Ta! Ta! Thame

T Minus 31

Today was my last day at work. After 11 years it’s goodbye to Thame and my school. A strange day in so many ways – strange to think I won’t see many of my colleagues again, certainly not in a long while. Tuesday is a day when I teach on both sites – so started at Lower School, depositing the microwave in the team room. Last lessons are always a bit surreal and a bit of a wind down, year 9 lesson 1 then up to upper school for year 10. The last clear out of the office and a bit of work on my leaving speech in lesson 3 then it was all over. End of an era.
The last day of term is a shorter one followed by a staff picnic and leaving speeches. In truth mine was a bit
Long but I wanted to thank the key people including my own team among many others.

I had some lovely gifts from myteam and colleagues, including an electric bug swat, a life straw, a Swahili phrase book, a device charger, wine and an iTunes gift card.

So it’s goodbye to Thame, next stop Mwanza! We fly out a month today!

Kite Flight

T Minus 49

Today as usual on the way home I viewed the kites sweeping majestically through the sky. These kites are not

the man made sort; all fabric and cord, but the feathered variety; Red Kites.

Foggy Road Ahead!

T Minus 163

Today’s journey to work was interesting. The familiar journey was shrouded in thick impenetrable fog – like much of the Southern England. This was probably the thickest fog I’ve travelled through for a few years. Luckily I was prepared (a tweet from the met office at 6:15am helped) and left earlier than usual. Even so it was tight timing!

Travelling across  Buckinghamshire along country roads it was often hard to see more than a few metres ahead. Amazingly some drivers didn’t have their lights on which was a surprise but I think this has something to do with having automatic lights.  One of the problems with automatic lights is that they respond to light levels – which means they don’t switch on in daylight even if fog is really thick. I’ve been caught out myself before now. To use the fog lights you obviously need to have the main beams on too. In my car I do this by switching the beams from automatic to manual.

I doubt there’s much fog in Mwanza – though living by a lake you never know. However, as I travelled this morning I  thought about the metaphorical  foggy road ahead for us in the next few years.

A Different Road

T minus 166

For almost 11 years I have travelled daily from Milton Keynes to Thame.

In essence the route takes me from Milton Keynes to Whitchurch (via Stewkley or Drayton Parslow / Swanbourne), then on to Oving, Waddeston before ascending Winchendon Hill and going over the top via Upper Winchendon and Chearsley, arriving in Long Crendon before descending to Thame. The journey takes about 50 minutes and takes in some great countryside. The main thing is to avoid Aylesbury and it’s traffic jams.

Changes

T minus 181
Back home after a busy working day today.

In a sense today was more about life in the present rather than life in the future. Getting up at ridiculous o’clock for morning commute, travelling in the light (for a change), then assessing, planning, carrying out break duties and bus duties, sorting out emails, meeting with colleagues, drinking filter coffee! The usual daily mundanity of the routine of a teacher/ Head of Faculty. It is strange to think that some this well practiced routine will soon be changing – not the tasks themselves but the location and the routine, and definitely the commute where a 50 minute car journey will be replaced by a 10 minute walk!

I am still very excited about this change and what it will mean,
it is difficult to concentrate on the present when the future looms large ahead, but I need to. Tomorrow night is Year 9 options evening, a new experience for me as ICT has hitherto been a core subject. My team and I will be aiming to recruit as many as we can to both ICT and Computing. It is strange that I will not be teaching them, whilst thousands of miles away, in Mwanza, other students have been or will be making a similar choice, students I have yet to meet – such the nature of change!

More changes.You may have noticed the countdown (T minus ??? ) has gone up. It’s not a time warp as the date for flying has moved back. This still to be confirmed and complicates things a little as my sister in law’s (Fiona’s) sister (Janet) gets married on the same day – meaning it probably will not be possible to be seen off by family sadly 😦

So the new date for flying will be the 23rd August – which will be after Matthew’s GCSE results which will be good 🙂 Hopefully good for him too!

I keep promising not to post and wasn’t going to today but who knows what will grab me next?