I'm back!

Gosh, I stopped this blog in July 2009, four years ago and it's still here as if it were only yesterday. I've actually been meaning to start a new blog with a more specific focus for ages. After much pondering I've decided to pick this one up again. After all,  I became sort of unretired and now I'm retired again, after a fashion.

Nothing to stop me branching out to other topics apart from the "retiring and moving to Whangarei" story.

But to backtrack,  after July 2009 I went back to work full-time at a Catholic school - all senior classes - and I enjoyed it. But in October another cancer was found on my tongue and this time I had to have a large part of the tongue removed as well as some of the floor of my mouth. A so-called flap was formed by some tissue from my wrist. It was a big huge ghastly operation for which I was in Auckland Hospital for three long weeks. For the following two years there were a few panics when ulcers developed somewhere else in my mouth but by and large I've been well and in 2011 worked all year part-time (a big part-time job) at a small private school north of Whangarei.

That sounds quite good but in 2010 (probably earlier) Allen developed dementia. By the end of 2011 I didn't feel I could leave him at home while I worked and I wanted us to move to Auckland anyway to be nearer family. Eldest son, wife and baby had moved from the UK to Browns Bay. I didn't think I could cope in Whangarei with Allen by myself. End result was a move to Red Beach on the Hibiscus Coast in May 2012. Allen went into a rest home three months ago where he is amazingly well settled and I am once more carving out a new life. I know no-one in the local area apart from our young neighbours so I'm on a mission to meet people. Very hard when you have always struggled with socialising:) I've joined two walking groups for now - not a bad start. I've also had some relieving at Orewa College and have a small handful of students to tutor: two Chinese people and a Year 12 boy doing NCEA. I guess I've done pretty well to get out there in the world in the few months since Allen went into care. Before that I could barely go out at all.

In this blog I want to do more than chart my own personal process of retirement but also comment on the world around me. I'm fascinated in politics, the environment, books and films ...

Below is a view from Wenderholm - a place I'm delighted to live near.