From Miss 15 - Day 12 in Japan

We had the AFS chapter picnic today and it was lots of fun, we went on the train and it took forever, when we got off the station was quite crowded, we walked outside to a massive park and i took a photo of the shrine entrance.

then we walked into the entrance to the actual park and it was quite packed

and we found the aAFSers and followed them into the park,

we met everyone else when we got there and we all sat down, we introduced ourselves and our families to the group, then we ate lunch and played games. Then we finished and micah's and my families walked together to look at the shrine and as we were walking out of the park it was jam packed.

We walked to the shrine but it was under construction so I took a photo of the entryway

then after we went to the shrine we walked to the train station and that was crazy, we waited in the entrance for about 20 mins before getting to the gate

then once we got off the crowded train we had to cross the shibuya scramble, - im pretty sure its shibuya but idk

then when we got off the train at our local stop it was finally less crowded, and we walked home and saw the cherry blossom festival.

WOW Time Flies ...

Hi to anyone still reading this blog :) Quick update on life: Miss 13 is now in Year 8, still enjoying horse riding, and school - she's now in both the Specialist Agricultural and Specialist Athletics programs and still making the world's best brownies. She's in the kitchen at the moment cooking up a batch. Which is both good (awesome brownies) and bad (I'm banned from kitchen for the duration and I need coffee). Miss 15 flew out to Japan for a year's student exchange program. She will fly back in on Feb 4th, 2018!!! Awesome adventure for her and I hope she has a fantastic time. We've got a Danish exchange volunteer staying with us for 3 months. She's working at a local native bird rescue. Our business is going well, I've got a few contracts on the go at the moment, each with their own set of issues, but mostly enjoyable, and hubby is building up his client list too. And that's about it. Also, I am planning to do more regular updates, so stay tuned!

Quick Update

I know I've not posted here for awhile, but I just wanted to reach out to anyone still reading and let you know the best news this year .., Miss nearly-15 has been awarded a full scholarship to go to Japan next year as an exchange student.  She is so excited.

She'll fly out in March and fly back in Feb 2018!!

January Wrap

Wow, another year flying by!!!

January was very quiet on the work front :(  BUT very busy in every other way.  Being school holidays meant that most of my time was taken up with the girls.

Miss 12 had an operation on her ingrowing toenail which meant that she couldn't spent all her time with horses so she was around pretty much full time for most of January.

Miss 14 had swimming lessons for her Bronze Medallion re-certification.  Due to her illness last year she hasn't done much sport at all for a long time, but thankfully she was still fit enough to cope with the swimming requirement of the Bronze Medallion and still remembered all of her first aid and resuscitation information necessary to pass.  (Well she did a Senior First Aid / CPR certificate in November so I would have been surprised if she hadn't of passed!).

After all of this was out of the way, we went down to Dunsborough for a week.  Really love it down there.  We visited all of our favourite spots - Millars Ice-Creamery; the Candy Cow in Cowaramup; Bootleg Brewery; and Treeton Estate.  For those who know the area and haven't been to any of these, they're all highly recommended.

In addition we discovered a new bakery - mmm, can't find it on Google and Google Maps has an old photo when it was a fruit shop (it's at Boodjidup Rd if anyone is looking for it, right next to the second hand place); went to a distillery, visited Boranup Cafe and Gallery,  and drove through Boranup Forest.

We returned to Perth on Friday the 29th,  a couple of hours before our Exchange Student from Japan was to arrive.  Her plane was late, so that gave us another hour to get sorted and pick her up.

The last couple of days of January were spent sorting out school uniforms, finding a Kangaroo and generally getting her and the other two ready for school on the Monday.

Miss 12 starts High School at a new school, Miss 14 goes into Year 9 and our Exchange Student is mainly doing the Year 9 classes with Miss 14, which a couple of changes.

I will let you know how they're all doing in my next post :)

I hope everyone else's years got off to a good start :)

Happy New Year - Welcome to 2016

Hi All

Thought I would get in early and say Happy New Year to all of you :)

This year promises to be challenging - we're going to have a Japanese Exchange Student live with us for a year; Miss 12 starts High School (a different High School to Miss 14); and I have my business to get off the ground.  Along with the normal stuff that happens.

I am planning to write more in the blog this year.  No promises, but I will try :)

Wishing you all a FANTASTIC 2016 - especially for you all who didn't have the best year last year.

It's that time of year again ...

When school starts to wind up and we have Awards Night.

Miss 14 has had a tough year, she's been sick since May - initial diagnosis was Glandular Fever but they're now in the "don't know" camp.  Anyway it means that she has missed lots of school and really struggled to keep up.

However, she has worked hard (when she could) and kept up with assignments and tests and here she is reaping the rewards:

She got the Learning Area Award for Mathematics; Subject Awards in Japanese and Music Specialist.  Three of these also means that she was one of two recipients for the Principal's List Award for her year (which has a prize of $25), and she also received the Community Service Award (also $25).

Very proud of her.  She has worked hard and deserves this.

It's only been a short time ...

since I last wrote a blog post and things have changed.

My last post started off with the search for a high school for Miss now-12.  We are over the moon to report that she has been accepted into the Specialist Agricultural Program that she had applied for.

Then I mentioned that Miss now-14 had nearly fully recovered from her bout of Glandual Fever - well unfortunately she's had another three attacks since then.  She is however working hard to keep up with her school work, cello and part-time job.

AND I mention that I was going well at work - um, well, I was made redundant at the beginning of October.  As I said, short period of time lots of changes.

I have decided to build up my own business focusing on computer training and work.  So far so good, but I do need a few more clients.

For those without Facebook here are some recent (Halloween) pictures of the girls:

AND here are some other random pictures of them:

Miss 14 on her Birthday

Miss 12 doing what she loves best

Update on Life :)

Just taking a few minutes out to update any of my readers who are still checking in here (thanks guys).

Things are going well, and busy.  Always busy.

I thought they would get less busy as the girls got older, but I was wrong.

The big challenge this year is for Miss Nearly-12 who needs to find a High School for next year.  For the past three years she has had her heart set on the Specialist Agricultural Program and a local (but "out of area") High School  To get into the program she had to submit a A4 page HANDWRITTEN letter as to why she wanted to do the program along with copies of her school reports, references etc. Then on the basis of this, they chose children to interview.  She had her interview yesterday.  I do think it is a big ask for these children to go through and interview like this on their own at this age. (Parents waited outside).  Anyway, by her account, the interview went well. So now we are just waiting for a letter (2-3 weeks) to let us know if she has been accepted or not.

The program itself sounds really good.  The school has a mini-farm on the premise and a larger farm in the vicinity.  In Year 7 they only get out to the big farm twice (apparently they only do this program twice a week in year 7, so they focus on the mini-farm), but as they go up through the years (4 year program) they spend more and more time out on the big one.

We do however, have a back up plan.  The local High School (walking distance), offers a specialist Technical, Engineering and Maths program and she has also been accepted for this.  But it's definitely her second choice (and the school is okay with that and are happy for her to put her offer on hold until she knows about the first program).

Meanwhile, Miss Nearly-14 (WHERE DID THE TIME GO) is almost fully recovered from her bout of Glandular Fever and is back into the swing of things.  This term she has a couple of competition performances with the Band to add into the mix.  Oh should mention that Miss Nearly-12 has a similar competition performance with the Choir she is in coming up soon too.

Other than that, she's focusing on her studies, Cello playing (did I tell you she started playing the Cello last year) and her part-time job (yep, she has one of those too - localish winery / cafe as waitress/general dogsbody).

Meanwhile, I'm still working at the same job (nearly 3.5years there now), although my role is supposed to change to focusing on Office 365 Adoptions rather than general training / consulting.  I'm not sure how this will work out long term, but for now I will just wait and see.

Hubby is going well and working hard.  No major news there to report.

I did manage to get up to the farm last weekend for a shoot.  The first night out wasn't too bad, got a couple of rabbits but didn't see much else and unfortunately a storm came through which meant we didn't get out the second night.  They have had a lot of rain up there over the last couple of weeks (which is good, the crops are loving it), however the ground is very boggy and you really have to be careful driving around.  I am going up with some people from my gun club in a couple of weeks again, so hopefully the goats will be around.

So that's it for now.  Hopefully catch you soon.

ANZAC Day 2015

Girls in their volunteer fire cadet uniforms (at 3.30am) getting ready for the ANZAC march.

Dawn service at Armdale.

Wow, April already

Can't believe how time flies when you're having fun too busy to know if you're having fun or not ;)

No, things are good and yes, I'm having fun.

Nothing stunning but I have been up the farm - saw some animals, even rabbits and managed to get two of them.  (Well I only aimed at two which I got, the others were too fast for me to aim at).  It's good to see rabbits on the farm again (well from my point of view, the farmer might not be too pleased).  Didn't see any foxes this time though, nor goats, which is really sad, as I was looking forward to getting some goat meat.

I finally got to shoot my .22 Ruger at the club on Sunday.  Lovely little gun.  Really nice to fire. And the air pistol got a good work out too.

And I have been reading.  Re-read all of the Monster Hunter series (Larry Correia), discovered a new fun-to-read series by Diane Henders - Never Say Spy and read Cory Doctorow's book Pirate Cinema. This books seems particularly timely given the Federal Court decision this week to force ISPs to provide name and addresses of people who illictly downloaded Dallas Buyers Club (News article here.)

The other thing that is "top of my list" at the moment is Miss 11's application for the Specialist Agricultural Program at a local (but out-of-area) high school.  Applications close on the 24th and she has to do a handwritten letter with supporting information (seriously, who hand writes a whole A4 page these days?!?).

To help with the "supporting information" I have been going through old photos - here's one on probably her first horse ride ever

and this one is from a couple of weeks ago

EEEK, where did that time go?

Anyway, all for now.  Hope you all had a great Easter.

This brings back memories

I've been around computers for a long time - longer than some of you have been born.  And a lot of that time has been spent dealing with (helping?) users.

Today I was reminded that even though computers and technology change, people stay pretty much the same.

I rang a school book company regarding an e-code that wasn't working and which we needed a replacement for.

Here's the conversation:

Lady:  "Can I have your email address so I can send you the code"
Me: "Sure, my email address is Julie underscore "
and I hear her say quietly "J U L I E U N D E R S C O R E "
Me: "no Julie and the little black line in email addresses, the underscore "
Her: "ah the little black line"
and then I finished off my email address.

She then said, "Let me read that back to you to make sure I've got it correctly, Julie the little black line underscore ..."
Me:  "Um, no.  The little black line in email addresses is called an underscore."
Her: "Oh, is it?"
Me: "Yes, it's not part of my name"
She laughed.

Now the reason I found this rather odd is that by now, I would have thought that pretty much anyone who works with customer orders via emails would know what an underscore is.

But it does remind me of a similar experience I had in the dim dark past of DOS.

I was talking a user through doing something in DOS, and as part of the conversation I said type "Star dot Star" (meaning *.*, I had given up calling them asterisks by that stage of helpdesk work).  And again I hear in the back ground "S T A R D O T S T A R").

Ah, memories ...

How to Fix Computers & Phones

Simple really: "Report they're broken" ..

In the last couple of weeks I've had both my work computer play up (half the keyboard stopped working) and my phone (no sounds for a couple of days - even with volume turned up; then it continually making noise even with all sounds turned off; and then the screen going black and staying black making it impossible to hang up on calls or press numbers on automated call systems).

So what did I do?  I FINALLY decided to log a service issue with work's IPT team (finally, as they're on the other side of the country and their normal response to any issue is to do a reinstall or factory reset - neither of which I wanted to do).  BUT there comes a time when the piece of technology is either thrown out the window or you bite the bullet and talk to IPT.

So anyway, I logged a service report on both the phone and the computer and guess what - they're now both working perfectly.

So now I have a dilemma - do I tell IPT they're working perfectly or not????

Resuming blogging

A good friend of mine reminded me recently that I have a blog and was wondering if I was ever going to use it again.

And I decided that I should, but in doing this, I asked myself why I hadn't blogged for over a year and its basically because I have found Facebook easier.

However, Facebook has one serious drawback and that is it's not searchable (well it is, but it's painful to search), where as if I'm looking for something I've blogged (which I do regularly), it's so much easier to find.

SO .. back to blogging.

I last wrote in my blog on the 31 Dec, 2013.  That's 12 months ago.  The last 12 months have been, on the whole, great.  Both girls settled into their new schools well, made lots of friends and did really well academically.

Miss 11 was awarded her class' All Rounder award (and received a $30 gift voucher) and Miss 13 received her year's Japanese, Maths, Woodworking and Music awards, in addition to the Principle's award and the Community Service award, these came with gift cards to the value of $60.  We ended up redeeming the gift cards a couple of days back, Miss 11 bought a very nice Dr Who book and Miss 13 used the cards towards a smartphone.

Miss 11 will be starting her last year of Primary School tomorrow and Miss 13 will be starting her second year of High School on Tuesday.  She is really happy that she now gets to choose her electives and she will be doing Specialist Music, Japanese, Textile Crafts and Woodwork.  She will also be in the Advanced Maths class (which she is REALLY looking forward to).

The challenge this coming year will be to help Miss 11 get into the High School of her choice.  She wants to join the Specialist Agricultural Course at a not-so-local High School.  This involves an application and panel interview.  I'm not sure of the exact dates yet, but will call the school in a few days to find out the process.

In addition to school, Miss 11 is still horse mad and this year will start Pony Club, she also wants to join the Fire Cadets and carry on with her squash and also do music lessons.  (So busy year for her).  Miss 13 will continue with Fire Cadets and the Cello and hopes again to join the school band and choir again.  She will also do Fire Running later in the year.

Over the summer break both girls did swimming lessons and Miss 11 has now finished level 13 and Miss 13 was awarded the Bronze Medallion (level 16).

I'm still working for the same company and enjoying it.  I will have been there three years in March - wow, doesn't seem that long.  Hubby is also still working for the same company, coming up on a three year anniversary too.

One of the highlights of the last year was the SHOT Show.  This is the first time we've had a gun show in Western Australia and it was a great day out (well two days).  As a result of the show we bought two new guns in the last year but not fired them yet L  Unfortunately, the air pistol's front sight was missing when we got it, so I'm waiting for a replacement to arrive before taking it to the range.

Other than that not much has happened over the last year J

Here are some photos:

Miss 11 Class Award

Miss 11 Horse Riding

Miss 13 Maths Award

Miss 13 Fire Running

Girls' Targets from SHOT Show Air Pistol Range

New guns

2013 ...

2013 was a busy year ...

It started off with the Scout Jamboree ...

We had multiple visits to potential high schools for Miss 12 .. ended up enrolling her in one that we hadn't planned on, but we think it's the right choice.

We've decided to move Miss 10 from her current school too, to the local public one.  It's in walking distance and again we think this is the right decision for her.

Both girls have had a great year - Miss 10 has done really well with both her horse riding and squash.  She will continue with both these passions in the coming year.

Miss 12 tried out many new things and did well in them.  Moving forward she'll stick to Fire Cadets and Fire Running as her main activities.

Work for me has been pretty quiet, but the upside to this was that I got to work from home a lot - with the occasional trip over east.  I have enjoyed what I have done this year but am looking forward to more client contact in the coming year.

I also started a Diploma in Project Management as a distance education student.  I am enjoying the challenge and am looking forward to finishing it in the near future.

There have been other challenges and changes through out the year but all-in-all I have to say that it has been a good one.

And I'm looking forward to the new challenges that 2014 will bring.

Wishing all my blog readers a safe NYE and a great 2014!!!

Christmas 2013

We're spending Christmas at Carnamah with Shooting Buddy.  On Christmas Eve the temperature hit 39.7C outside (and I'm guessing today is about the same).

So rather than a hot Chrissy day lunch we did a cooked meal for Christmas Eve Dinner and a cold spread for Chrissy Day itself.

Photos:

Miss 10 & Hubby

(Yes she always pulls funny faces)

Shooting Buddy & Miss 12

Tucking into Mains

Modeling Christmas Presents 

Then on Christmas Day the excitement continues

Miss 10 with her presents  

And Miss 12 with hers

Christmas Day Lunch

I hope all my blog readers had a wonderful Christmas Day too with their friends and family!

Photos ...

Miss 12 receiving the coach's award for effort at Fire Running

With the perpetual trophy and the one she gets to keep.

Wind up for Fire Cadets:

And Miss 12 trying out a helicopter flight simulator ...

Yep life has been busy!