Volleyball

For the third time this season, we've played the top team, out of eight games. Since there are 6 teams in the competition, this would seem to be a little unfair. However, we didn't disgrace ourselves at all, and except for a bad run of 17 points lost in a row late in the first half, we were very closely matched. We made some amazing saves, and all four of us got some success at blocking (I even convinced Casey to give it a go, and se managed to psyche out the opposition even though she's not really tall enough to reach the top of the net). Our serves, and reply to serves were quite inconsistent, and perhaps we can improve before the semifinals. If you are interested here is the game results page.

Mango Madness

ie. the stress-inducing hot weather, not a Parigi daily feeding ritual.

This "sickness" which is endemic in North Queensland causes me (and a lot of other people as far as I can tell) to have a very short fuse. Already, I have had arguments with people for the very first time. On the plus side, I have trouble eating when I'm stressed, and, I've found in the last few years, I go from a maximum of about 74.5 kg from August to October to about 69 kg by February to April. So, I'll snap or shout at anything that merely looks at me the wrong way, but I become slim and handsome :-).

Nikolas

Nikolas (8) has just got his year three report back, and amazingly it is even better than what Belinda's was in year three! This is a little surprising because with Belinda I had made a concerted pre-school effort to get her a head start in maths, etc., and her results in maths are outstanding. With Nikolas, however, I neglected to do head start type maths books at all, but it seems that he tries desparately to keep up with Belinda's maths and english, and his maths is even better than what Belinda's was, and his english is also better than hers was. This is quite strange because he has a very analytical brain (hmmm like mine?) and it seems his improvement in english has got a lot to do with his teacher this year, which managed to give him a semblance of self-motivation. It also helps that he has found books that pique his interest which require much improved reading skills. He won a book from the library about Jupiter. It seems to be aimed at year 5 to 6 level - but he looks to have read the whole book before we even realised he had it. I think that ignoring his school work altogether makes him more self sufficient in learning.