20 years, like a boomerang
20 years, like a boomerang
Thursday, 1 January 2009
Yesterday, I completed 20 years as a School Principal. My first headship began on 1st January 1989 at St Paul’s Grammar School in Australia, and like a boomerang, I had returned to Australia - not specifically to celebrate this 20th anniversary, but to spend Christmas there with my family. Frankly, my Christmas break was far too short, being only four working days off, and I am already back in Hong Kong, at work. Such has always been the nature of a School Principal’s job, at least in the experience of THIS School Principal for the past twenty years.
Actually, my holidays as a School Principal have changed a little during the twenty years of my headships. Twenty years ago, there was no internet and no expectation that I would be in daily e-mail contact as is the case today. Twenty years ago, there were no mobile phones, and no expectations that I should be instantly able to be contacted in the case of any emergency. Holidays were once a time for a complete break. Now I can keep up-to-date with work so that there is no huge backlog when I return. How times change for the better!
We also spent two days in Canberra, seeing Liesl and Brendan in their home territory, also spending more time with Tim and Andrew who had also travelled to Canberra for a few days. While there, we had a great time visiting the new National Portrait Gallery, sampling the food at Koko Black ( a new experience of chocolate, even for me), and simply having a great time relaxing with our children.
This Christmas was only the second time that I had seen my granddaughter, Zoe, and it was a great joy to see our happy, smiling, inquisitive, ticklish little granddaughter experience her first Christmas - and some of her first steps.
The entrance to the National Portraits Gallery in Canberra, which Di and I visited while spending time with our children in Australia