Opinion Australia

Teachers drive me crazy, especially the ones who teach my kids.

I expect very little from them and in return I expect them to expect very little from me. Well I uphold my end of the bargain, but sometimes I find they don’t uphold theirs. For example they seem to think it’s essential that at least once a year I drag my sorry carcase up to the school for a ‘parent teacher interview’ well excuse me for disagreeing… but I disagree.

If I wanted to know what the kids were doing in school I’d ask them! Or if I wasn’t so unwilling to go further, I might volunteer to be a class parent and turn up at every opportunity interfering, sucking up and poncing about the school like I owned it… but I *am* unwilling so they can cram it with walnuts!

Tonight’s example was a goodie. We had an appointment with the eldest’s class teacher at 6:00 this evening. It’s raining, I was halfway across Sydney, and I had to pick up the wife before we got there. Obviously… despite an utter lack of planning… we nearly made it. Nearly, but not quite.

We arrived somewhat damp and disorderly just after ten past six only to find she’d decided we weren’t coming and taken in the next couple. Ok… so far as I’m concerned we got there late and they took our turn.. so we take part of *theirs*! Oh no… far too easy. She sees us and comes over to tell us it’s hard luck she’s ‘fully booked’ can we ‘rearrange’. No we can’t says I. I pointed out she might have waited a little longer… and she suggested we sit and wait and maybe she could fit us in. Stuff that I thought and walked off to visit the youngests teacher who was actually quite nice.

The wife is all for writing a short note to her teacher and asking if she can make anotehr appointment… and this time she’ll go without me. Can’t think why!

So off I go to pick up the lappie as instructed. When I get there I discover they’d not fixed it because they didn’t have a replacement drive… which is pretty much what I thought they’d say when I took it there but they’d disagreed. So I drive to Ryde, and talk to the Danka tech… who says it *has* died and it needs yet another new DVD burner… which costs $350.

Now this is a lot of money for a 4 year old laptop especially on top of the $2000 or so we paid *last* year in order to get it functioning but more in hope than anything I thought what the hell and we’ll have one more try. When we get it back the old man can take it back to the UK with him.

The hope is that the HDD will be accessible and I can extract whatever files are on there. Thing is I already have 2 other HDD’s that have failed and need their data recovered. Since they will cost in the region of $400 each this might turn out to be an expensive experience, not aided by my not having a clear idea of exactly *what* is on them.

Can you imagine what the wife will say if we pay all that cash out only to find there was nothing on there worth having??

Thought I’d try out a new theme.

If I ever get around to designing a theme with an Australian flavour, I think I’d like to build it around this one. It seems to do most of what I’d like it to do, albeit with a colour/graphic scheme that’s a little over the top.

Anyway – what do you think? Is it usable? Attractive? An improvement on the last one? Feedback on both the usabioity *and* the colours would be appreciated… the content… well I can’t do much about that unless I have a brain transplant!

Just been working on the eldest’s domain and installing the blog software there… hence playing with the interface

It’s not much to look at yet and she isn’t even aware it’s there… but it’s a start as they say. Trouble is on this machine I don’t have any FTP software and I’m not sure any of my previous versions will work with Vista so I’ll have to go look for something specific or she’ll not be able to upload a new theme, or even any photos… and it’s time she got into that sort of stuff I reckon! No doubt all her mates are on MySpace or whatever… so she might not even *want* the new domain/site… but it’ll be there if ever she wants to use it.

When she gets her new machine next week she’ll want to play games, but I figure with some close tuition she’ll soon be blogging, uploading pics etc like a pro… maybe

Edit: Oops… I forgot Filezilla… the best FTP client out there!

Everyone made a huge effort yesterday and the majority of the upstairs is now again looking as if people live here. Rooms are clean and clear, carpets sucked clean of debris, and assorted rubbish either discarded… or hidden. Our room is of course now the repository of the remaining clutter… but won’t be attacked until after the eldest’s birthday next weekend.

Hard as it is to believe, she’s turning 11. Concomitant with her new found maturity… she no longer wants the regular “entertainer plus food” type parties of old. Last year she reached double figures and decided to take a few friends out to lunch and a movie… followed by a sleepover and video out in a tent! Got to be fair that was a bit different!

This year isn’t as extravagant. Now the girls have their own media room… temporarily at least… she’s decided they’ll all sleepover up there playing music and videos… but also playing party games and doing magic tricks (no idea where that comes from as she’s never shown any major talent in that area!). We’ve promised to (a) keep out of the way which is ok because there’re no boys this year and (b) supply them with pizza and drinks and nibbles. What the carpet will look like once they’ve gone I shudder to think… we can just hope for the best.

Downstairs… well it’s *far* better than it was. As far as the outside is concerned, even the garden is looking reasonable with some fresh plantings in pots of some instant colour and a few small trees/large bushes. It’ll be some time before the trees take off but the fact they’re *in* is enough. I’m still not sure what we’ll do with 400 avocados if the two trees we planted eventually bear fruit… bu I’m sure the neighbours will help out. If I could bring myself to do the weeding it would look ok but my episode with the wasps has made me a little wary of gardening pro tem and I’m leaving a lot of it to the wife… who has no time to do it

Internally… well the only real criticisms I have of the look of the place are that the paintwork really needs a freshen up downstairs and a complete makeover upstairs; also the furniture is looking really shabby (it’s an eclectic mix that hasn’t really come off… probably because it was so cheap); finally the wooden venetian blinds need urgent attention. They’re still loking dire since the dog trashed them three years ago. Actually replacing the blinds is probably the next task to be tackled. They really *do* need attention. Some are missing, others have gaping holes in them where he assaulted them as he went berserk while we were out. Grrr… he’s lucky he wasn’t turned into a fur jacket and pair of gloves!!

Otherwise, whilst now containing far more furniture than I’d like, the house is almost ready for visiting parents to arrive. With any luck we will *not* have any comments from the kids in the vein of last years offering such as “Why is your house.. errr… such a mess?”. Cheeky gits.

Either way it was a hard weekend… but a rewarding one!