Pollen

I have had stuff to post about, and I haven't been any busier than usual, I think the hay fever has made me tired so I couldn't be bothered to blog. Disliking the heat as I do, it's hard to wish for Spring to hurry up and leave, but it has been a particularly bad year for hay fever. It makes me want to scratch my eyes right out and squash my nose flat. The trees and flowers are awfully pretty though, and last night's couple of hours filling my lungs with pollen was completely worth it as we saw the Groove Factorie doing Twilight by the Lagoon.

Every summer, the Civic Theatre puts on a free concert series called Twilight by the Lagoon. For the first concert this season, Andrew's band,  Groove Factorie, played. It starts at seven so families can come and there were hundreds of people there. They were a bit shy of the front seats in the amphitheatre (at first) but the grassy areas around the amphitheatre were packed with picnicking people.

Luckily for me, Kids' Club and Joss' youth group meet just over the road so I could drop Joss over at 7.30 and pick Bethany and Toby up to watch the rest. Toby found friends and spent a lot of time enjoying the music while playing, but Bethany shuffled closer and watched by herself.

The Groove Factorie band is made up of core musicians and they invite lots of local singers to sing with them. The music was great and the Civic Theatre said it was one of their biggest Twilight concerts ever.

Now, I was planning on getting some work done in the garden this weekend. I wish I had a gas mask!

Progress

It isn't much. In fact, technically, there is less rather than more, but work has begun on our block!

Drama on the dance floor

Toby and Bethany's school held a bush dance on Saturday night. Toby insisted that he didn't want to go, and Andrew and I weren't exactly thrilled with the prospect, but Bethany was desperate to be there! She had been practising hard with her class and wanted to use her new skills. On Saturday morning she showed me three of the dances she had practised and I had to inform her that they weren't bush dances at all! The Hokey Pokey, the chicken dance and the Macarena!

Thankfully, we were spared the chicken dance and the Macarena (they may have been played before we arrived). After protesting that he did not want to go, Toby had a great time dancing. Here he is, dancing a very complicated dance with Shep and Nelly. He looked serious the whole time, I think he was concentrating on his next move, but I could tell he was loving it.

After we had dinner and before Andrew and I managed to get up and dance, a lady who has had children in all of my three's classes, collapsed, right in front of our table. The ambulance was called and I thought it took about an hour to get there ( we were only at the school, not out of town), though Andrew thinks it was only twenty minutes or so. If it had been more serious, that would have been far too long. I had to move away at one point because it got a bit nasty and Bethany is sensitive in that area too, so we went outside.

After the ambulance finally came and took her to hospital, we thought the evening might just stop, but the band got up again and we all danced another complicated, and therefore hilarious, dance. Andrew ended up being Toby's partner on the girls' side, so he got to dance with all the boys in our set. Shep was my partner and Andrew, Nelly and I kept messing with his head by swapping so he never knew who he was going to get at the end of the line. Bethany was in another set with her dance teacher and we finished up with a huge circle for the Hokey Pokey. Such fun!

Feverish

Hayfever, such a terrible thing! I really love living in the country. I can think of no reason why I would ever move back to a city, but the hayfever is very trying. The Children's Medial Research Institute markets have been going for 29 years in Wagga and are a great tradition. There are stall holders from all over, some even come down from Sydney to attend.

We went for the first time last year and found it very worthwhile, so I took flex leave yesterday and spent it at the race course with our cards. The weather is a bit odd, we were cold for most of the day and the wind blew in fierce gusts. We have been doing markets for long enough now that most of our props stand up pretty well and keep all our paper from blowing away, but the doors did fall on me once, and then on Liz, right at the end of the day.

The wind covered everything in a fine layer of dust and, given the symptoms I am still feeling, bucket loads of pollen. It was a good day, none the less. Today, after popping in first thing to set up, then spending three quarters of an hour trying to locate either of the two cars that parked me in, I came home again, leaving the stall to Liz and Megan. We're doing new house stuff today. One day, hopefully soon, we'll have real progress to report on that front!

In the mean time, here are some photos of our stall yesterday.

Class Captain

Every child in the class had to write a speech, saying why they ought to be class captain. Toby and I wrote his together, ready for Friday. They ran out of time on Friday so he didn't do it. He didn't do it on Monday either, so after being worked up about it for days, he finally delivered his speech yesterday afternoon and everyone voted. Then, it was the end of school and the votes hadn't been counted!

I sent Toby to school this morning nervous about the outcome and as I walked towards him at the bus stop, I thought the fact that he was not running was a bad sign, but then I saw his grin. His class mates voted him to be class captain! Here is his speech:

How would you describe the perfect class captain? They would be kind, generous, a good sport. They must strive for accuracy, be a good friend to every one, they must trust in God and put him first in life. They should be blonde, have blue eyes, and be about this tall. Maybe they should be called Toby.

My name is Toby Heap and I believe I should be your class captain but first, let me tell you a bit about myself. I live with my mum and dad and 2 sisters, Jossie and Bethany. My hobbies are soccer, reading, cycling, eating, eating and some more eating. My strongest subject in school is maths.

I would like to be class captain because it is a good opportunity to develop leadership skills. It will be good experience and training for later in life because God would want us all to be leaders. It would be a good chance to encourage the year to be the best year 5 ever!

Firstly, I believe I should be class captain because I try my hardest at every thing I do. I love to try new things and I always give it my all. This is how I found most of my talents. As class captain, I will be giving every thing a go and I will try my hardest in them.

Secondly, I believe I should be class captain because I am friendly and get on with lots of people. I don't play favourites and I have a wide circle of friends (not just boys). I believe in treating people fairly and the way that I would like to be treated. God made and loves us all and wants us to love each other.

Thirdly, and most importantly, I am a Christian and trust in Jesus. I go to church twice on Sunday with my family and I go to Kids club on Friday. Recently, I was invited to talk to my church (St Aidan’s Presbyterian church) about kids club. I have decided to read a chapter of the bible every night to learn more about Jesus.

Fourthly and finally, I believe I should be class captain because I have represented the school in competitions and piano. I have been involved in spelling and maths tests, and have competed in lots of eisteddfods. In this year’s eisteddfod, I came first in two solo sections and third in a duet.

In conclusion, I would like this opportunity to serve year five as class captain and I believe I would be a good representative of our class.

VOTE FOR PEDRO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I mean Toby. 10 points if you know which movie that’s from.

Shopping

While we are living in town, one of Bethany's favourite things to do is go to the shops with Mum or Dad. We popped in to Myer after Fusion12 yesterday and she insisted I take this photo of her with a candy cane.

This afternoon I took her to Spotlight. She hadn't been before and found lots of exciting things.

Fusion12

I forgot, until after I blogged last night, that Joss had a birthday party at 9 this morning and we hadn't bought a present yet! So no sleep in, but it has been a delightful day. Like yesterday, it was bright and sunny, pleasant in the shade. A great day for a celebration of all the different people who live in Wagga, at the multicultural festival, called Fusion 12.

Food stalls with Sudanese, Polish, Indian, Sri Lankan, Burmese, Thai, Singaporean, Lebanese and Australian food. The Aussie food was a sausage sizzle run by the Men's Shed!

You could get henna tattoos and there were rides and jumping castles.

My favourite bit was the music and dance. At other times in the day they had artists representing Scotland, India, Myanmar and the Philippines but we got to see some extraordinary African dancing.

I'm so pleased that country Australia is now multicultural and that my kids get to grow up in a diverse environment.

I'm expecting a very cool change this evening. After being very hot in bed last night, I have removed all doonas and put blankets on the beds. I apologise if it brings Winter back for a bit.