First day back at school....

Well today all of my kids have gone back to school after the Christmas holidays......yay.

I don't start back until Wednesday so I am just going to enjoy today and tomorrow before I have to get back into everything.
It is so nice being in a quiet house using the computer without any interruptions.
The exercise regime is going to start today as well....despite it being sooo hot already.

I have just been online checking out one of my subjects for this semester.
It's all about social networking and I am not really looking forward to it as this is the only social networking thing I do.
Looks like I may be using facebook after all despite all of my protesting.

Oh well off to hang out a load of washing which will probably be dry before I finish hanging it out because it is so hot.

What a day!

Well Australia Day has come and gone for another year.
Apparently it was the hottest Australia Day in 20years so it was a perfect day to go for a jet boat ride on the Harbour.

If you ever go on this ride don't be fooled into thinking that the raincoat will keep you dry.

Marissa sat in the front without a raincoat and we were just as wet as her and we wore a raincoat.
It was such a lot of fun and the kids are already asking if we can do it again next year.
A huge tip though, if you ever have a ride take your shoes off and leave them behind as they will be soaked through and there is nothing worse than wearing wet socks and wet shoes home from the city. Also take a change of clothes because we were still wringing out our clothes as we walked to the train to come home.
We also wandered through the activities in Hyde Park and looked at the vintage cars lining College street and Maquarie Street and just had a really lovely family day out in the city.

It was a fabulous way to celebrate the completion of my ETL507 and ETL503 assignments.

Happy Australia Day

Happy Australia Day everyone.
I absolutely love the celebrations for today.
Every year we venture into the city, we start at Hyde Park and then weave our way down to Circular Quay looking at all of the vintage cars along the way.
The boys love it, and as my 16year old informed me last night "it is our tradition".
I tried to veto the whole thing last night because today it is going to be the hottest Australia day in 31 years and we have experienced some hot ones!
Anyway it wasn't to be and we are going to head in after everyone wakes up.
We have added an extra bit of excitement this year as we are going to go on a jet boat ride in the Harbour and out through the heads which should be fun. Every year we are nagged to go for a ride so this year I pre purchased tickets at half price as a surprise, except that I am hopeless at keeping secrets and told them during the week. Needless to say they are really excited. Hopefully we will get our ride in before it storms.

I am so excited that I can enjoy today because very late last night I finished my ETL507 portfolio which was very exciting.
Denise now has my two assignments and is busy formatting them and spacing them out beautifully for me so that I can hand both of them in on the weekend.
It is such a relief.
I now have about 2 weeks of freedom before I start the last 2 subjects of my course...(assuming that I pass these)
Oh well off to the city for the day....

Happy Australia Day.

Collection development policy

I am really happy to say that I have completed the second assignment for ETL503. It was to develop a collection management policy for my school.
I think that I have done a really good job of it and I am really happy with the finished product.
Now I guess it will be up to the markers, and the truth is no-one ever really knows what they are looking for despite there being a marking criteria supplied.
I am going to let it sit for a few days and then will venture back to it to make modifications before I hand it in on the weekend.
Today I have started to write my portfolio for ETL 507. I have a week to complete it, although I think that it probably needs a bit longer. Oh well it's lucky that I work best under pressure, because there sure is a lot of pressure at the moment.
We are now in the last week of the school holidays and on the way to buy bread for lunch I bought a pair of school shoes for Marissa. Yay a good job done in less than 5 minutes.....quickest ever and that included getting a car park.
Oh well moving on to my portfolio.

We're going home!

By chance today we discovered that the highway is open.

Joel fell off his rip-stick and hurt his thumb. On the way to the hospital in at Maclean I noticed that cars were being allowed to drive towards Ballina so I stopped and asked the RTA people if the road was opened. It was.....so then I phoned Mark and got him to get his flight changed to today so that he could fly up.

He did and he is on his way. He got our neighbour to drive him into the airport and got there just in time to catch his flight. Any later and he wouldn't have made it.

I'm glad Joel was pushing me to take him into the hospital or we would never have known.

Mum has gone to Ballina to get him and we are at home madly packing.

I'm so pleased to be able to head home because now Mark will only miss one day at work instead of two.

I must say I will miss the easy going life I have had at Yamba. Once I get back to Sydney I will hit the ground running as we get ready for school, I finish 2 major assignments in 2 weeks, transport Brendan to his Green Shield finals, take Joel for his orthodontist check up, see my specialist, have an infusion, and do all the other things that I haven't though of yet.

Oh well it has been nice being in holiday mode for so long.

Mum and I haven't even had any fights and I have been here for a month and 1 day!

As for Joel's thumb, we didn't stay at the hospital as it was full and we were way down the priority list so it looked like we would be there all day. The plan is that now we will get it x rayed when we get back to Sydney if it is still sore.

The Road is open

Well it looks like the road out of Yamba has been opened.

Judging by the number of cars pulling caravans leaving town I can only assume it must be open.

I stopped and spoke to a worker manning the road block this morning and she confirmed it would be open today but said the road to the north was still blocked and as the road was quite damaged would remain so until Monday so I can't get to Ballina still!!!

If I wanted to drive back to Sydney I would have to go the back way to Grafton and that could take at least 2 hours from Maclean. Usually the trip is about half and hour (if you don't get caught speeding).

Looks like we will be here for a bit longer.

Beach is great though so who cares????

Still here

I am still stuck in Yamba.
Looks like it will be until at least Monday.....at least they are consistent with their predictions.
Life still goes on.
We went to the beach this morning. Unfortunately the kids didn't stay in for too long because it was cold and the surf was fairly choppy.
This afternoon we are going to the movies to see Gulliver's Travels.
See life goes on as normal.....and I still have a wretched assignment to work on.

Flooded in for the next 5 to 7 days

Well here I am still in Yamba.

Mark has emailed me a whole lot of stuff that I need to get started on my assignment 2 for ETL503.

I am just wrapping up my placement report to hand in so hopefully I will get that away today.
Maybe things aren't quite so bad.

Hopefully mums house won't flood....it shouldn't.

Mum had a briefing at work that informed her that Yamba will be cut off for the next 5 to 7 days so it looks like we will be having an extended holiday in Yamba.

Jetstar have been brilliant, they have let me change Marks flight without any cost...can't believe it actually. They even said that if we are flooded in beyond that time we can change it again, in fact we can change it as many times as we need to.....yay.

Flooded in!!!!!

Well here I am still in Yamba having completed my placement.
The problem is, I can't leave Yamba at the moment as we are cut off from the world due to flood water covering the road between here and Maclean.
I am glad that the library is well stocked as I think I will be visiting it again tomorrow to find a good book to read.
Mum works for the council and she is busy running around trying to find staff to run the children's programs as well as the aged care programs because staff are unable to travel outside the town that they live due to the flood.
I have volunteered to help out at the vacation care as long as they pay me..........I figure that I have already given council 10days of my life for free and I'm not about to do anymore free work.... unless they are really desperate, and I think they might be. Oh well I guess you do what you have to do in a flood crisis.

I am beginning to panic a bit though as I am supposed to pick Mark up from Ballina in 2 days as he is flying up to drive us back to Sydney.
I hope he has a good book to read because he could be stranded in Ballina for a few days at this rate.

Oh the joys of a flood!

Placement finished

Yay, I have finished my 10 day placement......
Today as we closed up the library I was quite relieved to have finished the prac component of ETL507.

What have I learned?????
Well I have learned that working in a public library can be quite exhilarating as you break up fights over the computer....to quite boring when there are no customers around and you have tidied the shelves for about the millionth time.
There are other times when it can be quite interesting when you talk to the colourful locals all moaning the fact that it looks like it will flood.
It is also quite exciting when a newish book is returned and you realise that you haven't read it so you bring it home and add it to the growing pile beside your bed.....actually that should be classified under work hazard.

Overall it has been an interesting 10 days, but not one I will want to do again in a hurry.

It has been wonderful that my mum has been able to look after my kids and that they have had a beach holiday.

Another upside was that on Wednesdays I only had to work half a day as the library shut at 12.30. Also today I only had a half day as it was Saturday and everything in the country closes at lunch time.

I am really grateful to Jenny for having me in her domain and for being so generous with her time and skills. Also to Clarence Regional Library for allowing me to do my placement in the Yamba library.

Second half of placement

I have just completed the 7th day of my placement.....Only 3 to go!

I have to go into Maclean to work tomorrow because Yamba is shut. Oh how wonderful to live and work in the country.

Yesterday was the first day back since Christmas Eve. To say it was busy was an understatement.

There were 3 of us working and we did not stop all day.

I shelved non stop from 9am until 5pm because the quantity of books being returned was so huge. When we had arrived in the morning lots of books had been returned in the chute as people went past so we had to return all of those as well as returning books that people brought in during the day.

While it was nice to be kept busy I am well and truly over the shelving.

Today I went and did a coffee run just to escape. We don't usually get coffee during the day but I was a bit sick of shelving so I initiated this practice.

My lecturer from uni is supposed to call to check up on me but it appears my lecturer has gone AWOL so James is standing in for her and as he is in Scotland he can't call so he has sent an email with questions for Jenny to answer.

Sure hope her answers match mine...

Thank goodness today was only a half day as I am getting a bit bored with the life of a branch librarian.