Sunday, 12 July, 2015

Dad's course is going well, although he is finding it a hard slog with having to study (as a student) and also to prepare (as a teacher - for when he teaches this course in the future).  He had two exams this week and he got 100% on both. :-)  There is a different instructor teaching Dad's course for the next three weeks and he is staying here at the unit as well.  Niles is originally from Jamaica, but has lived in different places around the world.  Niles knows some guys from Canadian Airlines and Air Canada who Dad has worked with in the past - it's a small world!  Niles taught a course for Air Canada in Toronto last year and many of the guys on the course remembered Dad from when he worked there.  Dad is hoping to be able to teach one of the courses in Toronto at some point so that he can catch up with these past workmates.

On Tuesday, I went back to the doctor's to have the nurse look at my incision.  She was really pleased with how it's healing and told me that I should have a doctor in Melbourne take out the stitches this coming Friday.  My back is still quite tender and I still find it hard to sit back against it - I tend to lean to one side or the other when I am sitting in a chair.

On Wednesday, I flew to Melbourne.  On the flight from Brisbane to Melbourne, I sat next to a woman who I got to talking with.  I so often find out how small our world really is.  This woman was a retired teacher and had spent two years teaching at Helen Wilson P.S. (where you girls went to nursery school) in Brampton.  We did a lot of reminiscing about living in Brampton/Bramalea and talked a lot about teaching.  She had also travelled a lot and so we talked about the various places we have been to in the world, as well.

Dad and I had a lovely, enjoyable day together yesterday.  After walking around the mall (we decided to walk there as it was just too cold to go for a walk outside) and picking up a few things, we checked out the bikes at Big W (like Walmart).  I have decided that I want to buy a bike here since we are in Melbourne quite a bit.  It will be so nice to be able to get out and bike ride around the neighbourhood as well as to use it to ride to the gym where they have yoga classes a couple of times a week.  We didn't get the bike there as we wanted to also check out K-Mart (which we did later that day) to see what kind of bikes they had.

When we got home, I went online to check out if anyone had a good deal on a used electronic keyboard and I found one which came with a stand and a piano book.  The girl who was selling it said that the price was negotiable and so I sent her an email offering her a price and she accepted it.  We drove right there and picked it up and it's now sitting in the loungeroom here at the unit.  I am really looking forward to continuing my piano learning.

my new electronic piano

I also registered yesterday for a sign language course - it's called 'Auslan' (Australian sign language) - it will take me 7 weeks to do and it's all online.  I am really looking forward to it as I have wanted to learn how to do sign language since I was a teenager.  I debated whether I would take ASL (American Sign Language) or Auslan since they are different from each other, but I figured that I would be (hopefully) be using it in Australia so it made sense to learn Auslan.

It was nice to see our Canadian friends, Debbie and Trevor, at church again today.  They just arrived back here from a three week visit with their family in Alberta.  We plan on having them over for dinner again before we head back home.