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Oceania » Australia » New South Wales » Nangus
December 11th 2009
Published: December 12th 2009
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DAY 399


A productive day was to be had again today, once we had breakfast, we all set about doing what needed to be done.

Andy was up early this morning, helping Helen make the Christmas cake, they managed to get 4 different sized cakes in to the oven.

My task this morning was to wrap up Christmas presents, so Helen made little piles up of presents and standing at the dining room table one by one I wrapped and Helen wrote the labels.

I don’t know how many Christmas presents I wrapped but it took all morning, some presents easier to wrap than others depending on the shapes. It reminded me of how I used to sit and wrap presents at Christmas in England, I would spend a Sunday afternoon put a good film on TV and sit on the floor surrounded by presents and wrapping paper and would sit there until it was all done, or at least until the film finished and it was time for a cup of tea.

While I wrap presents for Helen, Andy is outside cleaning the Patrol, which means a thorough job, he replaced the parking lamp that was out, the inside was completely emptied, rubbish put in the bin and anything that did not have a home soon found a home or was at least given to me to find a home, next the Dyson was out and the inside was vacuumed however a significant amount of dust was still present so Andy relied on the good old water, vinegar and damped cloth trick to rid ourselves of the dust which is exceptionally difficult to keep out.

It was a very busy morning, we ate lunch (leftovers from last nights Chinese meal), while Andy decided to have a Wii nana nap I did some Wii Fit, I am doing very well on the Wii Fit and am competing against the data already put in there by Susan, Helen and a couple of other friends, which is great because it gives you something to work for. I am sure that when Helen and Susan get back on they will aim to beat my stats too!

After about an hour and a quarter I decided it was time for a drink and a rest, Andy reappeared from his nana nap.

I was on dinner duty and cooked up a nice Chow Mein a recipe which was kindly handed over to us by Kirsty who you may remember we travelled briefly with over in WA.

While I was cooking we received a phone call from Jason to tell us to grab a camera and run up to the top paddock behind the house, we were going to drive round but the Patrol wouldn’t start, the battery was as flat as a pancake. So we legged it round instead and found sat by the tractor a Frill Neck Lizard.

I went back to finish the dinner, it went down well with a g&t, but it was time to get ready to go out, Helen invited us over to the Nangus School Presentation evening. We though it would be great to get out into the locality and perhaps see Father Christmas, the school only has 14 Pupils, throughout the age groups, which we thought was nice, the kids seem to be very well educated.

Andy went to start the Patrol, but for some reason the battery did not have enough charge to turn it over, so we put it on the battery charger, to give it a boost.

So off we set to the Nangus Village Hall, we were greeted well by the locals and Bronwyn the Principal, we went in and sat down, the hall was already bustling with local people and far more people than kids that attend the school, it is quite a local event.

The two school captains Sabrina and Jack address the audience they come across as very confident 11/12 year olds and soon we are all standing to the Australia National Anthem, albeit a slight variation, don’t ask me for the words because I cannot remember but the tune was very jolly.

Sabrina and Jack read their speeches out to the audience, what is also quite key here is that Sabrina and Jack are both the eldest pupils at the school and they are leaving at the end of this term and for them they start High School in Gundagai in the new year, when 5 more children (kindergarten) start at the Nangus Public School which will bring the schools total number of pupils to 17.

The presentation followed for the children that won awards for different achievements, they seemed to do very well at State level, not just in completion with local schools but in sport they seem to be high achievers.

Bronwyn’s address must have thanked everyone involved in the school in one way or another throughout the year and of course Helen got a mention.

We watched all of the kids going up one by one to collect their awards and to see the smiles on their faces was something else.

Instead of a play this year the kids performed a few different dances, the first one being Michael Jackson’s Thriller, which they performed exceptionally well, but of course everything changed as soon as Santa turned up (in a Fire Engine I hasten to add), mayhem broke loose as the children ran to the back of the hall where Santa proceeded to hand out Christmas presents to the children, there were smiles as big as a crescent moon!

Once Santa had done his thing there was supper served outside, but we declined on that and decided to head back to Woodstock.

I emailed some of my girlfriends back in England, it is their Christmas party tonight, which I will be missing of course, but as they party we will be sleeping and when I wake up for my first cup of tea in the morning (Saturday morning here) the party will just be warming up!

Andy went out to the Patrol and turned it over and it started, so he must have left the lights on or some thing

We watch a little TV and finish yesterdays blog, but it is time to get into bed, a little later than usual at 10.30 but the dogs bark so I wander outside with the rolled up paper to ask them to be quiet, but as soon as the light went on they shut up, I looked into the paddock and I could see their eyes reflecting back at me from the torchlight, I can only imagine that they are all sat there as if butter would not melt.

I returned to bed, and do my best to drift off to sleep.



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Bronwyn The head teacherBronwyn The head teacher
Bronwyn The head teacher

Giving out certificates
Helen SheridanHelen Sheridan
Helen Sheridan

Giving out a certificate
Nangus SchoolNangus School
Nangus School

The School has 13 Children


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