do float'.

On the edge of that storm, we have howling gales and cold temperatures, but hey, the soccer isn't cancelled, so we'll be out there soon ...if we can stand up in it.