Where is time going?

Late afternoon. Sunday. Must be Rome. Lush apartment in the centre of the city, a ten-minute walk from the Colloseum; a two-minute walk from the Trevi fountain. Busy. Hot. (Yes! Finally, after the UK cold). T-shirts, skirts, sun hats, sun screen. (Power surges back..., they are so heat-related). Did a guided tour of the Colloseum (very interesting), found a Gelateria and had the most scrumptious gelato, found our way through a Maze of street to the Trevi Fountain, where the rest of Rome had also decided to descend at that exact time... And this was our quiet day in the Italian capital. Tomorrow is our 13-hour round bus trip to Pompei and Vesuvius; the day after we're visiting the Vatican. 

But of course more has happened since we last 'met'. So, more about our London visit in the next post. Heading out for dinner now in a local pizzeria. (Where else!)

Roma - slideshows

Polebrooking along

Another week has flown by. We are not always near computers, and we seem to be spending our time on so many things so there's not always an opportunity to update the blog on a daily basis. Tess was saying the other day that she felt this trip had completely changed her view on life (in terms of dependance on computers), and she does indeed not spend much time facebooking, blogging or being involved in (what we think are) the petty teenage squables in that Other World called School. Also she has decided that so far she wants to live in Amsterdam, Barnswell, or Cambridge for her gap year. They are having a great time, are relaxed, do school work, read, chat with us and our hosts, come out and see things, enjoy the different landscapes, attitudes, people, news, etc.

This week we have spent time with Peter and Ann who are great hosts and taking good care of us! Not in any particular order, we celebrated Ann's 75th, with Ann's sister Jane visiting; visited Cambridge, yesterday, which was wonderful, windy and sunny and were punted on the river Cam; the day before we went to the dogs, as in Peter took us to the greyhound races, which was lots of fun and we all won and lost bits and bobs while enjoying a nice meal. Niki was out with an old school friend earlier today, and I was out with Ann attending a local NADFAS meeting (and taking notes on how we Down Under) can do things. The lecture was on Rudyard Kipling and his travels through India, and I found it fascinating. Earlier this week we had lunch at a local restaurant, an old Mill, and I've been doing daily gym sessions in the neighbour's garage where they have a whole fitness centre (well, almost) set up.

UK 2013 - act 1

A week on

The conference logo

So, a week on since the last post, we've almost 'done' Liverpool. It's amazing how little one sees of conference towns, especially when you are involved in conference organisation (as we are, through the Young Learners and Teenagers special interest group). There were lots of Beatles related events, of course (the conference logo had the Livabird in it (pronounced /laivaburd/, which made one presenter say: 'Why isn't Liverpool called /laiverpul/ then?) 

As I write, Niki is in our room doing the last preparations for her presentation today on ' Generation ME', in which she will present activities to do with teenagers. It's the last slot of the conference, so it remains to be seen how many delegates are still here ... I had my presentation earlier this week, also in ' a last slot' , of the day in my case, and even though it went well, the turn-out was low (hey what do you expect at 17:55...). We've been majorly involved in making sure all our SIG events went well, such as the Pre-conference event on Monday and the YLT SIG Day on Thursday - and they did, which is a relief. Last night, I had to be present at the SIG coordinators'  meeting, a body of 15 special interest group coordinators who meet three times a year. Also our own SIG committee meeting on Sunday was good, and we got to meet the four new committee members we recently recruited. 

Other than that we tried to be workshop junkies, and meet publishers. We had a meeting with a publishers whom we had done a smallish job for before, and Hans has been 'chasing' for a while (HarperCollins, Collins ELT) and they have offered us a project to develop workbooks and a teachers'  guide with their recently published Dictionary for very young learners. Also we'll have a meeting with them when we go to London in two weeks to discuss further collaboration on a Kindergarten course after we have finished those workbooks. That would be another nice feather in our publishing cap! In the meantime, Niki has been feted and pampered, in the verbal sense, by Cambridge University Press, for whom she has developed an online course recently, and who speak very highly of her and want her to do lots of things for them. I've also met up with my currently 'active' UK publisher Garnet to discuss ongoing projects and new ones. All in all, a good result in terms of chasing work. forging new relationships and maintaining old.

A force to reckon with ... even now ...

It's been cold ever since we arrived in Europe. while we were here (although it is warming up), The Lady Thatcher has died and has dominated the news and filled the newspapers day-after-day with opinions and news surrounding her funeral, estate and legacy. It's amazing to see how this politician still divides a society that, even though she left politics a long, long time ago, still feels the after-effects of her 'reign'. She will get a 'just-not-state' funeral next week. 

We'll be visiting our friend and co-author Joanne Collie later today, and then travel on to Niki's parents tomorrow. Tomorrow we shall also be reunited with Tess and Yarrow who have spent a wonderful week with family and friends in Holland. Thank you so much to Marielle, Oma Centa, Arthur, Jacqueline, Jos, Mazzel, Lisa, Anjes, Denise, Nick, Esmee, Marc, Karin, Yvonne, Antoine, Eve and many others for hosting and entertaining them. For those who feel Tess and Yarrow have been out of touch in cyberspace, please remember that for a large part of the time they have had no credit (too expensive and runs out in 3 seconds) or access to computers.

We'll keep you posted on our further travels after the weekend!

And on we go...

After the ' gezellige'  and delicious family dinner in Breda, we continued on our tour and visited the Belgian city of Antwerp with Oma (the magnificent Groenplaats and the Onze Lieve Vrouwe cathedral with amazing paintings by Rubens, with lunch in a nice little eetcafe).

Easter Sunday 2013 in Antwerpe, Belgium - slideshow

 

After Antwerp, the next day, we drove to the town of Twello (with the fantastically designful 'round house'  of Cees and Eef), and pretty Deventer, as well as historic Nijmegen (where I went to university) to visit my friend of old, Karin, and her family (including Suzanna and Michele, Karin and Jan's daughters, who had waited for years to meet them).

Europe - slideshow

Wonderful visits all, but when we returned to Amsterdam you could say our heads were whizzing with all the endless impressions of places and people and we needed a bit of ' peace and quiet'. During the next few days I had a number of meetings with publishers, so couldn't join Da Girlz on everything they did, but two things stand out: a visit to the Van Gogh exhibition in the Amsterdam Hermitage, a dinner at Nick and Esmee's mum Karin's house with Yvonne and Antoine, and a sushi dinner at an Amsterdam restaurant with Denise. As little school work or 'work work'  had been done by anyone during our 4-day sojourn down south, during the various mornings and afternoons back in Amsterdam, Tess and Yarrow conscientiously did their school work, preparing for tasks and assessments. They are being extremely pro-active about it all, and are enjoying the school-out-of-school atmosphere of travel schooling.

Saturday morning Niki and I said bye-bye to Tess and Yarrow for a week: we're off to the IATEFL conference in Liverpool (this post coming from there) and Tess and Yarrow will spend three days with my sisters Marielle and Jacqueline and brothers-in-law Arthur and Jos, and their Oma Centa. Anjes will pick them up on Tuesday and spend a day and night with them in Eindhoven, during which time she will have all her sisters and brother together; back on Wednesday, they will spend Thursday and Friday in Amsterdam with Anjes and Lisa and see whether they will be able to see more family there. Cees might come up to take them to the Zoo. If they have time and opportunity they might see a bit more of their cousins and aunts/uncles, but then on Saturday they will take a flight to London where Niki and I will pick them up.

So, check out Tess'  facebook over the next week, as Niki and I won't have much time to blog.

Things Dutch

I just love the little carpets on tables!

Dinner in Breda

 We are now down in Roosendaal and the meetings began last night at a restaurant in Breda. Hans' sisters, Jacqueline and Marielle and their parnters Jos and Artur, together with Hans' mum, Oma and Anjes and Jonaton were there. It was just lovely we began at 5pm and finally left the restaurant at 10pm! When you only see people every year, there's lots to say! :)

Lowlands

In Amsterdam temperatures had dropped even lower than in Paris. The superfast TGV took us to the Dutch capital in three hours or so (breakfast in Paris, lunch in Amsterdam), where our trusted friend Denise and Anjes (!) awaited our arrival. Seeing Anjes there was such a wonderful surprise! Denise, who had to go and support her mother in faraway Limburgia, had to leave soon after dropping us off at her apartment overlooking the IJ, but she left us with a well-stocked fridge, warming heaters and the feeling we were very welcome indeed - thank you Nize! 

We trudged into town (by bus) to Get A Few Things and met up with some of the characters from Rembrandt's The Night Watch - a painting we will certainly go and see while we are here. We also visited our favourite 'cat cafe' of all in Amsterdam, along one of the canals.

Having had a Dutch dinner (bread with ' Dutch'  things like leverworst, speculaas spread, ' eiersalade', appelstroop and ' oude kaas',  we all retired to 'our' rooms. Tess and Yarrow are doing homework (very disciplined they are!).

Inside the Musee d'Orsay - my favourite museum ever

We are such a lucky bunch of people! From cold but blue-skied Amsterdam, this post comes to you on our arrival from Paris in Amsterdam. Having been kindly dropped off by Mieke at Gold Coast airport on Saturday we passed (through) Sydney, Bangkok and Dubai (a mere 28 hours...) to find ourself in a Parisian Quartier Latin 5th floor apartment in the quiet Rue de Savoie, only a stone's throw away from the Seine, the Louvre, Musee d'Orsay, the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dam. In all the years I have visited Paris I have never stayed this central, and that was wonderful and lovely indeed. No long underground or train journeys to get anywhere other than the Sacre Coeur, we braved the queues at The Louvre (we arrived early so it wasn't too bad, really) and smiled back at the Mona Lisa, but also marvelled at Egyptian, Roman and other sculpture and the endless galleries of paintings, murals, icons and more.  Musee d'Orsay (the queue was Very Long) was equally impressive and ' gave'  us Van Gogh's Starry Night and many other (post-)impressionist paintings, ranging from naturalism to pointilism to impressionism, and we eagerly imbibed the historical, cultural and artistic lessons. In Montmartre we were much impressed with a Dali Exposition off the Place du Tertre: drawings, paintings, sculptures galore and Hans even expressed interest in acquiring some of the beautiful art on display there. The Eiffel Tower, iconic symbol of Paris and age-old trusty friend, was charged by Tess, Yarrow and Niki (up to the first floor). Many a cafe was frequented along the way for a cup of tea or espresso, and (of course) we ate crepes! For a photographic expressions of our adventures in Paris (/Paree/), best go to Tess' facebook. Tess is our official court photographer!

Off to pastures green

As you know our little mare Promise was sold recently to a very nice lady 'down the road' who has trained her, and will be guiding her young equine life further. Today our Big Boy Samson also went to pastures green(er): he was sold to the Peckham Rye Riding Academy near Port Macquari, where he will join another 50 horses or so, more than half of whom are apparently leading retired lives and are being really well taken care of. Not that Sammy is about to retire at 17, but we have it on good account (from the lady who bought Samson for the school) that the owner of the Academy is a lovely lady, dedicated to horses, and that said horses at her place lead a privileged life (regular meals, rugging, grassy paddocks etc). At least we know that he will be taken care of and kept active. Anyone going towards Sydney in the car, drop off at the Doughnut because apparently that is where you get off the Pacific Highway to get to the Riding School. As a little tribute to Sammy, some photos of his departure. He just walked into the float as if he did it every day ...

samson - slideshows

The GT

Not long now till Tess, Yarrow, Niki and myself embark on our 2-month journey to Europe. The house-sitters, Helen and Ian, will be arriving in the course of next week and they will be taking care of the property as well as animales feline, canine and equine. So, keep an eye on this space and your ears open (like Raffie is doing) for the facts and fiction of ...

The Grand Tour!

Frangi

With many thanks to Ton and Ellen we have been able to spruce up the side of the pool with some beautiful Frangipanni - well, hopefully they will be beautiful over time, and grow into coloured gorgeousness. There is also a palmy sort of plant (sorry - forgot its name), of which we have quite a few but who grow into quite impressive plants.

Sold

Promise has sold! We ended up selling her to the lovely lady who trained her, Cathy. Cathy will agist her near Casino, where she has a friend who was looking for a companion horse for her own, and will do some more training and trail riding with her as time goes by. If and when, she might sell her on to a good home, but for now she couldn't be in a better place. We've not actually made any money on the sale but we are confident she'll be happy in her canine way. Now only Samson to go ... who will be looked at by another set of 'prospects' on Monday.

As a goodbye of sorts, here's a follow-up to the earlier movie. Mind the subtle way in which Cathy gets Promise to stop ...

Shape Up covers

The Argentinian version of Take Shape is out!

Shape up is a new stimulating four-level primary course with a focus on real-world themes and opportunities for students to talk about their own realities and experience.

Shape up introduces language through a variety of content-rich contexts. It emphasizes the development of the four skills and includes graded writing activities and a programme of useful phrases to aid fluency. This series also promotes lexical development with a focus on high frequency words.

Shape up allows children to gain proficiency and confidence in English whilst becoming more knowledgeable about the world in which they live.

 

Key Features

* A Pupil’s Book with 12 main units, 6 review sections and games every 4 units. It includes audio enhanced real-world e-Reader for class or home study

* The real-world e-Readers, by providing authentic-type material, give students the chance to read for pleasure while learning about different subjects at the same time. All the stories or texts are accompanied by interactive activities

* An Activity Book that provides students with an understanding of form and meaning through carefully graded tasks and fun activities. At the end of each revision, it includes specific practice designed following the style of the main international exams

* A CD with Teacher’s Notes with easy-to-follow instructions and objective-based extra activities. It also includes Tests and extra photocopiable resources designed to extend lessons or to be given to fast finishers

* 2 Audio CDs containing all listening texts, songs and conversations 

Story

Tess wrote a beautiful story, and she gave me permission to put it up on my blog. Enjoy.

I remember. I remember it a thousand times. Her hands slammed softly onto my shoulders, a concoction of noise escaping her lips in dramatic effort. My heart fluttering, adrenaline pumping through my veins, I spun, whirling to face her smiling face, unfocused as she giggled hysterically.
“Did it work?” she squealed as she teetered on her toes, her body electric with energy. My eyes adjusted, her features focusing, her soft amber curls quivering with her quickening, excited breath. I waited. She waited. The late afternoon sun curled its way through the threads of her scarlet hair, igniting a crimson fire that danced around her features in the humid winds. We stood, our breaths in symbiosis as we waited routinely. Her emerald eyes bore into mine, our gaze impenetrable as we waited for the answer we both knew was coming. 
“Hic.”
“Dammit!” she yelled. “Ok, you know the drill, hold your breath. Quick, quick!” She filled her cheeks up with air, her head bobbing up and down and she pointed to her cheeks and murmured incoherently through her closed lips.
I concentrated, gusts of carbon dioxide escaping like rapids over my tongue, teeth, lips. I held myself for a moment, empty, and then drank all the oxygen I could manage back in to fill the depleted cavities of my lungs. I continued to swell them with oxygen, thirsty, as though they were limitless, filling every millimeter and I was sure I would burst. My fingers wrapped around my nose to prove my sincerity.
I heard her giggle. “No cheatin’!”
I watched her lips. Pink, stained with freckles, I heard nothing as I watched them mouth the numbers.
“43…44…”
I burst. My lungs exploded and through my lips escaped the toxic substance, my body expelling every atom of the unusable gas; it had been depleted of its usefulness. I gasped, my breath labored as I doubled over with the exertion of starving my body of oxygen. My heart beating rapidly, desperately trying to regain it’s rhythm.
I felt her anticipation.
“Hic.”
She shrieked. “This one’s a toughie!”
I heard her feet hit the tarmac as she ran. In a heartbeat she had returned: the water lapped over the sides of the cup as it attempted to regain its place within the glass.
Instinctively I bent over, my breath still ragged. My curls swung in front of my vision and I focused on my feet, planted firmly on the ground. Taking the glass from her delicate fingers I put it to my lips and began to drink clumsily.
“What are you doing! You’re spilling it everywhere! We’re in a drought you know!” She moaned as droplets of water escaped the corners of my grin to explode and melt on the burning tarmac my worn feet had grown to call home. I straightened, lightheaded with laughter and stumbled over to the yellowing grass where I collapsed in bliss. “Hic.” I cooed.
Grumbling merrily with exasperation, she threw her body towards mine, our bodies colliding gently, she straddled my stomach.
She grabbed the sides of my head, her fingers laced through my own curls. She gazed into my emerald eyes, my freckles dancing as she quivered with joy at this routine.
And with the most perfect, articulated execution a six year old can have, my sister whispered: “I’ll give you a hundred dollars if you hiccup again.”
Silence. Her head collapsed onto my chest in excited exhaustion, her ear above my pounding heart. This was ours. It had always been ours.

Her skin translucent, she faded into the sheets. The monitors flashed foreign languages at me, languages of unfamiliar heartbeats and oxygen levels. I pressed my head onto her chest, my curls splaying over her delicate body, tangling with the cables that snaked their way from her every orifice, as I listened for the steady rhythm of my childhood that would not echo back its chorus, her heart faltering, her pulse weak, her breath ragged and muffled. 

“I’ll give you a hundred dollars if you stay alive.” I screamed, inaudibly.
One noise escaped her cracked, bleeding lips. “Hic.”

“Dammit.”

Take Shape again

Just received an email from the (ex) editor of my Mexican primary course, Take Shape, who sent me some lovely photos of Mexican kids waving level 5 around. The email said: "I’m just back from a market research trip to Mexico. While we were there we were trying to find out about the Mid-High segment and did school visits for a week. We were trying to find out about Take Shape and what feedback they’d had. We basically couldn’t get any criticism from anyone, everyone seems really happy with it. Everyone at Macmillan in Mexico was really happy with it and the principal and co-ordinators we spoke to said students and teachers really like it. We observed one Take Shape class full of lovely kids who were so enthusiastic! So I wanted to send you a couple of pictures I took with them (see attached). I figure that no one seems to have told you much about how Take Shape is doing and you might enjoy the feedback and photos!"

Always nice to get this kind of feedback!

Looking at

'Ere's looking at you! Me and me 'orse. Hey, we won't win the Grand National (No bets, please...) but we have a swell time together.

Best policy?

Some people are just too honest, or innocent, or perhaps they assume their customers are gullible? Such is an antique(s) dealer in Newrybar who apparently makes antiques daily. Not sure whether that should inspire confidence, or not...

Visitor

Imagine my surprise when I walked out of the front door the other day and found a gre-feathered visitor on the porch, perched on a garbage bag. He seemed to have lost one eye and to feel the worst for wear. It wasn't until late that night that he (she, it) hopped away, to be found behind the car the next morning, but since then he seems to have returned to wherever tawny frog-mouths go. If you are wondering whether this is, in fact, an owl, you might not be wrong: read here.

owl - create a slideshow

Tidy

Last weekend Tess and Yarrow gave us a hand tidying up after the storm, so we spent a few pleasant hours lugging branches and building a second bonfire which Tess may use in a few weeks'  time for a party with friends.

trees - create a slideshow

Storm

For those who have been following the weather Down Under, Niki has put up some photos of the havoc wreaked on our property. Compared with what a lot of other people have had to suffer, we came off lightly, really, with a few trees toppled, a bit of water stopping us from going places and some roof sheets almost coming off one of the sheds. Yes, there were wind gusts of 120-140 km per hour; yes, especially on the second night the howling winds were actually quite scary as I lay awake, unable to catch sleep, hoping that nothing would be blown off or torn to pieces; yes the water levels rose 9 or 10 metres in Eltham; and yes, three days after the storm another small trees (a tee tree) just sighed and fell over, as if it had only then decided that enough was enough, and it was tired and wanted to lie down - but, really, it was nothing. The grass was well-drenched and now wants to grow, the horses are happy and their bellies full.

Have a look here.