Final photo in Oz

Just before I left Sydney Airport. I will explain later.

Text Madness

The texts have been flying. It is such a great way of communicating and letting people know my status and latest flight details. Some of the flights to Dublin have been delayed but mine is still on schedule. Fingers crossed.

367

This is my 367th blog entry since the start of the year. I can relax now as I have passed out 365!

Melbourne/Sydney/Bangkok/Heathrow/Dublin

The flight to Sydney was with Qantas. Food was free which made for a change. They gave us recycling bags for our paper but we still had to give them our cans and cups etc. Did not make sense as the bag was as big as a doughnut bag and the plastic wrapper and serviette were tiny by comparison.. They served marshmallow in the drinking chocolate which is a real Aussie custom. Four hours wait in Sydney. Then the flight was delayed almost an hour. The crew were delayed on another flight-Dejavu last January when the flight crew for my Etihad flight had to rest because they detoured to Shannon. By the time we got to Bangkok we had made up half the time and only had about an hour for turnover, Quick shop in Duty Free and then on our way. Flight arrived at 6.20 in Heathrow. Then 11.20 to Dublin.

I am updating this as I wait but it all looks good.

The Hilton

Thursday 23rd: Breakfast at the Hilton was sumptuous and it was nice being within spitting distance from the airport. I was able to bring my trolley from the airport to the hotel and even into the hotel room. That was a first for me. (see photo). CNN say that Heathrow is open and no snow due in the next few days. Looking good. Checked in at 11.30. Huge queues due to delays and also Christmas rush. Met a chappie from Laois on the check-in. No charge for being 4KGs over. Sometimes it is good to being Irish! Very little sign of Christmas in terms of lights and decorations. Even the TV has only become like home in the last week.

Last Day

Wednesday 22nd: Got up at 6.40 as I still had a few jobs to do. Got them all done in the nick of time. Gave keys to Laura and Alan (neighbour) dropped me off at the station. He came back to say goodbye which was just as well, I had inadvertently taken keys with me. No idea how it happened but Alan took them back for. Met a friend from St Joseph’s Choir and enjoyed her company for the journey to Melbourne. Just my luck, the sun was splitting the rocks. Got off at Footscray and Matt and Cheryl collected me. They do not leave until the 7th Jan and it was great being able to crash at their place for the day. They also cooked a lovely dinner for me and then dropped me to the airport. It was a strange feeling saying goodbye to them but it was great also to have no more decisions to make or jobs to do. Just get on that flight.

Well nearly. Got to the airport at nine for a midnight flight. Terminating still in Hong King. No flight on to Heathrow so they re-route me to Sydney! The next day. Then to Bangkok and on to Heathrow and finally Dublin. The good news is that all going well I will get home Christmas Eve. Only one day lost.

Feeling Final

Tuesday Dec. 21st: could not collect car until 10.30 then out to school until 1.30. Got all I wanted done except packing of papers and books to be posted home. Brought them back to house. Lunch in RSL with Marg. Lovely view of Lady Bay. Posted one box and tube –over $70 , hair cut, clothes to Vinnies. Returned DVD, collected dry cleaning… Met some people that I knew and said goodbye. Getting final now. Then spent the rest of the night until 2.00 am cleaning and washing and a little packing. Also emailed article to CEO. Undated blog.

Termination in Hong Kong

I have just found out that my flight will terminate in Hong Kong. No guarantee that it will continue to Heathrow. Then I hear that short flight have been suspended from Heathrow so I may not be home for Christmas. I got delayed in January and April, I hope it is not third time unlucky.

One More Sleep

Just one more and then I head off to Melbourne tomorrow morning. House and school are sorted. Just a few small jobs tomorrow and then Alan, my neighbour drops me to the 11.22 a.m. train. I will be staying with Matt and Cheryl for the day and they will drop me to the airport.

Catholic Education Office

I have observed first hand the great work being done in the Ballarat Diocese by CEO Ballarat. It has been difficult for me to comprehend the level of support that CEO give their schools. There are 61 people working to support 63 Primary and secondary schools. Eat your heart out Eileen. In the Melbourne Diocese there are hundreds of them working in a building the size of BusÁrus. The CEO support:

Teaching and learning

Spiritual and moral wellbeing

Special Ed

Building projects

Distribution and overseeing of expenditure etc.

The list is endless.



There is someone at the end of a phone to help with anything school related. Not just the ‘Cuddling Consultant’ but finance management, psychology, literacy, numeracy, planning, professional development etc. For example, this year we were reviewing the teaching of Maths and someone from the CEO came to our school once a fortnight for the whole day, which included meetings after school. All day, once a fortnight, for the whole year. They wanted to come back next year but we will be getting similar ICT support so I had to reduce the maths support to twice a term! State and Federal funding is channelled through the CEO. The State of Victoria and the Federal Government of Australia save so much work by having an organization that just does not distribute and support but also sees that all monies are well spent. This was particularly evident in the Building the Education Revolution (BER) when 14.7 billion dollars were distributed to support new buildings in every primary school in Australia. The monies channelled through the CEO produced great value for money whereas those channelled through the state Depts. of Ed did not fare so well. It must be a great source of comfort to Governments to know that it has the assistance of an organization that is literally responsible to a greater God!

Wish we had these.

I expect (and look forward to) quite a few visits from Aussie principals and teachers in the next few years. Below are some of the reasons why:

Long service leave: After 10 years of service, All teachers in both State and Catholic schools, get 13 weeks paid leave. That is three whole months! You can build it up. I know of a school employee who never cashed any in and is taking 32 weeks next year. It is for all public servants and a throwback to colonial times when they used LSL to entice civil servants from the mother country to work in Australia. They can take this in a variety of ways, including pay in lieu. For example, if they wanted to spend six weeks on a round the world trip, they could take payment in lieu of seven weeks and use that money to fund the trip.

Enrichment leave: Only in the Catholic System and only for Principals, every eight years s/he gets 10 weeks paid leave to do some approved study that will be personally enriching. Otherwise known as a ‘junket’!

Sabbatical Leave: Teachers can accept 80% of their salaries for four years and get a paid leave sabbatical for the fifth year. There are good tax breaks associated with this.

Study leave: Like enrichment leave. For example there is a group of twelve principals from this Diocese going to England and Scotland in June next year. They visit schools and write a report. All funded by the Catholic Education Office (CEO).

The last ...

Left the school for the last time today and filled the car with petrol for the last time. For the past two weeks it has been hard to take all these 'lasts' in as I was so busy. I suppose when the dust settles I will be able to reflect more but it has been a wonderful experience. When I look back on 2010 it will be in neon lights. Apart from nearly killing Mark's grass there has hardly been a negative all year. That was an expensive negative but I was lucky because it could have been a lot, lot more expensive. I have met some wonderful people and can look forward to heaps of backpackers arriving at my door for years to come. With Long Service Leave and other forms of leave I look forward also to an Irish visit from many adult friends in years to come.

Australian snow

I know that this is hard to believe but there was snow in the Victorian Alps today! Not enough to ski but enough to build a snowman.

Second last day.

Heading off now to pick up the car then out to the school for the last handover stuff. The I have heaps to do around Warrnambool. It is great in some ways being so busy but I would like also to be able to smell the roses more and to have more certainty about my flight home.

Oh snow!

Back in April it was 'Volcan-no'. In January my flight out here was delayed by 20 hours. Not looking good especially as i have to fly to Heathrow. I have already received an invitation to Christmas dinner here. I hope that it does not come to that.

Simon etc.

I haven’t forgotten about the cloud and there is a huge initiative called Ultranet here which stared in the state schools this year. It is one massive cloud but very much a ‘Big Brother Cloud’! Teachers write their notes on it and the parents can look up attendance, results and other records. No time for greater detail but it will feature hugely in my report.
On a smaller scale the Catholic schools have a smaller cloud called ‘SIMON’ where it is mainly used at a local level for staff messages and internal communications. I used it a lot this year. It saved a lot memos and I was able to set up a link for staff meeting agendae. It was left up until two days before the fortnightly (!) meetings and could be added to by any member of staff. Very handy.
The Catholic schools are designing their Ultranet at the moment called ICON which will be partly running next year. I have requested that they allow international members as it would be a great vehicle for the sharing of ideas and resources. (I am hoping that they will not charge me, as it is expensive). I wish I had more time! One more day and the following morning I start my odyssey home. Trying to get in as many of these before I go.

Lunch Orders

The kids in St Pat’s were able to order in lunch each day. Marg the business manager collected the orders in the mornings and one of the parents brought them to a milk bar (café) down town. Another parent collected them before lunch time and brought them to school.

Tony and Sandra's Story

We met at Anthony Dowling's last night. They are in their late fifties or sixties. They had been to Ireland three times and knew all the songs on Anthony's dvds. They had even climbed Eirigal and Croagh Patrick. As I had climbed Croagh patrick just before I left and found the last stretch a bitch, I was impressed. They even knew that the theatre the Dubliners were singing in was the Olympia and were able to name pubs in our major cities. Oh and for their next trick, sorry trip, they were heading in two days to Antarctica for nine days. I would say it was for more than fulfilling a certain Bing Crosby's dream.

Last meal invite.

Last night I was invited to Anthony Dowling's (ancestors from Kerry). He is the retired principal from the State school in Koroit and we had worked together on the Irish Festival. He was one of the organisers and our school did 'Johnny Will You Marry Me?' and the Tommy K dance. His house in on five acres on the outskirts of Koroit. He invited neighbours Tony and Sandra Downs (ancestors from Clare and the home countries). The steak was their own and he and Pamela served up a lovely meal. Anthony had DVDs of Irish music by all the usual suspects and we all sang 'Dirty Old Town' 'The Fields of Athenry' and 'Grace' together. It was surreal to think that I was still in Australia but would be home before the week was out.

Anthony is a Collingwood fan and his office is a shrine to 'The Pies'. We even watched parts of the Grand Final Replay again where his seats were so good that we could pick him out of the crowd.

Working Bees

We had one each term. All families are expected to volunteer once in the year. They do stuff like gardening, weeding, washing of windows repairs, moving into new classrooms, cleaning, lining bb courts etc. It was for two hours on a Saturday morning. Because we ran out of money during the building project, parents this year volunteered to do concreting, roofing and cabinet making. We paid for the materials and they gave of their time for free. Volunteerism is huge here. It is done for clubs and societies also. It is more common in Catholic and other 'private' schools than State schools.