Peas, eggs and carrots 
OK, so we had a couple of frosts just after the time I posted here. We have a flame tree in the driveway. No idea what species, because there are a dozen trees with that name, and it never flowers. It grows, and then it gets killed by the frost. Then new shoots come up from the stump. I managed to protect our pea plants. They were Bronwyn's idea because Rachael loves eating beans, and we thought she might like the sugar snap peas where you eat the whole pod. Rachael has curious eating habits. Last night we were tucking into chinese dumplings, risotto and chicken drumsticks. She was eating grapes and pea pods. She does eat chicken, but only if it's carefully prepared to remove all trace of bone and gristle. But she looks fine. It's Sarah who needs to lose a few pounds!

Last week, one of our chickens was missing. After a bit of calling, she came home, but very hungry, soaking wet and covered in mud. This is odd, because chickens don't like getting wet. We put her under the old heat lamp overnight, and now she's more or less back to normal. Bronwyn managed to find some trails in the swamp, and it looked as if there was another animal involved, so we're concerned that there's a dog about. All quiet since then, but we're keeping our eyes open.

Plenty of eggs though. Don't think the experience put her off.

And carrots. Haven't managed to eat them all yet.

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Another party 
Rachael turned 14 yesterday! Well, technically today, because she was born in British Summer Time. It was a long day...

We held a surprise birthday party for her. We had 11 altogether. While Bronwyn had taken Rachael and Sarah to their swimming lesson, the early arrivals hung up the decorations and got the house ready. Everyone managed to get here before they came back, and it wasn't easy hiding everyone in the corridor.

We went out for dinner with the two girls who were going to stay the night. I chose the curry. The girls decided I ought to go for the hot version. After a day of party food and hot chicken tikka, I was rather full! And tired... They came home and watched a movie afterwards, and eventually got to sleep. I think it was 3am by the time it got quiet. Rachael's pretty tired today.

The swimming lessons have been going well. Sarah needs to learn breaststroke and then she can move up another group. Again. Rachael still can't get her ears underwater, but has learnt to swim and tread water, and so long as she can cope in an emergency, it's good enough. There's a big push here to get everyone learning to swim, because we have so many beaches and a lot of the culture revolves around water.

I've gone up in the world. Well, about two inches. Bronwyn's bought a couple of chairs for the office to replace the dining chair and ancient bucket seat that we had before. Now I can choose between a fully adjustable operator chair and a high backed executive chair. I do love the arm rests.

Plenty going on otherwise. Bronwyn's going to get a new T shirt at her work, and they're going to fully support her to get full teacher registration. She's working Monday, she's been put top of the list for relief work, and she's going to do some voluntary work to make up the hours. She's also womanning the school crossing, and looking after out nephew Cooper after school several days a week. Meanwhile, I've now got 5 on the payroll for the youth charity, and another in South Africa trying to get a work permit. I've been tasked with buying laptops. And a car. Fortunately we have the money. We just need to work out what we need. So do we really need macbooks, or will a second hand Windows laptop do just as well? And why do we need a $30000 Hilux when we can get a minibus for half that?

Getting cooler, but no frost yet. Didn't get a frost last year. We have a tree stump in the driveway that keeps growing and then getting killed by the frost. Last year it just kept growing. Maybe another winter like that and it could just get big enough to survive...

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The birthday zone 
Four screaming girls. Plus Rachael, who spent most of the night screaming At the girls. But I'm glad to say everyone survived. Sarah had a glow-in-the-dark party sleepover, so we dug out the UV lamp and the fluorescent face paint and far too many glow sticks. I used a hula hoop and made a network of white streamers around the UV light. Looked like a rather eerie purple cobweb in the dark. We were all rather tired on Sunday, but Bronwyn managed to get everyone to bed early last night.

Rachael's birthday in two weeks time. Haven't planned a lot yet...

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Easter 
Rachael and her friend Emily had a fantastic time at e-Camp (the junior version of the Baptist Easter Camp). She came back with a DVD full of all sorts of videos and photos. One of the favourite activities was bubble football, where everyone has to wear an enormous inflatable thing around their upper body, and then try to knock an equally large bubble around the pitch. Usually ended up with everyone upside down or rolling around on the ground.

Emily had to pay some forfeit, and had to drink breakfast, lunch and dinner on one go, liquidised. Apparently there were lumps of potato and other stuff floating in it. But somehow she survived.

Had quite a lot on in the last fortnight. Two ANZAC parades, trombone at church and today we were asked to play at the Korean Buddist temple to celebrate Buddha's Birthday. Interesting experience. They had three inflatable (Chinese) Buddhist monks standing outside. Plus some guy on the roadside wearing an inflatable head waving people in. We were almost the only white people there. But very nice people and plenty of food afterwards!

Ah well. School tomorrow. Rachael is madly trying to finish her homework...

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Big decisions 
It's quiet. Rachael's off at e-camp with her friend Emily. This is the junior version of Easter Camp, but with more mudslides and a trendier name. Hope the weather has been OK for them; we've had rain at last. The tank is full. The tents at Easter Camp got trashed in the storm on Thursday. But it sounds like they've found something else to sleep under instead.

Bronwyn has renewed her provisional teacher registration, but she's been told that she's got two years to finish the training and become fully registered. However, this means she'll need to find a job with a mentor for the next two years, or have to go through retraining. So it's now a big decision as to whether it's worth it, how much it means to her, and what the alternatives are.

At work, we've got a deadline of the end of the month, so we've been working hard to get everything finished. Except he wants a pre-release version ready to demo on Tuesday. Only found out on Thursday. Not sure that's going to be possible...

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