Anna is now home and will have a break of two weeks before starting on a course of chemo. She thanks everyone at Balga very much for the flowers which, together with those from others, made her room at the Mount nice and cheerful.

In other staff news we’re all delighted to hear that Veronica is engaged! Not many of us were fortunate enough to be proposed to in Paris but James is obviously a true romantic. Veronica was clearly still on cloud nine when she managed to travel home from Los Angeles last Sunday and turn up for work looking bright and cheerful on Monday! Veterans of AMES might like to recall when our last engagement occurred.

Chris is recovering from his operation and will hopefully be back on Monday 26th. Many thanks to Romana and Barbara for filling in so well.

Have not had word of Mary and Paul’s New Zealand travels- as usual the postcard will probably arrive when she does.

Katy Johnson relief Available until 8 March then away until 29 March. Here for April then o/seas from 1 May until 5 July. Her mobile is 0411430533

Smartrider
Note that our students are not technically “students” as we do not have a formal agreement with Transperth. Therefore both concession holders AND non concession holders will need to provide a password.After the initial rush Dubravka will be responsible for helping students with Smartrider applications. She will still retain the Ambulance Form portfolio.

Please make sure that you identify students in your class who have come to you without completing the previous certificate. It’s difficult to judge how many there will be in total but Christine (Cert 3 classes) and Alison (Cert 1 and 2 classes) will be doing the “gap-filling”. This involves both preparation and later testing. If they are swamped with customers then we will look at the ILC assisting as well.

Philip will be coming on Wednesday 28th from 11 am to 1 pm. Any issues you wish to discuss and, if time, anyone who wants to learn how to set up a blog?

The Refugee Council of Australia publishes a very interesting bulletin. It covers many issues, for example changes to Government policy such as the reduction in quota of refugees from Africa, all relevant press releases etc. For example, did you know that … it costs $ 2 million dollars a month to detain 8 people on Nauru? ….it costs $3 million per year to maintain the empty detention centre on Manus Island ….the cost of the Christmas Island detention centre has blown out to $ 396 million , that is $ 1 million for every refugee it will hold? You can receive the bulletin by sending an email to info@refugeecouncil.org.au