Surprise...

Well now. Here's for Something Completely Different. Good news.

In Portugal, on a quiet mountain behind beautiful Sarzedo, on a rock that we sat on four years ago and had a Deep and Meaningful about Where This Was All Taking Us, overlooking the Serra d'Estrela my love and I decided that ... we are going to get married! The requisite knee-fall was performed, the question asked, the discovery made that Great Minds Think Alike (as we were trudging up the mountain I just knew Niki had something on her mind...), a ring proffered and accepted and ... well, further details are private. On hearing the news Tess and Yarrow, who had stayed in the village, Squealed and Shrieked, and bagged the much-coveted positions of Bridesmaids.

When? We're not sure yet. Probably somewhere between Spring and Summer 2014. Where? Hm, now there's a good questions. We both feel very strongly that Something Will Need To Happen in Portugal, in Sarzedo, as we both for varying and varied reasons, feel close bonds with the country and the town, as well as in Australia, our current home. We'd like friends and family on both sides of the globe to join us in celebrations. We'll think of something...

So, keep your eye on this space for further news, plans and arrangements...

Round up

Almost there ... in Sydney...

So, we're back in Down Under, and merrily jet lagging away. The photo shows us in Sydney, after our arrival, waiting for Hans to go to the Chinese visa application centre next door. My birthday, the next day, I have to admit, went by in a bit of a soporific haze (cause: same jet lag), but we did have a very nice lunch with Tess, Yarrow and Mieke. Getting there. Only woke up at 4.30 this morning, and had to have a bit of a nano nap this afternoon to catch up, but other than that - all good.

Having followed all our adventures in Europe, avid readers won't really need a rehash of our adventures, but perhaps a tune-up as to the work-side of things. We haven't talked about that side much on this blog, but this trip was definitely also about work old and new. Attending IATEFL and having meetings with publishers left, right and centre, on and off conference, in the various countries we visited has always had great results and this time, too, we were not disappointed. So, the low-down on what keeps us off the streets...

Cambridge Exams for Schools

Niki was invited to join a team of authors working on a Cambridge University Press course for teenagers (global) called (excitedly...) Cambridge Exams for Schools and will be writing a course book as well as a few workbooks. CUP are very happy to have her on board as a  teen specialist whose face and experience is well-known around the EFL community!

350 first words

Niki and Hans were invited by Harper Collins (for whom we did some editorial work last year) to write two activity books and a teacher's guide to accompany First English Words, a dictionary for Very Young Learners (3-6 year-olds), which we will be working on together. We've agreed to take on a packaging role, which means we do both the writing and editing as well as the communication with the design agency (in India) and deliver a ready-to-print product to the publishers. If all goes well, this project will be followed by another project later this year, the writing of a Kindergarten course for Asia and the Middle East.

The first in a series...

Hans firmed up his deal(ings) with Garnet Education to contribute more coursebooks, workbooks and teacher's guides for their new EAP series (English for Academic purposes) called Moving into ..., of which he has already written one (on tourism and hospitality), and will also be writing workbooks for another EAP course for them, called On Course. Hans is securing a a deal with Garnet which means they will be paying him a retainer during an agreed period of time - which helps, as funds will come in with monthly regularity and it takes away the chore of having to chase payments all the time, or wait for them (while nothing else comes in) when things are (and they always are) delayed.

Exam time for Realtime

Dutch Malmberg's Realtime and All right will be continuing for a little while longer for Hans till spring 2014 with a series of three exam prep books (Realtime) for which Hans will be one of three authors, and online materials (All right).

A sample spread from one of the iRead readers

The iRead - New English Readers project, which Niki and Hans have been working on for almost a year now, will continue with more new graded readers. The first batch of 10 (grade 7, 11 year-olds) will be published soon, and new grades are being planned (there will be 10 grades in total of 10 readers each, ranging from primary to senior high). Hans will be scooting off to China on 3 June for a few days to attend a project meeting with his Chinese publishing partners. (In July, both Niki and Hans will go to China to attend and present at a conference in Beijing as well).

More adventures to come!

Moving on Magic! Good news reached us today that our course Magic Adventure (avid readers will remember it being mentioned before), of which we wrote the first two levels, and which was then 'paused', because of changes in the government curriculum, for well-nigh two years, will  be completed in 2013-14 with a third level (which was always the plan) for 8-year-olds, but (and this was a nice surprise) will also be published in a separate, slightly different edition, in Turkey. It's always good to be patient.

Niki, in the meantime, while we were away, received news that her application to become a Cambridge ESOL inspector, was awarded and she will be doing a training programme soon for that. It'll complete her involvement in the Cambridge exams side of things, already being a team leader and examiner, and it might see her inspecting Cambridge Exam Centres in Australasia - requirements of such centres are extremely strict and they need to meet many criteria. For endorsement, the centres need to submit to unannounced inspections. Sleuthing!

The End

All good things come to an end...
Don't they?
Do they?
Why?
And what do these numbers mean...?

Well ...
During this holiday we ...


... travelled through / in 8 countries.
... visited 24 towns, villages or cities.
... took 11 flights.
... went on 8 train journeys.
... hired 3 cars.
... tried to speak 6 languages.
... spent 60 days abroad.
... slept in 14 different beds ... each ...
... lived in three apartments.
... ate 180 meals.
... ate 24 big scoops of Italian gelato ... each ... over 7 days...
... met 109 people / friends / relatives during stays, parties etc.
... carried 4 suitcases around.
... lost 1 hat.
... had four animals around us (three cats and one dog).

And no doubt had, did, saw, moved, spoke, ate many, many more things, people and animals if only we didn't get tired of summing it all up ...

The night before our flight back, it is now: tomorrow we embark on the journey back, 30 hours through time and across half the globe ...

See you all soon Down Under!

The Grand Tour

I found this poem on the Net. It's by Cicely Fox Smith poet of many a sailor and soldier poem in the early 20th century. Despite the slightly racist undertone of its final stanzas (don't forget, this was the 1920s and for many the World was still this strange thing Out There and Unknown),  it's sort of 'fitting' in the context of our Traipse Through Europe. Apparently a lot of the poet's poems 'ave been turned into folk songs. Enjoy.

  

I always wished to see the world, I 'ad no chanst before,
Nor I don't suppose I should 'ave if there 'adn't been no war;
I used to read the tourist books, the shippin' news also,
An' I 'ad the chanst o' goin', so I couldn't 'elp but go.

We 'ad a spell in Egypt first, before we moved along
Acrost the way to Suvla, where we got it 'ot an' strong;
We 'ad no drink when we was dry, no rest when we was tired,
But I've seen the Perramids an' Spink, which I 'ad oft  desired.

I've what 'll last me all my life, to talk about an' think,
I've sampled various things to eat an' various more to drink;
I've strolled among them dark bazaars, which makes the pay to fly
(An' I 'ad my fortune told as well, but that was all my eye!)

I've seen them little islands too — I couldn't say their names —
An' towns as white as washin'-day, an' mountains spoutin' flames;
I've watched the sun come lonely up on miles an' miles of sea,
Why, folks 'ave paid a 'undred pound an' seen no more than me!

The sky is some'ow bluer there — in fact, I never knew
As any sun could be so 'ot or any sky so blue;
There's dates an' figs an' suchlike things all 'angin' on the trees,
An' black folks walkin' up an' down as natural as you please.

I always wished to see the world, I'm fond o' life an' change,
But Abdul got me in the leg; an' this is passin' strange,
That when you see old England's shore, all wrapped in mist an' rain,
Why, it's worth the bloomin' bundle to be comin' 'ome again!

Espana

And then ... we were in Spain. France, Holland, Belgium, Britain, Italy, Portugal, Spain.

Arriving on a sunny Thursday, after a long drive through the beautiful Alentejo (the 'bread basket' of Portugal, in full spring colours of bright yellow and soft purple), Friday proved to be a wet, cold, cloudy day, very uninspiring, so we spent most of it inside. 

Peter, Ann and Jane left for Salamanca in the course of the morning. Tearful goodbyes informed us all that my love will be sorely missed but, no doubt, they will be reunited soon. 

Tomorrow, Saturday, weather permitting, we're planning a few outings to a few of the many Roman treasures in the town. We're spending a few days with Toni and Rita (one of Niki's oldest friends) and will make our way back to Lisboa on Sunday, so we can recuperate from the long drive back for a day at Carlos and Christina's, before embarking on the Emirates flight back via Dubai to Sydney.

Peace and quiet...

Sarzedo was knowingly planned for the end of our Grand Tour as we knew that it would be a relaxing time - in fact, there is so little to do in Sarzedo, and there is no Internet, that the only option is to relax, to veg, to ponder, to read, to go to bed early, to enjoy walking through the village, to go up a mountain, watch a forest fire, have dinner together etc. etc. Ann, Peter and Jane joined us there for a short break in the mountains. It was, in one word, lovely. The photos tell the story. Our house has come along a fair bit (inside walls had appeared and the bathroom was in the process of taking shape, and the retaining wall), and friendly neighbours had cleared the garden (the height of the grass was a bit of a fire hazard...) We're deliberating the next steps as we speak ...

sarzedo -

Sarzedo

We're about to go into the mountains tomorrow, Sunday, where Niki's house nestles patiently in the 150-people village of Sarzedo. We're going to stay in Carlos and Christine's house in the village, where we have stayed before, and check out the extent to which Niki's house has improved / progressed. Over the past three years some work has been done (it's by no means finished yet, at all; there is, for instance, no water and electricity yet), but apparently more has been done than we think (according to Carlos who is overseeing and doing most of the building). We'll see what we find. Peter and Ann, and Aunt Jane, are on their way to Sarzedo, too, after a 24-hour boat trip to the North of Spain (from the UK) and will stay in Covilhã. It should be nice to spend some more time with them: us up the mountain, and they down the mountain. We'll be cut off until Thursday, though - no Internet there (unless we kindly go and ask Christine's father, who only speaks Portuguese and French (at a million miles an hour) and who seems to be the Only Man With Internet In The Village. So probably no phones either, and we are actually quite looking forward to that...

Nipping back

Just nipping back to a moment on our Milan sojourn, which I hadn't blogged about yet: walking through, and having dinner in, the town of Monza, where Niki's friends Marina and Francesco live with their children Andrea and Margarita. Monza is a quiet town outside of Milan, and really pretty. We spent a few days with them and they had invited about 15 of their friends to meet us. We spent a very enjoyable evening partaking in Monzaic (Monzean, Monzish?) delicacies. On the way home to the hotel, we got lost (it wasn't the drink, honest) but found our way in the end. While we were having dinner, and yakking away with the locals, Tess and Yarrow went out with Marina (16) and Francesco (19) to a club, and arrived back in the apartment after us (closer to 1 than to 12) all excited and happy having danced and 'hung out' all nigh.

monza - slideshow

A moment

A wonderful moment: I heard Yarrow singing upstairs, and Vanessa playing piano. I stole up the stairs where Carlos was already peeking around the corner to admire the impromptu duo. I joined them there and they kept on playing... Do we have a future, girls?

Dinners

Pictorial evidence of two dinners this week: one at Susie's, with Miguel, Susanna, Maria and Xana in Susanna's flat; and one with Christine and Carlos, Vanessa and Thomas in Povo (where Niki's apartment is).

Partay!

Having swanned around Lisboa and environs for the rest of the week (Carlos and Christine are very, very hospitable and giving us all space and time, it's really wonderful), today we had my love's hello-farewell party. In order to avoid having to traipse around Lisboa and try to see everybody individually, nice though that may have been (but impossible), we had arranged a party picnic in one of the parks in the area and about 30 or so people came down to celebrate. The sun was out, the moods convivial, the chatter endless... A lovely afternoon!

parc