Long awaited photos #2

Some of my group at training. Joe (in the front in the red T-shirt) is at Little Canada too.














Most of the people from my training course that came to Little Canada. Gerry, Sarah, Joe, James, Becky (my room-mate), Ben, Emma and Bryony. Ben, Bryony and Emma have since left.









Sunset at Woodside beach (ten minutes walk down the road from LC)













My weekend in London... Tash and Jenny on the banks of the Thames



















Richy and Nick by the Thames.














Cowes (about 15 minutes on the bus from Wootton, 1 & 1/2 hr walk) on the day of the Round The Island Race

Long awaited photos #1

Me and the London Eye



















St Paul's Cathedral from the Millenium Bridge


















The main building at Barton Hall (where I did my training, near Torquay in Devon)













Outside our accommodation at Barton Hall















The view from Barton Hall

I passed!

...my zip assessment! Yay! Not sure when my first session will be but it's going to be interesting. The actual zip itself is not too scary but climbing up the pole to get to it is. I think a lot of kids won't even make it up the pole.

Also today had my first two field studies sessions. The sessions go all morning or all afternoon. I had rockpooling this afternoon and then the IT follow-up this evening. It all went really well. The school's emphasis was just on fun so we pretty much just let the kids explore the rockpools down at Woodside Beach for a couple of hours. Here's a picture to show you what it's like...

And for the IT session this evening the kids were in pairs and they were given a seashore creature that they had to sell a zone to as though they were the real estate agents. They did this through a Powerpoint presentation so it was pretty easy and they had fun! It was quite funny seeing what they came up with actually.

Had a nice day yesterday in Chichester with Verity. We didn't do too much, just went into town and had a look around some shops. The best part was I brought Verity's bike back with me so now I have a way to explore! And get some much needed exercise. I rode from the ferry terminal in Ryde back to Little Canada and it took me half an hour. It's quite hilly so that time wasn't too bad!

More photos soon I promise! I have another day off on Monday so might get the ones off my camera then.

Lisa :-)

Zip wire training

Well, obviously things are seeming more and more normal now so I feel like I have nothing to report. However, yesterday I had my first day since I passed my abseiling assessment with no abseiling sessions!! Believe me, this is amazing.

I have also been doing training for the zip wire. It's really cool... just a giant flying fox. First you have to climb up a pole onto a little platform and you have a harness which gets clipped on to the zip and then you go down. I'll take a photo of it sometime and post it up so you know what I'm talking about. My assessment is this afternoon and I'm a bit nervous so hopefully it will go okay. Also, today is my tenth day of work without a day off so I'm quite tired!

Thankfully tomorrow is my day off so tonight I am going to my friend Verity's home in Chichester. So will get some homecooked food and a decent bed to sleep in and hopefully a lie-in tomorrow!

World Cup

Yes, the FIFA World Cup has started and there are loads of people here that are mad about football. So much so that I got a five minute tirade the other day for calling it soccer! Ridiculous!

But anyway, I just didn't know what to title this post and that seemed as good as any.

I had four sessions of abseiling today and it was very hot and humid!! Still great but doing the same thing all day is draining, especially in the heat and because, with abseiling, you are literally holding a kid's life in your hands so you have to be very careful not to make mistakes.

Thankfully I have a day off tomorrow so time for some rest and relaxation. I think I am going to head into Cowes with a couple of my workmates and have lunch, so that should be cool! The weather is supposed to stay hot, sunny, and humid for a few days at least.

(This doesn't seem to be working very well for me today. I'm
quite tired and typing is proving to be more difficult than usual! I keep making
mistakes...)

We've been busy this weekend because the Isle of Wight Festival is on and lots of the staff have gone to it. http://www.isleofwightfestival.com/home.asp I'm so jealous!!! I would've loved to have gone but the tickets sold out ages ago. I probably would've had to buy one before I even decided to come to England! Maybe next year though...

We can hear the music from Little Canada though! Thinking of going to Newport tonight (which is closer to the festival site) to listen to Coldplay. Although I am REALLY tired so I might just have an early night...

Ooh! My friends who were here at Little Canada have now got a job in Normandy with a company called Acorn. They're going to be assistant instructors on sea kayaking, climbing, and canoeing trips (and other things too). But the coolest part is that I can get a ferry from Portsmouth to Normandy so am thinking of going to visit them, maybe in July. Exciting!!

I'm going to start rambling soon so will sign off before I do. Please email me! :-)

Summer is here!

Woohoo! 23 degrees today! And I decided to walk to Cowes. Hmmm. All in all probably walked about 5 miles today. It was HOT. (Well, hotter than what I've been used to from Invers)

And check out this forecast!
Sunday, sunny, 21 degrees max
Monday, sunny intervals, 23 degrees max
Tuesday, sunny intervals, 20 degrees max
Wednesday, sunny intervals, 23 degrees max

http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/5day.shtml?id=3163