Funeral and wake

John's funeral went off well. There was a huge crowd to see him off. Peter, his first son gave an emotional speech as did his youngest daughter Andrea. A couple of the many grandkids also spoke of their beloved grandfather. Father Michael told us that John was a father to him as he never got to know his own father. It was a long service even including some Latin bits. Father Michael is know as the only Catholic Priest in Western Australia who does a full Latin Mass.

The wake filled Joy's house and rounded off what John would have been very pleased with.

Yesterday I was in the local Bunnings hardware store. As I searched for my monthly dose of poison (snail pellets) I overheard two young boys probably aged 7 & 8 discussing rat baits with their father. The were speaking in precise English without a trace of accent, except a slight Australian twang; their father was replying in Russian. It seemed strange, but I guess he was trying to teach them his language. How did I know he was Russian? He looked like Putin.

Today I installed a Mac with and older operating system which is being used to run some very good educational software I found. I set it up in My daughter Helen's room at her primary school. I originally trained as a primary teacher and taught primary for about three years. Today I realised that the hard yards are done in lower primary classes. Helen was constantly monitoring these pre-primary kids, reinforcing values that it would seem many of the parents are not stressing. I have mentioned that this school is deemed a 'hard to staff school' because parents and kids can be difficult. She of course would rather teach at a 'good' school, but this full time job will give her holiday pay which relief work doesn't.