Nestling In for the Good Ol' Hockey Game!

Hey Everyone!

Just a quick post for this morning - we had an incredibly busy week this past week, with Jeff putting in his first 5 day work week in over a year, and I had my second day of placement! Needless to say by the end of it we were both incredibly exhausted, and unfortunately Jeff has picked up some germs from the kiddies. We've had a quiet weekend with Jeff on the couch trying to get better and me in front of my computer trying to stay on top of my clinic report writing (yes, it didn't take long to get back to the grind).

Jeff can't wipe the smile off of his face as channel 9 is currently broadcasting the hockey game this morning...though it seems those boys in red and white will have to pick up their socks - it's already 1-0!!

Will be a busy week this coming week as we're heading to the cricket tomorrow night with Luke and Tamara, and Wednesday is Jeff's birthday so we're hoping to head out for dinner celebrations with some friends. More updates to come! For now, I will leave you to drool over our Valentine's Day Cupcakes! :)

Ta Ta for now!

Officially a Teacher!

Hey Everybody!

I just wanted to share the exciting news that I got my first day of teaching! It was a year 2 class at Coogee Public School ... 25 kids all to myself! It was a pretty crazy day. I got called at 7.45am, asked to be there for 8.30am! Luckily I was already up and showered waiting for a call from the day care agency, as their protocol is for me to call in each day that I am available to work, and if there is a position available for me they call me back. I picked up the phone expecting it to be them - but it was the school instead! Leah and I scrambled around for 10 minutes and got me all ready to go, ironed pants, made lunch, put my bag together. When the principal called I found out the teacher whose class I was teaching left behind no schedule for the day, so I had to come up with one, and to make it more difficult, the students hadn't started working in any of the textbooks or writing books, so I couldn't even depend on any of those to help me run the day! Overall I would say it went fairly smooth ... we did get some work done related to what they had been working on (after I spoke to the other teachers at the school to figure it out) and also managed to have some fun along the way. It was a pretty quick day and hopefully it will lead to more!

On another note, Leah is back to work this week. She starts her first day of placement on Thursday at Miranda Public School, which is about 35 minutes on the train from us. She was informed that this will not be the one-on-one stuff she is accustomed to, but large group or possibly even whole class activities - sounds a bit more like a teacher to me! We're both very excited for her to get started and start the second half of her master's degree!

Hope all is well back home, and you're all ready for the Olympics starting this weekend! Our fingers are crossed that we'll at least be able to catch a few events ... Australia doesn't have very many winter athletes so we'll have to wait and see!

Jeff & Leah

xoxo

Keith & Karen Visit Us Down Under!

Hey Everybody!

Hope the winter weather isn't treating you too badly. Just hang in there because soon it will be that time of year when we say 'only six more weeks of winter'. Truth be told, we're both missing the snow a little bit. The weather here has been a bit inconsistent; there have been some really nice days with nothing but sunshine, then we'd get a few cloudy and rainy days. At least the temperature is cooperating with most days being between 25 and 32.

We've just said good bye to a couple more visitors; my mom and dad are about to get on the

plane to begin the long journey home to the great white north. We had a wonderful time together for the two weeks they were down under! The first few days were pretty active for the travellers, including a 10km hike through the woods on a path from Manly Wharf to Spit Bridge. There was some pretty rough terrain, but some very nice views made the walk well worth the effort! Another highlight in the first few days included climbing the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Dad feared the height a bit, though he said it was pretty easy to overcome as, once again, the views the trip offered were well worth facing the fear. The day was capped off with a tour of the famous Sydney Opera House and a show in the Concert Hall.

After a weekend consisting of a walk from Bondi Beach to Coogee, laying on the beach once we arrived in Coogee, and spending some time in Hyde park, Mom and Dad headed down the south

coast to do their own thing for a few days including stops in Canberra and Melbourne. Some of those highlights included a penguin encounter on Philip Island and a tram car dinner (which we heard had good champagne and lots of it ... the giggling over the phone that night said it all!).

Upon their return to Sydney, the heat was on! The day they got back was fairly calm and quiet, but when Saturday reached a high of 41 - where else could we go but Coogee Beach? While Dad claimed not to be a huge fan of the water, it became quite evident that he rather enjoyed it after spending close to 80% of our visit to the beach in the ocean. After the massive thunderstorm that afternoon, the temperatures returned to bearable, and the fun could continue for the

remaining week. Australia Day was one of the events we were all looking forward to; we headed into the downtown area for the afternoon - there just happened to be countless old cars on display, so naturally Dad wanted to check them all out. When we were ready to find some shade, we made our way to the Botanical Gardens to watch the Tall Ships race, also known as the re-enactment of British Settlement in Australia. We finished off Australia Day with a dinner cruise on the harbour; the food was fantastic and the entertainment made it seem like we weren't even on the water. The following day was spent in Wollongong, and after touring my campus and the harbour area, we enjoyed dinner at the Five Islands Brewing Company overlooking the ocean.

We spent our last full day together finally making the trip to Taronga Zoo; something Leah and I have wanted to do since we got here a year ago! We got to see all of the typical Australian animals - koalas, kangaroos, wombats, wallabies, and penguins. Some of the other highlights were lions and tigers, a few bears, some very entertaining gorillas arguing over branches to eat. The only thing better than the seal show which included some balancing acts, high diving, and of course some splashing of the crowd, was when we met the newest edition to the Taronga

elephant family, Luk Chai. The elephants of course put on their own show, including some logging, football and soccer, but I think we all had our eyes on the 6 month old, 302kg baby elephant! To cap off the day and the trip, we went for the highest dinner possible at the Centre Point Tower in Sydney and enjoyed a gourmet dinner while taking in a revolving view of the entire city - twice.

While it's always hard to say good bye and all good things must come to an end, it was a two week period we all very much enjoyed and will never forget! We're planning to enjoy the upcoming weekend, which seems fitting since Monday will hopefully mark the end of holidays for me! While it won't be teaching just yet, it will be a Day Care job, but more importantly, it will finally be money coming in instead of going out!

Hope you are all doing well ... thanks for reading our novel!

Take care and we'll be in touch soon!

Jeff & Leah

xoxo

Happy 2010 Everybody!

Hope you all had a wonderful time ringing in the new year and also that you've recovered nicely fron all the celebrating. We spent New Years Eve with Luke and Tamara at one of the several lookouts in Sydney. This one in particular was called Mort Bay Park, and was on the west side of the bridge, a little further down the harbour. We got there extremely early trying to beat the crowd, and we were more than successful! Despite the weather not looking the greatest, we packed a cooler full of food for the day and went to stake out the best view - and since we were one of the first groups to arrive, we had all the options! We set up our blanket and chairs to ensure the best view of the fireworks with the iconic Sydney Harbour Bridge as our backdrop.

While we were waiting for the sun to set, we spent a lot of the day just talking, playing cards, reading books and magazines, napping and anything else we could do to make the wait not seem so long! As I said, the weather wasn't the greatest and we did get drizzled on a little bit, but not enough to spoil the excitement of waiting for the greatest fireworks display. The park got progressively more and more busy as the day went on, as people set up their tents, frisbees were being thrown, a game of cricket off in the distance, barbecues were in full force all just waiting for the show to start.

Once Luke got off work around 4, he showed up with some pizzas for dinner, and we continued the wait. At 9.00pm the wait was over ... sort of. The 9.00pm fireworks display was mostly for the kids; it was still a very nice display lasting around 10 minutes, just a warm up to the real

deal. From then on, we had a couple of drinks, discussed some New Year's resolutions and other plans we have for 2010. At 10.00pm, 11.00pm, 11.30pm and 11.55pm there were some short blasts to keep everyone on the edge of their seats and well in tune with the countdown in anticipation of the real deal at midnight! A new year has never been so bright and so loud! The show was really fantastic and we're hoping the pictures and video all turn out fine because it really was spectacular. After fighting with the traffic, we headed back to Luke and Tamara's to finish celebrating and ultimately crash for the night.

Since then, we've mostly just been getting the apartment ready for the arrival of Mom and Dad (Keith and Karen), doing some shopping to cash in on all of the post-holiday sales, and of course relaxing because after all, it is summer here down under!

Hope all is well with all of you in the freezing snow!

Take care,

Jeff & Leah

xoxo

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Can't believe 2009 is coming to a close already, but sure enough here we are and what a year it has been. A year that saw me graduate from teacher's college, saw Leah get half way through her masters program and included a lot of travelling on our part. On top of all of those highlights, Christmas will for sure be added to the list.

Our friends Luke and Tamara from Port Lincoln in South Australia (approx. 24 hr. drive) made their trip home for Christmas at the beginning of December, and the four of us had been planning our Christmas together for quite some time. We arrived at Luke and Tamara's the afternoon of the 23rd,

and jumped right into the seasonal eating! We stayed there until the 27th, and the 4 days were flooded with delicious meals including barbecue, pierogies, cinnamon buns, green bean and roasted pumpkin and philly salad, stuffing, rhubarb pie and the tastiest chicken you could imagine for lunch on Christmas day... and of course the beverages were plentiful! We will always remember our first Christmas away from home, not just for the food, but also because it was an amazing time with our closest friends here in Sydney.

On Christmas morning we opened our stockings, and then enjoyed a scrumptious breakfast of cinnamon buns and fruit salad. The tiniest Christmas tree in the history

of Christmas trees, with a star big enough to guide you anywhere, was perched in Luke & Tamara's living room, and looked even smaller with all the gifts around it! Santa was good to everyone - new earrings for both Leah and Tamara, Luke got his wish for cricket tickets, Luke and Tamara received a brand new barbecue from friends of theirs, but only one of them brought out the video camera... my darling fiancee goes above and beyond yet again on Christmas and chose to encourage the rock star in me by getting me my first guitar! You will all get the chance to see the glorious moment on camera upon our return home, but for now you can just brace yourselves for a whole new side of me haha!

We are in the midst of putting together a New Year's plan and are very excited about the world's biggest fireworks display. We'll fill you all in on how that goes... until then, take care and have a wonderful time ringing in 2010... we know we will!!

Take care,

Jeff & Leah

xoxo

New Zealand Adventures!

Hello Everyone!

Hopefully you are all managing to stay warm with the white stuff on the ground. Despite the fact that it's mid 20's and sunny where we are, we assure you that deep down, we're a little envious! Christmas has a bit of an odd feel when all you're thinking is 'I should be at the beach!'

As I'm sure most of you know, Leah and I spent 10 days on the south island of New Zealand and what a fantastic trip it was! We landed in Christchurch and spent the first couple of days of our trip there. Despite being a fairly quiet city, the people (a lot of tourists)

were still out and about. We familiarized ourselves with the downtown area thanks to a tour on the tram (streetcar) that does the inner city loop, making a couple of stops at some of the Saturday markets with many homemade candies, crafts and true New Zealand art pieces. One of the stops on the tram took us to the gondola lift up the mountain outside of town to take a look down on the city and enjoy the mountain-top view all around.

We departed Christchurch and made our way to Queenstown, which is the

most 'happening' city on the south island. The 5 hour drive had plenty of sights to offer; mountains, snow tips, waterfalls and more animals than you can imagine! Our first evening in Queenstown was spent wandering through the city, doing some shopping then heading to the pub for a delicious meal and a couple of beers. The next day, we took a scenic drive out to the little town of Glenorchy, and later we headed to yet another gondola lift up a mountain side. This ride ended a bit different however, as it included a luge race down the side of part of the mountain and a fantastic seven course buffet dinner.

The next day we spent on the road on our way to Dunedin. It was only about a 24 hour stay but it was well worth it. We took a tour of the Cadbury chocolate factory and came away with more than enough free samples, and followed that with dinner and a tour of the Speights brewery, a well renowned beer of New Zealand. It was very interesting to see how the beer is made and of course, more free samples followed which we were allowed to pour from the tap ourselves!

The next morning we headed out the Otago Peninsula to visit New Zealand's only castle. We toured through the grounds' many gardens and lookout points, and passed by the old 'methane plant' that was used to provide fuel for the crystal lamps in the castle. We then made our way back to Queenstown. By the time we got back, all there was time for was for a little bit of a stroll by the waterfront and dinner before a quiet evening to rest up for our big road trip the next day to Milford Sound. We caught the bus around 8 a.m. and returned around 8 p.m. The trip included about 7

hours of driving through the mountains with plenty of natural waterfalls and glaciers to look at, but the highlight was the scenic cruise out to the Tasman sea. The cruise through the sound (more technically a fjord) featured sunny weather, more waterfalls, a couple of penguins, a few dolphins, a huge pack of seals and some big waves to test even the sturdiest of stomachs! But of course the most breathtaking of all was the views of Mitre Peak, both from the shoreline and up close and personal!

Our next stop was Franz Josef for a walk on the glacier, however due to an excessive amount of rain our tour was cancelled. Our back up plan was well worth the trip however, as we spent the afternoon in hot pools nestled into the woods; perhaps a little more relaxing than walking on a glacier. The following day we headed back to where it all started in Christchurch. We got in late in the afternoon and had a quiet evening to recover from the long trip.

On our last day in Christchurch we spent most of our time in the city centre, finishing off with a traditional (and amazing) fish and chips dinner served in newspaper. Sadly, the time came to pack our bags for our 6.35 a.m. flight and come back to Sydney.

We barely even had time to unpack before we headed down to Wollongong accompanied by our good friend Tamara for my graduation day! The ceremony was well done, the speakers were to the point, everyone seemed to have fun, and most importantly I finally got the piece of paper I came here for!

The next couple of weeks involve us planning out our Christmas holidays which will be spent with Luke and Tamara, planning our New Year's day and I'm also going to see if I can put that piece of paper I got to some good use! So for now, we hope all of you take care and please try to keep in touch throughout this busy holiday season!

Merry Christmas everybody!

Jeff and Leah

xoxo

The End Has Arrived!

As of Friday November 20th at 3 p.m., I became an official UOW graduate, but more importantly and much more exciting, I became a teacher!! It's so strange and doesn't even seem real yet, but the end of the most hectic year of my life is finally here. Now it's just a matter of waiting for some paperwork to get processed and for my teaching number to come through before I can walk into a classroom. Not in a rush to get to work just yet, I think I'm ready to just enjoy some of this amazing 30 degree and sunny weather we're having.

Last Wednesday, (the 18th) Leah finished the first year of her program! Getting near the end of the year, motivation was a bit tricky to come by, but with that being said, the exams went well and Leah is excited to be half way there! Following her last exam, Leah and her friends went to Fran's parents place to set up the Christmas tree with Fran's nephew to begin the celebrations! We (the boys) joined them in the evening to head out to The Rocks for some drinks and a couple of pizzas.... and a few more drinks! Those last few drinks made Thursday morning a bit groggy in front of the kids, but we don't need to tell anyone!

The Grad Ball to celebrate all of the Grad Dip Ed student's success was last night down in Wollongong. With nearly 100% attendance, everyone was dressed to the best and ready to have a great time. Dinner was a buffet style with a little bit of everything, dessert was

a very nice parfait meringue combo, and all of the beer and wine were covered by the cost of the ticket! The music was great and all of us now teachers (and partners) were letting it all out on the dance floor! Everyone looked as though we were all having a fantastic time.

Next on the docket, Leah and I need to organize our upcoming trip to New Zealand! We've got our flights booked, but that's about it! We'll use these next couple of days to get on top of that so we have somewhere to sleep when we get there on the 4th of December.

Trusting all is well back home,

Jeff & Leah

xoxo