Well here we are, day two of our extended holidays that we get each Christmas time.
For those overseas readers, this means I now have about 5 weeks of holidays. It is a great time to have them as it means a great break over Christmas time, but to be honest, I think I'd rather have the extended break in February when we usually get the hottest weather. It always seems that as soon as we get back to school at the end of January, the really hot weather hits.
I remember earlier this year when I was in England and Finland from mid Feb to mid March and the really hot spell hit here. I was rugging up every day in Europe, only to see that in Bendigo they were getting day after day of temperatures over 35 degrees, and it wasn't dropping much at night.
Normally we can handle a couple of days of this weather, but not for more than a week as happened.
At right, standing on the frozen sea front with my hotel in the distance behind me.
And this was the local foreshore, with only the biggest ships able to work their way through the ice.
I was actually glad to be putting on coats and gloves every day, although I do like hot weather, when it is extreme it certainly loses its appeal.
It feels really strange looking at these pictures now when I'm sitting on the couch with a cool drink trying to escape the heat from another warm day here in Bendigo. The next few days are predicted to be very hot, but I see no point in complaining about the weather, as there is diddly-squat we can do about it!!
I spent the first day of my holidays (actually, it was the last day of school that I had to take off) going down to Melbourne to see a specialist about my ongoing health and shoulder problems. Nothing serious, just annoying.
As I got to the outskirts of Melbourne I was suddenly stuck in a massive traffic jam, and it took me more than an hour to travel 10 kms. Seriously, if I got out of the car and walked it would have been quicker!! Luckily I left early as I had anticipated this, and made it to my appointment with time to spare. Phew!!
The thing that struck me while stuck in this gridlock, was that everyone around me seemed so calm, as if this was normal. Well, maybe normal for them if they deal with it every day, but for someone who only has to endure it every so often it is one of the most frustrating things. But then again, I can't complain about traffic if I am also a part of it, it's just a mindset thing.
Yesterday I got a surprise message from a parent at the school at which I work.
It appears that her daughter who was in Gr 4 had bought me a Christmas present, and it had just turned up and she was very keen to get it to me.
A few things surprised me here. Firstly, I do not have a class, so to get a pressie from any of the kids is always touching. This was so unexpected, but it also struck me that this girl had put a lot of thought and effort into getting this in the first place.
But some background is needed to give this story some context...
When I was overseas early this year I saw some socks in a shop in London that immediately caught my attention. We are talking bright pink, green, yellow, blue and red. As I started wearing these to school the kids began to notice and would often come up at the start of each day to ask what socks I was wearing. Soon they were putting in requests and asking me to wear certain colours. Then it became requests for odd socks each day, which I happily obliged.
Then when I went to Brisbane for a holiday in September I found a shop that sold brightly decorated socks (stripes, dots, patterns etc) that just added to my collection. They are called 'Happy Socks', and they certainly work. Just by taking the time to select which brightly coloured socks to wear each day means that I go off to school actually feeling really happy, because I know there will be kids who will actively seek me out to check out the socks for the day.
More importantly, it means that when I go out on yard duty (where we supervise the kids on the playground during lunch and recess), my interactions with the kids are always positive. They come up and check out the socks, then stay and chat for ages.
What started out as just wearing some brightly coloured socks has turned out to be something that has forged strong and positive relationships with kids from all age and grade levels across the school.
Thanks Sienna for these lovely socks. Make sure you check out where they turn up over the next few weeks!!!
So the next few days will be very busy catching up with family members across the state, before our annual Kerrins Family gathering on Boxing Day. After many years of hosting it (as we have so much space and it makes sense) this year we are off to my niece and boyfriends house that they bought this year. It is really close to our place, so it looks like being another great day.
And also readers, I'm hoping that my posts will be a lot more regular, and I'm sure they will be a lot more interesting than usual over the next few weeks!!
Now that I've got you guessing, it's time to log off!!
As always, until my next post...
Cheers!!
p.s. And I didn't mention the increase in USA readers!!! (It's still going off!!)
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