It's amazing how quickly time gets away from you. If this update was a library book, I'd hate to be paying the fine on how overdue it is. So, the following is an account of what's been happening in my life - apologises now if it makes no sense (I've finished uni and think my brain has shut down).

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Mid semester break was spent at uni co-ordinating the musical. Monday and Tuesday I spent 8 hours each day with Eleanor (my co-producer) building props. musical rehearsals. We managed some pretty cool stuff - two palm trees with real palm tree leaves, a goat with detachable limbs (it had to be sacrificed - velco is a wonderful invention), 4 pillers with hyroglyphics on them (each of the drawings has a title - some of them very ammusing - we considered them to be works of art; so much so, we thought about auctioning them on e-bay after the performance, however second thoughts made us change our mind - must have been the paint fumes !)

However, the most exciting thing we constructed would have been the pyramid. Made out of 56 french fry boxes (thanks McDonalds!) which we had to turn inside out so that the printing on them wouldn't show (we only had cheap and nasty paint to use - it was donated to us) and hot glue gun them back together. We then had to work out a system that enabled us to pull the whole thing apart, transfer it to the theatre and assemble it back together - this resulted in us creating something resembeling a game of Tetris. Click here to take a look at the props & rehearsals

With props constructed, Wednesday through to Friday was spent in rehearsals. A very slow and painstacking process given that Eleanor and I have never directed a production before and were only going on notes we had written in terms of who should be where and what we wanted things to look like. So, after three days of all singing, all dancing, we managed to get through the whole thing without a hitch.

A week later we had our performance; apart from a few sound problems (like the microphones cutting in and out) on the first night, things all went very smoothly afterwards. At the end of it all I felt on such a high; working with such a wonderful group of people, and seeing how far people had come since we first started was a very rewarding feeling.

So, somewhere in between all of that I managed to get about 6 assignments done (don't ask me how I did it - I'm yet to get the marks back for them - I sure the results will be interesting !); one of them being a task we had to do for Computer Art. Working in groups, we had to use a set to create an image relating to one of the articles from the Convention on the Rights of the Child (www. that will form part of a picture book. I've uploaded my picture to the Global Gallery (www.) if anyone wants to take a look.

With the musical all over and done with and all my assingments done, I finally finished uni for the year...and also completed me degree (pending the results of my assignments and exams !). It was a weird feeling - I know such much more about teaching and education and that I did when I started, but at the same time I still feel like there's so much more I need to know... I guess experience will bring be the extra knowledge I'm hoping for.

The faculty threw us a small farewell party on the last day of classes which was a good chance to catch up with everyone - lecturers and other students. Most of the conversation was focused around job hunting - who had applied where, who had interviews and who had positions already lined up.

Whilst all this was going on - I received a phone call on my mobile from Aldercourt Primary School who wanted me to come in for an interview at the school on Monday. I agreed to the interview and hun up the phone thinking "I've got so much work to do for this.". I spent the weekend updating my CV and working on my teaching portfolio (a book demonstrating some of the teaching experiences you've had) to bring it up to standard. I met with the principal and two other members of staff on the Monday and we spoke about a range of things I'd been invovled with, skills I could bring to the school etc..etc.. I was told that they would get back to me regardig the position later that evening and left after talking to them for an hour to head out for lunch with some other people from uni. In the time that it took me to drive from the interview to where we were having lunch (about 30 mins), the school had called me back and offered me the position - I was suprised at first at just how quickly everything had happened that the rest of the conversation was a bit of blur. I accepted the offer, received the paperwork a few days later and finalised it all today. Still yet to find out what grade I'll be teaching, but am excited about it all and look forward to the challenges that will lie ahead.

So, with a job lined up for next year, I hung up my spatula and said goodbye to McDonalds after 6 years - Whilst I was in no way disapointed to be leaving the job, I was sad to be saying goodbye to all my friends. I'm being thrown a farewell party but things there are pretty hectic there at the moment, so it's been delayed a few weeks until things die down.

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So, there you go another exciting update in the life of yours truly.


...till the next exciting installment...