What’s top of my mind:Jeffrey waking up earlier than the alarm.
When I retired back in 2020, it took the little woofs around 8 months to stop waking up early. We were all sleeping in until 8… sometimes even 8:30. It was bliss.
Now, he’s waking up at 6:20 on the dot. Every morning. EVERY morning.
Where I’ve been:Carlton North for a dance performance.
One of the guys who does integration is married to the new Theatre Studies teacher. I didn’t realise that he’s also a dancer. A few of us from work went to see his latest performance. It was an interesting idea – a series of 4 shows that are all totally improvised. Basically, you could go to all 4 shows and see a different performance each night.
It was mainly performed in silence, with only minimal music being used.
Where I’m going:To school for two more days.
I have 2 sets of tests to mark and then a couple more days to get through and then I’ll have my life back. The holidays are so close I can almost smell them…
What I’m watching:‘The Serpent Queen’ on Stan.
When I was a teenager I discovered Jean Plaidy, the author. She was the first writer I found who wrote detailed historical fiction, which is a genre I still hold dear to my heart today. I absolutely LOVE history, and learning about it in novel form is a great way to learn.
She wrote a trilogy about Catherine de Medici, the young Italian girl from a wealthy but lowly family who ended up becoming the Queen of France and the mother of many kings.
Madame Serpent, The Italian Woman, and Queen Jezebel detail the life of one of the most unpleasant women in history. Catherine de Medici wasn’t a woman you’d want to get on the wrong side of – people who opposed her seemed to die in the strangest of ways. These books don’t sugar-coat anything but still make her sympathetic to the reader… we see the people and forces who moulded her to be the woman she became.
I used to own these books but over the years they’ve disappeared. I’d love to read them again. But at least I can watch the tv show in the meantime.
What I’m reading:An Adrian McKinty book.
I’m working my way through his novels, but this current one is an early one. It’s not really grabbing me.
What I’m listening to: Kids whispering to each other.
Next period we’re having a test. The kids are having a period of revision, but they’ve clearly moved on to other things. They’re all very quiet, but the level of whispering has risen in the last 5 minutes. I can’t say I blame them. We’re all just hanging out for the term to end.
What I’m eating:Lentil Bolognese.
I should have halved the recipe. This’ll be the third night I’ll be eating it and I’m sure it won’t all be used up.
What I’m planning:NOTHING.
I’m just going to stay at home and chill for a while. Only 2 days to go…
Who needs a good slap:Tom30.
For some weird reason, Tom30 enjoys eating a tin of mackerel with brown rice. Last night he made some for dinner and then left the tin, filled with water, in the sink instead of taking it out to the recycling. This morning when I went to the kitchen to make my morning coffee, I could smell the faint aroma of fish. He left for work without taking the tin out.
Only 5 more days to go before I walk out the door having finished my contract teaching job. I’ve done most of the marking – only dribs and drabs of late projects and 2 tests to give out and mark – and two more yard duties, (unless Rosie hits me with an extra one like she did on Friday), and by 2:30 PM Friday I’ll be a free woman again. Thank God for early finish times when terms end.
Let me state upfront – the job I’m finishing up is by any sane person’s definition an absolute DREAM job. The money’s great; the students are respectful and funny; the people I work with are (mostly) lovely; I don’t have to attend meetings; I can leave as soon as the bell rings; the biggest physical labour is walking up and down stairs all day (and if I want I can take the lifts), and tomorrow I get a free lunch provided because it’s Diversity Week. (Lamb Rogan Josh, if anyone’s interested.) To add icing on the cake, the admin at the new campus are on the ball and are a pleasure to work with.
So if that’s the definition of a sane person’s idea of a dream job, why am I feeling insane right now?
It’s simple. After experiencing retirement, even in the midst of lockdown after lockdown, my whole mindset has changed. Now that I’ve achieved financial independence, I’m in the position to start valuing my time more than money. This is a whole new ball game.
And yes, I used a sporting metaphor. Ugh. That’s how new and strange this is.
Unless you’re born into money, everyone has to work to financially establish themselves. It takes many years of work, sacrifices and tenacity to get to a point where you no longer have to trade your time for money. Along the way, some of us get divorced, so we have to start over and do the whole thing again.
That’s fun.
But after years of work, saving, and investing while life swirls around you, you’re then at the point where going into work becomes a choice. You can choose to keep building a career that you love, or you can quietly step back from giving most of your waking hours to a job and begin to use those hours for your own pursuits.
Now, I’m not the sharpest tool in the shed, but even I knew that this would happen once I hit my magic number and stepped back from work. But intellectually knowing it and then resisting the siren call of easy money once I dipped my toe back into working again are two very different things.
Taking this 7-week full-time contract has been invaluable.
It’s easy to say that you want to get out of work if the job you have isn’t great. I mean, why wouldn’t you want to leave a job where you’re overworked, underpaid and you’re unhappy being there? It makes perfect sense.
But this job is fantastic! Yet 3 weeks into the 7 weeks I was the most depressed I’ve been in years. Not clinically depressed of course, but by God, I was miserable. But this was an easy gig that I CHOSE to do myself. It had a definite finish date so I wasn’t locked into years of indentured servitude or anything. Yet I felt like I was dragging my feet through mud to get to perform this fantastic job each day.
Now that I’m nearing the end of the contract, I’ve realised that this was actually the perfect way to experience how financial independence has truly changed my life. It’s one thing to hate going to work if the job is blah/awful, but when the job is terrific and yet you feel you’ve boxed yourself in for no real reason, then it’s obvious that certain priorities have changed.
The final nail in the coffin of knowing that I won’t take a contract again was when I had a couple of parents contact me about their sons’ abysmal performance on their geography projects. The second I see that a parent has phoned or emailed me, my stress levels go through the roof. It’s never good news. People rarely contact teachers to tell them they’re doing a great job.
One parent was pretty standard, but the other one wanted me to “give him the third degree” about why he hadn’t handed in his project because they” have tried to speak to Joe Lunchbucket [not his real name] to find out what caused the work to be incomplete but he has not given me a straight answer, so I would like you to speak to him and find out.” They signed off the email with their phone number so I could report back to them after the interrogation.
I read the email, rolled my eyes and was like, “Oh, so you want me to do your parenting for you?”
I wasn’t happy, but I did the right thing and kept the kid after class, had a chat with him about the work, resisted the temptation to use the thumbscrews or the cat o’ 9 tails, and he promised to submit the project in the next 5 minutes. All good. I walked upstairs to my desk and opened my laptop to mark his project during lunch.
There was an email from the front desk, sent 5 minutes before the period had even ended, saying that this parent was asking me to call them back and giving me their number again. Seriously??? Give me a chance to have the chat in the first place and then walk upstairs and sit down.
Oof. Some parents.
The talk with the parent actually went better than I expected. They were worried about their son, “so different after having the girls!”, and I understand where they were coming from. However, I think it was fair to say that their anxiety was a little over the top. Joe Lunchbucket [not his real name] is a good kid who is a little lazy at the moment. Sounds like a typical year 9 boy to me.
What I didn’t appreciate was the effect it had on MY anxiety levels. Disgruntled parents can cause a lot of problems for a teacher if they decide to get nasty about something. I don’t need to be here. I don’t have to be feeling this.
I’m definitely over it.
Another little moment was when I was having dinner with a longtime friend a couple of weeks ago. He said to me, “But don’t you have enough money to live on for the rest of your life? Why are you doing this for? How much is enough?”
Hmmm. He got me there!
I’ll more than likely do the odd day of CRT teaching going forward. The job itself is great and it’ll be a nice day of catching up with friends, writing Dad jokes on the board and bantering with the kids.
But feeling miserable in the midst of the perfect job was a definite sign that my life and priorities have moved on. I’ve ticked the “money/security” item off my list of life goals.
Time to get back to living every day on MY timetable again.
Dad joke of the day:
Ok, so not really a Dad joke but it made me chuckle anyway.
Just one more week before the school holidays. I still have a mountain of marking, but it’s the marking of the Antarctica projects, so I’m expecting that I’ll enjoy it. After all, it’s the reason I took this contract to begin with!
Where I’ve been:Anaconda to buy Antarctica clothing.
Some of the kids clubbed together to give me $250 for my birthday to put towards warm clothing for my trip. This prompted me to get organised, so yesterday I drove to Frankston and threw myself on the mercy of the Anaconda salespeople.
Turns out the guy who served me has a nephew and niece who were students of mine back in the day. Small world.
Where I’m going:to the sewing room.
I haven’t touched my Seaglass quilt (aka ‘the 5,000+ piece quilt’) since the girls’ weekend. I think it’s time to start chipping away at it again.
I’m halfway through this book and I’m LOVING it. As soon as I saw the title I had to get stuck into it, and it was a pleasant surprise to find out that it’s set in Australia. It’s very original and I’m enjoying the ride.
What I’m listening to:Birds.
It’s a parent/teacher day so I’m not required at work. On a normal Thursday over the last term, I’d be walking towards class right now, mask firmly attached to my face, surrounded by hordes of teenagers. Instead, I have 3 little woofs snuggled up beside me. Jeff’s slightly snoring.
It’s nice.
What I’m eating:Wildberry Cheesecake for breakfast.
This was the dessert that David28 and Izzy brought around to my birthday dinner. There is so much left over and it’s too good to just throw out. Tomorrow I’ll be taking what’s left to work for everyone to enjoy.
What I’m planning: to send a stern email to my year 8s.
A fair few of them are late submitting their projects. Damned if I’m going to still have marking over the holidays!!!
Who needs a good slap:Me.
I knew yesterday was Wednesday. Did I remember to write a ‘Wednesday W’s’ blog post? It wasn’t until I woke up this morning that it dawned on me.
I also forgot that yesterday was a payday. Oops.
What has made me smile:Being able to use my Dad jokes at school again.
Word has gotten out and now I have kids from other classes crowding the doorways of my classes, wanting to see what the Dad joke of the day is.
I was searching through “school memes” to find an image for this post and then I saw this one. It’s perfect! Retirement means never having to know which day it is unless you choose to, while being a teacher??? That damned timetable changes day by day so you have to keep track of which day it is.
When I retired at the end of 2020 I had no intention of ever setting foot in a schoolroom again. It wasn’t that I hated teaching – I still really enjoyed being in the classroom and mucking around with the kids. Teenagers are hilarious and never a day went by where I didn’t have a huge laugh from something my students said or did.
The school I taught at is a large school in a wealthy middle-class suburb where the parents and kids are pretty aspirational. The kids are polite, well-behaved and anxious to learn. (Of course, there are a few exceptions but they truly are the exceptions.) Being in the classroom here is usually a pretty nice place to work.
What drove me out was the insidious creep of admin work that kept increasing year by year. The reports. Not school reports that kids have always had… other reports. The data collection. Then the reports on the data collected. Meetings that were suddenly mandated by the government, so even when there was no reason to have meetings, we had to have a certain amount of them each month.
The admin stuff was sucking the fun out of the job, so when it was brought to my attention that I could actually afford to retire, I took action. This led to the best year of my life, even though it was a year full of lockdowns for Melbourne. 2021 – the year that I could do whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted.
Retirement is magical. The absolute freedom over your time is something that’s so precious. Truly, if you’re working towards gaining financial independence – keep going! It’s definitely worth it.
Then I started teaching again. I wrote about why I decided to trade my time for money HERE, even though I was so happy living the retired life.
So now I’m nearing the second-last week of a seven-week contract teaching Geography full-time. I’m scheduled to come to work every day until the September school holidays, whether I feel like it or not. Sounds brutal, hey?
If you’ve ever idly wondered what it would be like to go back to work after retiring, read on! I’ve lived the experience so you don’t have to:
How does full-time teaching differ from the CRT work you’ve been doing?
Instead of having a grab-bag of different classes, subjects and yard duty every day, along with no free periods, full-time teaching only has 2 yard duties a week, with some free periods scattered through the week for lesson prep and marking. I also have a desk to sit at instead of camping out in the staff common room.
The lesson plans are already done, so I just have to post them on Compass at the end of each week and ensure that any worksheets, projects or tests are accessible for the kids.
I also have to do MARKING. Surprisingly though, I haven’t minded the correction. In Geography, the kids have either got it right or wrong, which makes this subject an easier beast to mark than English or Theatre Studies. I’ve just about finished my 3 X year 9 classes work, just in time for the 2 X year 8 projects and tests to roll in. I’ll make sure I’m finished by the end of term. No way I want to have work hanging over my head when I finish this gig!
CRT is all go!go!go! during the day, but there are no meetings, marking or admin. It’s far better for someone like me who isn’t interested in climbing a career ladder.
What’s it been like going back to work every single day?
Hard. I won’t lie.
Even though I’ve worked almost every single day of term 3, CRT days seem easier because you never know when you’ll get a day off. So each day of working is a separate entity. Working this 7-week contract, knowing that apart from parent/teacher days and a professional development day, I’ll be in classrooms all day for weeks on end was harder than I thought it would be.
Especially in the middle few weeks, when the novelty was starting to wear off and it seemed like it was stretching on forever. Now, with less than 2 weeks to go, it’s easier.
Still… today is my birthday. I’m here at work. *sigh* This is only a 2 day work week for me, so it didn’t seem right to take another day off for my birthday.
I won’t get paid for the parent/teacher and professional development days that I didn’t have to attend, but they happened at the right end of the contract for me, so I don’t mind. After all, if I hadn’t taken the contract and I was just doing CRT, I wouldn’t have been hired for those days anyway.
Is it nicer to have the same classes of kids instead of teaching random classes all day?
In some ways, yes. But it’s a funny thing – even though I’ve had them for weeks, in both my head and theirs, their REAL teacher will be back with them next term. I definitely haven’t bonded with them the same way that I used to when I knew they’d be mine for the whole year.
Have there been any benefits to taking a set contract instead of casual teaching days?
The money. Definitely. Having a guaranteed amount coming in each fortnight has been nice. My super has also been given a boost, which is a sweet little bonus.
Taking this contract has meant that 2 things have happened. The first is that I’ve earned the money to pay for my Antarctica cruise, which is nice. The second is that when Tom30 needed help to get his deposit together for his new place, knowing that I had an income to pay the bills along the way made it far easier for me to give him my Emergency Fund, which was the only large amount of cash I had immediately available. It’s an unexpected perk of taking this job that’s benefited my boy.
I’m also glad that I chose to do it, just to see what it was like. Heaps of teachers do CRT and/or exam invigilation for a bit of pocket money in retirement, but not too many go back to a full teaching load, even if just for a few weeks. Now I know how I feel about it.
Would I do it again?
Yes and no.
This contract has ended up being too long for me. In one way that’s a shame, because Long Service Leave jobs like this come up all the time. It would be a sweet gig to work for a term to earn some spending money, then have the rest of the year off.
I’m normally a very happy and contented person, yet I found that there were weeks, especially in the middle of the contract, when I wasn’t happy. I was whinging to myself so much that I even started to bore myself and I had to keep telling myself off.
“No one made you do this. You said yes to this, so shut up, get a grip and be positive”
“Stop whining! It’s only for ‘x’ more weeks… it’s not forever.”
etc etc.
I think that a 3-week contract would be my limit. It’s long enough to make some nice money but short enough so that I wouldn’t feel boxed in. Sadly, most people take longer holidays than this, so I’m way out of luck on this one.
I’m thinking that next year I’ll definitely do more CRT work, but I seriously doubt that I’ll be doing it at the rate I’ve been doing it this year. 2022 was a year that the school was desperately needing people to work, mainly due to covid, and I felt like I owed the school some help. This job absolutely saved us when the boys were little and now I could return the favour.
But the relentless grind of day after day after day, running on adrenaline and routines is too hard, especially after I said goodbye to it all and had such a long break from it. I’m glad to know that I can still do it, but I’ve learned that I don’t want to.
I’ve worked out that doing one day a week would bring in enough to pay for groceries and basic bills. I’d get to see my friends and still enjoy banter with the kids. Two days a week would pay for holidays.
I have to be careful though. Given all the years of poverty that the boys and I lived through when they were younger, it’s really hard for me to knock back work, especially if I have nothing specifically planned for that day. This year, even though I have the total freedom to say yes or no to work, I haven’t refused a single day’s work offered to me.
Going forward, I’m going to have to be tougher with myself to work far fewer days to guard my happiness.
After all, I didn’t retire so I could be sitting in classrooms every day, no matter how good the money is! I’ve achieved financial independence, so any work I choose to do should be adding to my happiness, not subtracting from it.
I’m really looking forward to getting my freedom back.
Dad joke of the day:
I trapped a couple of vegans in my basement. At least, I think they’re vegan. They keep shouting, “Lettuce leaf!”
Over the course of these Wednesday W’s I’ve mentioned that I’ve been listening to ‘The Teacher’s Trial’, a podcast about the ongoing trial of Christopher Dawson, who was accused of murdering his first wife 40 years ago. He was only brought to justice when a podcast about Lynette Dawson’s disappearance, called ‘The Teacher’s Pet’, was made in 2018 and revived interest in this very cold case.
In the 1980’s Chris Dawson was a professional rugby player who was also a PE teacher. He groomed and had a sexual relationship with a student and clearly became obsessed with her. Three days after his wife inexplicably disappeared, leaving behind all her belongings (including her contact lenses), he moved this teenager into his home and bed, telling her, “Lyn’s not coming back.”
Supposedly Lyn, the devoted mother of two little girls aged 2 and 4, deserted everyone in her life to go and live in a commune somewhere. It sounds dodgy as, doesn’t it? Yet for forty years he was able to live his life, raise those little girls and tell the world that Lynette was a selfish person who deserted him.
He literally nearly got away with murder.
Where I’ve been:nowhere.
Where I’m going:my sister’s place for Fathers Day.
It’ll be nice to catch up. I think we’re having scones and jam and cream. Yum!
This is the 6th and last Sean Duffy book. This series is really good and I’ve been enjoying them. I just picked up another Adrian McKinty book, ‘The Chain’, and I’m looking forward to sinking my teeth into it once all my marking is done.
This is a collection of short stories and they’re wonderful. I’m about a third of the way through and there’s a story about a little girl’s imaginary friend that had me riveted.
What I’m eating:My words.
I said I’d never do any marking again, yet here we are.
Surprisingly though, I’m quite enjoying it. I’m currently marking year 9 projects about food insecurity. Each student has been assigned a different country, so even though the tasks they’re doing are all the same, the material I’m reading is different, so it keeps it interesting.
I was in the zone yesterday, so I stayed back until 4:30 to knock over the second class. I’ll have all 3 classes done by the end of the week.
Next week the Antarctica projects are due from the year 8s – the very reason I took on this contract!
What I’m planning:To enjoy next week.
I have 3 days where I’m not working next week – 2 parent/teacher days and a professional development day – and I’m looking forward to it. Who knows how I’ll spend those days? That’s the beauty of it.
Who needs a good slap:Cheating students.
I don’t need this hassle!
What has made me smile: watching ‘Better Call Saul’ with Ryan27.
He’s leaving on the weekend to house sit with a friend for a couple of months, after only getting back a few days ago from another house sit. It’s nice spending time with him.
Dad joke of the day:
(And yes, I know it’s Thursday. As I said, I was in the zone with the marking yesterday and I’ve learned that when I’m in that mind space, I need to keep going! I’m writing this before school.)
Yesterday I had yard duty at the traffic lights on East Boundary road before school, so I thought I’d wear my Oodie to give the kids a bit of a giggle. It turned out to be a big hit with the parents dropping their kids off. I got plenty of laughs and thumbs up.
Not being one to let a good thing go to waste, I also wore it later in the day.
You see, Jenna, Evan25’s girlfriend, is in a play that is being performed in a dance studio in North Melbourne. Both the pre-show email and Evan25 warned me that the room gets very cold, so I decided to rug up in comfort. It turned out to be a wise decision. I was the frumpiest person there, but I was also one of the few not shivering by the end.
That room must have been cold. Even in an Oodie, my hands got slightly cool by the end. I mean seriously – I’m a menopausal woman in an Oodie! But the kids have to find performance spaces where they can.
The day before, I was talking to Blogless Helen and she reminded me that I had to move fast to fit in a Little Adventure before August ran out. Oof. This is why I didn’t start these things until after I retired. When you’re working all week, there’s not a lot of time to set aside to do things like this.
As I drove to North Melbourne to park the car near the dance studio before taking a walk to meet Jenna’s parents for dinner, I realised that despite living in Melbourne for (almost) 59 years, I’ve never been here before.
This is really unusual. When I was a Thermomix consultant I drove all over the place to deliver machines and do demos. So, as I was walking to the pub for dinner, I decided that a walk through North Melbourne will have to be my Little Adventure for this month. Sorry.
I know it’s lame, but at least it isn’t as pathetic as the Little Adventure I had when we were in lockdown and I couldn’t go more than 5KMs from my house! At least this time I’m on the other side of the city! You know, after that Little Adventure last year, I’ve never been back to the other side of the bridge…
A creek near a railway station. I took this on a little bridge while I was still enthused about my 20-minute walk. I hadn’t yet seen the hill that awaited me.
I liked the name of this business.
This reminded me of when we were in Beijing. We saw bikes like this all the time when we were there.
Lots of views like this.
To be honest, I’m not a huge fan of inner-city suburbs. They just look grimy and concrete-y to me. There’s not enough green. I know lots of people swear by living here, but for me? Nah, not a fan. I find them depressing.
By the time I was walking along, most building sites had shut up shop for the day.
The walk was longer than I thought it would be, so I was happy to finally get to Harriman’s hotel.
Jenna’s parents turned up a few minutes after I did and we had a lovely meal together. They’re based in Adelaide and they make it a point to come over for every show the kids do. They’d booked tickets for Saturday night, so we parted company after they (thankfully) dropped me back at the dance studio.
I’m very lucky with the families of the girls my sons have chosen to be with. I get along really well with both sets – which is something that parents have no control over. The heart wants what the heart wants, but sometimes it brings with it the family from hell. So far – touch wood – we’ve avoided this.
Evan25 and Jenna graduated from their theatre degrees nearly 2 years ago. If they want to work in their chosen fields, they’ve realised that along with going to auditions, they have to write and produce their own shows. This particular show was written by a friend of theirs and was produced by the theatre company that Jenna and 2 friends have started.
I applaud their initiative. I don’t think I ever had the degree of get-and-and-go that these young people have.
Today is the midpoint of my 7-week stint of working full time AND it’s also a payday, which sweetens the deal even more. It’s all a sweet slide downhill from here, baby!
I’ll probably write a full post on how I’m finding it all, seeing as I’m at this point of the contract. It’s been interesting in a few different ways.
Where I’ve been: Out to dinner.
I have a friend that I met when Evan25 was a tiny little Evan2. Every now and then we catch up, usually for lunch or dinner. Over the last couple of years, I’ve hosted dinner at mine to avoid being around lots of people in a crowded restaurant. Seems a bit silly to wear a mask everywhere I go and then court covid by eating a meal that I can just as easily make at home.
However, we went to eat at an Indian/Nepalese restaurant in Mordialloc. When we first arrived there were only 3 other couples there and I was relieved. But then, of course, half of Melbourne stampeded in and the place was packed.
It was noisy, so I didn’t wear a mask because I knew my friend wouldn’t be able to hear me if I did. The food was good – although the Butter Chicken was way too sweet – but being around lots of people without masks, all projecting their voices in a confined space started to worry me. I was pleased to catch up with my friend, but I was glad when we decided to go.
Where I’m going: Jenna’s play.
Evan25’s girlfriend is acting, directing and producing a play written by one of her friends. I’m taking myself along to see it on Friday night. Selfishly, I wish that it was closer, but it’s in North Melbourne. *sigh*
What I’m watching: The Block.
I don’t watch a lot of free-to-air shows but The Block is one of the few shows I’m prepared to sit through ads to see.
I’m really enjoying this series. They’re set in Belfast, Ireland, during the Troubles in the 1980’s, which up until now was a time I knew very little about. I remember seeing riots and bombings on the news sometimes, but it was all so far away on the other side of the world.
Sean Duffy is a Catholic policeman, working in the predominantly Protestant police force of Belfast. The author is clearly a music lover, as the novels are chock-full of music references, which as a person living through their 20’s in the 1980’s, brings back many memories. The plots are suspenseful and I’m reaching the ends desperate to see how they turn out.
I’m onto the third book, with 3 more to go. Would recommend.
What I’m listening to: The little woofs.
At first, they used to start barking when they heard the gate opening, but now they’re waiting until I walk onto the front verandah. As I’m putting my key to the door I can hear the girls start going nuts, describing how they’ve been left alone all day like animals, while Jeffrey just chills and waits on the couch for me to come to him.
I’m sure the whole street can hear when I’m home.
What I’m eating:Biccies and cheese.
Every now and then we have morning tea provided for us. Fruit, sweet biscuits and biccies and cheese. It’s a nice little treat and it sets you up for the rest of the day. 🙂
What I’m planning: Nothing.
I’m just living my life, one day at a time.
Who needs a good slap:ME.
Well, not so much now, but if I ever sign up for such a long stint of work again, then yes. Definitely slap me.
What has made me smile:Today.
I’m chuffed that I’ve reached the halfway point. For a while thereI was feeling like I wasn’t making progress at all…
What’s top of my mind:One of the loveliest things about driving to work.
When I don’t have to be anywhere, my mornings tend to start slowly, with the little woofs and I on the couch all snuggled up, me with my laptop on my lap and a coffee. It’s lovely.
But what’s also lovely is when I’m driving to work along the freeway extension and I see hot air balloons hanging in the air on their way to Moorabbin Airport.
This morning there were only three of them. The clouds were dove-grey, almost blue and the balloons looked as if they were highlighted. It’s a sight I’d never see from my house and I really love it.
Where I’ve been: My parents’ place.
Mum and Dad aren’t having a fun time at the moment. They’re 82 and 84 respectively and they’ve both suffered major health problems recently. Dad has had a hip replacement that isn’t healing well and Mum fell a couple of months ago and fractured her pelvis and also compressed a couple of vertebrae.
Their lives at the moment revolve around going to doctors’ appointments, doing rehab exercises and taking pills. Mum doesn’t drive anymore. My sister Kate drives down from the peninsula every week and takes Mum to the pool for her exercises and then takes her out to lunch and to do some shopping.
Now that I’m down in the area near them every weekday, I’m dropping in a couple of times a week, usually Mondays and Fridays. I figure that it gives a good spread of visitors and we can keep an eye on them.
Where I’m going:Shopping for Antarcticaclothes.
Sometime this week I’ll be going to Anaconda to look for waterproof trousers, a waterproof coat, hat and scarf. It’s dawned on my mighty intellect that time is galloping towards my December 1 lift-off date, so I’d better start getting my act together.
I also have to see if I need visas for Argentina and Chile as well.
What I’m watching:Spring coming to my garden.
It’s stressing me out! I’ve been lazy and I haven’t done as much as I should have with regards to getting both my front garden and the veggie garden ready for the warmer weather.
I’m going to have to get my arse into gear this weekend and start throwing fertiliser, autumn leaves and sugarcane mulch around. Before I know where I am, I’ll be wanting to start planting seedlings for our summer crops.
Ugh. I hate ads for books that say “With a SHOCKING TWIST!!!” because more than half the time they’re trying to sell a mediocre book whose ‘twist’ you can see coming a mile off. So if you click on the link, ignore that part, because this book is actually pretty good.
I went in cold, not having seen this ad. I just borrowed it from my library’s eReader app because I needed a book to take with me. I enjoyed it, even with the touch of magic realism that I’m normally not drawn to.
This is a monster of an audiobook, running at around 16 hours long. It’s good for the commute, though having listened to a lot of Fiona Lowe’s novels this year, I’ve realised that she’s certainly very fond of using a metaphor! Her books are packed with them!
Her books are great for getting involved with a community and delving deep into the characters’ lives.
What I’m eating:Cauliflower Cheese and Macaroni Cheese.
Ryan27 has been living at a friend’s place for the last few weeks and he’s coming home today. Cauliflower Cheese is his favourite meal. He even requests it on his birthdays when he could have any meal he wants!
Tome30 hates cauliflower cheese with a passion, but he’s partial to macaroni cheese… both are exactly the same dish with just the main ingredient substituted. I even bake them in the same dish.
So tonight, I’ll be keeping both guys happy and having a super easy meal prep as well. These childhood dishes are the gift that keeps on giving.
What I’m planning:A hot air balloon ride.
It occurred to me as I was looking for the photo at the top of this post that I should make one of my Little Adventures next year a hot air balloon ride. I won’t do it this year – Antarctica will be my focus – but next year? A different story.
When I took a helicopter ride two years ago when I stayed in Albury, I knew that every time I saw a helicopter in the sky from that time on, I’d think back to that experience.
Might be nice to be able to do that when I see early morning balloons on the drive into work. I think it’d certainly sweeten the morning.
Who needs a good slap:Me, for leaving the hatch openon the car when it rained.
It’s been a week since I discovered that my boot was awash with water. I’m STILL having to leave the hatch open, with the spare tyre taken out and leaning against the back, whenever I’m home and the weather is fine. I thought I was nearly finished until I got home yesterday and checked. The carpet underneath the tyre was still wet.
ARGH.
What has made me smile:the flowers Tom30 bought me.
Five weeks ago Tom30 bought me a bunch of yellow daisies to thank me for the help I gave him when he was buying his unit. FIVE WEEKS later the flowers are still going strong.
I can’t believe it! I’ve trimmed the stalks a couple of times and we change the water in the vase when we think of it, but those daisies are still as cheery as they were when he brought them home.
When I retired in 2020 I put away all thoughts of going back to work as a regular gig. I had it in my head that maybe, if the stock market fell, I might do some casual teaching work, but aside from that, I was done with full-time work and all that goes with it.
Over the last couple of terms, I’ve done a lot of casual teaching days, which I fell into for a variety of good reasons.
Then, as you know, I picked up a 6-week contract to teach a full-time load for a friend who was taking Long Service Leave. That contract turned into 7 weeks.
So I’m now in the third week.
Yesterday after lunch, I started feeling down. I suddenly had no energy and all I wanted to do was sit on the couch and read.
I started sighing a lot and feeling vaguely aggrieved with my lot.
I forced myself up off the couch and ironed some work clothes for the week ahead – got to be prepared!! – and made some cheese and ham scrolls for Tom30 and my work lunches.
*sigh*
I took my water bottle from the dishwasher, filled it and put it out in the car. Took a couple of library books out there too, along with a coat. Fewer things to do tomorrow morning when I’m racing around!!
*sigh*
I fixed a problem with my quilt and started making dinner. Bolognese, because with only two of us at home we can have the same thing tomorrow night – to make it easy for me when I come home later than usual after going to see Mum and Dad after work.
*sigh*
It was about 5:50 when I opened the front door to take some recycling out. It had been raining earlier and the sky was a steely grey.
All except for the magnificent rainbow that stretched like a drawing along the length of my street in front of me. It was as if it had been designed to be viewed specifically from my front door.
Instantly, my spirits lifted.
I knew that come Monday morning, I’d enjoy being at school, teaching the kids and seeing some friends. Everyone is cheery, with only the occasional sulky adolescent having a bad day, and the time will slip by very pleasantly. Hell, there’s even a morning tea planned to celebrate the principal of this campus getting the job as principal of the whole school next year, though I’d be having yard duty then. I still might be able to grab a cupcake on the way out.
I knew that it wasn’t the job that’s the problem. It’s the lack of freedom.
Having the whole of 2021 off, even with the huge lockdowns that Melbourne had, was still the happiest year of my life. I had total control over how I spent each minute of every day. My kids are grown and I have no grandchildren, so the only beings that have any real pull on me for day-to-day needs are the little woofs. Obviously, I love them more than my kids- who wouldn’t? – so they’re no hardship to look after.
A whole year of total freedom. Think of that. I was never bored because as soon as I was doing an activity that began to pall, I’d simply stop doing it and move on to something else without giving it much thought. I knew that if the job wasn’t complete, I could always revisit it tomorrow. After all, I have a lifetime of tomorrows stretching in front of me.
Every morning, as my feet hit the floor, I’d decide what I felt like doing that day. Would it be a quilting day? A gardening day? A reading day? A bit of each? Would I take the dogs to the beach or for a walk to the river? Would I visit a friend or stay at home like a happy hermit?
It was lovely. It was also lovely to contemplate that I (touch wood) have DECADES of this freedom ahead of me. I assume that one day I’ll have grandkids that I might want to help look after, but until that happens I’ll still have YEARS of totally selfish freedom to get out of my system.
So it’s been interesting to observe how 35 weekdays blocked out of my calendar affected my Sunday afternoon mood yesterday. Keeping in mind, too, that this is with a job I enjoy and a school with truly well-behaved kids. How would I be feeling if I hated the job I agreed to do? I’m already thinking that Wednesday next week is the halfway mark – coincidentally a payday – and then I’ll be on the downhill slide to the school holidays. Not long to go!
Of course, as soon as the alarm went off this morning I was back in the swing of it. My weekdays are a “same old, same old” routine that leaves no time for morbid self-pity and introspection. It’s up and at ’em time! My morning is like a ticking time bomb until I’m out the door.
And each weekday at work brings its own little gifts. Half an hour ago I noticed that the yard duty I was supposed to have at recess has been given to a CRT, so I can now attend the celebratory morning tea. Yay!
So I guess what I’m saying is that getting the Sunday Blues was like having a nasty backwash from the past wash over me. I’d forgotten about it, but all of a sudden there it was. I’m also very well aware that I could have said no to this contract – this is something that I entered into voluntarily and for very good reasons. I’m not really regretting taking up the offer. It’s just that now I know that there’s a different way to live…
All I can do is press forward, knowing that in the grand scheme of things these next 5 weeks are just a blip and will slip by very quickly. I’ll look back on these weeks and I know without a doubt I’ll be glad I worked. This is the right thing to do right now.
This time constraint is only temporary. But it’ll be interesting to see if this happens every week, or if it was just a one-time thing. Hopefully the latter. I can’t rely on a rainbow to lift my mood every Sunday evening.
That’d be unreasonable.
Dad joke of the day:
Guess who I bumped into on the way to the opticians?
What’s top of my mind:Do I go to Aldi after posting this?
I’ve pulled out some roast pumpkin from the freezer to make a pasta/pumpkin bake for dinner, but I’ve just realised that we don’t have any ham.
*sigh* I don’t feel like making this a ‘spend’ day.
Where I’ve been:Having a nice goss in the staff room.
Today was a particularly nice day for socialising. Had some great convos in both recess and lunch.
There are some things that I’m regretting about choosing to work full-time for 7 weeks, (such as alarms in the early morning and having to mark some projects), but the conversations with other teachers are great.
Where I’m going:to some Sex Ed classes.
Yep. The year 9s are having a day off from regular classes and they’re doing this instead. I’ll be supervising a class on ‘Consent’ and then a class on ‘Porn vs Reality.’ The other class they’re all doing is on contraception, but I was teaching my year 8s then.
Should be fun.
What I’m watching:The Block.
I absolutely love this show. I’m so happy it’s back on. I’m even prepared to sit through the ads on free-to-air television to watch it – THAT’S how much I like it.
I’m only part-way through this episode but I’m loving it. Matt Ridley is the author of ‘The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves‘, which is a book I’ve never heard of before but it’s one I’ll definitely be buying.
I’ve always said that one of the secrets to happiness is being a student of history. When you know how rough life was back in the ‘good old days’, then how could you NOT be happy to be born in the here and now?
For example: look at me. Where in history could I, a woman, be educated; own my own property; be able to escape an unhappy marriage through a divorce; gain custody of the boys after that divorce; have a career that enabled me to comfortably support us without having to rely upon a man’s wage; to be able to survive a difficult childbirth (Tom30 and I would’ve died in the olden days, without a doubt) and go on to have 3 more healthy children through caesarians; be one of the common folk yet still have traveled to 5 continents of the world (so far) and be able to retire early and look forward to decades of freedom?
Not many women in history were able to do all of this. Probably not many men either, if it comes to that.
Ridley talks about how, over the course of history, human life has been getting better. He’s preaching to the choir as far as I’m concerned, obviously, but I’m absolutely enjoying how he speaks and the way he chooses his words. It’s a pleasure to listen to.
I’ll definitely be buying ‘The Rational Optimist‘. It sounds like the sort of book I’ll want to have around.
What I’m eating:Stewed fruit from the freezer.
Remember how in the summer I was stewing lots of fruit and freezing them in ice cubes? I’m reaping the rewards in the depths of winter. Stewed fruit with my oats in the morning… mmm mmm!
What I’m planning:killing rats.
Does anyone know a good way to kill rats without poisoning them? I don’t want to throw rat bait under the house, have a half-dead rat get out into the yard and have the dogs find it.
The last thing I want to do is poison my own dogs!
Tom30 saw a rat go under the house and something is digging up my spuds. I hate Maths, but it doesn’t take much to put two and two together with this one.
I’d appreciate any tips to get rid of the rats without harming the little woofs. 🙂
Who needs a good slap:the rats.
Hate hate hate rats.
What has made me smile:Seeing Evan25’s play on Saturday night.
Both photos on this post are from Evan25’s play ‘The Marvellous Life of Carlo Gatti’. He played a piano-playing ghost.
Ryan27 and I went to see him. It makes me so happy to see my adult kids performing in the areas that they’re passionate about and are good at.
