2012-Onwards

A Remarkable Year

A remarkable year is the only way to describe the events that have oozed, seeped and emanated from Gould Lane this year. There have been many times I had to stop and wonder whether I was awake, imagining what was around me or whether I had stepped into another parallel universe. From where I started to where I will end the year are vastly different realities. What came across strongly was how fortunate I am to have the friends and family that I have around me and how important community is to our well-being. We are truly grateful to everyone who has made a difference to my life this year. I have never felt so supported and encouraged. Ady, Ella and Mikaela would heartily agree.

VeloAdelaide Ride Cyco Mamas

Adelaide Oval as it was

The year began with me working my way into TAFE world another bureaucratic education jungle resembling a headless dinosaur in a retirement village cafeteria. All the same I was enjoying the challenge and had managed to complete a couple of Certificate 4s in Career Development and Workplace Assessment and getting my head around how we would put our courses online. I was fortunate to visit Canberra for a conference which led me onto a quick stay in Sydney with Steve in Darlinghurst then onto Darwin and out to Nhulunbuy, far eastern Arnhem Land to begin teaching the Cert 4 in Career Development to Aboriginal School Assistants and undertake Circles Training with Gray Poehnell, a Canadian First Nations Career Development Practitioner. It was a great week in the land of Yothu Yindi with many highlights.

Strange encounters WOMAD Style

I arrived home with the beginnings of a “frozen shoulder”. Over the next week the shoulder got worse and was reminiscent of a broken collarbone from my youth, chronic pain and no sleep. This coincided with being interviewed for my contract renewal at TAFE which proved to be a disaster. My head was spinning, ears ringing, shoulder aching and my mind all over the place. At the time I felt I may have winged it but by the next morning after a delirious sleep in which I went over and over the interview, I opened my eyes, turned to Ady and said, “I fucked it!” However, the reality of this dragged on for a month in which time I went to Waikerie and further planned our return trip to the NT with Jude and maintained a positive approach at work all the time knowing the end was nigh. This occurred one evening walking out of the doctor’s surgery having just had my frozen shoulder prognosis confirmed. Thus ended my short, brief, rewarding career with TAFE. I was now unemployed and Home Alone!

Who else But Guess who?

Meanwhile back at Gould Lane, Ady and I had become “empty nesters”. Mikaela moved out with her mate Ruby and some dance students into a house in Goodwood. To celebrate the occasion Ady promptly went overseas to Venice, Croatia and Slovenia with her mum Betty. Life at home was quiet. Just to remind me of the life of a parent Ella decided to move house and lucky her, dad had the trailer and the sack truck. That first move was followed by a move home a few weeks later followed by another move to another house where thankfully she has stayed! (Love her dearly) By halfway through the year I had calculated that over 20% of my weekends in 2012 involved moving children.

Class Photo Nhulunbuy

Ady and Betty in Arabello in Southern Italy, Trulli styled buildings in the background

Being serenaded in the canals of Venice

The Drama Queen heads into her new home

The Gran and Nan celebrating their Easter Egg Hunt with Ella

The three gay middle aged hairdressers out and about in Nova Scotia

Purcells Cove, our Nova Scotian base

Being home alone did not last long and Ady returned just in time to take me to the airport where I flew onto Halifax, Nova Scotia (the Maritimes) in Canada for a month for a conference and bike ride The Alia Conference (Authentic Leadership in Action) run by the Shambhala Institute was a fantastic event with attendees from all walks of life and parts of the globe. The trip was all the more enjoyable as I went with Danny and Garry, ex work colleagues from TAFE. An added bonus was staying with Garry’s brother and meeting all the locals. A great part of the world.

Blue Rocks Near Lunenburg NS

My Ideal Home. Glass sitting room overlooking Halifax Harbour

Upon my return I began a brief career as an Emergency Relief Teacher, ERT which meant I would only get called when all Temporary relief teachers TRTs had been rung and were unavailable. I imagined a number of sleep ins and cosy reads in bed on those cold winter mornings. Unfortunately I happened to share a bed with a TRT who had been booked solid for the next term at my old school. Regularly I was awoken by a phone ringing in my vicinity followed by a brief conversation which went something like, “Hello” (pause) “No, but my partner is available,” followed by an elbow to the ribs and the phone placed next to my mouth. No amount of head shaking on my part seemed to change this behaviour.

Just as I was settling into this life, Adam, my ex techie friend from Black Forest days alerted me to a job as a counsellor at his new school. Since he has turned 30 he has become responsible and no longer young and stupid. He assured me it was secretly an IT position masked as a counsellor. I foolishly fell for this, won the position and very soon realised that the only IT in the job was reading emails and researching “how to be an effective school counsellor in 5 minutes!”

What eventuated was a great ten week experience that was at times exhausting and draining but gave me the opportunity to do something I had always suspected I could do and I discovered I could. I worked with great team of people who worked in fairly demanding circumstances to give their students a great education.

Ella's new retro bike

Apart from that, Have a great day!

Meanwhile on the family front, Mikaela was involved in a hit and run accident when a taxi ran a red light and collected the front wheel of her bicycle. Using all her acting skills she made a most dramatic falling, deeply admired by all the horrified onlookers and landed on her shoulder which is still recovering. Someone chased the taxi and got it’s number and she is now a victim of crime statistic. Saved by a fraction of a second. A timely reminder of the fragility of our lives.

Ella managed to complete all the requirements for her Bachelor of Education and whilst celebrating on the dance floor was tripped, fell and broke her wrist. Two days in hospital, pins and a plate in the arm and we had a sad and sorry girl. Recovery is well under way helped by a positive attitude

I was all set to spend the first half on next year as a school counsellor when out of the blue I received an email informing me I had been placed for a year at Crafers School a 2.6 kilometre drive, a 9 minute cycle or a 2minute walk. I found this a tough decision to make considering my new found role a counsellor but when I took advice from those closest to me the response was ‘Duh!” It was a no brainer. I accepted. So I will return to a mainstream Year 4-5 class after a 25 year journey through the education maelstrom.

Talking of Maelstroms, Ady’s year of work was mostly at my old school dealing with a difficult group of naughty boys. Much angst and frustration but a great deal of success as well.

My Brekky at the school Breakfast Club.

Getting my degree was a Snap!

To finish this remarkable year, I got a phone call from Gina in Sydney inviting us to the New Years Fireworks at Sydney Harbour, return airfares included, taxi to the Shangri-La 5 star hotel at the Rocks where a bottle of champers and vodka was waiting for us plus tickets to a Fireworks party on the Harbour. No hesitation here. She had won a prize in Woolies loyalty program for 4 people, so we were invited to make up the numbers! What more could we say or do. A remarkable year. Plenty of good books, music, gatherings, bike rides and new learnings.

Lunar eclipse of the sun

Happy New to everyone. If you haven't seen this video, enjoy.

Greetings from Up Under

Watcha Lookin at?

Purcells Cove, Halifax Nova Scotia.Written Sunday June 17

It’s been a few days since long days journey into night when we flew from Sydney at 10 am and arrived at Halifax at 9-30 pm on the same day but 25 hours later.

We are staying with Garry’s brother in the old family home which has been a renovator’s work in progress for many years. The best way to describe where I am is a cross between “The Shipping News” and the Coen Brothers film “The Big Leibowski”! Garry’s brother, Grant is a reclusive retired electrician, very well read and knowledgeable of events of the world. He is visited regularly by a number of similar residents all who have spent the majority of their lives in Purcells Cove and all have their own quirky stories to tell. Nova Scotia is a land gouged out of glaciers. Wilderness does not seem far away. There are lakes everywhere and the coastline is comprised of thousands of inlets and coves. The countryside is a mixture of spruces, conifers and pines. A few varieties of maples grow here including what I call the Lipstick Maple. Lobelias are native and flowering everywhere. All the timber houses seem regularly painted, very few fences separate each other and everything has a sense of neatness, order and pride. The Nova Scotians are very friendly and relaxed people content with their lot in life.

Purcells Cove is about 7 kilometres from Halifax which can be seen in the distance, is a sleepy little inlet surrounded by Native vegetation bordering on wilderness. Many sailing vessels of all sizes frequent the water for the warmer months. Much wildlife visits the yard including racoons, squirrels, Hummingbirds, Blue Jays and Crows. Close by is a walk into the bush where there are a few trails and some beautiful `ponds’ which we in Oz would call lakes. My first planned 20 minute walk in there lasted 3 hours as I made a wrong turn followed by a few wrong presumptions. Fortunately it dawned on me to check Google maps on my phone and I was able to see I was 180 degrees out, something I always find difficult when first swapping hemispheres. Anyway the locals thought it was a great laugh. They didn’t buy my excuse that I was philosophically but not technically lost.

Conifer growing on a Granite outcrop

Herring Cove

So it has been quite a chore adjusting to the 12 and a half hour time difference especially sharing a sleeping space with 2 others who have a penchant for snoring and irregular sleeping habits. I am enjoying meeting new people and getting a sense of what life in Nova Scotia is like. Everything is clean fresh and green, the weather is mild and summer officially begins on July 1 “Canada Day”. How different this place must be in Winter when temperatures can drop to 20 Degrees below when all the lakes freeze over and everything turns white.