To quote the title of Chuck Berry’s 1959 song, I am now “Back in the USA” after my two and a half weeks in Australia visiting friends and family.  I am ready and enthusiastic to start the new school year, and I am revving up to meet the many significant challenges that leading a large, complex international school will inevitably bring.  I am sure, therefore, that next week I will be in a better mood to write something semi-profound about schools and education (or as profound as I usually get, anyway), but at the moment I am still savoring the memories of wonderful times spent with Di, my four wonderful children, my four young grandchildren, and many friends that we have known for several decades.

We had a very special get-together last weekend to celebrate Di’s 60th birthday.  This was the first time she has had a party to celebrate a birthday since her 21st, apart from the small intimate family gatherings that we usually prefer.  About 35 close friends and family were able to attend, and this was a very happy and precious time of catching up, of sharing experiences and enjoying each other’s company - and of course, a short speech from me to both honor and embarrass the birthday girl.

My time in Australia was also the first time I had the chance to meet my twin baby granddaughters, Amy and Hannah, who were born about 11 weeks ago.  It is a very special experience to hold grandchildren for the first time, and the experience of doing so with twins on the evening I arrived in Sydney was something I will never forget.

During my all-too-quick visit to Australia, I visited Adelaide to see friends and Brisbane to see my mother, but most of my time was spent in the city where I grew up - Sydney.  It is 15 years since I have lived in Sydney, and it was interesting to view the city through the eyes of someone who knows and loves the city but who is now a visitor.  The congested roads disappointed me - compared with Hong Kong’s brilliant public transport and Houston’s ugly but generally fast and effective freeways, it is simply not easy to get around Sydney quickly any more.  The city seems to be trying to fill the role of a 21st century metropolis within the restrictions of a 19th century road layout.  On the other hand, I found the city centre, the Harbour and its surrounds as magical as I have always found them - I don’t think anyone could ever tire of Sydney’s magnificent harbour and its surrounds.

At the beginning of this week, I had a brief but very different, somewhat esoteric travel experience - the kind that energizes me whenever I manage to have them.  I visited the remote and little known island nation of Nauru.  This tiny country was once the world’s largest exporter of phosphate, but those heady days are now just a fading memory as the islanders try to deal with the environmental problems that the mining has caused.  While I was in Nauru, I wrote a three-part daily travel diary of my experiences, so if you have 15 minutes to spare, you might like to read it.  You can access the three sections of the travel diary either HERE or at https://stephencodrington.com/TravelDiaries/Nauru_Travel_Diary_2012.html.