The life and times

Well it's official in my head, we are settled, we payed our rent for the second time, suddenly it feels like we are in a routine. Yep, the rent is paid and back to work we went on monday morning. After a busy weekend full of excitement shopping for baby presents and christmas presents. Yes thats right christmas in august. I don't believe i have started my shopping ever in my life before the 21st of december, so you can imagine the look on my face when shauna said "this would be perfect for a christmas gift, i'm going to get it." I checked the date on my phone just to be sure, and thought to myself better sooner then later. So that was our saturday afternoon, shopping in the busiest shopping district in melbourne, bourke street.

the closest thing to a farm in the middle of melbourne is the queen victoria market which i made a visit to earlier on saturday. This is where i heard the phrase "chicken duck" for the first time in my life. a full grown chinese man was certain he sees a chicken duck. i had to stop and look, i mean i saw a chicken, and i saw a duck, but for some reason i couldn't find the chicken duck. So we have taken farm kid from his rural routes in huron county and stuck him in a city full of people that have never seen a a cow, only heard of them.(or a chicken duck for that matter) It would be safe to say that was the most homesick i have been in quite some time.

Non the less we are figuring things out bit by bit here,somethings easier then other. for example, on friday night we decided to go for something to eat at a restaurant we had seen in the casino, looked like a great place to grab a few drinks and some food. so it's quite busy on a friday night, after a 40 minute wait at the bar we get our seats and menu's given to us. we sit and wait for 10 minutes or so, when one of finally say geez i know there busy but this service really sucks. 5 minutes later," even if were suppose to tip them here i don't think we would." then finally shauna clues into the trend, either everyone is getting the shaft or maybe we are suppose to go up and order. ding! ding! ding!. that's why our service sucks, because we are our own service and we are just sitting there waiting for someone to take care of us. i guess this might have something to do with "no tipping" thing here in australia. no tip for you.

My new work place is working out pretty good so far, we are making some major changes to the house so there's lots of work there. other then the fact that these guys can't get over the fact that i wear gloves when i am doing certain jobs like ripping and tearing, and the canadian/newfie jokes things are pretty good. i mean the joke's were funny the first couple days, but really day 11, come on. there isn't much more to talk about on our site then footy and canadians lately. so i am hoping that some kid shows up from USA or somewhere soon, it would take the heat off of me.

Well if it wasn't for shauna's lack of direction i think she would have been enjoying here days teaching here to a maximum. The other day last week she called me at about 835 telling me she was lost. no idea on how to get to her school, and she was already 5 minutes late. well i felt terrible seeing as that i thought the night before we had hammered things out pretty good. at that moment i remember thinking " i really should have made sure she knew the way." in any event she had called a cab and was waiting for him at the side of real busy road, and i was sure by the sound of her voice she was almost in tears. it all worked out in the end she made it there just as the bell rang, and other then setting the pace for a long day, she made it through it.

Monday morning she was called back to the same school that she lost her way to late last week, at least she knows her way this time. the only thing that can go wrong here is if she misses trian. i guess that's a possibility, what a way to start the week late for the same school again. cab driver to the rescue, since he already knew the way, she was there good and early.

today her class was in a far away school again, a different setting. of course she was a little scared of getting lost again. but she made it safe and sound. that was least of her problems as she had her hands full will a classroom that had 5 special need kids and no aid to assist her. that made for a long excruciating day. some days those kids would be tough enough to handle with here aid there to help her, but i can't imagine how tough it would be in a new school with no help and desperately needing it. so i thought on the way home she deserved some flowers to try and cheer her up. i think it worked. i think she is hoping the phone doesn't ring tomorrow morning and she maybe just has a day off for once. in the mean time they are calling for cool wet windy conditions for the next 24 hours, so i think i am going down to get her a umbrella for the walk tomorrow if needed,cause i kinda of like her,and i would hate for the poor girl to have three bad days in a row. she is all smiles tonight, and i would like to keep it that way for the rest of the week.