Retired again!

Last Thursday I worked my final day on the recent council election and state referendum. (held March 19)

So many of my friends think that the job finishes the day after the election and they are always surprised that I'm still not available for my usual activities. 

But every bundle of ballot papers from all of the polling booths is check counted...as are those votes taken in booths in other wards (Absents) as well as the pre poll votes.  The postal votes' envelopes are all processed/scanned, the flaps with  details are separated from the envelopes, then these are opened and the votes counted...twice. All these amount to thousands and thousands! Everything is made into bundles of 50, so over the week you count from 1 to 50 many, many times. :-)

I spent many an hour with the scanner so I could mark off postal voters...

The rubber thimble was my 'best mate' while flipping through bundles of ballot papers...

It was fun seeing where some of the postal votes came from too...

Voters who apply for a postal vote receive a 'Reply Paid' envelope to send their ballot papers back for counting, but they are only for posting in Australia. So that's why in the previous photo there are US, U.K., German and Hong Kong stamps.

But some Aussies also put stamps on their envelopes, so I have a nice little number of stamps to pass on at church. ( the Anglican Church raises money for missions by selling on used stamps; in 2014 we raised $10 000 this way, so every little bit counts. ) 

And all that cardboard that an election generates! 

Members of the public often express concern that pencils are used to record votes instead of biros. They are of the opinion that pencil marks can be rubbed out easily. At the pre poll centre some voters actually expressed the opinion that office staff open the ballot boxes out of hours and erase people's votes and change the choice. Huh??? Really ??? 

But the reality was quite different.  Every night during the pre poll fortnight, those red ballot boxes, have the top flap zipped up so that the slot is covered and secure, and a lock with a serial number is attached and witnessed on the accompanying paperwork. And a similar system is used on the cardboard boxes too...and a similar routine happens when those security flaps are opened with the witnesses checking numbers on the lock tab etc. 

And in the last few days I worked, I helped pack up some of the items used by polling booth staff when issuing votes.

DH and one casual staff member continue to work for another day or so. They will be packing up everything to go back to the warehouse run by the electoral commission, and the old abandoned former bank will go back to being empty again. 

The view looking out the front doors of the building. 

The bank actually moved out of this building in May last year but every day we had people who came looking for the ATM...they would always act surprised when we told them that the bank had moved across the road last May??? You know what? Generally, people don't read signs do they?? Lol

Work...a 4 letter word...

In my last post, I mentioned that DH is running the election office for one of the electorates in the coming state election. And guess who is the Election Assistant in that office? Yep, it's yours truly. While DH has been busy organising polling places, training booth staff, sorting out resources for the polling booths and a 'million' other tasks, I've been taking pre poll votes and working on personnel records. 

So no crochet hooks, knitting needles or sewing needles for me at the moment...more likely to be these...

And this...

But yesterday morning I was using these...

A mop and bucket! We had had a fair bit of rain overnight and due to a blocked down pipe, our office flooded...and most of the water pooled around the entry...:-(

But it was all fixed by mid afternoon and no voter slipped...which is what we were concerned about. 

It is 3 years since I last did this temporary job, and what a difference those 3 years make! I'm exhausted at the end of the day...just enough energy to feed the cat and us...and not long after that...I'm asleep! Lol. 

My next post will be for the Grow Your Blog party, linking up with Vicki Boster...

On my mind...pupils through the years

On my mind today is the number of children who have been in my classes since 1971. Sometimes I get emails or Facebook messages from former students saying how I influenced their lives. Many share memories of books that I read to the class or they remember particular life skills that I emphasized. It’s a lot of power and influence but, like most teachers I didn’t teach because of that power. It was something innate and something I knew I wanted to do even as a little girl. It still gives me so much pleasure to meet up with ex pupils and hear how their lives are going. Some of them are already grandparents while my turn still has to come! The students in my first class are 51-52 y/o this year!!

Today I attended the leaders’ Induction ceremony at the school where I have been teaching the last 7 years. In Queensland year 7s are still in primary school and this year’s yr 7 class were my Year 6 class last year. I’ve known nearly all of them since they started in Yr 1 as I taught Yr 3 in the ‘Early Years Block (Yrs1-3)’ then. I also taught most of them when they were in Yr 4 in 2008. I had promised them last year that I would come back for this occasion. Bless them! They were so excited to see me as I parked my car near the school hall. I got lots of hugs and smiles!

The new school hall built with funds from the federal government. The school community has been saving to build a hall for many many years, without much success. So all are very grateful for the funding!

A group of students making their way past the tuckshop(canteen), uniform shop and cafe complex. All part of the hall project.

For the last 4 years at our school we have had a Leadership programme in Semester 2 for the Year 6 class. It’s great to see their growth as they work through the modules. Last year under my guidance the class ran the Remembrance Day Ceremony on November 11 as well as the Year 7 graduation as part of the leadership program. They did very well, just as they did this morning. After the ceremony this morning the class became the most attentive waiters for the assembled guests.

Nearly time for the ceremony to start

The question I got asked continually this morning was,’How are you enjoying retirement’?  I’m sure you can imagine my answer!

DH and retirement...

DH retired in 2009 when he turned 60. He really took to the new lifestyle, no early morning treks to the railway station, no long long days at the office and up to 5 days per week playing golf. Less than a year after he retired his former boss started offering contracts. At least one he wasn't able to take as we had a Norfolk Is holiday planned. But it wasn't long before he had an offer he didn't think he could refuse. So for a number of months he ran a government office in Ipswich, commuting from Brisbane each day on the train.  As the organisation wanted him to run the federal election for the seat of Blair, DH negotiated that when the election was called he would have accommodation in Ipswich for the duration of the election. Remember all the drama last year when 'Kevie' was deposed by Julia? Despite the denials of an impending election, the election was suddenly announced and DH worked 'flat out'!  Eventually, a month after the election his contract finished and he was back home with us again. Then...

Last November the former boss rings him to congratulate him on a job well done and to offer another contract...this time to organise an 'Out of country' referendum for southern Sudanese to secede from the rest of Sudan. So a rushed trip to Canberra almost straight away and then training Sudanese staff, organising a venue for both training and voting and getting ready for the 3 stages of the voting process; registration, verification and voting. Everything done at each of the centres in Australia had to mirror what was happening in the Sudan. My husband was looking forward to the completion of the tasks when flooding hit Brisbane and the Southbank venue was flooded. Eventually some alternatives were sorted out and the polls closed on Tuesday and the papers were sent to Canberra on Wednesday morning. DH's contract was finished and another job well done. Of course he was then ready for lots of golf...unfortunately the rains and flooding means that conditions on city golf courses are not very pleasant at the moment. Never mind...there's always next week!

DH on the left. Photo was in one of the local papers to illustrate a news item about the shed at the course which caught fire destroying a number of golf-buggies stored inside. Obviously the sub editor thought these 2 fellows were a better photo than the burnt out shed!!!

De-cluttering continues...

Yesterday I found a large plastic box on the bottom shelf of the built ins in my sewing room which was full of school 'stuff' left after I sorted out 4 boxes of school related items about 4-5 years ago. This time I decided to throw out the worksheets for assorted year levels that I had kept. This resulted in a small 'mountain' of now empty plastic sleeves as I decided that I would only throw out the sheets inside the plastic. I made another pile which contained items that my neighbour's grandson may like, art projects, books, stickers etc. Another pile was made of books for the charity bin and another pile was things I would keep. (thankfully very very small!) Another pile was my 'throw out' pile. Now my 'keeping' pile has been placed in a box which has already been packed with items that I brought home from my classroom, soooo... I now have a whole shelf which is empty in my sewing room which means I can put away some of the clutter on my sewing table!

So that means I have decluttered 3 'areas' and that is a good start. Early this year, I colour coded my yarns and fabrics and put them into zippered sweater bags and sorted my sewing accessories and put them into various containers. At that time (January 2010) we knew that we needed to 'free up' another bedroom as one daughter was coming back from the UK and even though she had lived with her mother before she worked OS, that was no longer possible. The room was absolutely shocking because, as well as my sewing equipment being on a table in there, the room had become a dumping ground for all members of the family. I spent hours and hours sorting out things and eventually cleared enough to have a made up bed ready but really very little or no space for Meg to put her own belongings. Then her sister moved out and we had a large bedroom spare but it was quickly occupied by another daughter who had come home for some TLC after a particularly trying time in her personal life. DH and I are at present on our own and will continue to de-clutter our 'stuff'!

Today I also did some scanning of some magazine pages today as the mags were from the library and are due back tomorrow. The use of the photocopier at work I'll really miss as the scanner takes a lot longer and there is no A3 size on it. So I've copied a knitting pattern or two and 2 quilting ideas.

Talking of work, last night I finally did a task that I've been putting off for ages...re-newing my teacher registration! Normally you just pay the fees but this year they (the Queensland College of teachers) are tying registration to professional development completed. Full-timers have to do 30 hours per year. As a .6 I had to do 18 hours. The QCT had been sending us letters and emails discussing this PD etc and I was of the opinion that it would be complicated to re-register. I have to re-register as technically I'm on leave not retired. Time was running out to register so last night I made my reluctant self re-read all the letters etc and I went online. The site wouldn't accept my password, and even though the site indicated my password had been emailed to me after my request it did not arrive. No panic! remember I'm more laidback now that I'm almost retired but it would cost extra $$ if I couldn't register by 31st. Luckily I found in one of the letters that they had reassigned me a new password. So when I finally got into the site, it took me just over 5 minutes, including a redirection to pay the fees! No justification or filling out forms regarding my PD just the somewhat gentle threat of a possible audit of my paperwork showing what training I'd completed. All that procrastination!!! I could have done the re-registering before Nov 15 and have been in the draw for an iPad for heaven's sake!!!! lol

Waiting for the water taxi to head over to St Marco Square. We were amazed by the obvious complete lack of O.H. and S!!!

DH and I went out today to the movies. We saw 'The Tourist'. I loved every minute of it...pure escapism with the added bonus of beautiful Venice being the setting!

The characters in the movie tended to use the faster water taxis! DH and I (in the aqua hat) enjoying a gondola ride with others on our tour.

Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp's characters went to a function at the Dogue's palace; we just had a tour!

The scenery in the movie was delightful and I couldn't resist turning on the portable hard drive and looking back at our photos of Venice. Great memories!