My favourite time of year...

It has come to that marvelous time of year again. The time when I can no longer breathe in deeply and smile and thank God for the sights and sounds and smells of his beautiful creation. The mere sight of boys throwing handfuls of cut grass makes me sneeze!

This year I thought (hoped) that my hayfever would stay away. I have been driving home from work for the last couple of weeks thinking how I wasn't suffering yet and that maybe I had grown out of it as one is meant to in their twenties. But yesterday it arrived with a vengeance unfortunately and I'm beginning to remember what it feels like to desire to claw out my entire respiritory system with sharpened fingernails!

On a lighter note, optional SATs are done and marked, my reports are now written and out to parents and I've survived 'meet your child's new teacher/discuss your child's report' open evening. Marvelous!

John Stephen Akhwari

Allow me a little self indulgence as I post this picture of my current hall display in school. We have been learning about Olympic heroes across the school and the hero that I chose for our class is indeed an inspiration.

John Stephen Akhwari of Tanzania ran the marathon in the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, 40 years ago. Not long into the race he fell over, badly injuring his knee and his head. Despite this he did not give up, he continued to run even though he was in complete agony. An hour after the last runner had finished the race and the medals had been awarded to the winners of the marathon John Stephen Akhwari entered the stadium, limping the last few hundred metres to the finish line. Once he had finished a reporter asked him why he had continued to run even though he knew that he could not win the race, he replied, "My country did not send me 7000 miles to start the race. They sent me to finish."