Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Well, a busy two days when usually I have little to write about.  First of all, we FINALLY got our living room furniture and it looks GREAT!  The set is a plum colour so it looks really nice against the grey of the carpet and the blinds in the living room.  I thought that the furniture might get lost in the room since it's quite a good sized room, but it fits beautifully.  So, now we can finally start having people over for dinner and have somewhere to sit with them after dinner rather than sitting at the kitchen table.  Both Dad and I sat in the chairs and on the couch and they are so comfortable.

Dad had his second collectors' training meeting last night (6 - 8pm) and it went really well - in fact, it went quicker than expected - he had asked everyone to be there for three hours, but they were finished in less than 2 hours.  Dad brought in the patio table and some chairs and set those up along with the kitchen table and chairs (and made one long table going  lengthwise in the dining and family rooms).  The main purpose was to review what they had to do when they went to pick up the census forms beginning tomorrow. 

It's been a rough two days at school, but what else is new.  It's becoming a job to me - something that I have to do until I finish up in 15 1/2 weeks.  It's not fun to feel I have a job rather than a career which I love - however, it does help me to understand how Dad felt during his last two years of work at Air Canada.  I asked him yesterday if he would have retired if I had stayed teaching at R.J. Lee and he said 'yes' - he was not enjoying his job at all and didn't want to stay in it any longer than necessary - I understand  what that was like for him now.  I didn't understand it back when I was teaching in Canada because I loved what I did back then - I used to say to Catherine, my principal, that I was so happy to come in to work every day and felt bad that I couldn't understand what Dad was going through - I get it now.

Today is 'Census' Day in Australia and Dad was really busy today.  He received tons of emails and texts today from various people.  All the collectors were calling Dad as they were getting messages to go and do things (like give out extra forms) and they didn't know where to go and do these things as Dad had their collector record books.  He got them from his collectors yesterday as he had to review them and make sure everything was in order (eg: to ensure that the books has been filled out correctly).  He also spent some time today returning the books to the collectors.