What an amazing day! My thirty years at Deer Park has finally come to an end.
Having said that I wanted no presents, no speeches and no cards I have been overwhelmed by the wonderful goodbyes (and the presents, the cards, the speeches ... and the cake). Since so many of my colleagues have expressed an interest in this blog it seems a good place to say thank you. I could not have had a better day (or week) and it has left me feeling quite emotional.
Anyone who has not worked in a school finds it hard to appreciate the quality of the people who do - particularly those who are not teachers but put in so much effort to support those who do teach. Deer Park has long been a remarkable school, full of remarkable people, and I have been very lucky to be part of it.
J
Friday, 26 September 2008
Tuesday, 23 September 2008
Launch Date - minus nine
Its now only nine days.
The last nine days have flown past – we seem to have done such a lot, and yet there is such a lot still to do.
The house is gradually being packed into boxes, given to charity shops or dispersed via the Freecycle network. I am constantly surprised at how efficient Freecycle is. We “advertised” two used dustbins – which went within twelve hours, as did the spare parts for a Hozelock system, some miscellaneous baking trays and all our house plants (the taker subsequently emailed me to assure me that they had gone to a good home – I suspect it might be a better home than they had previously). The “useful wood” in the cellar has also gone to a good home (although it might end up on someone’s fire).
We have not had a sniff of anyone being interested in renting the house. The credit crunch has a lot to answer for. However, whilst it is somewhat dispiriting to have to clean the oven and empty the bathroom cupboard, I suppose that if the worse came to the worse and we died whilst on our trip, at least all our affairs are in perfect order for the children. They simply have to take all the boxes from the attic to charity shops.
One of the bonuses of leaving has been the many kind things that people have said and done. I am struggling to empty the freezer because people keep inviting us out for meals. The planning for the next nine days will be interesting. There is a tension between packing everything you don’t want to take away, having enough to wear, and deciding what to do with the things that you are wearing on the penultimate day. I may end up wearing some very odd combinations and then throwing the lot away. But for the remainder of today – the task is cleaning the oven.
The last nine days have flown past – we seem to have done such a lot, and yet there is such a lot still to do.
The house is gradually being packed into boxes, given to charity shops or dispersed via the Freecycle network. I am constantly surprised at how efficient Freecycle is. We “advertised” two used dustbins – which went within twelve hours, as did the spare parts for a Hozelock system, some miscellaneous baking trays and all our house plants (the taker subsequently emailed me to assure me that they had gone to a good home – I suspect it might be a better home than they had previously). The “useful wood” in the cellar has also gone to a good home (although it might end up on someone’s fire).
We have not had a sniff of anyone being interested in renting the house. The credit crunch has a lot to answer for. However, whilst it is somewhat dispiriting to have to clean the oven and empty the bathroom cupboard, I suppose that if the worse came to the worse and we died whilst on our trip, at least all our affairs are in perfect order for the children. They simply have to take all the boxes from the attic to charity shops.
One of the bonuses of leaving has been the many kind things that people have said and done. I am struggling to empty the freezer because people keep inviting us out for meals. The planning for the next nine days will be interesting. There is a tension between packing everything you don’t want to take away, having enough to wear, and deciding what to do with the things that you are wearing on the penultimate day. I may end up wearing some very odd combinations and then throwing the lot away. But for the remainder of today – the task is cleaning the oven.
Sunday, 14 September 2008
Are we getting excited?
Only 18 days until we leave.
This will be the first entry for many of you viewing this blog as we have only just begun to tell people about it - so you can get the tone of what is to come. This entry does not include any details of Jeff’s experiences of food poisoning or an itemised account of his bowel movements but that might follow later.
Meg began her ‘gap year’ two days ago, Jeff has 10 more ‘get-ups’ before he retires for the second time. Our house is beginning to resemble a ‘holiday let’ as everything disappears into storage or charity shops – although we still have to let the place. It was emotional to have to give away the table football but sacrifices have to be made …
The organisation for this trip has been a major exercise in project management. We are awaiting our final visas – from Vietnam and hoping that we will be able to get through the Channel Tunnel and, more importantly, the border into Russia won’t be closed because of all the political posturing over the Georgia affair.
We have thought about creating a board game –‘Circumnavigate the World’ … you have only so much carbon dioxide to spend and only so much cash and then its down to good planning and the fall of the dice. This could fill our days on the cargo ship from Melbourne to Mexico.
And the answer to the question “Are you getting excited?” is that we might do if we had enough spare time to think about it.
This will be the first entry for many of you viewing this blog as we have only just begun to tell people about it - so you can get the tone of what is to come. This entry does not include any details of Jeff’s experiences of food poisoning or an itemised account of his bowel movements but that might follow later.
Meg began her ‘gap year’ two days ago, Jeff has 10 more ‘get-ups’ before he retires for the second time. Our house is beginning to resemble a ‘holiday let’ as everything disappears into storage or charity shops – although we still have to let the place. It was emotional to have to give away the table football but sacrifices have to be made …
The organisation for this trip has been a major exercise in project management. We are awaiting our final visas – from Vietnam and hoping that we will be able to get through the Channel Tunnel and, more importantly, the border into Russia won’t be closed because of all the political posturing over the Georgia affair.
We have thought about creating a board game –‘Circumnavigate the World’ … you have only so much carbon dioxide to spend and only so much cash and then its down to good planning and the fall of the dice. This could fill our days on the cargo ship from Melbourne to Mexico.
And the answer to the question “Are you getting excited?” is that we might do if we had enough spare time to think about it.
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