Land cruising

Thanks to Brokeback's dry heat, our smoke alarm is oversensitive to humidity and decided to go off like Mulga Hill Tavern (aka The Vulga) on a Friday night. Hello 3am and 4am wake up calls. And noise induced deafness. A horrid night sleep, made for a pretty tiring day of working with the kids at one of our prac's many partner schools (upholding Speech Pathology Australia's Ethical Principles over here so no real names).

Highlights:

Taught a 6 year old lass the meaning of the word "not" and "don't". Powerful word that one. Wait til I hit her with the double negatives rule.

Played "Buckaroo" with another fella, let's call him "Cody". Kid only has about three consonants to his sound-system so is completely and devastatingly undecipherable. He also only uses the stressed syllables in words. Oh, and doesn't use any of those three consonants if they appear in the middle of words. But, boy can he say "Lego!" BYO blocks next week.

When they talk about flash-flooding out here, they mean it. The water just buckets down for about thirty seconds then stops. Was in the middle of the playground conferencing with two parents, then downpour. Drenched. So I had to sit sopping wet through a special school assembly. The kids were being inducted into privileged positions on School Council. Library Monitor - yessss. The Principal played lead guitar on Advance Australia Fair. A touch of the David Brent going on there. And the school song - which was sung in a key that only dogs can hear. It was great ceremony actually, the proud parents of the new Student Council reps weren't just spectators they were invited to pin the school badges on their kids. Such a brilliant touch. Some parents were adorably formal and shook their children's hands. Others just went the full mum-hug. A couple of forehead kisses. One parent went in for the hug and was met by the hand. Awkward.

I was driving around in the Hospital's land cruiser today. Good thing it's got massive roo bars. Don't even recognise myself out here. Who am I? Land Cruisers, joggers, dress shorts, white polo, backpack, baseball cap. I look like a lady golfer. Photos to come.

Meanwhile, what nimrod decided that white polo tees would be a good daily uniform for working in remote and rural schools??? Yesterday's stains: ice-block, highlighter, whiteboard marker, beetroot, red dust & suncream. And that was before I hit the streets and the schools. This is why white I don't wear white after Australia Day.

"Study Day" tomorrow because Wilcannia is at flood risk. So off to the oppies only open between 10 & 2 monday to friday - which just doesn't work for me. They better not disappoint.

x Grotty G.