Everybody grows and so it goes (Graham Nash)

Wie geht's?

Watching Adolescence on Netflix has dredged up some memories of working and advising in some UK schools (more on this on Baggy Trousers tomorrow).

It's easy for me to view living in the U.K. with nostalgic rose-tinted glasses, but there are obvious negatives. I love many things about England, Scotland and Wales, but modern life, phones, and the omniscient social media pressures have added so many complexities that everybody has to deal with.

Of course, all of those things exist in New Zealand as well, but for some reason the toxicity levels seem way higher in the U.K. Maybe it's tribalism, sheer numbers, or economic reasons - I'm not sure.

I like a simple life and when I get scenes from Leigh-on-sea on my Facebook feed that feature idyllic scenes around old Leigh, it is easy to lapse into misty-eyed longing for a life living in Victoria Avenue, shopping at Cost-Cutter, Wimpy's, Fives, moseying along The Broadway and walks along the shore toward the Leigh-on-sea C2C train station.

Even living in The Grand for a couple of weeks before we found the Victoria Rd flat can bring a smile to my face. Then I remember Jacky saying, "I want to go home", the girls being sick from the flight, the pigeons in the bathroom, the sticky floor in the bar as we had breakfast...I'm sure you get the idea.

And yet...and yet...

Then I remember those scenes from Adolescence.

Love and peace - Wozza

Got a feeling inside (Can't explain) (The Who)

Leigh-on-sea holds a very special place in our hearts.

We visited it again yesterday - just mossied around: had a look at the redevelopment of The Grand; remembered staying there in 2004 and wondered if we were some of the last people to do so before it fell into disrepair - now looks like it's being turned into apartments; bought lottery tickets at the co-op; speculated on what we'd do if we won the lottery (buy a place in Victoria Rd and retire was the simple conclusion); wandered along The Broadway; rummaged through the racks in Fives (didn't buy anything though which was a shock); had tea and scones at our usual place (a bookshop and tea room combined close to Marine Parade); posted parcels for Jade's baby shower; gazed in estate windows and wondered about what could have been in 2019 if only...

Love and peace - WNP

P.S. When we returned to Caterham it started snowing so we went out for an evening stroll in pretty idyllic conditions. A perfect end to a special day!

Way on down south London town (Dire Straits)

Rambling Man (You may say I'm a dreamer - Chapter 10 part 6)

Jacky Purdy: hates the cold, loves the snow!

While we were living in Leigh-on-sea we moved (shock horror) from Victoria Road. Jacky found it hard to stay in the place - too many memories of Adam. Plus Keegan and his girlfriend were going to be staying with us for some months and Jacky thought we needed more room. Plus the rent was going up at Victoria Rd. Plus the drunken patrons at the Broadway's bars were becoming a pain with extended licensing hours.

Sister snow bunnies

So we moved.

We'd arrived with a suitcase each. Now I had to hire a van to ferry our belongings to the new semi detached house in Western Avenue. Still a great location in
Leigh - close to the train station, nice walk along Marine Parade to the shops, closer to the Hadleigh Castle park. But I missed Victoria Road!

Outside Victoria Road looking up to the Broadway

Sam discharges a snowball...

...but gets back some with interest!

Victoria Road, Jade eats a popsicle and takes
a selfie, while it snows!

Keegan and his girlfriend, Jemma, duly arrived. Together with them, we decided to take a big northern tour of England and Scotland. We'd taken Adam and the girls north before and had loved it so...We hired a van for the six of us and booked hotels and headed off on a road trip, from Leigh to Inverness and back! It was an interesting trip. Keegan and Jemma were not in the best space so there were some difficult, sultry moments.

On our holidays

Nonetheless, Jacky and I loved visiting Culloden in the misty dawn, travelling through the locks down to Glasgow, revisiting Edinburgh and seeing Christine and her family in Bury.

Keegan and Jemma returned to New Zealand and we tried to get back to normal, whatever that is!

In September 2006 Margaret Wilson asked me if I wanted to be seconded to a new academy to help with their leadership problems. I was game, even though it was a bit of a mission to get to Walthamstow from Leigh each day.

With Fran and Lew at Chrsitine's.

It was winter and I had to take the C2C to east London, then a Silver Link train to north London's Blackhorse Road station, then a bus to the school. Phew. All up it took close to 2 hours if the Silver Link was running on time (which it hardly ever was).

Life at the school was interesting - I had some tough jobs to do and I had to teach Geography! The students were mostly from Somalia, Pakistan, or the Caribbean. The Somalian students were pretty battle hardened, being recently in the badlands of Mogadishu. Once they figured out who I was there were no real problems and I enjoyed the experience on the whole. 

Up north with Adam

One of my duties was to oversee the lunch queues into the dining hall. After a few titchy moments of being overrun by them, I learnt some names and made some 'friends' of the tougher kids. Then it went fine. Every day I chatted to the troops, let them in by year groups to the dining room and then, at the end, had my own lunch. By that time it was always some variety of cake drowning in warm custard. YUM. Seriously - it tasted great! After a week the dinner ladies caught on and kept me two portions to enjoy!

Unfortunately, we were a long way from Adam and things back in NZ weren't going well for Keegan so we made the decision to return. Jacky was keen for us to go back to Taranaki, so I applied for the Principal job at Hawera High School (which went to my friend Paul Ryan) and then to Stratford High School via the same recruiting organisation. 

I was shortlisted; got leave for a week from Walthamstow and flew back for the interview.

With Christine in Bury, wearing Tom's jersey

The journey turned into an epic both ways - Heathrow to Auckland/ Auckland to Wanganui (the plane tried twice to land in New Plymouth but couldn't)/ Wanganui to New Plymouth by bus!

Next day I did the interview; got the job; got back on the plane - New Plymouth to Auckland/ Auckland to Heathrow/ train back to Leigh-on-sea/ had a shower/ C2C etc back to Walthamstow.

I was a complete zombie for that week at school but we were buzzing! We (Jade, Samantha, Jacky, Finn and me) were going back to Taranaki for a January 25 2007 start as Principal at Stratford High School.

Love and peace - Wozza

Take you down t’ the foamin’ brine ‘n water (Captain Beefheart)

Rambling Man (You may say I'm a dreamer - Chapter 10 part 4)

Purdy kids before heading to the UK

As we prepared for our departure in Auguest 2004: Adam was about to finish his final year at Cambridge High School; Keegan was flatting while at Waikato University doing his BA; Samantha was in Year 10; and Jade was at Hautapu Primary.

It was messy, but Adam, Samantha and Jade were about to transition to the next stage of their education - Adam to University, Samantha to senior school with NCEA Level 1 and Jade to High School.

It's never easy moving schools and starting at new places but to our way of thinking this was the best messy change possible.

Adam at Abbey Road

Still, moving the five of us to the UK was disruptive in the extreme. Adam was unhappy - he gained Level 3 NCEA but couldn't sit any externals and was leaving his friends before he had to, Samantha and Jade also had their schooling disrupted. Not only because of the different September to July UK school year, but also the vastly different culture and educational system.

Before leaving, we had to sell a lot of our stuff, and put important stuff into storage. We had to resign jobs and find homes for the animals: Lewis went to live with Michelle and Gavin, Persia to Jenny Going and Sallie offered to look after Bazil for us.

This was all traumatic in all sorts of ways. But we did it, some of us with gritted teeth, because it was an adventure and we were all up for an adventure. Well, maybe not all. I was defintely driving the adventure but we had a family group conference and everyone had indicated they were open to the concept.

Stupid me! I should have realised a few important details but didn't. Jacky would follow me to whatever crazy location I picked, the girls were very young and had no concept of the life awaiting them in the UK and Adam was at best reluctant.

Sigh.

So, we headed off to live in Essex with a suitcase each and a carry on bag each. 

Singapore Airlines meant a stop over in Singapore. We did all the touristy things and had a great time at the bird park, Sentosa, swimming at the hotel, shopping, and adjusting to a new life. 

Unfortunately, for some reason Jade was really sick before we left Singapore and had a miserable start to the actual UK adventure.

The Grand, then...

We had booked a hotel in Leigh-on-sea, The Grand, from Nu Zild via the internet. Hey, it looked impressive in the advertising!

It turned out The Grand was a nearly derelict old Hotel that was being run by a Basil Fawlty clone. We moved into the top floor to find pigeons were using our bathroom as their own private hotel. Basil reluctantly came up all the stairs with his rubber gloves and detergent to clean the dirty toilet and get rid of the pigeons. 

...and now, all boarded up!

Adam had his own room but the four of us dossed down together. It was grim.

When I'd taken the train to Leigh it had wound through rural countryside. This had given me a false impression. My descriptions to Jacky and the kids were all of a bucolic sea side village with olde worlde charm, because that's what I saw.

Leigh-on-sea

When we landed at Heathrow we hired a car to take us to Leigh. We quickly found out, as we drove along the A12, that we were in solid built up housing for miles. Jacky was peeved and it took about an hour of living in The Grand for her to start saying, I want to go home. Jade and Samantha were both sick and tired from the flight. Adam was tired and grumpy.

I needed some air, so I calmly went downstairs. Actually, Jacky's description of my 'storming off' is the more accurate of the two. My heart sunk as I headed out to buy us some dinner (pizzas) from the broadway. This adventure lark was gonna be a tougher sell than I'd expected!

Love and peace - Wozza

I'm gonna keep on walkin', till I find my way back home (Sonny Terry, Brownie McGhee)

Still reading Waging Heavy Peace (slowly- it's so good!) and ole Neil's a keen walker. I love Neil Young - he's so funny, and wise!

Anyway he's a keen walker and I miss walking. Except I think he means hiking. I'm not so much a hiker but I love walking. Are you keeping up?

So... this post is going to celebrate some of my favourite walks.

Place: Leigh-on-sea (Essex) - the walk from our place in Western Road to the shops (Fives! I really miss Fives - one of my favourite record stores) - beautiful gardens and views.

Place: Leigh-on-sea (Essex) - the walk from our place in Western Road to Rayleigh Castle - beautiful views of the Thames estuary.

Place: Dubai - specifically The Dubai Mall - I loved walking around it, visiting the Virgin Mega Store and the great bookshop close by.

Place: Doha (Qatar) - from our place down past the Souq Waqif, along the corniche to the City Centre Mall.

Place: London  - the embankment - war memorials, views of the Thames, the London Eye, Westminster, St Tommys, the Cathedral. Sometimes we'd do the Charing Cross - Mall - St James' Park to Westminster walk and that was amazing as well - squirrels. I miss the squirrels!

Place: Taupo (NZ) - the Lion walk with the kids from the Taupo house. A loop that took in a Rainbow Point ice cream.

Place: London - from Leicester Square tube station to Covent Garden and Fopp (I really miss Fopp - another of my favourite record stores)

Place: Wuxi - the botanical gardens after biking there from our place. Spectacular gardens.

Sadly, even though we live out in the beautiful Central Hawke's Bay countryside, we currently have no regular walks around us. Our place to Otane shops does not appeal. 

This is a real pity. I love to walk!

Love and peace - Wozza

and so you're back from outer space (Gloria Gaynor)

...and so we're back from, well, not outer space...although, come to think of it, London is looking like it exists in a parallel universe at the moment.

Amazing scenes there - people jumping out of burning buildings, police running around like headless chooks wacking people, thugs in masks smashing windows and looting shops. Madness. Fran's partner, Nic, was alone in their flat above a Sainsbury's that was smashed up. He's okay but no doubt shaken by events. Some of Pat and Randy's friends (David and Presley) live close to the initial problem area in Tottenham and didn't hear a thing (their facebook message read, "Riot? What riot?"). It's been that kind of experience, I guess. London is huge and with 16 million people it's bound to contain a few nutters innit.

Anyway - we're back in sand land after an often brilliant three weeks away. I have downloaded all of the what-we-did-on-our-holiday snaps so here we go with the (Jacky approved and chronological) highlights.

We began our travels in London with some returns to old haunts like St Paul's Cathedral, the Tate Modern, and a river cruise along the Thames (that's why there's a picture of the river cruise boat we went on).



Wozza photographed by SWMBO, outside St Paul's.

 

Jacky with pashmina - not that warm then.

The one above of Jacky is from our first B 'n' B in Chester. The next day we continued the trek north for Irene's 90th birthday party - a true highlight. Irene looked fantastic and we loved being part of the day. The look of surprise on her face when I walked in the room was priceless!!

Fran, Tom and Lew model the three different plate balancing manoeuvers.

Jacky caught red handed feeding Samantha.

The moody magnificence of Lewis senior...

...and the there's-the-door hospitality of Tom junior.



Irene Purdy, 90 not out, with orange juice (yeah, right).

 

The gathering of the Purdy tribe.

The next stage of the travel north involved our first visit to the Lake District in general and Keswick in particular. Needless to say, like everyone else who visits this magical area - we fell in love with it. Dove Cottage was one of the many highlights. Another was finding a mint vinyl copy of 200 Motels by Frank Zappa in the Keswick Collectables shop! That thrill probably means more to me than you, I guess.

On the way we stopped off at Rishworth where Jacky took approximately 367 photos of cows - I have added one for the sake of historical accuracy. By the way this was the only place that we left stuff behind - dirty clothes! Somehow we both missed a bag of laundry in the smallest room we had all trip.



A scene we don't see much in sand land.

 

Our amazing B 'n' B in Keswick

 

Oh I spose another four poster would be okay.

 



Sorry - but I love the Hollies!



Keswick in blue sky finery.



The view from the four poster.





Dove Cottage.

 

William and Dorothy's view!

We reluctantly left Keswick and headed north to Scotland. That means going through Biggar - one of my favourite places on earth. In 2003 Jacky took a photo of me posting a letter from the post office - here's the 2011 version.

Onwards we travelled, to Edinburgh and a stay at the Hotel Ritz in the Haymarket - a 5 minute walk to town. I had booked the hotel and location by mistake it turns out. I had forgotten that Jacky loved the Grassmarket area - not the Haymarket. Oops! I couldn't believe my luck to find the cheap price at the Hotel Ritz in the area I though Jacky loved. Oops again!

On the southward journey to London we stopped off for a night in York and went to Castle Howard for a looksee. In this case, it's probably fair to say that the pictures don't do the place and the atmosphere justice, nor does the word breathtaking.

A very special place.

A brief return to London was followed by a trip to Paris on the Eurostar. 



Our digs in Montparnasse.



The view from our balcony.

Notre Dame and the Seine.



Look - it's a houseboat!

 

On our way to see Mona and some other girls.





Jacky considers the way forward to see Mona.



Post Mona come down drink at Arbucks.

Back to blighty and a nostalgic train trip out to Leigh-on-Sea were the final flings in terms of photo ops.

We did see a fantastic play with Randy on our last night with him - Rosencrantz and Gildenstern Are Dead. It was a great end to a great holiday.

Outside our old house in Victoria Rd.

Nick at work in Wimpy on our fine burgers.

Possibly the best independent music store in the world!!

The Leigh high street called The Broadway.

The view from the Grand Parade over to Kent and a place called Grain!

Katy and Jacky cooking a goodbye dinner (for us)
and welcome to the shire dinner (for Janice's yet to be born daughter)
on one of our last nights in the shire.

And that's it!!

I start work again on Sunday the 14th so I dare say that will feature in oncoming updates, inshallah. Until then...

Love and peace - Wozza