Want to be included in a post?

Guaranteed.

If any of my readers want to reveal who they are, or where they are from, I'll weave your identity or  the place where you live into a post in a most imaginative way.

Even if I have no idea who you are ( eg my American, German and French readers just for starters) I am sure that I will be able to make you feel included just through my travels near, or through those parts of the world!

We all know about the '6 Degrees of Separation', so, combined with my imagination I am sure I will make you feel even more a part of this blog.

There was a huge spike in my American readers for a few days last week, so if any of you could leave me with a clue why this occurred I'd love to know.

Send an email to bkerrins63@gmail.com if you want total anonymity. Trust assured!

Above all, don't stop reading my blog!

Until my next post...

Cheers!

Some Life Changing Travel Moments...

Over the past few years I have been extremely lucky to have travelled quite a bit with work, and for leisure.

Some of this has involved travelling overseas, much of it interstate, and the majority of it fairly close to home.

Wherever I go I love to take photos because these consolidate the memories of those places and are also taken at places where something great happens, or where I have discovered something in particular. Sometimes it is just who I am with, or what I am doing.

Just a snapshot os some of the places where photos have been taken.

For some reason it says that I have been to Japan, and I haven't, although I did teach Japanese for 3 years. Does that qualify me?

A closer view of where in Europe I have been.

Canada in 2011 was brilliant.

I have done pretty much all of Australia, but have never been to Western Australia.

This doesn't show the numerous trips through Central Australia.

So how do I combine this interest into my blog? Share some of them of course!!

Also, I know this blog gets read by many people who are still yet to leave a comment (which of course I'd love from time to time, as that could create further discussion topics), and from many places around the world.

So what could be better than doing something that my readers could also do!

By posting some photos of moments in my life, hopefully that might encourage others to add a few of their own?

Who knows, we may end up posting photos from the same places, but our experiences will no doubt be entirely different.

So, in no particular chronological order, or order of importance, here goes...

The last photo of our family, minus our mum who died ten years earlier. Dad passed away soon after this was taken.

Growing up in a large family was an experience for sure. So many ups and downs at different stages of my life, but I wouldn't swap it for anything. We continue to share so many things together and have all played big roles in each other's lives, and continue to do so.

The five boys together on a very rare occasion.









No matter where we go, or where we live, we always know where home really is.

My last game of football, and we won the flag. Sam was brought to me in the rooms before the game wearing this jumper, all without me knowing. It was great to be able to have this shot taken playing the last match of a game that I loved so much.

Each year in Ballarat there was a 16.5 km running race for the annual Begonia Festival. I liked to take the boys for runs in this pram long before they became so fashionable. In this photo I am getting ready to run with Sam.

A few years later, same race and I get snapped with Will.

And a few more years later, the pram is still going and it's now Lachie's turn.

I was so glad to be able to get snapped with all three of them.

A couple of years ago..

And 2016

Only now do I really appreciate the times that the five of us are together. With one in London, one in Melbourne, and the other busy with work, Uni and socialising, it is now just Jen and I most nights.

The boys are incredibly close, something which we are just so proud of.

I came across this on the footpath when out for a run in Vancouver.

It just sums up everything about life that resonates with me, rarely a day goes by where I don't think about it.

I was out for a run early one morning in Canmore, Canada. Every now and then when running I'd get a feeling of "It never gets better than this", when the body feels great, the mind is right and the run just couldn't be any better. This was one of those moments, and I always take a photo when I can when I have one of these moments.

Mum and Dad.

No words needed.

Lake Louise in Canada. This is the most beautiful place I have seen in the world. The experience there helped as well, as while I was walking along the edge it started to snow, and the colour of the water changed dramatically. The sheer peacefulness of the snow falling in such a majestic setting is something that I will never forget. The photo doesn't show well enough how beautiful this place is, probably because of my fat head blocking the view!!

One of my favourite shots. We had just met up with our son, Sam in London for dinner, and I managed to get this one as we were leaving the venue. A mum and her son in deep conversation.

In Berlin. The Wall may be down now, but the legacy continues. This brick line traces the path that the Wall took through Berlin, a permanent reminder to their past. One only has to see the difference that is still visible between buildings on each side of this to understand the contrast between the lives of those on each side of the Wall during this time.

This was taken in Dubai as I was looking for my connecting flight to London. It really struck me at this moment how much of the world is still out there to see. I was just dreaming about visiting so many of these places, and realising at this time that I was just one plane flight away from each of them was such a thrill.

And just behind me was another board with just as much information.

I love being in airports and looking at these boards just to see the possibilities available.

This was taken in Lincoln, in the north of England. It may look rather plain, but I'll remember this moment forever as I was in a new city in a country that I had not explored. I had a few minutes to kill before visiting a school, and just stood on a bridge over a canal and saw this group of swans paddling up the canal so casually. It doesn't show how cold it was at the time, and this added to the moment even more. While not being a tourist attraction, it really summed up 'the vibe' of this city at the time.

This is why I love travel. Rather than the grand tourist spots which I have seen and loved, it is the small streets in cities that really tell you about that place. I just soak up the atmosphere and history of these places. This city (Plymouth) just had so many streets like this, I could have taken a million photos!

And sometimes it is not wanting to see things, but to do things. I have always wanted to eat good old 'Fish and Chips' in a seaside English town, and this I did in Plymouth. They tasted so good, mainly because I was savouring the moment more than the product. The experience was as good as I could have hoped for.

And one of my favourite places in London!

I actually went and saw Mamma Mia twice while I was over there, I just love it so much. I also went and saw 'The Book of Mormon' with my son, as well as 'The Lion King'. Last year with my wife we went and saw 'Les Miserables'. None of these can compete in my eyes with Mamma Mia, I could go there day after day!

This photo sums up a lot of my recent trip to Finland. Snow everywhere, which is odd for someone coming from Australia. This was the road I walked along to get to one school in particular, the cold was numbing, but the experience was so memorable.

A random snap taken in the West End of London while I was waiting to meet my son. This part of London is so alive 24/7. Just walking around and watching what is happening around me was one of the things I loved to do most. This was taken just after dark, and it was still the same 5 hours later.

In doing this post, I have come to realise just how big it could become, so where do I stop?

Every photo is taken for a reason, meaning every photo is important.

I could go on and on posting photo after photo, so where do I stop?

Now is a good time because I am getting so nostalgic. If anything, by doing this I have realised just how lucky I am to be with the people in these photos and to have had the experiences with them.

Whether they have been taken in my own backyard or at the foot of a world known tourist attraction is irrelevant, they are just the shots that have meant so much to me at the time.

Until my next post...

Cheers!

After a big few weeks...

Well,

The past 6 weeks have been a blur to say the least!

Four weeks overseas was such a memorable time, and now the challenge is to start implementing some of these ideas into my work.
It goes without saying that I just can't say "We should be doing this, or doing that", because my colleagues did not have the benefit of being exposed to what I was so fortunate to have experienced.

There were so many things that I saw and learnt about, it will just take time to find the right times to suggest and try many of these practices. I am lucky that I work with people who are keen to try new things, but in order for these ideas to be imbedded the right context and environment needs to be established first.

A 'band aid' approach is the thing that I want to avoid the most, because people must believe in the need to try something new rather than just giving it a try and then forgetting it.

For more than a year now I have been inspired by the work of Dave Burgess, who has written, among other things, the book 'Teach Like a Pirate'
Dave is someone who has an approach that really resonates with me, and while many might see his ways as 'different', to me they are the ideas that engage children and encourage teachers to bring more passion into their teaching.

Recently I was asked to contribute to a newsletter that goes out each week to more than 50 schools in my part of the State of Victoria where I work. My Australian readers might be wondering why I'm clarifying that so much, but as my readers from the USA has spiked dramatically this week, I do need to be specific.

The newsletter is titled 'Communication Matters' and is very detailed and informative, leaving schools with no reason to say that they have been left out of the communication loop.
One section is titled 'What I am Reading', and each week school leaders are asked to contribute a summary about something that they are reading, or have recently read.

Here is what I contributed...

I can't recommend this text highly enough, and the website is just as good.

As my regular readers would know, I had surgery this week on a shoulder that I hurt early last year.
Due to lots of circumstances, I chose to have some knee surgery first as that was what was causing me the most grief. The shoulder was due to be done soon after, but an unexpected dvt in my leg put paid to those plans!!

Anyway, after waiting until I got back from overseas I finally got it done this week.

As I've had many operations on my legs I am accustomed to the rehab required, but as this was the first above my hips I have had to learn quickly about the way that things that can change!
Among these...

• Brushing my teeth left handed is hard!!
• Sleeping in the one position is rugged, as I have stitches on my chest and back, and can't find a suitable position. I catch up on the couch during the day!
• Driving the car. Fine. Shutting the door, not so good as I have to use my left arm to do this, and just can't reach.
• Shaving. Now that took some time!! Still some stubble left here and there! And some shaving cuts.
• Opening jars ( vegemite, jam, honey etc) I can't do it right handed for a few weeks!
• Opening a beer! It just doesn't feel right doing it the opposite way, but I got there.
• Now the BIG ONE... Scratching myself! Because I can't use my right arm at all, I find myself scratching up against the mud brick walls of our house, much to my wife's amusement. Now I know what a cat feels like!!!!!
• Making, and carrying a coffee. As for stirring it...try stirring with your opposite hand!
• You never really know how much you rely on one arm until the use of it is taken away from you.
• Putting on/taking off a t -shirt. I am now relying on zip up tops.
• Putting socks on...this is a killer.

I could go on and on as I discover even more hassles, but what I am experiencing is an ant compared to the elephants that so many others have to deal with in their lives.

If anything, I am so lucky to be able to get things fixed so quickly when so many people just have to carry on with these things in their everyday lives. 

Not for a moment can I feel sorry for myself when I see so much hardship not just in the wider world, but in my local community.

I am just so lucky.

Finally, another big change in our lives recently has been that our house is just so empty!

It has just been Jen and I since I got home two weeks ago.

Our eldest boy Sam is in London, and our youngest, Lachie has started Uni in Melbourne. I haven't seen him for 6 weeks. 

Our middle son, Will is at Uni here in Bendigo, but with his Uni commitments and camps (as part of his Outdoor Rec course) his work, sport  and his very social life, we hardly see him at all either. 

He turns 21 tomorrow so I hope we cross paths for this big occasion!

Our most recent photo at Christmas when Sam was home.

The times to get photos like this will become even more precious as time goes on.

My football team (Richmond) lost last night to a team that everyone dislikes by JUST 1 POINT!!

Today I have done my best to get over it, I think I am there. Thank goodness for blogging as a way to clear the mind!

Until my next post...

Cheers!