Flowery

It's spring time Down Under. I've gone round the garden to show what flowers are blooming in this hot month of September, or about to flower. Go here to see. My love, don't worry, the Jacaranda hasn't come into bloom yet, not anywhere really. Enjoy the spectacle of colours and shapes.

Proud

Yesterday Tess graduated. But she still has to do her exams, no? Yes, but Alstonville High School (and perhaps this is de rigeur in Australia, I don't really know) celebrated the fact that their Year 12 students have finished all the school work with a Graduation breakfast with parents, followed by a Graduation ceremony with speeches, and awards, and speeches, a bit of music, and speeches, and awards, and more awards, and some more speeches... I have to say, after some initial doubts that celebrating when they still have to achieve 50% of their final grade seemed a bit premature, I ended up feeling that this, indeed, was an excellent way to boost the students' moral and instill them with the pride and confidence to do that last leg.

It was a lovely morning for Tess and ourselves (ourselves being Yarrow, Mieke, John and myself) to see our Tess take to the stage to receive her High School Certificate. Oh, and the tea, fruit salad and muffins were scrumptious, too.

In the photos are Tess and her year group. If you can't find Tess (she is wearing Mieke's academic hat), I've cut out the bit where she is - in the light, very nice photographically, even if I say so myself. and yes, they are all in the pink, on account of the overhanging shade cloth... And, finally, here is the report to prove it...

Covering up

There's not actually anything in these covers yet, but there soon will be ... just a glimpse of the first ten graded readers (for China) from our new series iRead New English Readers, published with Qingdao Publishing Group in (of course) Qingdao (yes, beer-drinkers, where the Tsing-tao beer is made). Only 90 storybooks more to go in the series... It's a long-term thing...

The World According to Miss E

Miss E's life mottoes (whilst resting on my printer)...

1 Any surface will do.
2 I'm at work even if I don't look to be.
3 Hey, I was born with the hair.
4 You calling me Ginger?
5 After Master remove tick, cat rest.
6 Trust the edge: you will not slide off.
(Well, not always anyway.)

Rain, rain don't go away ...

Having waited for The Rain now for almost 8 weeks ... it seems as if ... would it be true ... some of it is coming our way ... fingers crossed .... horses in stables when it happens ... come on, RAIN!

(A FEW HOURS LATER)
Yes! And Yes! Rain!

Home at the farm

Tess is out to get us a video to watch tonight. It's her and me (and daleedlephuppie, and the cats, oh and the horses) as my love is in the United States of America (Minneapolis) to give much-needed support to her brother, Stephen, his wife, Julia, and their children. Sam has arrived home from hospital today. So here in Down Under Tess and I are holding the fort: Tess is moving over to Mieke's tomorrow, and Yarrow will move over to me Sunday, so I won't be entirely on me lonesome. Also, our friends Ian and Helen have kindly offered to keep me company now and again, which is very nice of them! And Jenny, whose dog Zilla (yes, big!) I dog-sat last night, said she was going to invite me over for dinner next week.

Saturday morning I will phone the vet to touch base on Emu. Cross fingers, he seems to be OK (has been for almost a week now), even though the daily poultice swap still brings out nasty odours from under his hoof. We'll see: he doesn't seem to be in pain and walking naturally, which is good.

I was going up North on Saturday morning to view a horse float (new) which we are thinking of buying but the container from wherever he imports them from was delayed, so it'll be Tuesday. Nice break of the working week, I'd say.

Spoke to my love earlier, which was wonderful although reminiscent of the days were were apart when she lived in Portugal and I lived Down Under. Good memories, but with a sharp edge sometimes as the long separations we never much enjoyed.

Where I will also be...

During the upcoming trip, I will go from Aussieland to Korea (KOTESOL 2013, for a series of presentations with YLT SIG colleagues), to Beijing (for talks with two publishers, FLTRP (recording a promotion video for English Grammar for Teens) and the Qingdao Publishing Group, to discuss our series in development, iRead - New English Readers), to London (the Language Show, and meetings with Collins (for our First English Words project) and Garnet, for various projects I'm working on for them), to Holland (meeting with Malmberg Publishers, form whom I have been working on the teen course Realtime for four years and we'll be talking about New Stuff To Do), back to the UK (for an IATEFL meeting); and then back home!

Where I will be

Always nice to get a piece of marketing mail in the post and find your name in it ... One of the shops on the next tour where I will be doing a presentation on Reading skills.

Life as it is

You know what I just found? Two minutes to update the blog! Woohoo! The past few weeks have been too chaotic and time-poor with lame horses, cars in garages and, first and foremost, Internet that, well, simply died. The modem went on the blink and, as some of us will know, replacing that is never easy and rarely fast.

So as home workers we spent a lot of our time the past ten days or so between bathing Emu's infected foot in Epsom salts (twice a day), stabling and unstabling horses and picking up or taking cars to garages, chasing the Internet in cafes and other salubrious establishments around the area (Utopia in Bangalow, The Bank in Lismore, the Eatery in Byron, etc.) to just ensure that a) we could work (for which we do need the Net every minute of the working day) b) our clients didn't feel left out or ignored. One loses so much time doing all this - what with every day life also demanding attention, girls needing to be dropped here and there, shopping, social engagements and more, we were constantly running out of time. It meant working last weekend and the weekend before, which is not an experience we terribly enjoy. On the contrary. Having both bought new saddles, we have only been able to use them ... once ... so far ...

In the meantime, sadly, Niki's brother's family has been suffering because of an infection their son Sam contracted while they were on holiday for which he has now been in hospital for weeks now, and he's not out of the woods yet - months of therapy ahead, surgeries, medications, treatment and care. Sam and his family are in our thoughts every day and we follow his and their stories via a special site for families in these circumstances. Kangaroo paw high-five to Sam! In order to help out, my love is heading for the States (Minneapolis) for a month in a week's time - and she'll return one day (yes, one) before I head off for Europe for a month... So it looks as if it's back to being on our own for a while, and staying in touch through Skype and phone calls ....