Category: Uncategorized
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September 11th
On September 11th 2001. the world was terrified. The terror in New York. That was the day we collected our plane tickets to fly to England to visit our daughter. The following day America started to bomb Afghanistan. We did not cancel our trip. It was wonderful and we were safe. On September 11th 2007 […]
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A Circumstance minus the Pomp
I have recently been reminded of the magnificence of the Pomp and Circumstance Marches written by Edward Elgar for the coronation of King Edward VII in 1902. As a music teacher, listening to them was compulsory for elective music classes. Google tells me that the title comes from Shakespeare’s Othello, and the line “Pride, pomp […]
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I didn’t ask to be born and I don’t owe my parents for parenting…….
I was born in 1951. I was born into a Catholic family. I was educated well and in catholic schools. My Dad had a good job, well respected. My Mum was an “ at home Mum”. She took on responsibility, with Dad, for providing a home for her Mother. Grandma was a “present” for me […]
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“Never presume! Logic never applies!
The title of this contribution was my mantra for the last thirty years of working as a teacher. Today, five years post retirement it has come screaming back into my psyche as a result of a phone call to the Chemist. With every other thing that is going on, however, the prospect of my bud […]
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Can you imagine
One of my favourite movies is “a Time to Kill”. It stars Matthew McConaughey. To me, he is this generation’s Clint Eastwood. The movie tells of an horrific rape of a little Afro-American girl aged about 6 or 7 by a group of deadbeat racist white trash in the South. The father of the little […]
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I have become a White Chrysanthemum!
In my 30’s I read a book titled “The White Chrysanthemum changing images of Australian Motherhood” .It was a collection of stories selected by Nancy Keesing published in 1977, the year before the arrival of my third child. I recently found a copy on line and I am salivating at the prospect of getting it […]
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Another one gets control!
From another State, another one is on his way, Hard to believe but another young man in the gene pool has collected L plates, with suction cups, and is on his way to taking control of the driver’s seat! When I first saw the picture, sent by his beautiful Mum to my iPhone I wondered […]
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All things come to those who wait!
It was October 24th, 37 years and about 8 days ago. First born male child arrived on October 24th, 1972. He was ( and remains) spectacular! Clever, interested in history fascinated by words, voice like an angel, taller than every other boy in his class, he had a lot of “who do you think you […]
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Turning back time!
In recent days I have been distracted from pandemic mania by a blast from the past. Double vaccinated, assured my husband who is up for heart procedure in a couple of days in COVID Free, an invitation to join a facebook page about the school I worked at as a first year our teacher, beginning […]
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Last period Friday afternoon. One period a week!
It was my first year of teaching. Non elective music was the thing that, to people in the know, was an absolute necessity for all students from first form to fourth form. I do not remember the exact allocation of hours but somehow in my very first year of teaching I ended up with 9E7 […]
Confessions of a Free Range Prolapsed Catholic 