Soon after the interviews, smoothoperator the newly appointed Principal, made a visit to the school form Germany. Things went well. He seemed a personable and competent guy who was quite impressed with the way the school was developing. However, I was left with the impression that he was he did not really have a clear grasp of the political situation at the school. From what he said it seemed like he had no idea of what the blowfly was really like. Like all of us he saw what he wanted to see because of his own agenda.
After the smoothoperator's return to Hamburg things started to go wrong for me. The first thing concerned scholarships. He had me left me instructions that many scholarships were to be offered to local students. Some of these were to be at a hundred percent, others at 80 percent, others at 50 percent and so on. I went ahead and advertised in the local community and did preliminary interviews of a number of parents, and tested their children, and I subsequently made offers to may of them.
I assumed had consulted with the blowfly about all of this. However, once the smoothoperator was safely back in Hamburg out of sight , the blowfly changed his tune. To me he was saying could not see the sense in giving away one hundred percent scholarships to local students.
I was caught in a bind as I had already offered one hundred percent scholarships to some parents and these children had already taken the tests. As far as I was concerned I could not renege on my commitments.
But this was exactly what the blowfly asked me to do. In the end I referred the whole matter to the smoothoperator . in Hamburg by fax. The blowfly had to back down, and I think this was the beginning of the end for me with the blowfly. I don't think he ever forgave me for that. He started giving me a hard time about staffing in the coming year in a meeting with my assistant. After several meetings , in one meeting I reached the end of my tether and ‘lost it’ with the blowfly saying words to the effect that it seemed like he was really doing my job. My assistant tried to calm me down but I stormed off to see the chairman. I couldn’t find him of course.
In retrospect how naive I was to think that NC would even have supported me in a substantial way with the blowfly. The chairman calmed me down and and said some soothing things, but in the end I know that he only did this so that I would stay until smoothoperator had finished his contract in Hamburg. After that I don't think the Chairman really cared about what happened to anyone. I think the Chairman was planning to jump ship as soon as the smoothoperator arrived on deck at school
In June smoothoperator came over for a quick visit, and we all, including the blowfly went to Auckland for an I.B. conference. As diplomatically as possible, I tried to articulate my concerns to the smoothoperator about the blowfly and his role in the school . But,by this time the smoothoperator had a stake in not listening to this sort of talk. I could sense this so I had to be sure that I did not sound too negative.
In August, the blowfly and I went to Canberra to sort out some curriculum issues with the ACT authorities.
The blowfly was distinctly cool on the trip. I began to get nervous and I could see that the closer it came to the smoothoperator's arrival, the more difficult the blowfly and his wife, were going to be with me!
I started to worry and lose sleep. I went to my GP to get some medication for anxiety but I had difficulty in articulating my problem to him as he was also the school doctor (and well known to the blowfly)
It was only around this time that it occurred to me to try get Permanent Residence in Australia.
If I got permanent residence it would mean that that if I lost my job I would be able to look for another one in Australia.
I had started to think that even though neither Maria nor I really liked Australia, it might be a good place for the children to grow up in. I could see that it was a young person's country. There were opportunities for young people. It was stable politically. By this time I was 40, and, in my opinion, that is not a good age to try to establish yourself in another country.
For reasons I shall never fully understand the blowfly actually agreed to sponsor me and, because I was British, it all went through relatively smoothly in a matter of weeks. Maybe the blowfly saw me continuing in some role in the school after the smoothoperators arrival. I don’t really know. It was hard to know what the blowfly was thinking.
November 1992. The Bangkok I.B. Coordinator’s conference.
Getting to this conference wasn’t easy. the school bursar was the blowfly's wife, and she was totally unqualified as the school " Bursar . She was simply there as the boss's wife. She never liked me-in fact she didn’t seem to like anyone except Rasputin with whom she got on very well. as the arrival of the the smoothoperator got nearer, she gradually entered into a campaign to undermine me with her husband, and started to make life difficult.
I intended to use my American Express card to go to the IB conference in Bangkok as I had no cash. About a week before the trip I realized my card had expired So, perfectly innocently, I asked the bursar for a few hundred dollars to pay for the hotel. But she kept putting me off with some excuse. On the final morning she still had no money for me and, ina panic, I had to go to the local chemist (who was then the Deputy Chairman of the board) to explain the situation. He generously gave me a thousand dollars out of the till from his Chemist shop! The chemist was an exceptional person. He was a Chinese migrant and was a very kind and generous person. He was the type of migrant Australia is lucky to have; hardworking , generous and open-minded. He deputised for the chairman in his absence.
I think this was another embarrassment that the blowfly never forgave me for. He/she didn't want me to go to Bangkok, I think because they regarded it as waste of money and /or they were planning to 'let me go' when the smoothoperator arrived. To me, the writing was on the wall. I was becoming paranoid about the blowfly and his wife. In Bangkok I didn’t sleep properly and stayed up all night composing a fax to the smoothoperator explaining my concerns.
I still had this naive belief that if i was open and told the tsmoothoperator the truth about he blowfly that the smoothoperator would believe me! I wasn't sure, but I hoped he would believe me! What I didn't take into account sufficiently at the time was that the smoothoperator his own agenda – he was desperate to get back to Australia from Germany and this was the perfect opportunity for him and nothing was going to get in the way of it - certainly not me with my problems. I was only a minor complication as far as he was concerned.
Around this time another incident was a portent of things to come. This was to do with a subscription for an I.B. publication which was sent to me from Sydney when I was acting as Principal. This letter, addressed to the Principal, was opened by the blowfly and ignored by him. The first I knew of the request for payment of the subscription was a call from the I.B. man in Sydney who was upset that we hadn't paid our subscription asking me for payment. I said I knew nothing about it. When I investigated I discovered the blowfly had removed the attached invoice and passed to me only the letter! It was clear to me from this incident that the blowfly was trying to ‘set me up’ to make me look inefficient with IB office in Sydney. I began to feel very vulnerable.
I started to become more and more paranoid. My sleep was affected.
Anyway the Bangkok conference went well under the circumstances. I met old friends of mine in Thailand. I remember faxing the smoothoperator from Bangkok and letting him know my concerns. My faz was pretty emotional I admit. I was indeed becoming paranoid. It was a gamble to tell the smoothoperator before he came to Melbourne on his next visit.
The gamble certainly didn’t pay off in the end. The period from October to December of 1992 was very grim indeed. I remember little except the increasing tension and my desire to hold on for as long as I could. To complicate things Mum and Dad were planning a visit that Christmas. When they arrived I was in very poor form but in spite of this we had a pleasant Christmas. Mum and Dad loved it. We took them to Mount disappointment. They saw the kangaroos and I took Dad to play golf . I remember going for a walk with him one afternoon and telling him that I was really in trouble at school and that I was probably not going to survive for much longer. Dad could hardly hide his disappointment because in his own way he was very proud of what I had done and he felt disappointed. dad was very good about this news and he said nothing about it to me directly . I'm glad I told him because it made it easier for them to accept the shocking events which were to follow.
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