Well, I can finally close the university chapter of my life again. The other day I attended my graduation ceremony in order to receive my Masters of Teaching (Primary). Anyone who's graduated or been to a graduation ceremony knows that it's not the most interesting thing to do. Even so, after all my hard work I did want to put on the cap and gown to receive my testamur.

There was an added degree of difficulty involved in attending my graduation ceremony. I studied my degree through distance education so the ceremony was actually at Charles Sturt University in Bathurst. We drove down on Wednesday evening and back on Thursday after graduation. The other challenge was a cranky toddler. Evie didn't sleep well in the hotel room on Wednesday night and then had practically no nap on the Thursday. Poor Andrew had to Evie wrangle during the ceremony (some Peppa Pig bribery strategies may have been employed).

We had Wednesday morning free in Bathurst to do some sight seeing. When you're trying to get your toddler to sleep, sightseeing involves driving places. We did a lap of Mount Panorama (with Evie snoozing in her car seat) and then we drove to Sofala, Australia's oldest surviving gold rush town. At the end of the day we also took a photo of the big gold panner. Tash is appalled that I didn't even get out of the car to take the photo. Apparently it doesn't qualify as ticking off a big thing because we don't have a selfie. Oh well, it will have to do. I can't think of when we'll be in Bathurst again.

More photos (slideshow) on Flickr.

And so a new chapter of my life has begun. After three and a half years of uni, 16 weeks of professional experience and countless assignments and essays, on Wednesday I had my first day as a real teacher. There were many firsts on that day. First time I'd been paid to be a teacher, first time I was in a classroom unsupervised and the first time I had to do playground duty.

Not only did I experience lots of firsts but I had fun learning some teacher life lessons (of which I'm sure my fellow teachers are already well aware). Like how as a casual you get swapped in for playground duty almost automatically (last week I did my first, second and third round of playground duty). And when on Infants playground duty you spend most of your time being patient with Kindy kids because their friends said something mean or don't want to play with them. And how 10 year old boys still think they are smarter than you. (A group of boys were taking turns to cough as I walked around the classroom. It was HILARIOUS...hrm).

I'm happy to know that I still have more technical knowledge than a group of 8 year olds though. In the computer lab some of the boys were giggling as they were playing around on the computer. As I headed over to find out what was going on, one of the boys highlighted and deleted some short cuts on the desktop. I pressed ctrl-Z on the keyboard and hey presto the offending material reappeared. Cue gasps of shock from the boys and a "How did you do that!?!?!" I know I should have, but I didn't tell them how. I think it's good to have a few tricks up your sleeve.

More photos (slideshow) on Flickr.

Race Day has come and gone. Believe it or not I managed to not only complete the race but to run most of the way. It's such a lovely run to do. You get to run across the Harbour Bridge, along the Cahill Expressway and then down through the Botanic Gardens. It also helps that it's mostly flat. I'm not a huge fan of hills.

There were so many people taking part and it gives you a little bit of an energy boost to be one of the many. There were also lots of people lined along Macquarie street cheering everyone on. I'm sure that they were mainly there for the Marathon runners but they were indiscriminate with their woohooing. My favourite sign that I saw on the day was "Worst Parade Ever". I giggled as I ran past.


A big thank you to everyone who sponsored me. I hit my target and raised $725 for AIME (Australian Indigenous Mentoring Experience). Because I raised over $500 I also received a rebate on my race fee which I have also donated to AIME. Your sponsorship motivated me to get out of bed on the day and give it my best shot. While my race time of 75 minutes wasn't the fastest time (actually a bit below average) it now gives me something to aim to beat next year.

Thanks to Bel + Dan, Caitlin, The Bells, The Brisvegas Wilsons, Andrew and Evie, The Weatherills, Sue, The Strachans, Shaun, Sam, Sapph, The Ezzys, Paddy, Kat, Megan, Karen, Julia, Christina, TD and Janis for your sponosorship.

I'm a very goal orientated person. If I want to get something done I usually need to set myself a dead line. So a few months ago when I wanted to start running again I knew that I needed to set myself some sort of goal. Something to motivate me to get out of bed at six in the morning. Annie had talked about how lovely the Blackmores Running Festival Bridge Run is to do. You get to run across the Harbour Bridge and finish in the beautiful Botanic Gardens. So I signed up for that figuring that I had a few months to get ready to run 9km.

Of course, my training plan didn't exactly go smoothly. It was going to be tight anyway and then Evie got sick so I had a couple of weeks off. Running 9km on the weekend is going to be a bit of a challenge.

You know what I think would help? A donation to the charity I'm running for. I'm running for the Australian Indigenous Mentoring Experience (AIME). AIME aims to give Indigenous high school students the skills, opportunities and confidence to finish high school at the same rate as their peers. As a future teacher it's a cause that I think is very important.

Please donate. Your donation will motivate to do more running than walking. Run Jess run!

I've decided to stop celebrating my birthday. I figure if I don't mark the occasion I won't actually get any older. So August 10th is now Be Nice to Jess Day. You too can observe Be Nice to Jess Day by partaking in a glass of bubbles or a macaron or two.

This year we celebrated BNTJ Day with our usual shindig at Mum and TD's. Bubbles, cheese platter, oysters, prawns, TD's lamb stew... if it ain't broke...

Even though it was my birthday, I volunteered to make the cake. I'd pinned a Neapolitan cake a while ago and I was keen to try it out.

I've always been a fan of Neapolitan ice cream. People often tell me stories of how the chocolate section would be eaten first and the strawberry last. I'm sure someone once told me that their mum refused to buy anymore tubs of Neapolitan because they would only eat the chocolate and then open a new tub. Not me though! I eat all the flavours. I'm actually the perfect Neapolitan partner because chocolate is my least favourite flavour.

The original cake was a three level chocolate cake with layers of chocolate, vanilla and strawberry icing. I decided to modify the cake and make a two layer chocolate cake with vanilla icing in the middle and strawberry icing on the top. That way the cake would still have all the flavours without as much fiddling (and less icing. I think the original might have had icing overload).


More photos (slideshow) on Flickr.