random picture sunday

...because who doesn't like a new feature? Ha, not that it'll be lasting, but I feel like saying something, and don't have much to say,

That being said, though, Nic and I went to the Melbourne Zoo yesterday to check out their wedding bonanza, and it's awesome. The room which would fit our guests is small and intimate and has a beautiful 'rainforest' outlook and MONKEYS. Yes. We will dine with monkeys. The room felt a little dark, but it was done up for a cocktail wedding at the time and not decorated or anything so might be 'brighter' when there's tables and candles and flowers and stuff....
Also, the ceremony would be in a pretty little grassy area with a tree and bushes all around, and they're apparently going to make it much much prettier between now and our wedding date, so YAY. And they fence it off to the public while you have your ceremony. PLUS, then you get to waltz around the zoo with your photographer and get photos with animals in the background, and trees, and Japanese gardens, and climbing a massively old fig tree and pretending to ride elephant statues and all sorts of things, PLUS imagine the puns!!! Oh, the puns. PLUS, you can pay more for an 'animal experience' so rather than standing around drinking and eating canapes, you can stand around drinking and eating canapes with SUMATRAN TIGERS IN THE BACKGROUND GETTING FED. Yes. And if all that hasn't EXPLODED your brain by now (and my use of caps, italics and bold is surely about to), if we book before the end of the year I GET TO FEED AN EDIBLE BOUQUET TO A GIRAFFE. Yes. A giraffe. "Don't stick your neck our for us- we'd love you have you at the wedding" (This chick doesn't look so thrilled about the giraffe, but I will be.)
So... the challenge for Nic and I will be balancing the right amount of cheese and hilarity, with the right amount of not-going-over-board. So far I want everything to be animal/zoo themed, which, having had a look around the internet last night, people seemed to think would be 'tacky'. I know I'm not meant to take the advice of the internet so, friends- is there such a thing as over embracing the zoo theme?
Also, the cost of the zoo is a bit more than we had wanted....
But...

I bring your attention back to the giraffe, and the sumatran tigers.


Finally, here is the random picture for today, because it always makes me laugh, and I don't understand who, in this tiny little fishing town on the north cost of Washington state, thought this was a reasonable idea.

There is also a female version in a bikini. That might be next time's photo. 

what about me??

This is kind of how I feel.

So the first one of my cohort just got offered a job. In the interview.
I'm more that a bit frustrated, to tell truth...
I volunteered/am still volunteering at a primary school, which she did not...
I actually taught numeracy and other subjects, when her last placement was in a French immersion school meaning she only taught literacy...
I've sent in 33 damn job applications (don't know how many she applied for) and haven't been shortlisted or given an interview.
And look, she's lovely, and great, but I'd at least like to get a stupid interview somewhere.
And if my application is no good, I'd appreciate it if the 2 experienced teachers/teaching coaches I showed it to would tell me so I could fix it, because according to them, it's fine.
So...
That's my whinge. I know I should ask her if I can read her application, but it seems too personal of a request. Maybe I'll ask anyway.

(Also I might be a little peeved because I'm really competitive and kind of wanted to be the first one to post *GOT A JOB!!!* on Facebook and show everyone how superior I am at life,  but now I won't be the first because she beat me to it.)

every day i'm shufflin'

via weheartit

Last night was the wedding of my cousin - I mentioned it in an earlier post. Here's my thoughts:
The ceremony, conducted by a rabbi in a synagogue was funny. Like, best rabbi ever. A sweet ceremony, where they didn't dwell on the formalities, but cracked jokes. I also am weirdly attracted to blessings/things being sung rather than said. I missed the couple sharing vows (particularly since my cousin, the bride, didn't say anything during 'their' speech either) as I reckon it's probably really sweet when they're written by each other, but it was still lovely.
The reception was full, and it was a bit out of order from what normally happens (opening with drinks on the patio, then the traditional Jewish dance, which was omg so much fun and went on forever... but my mother and I circled, stood on people's feet, spun, got trampled by the guys, got hot and sweaty and sore feet, and kept going and going. I told Nic I want it. If I want anything that harks back to whatever Jewishness I can claim, I want that dance.
Then entree, then speeches, then dinner by 9 (finally!), then dancing. Oh, lord, the dancing. I got Nic up and we danced. Then Mum came up and she dances like Elaine from Seinfeld (bit uncoordinated), but I shook my booty, shuffled to that LMFAO song, had Nic in hysterics, and well, felt like I looked pretty damn fine.
I also spoke with my brother (he's 3 years younger than me) more than I think I have in the last, I dunno, 20 years. I may have convinced him to come meet Darcy and then for us to all go and get pancakes but I'm not sure if he's ready to accept that being friends/close with your sister isn't that uncool, and that I might actually be fun to hang out with sometimes.
But oh, the dancing. I quickly switched from wedges (ladies, I don't wear heels. Like, ever. Not even small ones. I rarely wear ballet flats. So, the fact that I stayed in wedges for a good few solid hours including dancing is a feat (ha. ha. get it? because i'm talking about shoes) to comfortable shoes.

It's all made me sort of question (as weddings are wont to do) what we want from ours. Dancing was such a blast- my cousin barely left the dance floor. So maybe there is a re-evaluation in needing to spend money on setting that up- either with a DJ or a band... instead of an ipod... That being said, the atmosphere with 300 people is going to be remarkably different to the atmosphere with 50 people.
Then I think about running away and getting married, but I think I'd like to have the party. I think... when we have a location set, it'll be easier. I'll know what kinds of invites to look for, dresses, etc...
I was talking to Nic about the ZOO the other day again (shouldn't the word zoo be all in capitals. Anyone?) and coming up with some great animal puns that could go on our invites if we got married there. [warning: puns ahead]

How about these:
We couldn't bear for you to miss it!
You'll have a roaringly good time.
Come and see us seal the deal!
We ain't lion, it's going to be great!
It'll be wild!
Don't monkey around, come to our wedding!
Don't be a cow, come to our wedding (ah ha. Ok so there aren't cows in the zoo, whatever.)
We'll have a whale of a time (no whales either, whatever, don't care).
Come join Nic & Em for a beary special event.
Come and see the mane event at our wedding.

And so on.
And so forth.
On that note, it's certainly time for bed now. I've exhausted my brains trying to remember/think of those puns. Definitely need to organise a trip to the zoo sometime soon to see if I can put any of them into action.

water spray: 6, Darcy: 0

Darcy just turned 6 months old.
I think he's going through that super-annoying teenage phase.
I vaguely recall it happening to Mia, but for her it was more about trying to escape out the back door than much else that was too annoying. Maybe I've blocked it out of my mind, I'm not sure.
This morning I was woken up at 6.30 (it's Sunday, by the way) by a rattly mouse being played with. On the bed.
Then he was trying to destroy our poor fern, so I had to get out of bed so I could stop him (the fern is already missing half its leaves because they've been bitten off).
So I'm sitting here in clear view of this plant, and an electrical wire that runs along the floor nearby... and Darcy INSISTS on going back and trying to either- play with the fern, eat the fern, play in the dirt of the fern's pot, or playing with the electrical wire.
We have a water-bottle spray system that worked quite well for Mia, where if she did something naughty, she'd get sprayed. She doesn't tend to be too naughty now, at least while we're around.
Unfortunately, although Darcy runs off, he's been sprayed 6 times for fern-related offences this morning, and keeps going back for more. I don't think the spray has the same effect on him as it does on Mia.
So, I'm hoping he goes through this period quickly and becomes a lovely and friendly and cuddly cat. Stupid teenage phase! There's a reason I don't want to teach high-school kids!

In other news, Mallei ate cat poo last night.
What is wrong with our animals?????


(also, sorry this blog has become all about the animals, but my life is animals, and applying for jobs. I have 12 government/public primary school teaching jobs to apply for next week, and the same again the week after. SO much fun.)

weight off my shoulders...

Funny story, actually. I was in the grade 4/5/6 classroom this afternoon and they were doing maths. I kind of felt like every answer I gave was like this one. I am so no good at maths. I did however manage to work out that 3km=300,000cm. But damn that took a lot of brain power. I kind of wanted to ask the rain-man autistic kid for help, but I think that would have been inappropriate and maybe not sent the right message about my competency to become a teacher....

I went back to school today, where I did my 5 weeks of rounds during term 3.

I had decided that in order to get more experience teaching, while I wait to be a registered, qualified teacher, I might as well head back and volunteer. Since they know me there, and I know the kids, I figured I'd be able to pretty much jump back in.

And I'll tell you what, it was fantastic to be able to just hang out, help out, check work, give help... without stressing about assignments in the back of my mind. Without worrying if I needed to collect work samples, or if I was doing enough, or the right thing, or what I needed to put in my reflective journal when I got home.
Nope.
I just did what I wanted. Then, when the teachers ran out of stuff to do and the classroom was too hot and they were just going to go read in the shade.... I went home. Because there were no rules to say I couldn't. My mentor teacher was super grateful for all my help, and said I was welcome to drop in whenever I want. So, the more I go, the better it looks on my resume, and the more exposure to different things I get. I suppose, as a teacher, it would be SO good to have helpers- particularly people who know what they're doing. The kids who really needed help and one on one attention got it, my mentor didn't have to worry about checking to make sure kids were working cos I could do that... I figure when I get my own class, I might go back to my University and raid a class of 4th year Bachelor of ed students, see if they want to volunteer to help me (looks good on their resume and they learn a lot, too), and then I can have helpers while I learn how to teach properly.

I think with all the finishing assignments, stressing about jobs and money, applying for job after job after job, seeing the same BS written on almost every school website... I was starting to feel a bit disillusioned. Like: is this what I want to do? And maybe it's not what I want to do forever... I don't think it will be enough for me to do forever... but for now...
And going in today, I feel better. I hadn't wanted to ask anybody from my cohort if they ever question whether this is what they want. I'm not sure why. Maybe I don't want the: "Why not!? You'll be a great teacher!" talk... or maybe I don't want them to think I wasted the last 2 years... Or maybe because asking was like admitting something that was too scary to admit.
But I think it will be ok. I hope I get a good school where they look after me, where I can do interesting things and have fun with my kids. Well, maybe I shouldn't worry about that so much just yet, and focus on actually getting a job in the first place.

the kittens... my god, the kittens.

I don't know what I did wrong in life to end up with two kittens, or who decided it was a good idea, but I could do without the 7am zoomies on and over the bed, the consistent digging around under furniture to get to a lost toy mouse, the having to stickytape carboard to the bottom of each whitegood we own (otherwise too many toys go under), the continual tripping over Darcy as he inevitably positions himself directly behind you when you're in the kitchen, AGAIN....

I AM glad, however, that neither of them seems to need brushing (not sure what that's about,  but it's a win for lazy people), they don't seem to cough up hairballs, and 6am (touch wood) is the earliest we get woken up by their antics (I've read horror stories of people being woken up at 4am).

On Sunday, Nic and I are going to my cousin's wedding, from the 'rich side' of my family. The ceremony is in a synagogue. I think the only synagogue I've been in was in Krakow- a tiny little affair in the old 'jewish part' of the city before the holocaust. I ate a tasty bagel around there though... anyhoo. So, it's apparently going to be quite orthodox, her dress apparently costs a fortune, the reception is being held at the yacht club (and the ceremony is at 2, reception at 6.30.... I didn't think it was normal to have such a huge gap between events...?) and Mum suspects she's invited 500 people. That being said, looking on the yacht club's website, you really can't trust my mother and her judgey-judgementalism, because the club can only seat 300 people, so unless my cousin is leaving 200 people at the ceremony/standing outside/waiting on the beach, I don't think she's having 500 people. So I'm trying not to get all judgey-judgementalism ala my mother, because my cousin is going to be having this outrageously expensive wedding that's going to be so traditional, because that's what she wants, so good for her... but it's still... difficult. Like, if she's spent $10k on her dress (again, my mother making these claims, so let's take them with a grain of salt), that's the most I want to spend on my wedding.

It's funny though, because every time I bring up the wedding, Mum goes on and on about how fantastic her backyard BBQ spit roast was. Which is fine, because it probably was fantastic, but it's like she's trying to push me to do the same thing. Imagine if I wanted the big dress with 300 people, and the whole shebang! It's only just good enough that I want a small wedding without all the hooplah, informal... I don't even have a backyard, but she keeps going on and on, like eventually I'll wake up and go: "Actually, that's a great idea, Mum! Let me set up a marquee over my veggie patch, have a few people around for beers, and make sure I keep the car races on the TV in the background shall I?"

So hey, this post ended up being less about kittens, and more ranting about weddings & my mother.

holy bananas....

YO

Long time no see y'all.
I'm writing this as a tentative 'I might be back a bit more' thing because, I might. I'm about to graduate from my Masters, but theoretically won't have a 'real job' till term 1 next year (school starts in Feb down under) so will have plenty of time to kill between now and then AND, since I won't have assignments due any more (cue cheers), I won't have to worry about writing them, and having them sap my energy.

SO

I suppose the best place to start is a bit of a recap of the last, oh, 3 and a half months.