Kerry's "Letter from Australia" - April 2008Those of you who follow the trials and tribulations of the Starr family down under, will know of the hideous copper fire place and chimney that dominates our lounge/family room and nicknamed the QE2 for it’s similarity to the ship’s funnel. Well I am at last please to report that it has sailed off on its final voyage from my lounge to its new resting place in a scrap metal yard. Can’t complain too much though as we got just a shade under $3000.00 from the dealer for it (although the Government took 45% in tax but we should get a lot of that back at the end of the tax year). Mind you in place of the funnel, a large mobile scaffolding tower has been erected to aid the renovations and decorating. Furniture moves on a daily basis in order to navigate the tower around the lounge. The new fire place has been erected in a different part of the room and the sunken area (very popular here in houses built during the seventies) has been raised to be level with the rest of the building making the whole the family room much larger and more open.
Holly’s school has established a monthly spot on local radio and Holly and her two fellow year 6’s and a guest year 5 appear regularly now. They tell of things happening at the school and their environmental efforts, such as the school veggie garden and eggs from their own chickens which are used in the cookery lessons. The large water tanks they have to collect all the rainwater from the school building roof and the replacement of all light bulbs for the more energy efficient ones. They choose relevant songs for the theme of the day. We had tuned in to listen to the first show and were very impressed with Holly’s fluent speech and apparent lack of nerves, after the half hour slot the kids all said goodbye. The proper DJ came on and congratulated them on their efforts and said coming up next was the weather report, we were taken aback when who should be reading it but Holly. She had enjoyed herself so much that she had asked the announcer if it would be all right for her to present the segment and he had happily agreed. No shrinking violet my daughter!!!!!!! Her new career path is now Radio Presenter!
We have also been touring the local senior schools in order to choose one for Holly to start at next January. She will have to get the school bus to which ever one we choose as they are all miles away. Luckily you have complete freedom of choice for school here. We still have one more to see but Holly has already chosen the one she likes - Lilydale Heights. They have three different curriculum themes for years 7 and 8 to pick, either music or science based or the standard teaching. Holly wants to do the science curriculum, which also encompasses some art and graphic design - just up her street.
The school also has a state of the art website running, all lessons are posted on it after class to aid with homework or missed classes. Homework assignments are shown and children can just log in to find what they need. No more “I forgot my book Sir” excuses for homework not completed. Laptops are available for those without home computers and they are going to extend the site to allow parents access, where children’s grades will be available as well as details of homework tasks, making it easier to monitor your offspring’s progress. Big Brother or in this case Big Mother is watching. Aren’t you glad they didn’t have that in our day?
I am enrolled on a Microsoft Excel course through work, I did it once many years ago, unfortunately my aging memory has retained very little of it because I have not had to use it up until now, so a refresher was needed. I am also being sent to do a computer book keeping course as well, as the accounts for work are being brought back in house rather than to an outside contractor as is currently the practice. For this I am getting some more hours and a $4.00 an hour pay rise. Can’t be bad, eh?
Whilst on the theme of computers, my website has been the target of a ***** hacker, who implanted some nasty virus to affect customers using the site and Google closed me down whilst it was cleared. The technicians are working on it, but at a cost!!!!! These people are nothing better than vandals, indiscriminately attacking sites with no thought to how much it costs to repair.
On that unhappy note, I will sign off for this month.
Kerry
