After I cancelled my old Typepad blog, I moved all of my archives to my new home, here on Wordpress. Interestingly, sites like Technorati still show my old blog as ranked higher than the current one, most likely due to old links directing visitors to the old address. But what is even more interesting?

Someone has registered my old blog address!

And if you check it out, it has no contact information and appears to be promoting random products. In case you were wondering, the domain does not belong to me anymore. I'm well and truly moved, and I'm happy where I am.

I just thought I'd put out another friendly reminder for any of you who happen to have my humble link on your blogroll; could you please make sure you have changed the address?

www.breathe-gently.blogspot.com - Nice and simple.

And I promise, I won't be selling anything on this here blog anytime soon. Unless it involves freebies in the mail. Because let's face it, I'm a sucker for receiving parcels in the mail. [Hint, hint, to a certain significant other who has a rather special anniversary coming up very soon.]

Another Monday . . . is it the weekend yet? I have parent/teacher interviews all week, which is more than a little exhausting. Wish me luck.

Whose Line is it Anyway comes on, and you wave at Wayne Brady.

[And no, it wasn't me. For once, I'm not the crazy one in the family. Say hi, Mum.]

Happy Sunday, folks.

*Please note that today's header has absolutely nothing to do with anything in particular, other than being dedicated to the brilliant genius that is Kirby.

The Snow Patrol concert was absolutely incredible last night, it really was.

First things first, you'll be pleased to know that I braved the trip to the venue without maiming any pedestrians or driving over any road islands - a feat I think warrants a little bit of applause if you ask me. Or know of my driving skills. Kirby (who turned up sporting not only adorable owl-printed Keds shoes AND the satchel handbag I've been dreaming about) did a great job of holding up the toll pass, as I zoomed along the rain-spattered roads towards Olympic Park. I defeated the evil windy ramp of doom in the carpark which I had been worrying about (honestly, you should have seen the thing) and made it inside with plenty of time to spare.

After buying a container of popcorn, we nabbed a table and settled in to do some people watching, which in a crowded venue is almost as fun as watching the concert itself. We saw a bunch of girls bringing back the tights movement, an outfit that consisted completely of lycra, and an awful lot of stiletto shoes for a standing concert. Ouch! It was at this point that the conversation turned to having to wear tights under short skirts whilst walking through top levels of shopping malls. My response? "But I don't own any short skirts. Or tights. So I'm safe." Kirby's response? "I'm never going out with nothing on under my skirts again." The blank silence that fell on our table was soon replaced with giggles.

Back to the concert . . . the support acts were all Irish, which prompted us to start sprouting off the only Irish-isms that we knew - 'To be sure, to be sure', 'leprechaun', and 'diddly dee diddly dee potatoes'. Obviously we need to learn a few more of these for next time. The first guy was nice and mellow. The second band mumbled an awful lot and had a drummer that resembled Animal from the Muppets. The venue was filling up at this point, and looked amazing. As the music started, a wee Irish girl sat in the seat next to me. She seemed mellow enough to begin with, but soon began bouncing around her seat like a loon, causing our entire row of seats to bounce along with her. Nothing like dancing when you don't really have a choice, and your neck is moving along without a will of its own.

As for Snow Patrol, they were fantastic. The lead singer was hilarious, pointing out that the largest man in the world was attending our concert in the front row. He was right; this guy's arms were twice the size of everybody else's, he ended up singing "Signal Fire" to him. Appropriate seeing as the lyrics are "There you are, standing right in front of me" - he actually changed the words at one point to "There you are, standing right in front of everybody else" which was quite amusing. They sang most of my favourite numbers; highlights including Shut Your Eyes (sing, sing!), Chasing Cars (swoon), Make This Go On Forever (bloody beautiful), Run (made me miss Jase) and All That I Have (dance, dance!).

Kirby was happy that they played Set The Fire to the Third Bar, which I've never liked much but have now completely changed my mind about now.

Good times, good times. Kirby took some awesome pictures. It's only appropriate that I leave you with a little number to finish off, so enjoy!



'I'm miles from where you are, I lay down on the cold ground . . .
And I, I pray that something picks me up, and sets me down in your warm arms.'

I'm stealing today's idea from Kelly, as it fits my strange day perfectly. I've been busy enjoying the public holiday here by staying in my pyjamas, cleaning my room and generally lazing about. Exercising today? Pah! Showering? I'll get around to it. Besides, am going to see Snow Patrol in concert tonight with my dear friend Kirby-la, so am not feeling particularly creative at the moment.

So without further ado, I now present today's Friday Feast to you;

Appetizer: Using only one word, how does grocery shopping make you feel?
It makes me feel incredibly annoyed that we are forced to spend so much money on products that we really shouldn't have to . . . oh wait, one word? Bugger. Hrm. Let's see . . . my one word would be: CRANKY.

Soup: What is your favorite part about the season of Autumn?
I love Autumn, the cool breezes, the smell in the air. It means the horrible humid Summer weather is coming to an end, thankfully.

Salad: Have you ever had any bad experiences online?
Other than Ebay tempting me to spend all of my savings away? Absolutely not. I've met some of the most important people in my life from the internet. And that's not even mentioning the friends I've made on this blog.

Main Course: Name three things that make you happy daily.
Talking to Jason and pretending he's not thousands of miles away, seeing my dogs wag their tails at me when I walk into the backyard, and talking with friends that make me smile.

Dessert: What household cleansing item would you not want to be without?
Ha. Cleaning. How about . . . garbage bags. Everyone needs those.

[It's our last day of school for the week. It's only 6.30am and I'm already deciding between throwing a tantrum or bawling my eyes out, because it's a certain time of the month and damnit, everything is frustrating me today. Plus it's going to rain. Which means I'll end up doing playground duty on my rostered one day off playground duty. It's certainly shaping up to be wonderful. Definitely the kind of day to drag out one of my kidlet posts before I mope around a little more.]

This one should probably be titled "Overheard on the Oval" instead of the classroom, as that was where we held our infants Athletics carnival last week.

Quoted one girl as she hopped into a sack, ready to start racing;

"Oh, I feel so good in the sack."

I think she's announcing that just a couple of years too early, in my humble opinion. And also, I apparently have my mind in the gutter.

(Wait . . . I've just realised that my international readers might not appreciate the humour in that statement: to be "good in the sack" usually means to be "good in bed." Or something. Perhaps you can google it?)

There's nothing like looking out of your window and seeing two pigeons getting, er, intimate in full frontal view of the entire class. You can tell it's Spring here.

I guess it's only natural that the kidlets would want to know what they were doing.

Aly: 'Er, they're probably just looking to find a partner.'

But how come that bird's feathers are all ruffled up like that?

Aly: 'Ah, he's most likely just showing off to the other bird.'

But why is that bird making all those loud noises? Is he hurt?

Aly: 'Well, I think he's most likely just.. really happy.'

Will those answers suffice? Hope so. I may be knowledgeable in a few areas, but the reproductive cycles of pigeons is not exactly one of my strong points.

In other news, this week has been full of sweet annoucements and celebrations from other couples. Lots of anniversaries, lots of sweet surprise gifts, an announced pregnancy, and now pigeons having sex in front of me? It must be something in the water. Way to rub it in, everyone. [insert pathetic sniffles here]

And congratulations, all!

During the school term, my weeks tend to be filled with the same old routines, day in and day out. I've decided that it's just the way that I function, because let's face it: I am boring. I'm a lot like some of my kidlets in a way - I enjoy sticking to my usual routine, and it takes me a little while to get my head around things when the routines change.

But you know what? It works for me. Diet-wise, sticking to my routine helps a lot; the times when I tend to sabotage my efforts are the unexpected trips out, the little things that pop up and spoil my best-laid plans. And as for not getting enough sleep of a night? Let's just say that it takes me an awfully long time to get back into the swing of things again.

Here's how a typical 'school day' goes for me;

6:00am - Alarm goes off. I'll either get up straight away, or snooze for another 15mins or so. Stumble out of bed, have a shower.
6:30am - Make a cup of tea, grab some cereal and check my emails. I usually time waste here, and end up running late.
7:15am - Realise what the time is, freak out, get dressed, brush teeth, pack lunch.
7:30am - Drive to work listening to my Ipod and hoping not to get stuck behind any trucks.

8:00am - Arrive at work, prepare (or chat) for the next hour, get ready for the day.
8:55am - Kidlets arrive, and I start the teaching day.
11:00am - RECESS! Here is when I happily stuff my face with food. Yippee!
11:20am - Back to the classroom, for more teaching.
1:10pm - Eating time . . . for the kidlets. I just supervise.
1:20pm - Eating time . . . for me! Unless I have duty of course, four days a week.
2:00pm - Back to class. More teaching. Funny that.
3:00pm - School's out!

3:30pm - Start the drive home, unless I have a staff meeting to stay back for.
4:00pm - (or thereabouts) I'm usually home by now, or at least nearly home anyway. I throw my bag in my room and get ready to exercise.
4:15pm - Procrastinate and avoid exercising. Usually checking my email again, stalking your blogs via Bloglines, spending away my savings on Ebay and hoping to chat with Jase on MSN.
5:00pm - Finally get off my tush and go for a walk on the treadmill.
6:00pm - Wander around, wasting time, annoy my mum when she gets home.
7:00pm - Organise dinner: making and/or eating. Very important!
7:30pm - You'll find me watching some form of television (most likely Australian Idol, now that it's started) or a DVD boxset (I always thought Melrose Place was so raunchy when I was younger, now it's just amusing) OR reading a book.
8:30-9pm - Bedtime! I know, I'm a granny. But that's ok. I'm a well-slept granny.

What does your day look like?

*I now have the absurd habit of breaking out into song, ala Buffy & the 'Once More With Feeling' gang. Am a nerd. Just without the demons.

It's always a classic when my kidlets do speeches about a topic of their choice, because you hear some hilariously funny (and hilariously terrible) results.

Today's topic? Healthy eating. Very appropriate, what with my current health kick and all. Here's the good advice one of my kidlets came up with;

"Eat healthy foods and they will help you to get NOT fat."

If only it were that easy, eh? I'd be not fat already.

I have a dirty little secret, blog friends. I'm not afraid to tell you that I'm a trifle ashamed to admit it. It's just that I like to think I have fairly decent taste in music, even if my tastes are a little all over the place.

Aw heck. I've already lost a couple of thousand brain cells by listening to it all day. I might as well lose my dignity as well & put it out there.

Here goes:

I'm listening to a new Britney Spears song. (Even though she's batshit crazy.)
I've been listening to it all afternoon. (Even though the lyrics are terrible.)
I've even been seat dancing to it. (Even though I can't seat dance for peanuts.)
And I've been enjoying it. (Even though all my senses tell me to turn it off.)
I even plan on keeping it on my Ipod.

There. I said it.

I actually LIKE it. Now feel free to send in reinforcements to help me find my brain.

I never used to wear jewelery to work, other than my watch. I figured I wasn't dressing up for anybody, so why bother? Plus, I have a keychain around my neck, which rubs horribly against any necklaces, and the majority of time I simply forget to put rings on.

Since Jason bought me my bling though, I've been making an exception and wearing my ring to school practically every day. Kidlets being kidlets, they notice everything. (And I mean everything. Don't even think about wearing those jeans two days in a row, unless you'd like to be called up on it.)

Kidlet #1: [staring at my ring.] "Did you get married?"
Kidlet #2: [shrieks out loud] "Yes! Yes she did! She's married!"
Kidlet #1: "WOW!"
Kidlet #3: [shaking head] "She's not married."

Aly: [trying to get a word in but being talked over.]

Kidlet #2: "Yes she is! She's married! She has a ring on her MARRIED finger!"
Kidlet #1: "YAY!"
Kidlet #3: [looking bored] "She's not married."
Kidlet #2: "But look at her ring! We should be calling her Mrs S!"

Aly: [silently thinking about how the kidlets call her that anyway.]

Kidlet #3: "It's the wrong hand."
Kidlet #2: "No it's not . . . Oh. OH."
Kidlet #1: [groans]
Random Kidlet: "When will she be married then?"

Aly: [admiring her pretty ring and listening in on their conversation.]

Kidlet #1: Who knows?
Kidlet #2: "But what happens if she NEVER gets married?"
Kidlet #3: [very matter of factly] "She'll just stay single."
Class: [exhanging looks of horror] "Oooh."

And that, my friends, is the day my students decided that I am a lonely, unmarried freak, because since then? The conversations about marriage have not stopped. In their eyes, I'm getting on in years you see, so my chances of marriage? Looking pretty slim. If I wasn't moving overseas at the end of the year, I'd have started adopting kitties already.