Remember the days of the old school yard.. when we had simplicity... warm toast for tea.... and we laughed.......

Hi there.

It's a beautiful day here in Wattle Grove. And time for a Blogmuggle news update.

I have nothing of any real interest to report.

That's a relief, isn't it?

Beloved: Working too hard as usual. The 3 of us that are left living here these days went out for a meal & to see a movie with our across-the-road-neighbours last Friday evening. We had a good pub meal at Singleton, then saw "The Nightwatchman". It was a long, rather odd film that became better as the story became clearer. Not for everyone though.

GG: Has commenced a new career as a pizza delivery driver for Dominoes in the heart of Newcastle. She hasn't had too many dramas until Monday night, when some crackheads abused her for taking too long, so they had to put their kids to bed without dinner. These economically-challenged folk were spending $37 on pizza for tea on a busy Monday night whilst making my daughter cry because they were too stoned to cook their children tea... Whilst she was apologising profusely, she really wanted to tell them that they could have given their kids dinner for at least 2 nights for the same money, but just couldn't cope with the harrassment. Then one of the more stoned ones tried to ask her out...... She has delivered to them before, (She's been delivering for less than 2 weeks) so it wasn't a special occassion or splurge thanks to Ruddi-money.....
She's persevering though. All her shifts are at night, sometimes until 2am, so she sleeps late. The buggers forgot to pay her for her first week of work, too. Even a petrol allowance doesn't help you to drive your car for work if you don't get paid! She still has some shifts up here at the service station, & will continue until she has enough regular work in Newcastle to rely on. She hates coming here though, & will not stay if it's only for 1 shift, preferring to drive up & back in the same day. She says that Uni is OK, but doesn't talk about it all that much. We see her very little & text messages are very limiting. During the time that she lived here, she actually rarely slept here, preferring to stay on a friend's lounge in town.
She is rather frustrated with Centrelink. She was hoping to be a greatful recipient of some Ruddi-money so that she could travel to Mackay in May for a friend's 21st birthday. GG has never received any government subsidies even though she has basically lived out of home for 2 years now, not even rent assistance. She earned around $9000 last tax year, & was informed that she does not qualify for Ruddi-money as she received all of her tax back last year... which, by the way, was quite a bit less than the $900 Ruddi-money pay out. However.........
.........if she qualifies for just $1 of Youth Allowance, she will be paid out the full amount. How does she do this? By her parents signing documentation stating that her family situation is intolerable, untenable & unredeemable & she cannot possible live at home....... For pity's sake! She is almost 20yrs old, deemed legal in every sense of the word, but because she chooses not to live in the same area as her parents, 2hrs way from home, studies, tries to support herself & be independent whilst living under the poverty line, she cannot access the same government assistance as people that do NOTHING!!!! As I have said previously, we cancelled our Family Payment even though we were entitled to it, in the hope that GG would receive her own........ The government is under the impression that we should still financially support her, evidently........ Beloved & I have paid tax since we entered the workforce at the age of 15.....
Of course, if she had earned MORE money, then by some strange government quirk, she would have been eligible. Obviously, she & all the others just like her (and I'm sure that there are many of them) must live in some idyllic, mythical land like Brigadoon.....

Based on this logic, then SBoy doesn't qualify either, because he's not registered with Centrelink & has only paid a small amount of tax, all of which he received back, too...... He's living La Vida Loca... never here, but all over the country, based up near Byron Bay. He's definitely enjoying his life at moment, but I do wonder how long one can continually live out of a suitcase. He will be home for a visit at the end of the month.... YAY! He's learning how to budget, as he only gets paid when they perform, so he has to make his money last. I'm looking forward to having him home, but I have a sneaking suspicion that most of his time will be spent with his sister in Newcastle. He wants to go out with her in Newcastle for her birthday on April 2. I think the celebrations may last a few days.

VBoy is back into footie training. Rep trials are this Thursday, & the first game is March 28. And so it begins........
Parent-teacher interviews were yesterday. Nothing of any real concern was raised, which is an improvement on previous years. One teacher didn't even realise that Vboy was in his class, which for us was fabulous, as the usual report was that his presence in the classroom could be overwhelming... most of the time. It's also a sad reflection of the public schooling system that we have to cope with. The teacher was new to the school, & not really sure of any of his students at this point. Only the louder ones, I would guess. Every teacher reported between 29 & 30 14 & 15yr olds in their classroom. How can we expect them to teach this number of kids when they've got so many to cope with, for just 40 minutes at a time....? We complain about just 1 hormonal pain-in-the-ass at a time at home...... The smallest class had 28 kids, which had been reduced from 32... this was a maths class......
Another teacher reported that whilst he was aware of the spread of abilities in his class, by the time that he was able to get around to dealing with the need for increasingly challenging work for the more able students, the lesson time was over. And he had only had the kids for the last week or so as they had been under the tutelage of a trainee teacher for the previous 3 weeks... they had basically chewed up & spat out this poor fellow......
There is a large turn-over of teachers up here in the country. Newgrads gain credit points & ambitious teachers get extra points for spending a stint in the country, but not too many stay. The ones that do tend to be weary & apologetic. And I can fully understand why.

I am struggling with the decision of whether or not to keep Vboy at the public school, & I have been thinking about changing him to the Catholic high school in Aberdeen for some months. I have idealogical differences screaming in my head: I have always been a staunch advocate for public education, but now I an beginning to feel that my child will be disadvantaged if he remains in the public system........ Year 9 is such a difficult year......

Enough for now.

I've nothing to report in regards to Me. I'm working in an aged care facility, which is an area I'm familiar with, so it's not too scary. I finish next Thursday, then it's off to Community Nursing. Then as far as the traineeship goes, "That's all folks!!!".
It's finished.

And so am I.

See you later. Have a good day!