Eeeek!
Monday, February 27, 2006 @ 20:27 by Alana.



Yesterday I inadvertantly held one of these!

Yes.

Held!

Huntsman are a supposedly harmless spider that like to live in trees (and warm fuzzy envelopes in classrooms)(and occassionally on the pillows of poor unsuspecting New Zealanders who live in rural Victoria).

Yes.

On my pillow!

At home (at the farmhouse) we have had a good run of maybe 7 consecutive no-huntsman-in-surprising-places days. Unfortunately the old Mortein doesn't do much since they're so huge, and half a can of spray would probably do yourself more damage than the spider.

Yesterday, I was showing a friend through my classroom. I put my hand into one of the warm fuzzy envelopes and ofcourse realised that I wasn't holding a note, no, but a LARGE LARGE SPIDER. (A different sort of warm fuzzy?!) I screamed and screamed and threw it at the wall and where it crawled up next to yet another huntsman... my classroom is not at all like a tree. Why were they there?!?!! Eventually I sedated them (Mortein), prodded them onto a metre ruler and escorted them into the nearest bush while suppressing screams, mainly because they ran up the ruler towards me!

Anyway, just thought maybe you'd like to congratulate me on actually coping with the situation, and on my creative problem solving skills!



Weekend Reading
Friday, February 17, 2006 @ 18:26 by Alana.

I found a load of info on the BoM on how to forecast the weather. Wahoo!



Still Alive
Friday, February 10, 2006 @ 14:35 by Alana.

Two weeks of teaching over. Phew! I am so exhausted!

I have a class of 25 Grade 6 (Form 1) students. They're gorgeous! Though I wish they'd pay more attention (surprised?!). Had parent-teacher conferences. They went well. Tiring. Each little kid in my class is so complex! How can I teach 25 at once, and reach them all?! My mini mission at the moment is to find out more about Star Wars and Holdens so that I can have some sort of common ground with two boys in my class whose minds revolve around those topics.

I did end up leasing that farmhouse, and found 3 other lovely flatmates, two of which are teachers, and, we still have a spare room. We need another guy but we're working on it. We get great sunsets from our living room, especially since there have been local bush-fires, which is not such a good thing. A bit smokey.

On the first night I was in the house and a bit lonely, that is until a teeny weeny black and white kitten came to visit and asked if I'd mind if she stayed over: "Meow, I am so cuuuuuute!" So I said, "Oh, alright" and in she came for a bubble bath and leftovers. Name's Connie and she is now a permanent resident at our house too. And so cute!

Thats all for now.
Will write next time I feel like it.
Give me a month or two to re-coop.