Wet Week in Paradise

What a rainy old time we've had here recently! Shouldn't complain I guess... our 2 X 5000 litre tanks are now full (and overflowing!) and our parched landscape is greener. However our dried-up mud around the house is now sludgy mud... yuckadoodle. At least our home is warm and dry and there is something so guilt-free about snugging up to watch a movie whilst it's raining outside. The boys have the rugby on the television though at the moment, so I guess I'll have to pick up a book first.
Friday was our area sports day. I volunteered to take the students and loved it! I felt like the kids do when they don't have to go to school. They were brilliant actually, considering they were water-logged as it bucketed down all day. We arrived back at school a bit early, so we watched some YouTube clips in class whilst the heater attempted to warm us up: felt just like England!
Our year 12s are getting excited already about their formal at the end of the year. Very different from the UK. The kids at my school have to learn to waltz (they're having lessons in school at the moment), take a partner of the opposite sex (!) and their parents attend the event too! A very formal formal I have to say. I won't be attending, but I will go along to see their attire: it's all I have heard about since March... sigh... They are on their last couple of English assignments now and they are relieved to see an end to it all... um... so am I. Haha!
I have enjoyed looking on facebook this week, noting my ex-Park students' GCSE results! I still keep in touch with several of them, and have shared their anxiety and nerves waiting for results day. Great bunch of kids that were my tutor group in Year 7 and 8, before we emigrated. Miss 'em!
Oli picked up his new reading glasses today: they actually quite suit him. He only needs to wear them for close work (computers and reading). We have a Specsavers here, as in the UK, and our medical insurance means that we can have a free eye-test and glasses each year: bonus. Oli also had his braces fitted on Wednesday but dislodged one already last night! Can't get it sorted until Monday, so his timing was not good. He's adapted well to them, but now says that he feels a bit of nerd with both glasses AND braces. Bless him. Doesn't seem to be stopping the girls from txting... not that I should know that of course :) 

Winter in Eumundi

We feel that we're coming to the end of our winter; or it appears so! The cold and frosty mornings have disappeared and my heated blanket has been removed, so all good here. Having an elevated home has meant that certain rooms have been cooler, but this will be a bonus when the warmer weather's here. 

Hiroshi has been waved off (tears all around!), and we'll keep in touch for sure as he was such a sweetheart :). Back to normality and have just spent a couple of hours cleaning and dusting: having a larger house has its downside I guess as I am not the most house-proud of peeps. Lovely to get the windows open (the screens stay shut: no uninvited guests thanks) and let some fresh air through. We've just had a day or so of very heavy rain that blew in on to our balcony and downstairs seating area. Not complaining though as our tanks were empty and we were on town water. We chose to have 2 x 5000 litre tanks when our house was built. The tanks are for our washing machine and all of our loos. They are filled by all the runoff from our roof and great that the water isn't wasted. We can't understand why more people don't have them here. Kids at school are on tank water for everything; even drinking. Not sure if my tum would be up to that though!

Itching to get started on the landscaping here now. We're trying to source a fella with a mini-digger who will get our garden dug out, and take all the crap away so that we can proceed with planting,concreting and fencing. We're fed up with looking at mud! We both work such long hours and love our weekends, so not gonna do the digging out ourselves. I don't mind the planting though, as it will be fun. We're planning a veggie and fruit area as they will grow well here, and some areas where I am just able to sit with a glass of wine and a book. Oh, and plants that attract bees as well as plants that attract the lorikeets and not much grass to mow and some bamboo screening and Jasmine to climb the poles and fragrant shrubs at the front of the house... and... hmmm... not much to ask is it?! :)

Japanese Panic and Frolics

So, we're spending the evening at our friends' home in the Hinterland of the Sunshine Coast. We're sitting outside around the brazier, toasting marshmallows and sipping wine. Jeff, Oli and I are excited at seeing our first possum in the tree above us, as well hearing various unidentified 'rustlings' in the surrounding darkness... then Jeffers asks, 'Where is Hiroshi?' (H= Japanese exchange student)... 
We all look at each other, with the sudden realisation that his seat around the brazier is empty... 
Panic ensues. Bedrooms, bathrooms and kitchens are checked along with sheds and garages being upturned. Bushes and shrubs are poked and shaken... and then... we find him. Lying flat on his back in the middle of the large garden and he's not moving... 
HAS HE EATEN TOO MUCH BBQ MEAT AND COLLAPSED??? HAS HE BEEN MURDERED BY ONE OF THE 'UNIDENTIFIED RUSTLINGS'?
No. 
He's actually totally enthralled with the clear sky's display of stars... He explains to us that as Tokyo is so jam-packed full of lights, he has never seen the stars and planets before!
Good Grief. Thankfully, he's still alive and kicking, although slightly miffed as he's missed out on a 5th marshmallow. 
I couldn't help wondering how I would have explained to the school and his parents that the Friendships had 'lost' their Japanese exchange student? Hmmm...