Presentation night

I must have successfully adjusted my attitude as I neither tried to get out of or even resented Joss and Toby's presentation night on Friday. It helps that it is held just over the hill at the university and that both Joss and Toby had been told they were getting an award.

The top tier was packed, but clearly few wanted to sit down with the teachers and students. I realise that these photos are ridiculous, but you can take my word for it that Toby is receiving the academic award for music in the photo above. In his assessments across the whole year, he got 100%, so we thought he might get this!

Below, it's Joss, getting the academic award for food technology. They both topped the year in a subject! So proud......

Tomorrow they both have to be at school at 6.30am to leave for Activities Week. They are both heading to the coast, though separate places, to learn to surf. An important skill for country kids, I'm sure.

Drama and politics

In the middle of the year, Bethany had an evening of theatre games for speech and drama. Last night, as the end of year celebration, they had a movie night, showing the movies they had made in their lessons. Bethany's was called Snow White and the Seven Used Car Salesmen, and she played Snow White.

It was often hard to hear the dialogue, and the technology caused a number of problems through the evening, but Bethany and her friends had fun and I had a book for the long pauses between movies.

Today was a day of action for NSW Public libraries. We are trying to get the state government to increase their funding, as they have been decreasing it steadily so that we are the state with the poorest funding. At Wagga City Library lots of media came to hear my boss speak about it and the mayor read a story, then there was much cake.

Yay for the weekend! Now to get through the rest of presentation night. Yes, I am blogging during the event. At least I'm not reading a book or texting my friend sitting in my row like two people I know!

Storm

I'll confess that I was rather hoping it would rain yesterday evening, just when cycling was due to start, but it was clear as a bell during those hours. There was thunder and rain at bed time, so lovely to go to sleep to.

This afternoon, as I was getting washing off the line, a violent wind started blowing and I needed help getting the washing into the basket before it blew away. As soon as we got inside, the heavens opened and hail, the size of large marbles fell for what felt like ages. Half of our garage is full of bikes, so one car was outside and Jane's lovely new car was also copping it. She ran outside and quickly drove it home to her garage - so handy to live close! It was all pretty exciting, really.

Gingerbread

Churches have been holding gingerbread house events for years, but for some reason, we have always gone for something else. We have had button flowers, cards, felt flowers and foodie, rather than crafty events. This year, we went old school and embraced the gingerbread.

As usual, my very dubious talent for talking landed me the job of MC, so I took the less involved gingerbread option of making a tree, rather than a house. I highly recommend the tree option, it is quicker by far, much easier to wrap and delivers a modest amount of gingerbread and lollies. That said, I will still get my gingerbread house mold out and make one with the kids. It's tradition you know. 

I wonder if it is possible to hold a women's event free of sugar. I may have been the only woman who left having consumed only water and tea!

Going the distance

It has been a big week of driving. On Tuesday I went to a Readers' Advisory meeting in Bowral, leaving at 6 to just make the 10 o'clock start and getting home at 7.30. It's a pleasant drive, my boss' car is very nice to drive and I listened to a book. Sadly, the book goes for 8 hours and 15 minutes so I still have a little bit to go - that was poorly planned!

Next year my regional library service is admitting another council, giving us one more library (taking us to 18 static branches and 2 mobile libraries). The new library is at West Wyalong and yesterday Louise and I added it into the internal courier run to see how long it will take. We have three drivers over the week as it is an awful lot if driving. Yesterday we started at 8, went to 7 branches and finished at 5. 

It's a great way to see the countryside and to suss out the best cafes in each town! In Coolamon there is a cafe, called Ajanta, I have never been to before because it is only open on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. If you come to visit us, please come on one of those days because it is going to be our new weekend destination! 

The end is coming

It's a little bit scary, really. Christmas parties are already happening, we really need to get organised! 

We had our book club end of year party on Wednesday night, with 150 book clubbers. There are around 840 all up, so we got off lightly. It was a pleasant evening with wine, finger food, new books and lots of chatting.

It's my work Christmas party next week and my stamping one the week after. I cannot believe that the kids have a week and a half left of school. Stop the ride, I want to get off!

Inside

We chose a dog that wouldn't shed so that we could have him inside with us. We are out a lot, so we knew we ought to spend time with him when we are around. While we were building, Milo lived outside as he wasn't allowed in our rental house, and we have been worried about the floor in our new house, that he might scratch it.

The hot weather of late has made us reconsider and, on the weekend, we bought him a new bed for inside and let him in. He LOVES it, and so do we. He loves being near us, loves sitting next to us so we can pat him and he loves his new bed. As much as he loves his new bed, he is also keen to sit on a beanbag. Lots of sitting, no running and we're all happy!