Back 2 Skool

First off, I suppose I should if not apologise then at least register some disapprobrium for the slackness of updates of late.

I have unfortunately discovered The Wire which I have been watching on iView, which is the Aussie equivalent of the BBC iPlayer.

And I have discovered a need to understand macroeconomics, or rather to understand why nobody in power seems to understand economics, and to understand what might happen given what's being done, or not done.

But I won't bore you with that.

Anyway, since last time, life has returned to normal. By which I mean that I have not visited any flood-affected areas and that out of sight is out of mind.

We did entertain some friends for supper one night to relieve them from the drudgery of their hostel. Their house, at the confluence of the Bremer and Brisbane rivers, disappeared beneath the waters completely, with only two feet poking out. Some possums saved their bacons in the gables and they had a pretty narrow escape. Luckily they were renters, so they only lost their worldly possessions.

Of course Natural Disaster Number Two, in the shape of Tropical Cyclone Yasi, which could be a Category 4 system when it makes landfall tomorrow, is on its way but that is far to the North of us. It's likely to be ugly up there.

On a more mundane level, Eloise has gone back to school and is now a Grader, moving up to class 1A. She has some continuity as Mrs Boone will one again be a part-time teacher. The other part of the time she will have Mrs Anderson. And she has a couple of little chums in her class too.

It's a composite class with some new Preppies so it'll be interesting. The Graders now have their own desks with drawers and everything. The Preppies don't. The two groups split up for seperate activities: the classroom has two rooms.

Other than that, I don't know much... we don't get much reported back to us. There have been some minor separation anxieties, but I dropped her off in the car this morning and she toddled off with her pack and umbrella and got to the class in one piece saying hello to friends and Mums along the way. She was so blase about it and made so little fuss that she got a well-done star for her trouble.

She's elected to drop dancing as an extra-curricular thing this term, so it's just swimming and yoga.

While she's been sitting in air-con wonderland the rest of us have been sweating it out in the mid-30s and high humidity. It's been rather nice and sunny.