outstanding

big news of the day is esther gave a speech at her school open evening for new pupils.  she was excellent and the teacher who went on after her said it was ‘outstanding’. 

kezia and i were in the audience as jane had a parents evening (which also went well). the only downside was the size of the podium!

kezia and i arrived early so we had a good look round the school (kezia will be about to enrol for the school this time next year so we were a bit early).  Lauren was our guide at one point and i have to say the school put on a good display to encourage parents to send their kids here.

kezia got to hold a rabbit

we got home about 8pm and whilst the girls were having a snack before heading to bed i spotted this cockroach crawling along the wall.  we’ve not seen any in this house yet, so it was a bit of a surprise (and the walls are nice and white so it showed up well).  cockroaches here are common like earwigs in the UK – they don’t bite or spit or anything bad.  they just are quite big and move really fast

this one is an australian interloper in case you are interested

esther loves insects so she tried to catch it by its tentacle, but it darted off.  so she caught it with a plastic cup and a piece of paper.  but when she lifted it down she had a quick peak under the paper, and old cocky whizzed out and sat on her hand (after whizzing around on her arm for a moment or two)

she screamed, kezia screamed and jumped away.  and so did i i’m afraid to say (although mine was more like a scottish jig than a full on girly run-away).  esther remained calm though and plopped it back in to the cup and threw it out the door.  we spent the next few minutes in fits of laughter.  mostly at my expense i think

sorry about yesterday’s brief post by the way.  i was feeling quite sick and in bed. 

i decided this morning it would be a good idea to work from home, so  i drove in to the office to get my laptop and various papers.  i drove back in daylight and the mist was stunning as i dipped in to the valley where we live.   it was a 38km round trip, i went so early i missed the traffic on the way in and was against it going back, so that was good.

[yawn, commuter tale]

here’s a view from the garden overlooking the creek

here’s a bird i saw in the garden whilst working from home.  don’t know what it is though as our bird book is in a box somewhere.

here’s the trumpet review

and to close, here’s a poster we saw at esther’s school (not made by esther)

no exceptions – ok?