I don’t like bragging, but this is shortlived so I’m gonna own it.

I got my other assignment back yesterday.

Again.

I thought I was looking at the previous one. But nope. 2 x 92’s in a row. Couldn’t believe it.

Just had a slightly tearful goodbye meeting where they brought in some old colleagues too for my goodbye. Have handed in all my gear and am off to the pub while I wait for other peeps to finish and join me! Feeling.

Im drunk and I’m going to bed. Most of y’all are pretty cool and i hope the greebles don’t get you tonight

Update on the diverse lifestyle magpies in my street, as of last night. Old Mrs magpie has moved 3 streets over and found a new (male) mate known to all as the Admiral (a long term resident), but still enjoys rolled oats from my hand. She hasn’t built a nest yet. Young Mrs magpie has taken a young male mate (as yet unnamed by us), and has built a nest just over the road in a street tree. It’s too far up to see if there are eggs yet, but we can hope. The young male, who is a complete dill and alternates between doing his duty by feeding young Mrs magpie, and begging food from her. He doesn’t take food from humans yet, though young Mrs magpie has started doing so for the first time just a week ago. We think he’s still learning how to do husbanding properly, but as he’s less than 2 years old that’s not surprising. Young Mrs magpie is also about 2 years old. Will keep you all updated on this teenage romance.

I’ve had a wonderful start to the week. Since it’s book week I got invited to a couple of schools. I did some talking about my books and writing and read a couple of chapters to kids from grades 3/4 and 5/6. I asked the kids if they liked scary stories, and then what scary stories they like and one kid said ‘Revenge of the Flightless’ which had me all teary-eyed.

Also scored a box of chocolates.

Yesterday I was a ‘celebrity’ reader for another school so I read a couple of chapters to about 40 kids who mostly seemed enthralled (though I am sure I heard one kid whispering ‘this is boring’ lol). And after that I did a writing workshop. I thought I’d get like 5 kids interested, but had 30. It was like my own classroom and we started thinking about stories and how we write them and I got them to talk about scary experiences in their lives and how we can use them as ideas for stories, creating characters and all that. It was really fun.

I got the 92 on my assignment.

I was also told that the librarian at my daughters school (who recently bought my books for their library) is reading them and really likes them.

This morning I got a message from the parent of one of the kids in the workshop thanking me for doing it and how her son came home talking about it, and being confident in sharing his work (I mentioned at the end to not be afraid of sharing their work with friends and family and how it took me 35 years to have that courage).

And finally, I volunteered to read in my daughters class this morning (not my books) and I got to see a glimpse of how classrooms look and work before I got to read. It went well which was good and my daughters face was priceless (despite her asking me to do it).

So all in all a damn good week so far.

There was a lovely story yesterday about a Jack Russell who alerted a neighbour that her owner was having a medical emergency and basically saved the owners life.

My husband: Gee some dogs are smart. Some have jobs and do some remarkable stuff. Your dog eats tissues.

Back home now after work.

Don’t forget to get petrol folks. Price is expected to go up in the next few days.

Also to end the day I was greeted by this after it rained.

I should have tidied up my stationery earlier - I found $100!!!

I recall a couple of years ago thinking I must have been overly optimistic in my estimates of how much money I had received from selling some of my stuff, I guess I was right after all. Shoving my cash inside a random notebook until I could put it in the bank seemed like a good idea at the time.

Can someone tell me what planet is in retrograde or why I have such random anxiety today? There’s no reason but it’s been shocking all day. I had a great night’s sleep last night too…

I’ve taken today off to look after the boys. It will be nice to look after them properly instead of trying to watch them whilst tethered to a laptop

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Morning all

Flaming Lips in Feb - secured. Let’s go

The new double edge razor brush for cats has already removed 4 knots from Ted, the annoying one under his chin too. Poor little guy, he didn’t ask for all that fur. ( I have to wear gloves or Ted shreds me )

My brain is not working today. Totally zonked out. Must.focus.on.work.