Curriculum

Literacy

My nanna was feisty for her generation! She was a strong-minded, independent woman who lost her husband at a young age and raised four children alone. Her strength was on show for the world to see (well at least for my group of friends) especially one memorable day when a boy and his group of friends followed us home on their bikes (their attention was not wanted). My nanna asked them politely to ‘move along’ (as a frail 65 year old would). When they were rather ‘cheeky’ to her and started ‘skid-marking’ their bikes along our footpath, she literally chased them down the road with a loose brick she had found near the letterbox. My friends were rolling around the ground laughing barely able to believe their eyes, while I wasn’t quite sure what to do (my nanna was unpredictable and that’s why the whole neighbourhood loved her – she had a reputation that these boys obviously had not heard about). She was like the ‘Matriarch of Payneham’ and the boys had no idea what they had got themselves into! To this day I do not know what my Nan planned to do if she caught them, but let’s just say my friends and I never had a problem with unwanted attention from them ever again.

How I often wished as a teenager that my nanna knew I could embarrass myself quite well without her help! One of my most embarrassing moments was when I ran to my History lesson during high school and slipped over in front of the classroom door. This sounds bad enough, but what you need to understand is that I was a state sprinter at the time and there was a banana peel in front of the bloomin’ door ( I kid you not! It was a portable classroom and it was in the back corner of the school). Furthermore, my childhood crush was in that very room (why else would a fifteen year old be so keen to get to History class that she ran her ‘personal best’ for the hundred metres). Nevertheless, I created a piece of my own personal history that day (my most embarrassing moment ever) and learned that speed and banana peels do not go very well together! I will never forget having to go inside our classroom hoping no one saw the ‘epic fall’, only to find half my class in ‘raptures’ (especially my crush); some curled up on the floor laughing so hard that they could barely breathe. I probably hurt myself but I cannot remember – I still cringe at the memory! Glad I was the entertainment for my class that day (the boy you ask? He could never look at me with a straight face again – it was a long year)!

Despite these fun moments at high school we certainly found time to treat our mums and dads, um…um…interestingly! My poor mum – she was sure I had turned into an alien for a few years there. She could barely look at me without my ‘hormones’ screaming at her, ‘what are you looking at?’ You know the days, talking on the phone for hours on end while your parents missed important calls (this was before mobile phones and call waiting). ‘I know mum… I know we were at school half an hour ago, but …’- two hours later we were still analysing every moment of the school ‘social’ day, until my father ‘yanked’ the cord out of its socket. ‘Beep, beep, beep … oh, DAD you’re so mean’!!! 

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