Two years on......

So, as 2020 comes to a close, what's changed/improved/developed since I last updated my blog in May/June?

I thought for this blog, I'd do a month by month update, for a change.  

July

Start of Term 3 (we have four terms here a year, each of 10 weeks) saw me starting a keto diet - basically no carbs, just protein and veg. I quickly got very used to it and combined it with intermittent fasting - no eating before 10:30am, no eating after 7:30pm - to lose 11kg by December. I'm really pleased with the results - I've maintained a healthy level of fitness alongside the keto and I've never felt hungry. I allowed myself a break between Xmas Eve and today (New Year's Eve) - back to it tomorrow! I also cheated most weekends with a cheeky Moscato on a Friday & Saturday night - and STILL lost weight :) 

At work I took on a union representative role in the Middle Leadership review; after many years of being the one creating such a structure, it was fascinating to be on the  "other" side of the table, checking the structure against the Enterprise Bargaining Agreements, etc.  I really enjoyed the strategic exercise for my brain, pretty much unused in recent months and thought the end result was a fair one.

August

In August I plucked up courage to find a new hairdresser - always a risk! But I was lucky and found one in walking distance of my house, in Dicky Beach. I also had a fair chunk chopped off - it's so hot here and my hair is so thick!  

I also enjoyed Sunday morning lie-ins, knowing that in September, my lifesaving season would start again - that 6am alarm is never welcome!

September

Springtime here meant that I began to experiment with plants in the garden at my beach house, both natives and traditional English plants. I've found it very rewarding to see them flourish in my sandy soil! I was particularly delighted to have some David Austin roses (from South Australia) flower here in Queensland, so close to the sea. They are a constant reminder of my lovely gardens in the UK.

Lifesaving started up again - it runs September to May - and it began with our Awards meeting. I was totally blown away to be given a trophy for my enthusiasm towards training! I was just grateful not to have drowned in the many watery sessions! I also achieved my Bronze Medallion, my IRB (boat) crew and of course all the CPR, First Aid and Defib qualifications. I do feel much more useful this season than last, when I was still learning so much.

October

In October I tried to be one of the Turtlecare volunteers - 180 of us applied for 30 places, and I wasn't lucky this year. I'll definitely try again - the work involves walking the beach at 5am from November to March to check for turtle tracks and nests.

We had a State election and I took on the role of Election Issuing Officer. It was really interesting - I'd never really understood the election system of preferences until I was involved in the counting. I had to learn a new software system within a couple of days, ready for the election day. Elections here are on a Saturday (very sensible!) and of course are compulsory. I'd done my own voting by post two weeks in advance; it was interesting to see how many people didn't take advantage of early voting (you can vote in person for up to 2 weeks before voting day) or postal voting.

Keto continued with me gently losing about 0.4kg a week in a good week - and I was given a great set of recipes by a colleague at work, who was also doing keto. I made strawberry icecream with a chocolate sauce, as well as bagels! Totally keto but yummy.

I joined the Rotary Club - they meet on Tuesday mornings at 6:30am - yes, you read that right! They are a great bunch of people, many who are retired; there are guest speakers and they undertake many charitable activities, more in non-Covid times.

November

Remembrance Day here was well honoured - I was teaching Year 9 and showed them all of my remembrance souvenirs, including the terracotta poppy from the Tower of London display. 

At work I was given an exciting new role for 2021, to be the staff coach and mentor for the early careers teachers, alongside my teaching role. I'm really looking forward to that; I've always loved looking after developing colleagues.  I'm also putting together my portfolio of evidence for Lead Teacher - a bit like the UK's AST programme from many years ago. It's designed to keep good teachers in the classroom and to use them to coach others - it should fit well with my new role.

I finally took the step to leave the Transformation Trust (now called the Talent Foundry) after nearly a decade on the Teachers' Advisory Group. Sad to leave such a lovely crew, but I felt I'd given all I could and wasn't being as productive or helpful as when I was a headteacher. It was a big wrench - I've been working with them since the days of BSF and Partnerships for Schools, after all. I will stay in touch with the individuals, though and catch up when I'm next in the UK.

December

At lifesaving I've now qualified as the ATV driver, so I can drive the jeep up and down the beach, towing the trailer with the boat. I am also learning to be the boat driver (!!) - I'm finding that I can't even look at any waves now without thinking where I'd position the boat ....!! 

We had some very high tides and spent much of one shift moving all of our rescue boards from under the clubhouse into it, safe from the water. 

I attended my first Australian beach wedding. Much more low key in terms of dress/etiquette than the UK ones I've been to, very relaxed and a lovely, loving atmosphere. The bride was one of the car poolers, who share my journeys to and from work every day - so it has been an interesting set of journeys where we discuss shoes, hairdressers, etc!  I also caught the bouquet though it was pretty staged!!

Over Xmas, I did a half-day shift every day of the four day weekend - it was great to feel useful and to spend time with the lifesaving crew. On the day itself, after my shift, I drove out to Mooloolah Valley to be with the cousins and the little cousins, in their new pool - I went in full lifesaving uniform and they were stoked to have a real lifesaver in their pool!!

Overall 

What sort of a year was it? Well, as for everyone else on the planet, things did not work out as I'd planned. My daughter and her husband didn't get out here to have their year in Melbourne.  Instead, they've moved from London back to Leeds to buy their first house together.  I didn't get to fly back to the UK in June to meet baby Nell in person - we are still not allowed to leave Australia and certainly can't return without a two week mandatory hotel quarantine at my own cost. But I have seen her most weekends on Facetime, she responds well to my voice and sometimes I get to read books to her, if she's not too busy with her toys. I also sent Xmas boxes, instead of stockings, to my children, to Nell, my mum and my sister and they all opened them "live" with me on Facetime or Whatsapp or Viber. It was brilliant. And it felt like I was there.

There have been many sad moments, of course. Missing my cousin Will has been tough. I've tried to be supportive to my two cousins here. Xmas has always been my favourite time of year and it's sad not to be with special people more. I am still single - and I know I operate better, am happier, in a relationship. Being "trapped", as in not being able to fly or travel, is hard, it's not what I'm used to.

But there have been many more happy moments. 

I've made great friends at work, who are a brilliant boost to my own support network. 

I've made progress with my Australian teaching career. 

I've been successful in qualifying as an IRB crew person at lifesaving. So far this season (since September), I've pulled 15 people out of the water and into the boat, with 3 different drivers. 

I've been part of the local community in the State elections, the Bushcare group weeding and planting each month at Shelly Beach, at lifesaving during our Twilight Markets when we are fundraising, at Rotary Club. I'm making friends in all of these areas.

I can walk down the main street here in Caloundra and I will see someone I know. 

I've re-built my support network which I find essential - leg wax, nails, hairdresser, yoga, doctor, dentist, vet. 

I've embraced the Australian life with all of the energy I have. 

I feel safe and well and at home.

So, despite covid19, despite changed plans, despite the isolation - geographical, relationships - I am happy.

I gave myself two years to decide if this move was permanent. It's clear to me now that it was the right step to take, way back in April 2018 when I made the decision. My family are all thriving in their different parts of the UK; my financial situation is stable; my life is very rich with joy.

Happy New Year to everyone from my UK life. Here's hoping that 2021 brings us all relief from this terrible virus and restores our ability to globe-trot.

2020- what are you doing to us?

Well, so far 2020, apart from the gorgeous little baby girl in my family, you've been pretty poor!

What a ridiculous situation with the Covid. Or as we Australians call it, the Rona. It has been madness in all aspects of life. Here, each state/territory is doing its own thing; initially we were all following the federal line but then the virus evolved or whatever it does and we are all doing lockdown things differently. My state, Queensland, has closed all borders and we can only travel 150 km for a visit with 10 people only. No pubs, restaurants (apart from takeaway), no gyms, cinemas, yoga, pilates..... that's my whole life gone!  It's been tough. But work continued - here in QLD the schools did distance learning for the first five weeks of this term; we went to school every day and sat in classrooms and delivered everything via Teams online. Children of essential workers could attend (100 of those, out of 1200) but most didn't. Then Years 11 and 12 (sixth form) came back; then last Monday everyone else came back. So far, so good. Kids can't social distance, obviously; but I'm using my hand sanitiser every hour and washing my hands furiously all day long.  And in this country, the total deaths so far are 102. Yes, 102. Only 8 in my state of 5m people. So for me, it feels like a massive over-reaction. However, I have seen what it did in the UK, USA etc. So I guess we were lucky here. Being a big island, the borders closed to every flight in March and every passenger who landed had to do 2 weeks' isolation in a hotel. I think the hardest thing will be the economic recovery. Here, Virgin Australia has gone into administration (with $2K of mine...) and as yet, no buyer has said they'll take on the debt. I've got a voucher for my ticket (which was for 26 June, for our school holidays, to come back to the UK and see the baby) - but I'm not really expecting it to turn into a real ticket in the end.

Yes, I am now a grannie - or as I like to call myself, a Glamma (obviously). My friends at work decorated my desk in pink to celebrate her arrival on St George's Day - and all of those balloons and streamers are STILL THERE! She is delightful - a healthy little girl called Nell (official name Ellen) and the new parents have coped brilliantly by themselves in lockdown London. Poor guys. I do feel so sorry for them but they've been amazingly calm about it all. My ex-husband has seen her and the other grandmother has, but not many others. I get to see photos via Whatsapp and I get a video call via Facetime some weekends. It's hard - but it was always going to be this way, once I'd moved overseas  My gorgeous daughter and son-in-law were supposed to be out here now for a year's social/working here, but of course that has had to stop. My son-in-law had a visa for a year's work (my daughter has a passport like me so she can come anytime) but that visa has expired and Aus Gov don't seem inclined to renew it for him. They're thinking maybe 2 months here towards the end of this year, but again, it all depends on the Rona and what situation we're all in.

In terms of life, I'm pretty good (apart from the social life and the lack of travel or being able to plan anything). Work is busy - I've just been made permanent after a year's contract, which is brilliant - means I'll get paid in the holidays all year long. And I finally got my "full" registration as a real Australian teacher - they wouldn't give it to me until I'd done 200 days of teaching here (teaching anywhere else in the world doesn't count) and put together an evidence portfolio. My principal had to sign it off... 22 years I've been qualified!! I am loving being back in the classroom and only worrying about that. No other stress really. I am teaching Year 11 (sixth form) English Lit, Year 10 and 9 English, Year 10 History and Year 9 Humanities (History and Geog). All lovely. I'm leading Year 10 English and Year 10 History which just means I do the planning, co-ordinate cross-marking of assessments, write the assessments and help anyone who needs it.  I'm thinking I will probably go for the next stage up which is Highly Accomplished Teacher, for which I need 2 years of appraisal and a much bigger evidence file. Something to work on. Longer term, I'm thinking that I'll do 7 years (aiming for the paid long service leave of 9 weeks - for every 7 years of public service here, you get about a term off, fully paid - to encourage you to stay in the public sector I think) and then retire. By then I should probably have sold my UK house and hopefully be receiving my UK teacher pension, and I'll be ready to do nothing but volunteering in my "spare" time.

Since January I've been part of a car pool to work - there are four of us living close by each other (on different beaches in Caloundra) and we share the driving. So one week it's my turn, and I drive everyone there and back every day - and then I don't have to drive again for three weeks. Just brilliant. It saves lots of fuel and miles on the car, but also it's a great way to de-stress from the day and also to ask questions about stuff I don't know!

You'll remember I moved in Jan to my new place which is right by the beach - I can hear the surf every night which is very soothing and my garden is mainly sand for soil! I'm learning about new plants and what grows when, because everything I do know about is English. It's weird to be thinking, ah winter is here (1 June here is winter) when I am used to that being summer in the northern hemisphere! And it's weird to plant my hyacinths now....!

I've enjoyed a great season with the volunteer lifeguards, where I've learned first aid, CPR, defib, board rescues, boat rescues etc. I've really liked learning brand new skills and being part of a little team where I became increasingly useful as the season wore on. We have most of the autumn and all winter off, so we finished early May and we will start up again in September, all being well. It was tricky keeping social distancing when we were doing first aid! I have thoroughly enjoyed this aspect of my non-work life and feeling useful.

The cats have settled well after their mammoth journey. I've had a cat enclosure fitted in my new house, called Alcatraz by the builder and they can spend all day outside in the sandy flower beds, in the sun or the shade and beetle in through their cat flap whenever they feel like it. Heaven for them, I think. They have both developed an aversion to loud noises/motors, which I think comes from their flights here, but their vet visits have shown they're doing fine. Both have lost a little weight but are happy.

ANZAC Day here was interesting - usually it's a big service led by all the veteran soldiers but because of Covid, we all did our honouring memories on our driveways, with candles and the radio playing the Last Post. It was actually quite poignant and I felt it was superb. My landlord, at the end of our street, got us all together at a safe distance to share some Drambuie at the end of the service! I made my ANZAC biscuits to share at school; they're getting better quality!

A couple of weeks ago I did a Zoom meeting with my lovely colleagues at the Talent Foundry (formerly the Transformation Trust). It was so good to see everyone on screen - it was a 9pm start for me, midday for them. What's interesting is how many of the issues in schools/education overlap, despite the physical distance between the UK and Australia. I do find that interesting.

I've taken a more active role in the union at our school; it's an independent school (Catholic) and I've become part of the union executive. It means that as the executive we have fairly regular meetings with the school's leadership and raise concerns on behalf of the members. Pretty similar to what I did as a headteacher, in a lot of ways. And it's good to feel useful. 

I'm still cycling most weekends and doing beach walks most evenings, although recently it has been dark by 5pm so unless I'm home from school in good time, it's too dark to walk. There was a cold snap last week and the temperature dropped to 9 deg C - unheard of for May, apparently! The great thing about our aircon systems here is that you flick a switch and they give you hot air instead of cold. Brilliant. And of course I've got plenty of socks and sweaters from the UK!!

Lots of people here have become great home bakers over the lockdown; for weeks we couldn't buy flour in the supermarkets, then last week, it was eggs that were missing. Pasta, rice and toilet paper are all back on the shelves after months of limits and scarcity. Hand sanitiser is also available now; it's just baby wipes/cleaning wipes that seem to be missing now.

Petrol here has become super cheap in the last few weeks; something to do with global prices? This week it's dropped below 99 cents per litre for unleaded petrol. The exchange rate is also in my favour going from Aus to UK - $1.85 per UK pound. This means that the fuel is about 53 pence per litre here. Amazing! And one of the car poolers showed me how to use my cruise control on the Corolla, so I've been playing with that when I drive.

The saddest news of the year so far is that my gorgeous cousin Will passed away in mid January. He was only 67. He'd fought hard against stomach cancer, thought he'd beaten it and then it came back. My cousins asked me to write and deliver the eulogy which I did, though it was so hard. The funeral was transmitted live to the UK so that everyone else could be part of it - I was impressed with that technology, I didn't know that sort of thing happened. Will was a tremendous bloke and like my older brother; he lived with my family for a while when I was growing up here, so it's been incredibly difficult without him. My cousins are great fun and super company; we meet up a couple of times a month usually and it's been lovely to be part of an extended family here with little cousins aged 7, 5 and 2 having birthdays etc. 

Fingers crossed that all of this Covid madness is soon ended, that there is a vaccine or at least some positive treatment and outcomes.  2020 - you need to shape up or ship out.

135 days to go ...

 So....here is where it starts! Today it's 135 days until my plane leaves to take me back home to Queensland, Australia.

After a lifetime of living in England since 1975, where I've grown up, worked, married, had children, divorced - I'm now returning to my homeland, to the stunning beaches and the laid-back lifestyle of the Sunshine Coast.

I'm equally excited and terrified, to be honest - excited that I get to live my dream of returning "home"; terrified that I will be lonely, won't get a job, have become too English to adapt back to Australian life. Someone wise said to me in July - "but Heather, those are two sides of the same coin" - what a great way to look at this!

What made me decide to go back NOW? It was always my plan to retire in Oz, but not to go now. Well, a number of factors coincided to bring me to this point.

Firstly, both my children (now aged 30 and 28) are getting married before the end of 2018 - my son got married in June and my daughter will be married late December. So in a way, I feel that "job done" applies! Their dad, who I'm still very civilised with, will remain in England and will be their port of call in a crisis. And my mum and sister will still be in the UK too, so another set of "hands on" family for them.

Secondly, I noticed that lots of people who were my age (54) were in the press, sadly at the end of their lives, or having accidents, and I thought, "why am I waiting? What if something happens to me now and I don't get to do this?" I guess it's "carpe diem" at its best.

Thirdly, a long term relationship came to an end - after five years. My ex-partner had always said he wouldn't move to Australia, he's a typical Yorkshireman! So I always knew that at some point, we wouldn't be together. Although it was my decision to end the relationship, it was really tough - I suppose heartbreak at any age is. I miss the life we had as a couple - but I'm coped OK since. And having my departure (-135 days!) ahead of me has helped me cope with the break-up. So has the Internet - thank goodness for the superb Noah Elkrief (find him on www.liveinthemoment.org) who has excellent guidance and sensible talk for those who are bereaved at a break-up.

I've reflected so much in the last five months - on life, on love, on families, on relationships, on work - and I feel strangely calm about this Big Move. I know it will be sad  and lonely at times, for me and those I love, but I'm very excited about starting a new chapter. My final chapter, but back in my homeland. I was very lucky to be brought up in QLD as a child of the mid-60s, lots of fresh air, cycling to school, not wearing shoes, in a happy household.

The vast majority of family, friends and colleagues have said to me, "that's great, good for you, go do it". Only a couple have said ...."well, I couldn't do it because..." I think that says more about their own situation and feelings than about what I'm doing? That they wish they could do this? I'm so lucky - I have an Australian passport and I can just fly back, one-way ticket.

Fingers crossed, then!