‘You don’t have to brush your teeth - just the ones you want to keep.’ - Author Unknown

‘A good friend is cheaper than therapy.’ - Author Unknown

Had my first tooth pulled today.

Now, I haven’t been to the dentist in about sixteen years. Never a filling, never a toothache. Once I had the braces removed I pretty much abandoned all interest in ever setting foot into another dental clinic of any sort again. And until February, I didn’t.

Now, sixteen years is not bad, I reckon, for looking after your teeth on your own. Not bad at all. At least, until a few of them started to fall apart on my while I was eating about a year or so back. I pondered the problem for a few weeks as I continued to find little bits of enamel in my dinner, but before too long they seemed to stop disintegrating, and even better, they didn’t ache or hurt. So I ignored them.

Then I noticed another threatening to do the same. So I bit the bullet (pardon the pun), and wandered into the local dentist clinic I hadn’t set foot in for the better part of sixteen years. I wasn’t even on their records any more!

They couldn’t fit me in for about six months, so I wandered down the street to the next clinic and asked about a check up.

‘When was your last one?’ they asked.

‘Aw, really early nineties?’ I answered.

‘And you still have your teeth?’

They fit me in and I had a check up. Short story was, two had to be pulled, and three had to be filled. I thought that was a pretty good score considering the time between visits and my irregular brushing. So I made the appointments and finally had the first last week to put three fillings in. Unfortunately, then they noticed there were two more fillings to be done and a third tooth to be pulled. Bugger.

So I wandered in this afternoon to have the next appointment. Fill another tooth, and pull the first one out. I wasn’t too concerned now about the filling and the needles - they’ve improved since the last time I had one in my mouth, but the extraction was concerning me if I’m honest. I asked him to talk me through it, but I figured I’d only feel uncomfortable and hear the odd crack and splintering sound. Any aches would come after the happy juice had worn off.

Short story again, it came out before I realised it as I didn’t actually feel it come loose. Yes, I felt the wriggling and levering and rocking stuff as my head rolled from side to side, and at one point I was concerned he would stretch the corner of my mouth too far and it would get the dental equivalent of a hamstring tear, but it was quite a simple procedure.

I wandered out able to talk with no pain and only half a box of tissues jammed in the hole in the back of my mouth.

So I wandered into the shopping centre for a quick browse because you don’t drive into town with petrol the way it is without making at least some effort to make it worth your while, eh?

Which is when I ran into one of the kids. Not just any kid from school, the little feller from the basketball team. By the way, they lost the grand final the other week. It’s a shame, but you don’t win them all. If you did, you’d have no reason to play, eh?

Now, most kids when they see a teacher will do one of two things. Wave with a slightly awkward, nervous smile, sometimes with a slight hint of guilt, or look the other way and hope to hell you haven’t seen them. Well, this kid’s different, at least when it comes to me, I suppose.

He ran half way around the plaza to catch me, grinning like a Cheshire Cat, to rabbit on about the things he’d just bought with his family and we wandered back to the checkout. After all, we hadn’t caught up with each other for, aw, twelve whole days. Twelve days is almost forever when you’re twelve, eh?

‘What are you doin’ here, Mr V? Shopping or something?’ Note the hint of boredom in the word ’shopping’, clearly something he thought wasn’t high on the list of ‘cool reasons to walk around the plaza’.

‘Actually, champ, I just had a tooth pulled…’

The sudden look of caring concern and the subdued voice asking ‘did it hurt?’ just made my day.

Better than a panadol, that was.

I know the day’s passed by this year now, but my ANZAC Day was a little full yesterday so this post goes up today.

Finally managed to get to my first dawn service yesterday morning. I regularly go to the local parade and pay respects at the local cenotaph each year, but I’d never dragged myself out of bed early enough to get to the dawn service. It has a bit to do with not actually living in town, but this year was different.

I’d just spent most of the last two weeks trying to drill into the kids the significance of the day and what it stood for. Showing maps of the world and where these places are - Gallipoli, France, the Middle East and others. Talking about such events as the Gallipoli landing, Lone Pine and the Nek. Thousands sent to fight in France. Training in the shadows of the pyramids. The bayonet, the trenches, the dead. After building it up through the last fortnight and encouraging the kids to get to the local march if they could possible manage to convince their parents to take them, I figured I’d better make an appearance just in case they turned up. So I made my first dawn service.

It was only a fifteen minute piece, but several hundred gathered round the tall statue in the early dawn in the gardens to listen. I was pleased to see how many young kids and families were there too. Then it was back home for a while before heading back into town for the morning parade. Again, a good sized crowd and school kids from each of the local schools laying wreaths at the base of the statue as well. It’s good to see the ideals of the day being honoured by the next generation. Puts the whole tradition in good stead for the future, which is important.

The School Spirit webcomic also features this year’s ANZAC Day strip. Not a joke like the strip usually aims for, but more just recognition of the large numbers from those places now etched into the military history and psyche of the country.

Lest we forget.

Right from the very first, I should probably lay my cards out on the table. I’m not a dedicated convert to the global warming or climate change phenomenon. I’d like to think of myself as a healthy, albeit slightly suspicious, cynic in regards to many of the arguments (if they can be called that) predicting the end of the world due to this nasty carbon stuff. It’s only fair that I say this up front before moving on to the main topic of this post, which is the now global event called Earth Hour.

If you haven’t been aware, Earth Hour was an idea originating in Sydney last year (2007) where everyone was encouraged to turn off their lights for an hour for the benefit of the planet. About 2 million people (or is it households? That would have been more impressive) and 2000 businesses signed up to take part. The goal was to reduce greenhouse emissions in Sydney by 5%. About 10% was the figure achieved according to some reports, so straight up congratulations to Sydney on their one off reduction. This year, it’s a global event and cities all around the world are taking part.

Look, I think it’s a nice idea, I really do, but I have a suspicious feeling that it’s mostly going to be a single, feel-good hour which will give the planet a quick breather (if I may personify the planet… why not? Many people writing articles like this see it as suitable!) before most of the lights will come back on and the planet will once again glow like a Christmas bauble throwing thousands of black balloons into the air like we see on those greenhouse reduction ads on Australian television.

In regards to those ads, why don’t we ever see one showing those black CO2 balloons coming from the backside of a cow?

Some people (and blogs) are spouting the idea that it’s a great initiative to support the Earth and harness the interest of school kids in the wellbeing of the planet, and even better, ‘promises an opportunity where they can behave to demonstrate their understanding of being a global citizen‘. I actually agree with this idea, although I don’t know whether Earth Hour will be the true success it aims to be and therefore I’m not sure I would have (had it been during the term and not the school holidays) sold it to my own kids as a way to help save the planet. I don’t think it’s quite as simple as that, and I’d be selling the kids short if I tried to tell them so. I’m not much for flowery imagery in my statements, but it seems others are - ‘YOUR participation will go a long way in spreading the message thatwe, as individual droplets working collectively - can create an impetus far more powerful than the mightiest of rivers‘. Nice metaphor, and all meant with the best intentions, but does it really mean anything? Rivers are good for hydro power generation, which is apparently better for the environment… but that involves dams, eh? We’re not allowed to build more dams in Victoria… it harms the planet.

On another blog, I found this quote, which shows support once more for the initiative (and keep in mind I support the idea in general, I just don’t believe it is going to have the impact it promises). ‘This is a wonderful, simple idea to share with your students. It can make them feel part of a global movement, but more importantly it demonstrates that individuals CAN come up with simple, sharable ideas that make a difference‘. I actually agree with much of this statement. It truly is a wonderful and more importantly simple idea, and I recognise the benefits of the kids feeling like their involved in something bigger than themselves, their town or even their country. I’m also right up there with anything that will help kids think they’re important enough to make a difference. Again, I’m just not convinced the difference this will make will be of any significant benefit once those lights go back on sixty minutes after they get switched off.

My concern here is that I doubt it will actually achieve anything in the long run, which is what it is intended for. Once that hour is over, just about every business who has signed up will put those lights on in their office towers while no one is working there, have their neon lights back on to advertise their companies to passing pedestrians or motorists. The lights will come back on and the telly will flick back to whatever was being viewed before… and it will happen every night afterwards.

Until next year’s Earth Hour comes around again when we can all feel good about ourselves for going without lights for another hour to save the planet.

There’s my little cynical bit over with. I’ll go about my normal nightly business with a light on in the room I’m working in (usually a little lamp) and maybe the radio in the background or the telly if I’m in the lounge. In the classroom we generally only work with lights on if it gets too dim to see with cloud cover outside over the sun (or once we’ve done so much work we’ve covered the windows with displays!). To me, getting people to work with electricity in this way would be more beneficial. Hopefully that’s the message a lot of the people who take part this year get from it all. If it truly causes thousands of people to think to use only the lights they need when they need them, then I think Earth Hour will have done its job.

I’m not too convinced with some of the comments on the official Earth Hour site either, particularly the Frequently Asked Questions page. What candles should we use for light during this hour, it is asked at one point, to which the response is candles made of beeswax. Why? Because they are carbon neutral because ‘the CO2 they emit has already been taken from the atmosphere to produce the wax‘! Okay, by that logic, coal fired power stations are probably just as carbon neutral because the carbon produced by the burning was already taken from the atmosphere when they were alive as trees back in the Carboniferous Period! Millions of years ago those ancient forests grew, sucking up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere which is now stored in those coal deposits. So burning it is only releasing the carbon back into the atmosphere from where it came. I think that’s a little bit of flawed logic there, but again, it’s a nice thought, eh?

I’ll finish with this quote from the Age newspaper which, despite not particularly liking that paper, makes what I think is the most important point to be taken from this whole initiative. ‘It’s not simply about turning off your lights on March 29, even though it is estimated that this alone reduced carbon emissions equal to 48,000 cars being off the road for one hour last year. It’s about awareness, understanding and commitment: awareness of the impact of climate change, understanding that small, practical gestures by individuals can collectively make a profound difference and commitment to making an ongoing effort to reduce energy consumption for long-term benefit‘.

Anyway… enough rambling. On the whole, I think this Earth Hour initiative is very well-intentioned and will be a great article for the media across the world to cover, and very well might make the world’s politicians sit up and take notice (or at least wave at the crowd when they turn up to show their support before going back to their other policies the next morning). Any small approach to reducing these pollutants will help, but I’m just not convinced this is the world changing event it’s being built up to be.

Mind you… I’m more than happy to be proven wrong!

Technorati Tags: Earth Hour, climate change, global warming.

Yup. I don’t really understand how it came about, but we just lost our last indoor cricket match of the season which dropped us from third to fourth place. Usually that would mean we were playing off against the top team next week for the right to play in the grand final. Seems that when you’re playing in a mixed A and B grade competition, they do things a little differently.

They’ve split the ladder into two groups of finals. The first three play for the A Grade title, the next three play for the B Grade title. The first of each set of three automatically go through to the final match. So… yeah. Losing this last match means we’re now straight into the B Grade Grand Final next Friday, and the team who beat us take our spot on the ladder and have to play to get into the A Grade team.

So… basically… we’ve just earned a Grand Final place by losing our match. Fortunately we tried our bums off to win because it looked like we might have dropped out completely, but it’s quite an amusing turn of events. We lose our last match of the season, yet we’re still going to leave next week with a trophy!

How cool is that??

Officially, Clean Up Australia Day is this Sunday, March 2nd. The little problem here is that the kids aren’t at school that day. They’re at home, probably sitting in front of their X-boxes, their PS2s or in the corner. Maybe that’s a slight generalisation tainted by the ever-so-slightly-mental Friday I worked my way through today. If I’m honest, I reckon it probably is. But anyway…

Because the kids aren’t going to be here on Sunday (and, most importantly for us, neither are we teachers!), today, Friday, February 29th (and didn’t we talk about Leap Years a lot today!), was Clean Up Australia for Schools Day. Meaning… we dragged the kids around the school ground and the sports oval complex nearby with plastic bags and a shortage of plastic gloves. Yes, plastic is not really environment friendly, but neither’s leaving all that rubbish flitting around in the breeze either.

Lots of glass around, to be honest. The kids thought it was great to find an old VB bottle or two, but I did get a little sick of trying to pick up shattered glasses by the roadside, and I didn’t even bother when the kids found little tiny bits of glass scattered across the asphalt car parks.

The kids seemed to enjoy it, even if it did cut into their Free Time Friday afternoon, which most had to use finishing off their week’s work anyway. Maybe that was why they were happy to stay out there as long as possible…

I don’t think we’re technically allowed to call it ’scab duty’ any more… I think ‘emu parade’ is the more politically friendly and slightly amusing term for it now.

Shame. I always liked the term ’scab duty’.

* Not to do with this post, but if you missed today’s previous short post, read on again. Seems my other site is of Cultural Significance!

Today was the final week of the regular local cricket season. For myself, an eternal C Grade player because I’m really not the greatest cricketer going around, and not wanting to play two week matches in B Grade anyway, the season finished a week early with a bye this week. But… that gave us the chance to wander across the district to a little township further north to watch B Grade try to win their match in the hopes of making the finals next week.

More importantly, it was to see off a clubman who retired today after playing 436 matches for the club. And to see him off in style.

They were in to bat last week and made 236, leaving 10 wickets for them to take today while out there fielding. We set ourselves up around the boundary under the trees and away from the main stands with a few coldies in the esky and gave it our all. As the sun fell lower and lower in the sky, we slowly got louder and louder and had a good old afternoon calling out friendly and not so friendly sledges to the opposition and, more importantly, our teammates. Just because they’re out there playing doesn’t mean they’re not fair game to a friendly sledge! A long story short, they bowled them out for 220 and won the game. If results fall our way, they’ll play in the finals next week. But to be honest, that’s secondary.

Our old feller finished the match not out from his batting innings the week before, and fittingly came on to bowl at the end of the day and took the final wicket to win the match. Those of us who were there were quick to gather at the gate before he arrived (because he’s pushing it now and doesn’t move fast when he doesn’t have to) and formed a guard of honour for him to pass through.

One of the best moments I think I’ll ever have at the club.

I only had the privilege of playing one match with him since I joined the club, but looking back, having the opportunity to say I’ve batted with him once and hitting the winning runs in that match myself (of the half dozen I made) is something I can look back on proudly to say ‘I played alongside him’.

A nice, fitting way to send off a legend of the club, but not quite perfect.

We fixed that up tonight back at the club rooms with lots of beer.

Cricket’s a drinker’s game!