Dude! My el cheap-o camera can also take video shots!

And I only just realised this!

Be ready for lots and lots of video from now on!

That means I can use YouTube now! Hooray!

LOOK! It's LUCY RABBIT! AND MY RED TOENAILS! AND GEORGE MICHAEL SINGING IN THE BACKGROUND! WOW!




So I can only film for about 20 seconds before the memory space is eaten up. And it isn't super fabulous quality or anything.

BUT I didnt know it can also record sounds! I didn't even know it had a microphone! This entry uses way too many exclamation marks! But is so cool!

Am going now!

There are four more days of school left for the year.

FOUR DAYS.

It seems like only a short while back that I was enjoying my last summer holidays; finished with uni, finding out about a six month teaching position that was available while Belinda was off on maternity leave. I remember spending that summer break in panic mode because what on Earth had I agreed to do? Yes, I have a teaching degree now that says my name on it, but I don't know how to teach! What the hell am I doing?

I remember going in on the staff development day having fears that nobody would know who I was or why I was there. I remember asking my poor supervisor fifty thousand questions about anything and everything. I remember not sleeping very well. Not at all.

Then I met the kids - a bunch of super cute little Year 1's. They were very gorgeous, but it all got changed around the next week when the school numbers jumped up and down. I ended up losing half of my class and gaining a batch of Year 2's, who were lovely. My class? 1/2S. Hee. (I still love that I was able to have the class lettered for me, that made it real!)

It hasn't been an easy year, but it has been an interesting one. Not only did I manage to TEACH the kids things (go figure), but I also had fun doing it. I've seen tantrums, bloody noses, vomit, pee on the classroom floor, dummy spits and lots of tears. But, I've also seen laughter and silliness and all the things that kids find fun in.

I've learnt a lot.  About teaching, about kids and about me.

Apparently I still have the humour of a kid - misspelt spelling words (particularly can't, hee) still make me laugh.

I can officially keep a straight face when a kid is spinning around in a tantrum on the floor in front of me (doing a move I've now deemed the Helicopter) with shoes flinging off in all directions.

I have perfected "the look". If you have to ask what "the look" is, it's not worth explaining. In fact, I'll just give you "the look" right now.

Seeing kids fall over makes me giggle. I'm an evil, evil teacher.

And who would have thought I would have the patience for this job, anyway?

So, this will be the end of my first year as a teacher. How crazy is that? We all came out relatively unscathed. At least, so far. There are four more days to test that theory.

I'm dedicating today's post to Belinda and Max. They're the reason I managed to scoop up this position, and how I managed to be offered a job for next year as well! (That's a story for another time.)

This is one baby with a cute face and impeccable shoe taste.

BABY DUNLOP VOLLEYS! I am in love. The boy has taste! (As does his Momma.) My next mission, should I choose to accept it, is to find him some Baby Chuck Taylors...

Yes, I know I am a grouchy bitch who takes things way too seriously, but stupidity really does irritate me. From companies, and from.. well.. mothers.

Mum orders furniture for my brother. She and I happen to be the only ones home. Cheap store sends one courier to lift said furniture out of delivery truck. That person requires help to get the furniture inside the house. As in, lifting help. I get nominated to help. I'm not a delicate flower, no. But I'm also not a guy who lifts furniture over his head for exercise every morning, am I?

Is it MY problem that your cheap little furniture delivery company can't afford to send two couriers out to help lift furniture?

Is it MY problem that you can't lift the furniture by yourself?

Do I LOOK like I'm getting paid to lift heavy furniture?

So yes, I get pissed off when I am offered to help lift the damn furniture. And yes, I get pissed off when I cut my hand lifting the damn furniture. And yes, I get pissed off when a certain ungrateful woman acts like an idiot about it, simply because I ask for the company details to email them and tell them I am not impressed with the whole scenario.

In summary? Keep stupid people away from me today please.

Or they may find themselves being stomped on RATHER HEAVILY by me and my boots. Whores.

So before you freak out and think you've gone to the wrong blog, bear with me for a moment.

I've had some unusual hits revolving around shoes in the last couple of weeks. Funnily enough, I've also had hits about socks, feet and toes as well. Today's one though? Fabulous. (Ahem, see title if you have no clue what I'm talking about.)

You may think this strange coming from someone who is taking photos of her feet for a whole month, but I actually have a weird paranoia about feet. In fact, I generally can't stand other people's feet. I think feet are kind of gross, really. I mean - GERMS! And cracked heels, and icky toenails and just, blech in general. So when I spied this hit lurking in amongst my other stats, I visibly shuddered.

I'm not one to disappoint my readers though, so without further ado I present to you a red toenail-ed picture of me wearing impossibly uncomfortable shoes. To the anonymous toe sucker lurkers out there, consider this a gift from me to you.

Did I mention these shoes were uncomfortable? Because MAN. They are uncomfortable. Don't even ask me why I bought them.

Oh wait! I know! Because they're SHOES. And I love shoes!

I am absolutely loving this idea, which I am shamelessly stealing from my beautiful momma. Since my prior to 6am post this morning was short and sweet, consider this a little extra. Happy Thursday!

Thirteen Things about *ALY* 1. I am a Primary School Teacher (for those who didn't know.) 2. I teach a Year 1/2 composite class, so the kids are on average 6-7-8 years old. And funny. 3. I have exactly one week to go for the year, and then we are off on our summer holidays until January. 4. Oh yes. I live in Australia, so it is SUMMER here. No white Christmas for us. Just lots of air conditioning and bushfires. 5. I'm currently in the middle of an insanely time consuming beginning teachers accreditation process. 6. I have almost finished my written evaluations for said beginning teachers accreditation. 7. I cannot believe I have almost finished my written evaulations for said beginning teachers accreditation. 8. My class kidlets and I are off to the movies for an end of year treat tomorrow. With popcorn! Hoorah! 9. Kindergarten to Year 2 get to see "Open Season." 10. Year 3 to Year 6 get to see "Charlotte's Web." 11. I have seriously considered sneaking out of the "Open Season" and into "Charlotte's Web."  In all seriousness. 12. It won't happen, but you know.. *wiggles eyebrows* 13. I hope I meet lots of lovely bloggers through Thursday Thirteen. And I promise to come and check out some of yours, too.

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday.  Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

I had yesterday off work, because I didn't feel well the night before. By lunchtime? I felt fine. No stomach cramps. Nothing. Zilch. Zippo.

So what wakes me up at midnight last night?

Only the mother of all stomach pains. Typical.

Since I have nothing that I can actually write here about today as well as lots I'm plain just not interested in writing about, I'm going to be naughty and post a picture of some damn shoes already, to shut myself up.

It's my Chucks of Love! Yes, this picture wasn't taken today, but I'm still using it because I AM A SLACKER TODAY ALRIGHT? The only problem I have with my prettty plaid shoes, is that they tend to eat my socks. Why do they do this?

I think I really need to join some kind of swap group or something.

Because I've been working this year, I started doing my Christmas shopping early, and ordering a fair bit online. Noone is ususally at home here during the day, so I use mum's PO Box so that the parcels don't end up sitting outside or taken back to the Post Office - and plus, she checks it nearly every day for work, so that's a bonus!

Since I've had these Christmas presents arriving (not gifts for me, just gifts ready for people that I'm sending them too!), as well as random presents (LIKE SHOES, OMG, THANKYOU LALA!) I have realised just how much I adore getting mail. Fwee!

Want to make me excited? Send me a parcel with fluff in it. I guarantee it will amuse me for a few hours.

Speaking of mail, I need to get my ass into gear and get these Christmas cards finished, because it's the 13th of December. Man, where did that time go? So, consider this my first and only offer for Christmas cards:

Email me your address (including your full name, unless you'd like me to address it to your blog name, and that's just weird) - and I'll add you to the never-ending list of cards to send!

(Oh yes. If you're not in Australia, I have no guarantees about when you'll recieve your card, but as long as it's before NEXT Christmas? Then we're good.)

So these are the shoes that I recieved in the posty post from the gorgeous JulaBerry, which I have now been wearing around the house like a loon because SHOES! I love shoes! Especially shoes that come in the mail! SHOES! Yes, I will take your lonely size 9 shoes from you and give them a very special home. Trust me on that one.

I think I'm going to ask Santa for some Dove "Summer Glow" for Christmas this year. See Jen? I like to call my shade of pale "Blindingly White".

I must say, I'm enjoying teaching in the last two weeks of school. Enjoying a GREAT deal.

Mainly because holidays are all of 7 working days away, but also? My teaching programme finished up last week, so from here on in, my class is taking it easy. That means LOTS of craft and Christmas music! Lots of Christmas music!

As a bonus, the holiday season makes it totally okay for us to spend the day doing craft! Hoooooray! It was always my favourite time of the year as a kid, now it's my favourite time of the year as a teacher.

Today saw us making a cute snowman picture. The kids were given a sheet with all different snowman "bits" on it, including a top hat, his mittens, a scarf, some eyes and a button nose, just the main bits - but they were NOT given his head, or his body, or anything like that.

Their job was to cut it all out, stick it down on craft paper and fill in the gaps wherever they could. Sounds simple, no?

Oh man, the results were hilarious!

I had one Frosty without a head.
I had one Frosty with mittens stuck on his head like ears.
I had one Frosty with his scarf wrapped around his nose, looking alarmingly like some sort of assassin.

But the classic Frosty?

He had eyes that were GLOWING. Mmhmm. This clever kidlet decided to cut some red cellophane paper out and stick it behind his eyes. It was one of those drawings whose eyes followed you wherever you went. Scary, Frosty. Not only do I have possessed vanishing reindeer to hide from, now it's demonic snowmen. Christmas is supposed to be JOYFUL. I need to find a happy place. Find a happy place.

Oh yes - I wanted to post a picture of my headband, because Janet has one just like it on her wishlist. For some reason when I took this picture, my hair comes out very dark. Perhaps next time I ought to put the flash on properly?

Never mind the fact that my hair is eating the headband for breakfast, it IS cute and very pretty. (And absolutely perfect for hiding messy hairs.)


Shoesies for the day are thanks to Colorado, also known as "That place where I spend way too much money I should be saving."

I only got these ones last week, and they were nearly half price and SO comfortable. Perfect teacher shoes. AND they match the headband! A match made in heaven.

I'm absolutely over the city now, thanks so much.

Having visited there several times in the last few times by car AND by train, I've decided how much I actually like living away from it. It's too busy, the public transport sucks, people can't drive, trains suck, the people are generally weirder (hee, Lala) and yeah. I am a big paranoid freak who enjoys being out of crowds.

And since when does a train ticket cost $10.40 for one day?!?

I had to travel to North Sydney for a school professional development day conference about classroom management. It was very useful, I found out I'm doing a lot of "right" things with my classroom kidlets which is always nice to hear. I also managed to doodle over about fifteen notebook pages, consume way too much orange juice and giggle like a schoolgirl because there was a chapter in the manual about teaching kids to sharpen pencils.

End of story? I left home at 6.20am, and got home at 5.30pm. And am officially buggered, smell like weird trains and have stomach cramps. But on the plus side, I did get a day off school, and had fun chatting to one of my supervisors at school for the most part of the day. We also survived a harrowing experience at a petrol station/taxi cab breeding ground where there were lots of close calls and beeping horns - another reminder why I'll probably never live in the city.

So let's all just pretend that it's actually Winter here right now, because there are some of the boots I would be wearing if it were. Sadly, it's hot, humid and SUMMER. Groan. But back to the boots; they're calf boots! And they do up! Around my calves! Hoorah!

I bet these would be TOTALLY out of fashion if I lived in the city. But you know what? They're great, out here.

I think I forgot to mention that I had a minor (ha!) altercation with my computer the other night, that had me on the verge of a ginormous sook before Jason's Christmas party.

I was checking my lack of email, when all of a sudden the keyboard froze up. Nothing worked. I banged it a couple of times, hissed and sighed at it, tried sweet talking it but nada. Keyboard go boom.

So, thinking I was being smart I shut down the computer and wiggled the keyboard connection at the back. Turned it back on again and nada. The computer would not turn on. It got stuck on the data pages before Windows loads. Complete freeze-age. Computer go boom.

I restarted a couple of times and still couldn't get past the freeze page. Then came the panicked phone call to Jason - "The computer's dead! It's just dead! I didn't do anything! It just died! Is dead!"

Ever so calmly, he instructed me to find a spare keyboard - "WHERE THE HELL AM I GOING TO GET A SPARE KEYBOARD? Have I mentioned it's time to go, and I have to leave now? But I can't leave with it dead! What am I going to dooooo?" Anywho, I finally found a spare one, plugged it in, said a few prayers, stroked the computer tower lovingly and Ta-dah! Guess who's back?

The moral to the story? Sweet talking computers will get you nowhere. They are evil, evil machines that enjoy watching you suffer. Beware.

Perfect for a lazy Sunday. Did I mention the time I was asked to wear these to a wedding - where I was a bridesmaid?? The bride didn't want us to be taller than her, so we got stuck in formal dresses and ballet shoes. Not a good look, if you ask me.