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My time has come

3/9/2020

16 Comments

 
Retirement for Frank Flynn means having the time to turn down the side roads.
By Frank Flynn
 
MY FIRST teaching position was up the bush. I was 23 and I got a phone call from the Education Department which ran along these lines.
 
Them: We have a job for you
Me: Great! Where?
Them: Cohuna
Me: Where the hell is that!!!
 
Well, I went. I took all my worldly possessions – a suitcase, a ghetto blaster and a fern –  threw them into my EJ Holden station wagon and took off.
 
I kid you not, it was like driving into the film ‘Wake in Fright’. The road north of Bendigo is dead straight, punctuated by a few towns identifiable by large wheat silos gradually appearing on the horizon.
I can remember arriving at the high school at the end of the stinking hot day and presenting myself to the principal. I was dressed in green army shorts, a Hawaiian shirt and wraparound sunglasses. He told me years later what he thought of me: “Bloody city slicker!”’
 
I could not have asked for a more wonderful introduction to a teaching career.
 
I loved the kids, the dairy farming community and the Murray river.
 
I loved the fact that you saw the kids working the checkout in the local IGA after school.
 
I loved the fact that the guy who serviced my car knew me because I taught his kids.
 
Everybody knew everybody and, even though I didn’t play football, I quickly realised that as long as you weren’t a complete nong, country people would just accept you.
 
After three years I moved back to the city but Cohuna taught me that I loved living in the bush. I always felt that I’d return to it somewhere, sometime.
 
My wife and I have been coming to Cape Paterson for more than 25 years, renting or staying with friends. In 2017 we managed to purchase a property. Although my wife is still working in the city, I decided to take all my long service leave and come and live permanently at the coast to see if this sea change thing was all it was cracked up to be.
 
It actually worked out rather well, as it turned out in this year of COVID – it gave my wife a legitimate reason to escape from the city.
 
I turned my hand to painting and drawing (landscapes) but soon realised that my great love was photography. The pleasure I get from driving up in the hills and taking my daily walks on the beach has no bounds.
 
I’ve taken to driving through the hills and turning down those dead end roads, just to see what’s there. You know – the ones you see all the time in your travels but never ever turn down.
 
You find the most extraordinary scenes and things that only the local farmers know about. A clump of gnarled old trees, a ruined house with stone chimneys still reaching skyward, a pond with a family of ducks and views over rolling green hills all the way to Venus Bay and Cape Liptrap.
 
Retirement for me is about having the time to stop when you see something wonderful –clouds peeking over a green hill, or an interested cow staring at you through a fence – and actually get out of the car and take that photo.
 
Our lives, especially as teachers, are ruled by bells, periods, deadlines, assignments and outcomes. We have been conditioned and indeed told to see as wasteful every minute of our lives, especially our working lives, that isn’t being used to do something.
 
Well, now I see this requirement to be meaningfully employed every minute of the day as quite dehumanising. Mindfulness was really starting to be the new ‘thing’ at the end of my career and now I find the very act of wandering a quiet country lane or a long beach walk the ultimate in being human.
 
I have become the most mindful person I know!
 
How lucky are we to have the hills and the coast of South Gippsland as our work and playground.
 
I hope it is the joy of a feeling and seeing a moment in time that comes across in my photography.
 
Contact Frank at f.flynn@bigpond.net.au or on 0433 663 547. 
16 Comments
Leticia
3/9/2020 06:48:06 pm

Hi Frank
Thank you for reminding me why I love this part of the world. You've captured some beautiful moments which help me become a bit more mindful too!
Best
Leticia

Reply
Frank
4/9/2020 03:18:20 pm

Thanks Letitia.

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Deb
4/9/2020 03:33:41 pm

What a colourful and inspirational picture of life’s possibilities

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Frank
4/9/2020 03:43:44 pm

Thanks Deb, smoke em, when you’ve gottem. That’s what I say😉

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Jennie
4/9/2020 04:15:04 pm

Thanks Frank, can’t help but be a little envious of your roving and rambling life but blessed to share your delight of this coast and to see it through your lens. Thank you.

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Frank Flynn
4/9/2020 04:42:10 pm

Thanks Jennie, I might write some more. I enjoy it. 🙏

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Rosemary
4/9/2020 06:02:45 pm

Great story of your journey. So glad you're around to share your love of the beautiful Bass Coast and revel in new found freedoms

Reply
Frank Flynn
4/9/2020 07:57:20 pm

And now, hopefully... coming out of the Covid restrictions, slowly, it’ll be even better...

Reply
Imelda
4/9/2020 06:06:27 pm

Great insight Frank - I too went for a walk somewhere I have been saying for years "I must stop and check this conservation reserve out for a walk". I am talking about The Gurdies Conservation Reserve. Went there yesterday and thoroughly enjoyed the walk through the bushland and am very glad I took the time (from Ventnor on Phillip Island) to check it out. We are indeed very fortunate to live in this regional area and the abundance of nature on our doorstep.

Reply
Frank Flynn
4/9/2020 07:55:35 pm

It’s a beautiful quiet spot Imelda. Aren’t we lucky.

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N Valks
5/9/2020 08:38:32 am

Frank you have a wonderful eye for detail.
As a 9-5 worker (or whatever extra hours it takes to get the job done!), I’m incredibly jealous of your lifestyle. Enjoy the retirement you’ve earned it.

Reply
Frank Flynn
5/9/2020 08:58:43 am

Thanks Nick. Appreciate that very much. Some people do struggle with retirement. Not me. I find myself lost in visual splendour on most days.
Cheers.

Reply
Brian Carr link
5/9/2020 10:06:57 am

What a terrific solution to what some people dread...retirement....and what a visual feast you've chosen to explore...The Strezleckis, the coast, and the people....you'll need more terabytes to store those images on now.

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Margaret Lee
5/9/2020 04:21:31 pm

I love your view of our wonderful Bass Coast Frank. I have been here for the past 20 years and like you have taken to photography especially the Flora, Fungi,Lichens and mosses in The Gurdies Conservation Reserve. Just through my back gate.........

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Frank Flynn
5/9/2020 04:46:36 pm

How lucky you are Margaret. I’ve driven through there and walked at Dunbabbin’s Rd. It is most beautiful. Thankyou.

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Leslie Arnott
23/10/2020 03:30:52 pm

Oh Frank, I just read your story now. I completely missed it when you first sent it out. I adore the photos and your story. The sand shots are my favourite. Keep it coming if you can! It’s all so wonderful. Hugs, Les 👍🏾😀

Reply



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