Yesterday we went to Walton on the Naze. It was a day of mixed emotions. From the train going we could see fields and fields of barley - golden brown in the sunshine. Suddenly, all I could think of was that if I'd passed Higher Science at school. I could have studied agriculture as I'd planned and now I would be part of a landscape like that somewhere - instead of just looking at it from a train window.
As we walked down the hill from the station I could see a white building in the distance - at the other end of the beach. Thats how far we need to go I thought. And eventually a while later we got there.
There was a beach shop just before it, and as we approached it, I had a flashback moment. I saw the children from my class going into that with their spending money.
Then it all came flooding back - the years of settling the children after the troubled times in the life of that school he head teacher who saw himself as a father figure and wanted to take the whole school on an outing to the seaside. The ten double decker coaches he hired, and the fact that the one I was had a problem on the A128 going home. The problem caused the top deck to sway alarmingly. Even the people on the coach beh nd could see this happening.
That was the last time I ever took a party of children on a double decker bus outside London!
He was actually not a bad head teacher
