a few handy hints on how not to burn in the hot hot australian sun

summer! i hear you cry with indignation and jealousy. yes my friends, it is indeed that time of the year when the world becomes a brighter and warmer place...but in oz it's positively blinding and the scorching sun beats down upon the heads of the unwary.

but anyhoo...

the beach holiday

a couple of weeks ago, before school started back, off i trundled to the beach. but this wasn't just any old beach holiday, this was a swimming camp. now for those of you who know that i'm like a frog in water i'd like to clarify a few things. i was mearly tagging along on this trip...NOT seriously swimming, although having said that i did act as a bouy (not a boy) for the kids to swim round and as a result i'm really good at treading water now. so off we toddle one rainy morning to kiama, which is just south of wollongong, which is just south of sydney. in fact the trip down there was pretty interesting as trips in a minibus go. it was pissing down with rain and for most of the journey we drove through an immense thunder storm, which is pretty impressive if you realise that we drove for about 5 hours! the highlight had to be when i saw a tree get hit by lightning! it was awesome, it just went up in flames. but that's beside the point

we'd get up at 6:30 in the morning for an early swim, have brekkie when we got back then spend the day doing all kinds of cool stuff like...

~ surfing (i'm a genuine surfer babe now...got the boardies and everything)
~ snorkelling (saw a whole load of different types of fish and baby squid!)
~ more surfing (...yup, i'm pretty good now, anyone wanna go surfing in cornwall when i get back?)
~ canoing (down the river...with the tide)
~ heaps of swimming (and on one occasion - the sea was rather rough - i accidentally flashed one of the other teachers!!! i'm not sure if he minded that much...)
it was a fantstic holiday and i managed to miss all the staff meetings too, shame. still i now have a killer tan, and some damn cool board shorts which i bought from a charity shop for $5 (which, if you work it out, is about a pound fifty or so).

but remember kids, if you're out in the sun PUT ON SUNLOTION!!! otherwise it hurts!

other scrapes i managed to get myself into:
~ spilling food down my front (one of the mothers that came with us, who has now adopted me as her honourary daughter, cleaned roughly a t-shirt a day. i managed to spill cake icing, kebab juice, ice-cream and other such food stuffs down my ususally white/clean t-shirts)
~ making stupid comments (nothing new there then)
~ generally being the butt of the joke (as per)

hey ho, all in good fun, better go now before i get busted for not doing any work! have a great time folks and i'll see you all in the 3rd summer i'll have had in a row

...after i've been skiing!