From the Madhouse

I can't believe it was October last time I did this, time has flown. My contract with St Luke's as a HIPPY Parent Tutor finished with our Age 5 Graduation in November. Since then I've got another casual position, this time with Goodstart Early Learning, there are 5 centres in Bendigo and I've said I'm happy to work at any of them, though the Strath one is pretty far out from here. I've taken in my paperwork now waiting for the rest of the process to be finished. They don't expect me to work through the holidays as they know I'm a single mum, but all being good the option could be there in future. After talking to the acting centre director I also decided to apply to do Diploma in Early Childhood Education and Care at Tafe. I got my acceptance letter and enrol in January - Woot! Between those 2 things I hope Centrelink will be happy and leave me alone for 18 months, when Daria turns 8 I go from Parenting Payment Single to Newstart Allowance and there's a bit of a difference in the payment. I think the difference is/was around $120 a fortnight, which is ridiculous, but hopefully I'm able to be working more and it won't affect me too badly.

In other news, the girls both did really well at school, they are both excellent readers which is no surprise. Daria also did really well in LOTE, she's good at sports (PMP) too. Next year Trinity has her prep teacher, who was also Daria and Oscar's teacher this year - Mrs Manley. She's in a grade 3/4 class. Daria goes into a 1/2 I think, with Mrs Pally, and Oscar is in the same class too.

It's New Year's Eve and the girls are looking forward to going over to Adam and Connor's (Danielle and Darren's) where we're having pizza for tea and playing board games. If the kids stay up we can walk up the hill to watch the fireworks in Rosi Park. Last year they were up until 3am, so we'll see how they go this year. I hope everyone has a great night and we'll chat to you all in 2015.

HAPPY NEW YEAR FAMILY!!!

Back on the Bandwagon

We spent yesterday in Blackpool - a tacky seaside town in North West England. Back in the 60s & 70s it was the place to go on your holidays..  Now it's the place to go for your bucks or hen party.. Not that we saw any of that kind of group (not surprising on a Sunday).

We arrived just in time for the Santa bike ride along the sea front - the road was closed to cars so that hundreds of people could take part safely. There were baby Santas and child Santas, male Santas and female Santas, Santas of all shapes and sizes - all dressed in red suits and riding bicycles. What a sight!

Other than the beach front and a couple of piers, the town is full of souvenir shops (rock anyone?) and amusement arcades.  The arcades are fun - there are a whole bunch of grabber machines ("the claw") and 2p slot machines (drop in a coin, it rolls to the back and, if you're lucky, causes a chain reaction that knocks coins, and prizes, off the pile at the front of the machine).  Our £1 on the slots lasted ages, and we even won a little, plastic, yellow bunny-thing! We didn't win anything on the grabber machines and neither did Gwen or John.

After a cafe lunch, we checked out a few of the post-Xmas sales... Bruce and Gwen both found new shoes. By the time we finished in the shops, the street lights were on (it's dark by 4pm!) so we wandered along the esplanade and took some photos. Without the sun, the temperature plummeted, so it wasn't long before we were back in the car and on the way back to the hotel in Wigan.

We've got three nights away with B's folks (part of their Xmas present from us), the hotel is kinda dodgy but it's somewhere different and we're able to do day trips.

Christmas day already feels like a long time ago! It was fairly relaxed - we didn't do anything much; ate, gave presents, opened presents, and watched tv. I feel really spoilt by my gifts - I got jewellery, toiletries, jumpers, books and a Tetris lamp. A big thank you for our presents (mum and Nana, I'll collect my merino jumper from the shops next week). :-)

Today we've explored Skipton Castle - well worth a look if you're nearby.

Tomorrow B & I head to Scotland - we've got a few days visiting Vicki & Steven in Oban. Got to make the most of these holidays!

Your turn.
*hugz*