I started back at work today. It was great to see my friends and there are no students until Thursday so it was a gentle start. I feel so tired though. I feel positive about 2007 and am looking forward to the teaching I have. This year it will be mainly year nine students and one year 7 class. It should be quite interesting. I am teaching a couple of new subjects, which is always a good challenge. I am mentoring a first year teacher and I am quite pleased about that. All in all a pleasing first day.
Wollongong
We stayed in Wollongong for a week. Our accommodation was basic but central. We stayed at Keiraview Accommodation. It is university accommodation and it was clean and the people were really very helpful. It was really noisy at night, I am not accustomed to being inner city any more.
Wollongong is a large city with a beautiful beach basically. I loved the rock pools and the beach. The shopping centre was as all shopping centres are, only useful if you want to purchase something. My favourite shop was called “Something for Doris”, such a cool name and a nice lady. I didn’t purchase anything there, but enjoyed my browse.
The art gallery was good, but I was looking specifically for my cousin’s artwork, I had hoped his collection would be on show, but it wasn’t, so I was a little disappointed in that. There were some really cool rooms inside that building. There was a great supermarket across the road from the place we stayed and I bought lotus moon cakes and ate them for breakfast. I liked them.
Wollongong Trip – Cooma to Nowra
We left Cooma quite late and had to shop for socks at Rivers as Andy hadn’t packed enough! We drove to Braidwood for a late lunch in the park and had a stroll down the historic streets there. They had a great display on the local National Parks and Architectural features of the town, which had buildings from many eras.
We headed through Morton National Park on our way to Nowra. It was like driving in the clouds and we stopped and checked out a beautiful waterfall in the late afternoon.
We camped on the river at Nowra and read and had an early night. I was woken a couple of times by young people celebrating New Years Eve, and the next day I waited for the decent hour of morning to arrive before phoning my kids to ensure they had survived the revelry.