Drive

In less than 24 hours, I've driven to Brisbane and back. So tired.

And I get to do it again on the weekend!

**But I love that I have a car, and I'm only 2 hours away from those I love... beats a 24hr plane ride!**

black and canine-like

I'm sorry I haven't posted regularly. I keep forgetting. I am sitting at home doing nothing and feeling very blergh. I know that I should be happy with my life. I've travelled, I have a degree, I have three extremely close friends and quite a few acquaintances, I have a job and I am (relatively) healthy.

But I seem unable to dwell on the positives and am being chased by the black dog.

Yes, I have a job, until the end of June and then I am not sure what will happen. Also, in that job I am yelled at every single day, looked at like I'm scum and not listened to. I understand that there is a 'test' period, but at what point do they fucking calm down and stop treating me like I am worth less than the poo on your shoe.

Yes, I've travelled, I have that life experience, but I have no money (to the point of wanting to kick something.) I cannot do anything. I want to join the local concert band, but I don't have the money to service my instrument (no double entendre intended) and I want to join a gym, but can't commit to the year. I hate being itinerant when you want to not be. When you're travelling, the ability to pick up and move in the moment is a blessing, but when you're stuck in a place with no telling if you'll be able to continue that in a month and a bit, it's totally demoralising.

I have a degree. And, I believe, have gotten in to my masters come July. But I feel like a fraud. Taking so long to get my degree and then going overseas, I have no idea about what's current in my own state. I hate to think that doctors are as nervous and unconfident as me.

My close friends are great and I would go insane without them. In saying that, they are married, living out of state, and pregnant. I don't really have the same things as them, and in all honesty am very jealous of them. I love them and would do anything for them, but to have just a smidge of their lives would be great.

I am not going to die soon. But I am 140kgs heavy. I have no life. I don't fit in seatbelts, I don't fit through gates, I don't fit in small shower door spaces. I am unattractive to everyone on the planet. So I will not be getting any of that stuff I want.

Why the hell can't life just be easy for once?

Public Holiday

Had a day off today. Why? To celebrate those men and women who fought valiantly... for our right to have fair working conditions, anti-unfair dismissal and our right to protest.

Now, I will be honest. I don't fully understand unions. I don't fully understand why some people think that they are the representation of the devil on Earth. All I know is that I belong to one, and get stuff out of it.

So for those people who fought for us to have unions, I thank you.

I also apologise in shame.

My generation is so apathetic. And pathetic. I have ideals and want to do something, but when it gets to the crunch, there's something on TV I want to watch, or blogs on here I want to read. I am pathetic.

I think it is also something to do with the Australian psyche - the abhorrent 'She'll be right'. In the UK, I went to every union meeting I could, went to conferences, was ready to become a union rep if I was going to stay there... but here, I don't feel like I should bother. And you know why?

The IRC. Teachers have a valid viewpoint about the moratorium on NAPLAN. If people (and I mean lay people and government here) actually bothered to listen to teachers, be that their child's teacher, their friend who is a teacher or the teaching councils of Australia, they would find out that we are not protesting against the test, but what Gillard and her 'teaching experts' are going to do with the data collected. They are going to create a website which lists the data from each school in the country. That also is not what teachers are protesting.

What we are protesting is how the 'media' in this country and parents will interpret and use these data lists (parents may use this data naively.) These tables will not show that the cohort is unsuccessful because of the low socio-economic area, or the high rate of non-English speakers. They will not show what is going on in the classroom towards achievement, but what happens on one day in a child's life.

Now the union has been told that they are not 'allowed' to put a moratorium on the tests. Why not?

We are still 'teaching the test' so that the tests can go ahead if the government will actually listen. We will still conduct classroom testing of these students so we will know their progression.

Oh, and if a moratorium goes ahead on the day of NAPLAN and we refuse to conduct the tests, we will be doing what we are paid for - teaching!

Spamalot

My friends and I went and saw Blue Fish's performance of Spamalot. It. Was. Brilliant.

I saw it in the West End in 2008 and, while I was looking forward to it, I was secretly thinking, "This cannot be as good".

And it wasn't. It was worse. And Better.

Let me explain.

The sets were terrible. The 'very expensive forest' was three cardboard cut outs of trees. The West End, with its millions had trees everywhere and it looked like a forest.

The mics faded in and out. Especially on the company songs. The women weren't micced properly and you couldn't hear them most of the time. The men, while extremely fit, lost some of their oomph in the final song and you couldn't hear them over the band very well.

The costumes were designed for stick figures. Which was all very well for the two stick-figured ladies. But the one who was around a size 14 with one of the best looking bosoms this side of Dawn French (who, incidentally writes a great autobiography. I implore you to read Dear Fatty,) was jumping and dancing around with only tiny bits of cloth to cover them. It wasn't too distracting though, I'm just sympathetic about it, you know, being an E cup and all.

And yet.

I know the songs inside out and back to front. I enjoy them in the car almost every week on the drive back and forth from Toowoomba to Brisbane. Only a couple of lines were changed, and I know why. Irritating, but I can cope with that. So that was good.

The dancing was excellent (except for the Knight who stood in the background jumping up and down and throwing his arms in  the air; but that was amusing and, being Monty Python, fit right in.) I had such a buzz watching grown men throw themselves around the stage with gusto, loving dancing.

I have never, let me repeat, NEVER, heard singing of that calibre in an amateur production. I've rarely heard singing of that calibre in professional productions. Certainly not in the West End production of this show. BUT I could excuse that 'cause it was funny comedians who you went to see and laugh at.

But the best bit about the night was sitting next to one of my best friend and her husband (also one of my best friends.) I picked him up from uni about a month ago and made him listen to a few of the songs on the CD, but he hadn't heard the whole thing. He loves, I don't think it would be an understatement to say that he would become polygymous if he was allowed to marry Monty Python (expecially Mr Cleese.) He laughed for 3 hours straight. It was a pure joy to behold.

So, on the balance, I think I enjoyed this production slightly better than the West End.

I'm sorry the West End. I love you.