When I come to writing this blog, I realise that all my years in England had a profound effect on me, because the first thing I think to mention is usually the weather. Always an acceptably polite, un-intrusive opening for a conversation in blighty. Nevertheless, it is our first winter here in our new home, and it must be a sure sign of age that this year in particular I seem to be feeling the cold more than ever, particularly as we’ve had a few bitterly cold snaps of late and the classroom I teach in is South facing and behind a staircase so it never gets any sun in winter. Luckily we’ve got a decent supply of firewood for our fireplace - thanks to a diseased oak tree that we had to cut down last spring in front of our driveway.
We do quite a bit less adventurous gallivanting about with a
small person in our entourage, but we’ve still managed to have some fun this
year. Particularly memorable for me was a trip to Cape Town in March to
celebrate Helen’s mother Renee’s 60th birthday. While I unfortunately
was only able to join the family for the weekend (while the others stayed for a
full week) as it was still term-time for me, we had a super time staying right
on the beachfront near Sea Point and I even managed to squeeze in a very
refreshing swim at Lluandudno beach (Atlantic Ocean) on the Sunday morning.
My half-term break at school in February, meant to be a few
days off from Friday to Monday, was not really much of a break at all, as by
then I found myself in the hot seat as the school’s First Team basketball
coach. Even at the beginning of the year, I had reservations about the negativity
of the incumbent coach, but her decision to suddenly announce that she was
leaving on honeymoon for a month half-way through the first term season made
the decision for us. Basketball is still very much a new sport at our school,
so the boys don’t have the same exposure to or experience in the sport as many
of their competitors from other schools and therefore can struggle against
stronger teams. However, much as I sometimes wanted to tear my hair out, I was
also very proud of the boys’ effort and passion for the game. I was also lucky that in the summer on Sunday afternoons
I could leave the house for a few hours to play basketball at Wanderers club, thereby
avoiding embarrassing myself at basketball practices if the boys needed an
extra person to step in, having last played many years ago.
The first term was a particularly long one, lasting from
January to mid-April with no exams to break up the relentless cycle of teaching.
But when our break did finally come, Helen and Calvin and I managed to fit in 2 short
breaks into our 2 week holiday. Luckily Helen had managed to stretch her
maternity leave out to 7 months, so that we could have some time together as a
family while I was on holiday. First we visited the Eastern Cape, spending a
few enjoyable days in Port Elizabeth, as well as some time in St Francis Bay. The
sea was already quite chilly and the weather was quite temperamental by then so Helen unfortunately hardly got to swim at all,
but I managed to get some time in the water and we also enjoyed relaxing, going
for runs, and watching some series on dvd while we were there. Following our return
to Joburg, we then went to a timeshare lodge called Mabalingwe near the Waterberg
region, close to a town called Bela-Bela (formerly Warmbaths). It is a game park with African wild-life, so we
made the most of it by tag-teaming who looked after Calvin so that the other
person could go on a game drive or in my case a game walk on foot in the
mornings. We also drove out
with him in his seat in the back of the car after breakfast when sometimes he
would stay asleep for a while. All in all though, it was not an entirely successful
trip as Calvin didn’t take kindly to not being entertained all of the time, and
as we were staying in a split-level studio bungalow with no separation between
the living area and the bedroom, we had to be very quiet at night once Calvin
was asleep. On the last night I had a stomache upset, but dared not get up to
go to the loo in case I woke him up, so it was not the best night of sleep I’ve
ever had!
Our middle term at St David’s is winter sport, which means
hockey or rugby. Though I am still primarily a referee, I have also been helping
out a little bit with the Under 16 age group, whose A team were this year
invited to a tournament at Hilton, a prestigious school in a beautiful rural
setting in the Natal midlands. I enjoyed refereeing some of the games at the
tournament, and was also delighted to join my fellow coaches and the boys for the
Friday off in between the first two days and the last day's play, for a trip to
uShaka Marine World in Durban, which is a water theme park filled with slides
and other fun. Unfortunately after several hours, including frolicking in the
sea as well as in the water park, the boys’ enthusiasm had waned whereas I was
still having tremendous fun tearing around going on as many different slides as
possible. The youth of today - no stamina! :-)
I have had some fun games as a rugby referee this season. One
of the highlights in this was a few days of refereeing over the Easter Weekend
at the Krugersdorp High Festival. Not nearly as prestigious as the festivals held
at some of the other schools in Johannesburg, I nevertheless thoroughly enjoyed
some of my games between various schools 1st teams. This included a
fixture between Linden Hoerskool and Waterkloof, who surprisingly sent almost
their entire first team to the tournament, which was probably one of the
fastest paced high school games I’ve ever reffed, and credit to Linden (Waterkloof
have in past years been ranked in the top 20 schools in the country) it was a
much closer game than might have been expected.
I am very lucky that Helen lets me get out to referee on
Saturdays as I thoroughly enjoy both the exercise and being around the game of
rugby. Often Helen takes Calvin to see her parents, but we also have a nanny who
sometimes looks after Calvin on a Saturday morning so that Helen can go to gym
or meet up with other people without our little boy. Calvin is exactly 8 months
old today and he continues to develop and grow week by week. My parents were
out a month ago in late May to spend a week with him (and in my poor Dad’s
case, to fix a whole lot of things around our house, which he did a fabulous
job of) and unfortunately for them Calvin started to crawl just two days after
they left, so they just missed it! He is a cheerful and friendly little chap
who is quick to smile and likes to meet people (but, like his dad he’s not
too keen on too big a crowd at once) although his good nature can take a turn
for the worse if he is hungry, or tired. That much still hasn’t changed,
although getting him to eat can now be more difficult at times, but on the
bright side he sleeps through the night most of the time, except when he’s sick
like he has been for the past week or so.
Life with a baby certainly has been different. There are
moments of tremendous cuteness and love and affection. But also plenty of
strain for parents to absorb as a couple while retaining their sanity and sense
of self. There is also lot less free time, and things require more planning. We’re very fortunate to have a nanny to help us, particularly since Helen has
gone back to work (and is loving having her own goals and achievements again)
and is now away from 8am to 6pm on week-days. For now we have managed to
survive things with a sense of humour, and perhaps too a sense of relief that
by the standards of babies, Calvin is still pretty easy-going and we’re luckily
able to support each other even when it isn't plain sailing.
We do still have some fun times also, we haven't completely retired into boring-hood. For my birthday we
were treated to a night out to ourselves by Helen’s parents, who looked after
Calvin, and we had a lovely evening joining friends at a sports bar for a few somewhat
rowdy drinks while we watched some rugby, and then ate some delicious sushi at a
restaurant I’d never tried. It was even more fabulous to celebrate our 2nd
wedding anniversary in May by having a delicious dinner at a fancy restaurant,
dressed in our wedding day outfits (Helen looked fantastic in her wedding dress!)
We are off to the Drakensburg mountains for a week of
half-term this Saturday. And while we’re a little bit wary of what sort of
trouble our over-active little man is likely to have in store for us and how
much we’ll really be able to relax, we’re also looking forward to getting out
of town for a few days before work pressures return. I have been enjoying
elements of my work at school very much. My Grade 12 and 11 classes have some
very capable and hard-working young men, and this term I have even started a
Current and World Affairs Discussion society to try promote some discussion of
topical issues in the news and the world around us. But I have to admit I have
also been struggling at times with the rather rigid approach from History
department head. He has now been head of the department for almost 15 years and
unfortunately he is, to put it mildly, somewhat averse to inputs on curriculum or assessment, and
whereas I started this year in charge of the direction of our grade 11’s study
programme, this has suddenly reverted to being entirely the head of
department’s domain. But the moral support I’ve had from senior management has been
great and hopefully over time I’ll win the trust of the head of department and
get a chance to try to be a bit more creative and to help to re-imagine some of
what the boys are learning. I have also recently joined a ‘leadership group’ to
help formulate and drive forward ideas for improvement of the school in key
performance areas - the area I’ve joined is Innovation in Education, so I’ve
already been trying to put together some possibilities for experimenting with
some new and different things with our students and staff.
In late August to early September we will be in the UK and
France for my brother Andrew’s wedding. Unfortunately London and France are the
only two places we’ll get to, but I’m hoping to be able to meet up with people
while we’re there and to make the most of the time we’ll have. If you’re likely
to be around please do drop me a line so that we can make a plan to meet up. Even if it's only because you want to meet our little rascal, who yesterday learned how to stand up in his cot (this smells like trouble!)
