dark days and an emotional flat battery

These are very dark days.


I have triumphantly rolled together two of the most traumatic events of my life into one exhausting week.

We moved house at the weekend and were not able to stay in our new home. The new house was simply not ready for us and so we have led a peripatetic existence since then thanks to Trev & Linda and our lovely daughter.
Moving home is supposed to be one of lifes most stressful events ... I can now confirm this!

And this week has been the week I have dreaded - giving in my notice at a governors' meeting; telling my wonderful staff team individually - and then there was the collective intake of breath I will never forget in the moment I told our children in assembly that I was leaving.

It's times like this that your family and friends really come good. So many people helped us with the move and so many too have been so kind in things said and done since the announcement of my leaving school in July.

Nicky-Jane's love has been especially and typically sensitive - taking me for a meal before the governors' meeting and then hovering before, during and after the assembly. I caught her out of the corner of my eye during a 'wobble' and knowing she was there was such a help at that moment.

People have commented on my being outwardly 'strong' - it was all a veneer and I was truly 'running on empty' at the end of it.

So, a truly awful week,  that brings together two of the things I have feared most in this exciting new life we prepare for ourselves, draws to a close.