Homecoming

A morning of mooching around home in rather cool conditions. It wasn't until part way through the morning that I realised it was Friday, not Thursday. Friday meant it was Peter P's memorial service so that changed my focus rather quickly.

Peter was the principal who in 1985, made a decision to offer me a position for a term at WaiCol. He offered it to me as a qualified and capable teacher despite me, as the Chair of the Board put it at the time, having'walked in off the streets'! Peter was set to give the position to someone else who the local 'network' had 'arranged' but that person was neither qualified nor experienced. The professional that Peter was lead him to offer me the position. One term turned to two which turned into another year, and that's how I came to live in and love New Zealand. Peter had to put in extra work with both the Immigration and Education departments to be able to make the position permanent for me. Immigration wouldn't grant me residency without a job but Education couldn't offer me a job without a residency - a classic catch-22 that Peter navigated perfectly ultimately enabling me to gain both residency and employment. I owe him so much......without his faith in me and his willingness to go the extra mile to circumnavigate bureaucratic anomalies my life would be very different indeed. It was a sad but a joyous service and I quietly thanked him again for the life-changing work he put in on my behalf all those years ago.

It wasn't until after the memorial service had finished that I found a message from the garage that was fixing Gerty saying she was all done and ready for collection. A little juggling (big thanks B :D) and I was able to get her back home and start to think about some more trips..... yay!!