Oh the places I'll go; Oh the things that I'll do.

Another school year bites the dust this month.  Don't know where it went - I feel sure that if I was in regular time mode we would still be in the middle of the year, but no, I am in fast-forward mode where time speeds up so that each hour only has 5 minutes.

I look back on the year and wonder where all the time has gone.  Just how much did I accomplish and why do I still feel like I am panting to the finish line, hobbling along at the back of the pack?

Nonetheless, have to say it felt like a good year - did some much needed assessments, met some interesting people, made some new friends, and generally still on a steep learning curve.... I like it!

And how can you not appreciate a whole summer off - Oh the places I'll go; Oh the things that I'll do ....like idling away an afternoon reading a book, sauntering down to a coffee shop, winging our way to a South American vacation for another check on the bucket list, and if I get the time .... and inclination, I will clear the clutter, catch up on the crafts, make an effort on the errands and chores and hopefully check off items off that long 'honeydo' list.

Waiting for sunshine and siestas and the adventures that summer will bring!

Zoom zoom

I now have to report on the time lapse between January 2011 and June 2011.  Time has zipped by so fast that it seems almost like I have been standing on the side of a racetrack, watching a Porsche whizz passed me at the rate of knots on a race track, or a kid holding on tight to the bars of a merry-go-round.  Weeks went round, and round, and round, and round again. 

Each week I would set the goal of getting down to business - write the blog, post with pictures and move on.  How long could it take?  Yet each weekend would come and go without one line being written - something else always seemed to come up.  During the week writing was unthinkable - get up at 6am, drive, start work at 7.45/8, keep head down till 4.30, drive, make dinner, do chores and collapse on the couch for the rest of the night.  And weekends ended up being the catch all and catch up point - like a spinning tombola - round and round - pick a prize - and the prize was always housework, house maintenance, chores and errands.

Round and round we go - spinning ever faster.  When will it end.

So racetrack or merry-go-round - any way you look at it - time relentlessly moves forward and I find myself desperately clinging on and barely keeping up.

Sad Passing

Rina

15/12/1931 to 7/05/2011

On May 7 2011 we received the sad news that Mom J had passed away.  She had been getting ever more fragile over the past year and since July 2010 had been in the 24hour nursing care / frail unit.  Her quality of life had dwindled to barely passable so we are both relieved for her and sad for us.

She was a most resilient person, bearing the burden of watching her siblings die young through tragedy and through cancer.  She was a caring and exemplary teacher - I can easily say that not one Grade 1 or 2 child ever left her classroom without being able to read.  She is one of those teachers that you will always remember from the handful of those who made a difference in your education. 

She was always up for learning new things and loved doing 'firsts':  I remember her first sushi bite - not one that she would repeat, but at least she tried.  She had to experience Canada in winter: threw her first snowball, screamed with delight as she hurtled down on a toboggan behind a delighted grandchild, and how she relished being able to "walk on water" on an iced-up lake.  She played tennis into her sixties and I think if they had let her she would have bungee jumped in New Zealand when she went to visit her grandchildren there. 

Photographs to capture every momentous occasion were snapped with abandon - which meant every restaurant visit, every new place she visited and each annual celebration of birthdays, graduations, awards, births and weddings.  Thousands of photographs were fervently placed in photo albums and picture frames for posterity and were pored over - she took advantage of every opportunity to reminesce and tell stories of who, what and where.  Probably her favourite introduction was "When I was in ...."

A remarkable lady who has left her mark.