Well - it was mothers' day today in Australia and I was really pampered. George had very cleverly been out to the shops and bought a lovely mother's day card. He had even written a little message and signed his name - clearly genius material!!!!!! No really - it was a bit weird to be part of the 'club' and Ivor really did pamper me - I watched loads of episodes of "from here to maternity with Antonia Kidman (Nicole's presenter sister)" - a really excellent series in Aus that looks at families through pregnancy, birth and the first few months. [View Full Entry]

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I am slowly but surely getting back into running and hiking (or bushwalking as you call it out here!!). It is actually a bit easier than I thought it would be.................and I am actually managing to run a bit. It's quite good actually, as George is very portable and I am able to walk (and run) all over the place with him in tow!! I have discovered "Nelson Steps" - a 200m climb up some steps on Mount Nelson (funnily enough!) which I have gone up a couple of times with George in the frontpack. It's a fantastic view of Hobart [View Full Entry]

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Hurrah - have recovered most of my entries - just lost the text on one because I put the text in the wrong box and then it wiped out the original information. A few weeks ago - I went to a conference for 'Deaf Educators'. It was three days of lectures and workshops which was actually really fascinating - especially as I discovered that it doesn't seem to matter where you are in the world - the politics in deaf education is the same!! It was really fascinating to meet teachers of the deaf from all over the world and learn [View Full Entry]

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Well - you have probably realised this from the fact that my previous blogs have disappeared. There was a problem with the website and 8 of my entries were lost which is a real shame. Needless to say - am going to back-up my next entries. It is nice to have a record of our life here in Tas. Am 15 weeks pregnant this week - and am still ridiculously tired. I couldn't go to bed any earlier!!! If I did - I'd be bunking off work to go to bed!! The doc reckons it's because I am on these blood [View Full Entry]

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Well we have had a bit of news in the past few weeks. We are expecting a baby - all being well - on the 1st February 2008. We have had lots of tests and all seems well so far- though the doc is a little bit worried because I have high blood pressure - not VERY high but higher than it should be!! I am therefore being kept under close observation. We went to the hospital last Friday to be booked in. The baby will be born here - so will actually need an Aussie passport in order for us [View Full Entry]

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Lost most of the text on this one............. [View Full Entry]

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Well a year has ticked by since the last "City to Casino" run that I did with Ivor. Ivor having lost his enthusiasm somewhat for running since the "Run to the G" last year, didn't come with me - though he did get up at 7am to drive me to meet Maria, with whom I was running it this year. Needless to say, we were 25 minutes early at the start! The weather was reasonable for the end of Autumn - and we were not too freezing at the start line. Runs in Tas are never over-crowded but there was a [View Full Entry]

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have just come home from watching one of our deaf students taking part in a professional "dance" tour-"Tasdance" - "Whitelight". I could not be more amazed. Had you not known that he was deaf, you would never have thought it in a million years. He was perfectly in time and he looked incredibly professional. It fills me with awe that some of the young deaf people, with whom I have a lot of contact, faced with the most amazing life-challenges, excel in such an incredible way. One door closes, another opens. Jarran might not be able to hear the music, [View Full Entry]

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In Australia, everybody has the 25th April off to commemorate 'Anzac Day'. ANZAC Day - 25 April - is probably Australia's most important national occasion. It marks the anniversary of the first major military action fought by Australian and New Zealand forces during the First World War. ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. The soldiers in those forces became known as ANZACs. Needless to say - we didn't go to a dawn service (an Aussie tradition)- we had a bit of a lie-in and then went out to christen my new boots. We decided to go to the [View Full Entry]

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Well............we have been a week back at work. Time is flying past - we realised that we have been here a whole year. We love the place more than ever and it has been great to have a consistent stream of visitors..it makes the world seem a whole lot smaller than it actually is. Blimey - what a mad time we had with Ivor's folks. We went everywhere and did everything. They have so much energy - neither of us could keep up. Whilst they were here it was actually the Easter holidays - so we were lucky enough to go [View Full Entry]

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