Tired but Satisfied

Worked all day Saturday on preparing for the TOD on Monday and got home just in time to turn around and head back for the farewell of Heremaia, Marg and Adrian. I must admit I felt a little nervous about how the evening would go, but it was absolutely perfect. 75 people were superbly fed and were there to farewell these three who had made an awesome contribution to our school. It was typical OC; a sort of formal structure that just went with the flow. All three have spoken affectionately of the night and how moved they were.

Three principals of OC in the same room! The gifts were so appropriate: boat winch for Heremaia, digital camera for Marg and a waka huia and pounamu for Adrian.

On Sunday, a little worse for the wear, Kurt, Andrew and I met up with Marg's nephew Christopher and biked around the Ohiwa loop and up Browns Rd before crashing in on Marg's bacon and eggs.

An afternoon was spent on bicycle maintenance and then Lucy, Thomas and I went down to the sea for our first swim which was magnificent.

Monday was our last day together at school and any nervousness I had about how the staff session would go soon disappeared. We were dealing with the contentious issue of Restorative Justice. I am sure that the three previous days on Te Kotahitanga set the scene and the session flowed well with laughter, rigorous questions and good contributions.

We had a wonderful lunch in the Hall where we farewelled all staff who were leaving. This was quite emotional so there was lots of laughter and lots of tears. I got up to thank staff at the end

and found myself saying that I had struggled a bit this year in convincing myself that everything we were trying to do was worthwhile and that I had felt like walking away a couple of times. These thoughts were as much a surprise to me as they were to most others, but I must admit that, in hindsight, I had certainly felt like that from time to time. I also went on to say that the Te Kotahitanga experience, the farewell evening and the morning session with the staff were great reminders to me as to why everything was worthwhile.

Unfortunately my golf team that night were Mexicans so we got sossled on tequila, or quetila as Vaughan mumbled it. Unfortunately Heremaia and Hone and I then found that double whiskeys made us more enlightened and made us speak a lot of sense so we overindulged. Thankfully Leigh was there to ferry people home.

Woke up in the night with a painfully sore throat! First day of the holidays so here comes a heavy cold. Teachers might have good holidays but they spend the first week each time in bed!!!