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February 2000

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Moving house and Back to work
Tuesday, 22 February 2000

This entry *was* originally going to be made on 4 February - seems such a long time ago now.

Well, it would be an understatement to say that alot has happened since then. And in my life, "alot" these days simply means more stress.

After returning from the cadet camp at the end of last month (it was actually my birthday on the day I left Pearce - spent in the car on the long drive back to Kalgoorlie), it was straight back into work. And I do mean back into work - deep into it in fact!

There was hardly any time to get any classes organisied - all the time was spent doing administrative tasks such as interviewing prospective students, organising, and the completely re-organising timetable, trying to make sense of what I was supposed to teach, etc.

And on top of this, I was expected to help with the packing and moving as we shifted house. It's only around the corner, but it was still a mamoth task, even with the help of a removal company. Its the packing and lugging and endless unpacking again into new locations. Its the having to go out and get new furniture routine (which does have its nice side - we get to choose the decore a bit more). Its the unsettled kids trying to find their things in boxes and odd places....

Well, we survived, and the place is starting to get half decent now. Both the kids now have their own rooms, and our "study" is now part of the main bedroom - a sort of alcove / retreat type area.

And, the new house is a two story place - so I *do* get some exercise now - Ha!

But back to work. It seems that things are settling down now - but for the first week or two it was complete chaos.

At first we were not sure if we had enough students - then on the first day we were overwhelmed with numbers, so much so that many classes had to be split (its a bit hard to get 25+ students using labs with only 12 PC's in them!), and timetables completely reorganised, just to cope with the numbers.

It's been a challenge to still offer the same level of courses with two less staff! Much has been converted to so-called flexible delivery mode classes - where basically we give the students the materials, they study and we supervise and assist where necessary. But of course, not all modules can be delivered that way, and not all students respond well to that situation. But we do what we can.

So, thats why its taken me so long to get around to posting another journal entry - there has barely been time to do anything else. And if that upsets some people - tough! I write this for me. If you like reading it, well and good, but don't make me a slave to this thing just to entertain you. (Sorry for that rant, an explaination was needed - its just that in the past I have had some negative comment from some quarters because I wasn't writing as regualrly as some folks would have liked).