Bega lookout

We stopped here to take some pictures, very nice landscape.

Little stops along the way

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Kanga and Roo

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Ok, going to find Roo

Found Kanga and Roo!!

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Canada Day with the koalas

Let's backtrack for a second. After our first night stay on Phillip island we went the the koala conservatory. We saw a whole bunch of koalas that Amy got great pictures of with her good camera. The above picture is just from the phone, we'll try to post more pictures later. It was pretty cool, the koalas were just lazing about. It was really windy and I got a video of what it seems is a koala holding on for dear life as the tree branch sways with the wind. In reality, she probably Didnt wake up. I say she because in the whole conservatory there is only one male (pictured above). An interesting life he leads: sleep 20 hours a day, in the waking hours, eat eucalyptus leaves and get drunk, and has his choice of over 20 women.

Anyway, back to adventuring, I think we'll find some kangaroos today.

Jesse

Hostel #2

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We got another private room because it wasn't very busy, hoping this is a recurring theme. Merimbula is the stop and apparently it has some beautiful things to see, we're about to check out and eat breakfast, then we'll see what this place has to offer in the daylight. We wbt exploring last night looking for a greasy spoon for supper, but everything we found was prohibitively exensive. (we didn't want to pay
more for supper than we did our room. ). Did anyone catch the 5 setter between roddick and hewitt? If anyone did, was it a great match. Anyway, off to adventure, tomorrow night, Sydney!!

Jesse

We've crosssed the border

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Made it into New South Wales!!

Amy's first drive on the left

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Beautiful drive

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Taking the Princes Highway with lots of great scenery and cute little towns.

Amy

Lunch in Rosedale

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Stopped for lunch in a small town called rosedale, in a nice little park.

Jesse

Strong cross winds

Our drive to Sydney has begun.

Churchill island

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This ones not real

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The march of the penguins

Well they call it the penguin parade. The little penguins or fairy penguins come back from a day out fishing, come in with the tide (get tossed around by the wake, they're a foot tall and weigh one kilo.) and go home to their borrows.

We got there an hour before they'd started coming up the beach. Waited out in the rain and nasty wind all bundled up and eventually when dusk came a whole bunch of them started to come up. It was really cute. They would come in groups and if one of the penguins got swept away by the waves, te group would wait for the other little penguin. Unfortunately I don't have a good picture of them. They don't allow any photography when the penguins come up so I was only able to take a couple out of focus and low light pictures which don't look good right now, hopefully I can edit them on the computer and post them later.

Jesse

first hostel

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It's a caravan park/ hostel place and they're not very busy so they upgraded us to a cabin which is fantastic. We paid for a shared dorm style and got a cabin with a full kithchen bathroom bedroom tv, etc. Very nice diggs for the first night of our trip. Hope it doesn't spoil us.

Jesse

We're off

Our place has been inspected and the keys handed in, our adventure has now begun! First stop Phillip Island to see the little penguins.

X

All packed up and nowhere to go

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Everything is packed and we're almost off. We leave tomorrow. Nowhere to go yet and not much to do, but our friends were kind enough to invite us over for dinner which is good since we don't have a functioning kitchen anymore. ( it still works, but it's been cleaned and we don't want to mess it up. Next stop Phillip island. I will blog from there so you can see where we are.

Jesse

All packed up and nowhere to go

Follow us wherever we go

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I'm just testing this but if it works, everytine I post a picture it will be "geotagged". That means that you'll e able to know exactly where it was taken. It will come with geodata that will give our GPS coordinates. You cab then put this in to google earth and zoom to where we are. Hope this works and have fun following us.

Jesse

Onward!!!

Well we are almost done here in the small city of Geelong. Two more nights at our apartment and it’s off to make friends with the penguins. That will be our first stop. Phillip Island.

Had a garage sale and set up a stand at a market to try to get rid of all of our stuff before we take “the Hulk”(That’s our big loud angry car) up the coast. We got rid of a lot of stuff and we’re going to have to give away the rest, but we got some money for it so it was alright.

For those of you who have enjoyed the new format of this blog, it is alas at an end, temporarily. Since internet connections may be few and far between on our trip (I really have no idea) and I can’t blog to this page from anywhere else but my computer, we will be reverting back to solely the original blog at www.ehmeetsgdaymate.blogspot.com. When we get back to Canada, I will probably update this blog with a heap of pictures, but until them, follow us on the other blog. (We can blog from our phones to that one).

Well That’s it for now. We’ll try to update frequently as we travel up the coast. Oh and for those of you who smash at the volume controls when you open this page because you’ve heard that song too much, you also get a break from reverting to the old blog.

Jesse

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I'm a TEACHER

                    (my fellow Grad. Dip. Ed. (Primary) Graduates) 

So I've done it...I've finished my Grad. Dip Ed. course which means I'm a qualified TEACHER!! 

Alright so I suppose I should fill you in on what I've been up to in the past few weeks: 

Well first of all was Jenni's wedding, which was AMAZING. Jenni looked gorgeous and it was great seeing everyone.  The flight back was actually fairly decent as well, I had a couple seats all to myself, so it was pretty easy to sleep.  I have never had an easier time getting through the airport, although we were all screened for swine flu which was a little crazy but everything worked out. Jesse ever surprised me and picked me up at the airport it was a great surprise! 

That brings up to my teaching placement...well the Friday after I got back I went right back into the thick of it.  During my final placement I was able to teach in a 3/4 classroom but also the art room.  The art room gave me the opportunity to teach grades Prep-6 (Prep here in Australia is what we'd consider kindergarten), also to explore my own artistic abilities.  My 3/4 students were great, they were such a lovely grade.  It was a little crazy at times being in two classrooms, and a little frustrating as well but I did really get a lot out of it.  My supervising teachers were wonderful as well, always making sure I was doing alright and supporting me in my teaching. For the last 2 weeks of my placement I was in the classroom a lot more which allowed me to connect with the students; it was a little difficult to leave them in the end, but we did have a little party my last day which was great. It all still seems a little unreal at the moment, I can't believe I am now a teacher.  

As a requirement for our course as well as part of applying for jobs we had to make professional portfolios with evidence of our teaching practicums.  This portfolio had to sum-up everything we had learned in our course, and was massive.  So my weekend after all classes had finished was spent preparing my portfolio.  Our living room was a huge mess, it looked a little like an art cupboard had exploded.  However I did get it finished and I think it looks great, and seeing as I put so much work into it I've decided that if there was ever a fire in our place it would be the first thing I grab.  I can't imagine ever doing it all over again.  To sum-up the end of the course we were taking we had mock interviews which were a little stressful but in the end it was pretty easy.  So all courses have been completed and assignments handed in, which brings us to my 'graduation' ceremony.  

As a part of our course we had a mock 'graduation' ceremony, so the international students could participate.  It was just a simple ceremony with a few refreshments afterwards.  The most important part was the celebration that occurred later in the afternoon.  Since we'd all been so close during our course we all decided to get together and celebrate our achievements.  Drinks were had, some karaoke was sung and a hangovers occurred the next day, but it was all worth it! I have made some amazing friends during my time in this course, and I really don't know what I would have done without them.  Jesse has also been amazing during this course, helping wherever he could.  He was really my rock during this course, keeping me calm when I wasn't sure I could finish the course.  I sure do owe him for all of his help and support, I know that I have been a little...well lets say bitchy at times, what can I say the stress got to me a lot.  He is amazing. 

Now we've got a long weekend to relax, and then it's job hunting time for the both of us.  

Well I think that brings you up to speed on everything I've been doing.  

X 

New look Amy, but will it make her blog more?

Amy does apologize for her absence from the blogosphere. Ok, she didn’t use the word blogosphere, I added that one. She is insanely busy with school and becoming a magnificent teacher. (Those were her words(ok, maybe not!) They are true nonetheless.

Sidebar: How did nonetheless get the status of a single word, it’s obviously not, it’s three separate words. Or, nevertheless, something fishy is going on there somewhere. I use them, but I maintain that if a word has “the” in the middle of two other words, it’s not a real word.

Alright, that’s enough of that for now. Oh yeah, the picture above, Amy got a hair cut (well she cut all of them actually) and also it seems mysteriously darker. Oh, well for you guys it doesn’t really matter, it’ll be different by the time we get back anyway, but I suppose it’s still news.

Oh, how about people make Amy feel guilty and leave a whole bunch of comments asking her how her teaching is going? Yeah?

until next time, or maybe Amy will finally pull up her socks.

Jesse

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Rugby..... League??

I was invited by one of my work friends to go to a Rugby League match in Melbourne. The Melbourne Storm Vs. the Canberra Tigers. We cheered for Canberra at my friends insistence because he hated Melbourne. Three of us went and we had some drinks and argued with some Melbourne Fans for fun, some got angry and left, others took it lightly. It could have been because Canberra lost by 30 some odd points.

Already, here comes the technical bit. In Australia (my research has shown in many other countries as well) there are two types of rugby. Rugby League and Rugby Union. Rugby Union being the game we know and love in Canada (apologies to the people who know little about rugby).

Here are the differences as far as I can tell. There is no rucking over (this is the big one), instead, when a player is tackled, the defending team must back up 10 metres and a player on the offensive will move the ball out again. They only have 5 attempts at this, if they get tackled on the 6th attempt, it is a turnover.

The rest of the gameplay is similar, there are scrums and the movement of the ball up the field remains the same, but there are only 13 players on the field instead of 15. And there are no Line-outs. If the ball goes into touch, a scrum is held with one of the teams putting the ball in. (I couldn’t figure out what determined who gets to put the ball in the scrum.

Anyway, after the loss, we headed back to Geelong on the train. It was a good night, work the next morning was less than good.

Jesse

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Who Wouldn't Hire us?

The Job search starts again, or continues I suppose, but with more urgency. Amy will be finishing up her program in early June just a few days before the last day I’m legally allowed to work where I currently am working.

My Australian Visa only allows me to work with the same company for a maximum of 6 months and that deadline is June 9th for me.

The job market is a little sparse right now, so I’m going to have to call up a bunch of places and really look for work where it isn’t being advertised I think. Hard to do right now as I am still working everyday, but I’ll start this weekend I think.

I really don’t want to have a transition period between jobs, have to pay the rent and all. Amy is also looking, but it’s a little harder for her as she can’t start until the 5th of June while if I find another Job I can just leave my current one or still do a couple of shifts for the marquee place while I start a new job.

Here’s hoping this isn’t too frustrating a time.

Here’s a quote, (well it is now, I’ve just written it)

If finding a job was my full-time job, I think I’d quit.

I hate looking for work, even a bad job is better than that period while you’re searching.

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Amy's Back

Amy has made it back to Australia and she’s right back into the thick of it. Not 12 hours after arriving back in Geelong, she was in the classroom teaching little gaffers. And she had lots to do on the weekend, I’ll let her tell you all about her art preparations, haha.

Made some salsa today, almost took my thumb off doing it too, stupid knife.

Not much more to say, I have the day off tomorrow which is nice after having so many days in a row that I worked.

Talk to you soon

Jesse

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Anybody Still out there?

I realize that keeping a blog is intended to continually update people on whatever the topic may be. Alas, we have neglected this responsibility and I hope that we have not lost any followers because of it. A lot has gone on since the Habs perished in the first round, even aside from Hockey.

I have uploaded some pictures to this site, click here to see them.

We went to our second Footy match to see Geelong absolutely embarrass the visiting Adelaide. It was a cold wet game, and there was no doubt after the first 20 minutes that Geelong was going to win handily, but that didn’t stop the full stadium of Geelong supporters sticking it out in the cold rain for the entire game, us included. You can see us all bundled up in our seat in the pictures.

I have been working a lot lately, which is both good and bad, I fear that it may lead to a period of less work, so I have to remain frugal with the money I have made. As most of you know, Amy made the voyage back to Canada. She went the wrong way too, making her flight even further, but allowing her to say that she has travelled all the way around the world.

Back to what we have been doing. Amy’s classmate had a party for her course to celebrate something or other. We went and they had a karaoke machine set up, it was quite entertaining, have a look at the pictures for an idea, not sure if there is a video, not sure I would show you if there was.

Alright, I will leave it at that for now, but have a look at the pictures.

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What's in a Name?

So, the hundredth season didn’t go as planned. We were outmatched by the bruins and our defense was abysmal. I don’t blame Carey Price, he’s inexperienced, but he was also hung out to dry. Last nights game, the first goal by Ryder was a beautiful pass, I think the defenseman forgot Ryder now plays for the Bruins.

Well, it will be an interesting off season anyway.

Jesse

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Canadians Taking Comedy Down Under: Content Warning

Let’s start at the beginning. I was driving to work listening to the local morning show with “Matt and Chicken”, interesting I know. Anyway, they had a guest on that I was pretty sure I knew, but couldn’t figure out who it was. I surmised that it was Jeremy Hotz, but he wasn’t doing material so it was hard to tell. They got to the end of the segment and it was indeed Jeremy Hotz and he’s here in Australia doing a tour at different comedy festivals. I was on my way to work and didn’t think anything of it until I got home. I looked it up and it showed that he was in Melbourne that night through until Saturday. I looked into getting tickets for the friday show, but it would have been very stressful getting to Melbourne in time for it. By chance I noticed a showing at a different location. Even though it had said Melbourne, there was in fact a show in Geelong, but it was one night only and in 3 hours. I tried booking online, but it was too late, I called up the theatre and there were still seats, I bought them and we went.

Yes, that was a long intro that could have been summed up with “We went to a comedy show in Geelong featuring Jeremy Hotz”. Anyway, He was there with 3 other comedians, one other Canadian, a Montrealer, Sugar Sammy (actually very funny), the MC was an Irish guy who’s name I have forgotten, but he was also quite funny. The last act was a bit of a disappointment, but the night in general was great.

I’ll leave you with one of the “jokes” The Irish guy came on and asked the audience how Geelong was pronounced Gee or Guy (as in the french name). It’s neither of these, but the audience played along and apparently in Ireland, Gee (Guy) is slang for vagina, so he went on to say that Geelong is just a long vagina.

Jesse

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HAPPY EASTER

HAPPY EASTER

Wishing you all a very Happy Easter. 

Jesse and I had our own little easter egg hunt this morning and this is the loot. Easter dinner tonight a yummy roast, and chocolate cake. 

X Amy 

New Camera

So, it seems as though the life of a camera in the hands of Amy is a little over a year. It’s not her fault, they just tend to break after that period. Then I decide that I might be able to fix it because it would cost as much as the camera is worth to fix it, and end up making it worse. This has happened once before, and alas has happened again. So we set out to get a new camera. Oh this isn’t to replace the DSLR (High Quality Camera), this is the day to day (bar night) camera. We actually found a great deal, it’s an older model Nikon coolpix, but it was only $158 australian, which last month was around $120 canadian, but the dollar has had a bit of a swing lately and is now close to $140 Canadian. But, since I bought it with money made while in Australia, that really doesn’t matter.

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Great Ocean Road Animal adventure Pics

I posted the pictures of our animal adventure with Rob on the great ocean road. They can be accessed by clicking the “GOC” link.

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Great Ocean Road Animal Adventure

Here are some pictures of our furry little friends from the trip; 

Jesse, Rob and myself drove The Great Ocean Road this past weekend with the hopes of seeing as many Australian animals as possible, and I'm happy to report that WE DID!!! We saw loads of kangaroos, and koalas and one lonely echidna while we were enjoying the view of the 12 Apostles. We stayed in a hostel overlooking the ocean which was wonderful!  Met lots of interesting people, a group of 9 Irish girls, 2 guys from Sweden and 1 guy from Holland and 2 couples from England. Had a few drinks with them and then came back to Geelong, but chose not to take The Great Ocean Road back...all the twists and turns wouldn't have helped our state.  

X Amy 

We’ve been in Australia for 5 months

So we’ve been in Australia for 5 months now and this has been my first kangaroo sighting, although it wasn’t by chance I did go and seek them out. Kangaroos are quite similar deer in Canada and they roam the golf courses. I went on a road trip with a couple of my friends from uni. down the Great Ocean Road where we stopped for lunch in a beautiful place called Lorne where they make a delicious chicken parmi. On our way back from Lorne we stopped in Anglesea at the golf course where the kangaroos are known to frequent. Picture this...four girls roaming around the rough in the trees looking for some kangaroos. To our delight we found what I assume to be a family of them munching away. To be honest I was a little scared after watching a discovery channel special on when animals attack. But luckily these ones were nice and friendly and just watched us take their pictures. Seeing those kangaroos has made my day...now all I need to see are some koalas and I’ll be delighted.

X
Amy

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One Down, two to go

I have now officially started my 2 weeks of holiday. My first round of placement was wonderful, the kids were great and I learned a lot being at the school. I now have 2 weeks off to finish up a few assignments and get ready for my next lot of teaching rounds. First comes a week at uni to recap and talk about what we saw at our schools, and then I’m 4 weeks at this school and then well I’M FINISHED!! That’s right...only until the beginning of June until I a completely finished and a qualified teacher!! Something to think about really...

X Amy

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CATS vs. HAWKS

Jesse and I had our first footy experience...watching the Geelong Cats play the Hawthorn Hawks, a rematch perhaps of last years Grand Final. (Footy a mix between soccer and rugby, but then not at all really.) We had amazing seats, right behind the goal only 30 rows up right in the action! At the MCG with almost 70, 000 people there. The intensity in the atmosphere was unreal! We wanted a close match...however when it came down to it, it was a little too close for comfort. Geelong was up 103 to 66 in the third quarter but Hawthorn came back in the fourth making to 111 for the Cats and 103 for the Hawks. The last 10 minutes of the fourth everyone was on the edge of their seat. THE CATS TAKING IT IN THE END!!!
I had my very first casino experience as well last night, it was all a little overwhelming. Unfortunately luck wasn’t on our side, I think I’ll leave it at that.

X Amy

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Jesse Turns 24

Rob arrived Tuesday just in time to celebrate Jesse’s birthday Wednesday. Perfect timing really. We made a delicious dinner of beer can chicken, green beans and roasted potatoes, YUM. Oh and of course chocolate cake. We had a pretty low key evening...having the real celebration tonight, heading out with a few friends with the key focus of getting Jesse nice and drunk. Pictures will be posted later of this evening.

X Amy

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St. Patrick's Day

March 17th, St. Patrick’s Day. Seems to be a good night wherever you are. We went out with our neighbours to a local Irish Pub “Irish Murphy’s”. They had blocked off a section of the street and were serving Guinness on Tap outside right below that big sign.

We both had to work the next day so we went there fairly early and were home rather early, but it was still a great time.

Well that’s about it for now

Rob comes Tuesday!

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Attack on my senses

On Monday of this week I had a pretty long day at work, it has been followed up by two relatively easy days which has evened it out, but I haven’t had a chance to blog until now, being that yesterday was St. Patrick’s Day.

Anyway, we had to do this one job putting up a massive marquee. 20M x 50M. 1000 square metres. Massive! Anyway, the day took a toll on my five senses. First of all it was at a horse training facility, so everything smelled like Horse poo, Attack on my smell!! Next, the work itself was hard and made my back really sore and I rolled my ankle too, Attack on my sense of touch!! It was overcast at the beginning of the day, but the sun came out and while putting up such a large marquee, you inevitable have to look up a lot and right into the sun, Attack on my sight!! In each leg of the 20 x 50 marquee, 24 legs in total there are 4 long pegs that are about the diametre of a quarter and a metre long. These are put in with a jackhammer and makes a tremendous noise. No ear protection that day, Attack on my hearing!! Lastly, I didn’t think I would have trouble with my sense of taste, but it was destined to fail me as well. This one is a little weak, but it completes the package, so I say it counts. My roast beef sandwich that I had for lunch was a little suspect and tasted a bit like it had gone bad, Attack on my taste!!

There you have it, all my senses had a bad day monday, but everything is good now.

Until next time...

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Don't Drink Drive

Saturday March 14, 2009 

Here in Australia they don't call it "Drinkin

g and Driving" just "drink driving".  This goes along with their constant need to shorten everything.  Here are a few more examples. 

speedometre becomes speedo

service station becomes servo 

and the list goes on and on. 

But, back to the point of the post.  On our trip down the great ocean road we got stopped by what we would call a "ride" program.  They call it a booze bus or something like that.  They do it a little differently here though.  Instead of stopping everyone and talking to them and only breathalyzing a few if they suspect alcohol, they only pull over a few and breathalyze everyone they pull over.  

So we got pulled over and I had to blow into the breathalyzer.  I hadn't had anything to drink so they just waved me on.  They didn't check a license or registration or anything. 

Also, in Australia it is perfectly legal for the passenger to be drinking as much as they want while driving.  

Jesse 

NEW UPDATES!!!

Alright so it's been brought to our attention that some of you on dial-up aren't able to load the new blog so since we want everyone to know what we're doing we've decided that we are going to post on both blogs. So no worries no one will be missing out on anything, we are going to try and keep you all up to date from now on.  

X miss you all Amy 

New Blog Address

http://web.me.com/jwootton/Site/Blog/Blog.html

New blog address

I've decided to switch the blog address to make it easier to share pictures and such.

Also it looks a lot cooler.

I am a little worried that those of you on dial up may not be able to view it as fast, if that is the case I may abandon it and remain on here for blogging,

the new address is

http://web.me.com/jwootton/Site/Blog/Blog.html

try it out and let me know

Jesse

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We just drove the great ocean road.

Stopped in a little town on our way back to Geelong after our long drive. We have some amazing pictures. We'll get those uploaded when we can

Cheers everyone

Jesse

4 am start tomorrow

Hi everyone, well I start work at 4am tomorrow, that's noon your time, I'm going to try to follow the trades that go on, but it might be hard.  If anyone wants to email me any significant ones tomorrow that would be appreciated. 

So, I've been working a lot, but it's Labour Day this weekend, so a long weekend.  Yeah, that's right it's Labour Day this weekend.

I definitely haven't had time to post the pictures yet, hopefully this weekend. 

The wind was ridiculous today, Scaigren could have done 10 knots with just the mast.

Cheers everyone, it's 8 pm and I'm going to get ready for bed.

Jesse

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You Yangs

On Saturday, Amy and I went to the you yangs, a mountain of sorts outside Geelong. It was a nice clear day and we took a drive up and around the mountain, then stopped and had a BBQ lunch. Then headed up the 40 minute hike to the apex. From the top you can see all the way to melbourne as well as all of Geelong.

We took a ridiculous amount of pictures (385). I'll post some later when I sort them out.

watch out for the poop volcano

What comes to mind????

I feel as though that title needs a little explaining...so in the mail the other day we get this later stating that there will be some work being done on the sewage system which could cause a minor inconvenience, however they suggested that we make sure the lid of our toilet was weighted down for 3 months! Just incase they had to pressurize the system and well you can figure out the rest. We found it rather hilarious that their classification of a minor inconvenience would be a resulting poop volcano.  I've decided to start practicing putting the weight on the toilet seat in the off chance that I forget when the work starts.  However they did say there was a very minor chance of that occurring, HOWEVER I don't think we should test it.

So I've survived my first week of placement.  The children in my class are lovely and I think we are getting along fairly well.  There are about 10 of us at this particular school so there's a lot of support.  I am having a hard time remembering that I have an accent and they I need to slow myself down when talking to the class because they have a hard time understanding me.  Other than that though things are going wonderful.  I teach my first lesson on Monday, it's a small group guided reading lesson and then Tuesday I'll be teaching a guided writing lesson.  It's all very exciting and just zooming by really.  I've got 4 more weeks at this school and by the end of that I should be teaching for an entire day...EEEKKK I'll have to keep you posted and let you know how it's going.  

I'm still swamped with assignments as well...but they are slowly coming together which is nice.  We've actually all been given extensions for most of them, however I've chosen not to take them because I want to get them done and over with so I can focus all of my attention on my students. So I should get back at it, keep commenting we love reading them! 

x

Amy 

Oh, it seems it's that time already

Well I just did last weeks tip of the week and to stop having to play catch up all the time, you get a special double dose this week.

"Never put a closed laptop on the ground in front of the couch"

Yes, it seems so simple I know, but it can happen and the consequences are quite easy to imagine.

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Tip of last week

I realized that I put a tip of the week up and never followed it up with another, so in the hopes that I practice what I preach.

"Always follow up on the things you set out to do"

Disclaimer: This tip should be taken lightly and should not be applied to all situations.  If you set out to dropkick the pizza delivery man in the chest because he is late for you pizza and you don't follow up on it, that's ok.

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Brand new iPhone

I can't remember if I posted about this or not, but my iPhone's vibrating function stopped working, so I called them up and explained the problem and they said that I could send them in my phone and they would send me out a new one. 

6 business days after sending it in, a shiny new one appeared in the mail.  I am still very impressed with the customer service that Apple provides.

Well that's enough on that.  Amy started school today, teaching a whole slew of little gaffers (Grade 2's).  She is now Miss Foster!

I am continuing to work, there is a lot of work right now, so that's good.  My neighbour just left the place that I'm working at to go work at a vineyard.  He wants to stay in Australia for a 2nd year (He's from England) and if you do 3 months working on a vineyard or farm or something like that you can extend your working holiday visa.

I may do this as well, not to extend my visit, but to leave the option to come back on the same type of visa, it doesn't have to be an immediate extender, I could postpone it 5 years, so I might do that to leave the option open.  It's been 3 months (almost) since I've been working at the party hire place, which means I only have 3 months more that I can work there.  It is a stipulation of my visa that I can only work for a single company for a maximum of 6 months. 

So, we'll see what sort of farm jobs might be available in their winter, but it's not a necessity that that happens, we shall see. 

I could always move to a rival party hire company and sell all their secrets.

Disclaimer:  I, Jesse Wootton have no intention of selling company secrets, the above was meant as a joke only.

Thought I would add that, it is the internet after all, even if only a select few know this blog exists.

For those of you wanting more pictures and videos just be patient, there are some i have and some i wish to take, but we're quite busy.  However, any specific requests for pictures and videos will be taken into account.

I fear that I may start rambling now  (haha start..)

yeah, until next time

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Been a while

Sorry there hasn't been an update in a while, but things have been going pretty quickly recently with little to update.  Amy's been really busy with school and I've been working, not much time for too much else right now.  Amy starts teaching grade 2's on monday, she's really excited.  My work is starting to get really busy and I should have a tough week next week.  I fixed the window that I broke, don't know if anyone knew I had broken it, but I had and we had just boarded it up for about a month, but I fixed it yesterday because there is a routine inspection coming of the apartment to make sure we didn't ruin the place.

Get in your last weeks of skiing everyone, I'm jealous

Jesse

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it had to be done...

It had to be done, our trip to Australia wouldn't be complete without trying Vegemite, Marmite, and Promite me for the first time and Jesse for his second.  Prepared for us by our neighbours in what they think is the best way to eat Vegemite.  Tones of butter on a rice cracker with a little bit of Vegemite.  Now I must say it wasn't horrible...or well the Vegemite and Promite were okay but the Marmite was just awful! I do think however that the amount of butter might have had something to do with the 'okay' taste.  For those of you who don't know Vegemite is the Australia version of Peanut Butter only salty like Soy Sauce.  Marmite is the English version of Vegemite, and Promite is just a variation of Vegemite, but they all have one thing in common...SALT If your a salt lover then maybe it's for you, personally I don't think I could ever eat it as much as I eat Peanut Butter, but I'd probably have some again if the opportunity arose.  Jesse on the other hand didn't seem to enjoy them very much.  The kids in my school day after day each Vegemite sandwiches just like the kids at home eat Peanut Butter sandwiches day after day.  I suppose however with Vegemite you don't have to worry about peanut allergies so much, just the effects that much salt is having on your health. 

 Oh well I suppose to each his own...

X

iPhone Troubles

We updated the software on Amy's iPhone and the Wifi stopped working.  I tried everything to get it back working and the only thing that worked was to put it in the freezer for 10 minutes.  I don't know why that worked, but it was only a temporary fix.

I decided to call Apple since it is under warranty and after only about a 5 minute conversation, they agreed to ship out a brand new phone with a return box to send the faulty one back in.

Unfortunately that came with a $35 charge, but that's only because they ship out the new phone first.  It would have been free if we had shipped the faulty one out first, but then Amy would have been phoneless for a week.

Jesse

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an update on my crazy life...

Hi everyone 

I just thought I'd write a short message letting everyone know what I have been up to in the last little while. So most of my time is being spent doing school work...it just seems to be piling up on me, 6 assignments due in the next months so I may not be keeping up to date with the blog so I apologize for that now. (however I will make sure Jesse keeps you all updated)   So here's a crazy little tidbit...in a week I shall be in schools teaching for 25 days, the time has just passed so quickly I can hardly believe it.  To be honest that's about all I have been up to lately...hmm hopefully my next post will be a little bit more exciting for you.   I shall be getting back to work now.  

love you all and miss you all so much 

X 

Tip of the week

Always keep at least one beer in the fridge. If you want a second, put it in the freezer when you take out the first and it will be cold when you're ready for it.

We are very safe from the Bush fires

Hi all,

Just to let everyone know, we are in no danger from the bush fires that have ravaged Victoria.  Geelong does not have enough vegetation surrounding it to be in any danger of these types of fires.

The news is just peppered with this story right now, it's terrible what's going on, there are 126 deaths as of now and it's expected to get higher.

This is a terrible disaster, but we are not in the danger zone.

Just thought I would let you all know so that some may not worry.

Jesse

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Back to reality

The Australian Open is over and it's back to real life, well atleast back to being awesome in Australia.  Back to work as the erection specialist, although work has been a little slow recently (insert innappropriate joke here).  It's supposed to speed up soon which would be good because Amy is getting really busy at school and we need the money.  I have to work this Saturday fortunately/unfortunately, so I don't know what awesome adventures will happen, I'm sure we'll find something.

That crazy heat wave has passed us, but apparently more are on the way.  Guess the possum saw his shadow, haha.  I heard Wiarton Willie did as well, so we truly are in the bizarro world.

Nothing much more to update all of you one, oh, but I mention again that if you post a comment, could you please identify yourself.  Amy and I have been trying to figure out the anonymous poster from the previous posts for a while now.

We really do enjoy reading everyones comments, so keep them coming.

Cheers

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A match that didn't disappoint

If you do not wish know the final as you have taped it or something, do not read any further

What a match it was, the intensity inside Rod Laver Arena was unbelievable.  Rod Lave himself was there on the 40th anniversary of his Grand Slam year.

The match started off a little slow, both players were a little tight and there were a few unforced errors from each side which resulted in them trading breaks of serve to start the match.  Roger had a difficult 1st set, but picked it up in the 2nd to take it 6-3.  The third set was as momentum swinging as ever and when Federer was up 40-0 on Nadal's serve, which would have let him serve for the set, I though he had it in the bag, but Nadal reached down and came up with some big serves and great shots to save the three break points.  He ended up taking the 3rd in a tie break.  The 4th set saw Federer almost lose it and it what was definitely the game of the match, federer saved a ton of break points to hold his serve at a vital point in the set.  He took the 3rd 6-3 as well, giving the fans what they wanted, a 5th and decisive set.  Nadal took it 6-2 in the final set, which saw Federer hit many unforced errors.  The set was not without exceptional shots however and the intensity level never festered.  You could see the toll the 4 hours plus was having on the players, going for winners much earlier in points forcing out a few more unforced errors.  The final game was a disapointing end to a fantastic match, but Nada was just too good for Federer.  Federer served up a double fault at a terrible time, which forced him to save two Championship points.  With those two saved, the momentum seemd to swing a little and the Federer fans could almost see him come back and break Nadal's, but on a critical deuce point, a fan yelled "out" on one of Federer's shots on the baseline which cause Roger to stop playing the point in an effort to challenge the call.  The linesman had called it in and Federer's objections to the ref were to no avail, bringing up another Championship point.  Federer, no doubt rattled by the extreme bad luck and terrible fan conduct, ironically hit a groundstroke long to nearly the same spot that the previous shot had been called out by the fan.

Nadal collapsed to the court taking his first slam on a hard court.

In a ceremony that saw Rod Laver himself dole out the trophies, an emotional Roger Federer had thanked his fans for the support and before he walked away, seemed to throw the gauntlet at Nadal with his words "I'll see you here next year".

There's not much more to say other than this was an amazing match and we were so lucky to have been able to go and see sports history as this match will no doubt go down as the best final in the last two decades.  The last final match to go to 5 sets was back in 1988 over 20 years ago. 

We've got some videos and tons of pictures of the match that once I have organized them, I will share them with all of you.

Cheers

Jesse

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Taken it to a fifth set....

The intensity level just rose to a whole nother level!!

Men's singles final, live from rod laver arena

"the match made in heaven"

Let's go federer!!

Clarification

We're not along the baseline, we're in line with the baseline. Just like you would say you're sitting at the 40 yard line we are sitting at the baseline to the left of the ump

Live from the Australian open

Live from Rod laver Arena. Mixed doubles final on now. Mens final to follow starting up earlier than 7:30 pm or 3:30 am EST.

If you stay up to watch the game, you could look for us in re stands, although we're not all that close to the action. We are sitting second row from the top along the baseline to the left of the ump chair opposit the ump. I'm wearing a bright red canadiens shirt. Just in case you can spot us

Jesse

Surfing

Yesterday I took a surfing lesson with my neighbour.  It was much easier on the longer boards.  We took a 2 hour lesson and we had the day off today too, so we brought Amy and rented a couple of boards and taught her to surf as well.  It is blisteringly hot here though, yesterday hit 45 degrees, an all time high for the area we're in (Geelong).  It didn't get quite as hot today, but the sun was a scorcher. 

I have to work tomorrow at 4am, no fun a long 14 or 15 hour day I think, but fortunately most of that will be spent waiting and not out in the hot sun.  It's 4 pm here, I should go to bed soon, haha.

Amy might post some pictures, but if not I'll post some later.

Jesse

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Like a true aussie

Today we went out to Anglesea Beach to surf...it was an heaps of fun.  Absolutely exhausting but loads of fun.  Jesse was much at it than I was, but as you can see I almost got up. We were there for about 3 hours, and in that time I was successful in getting to my one foot and knee.  I would have loved to stay longer but man oh man it's exhausting.  Catching a wave, falling over and having to battle your way back is just so tiring.  Jesse was a great teacher, he even had me on the beach pretending I was surfing in the water like a real instructor would.  We got a board rental for an entire day for $25, and since Jesse went for lessons yesterday he taught me, probably the best $25 I have spent.  I certainly wont be eating anything with salt on it for a very long time, I think I drank just a little too much ocean water, and I think I ate my fair share of seaweed in the process as well.  I'm really not looking forward to tomorrow when I know my entire body is going to be aching, however I do think I'm hooked and can't wait to go back again, maybe next time I'll be able to get up.

On another note, school is going really well, had some marks back and I'm happy to say they were good ones.  Although I was a little bit confused with the marking system here at first, here things are marked as High Distinctions (HD) Distinction (D) Credit (C) or Pass (P), so getting a mark back that says D was little scary at first but I talked to some people and realized I was actually doing well.  I just finished two more courses this past week, so only 4 more courses and two sets of practicum to go!  Time is flying by.  I've got an entire week of maths this week coming...I'm not sure what to think about that yet.  

The weather has been incredibly hot lately...the hottest it's been in 100 years.  The last couple of days have been up over 40 degrees.  Yesterday the air conditioning wasn't working at school so I'm sure you can image how hot a lecture hall with 67 people in it could get.  I'm not sure I could handle it if our place wasn't air conditioned....last night we slept in the livingroom because it was just so much cooler.  I think we might do the same tonight depending on how the night turns out heat wise.  

well I think I'm going to go and hang out beach clothes up...cheers until next time 

xo

Highlights from the open

I've put together a few clips of our time at the Aussie Open, hope you enjoy the highlights, I think TSN would probably do a better job though, haha

here's the link

http://gallery.me.com/jwootton#100000

JEsse

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Another highlight clip, you can sort of see us

I've put a link to another highlight clip, also the picture about shows where we are, that's Amy in the Pink Hat.

http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1716442449/bclid1716440838/bctid9018904001

cheers

Last game of the epic five setter we had front row seats to

Here's the youtube link of the last game.  If you look closely you can spot us behind Gasquet (he's in white)  We're in the front row, left of centre, look for Amy's Pink Canadiens hat.

Jesse

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=8Oehg-oRQmQ&eurl

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Our part in the Australian open is over

It's up to the players now, we're on the bus back to geelong now. Don't know if they'll show any of the matches we were at, bit check the highlight reels for us, we're the two in the montreal canadians hats.

Front row Gasquet v. Gonzalez

Front row behind the court for the 3rd round match. Watch for us on the highligt reels

Live from the australian open

We've watched hours of tennis and are now sitting in front of the big screen in front of rod laver arena. It's a great atmosphere and we're going to watch a couple more games here then go home and do it all again tomorrow.

Cheers

Shiny New Car

I bought a car, yay, makes it easier for us to do more things on the weekends and after work.  It cost $2000, which is a really good deal considering that covered all the transfer costs, registration and roadworthy certificate.

I have attached a picture of it, it doesn't look like much, but it has a good engine and fairly new tires.

Jesse

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I need to cut back on salt in my diet

I get enough of it from the ocean when the waves toss me off the surfboard.  Yes, I finally tried my hand at surfing, but the circumstances for it were not ideal for someone who has never surfed before.

I went with my neighbour who bought an old surfboard for $55, it's a really small short one, which I'm told makes it quite a lot harder.  The beach we went too wasn't very busy, which was nice, but the waves were huge, it was a little scary.  Standing in front of them as they crashed some of them were 15 feet over my head.  (If I account for storyteller's bias, which is usually around a 50% markup, they were probably more like 10 feet over my head).  Even still, when they crashed on you, you didn't know which way was up for a few seconds.

In the end it was a fairly unsuccessful first attempt, I sort of got up on the board, but I did so while still holding the board, so I don't think it quite counts.  I think I need to use an easier board and actually have someone tell me what I am supposed to do.

That's it for now, next post, I hope to have a shiny new car (old and rusted might be more like it),

Jesse

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A cold Beer on a warm summer's day

I'm not sure I need to say more to make half of you jealous, I just hope I don't get burnt.  I have the day off today, don't know what I'm going to do with it yet.  It's not supposed to be that nice however, so I don't know about the beach.

I do miss Canadian beer though, they do have some here in some liquour stores, I've seen kokanee, moosehead and I think blue so far, haven't had any yet, far too expensive.

Jesse

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Fireworks from the water

Couldn't get this published to the blog for some reason, but have a look at how we started off 2009.

The file is aroudn 11mb so if you're not on high speed, it will take a while to load.

http://web.me.com/jwootton/Site/Blank.html

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Fireworks from the water

Couldn't get this published to the blog for some reason, but have a look at how we started off 2009.

The file is aroudn 11mb so if you're not on high speed, it will take a while to load.

http://web.me.com/jwootton/Site/Blank.html

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Post from the past

Well, I usually post from the future and this was from yesterday, so I suppose I am posting from the present.

It was a hot one today

Started work today at 6am because it was supposed to get up to 38 today.  It got to around 33 when we stopped and is just getting hotter.  Supposed to be 39 tomorrow.  I think that would melt all of your snow, well maybe not when couple with the high negative 30s shawville is supposed to get.  Think it's going to be an early work day tomorrow too because of the heat,  might finish early, so maybe a trip to the beach is in order.

How is everyone back home doing

Jesse

That was a post I wrote yesterday, but for some reason it didn't send.

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mmmm KANGAROO

I can now say that I have eaten Kangaroo...however I haven't even seen one alive yet, which seems a little wrong. oh well...it was yummy 

I'm beating Amy to the post

However, I will attempt to talk about something else as i believe that she is blogging about the huge awesome beach on Saturday.  I have now officially seen kangaroo twice in australia, once a dead one on the side of the road, poor guy, and another dead piece that was grilled up on the BBQ, it was tasty.  I do hope they weren't the same one.

It's supposed to be 38 degrees tomorrow so I start work at 6 in the hope to beat the heat.  we'll see how that goes.  Also we now have tickets to the Australian Open coming up at the end of January.

Alright, I better wrap this up or Amy might beat me posting.

Cheers

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SUNNY SUNNY SATURDAY AT THE BEACH

This past weekend Jesse and I traveled to Fairhaven Beach about an hour by bus from Geelong.  It was a wonderful day, the weather cooperated with us and when we arrived the clouds blew over and the sun was out all day long.  Fairhaven beach was GIGANTIC!!! Walking from one end to the other would take just a little over an hour.  It was a really great day, and a much needed day out.  These pictures are not to make you jealous, but rather to give you a warm feeling in the cold cold weather at home, so enjoy :) 

Sunday Jesse and I headed to Queen Victoria Market.  It was HUGE!! We didn't even get a chance to get all over the place, and we were there for about 3 hours.  We bought some really fun stuff for our walls, two aboriginal paintings, a map of Australia for the kitchen and then a poster of The Great Ocean Road.  We came home at the end of the day exhausted and needing some down time just sitting watching some NCIS. 

So today was my first day back to school after a month off...it was probably the BEST first day I have ever had! I am in love with the two courses that I will be doing for the next 2 weeks.  I'm taking Early Literacy which is focusing on teaching literacy development to primary students.  We jumped right in today and had to video tape ourselves reading a children's story to an audience.  I read Thomas and Grampa, great book.  Humanities is my other course, my profs and tutorial leaders are really interesting and I am really looking forward to doing the activities in the course. I am a little sad that these courses are only  2 weeks long.  

Well speaking of school I should get down to doing some homework. 

miss you all 

xo

a new look for a new year

 I thought I'd start off 2009 with a new look....and thought I'd share it with you at home. 

xo

Neglected Internet Space

It's been a while since I blogged, it seems a waste to leave idle internet space without using it (not that there isn't an unfathomable abundance of that out there)

So here's the update, I've been working pretty hard doing odd hours which is a bit of a pain, it's not the hours that are the problem it's the uncertainty of what time I will start and what time I will finish.  I've worked 12-5 or 6:30 to 10 before, very variable.

Christmas was good to me, Amy gave me an Apple TV.  For those who don't know what it is, follow the link http://www.apple.com/appletv/

I've been having a lot of fun with it, it also lets me stream internet content, albeit with some complexity.

The weather is beautiful here, I'm going to the beach tomorrow (unfortunately, I'll be working, but I might get to jump in the water)

We will hopefully make a whole day of going to the beach this weekend. 

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CHEERS TO 2009

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!!! 

(this post was supposed to appear at 12am on Dec 31st (home time) but for some reason my post did not post, so it's a little bit late) 

xo