Operation New Stove Complete

Two more weeks to vacation !! Wendy arrives on 7 July and we are off on our big adventure on 9 July.

The Stove (Continued)

I was in the middle of a meeting when I get a call from the discount electronics store from which  I bought my tenant's new stove.  The gist of the conversation was that they were about to deliver the stove.  This would be good if I had arranged that with the tenant and the electrician.  (Note:  here in Australia stove are not plugged in but rather wired directly into the electrical system of the house).  I said that was not convenient and I would call them back.  A minute later I get another call saying that the stove needs to be delivered because it was scheduled to be delivered.  I said that was crazy as I never spoke to them about delivery.  Needless to say after the meeting I got on the phone and organised with the tenant and the electrician for delivery the next day after work.  When I called the store they were unable to say whether or not they could deliver.  I was glad to see that the stove was there when I got home the next day.  The electrician disconnected the old stove, we moved it and unpacked the new stove.   Unfortunately there was a big dent and scratch on the side of the stove.  I called the store.  There advice was for me to bring back the stove.  That was not really possible on my bike and they didn't have another stove except for the floor model anyway.  We negociated a discount on the stove.  We installed it and then the really bad thing happened.  The oven racks wouldn't fit in the stove.  After a trip to the electronics store we determined this was due to the dent.  The stove would need to be disconnected and returned.  

Long story short - the stove was returned (picked up by the store) and I organised for the stove my friend offered me a few weeks ago to be installed.  It turns out that it is a better stove and my tenant is happier.  It as a lot of hassle and I don't think I will buy anything from that shop again.

Travel back to the USA

Well apparently due to flight changes due to fuel costs my flight back to the US has been cancelled.  I am currently working with the travel agent to reschedule.  It looks as though I will be arriving earlier on Christmas eve.  When I have more definite plans, I will let you all know.

The Wood Duck

I have previously mentioned about the wood duck.  It is the award for doing the dumbest/ funniest thing at work.  Last week Dave from my department played a game of soccer at lunch.  Three of us were all in the office afterwards with all three doors open.  He says "Kris I hope you don't mind if I change my shirt".  Then as we are talking about various work related things and he says "Don't look I am changing my shorts".  Needless to say I was a tad bit surprised.  After he got the wood duck he said "at least I kept my boxers on".  It was a good laugh for us all.

Winter is Here?

June 1 signals the official start of winter here in Australia. However, it is winter at its absolute mildest. This morning I had to wear a long sleeve shirt at 9am - very chilly (ha, ha). Every day I walk or ride down the bike path. Last week they built a cute little gazebo by the bike path near my house. Here are a couple of pictures of the gazebo and bike path.

Events of the Week
New Stove
My tenant brought of the remains of the rounded things that go under the heating elements in an electric stove. Hers had rusted out. I thought "No problem" just order an replacement. It is not quite that easy. I called Westinghouse (the manufacturer) but they said without the model number it is impossible to send replacements and if it is an old stove it is unlikely that they make them anymore anyway. Well the model number was unreadable on the stove. I went to a stove repair place and got the same story. After thinking of having them made and thinking of trying to get out to the tip (the Aussie term for the dump), I decided that buying a new stove was the way to go. I found one on sale but then decided to buy an extended warranty and have it delivered so I ended up paying more than the ticket price anyway. I don't have it yet as they had to order one in unless I wanted to take the floor model.

Then in Australia all the stoves are wired into the electrical system (verses using a plug) so I need to get an electrician to disconnect the old and reconnect the new. I lucked out there as one of the people who are taking my foster dog is an electrician and he has said he will do it for me. Now I have to pay to have the old stove taken away. Is there no end to this I ask myself?

A bit of belated good luck on Sunday - a friend offered to give me a stove.  I guess I will replace both stoves (the one in my rental unit and the one in my unit).


Theft vs Prank
Many of you have heard stories of people I work with and will know immediately who I am talking about in this story. Last week we had a raffle at work to support Beyond Blue. One guy won a six pack of Corona. A couple of pranksters swapped out two of the Corona for Hahn Light (comparable to Bud Light). The guy flew into a rage and went off about the theft of his beer. The next work day (this was after the weekend and holiday monday) he complained to the principal about a thief at work. Needless to say that several people thought this was quite funny. He then got the Wood Duck award (given out weekly to teachers doing a stupid thing) which, of course, set him off again.

Harriers
Sunday was a great morning for a bit of a walk.  I did 7km with Harriers.  I took a few pictures along the way with my phone.  It was a dual purpose activity.  I wanted a few photos for here but I also wanted to be sure that I know how to use the bluetooth functions on the phone and on my macbook.  Here are a few photos of the beach and the iconic Geraldton lighthouse.

Sydney Found

Holidays
This week was a short week at school due to Easter. Here in Australia Good Friday is a holiday. There are also two more days off called Easter Monday and Easter Tuesday. Not everyone has Tuesday off but teachers and students do. I think that one of the reasons I am getting out so much later this year (Dec 19) is that we have these days off during the term. Usually they fall during the two weeks I have off at the end of the first term.

Sydney
An Australian warship named the Sydney and 645 crew members were lost in WWII in the ocean north of here. There is a big memorial here. Until this week the final resting place of the Sydney was unknown. This week the Australian ship and the German ship that sank it were found near Shark Bay.

Aussie Rules Football
After being asked to set up an online tipping (betting) competition for the football season, I found that someone else at school had set one up. In the end the other teacher agreed to handle the money side and use the comp that I set up. Somehow I have ended up in this competition. I know even less about AFL than US football if that is possible. My results so far are 2/5 correct. I don't think I will be making much money on this.

St Paddy's Day
Last Sunday a warm up for St Paddy's Day was advertised so a friend and I decided to go to the Freo to see what was happening. We asked at the bar and the had no idea of what was going on despite the advertisement. We had a few drinks but nothing much seemed to be happening. Monday we had Parent Night at school. As I have no students I thought it would be pretty boring but instead I worked with a few teachers on using a virtual body web site. Later a couple of teachers and I went out for a drink. They had the loudest fiddlers ever there. I left after a beer as I had to be up early the next day.

Computer Problems
This week was plagued by ongoing computer issues at school. It is pretty much out of my hands but I still bear a bit of the teachers' unhappiness when they plan lessons on the computers and they just don't work.

Geraldton Dog Rescue(GDR)
A few weeks ago I signed up to be a volunteer for GDR. It entails housing a dog after they have been at the pound the maximum time. You house them until a new home is found. This week I received a call asking if I could take in Nikki - a small chihuahua. You can see a few photos of her here. She is kind of strange to me because she is so small - smaller than a large cat. She has a hurt shoulder so she can't walk or play. She has big expressive eyes. Brody, my nephew, says that he picks dogs he likes based on their eyes. I bet he would have liked this one. Unfortunately, he probably would have blown up like a balloon because of his allergies. Well, Nikki lived with me two days and then escaped. I am not sure how. She must have squeezed through the fence. The GDR people said not to worry. It happens all the time. That is how the dogs end up in the pound in the first place. Sometimes after they escape someone finds them and then keeps them or calls the pound or GDR. A worst case scenario is that she could get hit by a car. I hope she is well.

Local Find

Local mystery as to what happened to two ships in WWII seems about to be solved. http://www.thewest.com.au/default.aspx?MenuID=145&ContentID=63113

A week that could have been better

It is amazing that at work I can have so many positive interactions with staff. One staff member that I worked with this week was just ecstatic about the outcomes we achieved for her students. She even showed the work to the principal. On the other hand I have staff who appear to feel that I have nothing to do all day. I find this ironic as I sit here at work on a Sunday resolving a few issues. All in all I do find this job rewarding. I am trying to be more thick skinned and ignore the negative people. It is easier said than done.

The big thing that happened at work this week was the crippling of our admin server on Friday. The upside of this was that students were hardly impacted. The downside was that staff had issues logging on, logging off and were unable to save anything. It was a frustrating day in that it wasn't a problem generated by school but rather by the central control / support of the school. It wasn't fixed until 4pm.

The weather continutes to be pretty nice - warm but not hot. Working out at the gym is not the sweat soaked nightmare that it was.

Yesterday I watched a couple of water polo finals. One of my staff was playing and coaching. The were generally exciting games and I was a bunch of people that I hadn't seen in ages.

This week is a short week at work because Australia has so many holidays. For Easter we have Good Friday, Easter Monday and Easter Tuesday off work. I am planning on sticking around in town but who knows? That means there are two short work weeks and two regular work weeks and then two weeks of holidays. I am thinking of heading up to the Ningaloo Reef if I can get a ride.

Coup and Carnival

Attempted Coup or Timewaster?
After basically begging this poor guy to be president of our staff association after the prior year president said "NO more" another teacher stood up and said that we need to follow the constitution and the democratic process. This took up about 15 minutes of an after school meeting. The outcome was that no one wanted to be president and as far as I was concerned we were lucky to get a president at all.

Swim Carnival
Speaking of time wasters this week we had the swim carnival. The entire school goes to the pool (of course only a third show up) and we have a swimming competition. As I had many things to do - timing swim races was not exactly what I wanted to be doing. The school is divided in the five groups. My group (also called a house) is Chapman. The best bit of the day was the teacher relay. Our house competed again the other houses and won. I didn't swim but cheered madly on the side. The other good bit was drinks with the other teachers after school.

Weather
The weather has not been too bad lately. It has been kind of humid but not as hot and it has been cooling off during the night.

Cycle Instead
Monday starts a one month competition of using a bicycle as alternative transport. I have organised a team from work. There are around eight people on it. We are named the School Spokes.

Reading
I just finished a book called Critical Conditions by Stephen White and am starting Kathy Reichs's Bones to Ashes today.

Nike Plus
I bought the Nike plus attachment for my iPod. I am not sure how much I will use it with the Cycle instead competition starting. I have to ride my bike as much as possible. I have used it a bit and like how it works and records the distances that I walk.

Life back in Australia

This last week was HOT, HOT, HOT. From last Sunday through Thursday the daily high was between 98 and 103 and it wasn't cooling off at night. My house (and the school) heated up like a kiln. There is no a/c in either place. I was spraying down the brick wall inside and outside my bedroom to try and reduce the heat a little because the brick just holds onto that heat. Luckily the temp dropped a little by the end of the week.

My gym is not air conditioned and working out has been like taking a sauna while exercising - very wet.

Despite the heat work has been pretty good. I am working with several teachers in integrating various technology strategies in their classrooms. The downside is that the technical issues are still occurring and our process for dealing with them needs refinement.

I was checking up on some electrical and cabling work to be done in one of the classrooms and one of the teachers showed me a photo of an osprey that was hanging out on his car. He got so close to take the photo that I was worried about the bird. Then I read in Friday's local paper that two osprey that had been rehabilitated were released. I guess it was one of them. It doesn't bode well for them if they are not displaying normal wild animal behaviors.

My bike finally seems to be fixed. It was in the shop for over a week due to a problem with the spokes. Apparently most of the bikes sold in 2006 has bad spokes. It was finally fixed under warranty. I then had to take it back for adjustment because the tire was rubbing on the brakes. All seems well now so I have two forms of transport available - my feet or the bike.

You would think that I would be used to the different traffic patterns here by now but on Thursday I rode my bike over to a friend's house for a birthday drink. I only had two light beers but on the way out I heard her yelling "get on the right side of the road" which was, of course, the left side of the road. I was riding along on the right. It was a small side street and there was no traffic.

Friday night I went to the outdoor cinema (a projection screen set up in an ampitheatre) to see the original Hairspray. Several of my friends went and one brought colored hairspray for us to get in the feel of the movie. It was a good time. I am keen to see the newer version which I understand is a musical.

I just finished Michael Crichton's novel Prey about nanotechnology. I am now reading The Unquiet by John Connolly. I recommend both.

Penguins and sharks visit Geraldton

I have been back a little over a week and have been slowly getting things together. I now have home internet which is great. The weather has been warm but not unduly hot so that is really great. It was supposed to be hot but it never got there.

Interesting animal news here in Gero this week. A King Penguin arrived on a beach north of Geraldton. The penguin was way off course - something like 4000km. It is the farthest north that they have seen this kind of penguin. Unfortunately, the penguin died probably killed by a box.

Then a couple of days ago another penguin ( a little Blue this time) also visited Geraldton. This one was watched over set happily on its way to ensure no fox got it.

Then two tiger sharks - one of the most feared sharks in this area - were spotted at the beach closest to my house. As I was walking by the beach yesterday I saw the patrol boat at the beach looking for them.

Today is Australia Day.

I return to work officially on Tuesday.

Come Visit Western Australia

Hey Hey

I am likely returning to Australia for one year only. Take advantage of my final year there. You are more than welcome to come visit at any time. However, the best time for me to spend time with you is during the "School Holidays" [vacation]. I get three long breaks of during the year and some long weekends. You can check these days and times out here.

Visiting Western Australia

• Visit me in Geraldton . My place isn't a palace but it is only a few minute walk to the coast. Geraldton is famous for a few things - crayfish (a type of rock lobster - not crawdad), wind (wind surfing and kite surfing), and we have some pretty impressive diving at the Abrolhos Islands (the boat trip is not for those with a weak stomach). Check out these photos of the area.


• South of Geraldton is the Turquoise coast.
  
• The Bibbulmun Track is one of the world's great long distance walk trails, stretching nearly 1000kms from Kalamunda (Perth Hills) to Albany (South Coast) through the heart of the scenic South West of Western Australia http://www.bibbulmuntrack.org.au/


• Swim with Whale Sharks http://www.ningalooblue.com.au/


• Snorkel or dive the Ningaloo Reef
  
  http://www.exmouthresort.com/gallery/area.html
  http://www.exmouthresort.com/todo/snorkling.html
  


• Swim with dolphins http://www.rockinghamwildencounters.com.au/


• Karijini National Park is the second largest national park in Western Australia and one of the most spectacular sights in the Pilbara. With breathtaking gorges, crystal clear rock pools, waterfalls, and stunning scenery, a visit to Karijini is a must.


• Rottnest Island http://www.rottnestisland.com/


• Valley of the Giants Treetop Walk


• Margaret River Wine Region