Make your vocation your vacation. That is the secret to success (Mark Twain)

Photo by Simon Berger on Unsplash

For once I've been able to clear the decks of work so that I can enjoy my study break, rather than leave things hanging until the end of the break - my usual method.

That means my marking is up to date and feedback has been sent to my students; details of a health and safety incident in the last week have been completed; preparations and planning for the start of Term 3 have been sorted for my class and the supervision of students at my campus; and my email inbox is down to single figures.

That's a great feeling. I can head off on holiday now without that nagging suspicion that I have stuff to do.

All the cats are at the High School rockin' (Jerry Lee Lewis)

Photo by bruce mars on Unsplash

Phew! The holidays are over and it's back to school! 

Life returns to normal.

Normal?

Yes, normal. Most of the year is taken up with work days - that's the norm.

Yes, after ten weeks of school routine I need something different but two weeks off becomes this weird land.

The first few days are always detox days, although I never get used to longer sleep ins during breaks. I'm usually still waking around 5am.

When I'm doing home stuff (clearing out blackberry and dead trees, rebuilding chicken coops, hanging new chandeliers)  I get guilty hot flushes that I'm not checking my emails or my phone enough. And the emails mount up!

So being back in harness is accompanied by a sigh of relief in many ways.

It would be, it would be so nice (M.L. Ciccone)

Photo by Arnel Hasanovic on Unsplash

Last week of term before a well earned break!

As a positive close at our daily briefing LEAN meeting last week I used song lyrics for each day of the week (Monday was Monday Monday, Tuesday was Tuesday Afternoon etc).

Ten weeks of intense concentration can be exhausting and teachers need to refresh and recharge and then review.

I know I'm looking forward to Friday! Four more sleeps!

This week I'm using holiday songs to get in the mood, starting with Madonna, of course!

If we took a holiday
Took some time to celebrate
Just one day out of life
It would be, it would be so nice

Get into the groove (Madonna)

Photo by Thought Catalog on Unsplash

Wahoo!! The holidays are over!! 

Thank goodness! School's back in session.

Am I some parent keen to see my kids back to the chalk-face?

Am I 'eck as like!!

I'm a Head Teacher and I'm so glad to get back into the groove again.

Life can return to normal. No more days of wine and roses, coffee and cakes.

Early morning rituals returned this week and weekends re-emerged out of the holiday soup.

All the buzz of a new school year is back once again - the anticipation, the promise, the trepidation, the possibility, the potential.

Purpose has returned!!

There's nothing like it, is there?

Everybody can't be on top but life it ain't real funky unless it's got that pop (Prince)

Apologies for this one - I'm veering off slightly because school hasn't started yet in the UK and we have spent the last two weeks settling in to our new surroundings in Surrey.

First purchases: kettle; toaster; iron; TV; vinyl; CDs; stereo. Pretty much in that order. 

These priorities are firmly established!

Part of that process has also been catching up with friends and family and having a mini break. 

Reason for that being the next long holiday I'll have will be next July (sob). 

Outside of my parents' friends and my brother, my cousin Christine has probably known me the longest: fifty years (say it in a shaky granddad voice).

So it was a priority to meet up with her and her family (97 year old mother and her three children - Tom, Lewis and Fran).

During the visit Tom passed on a copy of his book, Pop Life. It details a year of gigs after he decided to attend one a week following Prince's sudden death.

It's amazingly great! Although it helps knowing him and the people around him, I would have loved this book regardless.

It's well written, extremely funny, on a subject that fuels my life as it does Tom's and his personal voice shines through every sentence.

Here's Tom recounting preparation for a gig by Francis Lung. a younger brother of an ex-girlfriend: 

My brother, a friend of Francis Lung, planned to attend the show, as did trusty Rhys and Eleri who kindly offered to make me a disguise for the evening using a paper plate, colouring crayons and pipe cleaners. I decided against this on the combined grounds of personal pride and laziness.

Pop Life is published by Novum. Get yer copy here. It's very much worth the effort!

It's a holiday in Cambodia. It's tough, kid, but it's life (Dead Kennedys)

Holidays mean a slackening off in professional reading, and many of my staff have been posting lovely images of themselves on holiday in Cambodia, the Philippines, Thailand and elsewhere.

Besides that my brain is full, thanks to a busy term, and a busy first holiday week with packing and storing all our precious belongings before we head to England.

So, all up, I'm not that inclined to do any deep thinking about the current state of education in the world.

It's time for a break, so here's something else for all my dog loving staff:

A bit of grin and bear it, a bit of come and share it (Ian Dury)

Things to do while on holiday part 56:

Catch up on some TED talks! Here are some must watches to get you started...

You're welcome, we can spare it!

It’s a beautiful world when we dance in the light (Noel Gallagher)

Five reasons why I feel no guilt taking holidays

A beautiful woman plays ball on a North Island beach with her dog called Jerry

As a teacher, over the years I have heard a lot of bleating and horse manure about my holidays.

Wah wah, cry me a river.

Here are five reasons why it's good to howl at the moon after 10 weeks of work.

1 Holidays  allow me to regain some energy. Being a teacher is exhausting. Leading a school is demanding. Yes, the old, recharge-the-batteries excuse. Thank you very much.

2 It's good to pause. Get some context. Establish some perspective and keep it fresh.

3 Sleep is good for my health. During term time I'm usually in bed and asleep between 9 and 9.30pm. I wake at 4.50am. Why? Because I'm cream crackered by 9 and I need to get to school early each day to prepare. These are old habits. 

4 Projects. During holidays these habits shift to later to bed and later to rise. Mental labours are replaced by physical labours as I take on projects around the house and land, but, curiously, I'm nowhere near as tired!

5 Time to meet the wife. As you know, she's a nurse, and, in the past when the kids were growing up, during the week, we were often like ships in the night. Holidays are important family times. In the past it was going places with the family. These days it's going to them to do projects (see number 4).

Okay! Outta my way, I'm off to Palmerston North to do some painting for our youngest.  See y'all in two weeks time.