Mrs_Banjer's EdTech 365/2010

30/365 Saturday 30th October 2010

2010-10-31T08:21:00.005+10:00

Mum and Dad always go to such trouble when it is their turn to share the Saturday meal. This week was a delicious spread starting with Miso soup, followed by chicken marinated in miran and sake (I think I remembered correctly) accompanied by pork in a miso broth with lots of vegetables. Truly delicious.

29/365 Friday 29th October 2010

2010-10-31T08:18:00.002+10:00

Queensland celebrated World Teachers Day today. As part of the assembly all staff received a certificate and I was one of a couple recognised for 10 years continuous service with Education Queensland. Two got medals for 20 years and the Principal received one for 25 years!

38/365 Thursday 28th October 2010

2010-10-31T08:12:00.002+10:00

I was a facilitator for DPL training at the QAHS, this is a photo of the screen whilst Adrian Greig at the Learning Innovation Centre was sharing his expertise on operating safely and ethically via iConnect.

37/365 Wednesday 27th October 2010

2010-10-31T08:05:00.002+10:00

The lovely Tanya Sutton managed to squeeze a visit in, she's touring schools on the South Coast who are exemplars of digital pedagogy. Afterwards we went to the Coffee Club to debrief and have a laugh!

36/365 Tuesday 26th October 2010

2010-10-31T07:58:00.003+10:00

I'm working with two friends from another school on a collaborative project to make using the persuasive writing we have to do in preparation for NAPLAN worthwhile! Last week we made it to the trending topics on our Department activity stream! A proud moment!

34 & 35 /365 Sunday 24th 25th October 2010

2010-10-31T07:45:00.003+10:00

I haven't kept up this week, it's report writing time so there will be a couple of last minute photos added. This is Chunkmeister, our Tonkinese cat surveying the kitchen. He is a moany cat, always on the scrounge for biscuits!

33/365 Saturday 23 October 2010

2010-10-24T08:07:00.002+10:00

Out for dinner last night with Twitter buddies.

31/365 & 32/365 - Thursday & Friday

2010-10-24T08:03:00.003+10:00

I was taking photos all day of and with the children at school. This is still a legitimate entry because it is emphasising how restricted we are at school in sharing with our global networks. With good reason, but sometimes it does create frustration.

30/365 Wednesday 20th October 2010

2010-10-24T07:56:00.005+10:00

Mum made some of her special biscuit slice, absolutely delicious, and gave me a piece for my lunch tomorrow! #goingbackintime!
An online meeting, chatting about the QSITE 2011 conference using Elluminate to connect a number of us as we sit in the comfort of our own homes!

28/365 Monday 18 October

2010-10-19T06:02:00.006+10:00

Back at the doctor's again, mum and dad inside, I waited in the carpark in a shady spot. He has a lovely garden.

27/365 Sunday

2010-10-17T22:58:00.004+10:00

Hubby and I went to the garden centre to find some ground cover plants. Didn't get any but we did find a dinosaur!

26/365 Saturday October 16th 2010

2010-10-17T22:54:00.003+10:00

A most beautiful day after two weeks of rain.

25/365 Friday October 15th 2010

2010-10-17T22:51:00.004+10:00

A couple of doctor's surgeries. On the road moving Dad between X Ray centres and doctor appointments. A stroke confirmed and advised not to fly to Japan as he had planned.

24/365 Thursday October 14th 2010

2010-10-17T22:48:00.002+10:00

I didn't get a photo. After day 2 of DPL training I got a phone call from my mum saying Dad had had a mild stroke, so I got myself over to their place.

23/365 Wednesday October 13th 2010

2010-10-17T22:39:00.002+10:00

Today and tomorrow are training days for the Digital Pedagogy Licence I am leading with three others. This photo is taken during the first day which was great, our hash tag actually became the Learning Place Activity Feed trending topic!

22/365 Bird of Paradise

2010-10-12T22:16:00.003+10:00

I noticed this beautiful flower in the shopping centre carpark near school this afternoon.

21/365 Monday, October 11 2010

2010-10-12T22:11:00.003+10:00

The weather forecast is for rain ALL week! Not the best outlook for a class of Year 2/3 children!

20/365 10th of the 10th 2010

2010-10-10T10:53:00.002+10:00

Photo taken with PhotoBooth at 10.38, wish I'd thought to do it at 10am!!

19/365 Saturday night out

2010-10-10T10:49:00.002+10:00

Spent the day updating on the role of the sessional tutor at Griffith University, darling hubby sent a text message to say we were out on a date at 5.30 pm! We went to Caxton Street for dinner then on to The Barracks for a movie - he has been busting to take a coffee in to drink whilst viewing and sit in comfy seats!

18/365 Friday 8th October

2010-10-10T10:47:00.001+10:00

It was a long day on Friday, decided on noodles for dinner.

17/365 In the blink of an eye!

2010-10-07T18:08:00.003+10:00

BEFORE

Just as well I took a photo this morning of the construction progress so far of our new school hall. This afternoon a completely different picture unfolded, incredible progress in six hours!
AFTER

16/365 The Delhi Games have started...

2010-10-06T20:34:00.003+10:00

We won gold for cycling!

15/365 Tuesday Back in the swing of it all...

2010-10-05T22:23:00.002+10:00

Well, today the students are back into it. This is what my desk looks like already, a little staged with the Treasure Hunt app on the ipad open but still. A pile of books to mark already, an ipod waiting for someone to pick it up and a little bit of desk space waiting for something to fill it up!

14/365 Monday 4th October 2010

2010-10-04T19:42:00.004+10:00

First day back at school, we had the ipad, ipod and laptops out today to help remember passwords. Funny how many forget a couple of numbers over the two week break. After a lovely day with my class I went on to a QSITE Gold Coast meeting but was the only person there until 4.25 pm when my good friend Jenni was able to get there! We had a great chat about our online project, please contact me if you would like to get involved in exchanging postcards with a class in Australia. The goal is to practise using persuasive text in a worthwhile activity.

A lovely long cup of lemon iced tea to soothe my throat after a hot first day back at school.

13/365 Last Sunday at end of the holiday

2010-10-03T14:08:00.004+10:00

Tomorrow is the return to school, Term 4, 2010. Today, the last day we have to relax, my husband and I decided to move the furniture around so my computers have relocated from what was the study (and which has become somewhere to watch the telly) into our son's old room. He left home and joined the Navy so we only see him once in a blue moon (we still have the mattress for him to sleep on when he does visit.)

12/365 Saturday 2nd October 2010

2010-10-03T08:12:00.003+10:00

A happy day spent wandering around the shops with my darling husband. We haven't had the time to do this for so long! We were looking for a seat to replace the bean bag our cat destroyed when it was accidentally locked into the study for a day! The damage could have been oh so much worse!!

11/365 Friday 1st October 2010

2010-10-03T07:48:00.006+10:00

Sharing a global project that is starting as soon as we return to school tomorrow!

Friday was an exciting day, I am part of a small team in the QSITE Gold Coast chapter are re-establishing the branch, raising the profile of the organisation as a quality source of professional development in digital pedagogy. Friday was the day we offered our first holiday PD, labelled the guru session (see 24th September for the advertising flyer).

This photo is a montage of a number of photos I took through the day to allow those in my PLN unable to attend to share in what we were doing. If you would like to watch some of the UStream videos click HERE. Unfortunately mine and a couple of others did not save properly... maybe next time my words will go global!

To see more photos from the QSITE Gold Coast PD click HERE.

10/365 Thursday 30th September Early to rise

2010-09-30T21:05:00.003+10:00

Had another trip to Garden City for lunch with friends. I got this artistic photo as they were going down the escalator.

9/365 Wednesday 29th September Trip to Chermside

2010-09-30T05:15:00.004+10:00

Today I was looking for an adventure. We have stayed at home again this holiday so I have been updating planning, preparing for a PD session tomorrow and not a lot else. My daughter and I went for a drive to Chermside to have a look at the Apple store over there. It was lovely! Nice shiny bright things. I like the keyboard for the iPad, will get one sometime. The staff there were really helpful too, I was shown how to create a new network for when I am presenting using Keynote and my iphone. I got caught short in Mackay because there was no wifi access in the room. Apparently that isn't a problem, will let you know tomorrow if this new trick works!

Husband about to go back to work.

8/365 28th September 2010

2010-09-28T08:48:00.002+10:00

Today began at 4.30 am when poor old hubby had to get up for work. For some reason planning ideas were milling around in my head and I have been on the computer for a few hours now. @jnxyz posted an early morning photo on his Posterous blog so I did the same on FaceBook. This holiday has been grey and damp for the two weeks, the forecast has it going over into next week as well when we are back at school. Hope it clears up soon!

7/365 27th September 2010

2010-09-28T08:35:00.007+10:00

After a trip to the tax agent, who did not calculate the amount I was expecting (mental note to self, stop spending money that you are not going to see again!) daughter and I went to the post office to pick up my new Twitter t-shirt then on to Garden City. We found Christmas has already started at DJs and went to Maccas on Logan Road for a cup of tea to get over the shock!

Photos will be uploaded when the computer finds the images in iphoto. For some reason it can't see them when I click on Browse to upload them, but it has the ones I added to Events before and ones after in the list. Bizarre.

(Link from YFrog, can't find it through Events.)

6/365 26 September 2010

2010-09-28T08:30:00.003+10:00

Hubby has been waiting for The Girl Who Played with Fire to hit the cinemas, so we went last night which meant that we missed out on our weekly visit to my parents for dinner. Instead we went round on Sunday and were treated to a delicious turkey mince meat loaf. This is a picture of Dad showing my husband how to make the perfect cup of coffee afterwards.

6/365 26th September 2010

2010-09-28T08:19:00.002+10:00

We don't pay for TV, there are too many ads. Every once in a while we have a visit to JB HiFi to choose a new series to watch, this time it was Six Feet Under. There are five series on the shelves of that one, so we should be entertained for a while with that one.

5/365 25th September 2010

2010-09-28T08:11:00.004+10:00

The Ikea catalogue arrived so we went with everyone else from Brisbane to have a look at the specials. Even though the car park was chock a block, we found a spot fairly close to the doorway and managed to escape quite quickly through the payment queue as they have a number of self serve areas too. Hubby was sad though, he didn't get his free coffee for joining the "Ikea Family". The line up for that was just toooo long!

4/365 24th September 2010

2010-09-28T08:06:00.003+10:00

Can you believe it! I got the previous days' photos up and forgot to carry through for the current day. I was on the computer for a lot of the day anyway. One of the jpegs I did create was a copy of the flyer for the QSITE holiday get together that the Gold Coast chapter is organising.

That will have to go up later, I'm on dial up speed. Both my daughter and I have been busy online for the past week so the limit is maxed.

3/365 23 September 2010

2010-09-24T09:34:00.004+10:00

Went round to mum and dad's for breakfast in the morning. As I was about to get into the car we noticed a frilly lizard under the door. Haven't seen one for ages, our dog chases everything away and I suppose the cats that are allowed to roam get the others.

2/365 Wednesday 22 September 2010

2010-09-24T09:29:00.002+10:00

Ooops, late again. Doesn't bode well for keeping up with this does it!

I'll put a photo here later.

Holidays again...

2010-09-21T13:52:00.013+10:00

September holidays are here at last, two weeks to catch up on images not uploaded since January! I've let my Flickr subscription lapse too and photos are not displaying as a result. Will have to get that sorted pronto! Maybe I should move on, not try to backtrack. What do you think?

The holiday has started slowly. As per normal I had an assignment to complete, only 1 1/2 subjects to go now until I have finished the MEd (Technology). That was uploaded by midday then I had time to watch a bit of telly before I went out for dinner at Ahmets at Southbank. Donna Benjamin is up from Melbourne and staying at Vicky's to chat about the QSITE web site. The evening was spent discussing firewalls, open source software, set up of the web site and some mention of serious gaming.

Trip to the podiatrist

2010-01-28T22:48:00.003+10:00

This looks more intimidating than it is. Went to the podiatrist and now my feet are "happy as" I've been visiting Glenn for a couple of years now. It is lovely sitting in the quiet, air conditioned room chatting as he works on my feet to keep them fit and healthy.

27th January

2010-01-28T22:28:00.002+10:00

After all of the children had gone, the empty lanes leading to the front gate and home...

Australia Day

2010-01-26T16:06:00.002+10:00

Spent the morning on my computer updating my Cybrary BlackBoard VCR then husband and daughter and I drove down to Surfers Paradise for lunch. It was gorgeous and lovely to see so many families out enjoying the Australia Day holiday. Games of cricket, flags flying from cars and tied around people's necks, very patriotic.

We had lunch at Broadbeach SLSC and I took four photos using my iphone. I then pulled them into an app called Autostitch and that pulled them together to make a panorama shot. Not too bad for a phone camera.

Back to school

2010-01-25T21:58:00.002+10:00

Today was the second pupil free training day before the children return from summer holidays. It was so hot, I missed my air con! Fortunately my daughter was home and willing to go to our favourite coffee shop for a cold drink.

Relaxing Sunday driving around Brisbane

2010-01-24T17:05:00.004+10:00

Our daughter needed a lift to a gig she was taking photos at in the Valley so my husband and I cruised around in the air con, occasionally parking if we found a shady spot. I have to add a couple of photos today because I want to remember the best ones.

We had a look in at the Mac shop near the Valley, didn't have a lot of stock on display but we could both have spent quite a bit of time and money in there!

Then on to Portside, Hamilton where the cruise ships dock. Had fish and chips there which wasn't the best but a stroll down to the water picked us up.

Cup of tea at The Black Cat in Paddington after we'd mooched around the book shop upstairs. The houses on that side of town are lovely, very narrow but long and amazing back yards.

Then on up Mt Coot-Tha to have a look at the panorama around Brisbane. We found a parking spot right at the top and in the shade, just before a coach load of tourists disembarked.

Thought this might make a good shot for a focus to write about - long straight path into a wooded area - where does it lead, who has gone down there before us ...

23rd January 2010

2010-01-24T11:58:00.002+10:00

One of the most contentious statements made during the pupil free day was that we have to wear closed in shoes. It sounded like broken toes are highest on the list of claims for Workplace Health and Safety. It sounded on Facebook like most of us were out scouring the shops for cheap yet acceptable replacements for the sandals we have been wearing. The heat is the major issue for me against the decision. I will not wear tights with these shoes in this hot weather.

Anyway, I was fortunate enough to find some Colorado sandals which may just fit the bill, covered toes but sides cut out. (Note for DFO at Brisbane Airport - better signage is needed for drivers coming in on the new flyover from the Gold Coast direction! I ended up at the Domestic terminal first!)

22nd January 2010

2010-01-24T11:53:00.002+10:00

First day back at school, pupil free day. I was late for the first staff meeting as a friend and I have decided to car pool. We miscalculated how long it would take a. for her to find my house and b. for my granny driving to get us to school! Oh well, our carbon footprint has been halved.

After a hard day going through the Code of Conduct and the school Behaviour Management Policy I trotted on down to the Coffee Club to enjoy a debrief with friends from my previous school. The staff there gave the daughter of one of them balloons from one of the tables and it was gorgeous watching her laughing and interacting with these enormous inanimate objects!

21st January 2010

2010-01-24T11:05:00.003+10:00

The last day of the summer holiday. I spent most of the morning chatting with Telstra employess in various parts of the globe about the shocking service I had experienced and bemoaning our transition from Optus. I did end up staying with them because the bill I was complaining about was restored to what it should have been. How bizarre that I was fined $109 for upgrading an internet account over the internet rather than over the phone. Absolutely ridiculous.

It is apparently 43 degrees C in the southern states today. It is very humid here, but about 33ish. Summer salads are the go for meals, I have a bowl of salad made up in the fridge that I top up as I need it. The avocado goes first, then the mushrooms and cucumber pieces!

Holidays are drawing to a close...

2010-01-20T18:46:00.001+10:00

After a quick visit in to school my husband and I had lunch at Charis Seafood at Southport on the Gold Coast. Beautiful sitting next to the water. The seagulls were funny, they were literally hovering next to us as we ate begging for scraps!

19th January 2010

2010-01-19T22:43:00.002+10:00

Another day in front of the computer, without much to show for it! Daughter and I went to her school to get her senior uniform (which hadn't arrived yet) without success so we packed my husband into the car and dragged him off to Borders so she could get some school shoes from the sports shop next door.

We enjoyed a cuppa and a look around and of course our daughter walked home with the plastic bags, not us!

I noticed this sign whilst we were there as well. I always wonder what times the shops are open so this will be a useful reminder for me!

18th January 2010

2010-01-19T22:38:00.002+10:00

I was going to drive to Sydney today to take my son's toolkit back to him. He left it behind. Noone else thought it was a good idea except my daughter who was as keen as I was. I had signed up for the Digital Bootcamp at the Learning Innovation Centre which is at the University of the Sunshine Coast.

Whilst there I was shown a Kindle. My husband is very keen to get his hands on one.

One of the tasks we had during the day was to calculate the carbon footprint of our drive to the LIC.

January 17th 2010

2010-01-19T22:23:00.002+10:00

We had a lovely day sharing mum's 78th birthday. My brother's family, mine and mum & dad were at our house for a BBQ, a swim and a pavlova.

We commented on the glow from the candles!

January 16th Hard Yakka in the yard

2010-01-17T08:00:00.003+10:00

The smile is masking a thousand pains! I am obviously not someone who seeks outdoor experiences, I would by far prefer to be designing web sites or chatting online. Well the price was paid yesterday when my months/years of sedentary activity were brought to a halt with the need to assist my husband to clear up our front yard. He has been renovating our bathrooms and the pile of rubble had grown to the point where we had to do something about it. A skip was delivered and we have until Wednesday to fill it. We didn't do too bad a job, it's about 3/4 full now and there is even room to throw some other household junk lying around as well.

Today was also the day my son left to return to base for another year of service. We will hopefully see him in twelve months time for Christmas. This is two years in a row we have had him home.

January 15th Breakfast at Sirromets

2010-01-17T07:48:00.002+10:00

We had a fine dining experience to start our day. A couple of the girls I meet regularly on a Friday for coffee with, met at Sirromet winery (http://www.sirromet.com/index.html). It is the most beautiful view and the table service was wonderful. A lovely way to finish off our holidays which end for me on the 22nd when I return to school.

My husband and I both had Egg Benedict, mine was with ham, his was with smoked salmon. The poached eggs were just right, cooked but still a soft centre.

Even the coffee was presented well

Exactly one week to go...

2010-01-14T22:58:00.002+10:00

Time is flying past. Summer holidays are almost over, only one more week until we return to school. One of my goals was to master Sims3, I bought myself a copy because Joanna plays hers all the time.

Problem was, she was flicking this way and that over the screen and running her characters ragged. My poor old head got dizzy and I actually began to feel queasy. Bit like the motion sickness I experienced when playing virtual worlds during the EQ trial when we were in Active Worlds.

We bought the travel expansion pack but have been disappointed with the lack of features. There are only three countries and the landmarks (e.g. Eiffel Tower) are not there according to my daughter. I still think the original Sims was the best.

The Cubes Go Big Time!!

2010-01-13T14:31:00.002+10:00

During the last holiday I spent way too much importing a couple of Cubes products from Think Geek. They are miniature office workers who bend to your will and do whatever you tell them! I set mine up in a variety of places to attempt some amateur animating. Well of course I had to send holiday snaps to Think Geek and they have uploaded some of them to their site! My Cubes are famous!!

It's Complicated...

2010-01-12T18:38:00.005+10:00

A group of friends from the previous school I taught at met up today to go to the movies to see "It's Complicated." They came out saying it was well worth the visit. I met them for lunch afterwards as I had an appointment with the doctor, hence the BLT.

What a great bunch of girls, we've been friends for years...

Time's flying by

2010-01-11T22:48:00.006+10:00

Started off the day chatting with Adrian at the LIC on the Sunshine Coast about Kindles. He has purchased two to trial and shared the pros and cons he has experienced with it so far. It seems to me that it is a bit of a one trick pony, you can download select ebooks and newspapers from overseas. It is black and white display and I wonder if it is capable of video presentation, probably not with only 2GB memory. Adrian and I began to wonder if it would be possible to create any documents of our own to present on it. http://supergeekery.com/index.php/geekblog/comments/making_your_own_kindle_book_files This site states that it is. Will have to investigate further.

My husband and I are both on holidays at the moment, he has a fortnight to renovate the bathroom and construct an outside area, I have a week left to get myself prepared for the next school year and hopefully a final push to complete my studies for Master of Education Technology. He dragged me away from the computer for some "fresh air" at Mitre 10. I laughed - he puts his hand out to touch everything as he walks past, just like I do at Harvey Norman or a gadget shop.

The rest of the afternoon I spent tinkering with my Eeepc loading Ubuntu, an open source OS with a wealth of resources available as freeware. This is the cute screen saver. I am curious about the quality of cloud computing possible using this freely available system. It was a simple process and the change of environment is appealing - a lovely chocolate colour, clean desktop, new language to grasp. Enjoying this holiday!

Today...

2010-01-10T09:49:00.003+10:00

What's on the cards? Clearing some of the mess that has accumulated in the hallways as Ian progresses on the bathroom renovations. I am working on him to go to the movies as well, fingers crossed. Photos later!

Photo number 1. Another glorious day out there, just a bit too warm to sit in for very long!

38C by the car thermometer. Not as hot as Adelaide though, they have had temps in the 40s for the past week or so! Yuk!!

9th January

2010-01-10T09:32:00.002+10:00

Started off miserably, I had a wicked sore throat, goodness knows where I picked it up from. After a morning spent on the computer tweaking my web site and bumping up the balance of my FaceBook zoo (apologies for all of the updates - just click the "hide" button so they don't clog up your stream!) darling daughter and I went on the bus to Brisbane to hunt for The OC, season 2. JB HiFi have a 20% sale on at the moment. The city store is also charging half the price of other stores we have seen it at (Insanity had it for $81 on their shelves!!!)

During the trip I kept my Plurk buddies updated with sunny photos, most of them are in the US and experiencing blizzard conditions so I sent some rays of Brisbane sunshine their way.

My new laptop bag to carry an Eeepc or MacBook around in. The handles on the other one frayed! This one has pockets, zippered compartments for everything and even cute little characters on the zipper tags!

8th January

2010-01-10T09:19:00.002+10:00

This was probably the best day of the holiday so far! Ian and I had a hot date at the Southport Life Saving Club restaurant and then drove on to hunt for special screws to hinge the new bathroom cupboards to the wall.

We left a grey, overcast Brisbane and arrived at the Gold Coast where a blazing sun and glorious view awaited across Main Beach. Again the chips dominated our plates but the BLT sandwich was great!

Couple of happy holidaymakers!

The iPhone takes reasonably good photos using the Genius app, I like that one because I am able to add a date stamp and location.

Cumulus Nimbus clouds were worth a picture as well...

7th January

2010-01-10T09:12:00.002+10:00

On Thursday 7th I met up with work colleagues for lunch at Helensvale and we had fun recounting our adventures of the past few weeks. School resumes on 22 January and I don't think any of us are quite ready for that yet!

This was a lovely chicken burger, there really was a good portion of avocado under all that sauce although all those chips weren't necessary I suppose!

I had dropped my glasses in at the Optometrists earlier because the arm kept falling off. It was the first time in my life that a no questions asked guarantee had been fulfilled. No argument, the assistant simply took the glasses from me, hunted out a replacement frame and offered to transfer the lenses as I waited. Top marks to SpecSavers at the Hyperdome!

6th January

2010-01-10T08:45:00.002+10:00

The days are rushing past now. On the 5th I went with Ian to see the Sherlock Holmes movie, silly me, didn't take any photos though. Missed opportunities and hindsight!

On Wednesday 6th, as we walked into the shops to get a few supplies we were greeted with the bizarre sight of Easter buns. I have a friend who used to work there who said the reason they are out so early is that it is too much bother to move the stock around to fill the gaps after Christmas so they just start the next celebration! Customer demand my foot!

Australia Day is actually the next national event on the 26th January which "has traditionally marked the landing of Captain Arthur Phillip at Port Jackson in present-day Sydney, thereby claiming Australia for the British Empire" http://www.australiaday.com.au/studentresources/history.aspx

January 4th 2010

2010-01-04T11:52:00.004+10:00

Our cat Chunkmeister was sitting, staring intently out of the window in jungle mode. Occassionally he would mutter to himself as the wood pigeons called out nearby.

We have two inside cats, unfortunately we lost two others under cars hurtling down our street late at night. Lesson learned.

It's a lovely view out of the sliding door into our front yard. We are back from the street a bit so have a degree of privacy, especially being sheltered by so many trees and bushes.

January 3rd 2010

2010-01-04T11:40:00.002+10:00

We are experiencing some extreme weather here. It is either humid (enough to give me a headache) or pouring down with rain. Nowhere near as awful as it is for the people in Northern NSW or overseas where blizzards have created a white Christmas for so many people though.

www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,26550279-953,00...

www.ourbrisbane.com/weather

Still clearing up...

2010-01-02T17:33:00.002+10:00

My menfolk have moved from the palm fronds and garden rubbish around to the side of the house where some white ants had attacked wooden sleepers.

Paul is in the Navy and is on four weeks holiday. He actually appeared to be enjoying himself with his Dad doing the hard yakka and didn't even put up a fight when I got my camera out!

Their reward is a trip to the local Indian restaurant tonight, so we all benefit from their hard work.

I missed the first one! Post dated January 1st 2010

2010-01-02T14:31:00.000+10:00

What chance do I have? I forgot to post the first photo of the year even though I was chatting about it through the day with various people! Here goes, hopefully I will establish a routine and become more successful ...

The theme for the this month is Change. Our yard is left to its own devices a lot of the time. I teach full time, study online a lot of the time and am also involved in a few other projects. My poor old husband is left to do the majority of the work around the house which means that he determines the priorities - should it be the lawn mown, the bathroom renovation moved on or make a sandwich to keep the wife happy? These mangoes have blossomed on our tree despite us. I have a photo showing their progress as I was so impressed with the amount of fruit on the tree this year.