I'm a legend!!!

Not to blow my own trumpet.....

So those of you in the know, are aware that I'm a busy person (really!). I am a musician, instrumental music teacher, ballroom dancer, dance instructor and I have gone back to uni part time. I have had assignments to do for uni which I have done between doing everything else and have started to get the results back. My first one resulted in a credit pass (about a B for those pre OBE or levels). I was happy as I am not aiming for topping the class. My next one came back today. A high distinction!!!! I hope that they don't have cameras in the lift or they will be showing my victory dance at the next Christmas party.
It is really hard work trying to be a superwoman and at times it gets so hard you wonder why you are even trying. But then you get a mark like this and everything is peachy! I ended up crying on the way to my school because I was so overwhelmed by this result (I told the students that the hayfever has been playing up...). I have one more to come back and a group presentation to do next week (the group should consist of three people but one is proving to be very elusive!! This saga deserves a blog of its own!).
I'm so happy!!!!!!!! I'm a legend!!!

A strange case of mistaken identity

Ever been in a situation where you received unwanted attention from the opposite sex? I had it happen yesterday at uni. The only problem was that it was very hard to tell them to leave me alone and they didn't seem to get the message no matter how many times I told them! You see, I don't speak peacock! Yes, peacock. I was on my mobile yesterday at uni and turned around to see two peacocks (male) circling me. I wasn't frightened but they were within touching distance and they were circling.... Anyway, I moved away a bit and they followed. I finished my phone conversation and moved into the arts dept courtyard. They followed. I rang my other half to let him know that he had competition just as one showed off his tail to me and the other began to squawk. I moved away again. They followed. I told them that they had mistaken me for someone else but that didn't work. I told them that I wasn't their type. That didn't work either. They didn't seem to notice my lack of feathers or the fact that I spoke a foreign language. And I didn't really want to offend them. Eventually my refusal of their advances hit home and they gave up and wandered off.
There is always a first for everything........

The Best Show on Earth

Yesterday was the day! It finally came around! We saw Cirque du Soleil!!! There are not words to describe it! It was absolutely unreal!! We had great seats. They soared above and beyond our heads! What you see on television is nothing compared to live!!! There were times I got so scared with a stunt that I wanted to look away but I just couldn't! You got dizzy, exhilarated, thrilled, scared and blown away all at the same time!! Truly amazing stuff! Definately going again next year!

Here's one for you!

Try this one

Who invented a pedal powered radio (wireless)?

Really!

Who would have thought!

What Be Your Nerd Type? Your Result: Musician Doo doo de doo waaaa doo de doo! (<-- That's you playing something.) Everyone appreciates the band/orchestra geeks and the pretty voices. Whether you sing in the choir, participate in a school/local band, or sit at home writing music, you contribute a joy to society that everyone can agree on. Yay! Welcome to actually doing something for poor, pathetic human souls. (Just kidding.)
Social Nerd
Literature Nerd
Drama Nerd
Artistic Nerd
Science/Math Nerd
Gamer/Computer Nerd
Anime Nerd
http://www.gotoquiz.com/what_be_your_nerd_type">What Be Your Nerd Type? http://www.gotoquiz.com/">Quizzes for MySpace

Return of the quiz

What book caused a major stir in 1938?
(Little bro, you know where this going so you are banned from playing ; ) )

Pirate name

Red Anne Flint

Passion is a big part of your life, which makes sense for a pirate. Like the rock flint, you're hard and sharp. But, also like flint, you're easily chipped, and sparky. Arr!



Hmmmm.......

This game thingo

One of my siblings did this and I thought that I would give it a go but don't know if I've got it right....

Here are the rules:Each player lists 8 facts/habits about themselves. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning before those facts/habits are listed. At the end of the post, the player then tags 8 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

1. I love white chocolate. I will happily eat milk chocolate but am not really a fan of the dark stuff. Funny though, every Easter, not matter how many hints I drop, I get very little white to sometimes none.

2. I am highly allergic to dairy. Quite sad when you read the above fact. Tragic when I'm a caffeine addict (that fact doesn't count as number three, you already know that one). Luckily, I hve worked out that two coffees a day is ok, but cheese has become my enemy : (

3. I am a teacher who has no qualifications whatsoever in that field. I have been teaching for almost ten years and have finally decided to get those qualifications.

This is hard......

4. I have a thing for roguish heroes in the movies. Johnny Depp as Jack Sparrow is the current favourite. I never thought I was going to get over Vigo Mortenson as Arragon in Lord of the Rings though.

5. I twirl my hair when I am stressed or thinking.

6. I don't get scared when I get out on to a dance floor in front of people, in fact I relish the oppotunity to show off. I actually GO OFF!!

7. I can't look at underwater photography. It scares the pants off me!! I did, however, recently venture into an underwater observatory and wasn't phased at all.

7a. I am scared of the ocean and won't swim in it anymore.

8. I can do a "double under" with a skipping rope (two rotations of the rope with one jump). Or atleast I used to be able to.

But Wait! There's More!!

So dear readers, you may have already deduced that I am a very busy person. For those of you who hadn't worked that one out, I am a musician, music teacher, ballroom dancer and dance instructor. So what more could I possibly add to my busy schedule?? Well, how about a Diploma of Education! I think that I can actually hear my siblings from here!!! I have just applied for a place at a uni here to do my dip. ed. I am almost assured a place so I will be starting next semester. Yes, in a couple of months! Why on earth would someone want to do this? For years I have been teaching music and because I don't have the little piece of paper saying that I have any education qualifications, I am not recognised as a teacher, financially or otherwise. Its time to get that recognition and open up some pathways for myself. I have been stuck in a rut for some time now and here is my opportunity to do something about it. It's a one year full time and two year part time course. I am going to do it in eighteen months. There are some members of my family that I will not be telling until I have to as this may cause them some stress (hint hint siblings!). But I am determined to this and I have support in the important places and some very high places too. Wish me luck as I venture into this storm and I will emerge the other end a qualified teacher.

Blogger's Block

Well this has been very interesting! Myself and my siblings were all lying very quiet for some time in the blogosphere but, like a supposedly extinct volcano, there was suddenly grand explosion of blogging. Not that they could keep quiet for any length of time mind you! How has the blogging started again? With trivia questions! Any good educator knows that if you want to get a response from your charges you ask a question that makes them use the old grey matter. So, in response to our blogger version of Trivial Pursuit, what will my question be.......? What stringed instrument was once alive but now extinct? Could be eaten? And came from a cricketing nation? Try that one smarty pants!

Polar Bears

I am deeply disturbed by the plight of the polar bears of the world. They are dying due to global warming. I never would have thought that I would watch an animal become extinct in my life time. I was very naive! I have heard that it may be too late for the polar bears and I would like to believe that there was still a chance for them. It frightens me to think that my future children will only be able to see these creatures in a zoo.

I'm still here!

So I'm back at work and i am doing less this year (yippee skip). I'm sitting here with my cappuccino (love my coffee machine!) and am pondering over the first week. There were highs; walking into a new school and being handed a glass of champagne!?!?!?! There were lows; carrying the instrument in near 40 degree heat and getting told off by an unknown teacher at a school where there is massive construction going on (you know when you were a kid and that really mean teacher tells you off and makes you feel a couple of centimeters tall and to top it off watches you walk away scowling all the way). There is far less stress at the start of this year. Last year I didn't have enough instruments and two of my charges didn't even get an instrument till term two! All in all, it was a good week, busy but good.

Atlast!!!!

Finally!!! They have come to their senses!!! OBE has been dumped!!!!! Hallelujah!!!!

Pachebel's cannon

At last!!! Someone who understands the torment!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdxkVQy7QLM

Poached!

This has to be the most underhanded and hurtful thing that could happen in my business. Another teacher has poached one of my students for next year. I was more than upset when I found out yesterday. It was the student who reluctantly told me. I was angry at the other teacher and at the parents as it was obvious that they weren't going to tell me (embarrassed perhaps?). I have taught this student for 2 years and worked extremely hard with them. They are going to a private school next year, where I am the teacher, and they have met another teacher who has obviously convinced them to learn from her. I have an excellent rapor with this student and cannot see if I had done anything to offend them or the parents. In fact the parents were always thanking me for me efforts. Some thanks! I thought something was up when I asked about next year recently (the parents had asked me about private lessons and they had asked the school about lessons at the school) and the student said that they hadn't decided. I got the distinct impression that they had and my fears were realised yesterday. I never really liked the other teacher and she has just proved me right. I do believe in karma and I just hope that this other teacher doesn't screw up the hard work that I put into this student.

Dance Partner

It turns out that my "dance partner" thinks that we are still dancing together. Its been five months since we last danced together and he hasn't really contacted me in that time. He did last weekend (after some prompting from me!) and thats when I realised that I had moved on but he hadn't. Tricky! I wasn't about to dump him over the phone and he mentioned about catching up this weekend (today maybe?) so I might have the difficult task of breaking up a partnership that I thought was already over. Some people really need things to be written on a brick and thrown at their head to understand what is going on.
So why don't I want to dance with him anymore? In a nut shell. He wasn't as committed and totalyy relied on me getting him around the floor, including knowing all his steps as well as mine. He turned up late almost every time. He wouldn't ring me to tell me that he wasn't coming or going to be late until it was too late or I rang him. He would turn up and whinge about his life (the eternal victim) or be so out of it. He wouldn't do what he could to get better (I gave him music to practice to and an exercise book to write down his routines). And to top it off, he is now talking about moving up North to work. Oh but coming down every three weeks to dance with me solidly in the week he is here. I can't work with that. And I certainly didn't enjoy his moods! Or his attitude to other couples on the floor ( he frequenly wanted to run people down who got in his way!).
It won't be easy to tell him but it has to be done. He is a family friend so that wil make it a little harder. I don't want to upset him but this will.

Dance exam

I did my latin exam on Sunday (yes, bung arm and all!) and got my results yesterday. I'm quite happy with how I went (I'm blogging about it so you'd think I'd be happy!). I got 96% for the Rumba, Samba and Paso Doble and 97% for the Jive. She was apparently a hard marker! My mark for the jive was the highest mark on the day (there were multiple exams and students dancing on the day ranging from children to adults). The rest of my class averaged 89-90%. I'm over the moon! It shows that this 30yr old can still shake it!!!!!!

Bumps in the road

So as we travel along the path that is life, we do come across some bumps in the road. Some of us find small potholes, others find huge craters. I had a scare recently which could have been a crater.
I've been having shoulder pain since the beginning of the year which didn't heal completely. Three physios later and it was getting worse. My strength was almost non existent in that arm and of course there was the pain. The latest physio started talking about a tear in the tendon or muscle and asked me to see my gp about an ultrasound. I did and my gp ordered that and an x ray just to make sure. He hoped it wasn't a tear, that means surgery. How did I feel about surgery on my shoulder? Terrified!! If it had been any other part of my body I would have been ok but my shoulder plays a major role seeing as I'm a musician.
I had all the scans done straight away and the good news is that it is not a tear! PHEW!!! I have bursitis. Hopefully I won't need cortisone injections in the shoulder (the needle that the doctor gave me into my shoulder to relieve the pain was small and painful enough! I nearly passed out!) which are delivered by a larger needle and hopefully I can get passed this with anti-inflammatories and a little more physio. It was scarey though!
I know that people go through far more scarey events in their lives than this but for me, it was frightening. Not just the pain and the possible outcomes, but the loss of strength. I'm used to being quite strong in my arms and to see that disappear relatively quickly and to not be able to do silly things normally like lifting (even light things), reaching across your body etc.
It will still take time to recover and I want to be careful how I rehabilitate it but its made me sit back and take a little more notice of what we do to our bodies. I'm like many other people who keep pushing and pushing my poor body to and beyond its limits. You only get one body. Its a bit of a cliche but it is true. If you don't take care of it, no one else will. We have amazing people out there in the healthcare professions but, they are only human too.

My New Addiction

Not drugs or alcohol. Not betting or cigarettes. Its volcanoes! Yes volcanoes. I religiously check certain websites almost everyday to look at webcams of active volcanoes. I'm sure that my other half thinks that I am totally looney!!! There could be worse addictions!! Mt Etna is currently puting on a spectacular show which you can watch unfold in almost real time! Kileau (?) in Hawaii is another one to watch. The power and the beauty of Mother Earth!

AFL Grand Final

Go the West Coast Eagles!!! AFL premiers 2006!!!!!!!

Onya boys!!!!!