Instalment 28 Wednesday 4 May 2011

Today is athletics day and I've been asked to help out with the boys' high jump. We've had a fair amount of rain lately and yesterday afternoon we experienced a wild storm front. It almost looked like the athletics carnival might have to be cancelled, however, it fined up and the kids got their whole day of field events in with no problems.

The oval was really slippery and we had some spills and thrills at the high jump arena, but the boys were tough and knuckled down to have a great time. The field events went through till 1pm and then it was back to a normal day.

I fed the babies and then went to grab a bite to eat myself. Linda, a friend who teaches up in the secondary school popped down to have a cuppa with us during our lunch time. It is always good to catch up with her.

The rest of the afternoon I spent back in Writers' Circle and then at the end of the school day, I had to leave on time to go up to the secondary library to meet a new student that I was to tutor this term. I fed the babies before I left. I took the babies with me and no one was the wiser. The possums are really no trouble at all.

This first tutoring session went well and my student proved to be lovely. Once the session was over I ended up having to go back to my classroom because I'd left my keys back in my room accidentally.

I headed home and got myself ready for Book Club, which was due to start at 7:30pm. I got some dinner organised, fed the babies. My darling Kimmy kindly vacuumed the floor for me, so everything was looking lovely and spiffy. Then, Kimmy decided to whip us up a batch of home made scones...mini ones that were light and fluffy. It doesn't get much better than that.

Book club was great and we had a great discussion about this month's title: 'The Good Earth' by Pearl S. Buck. The evening was topped off with tea and coffee and warm, fresh scones.

Instalment 27 Tuesday 3 May 2011

Another trip to school, with possums in tow. They were very well behaved and I seem to be managing the feeding routine at school without any problems. I managed to get a car park a little closer to my class which helps with all the things I have to carry.

I left a little earlier for school and fed the possums after I'd set up my laptop and got my class organised. This will get the babies through till after morning tea. I have to attend a meeting all the way through morning tea, so I will feed them after that.

This is Week 2 of second term and it's the second week where I will only be able to teach Writers' Circle on one of my days because tomorrow is our Primary's athletics day. I will still be working, but doing different jobs. I spent some of today endeavouring to set up some new display areas in my classroom. The students worked hard on their Writers' Profiles and we enjoyed a good day of writing.

Instalment 20 Tuesday 26 April 2011

Well I spent most of today working on programs and lesson notes for my return to school tomorrow. Back to reality! Ouch.

I must admit I was a little nervous as to how I was going to manage the possums, as well as teach and fit in a regular working day. I nutted out exact times to feed the possums so they wouldn't impact my work commitments. But, because I am working with animals, I know at some point things may get tricky. You know what they say...never work with children or animals...and it seems I'm a sucker for punishment because I work with both!

It is a great week for my situation, though. Today is normally a paid working day for me, however, it was deemed a public holiday so I got the day off. This means Wednesday is my Monday and my Friday - for this week only.

This is a bit of a break for me, so I can now ease into this new territory calmly and make any necessary adjustments.

I enjoyed a productive day and managed to get all my preparations completed and now everything is packed and ready to go.

Both possums are fine and Tamigotchi is now officially off his medicine. Now time will tell. I weighed both the possums this evening.

Tamigotchi is now 90 grams, and little Saori, who looks like she is getting bigger, according to my scales, has not put on ANY weight! I have no idea what is going on. She still only weighs 57 grams. How can this be?

How frustrating to think she is healthy, happy, her fur is shiny, she is very alert and energetic, and she drinks all her milk so well, but yet she is not putting on an ounce of weight. I don't know what to do.

I'll see how she goes over the next couple of days and then give Gillian a call if there is no increase in weight soon.

This is little Saori...she is my little princess. The photo above is of Tamigotchi.