What School Did You Go To?

Ever been asked a simple question, and realised that the answer is not so simple? For instance recently I was asked, “Where did your kids go to School”? Like, which kid and which year?
For me the answer is simple. Not only did I not go to Kindergarten, but I only ever went to two schools in my whole life. Three if you count Bible Collage! {They were Kangaroo Ground Primary School, and Watsonia Technical School. (&Bible Collage of Victoria @ Lilydale)}
However for our/my Children it is very different as they went to quite a few different schools in two different states of Australia and even overseas too.
The ones I remember are listed below, with whichever child attended them listed as 1, 2, or 3, standing for First-born, second-Born and last-Born respectively. Schools:
1 & 2. Diamond Creek East Kindergarten.
1. Diamond Creek East Primary School.
1 & 2. Lilydale West Primary School.
1 & 2. Wagga South Primary School
3. Wagga Ashmont Pre-School
1, 2 & 3.Kew East Primary School
1. Kew East High School
Then in South Africa:
1, 2 &3 Umtata High School in its original 3 subdivisions.
Then after it separated into its 3 separate main branches
2 & 3.Transkei Primary School
1, 2 & 3. Umtata High School.
Also: 2. Port Elizabeth Technikon.
Then back in Oz:
3. Belgrave South Primary School
1 & 2. Upwey High School
3. Lilydale High school
1 & 3. Swinburne University Lilydale Campus.
Enough of me and mine. How about you? Was your schooling as complicated as that? Or even worse? If so, please share it with us.
And also what are some other simple questions that are not so simple for you to answer? Your contributions welcomed, please?

Going Full on Green!

Unless you have been living on Mars lately, you will be fully aware that quite recently there has been a rise in Environmental issues and the need to go “Green”. Someone from our Second-Born’s church decided to have a party with a “Green” theme, and so our second -born decided to get into the spirit of it and go “Green’’.

As he did not have much green in his wardrobe, he went out and bought some green clothes and some green Hair dye/spray to dye his hair and finished it off with Green make up grease-paint all over his face and arms, and then went to the party.

The first thing he noticed was that while there were quite a few there, very few had really gotten into the theme of the party but had gone as they normally would. The second thing that he noticed was that most people took a second look at him wondering who this “Dork” was.

And the third thing he noticed was the comments that he got from his friends, along the lines of, “You would have been the last person I would of thought of who would do that”.

All of which made me ask 3 questions myself.

1. How committed are we to the things we do or are asked to do? Do we get into the whole spirit of the thing like our second –born, or do we just make a token involvement and commitment? In other words, we turn up but otherwise take little practical involvement more than we have to!
2. Are we sometimes prepared to look like a “Dork” for a brief time to get into the spirit of things? Or are we too constantly worried about what impression we are making, to make a valuable contribution?
3. Just how well do we really know people? Do we really know what they are like? Or do we just have a superficial knowledge of them and their real character.

So in closing, how well do you “know “ the people around you, and they you: and how much of a “Dork” are you prepared to be, if the occasion arises? What say you?

What Does Rand Mean To You?

Received an e-mail from our last Born recently saying our son would not be up that night as he was going away for the weekend to Rand. At first I thought it was a misprint or spelling mistake and so I emailed him the following e-mail: “So where are you going this weekend? Your sister said, Rand! Where's that, except in the pockets of most South Africans?”

To which I received the following reply: “Yep going up to a friends family farm, same one I went to last November. It’s the one up near Wagga Wagga. About 15min drive from the place that had the big slide down the hill. Funny you should mention the South African comparison – that’s the only way I remember the towns name.”
Because we have both lived in South Africa for some time and became quite familiar with their monetary currency, whenever we hear the word Rand, we immediately think of South African Money and not a place name in rural New South Wales, Australia. Which is actual also quite interesting because although a long time ago, we also lived in Wagga Wagga for over 12 months too, but don’t remember that place even if it is within spitting distance so to speak of Wagga.

How about you? Are their some words or images that take you to another place in time and not to the place intended? Again what does the word Rand mean to you .The currency of South Africa, A small country town in rural New South Wales Australia, something completely different again or nothing at all? What say you?

Melbourne Airport. My Reflected Glory.

Was reading recently in the Paper about a $330M revamp to Melbourne Airport (Tullamarine). It will be the biggest upgrade to the Airport since it was opened in 1970.

Ordinarily this would not interest me at all even though I have flown in and out of there a few times in the past. I was interested to learn that it deals with four and a half million International passengers a year. That is nearly a quarter of the whole population of Australia, which is impressive to me!

Otherwise, I would not normally be interested at all and certainly not enough to have even normally read the article! No, not normally, but now my interest there is through my son, who worked as a draftsman for an Architectural firm doing some of the Architectural work there.

So, through my son was only a minor link-peg in the whole chain, I can claim a connection (even if only a very small and tenuous one) with this major work.

Pathetic, isn’t it? But, how often do you do the same? How often do you claim a connection to something you have no real interest in or any real connection too, but just want to share the reflected Glory from whatever connection, no matter how slender or trivial?

It seems we all wish to be connected, albeit ever so slightly, to something big and look for ways of doing that and sometimes neglecting things that what we should be doing, that which we are good at, and that which needs doing, just because we don’t deem them big enough to attract the attention we desire.

Well, sad as it may be, not all of will ever do big things or even one so-called big thing! No we may never do anything big, or even play a part in something big like this, but all of us can continue and do what we are doing in a big way, can’t we? Sure we may never get the fame, glory or admiration of the masses, but we can at least get satisfaction for doing what we can, can’t we?

Remember we may never get the attention of the masses, but if we do our jobs properly people will notice. On the other hand, if we don’t do our jobs properly, many more will not only notice but comment on it too, won’t they!

But I don’t think that that is the attention we really crave is it? What say you?