Princess number 2 to her mother - “Mum, I’m glad my name’s not Sullivan”. When asked to explain she said that she would hate for everyone to say the “B” word after her name all the time. She really does not like swearing and considers “bitch” as bad as it gets.
It took some time for her mother to realise “Sullivan Bitch” was actually “Son of a Bitch”
I really should be careful what I say when I’m driving.
“You can’t coach that”
Do you ever come across a particularly useful website and think to yourself “I wish I had known about that when ......”? I have an opportunity to earn some beer money by mentioning just such a website. If you feel inclined to read on I will relate a little of my past life.
While I have been teaching for some time now, I was for many years a Chartered Accountant (yes I’ve heard all the boring accountant jokes). This provided me with the opportunity to live a work in London for several years.
Sounds great doesn’t it? Who wouldn’t want to work in one of the great cities of the World and one of the finance capitals. I still remember how excited I was before I left. And oh how I hated it. The work that is, London itself was a wonderful place to live.
My mistake was a lack of preparation and research. I went to London as part of a secondment program with the accounting firm I worked for at the time. This sounded like the best course of action - stay with the firm I knew and who I thought would have my interests at heart. I had after all given them faithful service for several years. Wrong! Here is roughly how things went:
I could go on but you get the idea. Now here is the part where “I wish I had known about that when ......” Some research about the hundreds of jobs in London crying out for a particularly handsome Aussie accountant could have made all the difference. What didn’t help of course was the fact that at the time the internet was but a gleam in the eye of Tim Berners-Lee. Heck most people thought that computers were an interesting idea but couldn’t imagine a time when we would all have one on our desks.
Some good old internet research that we all take for granted would have come in handy in so many other ways. The accommodation search for example. The first place my wife and I stayed provided plenty of entertainment. It seems that the local West Indian gangs were in the middle of some sort of disagreement and the day after we arrived one of them was shot dead in the street. We moved from there pretty quick.
There were many great things about living in London:
It’s good to reminisce - thanks for reading.
“You can’t coach that”
Kids grow up too fast. I have written about this before. Today provided further evidence that time is fleeting and our children are not children for long enough.
You see, number one princess stayed home alone for the first time today. Not all day mind you but long enough for it to be significant.
There are so many wonderful aspects to watching your children grow but sometimes I think it would be nice to keep them this age forever.
I did find it interesting how aware she was about the potential dangers of a young person being home alone. When I was her age I would not have given these things a second thought. There were the obvious things like no cooking or using sharp knives but she was more tuned in to not answering the phone or the door. I suppose with so many stories on the news these days involving children being abducted or worse this is a natural reaction for her. What a sad world we live in (I know, it’s not all sad but there is some sad stuff)
You can’t coach that”
Trooper David Pearce was laid to rest today after a funeral service in Brisbane’s St Stephen’s Cathedral followed by a private family service. Trooper Pearce was killed serving in Afghanistan by a road side bomb. Like me, he was 41 years old and had a wife and two young daughters. My heart goes out to his family. All diggers serving overseas have my admiration and gratitude.
Australia is in the middle of a Federal election campaign at the moment. The Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition were at the service in Brisbane. I found myself feeling a little uncomfortable watching the evening news about an hour ago and seeing images of the Prime Minister warmly embracing Trooper Pearce’s wife. I am sure this was meant as a show of support and I hope Mrs Pearce found some comfort in this gesture but part of me doubts it.
Am I too cynical?
You can read the full story herehttp://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=70778
“You can’t coach that”
I may have mentioned before that I live in a female dominated environment (and wouldn’t want it any other way). I have a voluptuous wife, two delightful daughters, and much loved female dog and I teach at a girls school. I grew up in a very male dominated environment. No sisters and life revolved around football.
Well it appears that my transformation to a sensitive new age male is complete. On the weekend I only watched 10 minutes of the Rugby World Cup - but I watched 2 hours of “So You Think You Can Dance”. And what’s worse is that I new some of the dancers names and their preferred dancing style.
Oh dear - I think I had better go and have a beer and use some power tools.
“You can’t coach that”
Who is the Coach? - Self styled life coach to the masses; part time ballet critic; full time sports critic; nude twister umpire; unemployed still life model; "trust me, I'm on the internet"
A more serious look at who I am can be found on the About page.
