Tag: all in a day

All In A Day #14 – Sealion the deal

He’s behind you! My paddle buddies shouted as I frantically retrieved my phone from a dry bag on top of my paddleboard!

It was that time again. The day standup paddlers decide it’s not too cold, not to windy and that the sea is not too swelly. Beginning of spring, tail end of the Noongar season Djilba. The sun had started to get a bit of a bite and the easterly was showing its face.

Photo thanks to @kellygriffen

Time to paddle on the ocean after paddling in the sheltered river for the past few months. Or alternatively, some may choose to remain in the shelter of their homes until the weather is stinking hot before they emerge with their boards and paddles. You know who you are! Each to their own.

Me, I like to paddle all year round and I can usually be found puttering around up river with the pelicans and darters. I sometimes paddle alone and sometimes with a group. So this Sunday the weather was all that and the conditions perfect for our first ocean adventure.

We selected Coogee Beach where the ocean is usually flat and most importantly, it has a banging cafe for coffee afterwards. The easterly was puffing and the ocean dead flat – perfect. We paddled up to the Omeo wreck and did a circuit and then headed back towards Coogee Surf Lifesaving. The wind had picked up a bit but as long as we stuck to the shore all was good.

It was around now that we noticed what I originally thought was a swimmer and someone else suspected the “S” word motoring along not far from the shore in the opposite direction to us. It was indeed an “S” word but not the scary one. It was a sealion! A big fat sealion cruising the bay popping up every now and then for a breath before diving deep.

Great excitement ensued and I decided this was a photo opp so I paddled like mad towards the last place I had sighted the big fella. Nothing. Then “He’s behind you!” screeched one of the girls. I scrabbled for my phone (dry bags never open quickly in an emergency) and spun around to see him or her motoring towards me – up and down went his whiskered head and flippers.

I clicked away (yeah I know iPhones don’t make clicks) and got some shots before I realised he wasn’t going to slow down or stop before he got to my board. Thud! his shoulder and back slid under my board shifting me sideways. I think I screamed and then he was gone – diving so deep.

I decided he couldn’t have seen me, he was having such a whale of a time he got carried away and when his body made contact he was just as startled as I, causing him to dive to safety. But I got the shots (and that’s the main thing right?) We were all so excited. He emerged further on and we sat and watched him frolic in the shallows before turning and leading our paddle party back to the beach.

Video evidence!

It was also time to have a swim. The water was cold but so refreshing and the feeling you get after a swim in cold water, especially the ocean – is the best. So, here’s to more days on the ocean, more encounters with nature and more paddling with friends!

What’s the skinny?

  • Coogee Beach is about 30 minutes drive from Perth city
  • The Omeo Wreck is popular with snorkellers and divers
  • The Australian sealion is a playful and curious ‘dog of the sea’ – they live on nearby Carnac Island
  • The Coogee Beach Cafe do a damn good coffee and muffin (just sayin)
  • Standup Paddleboarding is popular in Perth and surrounds – see my previous blog about water activities

All in a Day #10 I teach therefore I am (a teacher)

July 2023

“My tummy hurts, I have a sore foot, leg, arm, eye, and hurt feelings.” Despite my aptitude for curing all of these ailments (sometimes with nothing more than a piece of wet paper towel) , I am not a nurse but a primary school teacher.

I teach small children. Not all the time, but a day or so a week. I was once a full-time teacher until I went part-time and realised there could be a life of less stress. Now I mostly write, sometimes I mark standardised writing tests, and will be supervising student teachers from next month.

While that sounds like a lot of different hats, it is no where near as crazy as a fulltime teaching load! I don’t think I realised how all-encompassing fulltime teaching was until I stopped.

On Thursdays, I don my teacher’s garb, gird my loins and head out into the world with a packed lunch and a water bottle. I spend the day teaching Year 5s in the morning and little Year 2s in the afternoon.

By lunchtime, I look forward to the end of the day and ask myself how I ever managed to teach full-time for 14 years. I read news reports of teachers leaving the profession because they are burnt out and have had enough of the added burdens placed on them by schools, the government and the general population, and I understand it’s a tough gig.

I maintain my teaching connection for the money and to keep up my teaching quals. Lets face it, it’s a good thing to have in times of economic uncertainty and I don’t hate it, but I don’t love it either. Anymore.

I make the most of my time at the lovely northern suburbs school where I work. The children are from essentially high socio-economic families. They have breakfast before they leave for school, they all have healthy lunches and are generally well-behaved and polite.

Some schools where I do relief do not have children like that. Sometimes I head out to the south-eastern suburbs where children don’t have breakfast and sometimes don’t have lunch. They are not always dressed warmly in winter, and they are not always polite. In fact, they can be downright rude and disrespectful.

But kids are kids – sometimes they bowl you over with their joi de vivre, and other times they slap you right in the face (not literally, hopefully) no matter where they come from or their circumstances. Mostly they want to learn and do the right thing.

I had to teach a sport session the other week, and my allocated sport was tunnel ball. Everyone has played tunnel ball, right? Apparently not. The kids had no idea what was going on. I had no whistle, so my not-very-loud voice was put into action. “Line up! Spread out, step your right foot out. The other right! Watch the ball, the ball! It’s under your legs…” It was a disaster. I don’t know who was more relieved when it came time to return to class, me or the kids!

Tunnel ball aside, I enjoy attending school for other reasons. For one, staff and other teachers provide me with the adult contact I sometimes lack as a WFH writer. Two, schools have the best staff morning teas! And finally I get to have fun with kids – what’s not to love about that?

My team teacher inspires me to be organised. In fact she is the most organised teacher I have ever met! I sit at her desk, and within half an hour I have reduced it to a mess of papers, have lost my pen, spilled pencil shavings and scattered her neatly stacked papers everywhere. If only I could emulate her organisational skills in my own piles of paper and pads at home on my writer’s desk!

My current work mate
My personal assistant

So, I look at my occasional foray into schools as human development and a steady income stream to supplement my erratic freelance income.

I suppose I will always be a teacher to some degree. Just don’t make me use my teacher voice!