Small World

There was a new helper when I dropped Ella at nursery this morning. At least, she was new to me, I'd never seen her before.

"Are you British?" she said

"Yeah. You too, eh? Where are you from?"

"Cheshire" she replied

"Okay, whereabouts?"

"Warrington"

"Oh! Me too! Where in Warrington?"

"Thelwall"

Ella climbed onto the trampoline and started bouncing about. "My Dad is a teacher at Stockton Heath Primary" she continued, which started a debate about whether it ought to be demolished (she thought it should, I thought not). It's a bit of a hot potato in Stockton Heath, the school is a beautiful old nineteenth century building but it doesn't do a twenty-first century job. I never thought I'd be debating it in a Sydney nursery.

And so to work. Another pleasant day with pleasant patients and pleasant coffee. The accountant gave me my benefits cheque this afternoon. They take advantage of some tax loophole or other by paying you less into your bank account and paying you a cheque for the shortfall. the cheque must be payable to an electricity provider, landlord or bank but not directly to you so I've opted to have it payable to the credit card, which is handy, as that's where the bill for the nursery fees ended up.

This afternoon the other British girl, Julia, brought in a birthday cake. I had high hopes but it was a bloody lamington. She's integrated into the culture. I still want proper cake.