Job!!

I've only gone and got a bloomin' job... really pleased actually.  When we first arrived in Australia, I was taking some supply/relief teaching work through an agency but it turned out to be very sparse indeed. I was becoming really bored at home so took a 12 week job at the local tennis club which I LOVED although I missed being in the class room with the kids. So, I decided around 3 weeks ago to make a real concerted effort to get back in to teaching.  
I contacted schools individually and met with principals all over the Sunshine Coast 'selling my wares'.  This brought up much more supply work than through the agency and it's good when you've been at a school a couple of times as they begin to get to know you (both the staff and the students).  I then had a call on Monday from a school 15 mins drive from here (that's soooooooo close here in Australia!) offering me a 3-day a week contract between now and Christmas initially, looking to extend after that. I started yesterday and I am teaching English to low-ability students. Met them all yesterday and know we're going to have fun... 'Lively' is a word that springs to mind, although all of the year 10s thanked me for teaching them and asked me to 'promise' that I would stay until Christmas as they were fed up with teachers leaving all the time. 
Really pleased.  
We will have been in Australia a year next month and we're finally 'getting it together'. It's been tough, we've missed our friends and I know we'll have other 'hurdles', but at the moment, life is very good indeed! :)

Kids are Funny

Yesterday, I spent the day teaching in the Special Education Department of a local school. Great fun and very funny.  We did some number work, made pizzas for lunch, painted some goods to sell at the Eumundi Markets and finished the day with some board games.  One of the students was very keen to play SCRABBLE (one of my faves!), so we duly hauled it out, set ourselves up with 7 tiles each and then got down to trying to spell some good 'uns.  The young lady who had suggested playing the game suddenly exclaimed that she had a 7-letter word.  We watched in awe as she placed the word down on the board: D R G A A C K... I then explained that 'DRGAACK' wasn't a word that I had ever heard of.  She became quite huffy telling me, 'You and your silly British rules; we've never had to put real words down before!'.

Voting in Queensland

We are Australian residents.  When we have been living in Australia for 4 years, we will be eligible to become Australian Citizens which will then enable us to vote. Voting is compulsory!  We have just received a 'Failure to Vote Notice' for a previous tenant of the property we're presently renting who appears to have forgotten to advise the Electoral Commission of his whereabouts and  who failed to vote in the Queensland State General Election in March this year.  If he is unable to come up with a valid reason for not voting: he faces a fine of $100!

work, koalas, pythons and kangas...

I decided to have another push at the supply teaching and contacted a few schools just outside of the Sunshine Coast area.  Seems to have come good and 2 schools have called me several times over the last couple of weeks for work.  I actually worked 4 days this week which is brilliant. There's a bit of a flu epidemic here in Queensland at the moment which seems to be working in my favour on the teaching front! Funny though, as found myself teaching not just English, but; golf (!), German (!), maths (!!) and History.  Yesterday, whilst 'teaching' golf, we were interrupted by a family of kangaroos on the oval.  The joey became separated from its mother, who was getting a bit frantic.  The students managed to persuade the joey to jump the school fence to be reunited with mum. Good fun. 
Jeff had an animal-filled week in Noosa too.  He spotted a koala in the tree near where he's working and one of his work-mates had to 'capture' a rogue python from the building next door!

Differences...

Jeff gets paid weekly here in Oz, as do most trades.  Teachers are paid fortnightly. Rent is paid weekly.  The country would be brought to its knees if it was any different.  I was chatting about it with a teacher on Friday whose mouth dropped open in disbelief when I told them that most jobs in the UK are paid monthly!
Water rates are payable 3-monthly, although if you're renting, you're only only liable for 'excess water charges', which normally means if you have a pool or similar.  Electricity bills are 3 monthly too and there is no gas; only bottled. We don't pay council rates in rented accommodation.
There are no postal deliveries at the weekends and your mail is delivered by a yellow-clothed person on a motorbike.  You are able to learn to drive at 16 years of age (!) here in Queensland.  Petrol prices can change over a matter of hours; particularly at weekends.  I filled up the car at 4.30pm on Friday at $1.22 per litre and at 7pm, it had gone up to $1.45! You really have to time when you visit the petrol station.
Supermarkets don't sell booze, you need to go to a bottle shop.  One of the supermarkets locally has just started selling clothes which is a real novelty for the locals.  There are no real 'pubs' here where we live.  There are food establishments which have bars.  The hotels generally have a courtesy bus to take you to and from the place too! We certainly wouldn't want to lose our driving licences here.  If you're even just having one drink, it's never worth it: I suppose that's the same all over the world though!!

Day to Day...

Lovely weekend... Oli is playing tennis in a Junior Development series.  This weekend's location was Clive Palmer's (mining magnate here in Oz) resort in Coolum: lovely jubbly (although the food was a smidge expensive!). Oli did well on Saturday, winning one match and then taking 2 games from the top guy who beat Oli last time without Oli winning a game.  The lad lives 50 kilometres inland (middle of nowhere) and has never had a tennis lesson in his life. His dad downloads drills on YouTube and uses a ball machine on the scrub outside their home. Lovely family who asked if Oli would play doubles with their son as they think that Oli is such a 'polite, enthusiastic young man'!!!!!
Oli should have played on Sunday but his knees just wouldn't work: bit of a lesson for Oli to remember to warm up and keep warm during breaks.
He did seem a bit better this morning and has just cycled off to school. He's too big for his own bike now so we've given him Jeff's mountain bike. We spent ages last night explaining that he needs to be much more careful on the bigger bike and not to race/watch out for cars on the estate etc...  I have just watched him leave: racing the kid next door in the middle of the road...

Holidays...

In the second week of Oli's school hols. He goes back on Monday to start term 3 (11 week term without a break: eek!). Brought home his report at the end of term 2: straight As bless him: warranted a new tennis racquet!!  He was over the moon. 
Rained all last week.  Friends of ours called in to stay for a few nights and didn't see the sun once!  Thankfully, the warm stuff arrived on Friday and Oli and I have managed to get out and enjoy it. Warm during the day (22 degrees) but, as it's winter,  now dropping to 6 or 7 degrees at night which is a challenge with no central heating or double glazing! It's good to experience the change in seasons though as didn't expect it. 
Jeff and Oli went off to see the Sunshine Coast Stingrays (rugby union) achieve their first win this season: great game by all accounts. I was catching up with the washing and ironing after all that rain! I know how to live... 
Jeffers still working hard on contract in Noosa: heaps of work which is brilliant: just a pain for him to get out of bed at 5am every morning! It's still dark at this time of the year although he's far from the only person on the road at that time of the day.  
End of Aussie tax year on the 30th of June so in the process of getting all the paperwork together for the tax peeps. I have saved heaps of receipts as was told to do so: will be good if we get something back :)