Marchants Hill and one completely unrelated photo

Hello again! Well I didn't do any field studies at Marchants Hill but I did do a whole day of zip sessions and a hike in Hindhead Commons, overlooking the Devils Punchbowl. The hike that we do at Little Canada is okay but parts of it are just along the side of the road and you're never far from houses and civilisation. Because the Marchants Hill hike goes through National Trust land you can play games in the bracken with the kids which is quite cool.

The zip sessions were good too. Not sure if I'm going to get to do any more here at Little Canada but maybe with indies and families at the half term break. The only slightly dodgy thing that happened was one girl jumped off before I had unclipped her from the safety rope that was attaching her to the tower. She still had her feet on the tower so I pulled her back up, unclipped her and off she went. Not a big deal really and she was laughing about it on the way down. :-)

Less than a month to go now! I have some field studies this week but I think it will quieten down a bit from now on. I'm planning on movnig to London for a few months when I'm done here. I won't get stuck though! Have a ski trip planned for February and I'll probably move on after that, maybe further north.

Keep in touch!




Me and some friends from Little Canada at Paula and Nicole's farewell dinner. We went to the Crab and Lobster Inn in Bembridge on the island.

From left: Nicole, Vicky, Diana, Paula and I

Lately

Hello! Well I've done a couple of different things lately.

Had my first zip session last weekend for the teacher preview weekend. It's for teachers to come and try out some of the activities so they can decide whether they want to come here or not. They bring their kids too. It went fine and I wasn't too nervous :-)

Last week I went kayaking down at the weir on Wootton Creek. When the tide is going out a wave forms for a while so I went down with one of my friends who does watersports here. Now everyone actually believes that I have done a bit of kayaking and that I'm not all talk! It was pretty fun although short-lived and quite shallow. I felt pretty rusty having not been in a boat properly since I left NZ.

Also last weekend, on Saturday night, I went to watch the Isle of Wight ice hockey team (the Wightlink Raiders) play in Ryde. They haven't won a game all season and it was pretty close for a while and they were actually winning for a bit but the Solihull Barons won in the end by one point. It made for quite an exciting game though! A couple of the better players were also quite nasty players and there was one fight and a few elbows discreetly thrown in during the game. Some of the locals had drums which they hit to get the crowd chanting, and there were hotdogs for sale. It was all very cheesy and entertaining.

I was hoping to go again this weekend but I'm being sent to Marchants Hill, another PGL centre that is in Surrey, near London. I think we're doing field studies there with quite young kids. Apparently we have to dress up as aliens and they discover things about 'Planet Earth' in the session and report back to the aliens. Should be fun! I'll try to take pitctures.

Well, that's all for the moment. Is anyone actually reading this? Please get in touch!

Cowes Week photos

Some well overdue photos from the last night of Cowes Week...


Fireworks!



























Some of my workmates and friends from Little Canada - Joe, Paula, Nicole, Diana, me. Tim, Joe, Matt (in front) and Jonesy











At the end of the night.
Vicky is the owner of the Bob the Builder balloon :-)