Plans for the Day

My plans for the day include going here:

with my best bud Elise, just for fun!

Tonight, I'm seeing this:



(a last minute spontaneous decision because my dance studio is going since we get cheap tickets for being dancers!)




Last week, I got to see this with a few people from dancing:



It was so much fun, and I can't wait to see Mary Poppins again tonight!
(I first saw it in New York in 2009; you can read about how much I loved it here)

Random Things

10 random facts about me, because it's been one of those random days where I stay in my tracksuit and do my tax and work on school stuff allllll day long.

Inspired by Angie's post about quirks and pet peeves... here are some funny but true things about me.


- I really hate coffee. Hate the smell, hate the taste.


- I can't just buy one item at the supermarket, I feel compelled to spend a little more money and stock up on at least three things.


- I have to spread my Vegemite all the way to the edges of the bread, so that it covers the butter I've put underneath the Vegemite.
(Also, the reason "foreigners" hate it so much is that they don't eat it properly- you have to eat it on bread or crackers with butter or margarine on it first, you can't just eat it alone.)


- I can't go to bed with the doors of my closet open.


- I always have the TV on when I'm baking or cooking. Preferably on a music channel like MTV.


- I love hotel beds. I love the crispness of the white sheets.


- I can't sleep on planes. I'm too anxious and uptight to relax enough to fall asleep. For one thing, there's almost always turbulence, even if it's only short lived, and then I just can't sleep because I'm waiting for the next bit of turbulence to come anyway.


- After I get out of the shower, I always dry my legs and feet with the towel first.


- There are only five fruits that I will eat- apples, bananas, oranges, mandarins and green grapes with no seeds.


- I hate common spelling and grammar mistakes, like people who use the wrong "your" and "you're", or "their", "there" and "they're". Mixing up "effect" and "affect" bugs me too.


I guess it's a good thing I'm a teacher! I am an absolute grammar Nazi!

Adventures in Baking

This past weekend I have been on a huge baking spree.




Saturday was a good day in my kitchen. I was a happy girl, getting to bake all day!




I made Nigella Lawson's chocolate brownies,




Donna Hay's shortcrust pastry (which I later filled with caramel custard to make a caramel pie)





and... Ina Garten's baked potato wedges,

(which I didn't manage to take a photo of because they were eaten so fast!)


In fact, yesterday I made the baked potato wedges again (they are just that good!)



I also made a Hershey's chocolate cake with choc raspberry frosting inspired by the one on this blog.







Such yumminess!

And now I really need to go for a run.

Ice Ice Baby!

I went iceskating on the beach last night!


Just like last year, my sister Chelsea & I went to Bondi Beach where they have constructed a huge icerink right on the sand!

I got really cheap tickets off the Team Spreets website (I subscribe to a ton of these deal websites now; you can get some really great stuff for cheap prices!), and Chelsea agreed to come with me again, even though we have been having freezing cold, ridiculously windy weather lately!





We had the best time! They had created a little alpine snow village right on the beach, and everyone was dressed up like they worked at a Swiss chalet!


After last year, where we rocked it on the ice, Chels & I thought we would be awesome iceskaters once again...

But we ended up spending most of our time on the rink like this:




For some reason, the icerink wasn't smooth and flat like usual. Instead, it had these little divets every couple of metres, which made it hard to skate!

Everytime we let go of each other's hands we seemed to stumble and almost fall - although neither of us actually fell.

I guess that's what you get for thinking you're a big-shot pro iceskater who had beginner's luck last year.

Training for next year's icescapades starts now!

:)

School Holidays

School holidays started this week. After 3 weeks of teaching full time, I was more than ready for them!

(Which makes me wonder how I'm going to be after teaching a whole TERM of nine weeks straight?)

Although we have three weeks of holidays, it's not all about time off for us teachers. We have to program for the next term. That basically means we have to write a timetable for all the day's activities for the next nine weeks of school- English, Maths, Science, HSIE, PD/H/PE & Creative Arts.

In case you didn't pick up on it, this is a TON of work and takes a lot of time.

This is what a completed program looks like (and this is just one term's worth of programming for English and Maths only!)

A program basically looks like this- all the activities and lessons for the week, divided into days.

And every day, I have to sign off on what was completed by the class.

This helps keep you accountable for what you teach, and helps you stay on track throughout the term. You usually have to submit your program to the Stage Coordinator a few weeks into the term to get approved.

For now, I'm in the trenches :)
I'm slogging my way through writing my first very own program for my very own class.

If it wasn't so much work, I'd almost be excited!