Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Lots of posts from me - what's that about?

Today was a bit of a milestone, and an anticlimax all in one - if that's possible. The really good news? I now have my teaching number, which means I can officially teach primary school children in NSW and get paid for it! The eighteen months of study has paid off and now I'm let loose on the real teaching world. I may get a full time job offer for 2008, but it's about a 1:5 chance so I'm not holding my breath. Meantime, there should be plenty of casual work available for Term 4 (starting mid October) so that should keep me out of mischief meantime. However first I intend to have some time off doing nothing but Davie things.

The anticlimactic part? I was offered paid work for tomorrow and Friday, but my teaching number came through too late to accept it. Bugger. Mind you, the school is still keen to have me for next term on a casual basis, and I'm going to their end of term meal/booze up on Friday so it's all good. Today did involve me heading out to Blacktown (about an hour on the train); waiting for 1.5 hours to get served by their customer service rep only to be told I needed another document from Uni; another hour on the train this time to my old work at Qantas where I finally officially resigned (they'd kindly let me have leave without pay to study); to Uni to get said document faxed off; and finally home.

*Stop the press*
My school have just called to offer me the two days paid work - woohoo! I'm really teaching to earn my keep! Yeehah! Wonder which class I'll get tomorrow!

So what do you call it when your anti-climax gets reversed? I'm not sure I should be saying I've just now had a climax...

Monday, September 24, 2007

What a difference a week makes! And what little difference 3 years make! Read on...

I left you a week ago having not really done much stuff this time Monday night. However miracle of miracles I managed to knuckle down and so when a mate came over for dinner Tuesday night I was all but finished my full report. I even amazed myself as that's not even due in until this Friday! From the full report it was relatively straightforward to précis that down to a Powerpoint presentation and so by Wednesday mid-arvo I was done, dusted, finished and able to walk away from the whole thing for the evening. Very cool. Thursday was the post-Internship conference and I presented everything at around noon. Woohoo! Thursday night I printed everything else off and by Friday afternoon I had completely finished my Masters course (assuming the final report makes the grade). Almost unbelievable. The last eighteen months have really flown!

Yesterday was another interesting day, but for completely different reasons. Some of you reading this may remember I got into running when I last moved back to Oz in 2002-2004; completing 2 x 10K runs, 2 x City to Surf 14K runs and 2 x half marathons. I was pretty into it and only stopped when I got shin splints and then when I met Craig and started the uni course the running went by the wayside. Well my mate Muz persuaded me to do the 9K Bridge run and I took it as a way to kick-start my running career again. I had hoped to get in some decent training, but due to teaching, the uni stuff and some badly timed hayfever and/or headcold symptoms it just didn't happen. So my preparation for yesterday's race was a 3K run last Wednesday; a 5K run last Friday and then the actual race! Miraculously I did the whole thing without stopping and thanks to Muz's pace-making we came in at just under 52mins for just under 10K (according to Muz's iPod). I was really amazed how my much body remembered and readjusted as I'm not even sore today at all. Weird. Hats off to Muz too, as it was the furthest he'd ever run and a personal goal for him ticked off. Way to go mate!

Today ended up as a great impromptu day too. Caught up with Bobby and another mate Brett for coffee and ended up at the Coogee Bay Hotel for lunch and beers. Noice. Since then the day's been very chilled and has involved lots of cups of tea and searching the interwebnet for stuff. And here I am. Soon-ish to bed. I'm off this week if my teaching number doesn't get sent to my by the Department of Education. If it does I'm up for some casual work - if not it'll be mid October as it's end of term this week. Fingers crossed, but either way I'm going to make sure I enjoy the first time off I've had in two years ;o)

Monday, September 17, 2007

I sometimes find it amazing how I can find so many useless things to do when I've got some uni work to do. Right now I'm working on my action research project for my Masters. Allegedly. Today I had a leisurely start to the day, stopping for breakfast in the city. I didn't actually put fingers to keyboard until around 11.30am, and was over at the Metro centre having lunch only some two hours later! Bumping into a colleague only wasted a bit more time, and then it's amazing what else you can find on the interwebnet to keep you amused...

I even watched Australian Idol.

And then I came across a blog post from someone that just made me a little pensive. When someone else bares their soul a little it can often trigger stuff for me if pertinent, and this particular post certainly was. I'm not going to say much more than that for now, as my project research is still looking at me somewhat blankly. However let's just say I'm grateful for what I know and what I'm learning... and there's plenty still to come.

With a knowing nod and glass raised to the author... "To adventure and misadventure."

Bring it on.

Thursday, September 13, 2007

September already eh? Haven't really had much time to myself lately, but that's all been in a good way. Finally online at (new) home, which helps.

So, the teaching practicum finishes tomorrow. The last nine weeks have really flown. So now it's head down to write the mini-thesis which I have to present on Thursday/Friday next at our post-intership conference. Then that's it. I'm on the open job market pretty much ready for term 4, which starts mid-October. This means I'll finally get chance to have a real holiday. Sigh. Can't wait.

Settling into the house properly now. Have even been cooking, plus the telly and CD player were returned from being fixed today. Woohoo! House warming and meal invites going out soon...

In other news... ;o) Going to keep that one under my hat. It just seems appropriate for now, but it's all good. Better than good. Almost incredible. Suffices to say I'm happy though... oh yes.

More soon, probably in between cups of tea instead of doing the thesis - I know what I'm like!!!

Tuesday, September 04, 2007

Ah. Well my archives are back which is good. Now I just have to sort out the formatting... :o)

One step at a time!