Flour everywhere!! There was a game earlier involving flour and of course it just got spread around...
Dave and the gimps
Pumpkin :-)
Unfit for work... 
Friday, November 17, 2006
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
Moved to London
As the title would suggest I have now finished on the Isle of Wight and have moved to London. For the moment I am staying with my very accommodating friends in Kilburn and hope to find somewhere to live around this area soon. Although, I have to make some more money first because I can't afford the bond on a flat! The bond is usually one month's rent and you have to pay the first month's rent in advance... probably £700 - £800 all up. Ouch!
Anyway, I haven't posted for a while but haven't really been up to much so this shouldn't be too long. A few weeks ago I came up to London to see Salmonella Dub - my first NZ music gig in London and very fitting as Sal Dub was the last gig I went to in NZ too! It was really good, especially since MC Tali and Concord Dawn played support. Added bonus :-) I saw two people from Blenheim as well, one of which I hadn't seen since school which was kinda weird but apparently it happens all the time over here.
As for work, it's just been ticking along. Had a few afternoons off and a few sessions of site work (instead of taking activity sessions) when we were a bit quiet. Often site work is just picking up rubbish or restacking the tyres that outline the quad tracks but with the end of the season coming up they had a few more worthwhile jobs to be done so site work was actually really good!
My last week was mostly field studies. I had the same group of kids for the whole week and they were really cool kids although by Friday they were really tired and kept snapping at each other. Oh well, I suppose that's what you'd expect on a school camp kinda thing. They did work pretty hard during the week too.
I also seemed to do quite a bit of socialising in the last week and this week I have a cold, which I guess is hardly surprising. Went down to the beach on Guy Fawkes night and had a bonfire and a few drinks. We weren't down there too late cos most people had gone down earlier than me so by the time I got there we ran out of firewood fairly quickly. It was good fun though.
Tuesday night was a workmate/friend's 21st and that ended up being quite a big one - I fell asleep in someone else's room in my building and woke up at 4.30 wondering where I was! Luckily I only had to go upstairs to get to my own room :-)
On Saturday night we had the annual reunion and the bar was closed Friday night for decorating so of course we all had to go to the bar on Thursday night because it was effectively the last night of the season. Friday night I ended up at the pub at the end of the road with a few of the managers (!) and then back at centre playing poker with my friend Diana and a few others. Very random.
The reunion was Saturday and it was really fun. Everyone had to dress up (suits for men, dresses or skirts for women) and lots of people whose contracts finished earlier in the season came back for it. There were awards, a finger buffet in the resturant with champagne and wine, and a band for later who played on and off till 3am. I'll put my pictures on here some time soon.
Hope everyone is well. Keep in touch!
Anyway, I haven't posted for a while but haven't really been up to much so this shouldn't be too long. A few weeks ago I came up to London to see Salmonella Dub - my first NZ music gig in London and very fitting as Sal Dub was the last gig I went to in NZ too! It was really good, especially since MC Tali and Concord Dawn played support. Added bonus :-) I saw two people from Blenheim as well, one of which I hadn't seen since school which was kinda weird but apparently it happens all the time over here.
As for work, it's just been ticking along. Had a few afternoons off and a few sessions of site work (instead of taking activity sessions) when we were a bit quiet. Often site work is just picking up rubbish or restacking the tyres that outline the quad tracks but with the end of the season coming up they had a few more worthwhile jobs to be done so site work was actually really good!
My last week was mostly field studies. I had the same group of kids for the whole week and they were really cool kids although by Friday they were really tired and kept snapping at each other. Oh well, I suppose that's what you'd expect on a school camp kinda thing. They did work pretty hard during the week too.
I also seemed to do quite a bit of socialising in the last week and this week I have a cold, which I guess is hardly surprising. Went down to the beach on Guy Fawkes night and had a bonfire and a few drinks. We weren't down there too late cos most people had gone down earlier than me so by the time I got there we ran out of firewood fairly quickly. It was good fun though.
Tuesday night was a workmate/friend's 21st and that ended up being quite a big one - I fell asleep in someone else's room in my building and woke up at 4.30 wondering where I was! Luckily I only had to go upstairs to get to my own room :-)
On Saturday night we had the annual reunion and the bar was closed Friday night for decorating so of course we all had to go to the bar on Thursday night because it was effectively the last night of the season. Friday night I ended up at the pub at the end of the road with a few of the managers (!) and then back at centre playing poker with my friend Diana and a few others. Very random.
The reunion was Saturday and it was really fun. Everyone had to dress up (suits for men, dresses or skirts for women) and lots of people whose contracts finished earlier in the season came back for it. There were awards, a finger buffet in the resturant with champagne and wine, and a band for later who played on and off till 3am. I'll put my pictures on here some time soon.
Hope everyone is well. Keep in touch!
Friday, October 13, 2006
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
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
Thursday, October 05, 2006
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!
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!
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
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 :-)
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 :-)
Thursday, September 28, 2006
Dancing at SW4
On Friday August 25th I headed up to London for dinner out for my friend Bec’s birthday and a day at the SW4 music festival on Saturday. It was a bit of a last minute excursion because I’d been told that I wasn’t going to get the weekend off only to find when the timetable was put up on the Tuesday that I did have it off after all. Luckily there were still megabus and megatrain tickets available so the travel at least wasn’t too expensive. And I must’ve got one of the last tickets to SW4 too. It was meant to be :-)
On Saturday morning we went to Clapham Common on the tube and met up with some more of Nick and Tash’s friends before heading to the festival. The line was really long but it was moving really fast and we got in relatively quickly. The whole this was really good but highlights for me were the Stanton Warriors and Paul Oakenfold. Carl Cox was good too. There was a big screen up behind the DJs and the graphics that went with his show were awesome.
Anyway, here’s some photos…
Tash and I
Paul Oakenfold
judge jules
Carl Cox and friends (although you can't actually see Carl Cox...)
On Saturday morning we went to Clapham Common on the tube and met up with some more of Nick and Tash’s friends before heading to the festival. The line was really long but it was moving really fast and we got in relatively quickly. The whole this was really good but highlights for me were the Stanton Warriors and Paul Oakenfold. Carl Cox was good too. There was a big screen up behind the DJs and the graphics that went with his show were awesome.
Anyway, here’s some photos…
Tash and I
Paul Oakenfold
judge jules
Carl Cox and friends (although you can't actually see Carl Cox...)
Tuesday, September 26, 2006
Some photos of where I live
The driveway walking towards Trappers, the house where I live
Trappers!
The stairs up to my room. My old room is on the right at the top of the stairs but now I live in the one straight ahead (it's bigger)
The door to the room I shared with Becky. Sarah made us a cool sign for our door :-)
My old room. This is the view from the door. It was really small! My bed is the one on the right.
The zip wire. You climb up the back of the pole and onto the platform and the zip goes from there off to the right of the photo. When you set it up (which I've had to do for two assessments now!) you have to hang off the pole a bit higher than where the platform is.
I've had to be re-assessed in zip because it had been too long since my last assessment with no sessions. But I passed no worries!
Me in my stunning PGL uniform (and non-regulation hat - oops! When you wear uniform everything is supposed to be PGL). This was taken at Freshwater Bay, which has really cool chalk cliffs.Tuesday, September 05, 2006
Edinburgh Festival
Okay, so it’s been a while I know but I just haven’t really felt like sitting at the computer for ages. And I have a lot to say!!
The trip up to Edinburgh for the festival was fantastic. I went up to London the night before and just had a cruisy day hanging out with Tash and her mum at the Camden markets on Thursday. We met everyone else at Kings Cross at 5.30 and got the train up to Edinburgh. It only took 4 and a half hours, which wasn’t actually too bad! And went through lots of places that I had never seen before, like Durham (massive cathedral) and Newcastle (it was raining, and there was coal).
Arrived in Edinburgh about 10.30 and the last shuttle to our hostel was at 11. Unfortunately we went to the wrong bus stop, and when we rang the hostel they said we were supposed to be somewhere completely different. It turns out we had the right bus stop number but we were on Princes St and were supposed to be on a different street. So we had to get a taxi to the hostel but it wasn’t too expensive between five of us.
First impressions of Edinburgh were awesome. The buildings there are all old and stone and there is this amazing monument right in town which is a little bit lit up at night and looks quite eerie. And I saw buses going to Bonnyrigg (where my granddad was born), and Musselburgh (where he lived before his family emigrated to NZ, I think). Very cool! The other cool thing about Edinburgh is that Dunedin has mostly the same street names as it. The main ones at least, like Princes, George, Moray Place, Leith, Great King, etc.
Anyway, on to the festival itself; Friday morning we got the shuttle into central Edinburgh and had a wander down the Royal Mile, which was all closed off to traffic for the festival. We watched some buskers and got handed MILLIONS of leaflets advertising all the shows (well, this might be slightly exaggerating). I’m sure Nick will be able to give a better picture of what it was like, but there were loads of people, usually young, dressed in the costume of whatever show they were in and acting in character while handing out flyers and promoting their show.
Steve very quickly got involved in a street performer’s show and had to try to catch three Frisbees on his body… one on each arm and one on his head. Which he succeeded in doing!! Eventually :-)
That afternoon we managed to get free tickets to Thatha, which was music, song and dance from Zimbabwe. It was brilliant, and nice to see something cultural as well because the rest of the weekend was mostly comedy things.
That evening we went to see Goodies Still Rule OK. This was okay, just clips from Goodies shows and some stories from two of the three Goodies. If I’d actually had a look at this myself and hadn’t had to plan in advance I probably wouldn’t have chosen this show as it wasn’t very cheap and I think I probably would’ve enjoyed something else more. But we booked our evening shows in advance and one of the guys chose them for us so it’s my own fault for being too lazy to check it out properly!
Later on that evening we went to see The Powder Room, Nick’s choice. J We were all pretty tired and at first it seemed as though we had made a big mistake but it was actually quite good – funny and all very over-the-top.
Before we saw The Powder Room we watched a really good fire performance. The fire poi guy was Australian. When he introduced himself he said the poi was “all the way from the wonderful shores of New Zealand!” And we all cheered. Then he said “yeah, it’s the nicest part of Australia.” It was quite funny and we had a chat to him afterwards. Bec and I had a practice outside the hostel the next morning trying to teach ourselves some of his tricks. Still working on those…
Saturday was more street theatre and in the afternoon we went to see some free comedy – Mark Allen’s Quite Good Britain. It was really good! He’d done a lot of research on British history and his idea effectively is that Britain isn’t really ‘Great’ any more and should perhaps rebrand itself as ‘quite good’ and therefore settle for mediocrity. He even had badges for everyone at the end and a national anthem for the new Britain that we all had to get up and sing at the end of his show. We’d seen him on the Royal Mile earlier that day and he said we’d get our money back if we didn’t enjoy it. :-)
The evening show was Gamarjobat. Indescribable really. It was absolutely fantastic and hilarious right from the start. They do tour around a bit so go and see them if you ever get the chance. For those who don’t want to click the link – it’s two Japanese guys who do silent/mime comedy. Here’s another review.
We went out for dinner that night and then went to see some more free comedy, which wasn’t quite as good as the earlier stuff but still okay.
Sunday morning everyone kinda went their own way to do touristy stuff but I wanted to see a play so I went to see The Tylwyth Teg by myself. I really enjoyed it! It was not a comedy at all but was quite quirky at times and really well done.
Then to lunch with everyone else and back on the train to London. I had a fantastic extended weekend and it took me quite a while to get back into things here on centre. I really just wanted to go on holiday again! Or at least be somewhere else. This place drives me a bit nuts sometimes with it being such an enclosed environment and with a lot of the staff being so young. Aaah, never mind – only two months to go!
The trip up to Edinburgh for the festival was fantastic. I went up to London the night before and just had a cruisy day hanging out with Tash and her mum at the Camden markets on Thursday. We met everyone else at Kings Cross at 5.30 and got the train up to Edinburgh. It only took 4 and a half hours, which wasn’t actually too bad! And went through lots of places that I had never seen before, like Durham (massive cathedral) and Newcastle (it was raining, and there was coal).
Arrived in Edinburgh about 10.30 and the last shuttle to our hostel was at 11. Unfortunately we went to the wrong bus stop, and when we rang the hostel they said we were supposed to be somewhere completely different. It turns out we had the right bus stop number but we were on Princes St and were supposed to be on a different street. So we had to get a taxi to the hostel but it wasn’t too expensive between five of us.
First impressions of Edinburgh were awesome. The buildings there are all old and stone and there is this amazing monument right in town which is a little bit lit up at night and looks quite eerie. And I saw buses going to Bonnyrigg (where my granddad was born), and Musselburgh (where he lived before his family emigrated to NZ, I think). Very cool! The other cool thing about Edinburgh is that Dunedin has mostly the same street names as it. The main ones at least, like Princes, George, Moray Place, Leith, Great King, etc.
Anyway, on to the festival itself; Friday morning we got the shuttle into central Edinburgh and had a wander down the Royal Mile, which was all closed off to traffic for the festival. We watched some buskers and got handed MILLIONS of leaflets advertising all the shows (well, this might be slightly exaggerating). I’m sure Nick will be able to give a better picture of what it was like, but there were loads of people, usually young, dressed in the costume of whatever show they were in and acting in character while handing out flyers and promoting their show.
Steve very quickly got involved in a street performer’s show and had to try to catch three Frisbees on his body… one on each arm and one on his head. Which he succeeded in doing!! Eventually :-)
That afternoon we managed to get free tickets to Thatha, which was music, song and dance from Zimbabwe. It was brilliant, and nice to see something cultural as well because the rest of the weekend was mostly comedy things.
That evening we went to see Goodies Still Rule OK. This was okay, just clips from Goodies shows and some stories from two of the three Goodies. If I’d actually had a look at this myself and hadn’t had to plan in advance I probably wouldn’t have chosen this show as it wasn’t very cheap and I think I probably would’ve enjoyed something else more. But we booked our evening shows in advance and one of the guys chose them for us so it’s my own fault for being too lazy to check it out properly!
Later on that evening we went to see The Powder Room, Nick’s choice. J We were all pretty tired and at first it seemed as though we had made a big mistake but it was actually quite good – funny and all very over-the-top.
Before we saw The Powder Room we watched a really good fire performance. The fire poi guy was Australian. When he introduced himself he said the poi was “all the way from the wonderful shores of New Zealand!” And we all cheered. Then he said “yeah, it’s the nicest part of Australia.” It was quite funny and we had a chat to him afterwards. Bec and I had a practice outside the hostel the next morning trying to teach ourselves some of his tricks. Still working on those…
Saturday was more street theatre and in the afternoon we went to see some free comedy – Mark Allen’s Quite Good Britain. It was really good! He’d done a lot of research on British history and his idea effectively is that Britain isn’t really ‘Great’ any more and should perhaps rebrand itself as ‘quite good’ and therefore settle for mediocrity. He even had badges for everyone at the end and a national anthem for the new Britain that we all had to get up and sing at the end of his show. We’d seen him on the Royal Mile earlier that day and he said we’d get our money back if we didn’t enjoy it. :-)
The evening show was Gamarjobat. Indescribable really. It was absolutely fantastic and hilarious right from the start. They do tour around a bit so go and see them if you ever get the chance. For those who don’t want to click the link – it’s two Japanese guys who do silent/mime comedy. Here’s another review.
We went out for dinner that night and then went to see some more free comedy, which wasn’t quite as good as the earlier stuff but still okay.
Sunday morning everyone kinda went their own way to do touristy stuff but I wanted to see a play so I went to see The Tylwyth Teg by myself. I really enjoyed it! It was not a comedy at all but was quite quirky at times and really well done.
Then to lunch with everyone else and back on the train to London. I had a fantastic extended weekend and it took me quite a while to get back into things here on centre. I really just wanted to go on holiday again! Or at least be somewhere else. This place drives me a bit nuts sometimes with it being such an enclosed environment and with a lot of the staff being so young. Aaah, never mind – only two months to go!
Edinburgh photos
A cool archway that we saw as soon as we left the train station in Edinburgh
Steve catching frisbees on his head and arms in a street performance.
Buskers
Me and the Edinburgh castle (and Princes St)
One of the venues of the fringe festival
Another venue - the Channel 4 Udder Belly
Monday, August 07, 2006
Cowes Week
Last week was Skandia Cowes Week, one of the biggest yachting regattas in the world. I didn't go in to Cowes during the day as there wasn't much to be seen from shore but on Tuesday night last week and for the finale on Friday a group of us went in to have some drinks and just see what it was like.
Amazing! For a small town like Cowes it was huge! On the Tuesday night there were just four girls and three guys and we managed to lose the guys and were talking (and getting free drinks from) a few sailors. They said they'd been winning races and they were from the ABM AMRO team. They were professional sailors and two (of the ones we were talking to) were Kiwis! And one American. Found out the next day (and since then) that their team (although maybe not them specifically) won the Volvo Ocean Race this year (formerly the Whitbread Round the World), and were actually quite famous and were winning everything in their class at Cowes Week. It might have been a novelty for them to meet people who didn't know who they were! Oh well.
So we ended up having a really fun night anyway. Friday night was the official final night and they had a massive fireworks display. I took a few pictures and if they came out well then I'll put them on here soon. I had to start work at 7 the next morning so didn't go too crazy and there were actually too many people about to have as much fun as on Tuesday. Lots of people just come down for the weekend because it is so huge.
Saturday I did escorted travel to London again for the third week in a row. So had to take kids back up to London on a coach and then pick up some more kids and come back to Little Canada. All was fine until we reached the ferry port at Portsmouth and it was REALLY busy. The busiest I've ever seen. We were booked onto the 4.30pm ferry but were hoping to get on an earlier one. We arrived there at 3pm and they told us to come back at 3.30, which we did and then sat in the queue (on the coach) till just after 5.30 when the scheduled 4.30 sailing actually left. They were running late because it was so busy and then a woman collapsed on the vehicle deck when the ferry was about to leave so they had to wait for an ambulance to take her away before they could leave.
So, it was really tough! 29 hot and restless kids and, predictably, they were getting quite troublesome and Joe and I were fast losing patience with them. We managed okay though.
Then, to top things off, the road down to Little Canada had cars parked on both sides in some sections. It is quite a narrow and bumpy road and the coach could only just get through but it was a slow trip. The day ended up being nearly 12 hours long for us! Quite exhausting.
Today I'm on Pirate Adventure Day with the 7-10s age group. It's quite fun! This morning we had to make pirate costumes and then help the kids follow clues to find a pirate (another staff member) who could tell them where the treasure was. And this afternoon they will go sailing to Woodside Beach where the treasure is buried (lollipops). My pirate costume is a gold medallion and gold chain bracelet (made with gold paper), and a black rubbish bag coat and bandanna. Very cool :-)
Anyway, time to go sailing! Aaarrrrr.
Amazing! For a small town like Cowes it was huge! On the Tuesday night there were just four girls and three guys and we managed to lose the guys and were talking (and getting free drinks from) a few sailors. They said they'd been winning races and they were from the ABM AMRO team. They were professional sailors and two (of the ones we were talking to) were Kiwis! And one American. Found out the next day (and since then) that their team (although maybe not them specifically) won the Volvo Ocean Race this year (formerly the Whitbread Round the World), and were actually quite famous and were winning everything in their class at Cowes Week. It might have been a novelty for them to meet people who didn't know who they were! Oh well.
So we ended up having a really fun night anyway. Friday night was the official final night and they had a massive fireworks display. I took a few pictures and if they came out well then I'll put them on here soon. I had to start work at 7 the next morning so didn't go too crazy and there were actually too many people about to have as much fun as on Tuesday. Lots of people just come down for the weekend because it is so huge.
Saturday I did escorted travel to London again for the third week in a row. So had to take kids back up to London on a coach and then pick up some more kids and come back to Little Canada. All was fine until we reached the ferry port at Portsmouth and it was REALLY busy. The busiest I've ever seen. We were booked onto the 4.30pm ferry but were hoping to get on an earlier one. We arrived there at 3pm and they told us to come back at 3.30, which we did and then sat in the queue (on the coach) till just after 5.30 when the scheduled 4.30 sailing actually left. They were running late because it was so busy and then a woman collapsed on the vehicle deck when the ferry was about to leave so they had to wait for an ambulance to take her away before they could leave.
So, it was really tough! 29 hot and restless kids and, predictably, they were getting quite troublesome and Joe and I were fast losing patience with them. We managed okay though.
Then, to top things off, the road down to Little Canada had cars parked on both sides in some sections. It is quite a narrow and bumpy road and the coach could only just get through but it was a slow trip. The day ended up being nearly 12 hours long for us! Quite exhausting.
Today I'm on Pirate Adventure Day with the 7-10s age group. It's quite fun! This morning we had to make pirate costumes and then help the kids follow clues to find a pirate (another staff member) who could tell them where the treasure was. And this afternoon they will go sailing to Woodside Beach where the treasure is buried (lollipops). My pirate costume is a gold medallion and gold chain bracelet (made with gold paper), and a black rubbish bag coat and bandanna. Very cool :-)
Anyway, time to go sailing! Aaarrrrr.
Saturday, July 29, 2006
Summary so far
I've been here at Little Canada on the Isle of Wight (at the very bottom of England) for nearly three months now. My first week in England was spent in London seeing some sights and having a general catch-up with the friends I was staying with. I also watched the London marathon because a friend of a friend was running in it.
Then I went to training with PGL (the company I work for) at a centre called Barton Hall, near Torquay in Devon. It was pretty fun and I met some cool people. Most of the people that I got on well with came to Little Canada too, which was great! For the first wee bit I hung out with them a lot and a few of them are still my best mates here. I've made a few more friends too thankfully, although some of them have finished their contracts or resigned already! There's lots of stuff about this company that's not that great... sometimes things aren't very well organised and we don't get paid much. But I kinda realised that when I signed on so it's not been too much of a shock for me.
At the training at Barton Hall we did lots of seminars on working with children, group management, conflict stuff and things like that and also learnt about a lot of the sessions that are run. We have four sessions a day - two before lunch and two after lunch, and then an evening activity after dinner. I got trained in quads when I was at Barton Hall and that's been one of my most common sessions. It can get a bit boring sometimes but things are different at the moment because it is summer camp (more on that later).
Other sessions we do are problem solving, archery, orienteering, aeroball (description here... http://lisas-adventure.blogspot.com/2006/05/first-actual-sessions-tomorrow.html), dragon's quest and Jacob's ladder. Those last two are just like challenge courses so it's all about getting the kids to work together as a team.
A few weeks after I arrived I signed up to do abseiling and I passed my assessment for that so now I usually have at least two abseiling sessions a day. Which is actually really cool because you are at the top of the tower and deal with the kids on a individual basis. There are tower assistants to run the session from the bottom of the tower and they have to deal with the group management stuff. And usually they are too scared/nervous to be naughty or cheeky. It can also be really rewarding when you persevere with a kid and they end up really enjoying it and coming back up to have another go. We had one kid who apparently had really low self esteem (so the teacher said) and you couldn't wipe the grin off his face! He ended up having for turns.
Then I went to training with PGL (the company I work for) at a centre called Barton Hall, near Torquay in Devon. It was pretty fun and I met some cool people. Most of the people that I got on well with came to Little Canada too, which was great! For the first wee bit I hung out with them a lot and a few of them are still my best mates here. I've made a few more friends too thankfully, although some of them have finished their contracts or resigned already! There's lots of stuff about this company that's not that great... sometimes things aren't very well organised and we don't get paid much. But I kinda realised that when I signed on so it's not been too much of a shock for me.
At the training at Barton Hall we did lots of seminars on working with children, group management, conflict stuff and things like that and also learnt about a lot of the sessions that are run. We have four sessions a day - two before lunch and two after lunch, and then an evening activity after dinner. I got trained in quads when I was at Barton Hall and that's been one of my most common sessions. It can get a bit boring sometimes but things are different at the moment because it is summer camp (more on that later).
Other sessions we do are problem solving, archery, orienteering, aeroball (description here... http://lisas-adventure.blogspot.com/2006/05/first-actual-sessions-tomorrow.html), dragon's quest and Jacob's ladder. Those last two are just like challenge courses so it's all about getting the kids to work together as a team.
A few weeks after I arrived I signed up to do abseiling and I passed my assessment for that so now I usually have at least two abseiling sessions a day. Which is actually really cool because you are at the top of the tower and deal with the kids on a individual basis. There are tower assistants to run the session from the bottom of the tower and they have to deal with the group management stuff. And usually they are too scared/nervous to be naughty or cheeky. It can also be really rewarding when you persevere with a kid and they end up really enjoying it and coming back up to have another go. We had one kid who apparently had really low self esteem (so the teacher said) and you couldn't wipe the grin off his face! He ended up having for turns.
I've also been trained in zip wire but haven't had any sessions yet.
Usually we have school groups (or youth groups...) from Monday to Friday or Friday to Monday. So they have teachers with them who are there on sessions and are ultimately responsible for the kids, including their behaviour. At the moment it's summer holidays so we have indies, kids on their own without parents. A bit more like summer camp in the States but most of them are just here for a week. It's a bit different cos there is no 'other' adult on the sessions with you, there are much less kids around centre (only a maximum of 300 as opposed to 700), and as an instructor you sometimes have to do sleepover, which is sleeping in the teacher's cabins near the kids and being there for them if they are homesick or sick or anything like that. With summer camp I've also been involved with escorted travel, so I've been up to London and back in a bus to drop kids off and collect them.
Anyway, enough about work. I only get one day off a week so haven't done too much - explored the island a little bit and spent a few days with my brother-in-law's aunt and uncle who live near Southampton. When I do have a day off it's nice to get away from centre because then it actually feels like you've had a proper break. I'm going to Edinburgh soon for the Fringe Festival with some friends from London. Very excited! There a few other plans in the pipeline which involve me saving enough money to go... quite difficult when you don't earn much! But my board and food is all paid for so it shouldn't be that difficult (or so you would think).
Any questions?
Thursday, July 27, 2006
I've had an interesting couple of days. Tuesday morning I had abseiling all morning then in the afternoon I had two N/Ws, which is no work. And Wednesday was my day off. You are supposed to hang around centre for N/Ws in case they have a last minute change but I checked and they said they didn't need me so I went to stay with Jim and Sue in Chandler's Ford (near Southampton) again.
Went to see 'The Break-Up' with their daughter (Helen, who is about my age) and her friends. It was quite good, not finishing the way we all expected it to.
They all had a busy day planned for Wednesday so I just hung around the house and read my book, which was actually really nice! Got the train into Southampton in the afternoon, had a wander around the shops and got my hair cut. Public transport on the mainland is much cheaper and more available than on the island!
Headed back to Cowes after dinner but I got the timing all wrong. My friends couldn't come and pick me up because they were either working or had been to the pub... I was about 20 minutes late for the bus and then next one wasn't for another forty... Was going to check out a taxi but I asked in a local pub and they suggested I should just wait for the bus since it would be so much cheaper so I sat in the pub for the next half hour with the locals. One older women and about 8 men. It was really funny! They were giving me a bit of stick but I took it well which I think they appreciated :-) I bought half a pint of beer cos thought I could make that last the half hour but since at the beginning I was bit uncomfortable I drank it quite fast. Never fear, locals to the rescue! One of the guys was buying a round and bought me another half and then a bit later on ANOTHER (which I objected weakly to because it was about 5 minutes before my bus arrived). Managed to down it and get my bus though. They were trying to get me to stay till the next bus! The other cool thing was this wicked thunder and lightning display... thought I might get drenched but it never actually rained. Eventful evening anyway.
Then this morning I was put on security. I sat in the gatehouse from 7 till 1 and recorded who left and arrived (and let them in and out - there's a bar that you have to lift). And that's it till tomorrow afternoon so I have to sort out what to do with the rest of my day! Aaaah, life is hard.
Lisa :-)
Went to see 'The Break-Up' with their daughter (Helen, who is about my age) and her friends. It was quite good, not finishing the way we all expected it to.
They all had a busy day planned for Wednesday so I just hung around the house and read my book, which was actually really nice! Got the train into Southampton in the afternoon, had a wander around the shops and got my hair cut. Public transport on the mainland is much cheaper and more available than on the island!
Headed back to Cowes after dinner but I got the timing all wrong. My friends couldn't come and pick me up because they were either working or had been to the pub... I was about 20 minutes late for the bus and then next one wasn't for another forty... Was going to check out a taxi but I asked in a local pub and they suggested I should just wait for the bus since it would be so much cheaper so I sat in the pub for the next half hour with the locals. One older women and about 8 men. It was really funny! They were giving me a bit of stick but I took it well which I think they appreciated :-) I bought half a pint of beer cos thought I could make that last the half hour but since at the beginning I was bit uncomfortable I drank it quite fast. Never fear, locals to the rescue! One of the guys was buying a round and bought me another half and then a bit later on ANOTHER (which I objected weakly to because it was about 5 minutes before my bus arrived). Managed to down it and get my bus though. They were trying to get me to stay till the next bus! The other cool thing was this wicked thunder and lightning display... thought I might get drenched but it never actually rained. Eventful evening anyway.
Then this morning I was put on security. I sat in the gatehouse from 7 till 1 and recorded who left and arrived (and let them in and out - there's a bar that you have to lift). And that's it till tomorrow afternoon so I have to sort out what to do with the rest of my day! Aaaah, life is hard.
Lisa :-)
Monday, July 24, 2006
Summer camp
It's been a while I know but sometimes you just don't feel like sitting at a computer (I know a lot of you know what that's like!)
It's continued to be very hot. I've only had one day off since my last 'report' and I spent the morning here on centre and then got the bus to Sandown for the afternoon. It ended up taking quite a while and I didn't get there till 4 but it was still hot only quite windy. I didn't want to leave my bag alone so couldn't go for a swim but I read my book for a good couple of hours, got a coffee and then got the bus back to Wootton.
School has finished now and our last school group till September (I think) just left today. So now we have summer camp, and indies (kids without parents) and it's a whole different ball game. On Saturday I was on 'travel' all day. Went up to London on a bus with one other guy to pick up 27 kids and bring them back here. It was quite good actually, very cruisy.
Yesterday morning I was doing site work all morning - nice to do something quite physical for a change! Normally we are just standing around watching the kids do all the active stuff! We had to (among a few other things) saw down some posts and shovel wood chips into one of the activity areas.
The last night I was on 'sleepover.' Because the kids have no parent figure we have to supervise them at all times, and be there in the night as well. The kids are split into three age groups; 7-10, 10-13, and 13-16. I was on sleepover with the 10-13 girls so I had to sleep in the teachers' cabin nearest to them, with double beds, a really good shower, and a TV! Yay! It wasn't too much of a hardship and the only problems were a couple of homesick girls who I managed to get smiling again. The shower in Trappers, where I live, has been cold since Saturday night because the boiler broke and they couldn't get anyone to fix it yesterday because it was Sunday.
Hmmm, feel like I should have more to say but I can't think of anything right now. Any questions?
Hope you are all well and enjoying whatever you are doing.
Lisa :-)
It's continued to be very hot. I've only had one day off since my last 'report' and I spent the morning here on centre and then got the bus to Sandown for the afternoon. It ended up taking quite a while and I didn't get there till 4 but it was still hot only quite windy. I didn't want to leave my bag alone so couldn't go for a swim but I read my book for a good couple of hours, got a coffee and then got the bus back to Wootton.
School has finished now and our last school group till September (I think) just left today. So now we have summer camp, and indies (kids without parents) and it's a whole different ball game. On Saturday I was on 'travel' all day. Went up to London on a bus with one other guy to pick up 27 kids and bring them back here. It was quite good actually, very cruisy.
Yesterday morning I was doing site work all morning - nice to do something quite physical for a change! Normally we are just standing around watching the kids do all the active stuff! We had to (among a few other things) saw down some posts and shovel wood chips into one of the activity areas.
The last night I was on 'sleepover.' Because the kids have no parent figure we have to supervise them at all times, and be there in the night as well. The kids are split into three age groups; 7-10, 10-13, and 13-16. I was on sleepover with the 10-13 girls so I had to sleep in the teachers' cabin nearest to them, with double beds, a really good shower, and a TV! Yay! It wasn't too much of a hardship and the only problems were a couple of homesick girls who I managed to get smiling again. The shower in Trappers, where I live, has been cold since Saturday night because the boiler broke and they couldn't get anyone to fix it yesterday because it was Sunday.
Hmmm, feel like I should have more to say but I can't think of anything right now. Any questions?
Hope you are all well and enjoying whatever you are doing.
Lisa :-)
Some more photos
Winchester Cathedral
At the Hawk Conservancy, Andover, Hampshire...
http://www.hawk-conservancy.org/indexie.htm
A grey owl (I can't remember exactly what species!)
Cheyenne, one of the bald eagles we saw in a flying display
A barn owl
Me after this a harrier hawk flew from the perch in the background onto my arm!
Monday, July 10, 2006
Two days off
I had two days off in a row last week! Friday and Saturday, so I went to stay with my brother-in-law's aunt and uncle (Sue and Jim) in Eastleigh, near Southampton. It was so nice to get away from here! And to get some good food and sleep in a nice bed and all that. I hadn't met them before and stupidly we didn't talk about how we would recognise each other when I got off the ferry in Southampton. I had seen a picture of Jim briefly so I knew I was looking for a guy with a beard but that was about all and they didn't know what I looked like. But we sorted it out fine thankfully.
On Friday we went and had a look around Winchester, at the cathedral and the remains of the massive castle that used to be there but was destroyed in Oliver Cromwell days. There is still the Great Hall and the basement of one of the towers and a few of the gates to the city are still there too. I'll put some pictures up soon.
On Saturday we went to the Hawk Conservancy http://www.hawk-conservancy.org/indexie.htm It was really interesting and I took loads of photos of the birds which I will also put up soon. I even had a harrier hawk fly onto my arm! And we saw, in the flying demonstrations and in enclosures, owls, eagles, kestrels, vultures, kites and falcons of all different sizes. They were amazing.
Gotta go!
On Friday we went and had a look around Winchester, at the cathedral and the remains of the massive castle that used to be there but was destroyed in Oliver Cromwell days. There is still the Great Hall and the basement of one of the towers and a few of the gates to the city are still there too. I'll put some pictures up soon.
On Saturday we went to the Hawk Conservancy http://www.hawk-conservancy.org/indexie.htm It was really interesting and I took loads of photos of the birds which I will also put up soon. I even had a harrier hawk fly onto my arm! And we saw, in the flying demonstrations and in enclosures, owls, eagles, kestrels, vultures, kites and falcons of all different sizes. They were amazing.
Gotta go!
Sunday, July 02, 2006
HOT
It's really hot! Apparently it's supposed to be 33 degrees today! I know I shouldn't be complaining but it's hot and sticky and I have to wear T-shirts and sneakers (which I have to call trainers here) when I would normally be in a singlet top and jandals (flip-flops). I have a lovely tan line around my ankles which looks like I'm wearing tan coloured footless tights when I actually get to take my shoes off. Quite funny really.
This morning in my sessions I had some kids from Spain who are 10-11yrs old. They are here for two weeks and are really cool! Their English is good but they have a little trouble with my accent. Fair enough really, English kids do too sometimes. Had one group of them for problem solving first session and then all of them for abseiling in second session. One boy had four turns abseiling! Sometimes the kids only get one, if they're quite scared and need a lot of convincing that they're going to be fine.
I don't really have any more to say. Please keep me posted on what you're up to! Even if you think its average and boring...
Lisa :-)
This morning in my sessions I had some kids from Spain who are 10-11yrs old. They are here for two weeks and are really cool! Their English is good but they have a little trouble with my accent. Fair enough really, English kids do too sometimes. Had one group of them for problem solving first session and then all of them for abseiling in second session. One boy had four turns abseiling! Sometimes the kids only get one, if they're quite scared and need a lot of convincing that they're going to be fine.
I don't really have any more to say. Please keep me posted on what you're up to! Even if you think its average and boring...
Lisa :-)
Wednesday, June 28, 2006
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
Tuesday, June 27, 2006
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
Saturday, June 24, 2006
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...
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 :-)
Wednesday, June 21, 2006
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!
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!
Sunday, June 11, 2006
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.
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! :-)
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! :-)
Saturday, June 03, 2006
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
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
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
Random
Some old pictures of mine that are on the internet... (open them in a new window)
http://www.ara.org.nz/content.aspx?Section=Landscapes%20and%20Natural%20Features&PicName=west%20cape%20during%20the%20fiordland%20cleanup%202004&PL=true
http://www.ara.org.nz/content.aspx?Section=Navigation%20Safety&PicName=fiordland%20cleanup2&PL=true
http://www.ara.org.nz/content.aspx?Section=Navigation%20Safety&PicName=puysegar%20lighthouse&PL=true
http://www.ara.org.nz/content.aspx?Section=Landscapes%20and%20Natural%20Features&PicName=west%20cape%20during%20the%20fiordland%20cleanup%202004&PL=true
http://www.ara.org.nz/content.aspx?Section=Navigation%20Safety&PicName=fiordland%20cleanup2&PL=true
http://www.ara.org.nz/content.aspx?Section=Navigation%20Safety&PicName=puysegar%20lighthouse&PL=true
Field Studies at last!
Worked right through the weekend... to be honest though, there's really no difference here. Unless you have a Sunday off and try to do things in town you will have no luck because a lot of things are closed in England on Sundays! Even Invercargill has more available to do!
I started training for the field studies part of my job yesterday. There's just two of us doing it, Gerry and I. He was on the training course with me and lives in the room next door. And he's Irish.
Field studies seems like its going to be really cool! This week we are just learning about the sessions that can be done on site, but there are a bunch of offsite sessions to places all over the island, like Osbourne House http://www.theheritagetrail.co.uk/royal%20palaces/osborne%20house.htm, Freshwater Bay http://www.iwight.com/just_visiting/towns/freshwater.asp, and the Brading Roman Villa http://www.bradingromanvilla.org.uk/. We will be trained in these ones (and heaps more) at some later date but the onsite sessions are cool too. Yesterday we did Map Skills and this morning we did Alternative Technologies and Weather.
So this morning we went to three different sites and took weather measurements and recorded them on a pocket computer. Then we went back to the classroom and played with Lego that has been built into things like a car and a ferris wheel (with solar panels for power), a windmill, and a water wheel. This is all to get the kids thinking about different ways of getting power.
The last thing they have to do is choose a country and make a video presentation on a type of alternative energy that might be good for that country. They get an info sheet about the country and its physical resources and also about different types of renewable energy and the pros and cons of harnessing that energy. We didn't actually do the video presentation bit, just had a look at the resources that the kids would use. They get to dress up and do a kind of news story or documentary for their presentation.
I had to do the intro talk for this morning's session and it went quite well. Occasionally I referred back to my notes but with time hopefully I will get better at not using them.
This week is going to be quite good. Much less demanding than sessions! We're training till tomorrow (Wednesday), then I have Thursday off, and then we have an exam on Friday morning which we have to get 75% in. Friday afternoon I have my first review with my line manager and then an abseiling session. Yay!
Also, with field studies I now have my own login to the computers and a drive that I can store things on so I'll get some photos on it soon and upload them here.
I started training for the field studies part of my job yesterday. There's just two of us doing it, Gerry and I. He was on the training course with me and lives in the room next door. And he's Irish.
Field studies seems like its going to be really cool! This week we are just learning about the sessions that can be done on site, but there are a bunch of offsite sessions to places all over the island, like Osbourne House http://www.theheritagetrail.co.uk/royal%20palaces/osborne%20house.htm, Freshwater Bay http://www.iwight.com/just_visiting/towns/freshwater.asp, and the Brading Roman Villa http://www.bradingromanvilla.org.uk/. We will be trained in these ones (and heaps more) at some later date but the onsite sessions are cool too. Yesterday we did Map Skills and this morning we did Alternative Technologies and Weather.
So this morning we went to three different sites and took weather measurements and recorded them on a pocket computer. Then we went back to the classroom and played with Lego that has been built into things like a car and a ferris wheel (with solar panels for power), a windmill, and a water wheel. This is all to get the kids thinking about different ways of getting power.
The last thing they have to do is choose a country and make a video presentation on a type of alternative energy that might be good for that country. They get an info sheet about the country and its physical resources and also about different types of renewable energy and the pros and cons of harnessing that energy. We didn't actually do the video presentation bit, just had a look at the resources that the kids would use. They get to dress up and do a kind of news story or documentary for their presentation.
I had to do the intro talk for this morning's session and it went quite well. Occasionally I referred back to my notes but with time hopefully I will get better at not using them.
This week is going to be quite good. Much less demanding than sessions! We're training till tomorrow (Wednesday), then I have Thursday off, and then we have an exam on Friday morning which we have to get 75% in. Friday afternoon I have my first review with my line manager and then an abseiling session. Yay!
Also, with field studies I now have my own login to the computers and a drive that I can store things on so I'll get some photos on it soon and upload them here.
Thursday, May 25, 2006
More abseiling! And funny stories :-)
I passed my abs assessment! Yay! On Tuesday afternoon and now it is Thursday night and I've had three sessions already. It's really fun actually! Often the kids are quite scared but if you manage to convince them that they're going to be fine and get them over the edge they end up really enjoying themselves!
One girl on my first session was really scared but another instructor helped me and we got her down. Then half way down she started jumping and she jumped the rest of the way! So was obviously having fun :-) We do encourage them to jump their way down if they feel confident enough.
Another funny story - Yesterday I had Jacob's Ladder, which is an obstacle course where the kids move from platform to platform using a ladder. If they use the word 'ladder' or touch the ground or drop the ladder then they have to perform a forfeit. For dropping the ladder I usually make it a group forfeit becuase it is the whole group's responsibility to keep the ladder off the ground (yes, I know darling sisters, this makes me sound really geeky...). I had a group of 10 yr olds and they'd dropped the ladder three times. So I decided to make them ballroom dance with another member of their group of the opposite sex for ten seconds. There were 4 girls and 7 boys so one of the boys danced with a tree and the other two danced together. Except the others would not touch someone of the opposite sex! The girls were complaining about boy germs and the boys were just backing away. All for just ten seconds!!
So I told them that if they wouldn't do the forfeit then that was the end of the session, They didn't realise that it was actually the end of the session anyway so when I started walking away with the ladder one 'couple' held hands and danced. Then I told them it was actually the end of the session and they were so mad! Well, not actually but saying "So you just made us do that for no reason!!" and stuff like that. It was really funny. I told them that in a couple of years they'd feel differently and one of the girls said "that'll NEVER happen" very emphatically :-) Kids are funny.
Just realised this makes me sound quite nasty but it's nothing compared to what some of the other instructors do and it's not actually mean at all...
My next day off is not until next Thursday!
One girl on my first session was really scared but another instructor helped me and we got her down. Then half way down she started jumping and she jumped the rest of the way! So was obviously having fun :-) We do encourage them to jump their way down if they feel confident enough.
Another funny story - Yesterday I had Jacob's Ladder, which is an obstacle course where the kids move from platform to platform using a ladder. If they use the word 'ladder' or touch the ground or drop the ladder then they have to perform a forfeit. For dropping the ladder I usually make it a group forfeit becuase it is the whole group's responsibility to keep the ladder off the ground (yes, I know darling sisters, this makes me sound really geeky...). I had a group of 10 yr olds and they'd dropped the ladder three times. So I decided to make them ballroom dance with another member of their group of the opposite sex for ten seconds. There were 4 girls and 7 boys so one of the boys danced with a tree and the other two danced together. Except the others would not touch someone of the opposite sex! The girls were complaining about boy germs and the boys were just backing away. All for just ten seconds!!
So I told them that if they wouldn't do the forfeit then that was the end of the session, They didn't realise that it was actually the end of the session anyway so when I started walking away with the ladder one 'couple' held hands and danced. Then I told them it was actually the end of the session and they were so mad! Well, not actually but saying "So you just made us do that for no reason!!" and stuff like that. It was really funny. I told them that in a couple of years they'd feel differently and one of the girls said "that'll NEVER happen" very emphatically :-) Kids are funny.
Just realised this makes me sound quite nasty but it's nothing compared to what some of the other instructors do and it's not actually mean at all...
My next day off is not until next Thursday!
Monday, May 22, 2006
A usual day
I've had a request to explain what a normal day for me would entail. So here it is:
Breakfast is from 7.30 till 8.30 so we can go any time in that period. I usually go at about 8.15 because we have morning meeting at 8.40 so that gives me plenty of time to eat and not be too rushed. At the morning meeting the timetable gets handed around, because sometimes there are last minute changes to what you will be doing, say if someone called in sick or something like that. We also get messages from the managers about if people have had good feedback or if there's anything we need to know.
At 9 we have to go to stores and check what school group we are with. The schools are divided into groups of between 9 and 12 kids. We also have to check their medical information. Lots of kids have asthma!! And the younger ones much more than the older ones too. It seems it is getting more common...
From stores (which is called Taverna Stores, or Tav for short) we collect the equipment needed for the session and go and set up. We have to be back at the meeting area to meet the kids at 9.20, when the session starts. The meeting area is a clearing with a fence around it. There are signs for each activity on the fence so you just have to stand near your sign and wait for the group to find you.
First session is from 9.20 to 10.45, then second session from 11 to 12.30. Then lunch and time off until 2 when you have to be back at Tav for the afternoon sessions - 2.20 to 3.45, then 4 to 5.30. Then dinner.
Sometimes I have to do evening activities, which are called Evening Ents (I think for entertainments). That goes from 7 to 9. And then sometimes if you're on Ents you also have to do DI - Duty Instructor. So you meet at the bar at 9.30 and get given an area to 'patrol'. You have to check with the teachers what time they want lights out and walk around and make sure the kids are quiet and not running around till 10.30.
Ents is usually games but on the last night the school is here (Sundays and Thursdays) it is a big disco with all the schools.
And on Monday and Friday afternoons I usually have 'Meet Schools' which is meeting the new school groups then taking some of the kids on an orientation and playing some games with them.
So, hope that fills you in a bit more!
I had a day off yesterday which was really welcome! I only survived Saturday because of paracetomol and was not feeling well at all. Now I just have a cold but I was all achey and stuff on Friday night and Saturday. So yesterday I went to breakfast, then back to bed to read my book till about 11.30. Had a shower, went to lunch, then spent the afternoon changing my sheets, listening to music, vacuuming my room and the stairs (cos I live upstairs), and reading more of my book. Very exciting! But I'm feeling much better today.
More abseiling training tonight and then assessment tomorrow.
Thanks for your emails and comments!!
Breakfast is from 7.30 till 8.30 so we can go any time in that period. I usually go at about 8.15 because we have morning meeting at 8.40 so that gives me plenty of time to eat and not be too rushed. At the morning meeting the timetable gets handed around, because sometimes there are last minute changes to what you will be doing, say if someone called in sick or something like that. We also get messages from the managers about if people have had good feedback or if there's anything we need to know.
At 9 we have to go to stores and check what school group we are with. The schools are divided into groups of between 9 and 12 kids. We also have to check their medical information. Lots of kids have asthma!! And the younger ones much more than the older ones too. It seems it is getting more common...
From stores (which is called Taverna Stores, or Tav for short) we collect the equipment needed for the session and go and set up. We have to be back at the meeting area to meet the kids at 9.20, when the session starts. The meeting area is a clearing with a fence around it. There are signs for each activity on the fence so you just have to stand near your sign and wait for the group to find you.
First session is from 9.20 to 10.45, then second session from 11 to 12.30. Then lunch and time off until 2 when you have to be back at Tav for the afternoon sessions - 2.20 to 3.45, then 4 to 5.30. Then dinner.
Sometimes I have to do evening activities, which are called Evening Ents (I think for entertainments). That goes from 7 to 9. And then sometimes if you're on Ents you also have to do DI - Duty Instructor. So you meet at the bar at 9.30 and get given an area to 'patrol'. You have to check with the teachers what time they want lights out and walk around and make sure the kids are quiet and not running around till 10.30.
Ents is usually games but on the last night the school is here (Sundays and Thursdays) it is a big disco with all the schools.
And on Monday and Friday afternoons I usually have 'Meet Schools' which is meeting the new school groups then taking some of the kids on an orientation and playing some games with them.
So, hope that fills you in a bit more!
I had a day off yesterday which was really welcome! I only survived Saturday because of paracetomol and was not feeling well at all. Now I just have a cold but I was all achey and stuff on Friday night and Saturday. So yesterday I went to breakfast, then back to bed to read my book till about 11.30. Had a shower, went to lunch, then spent the afternoon changing my sheets, listening to music, vacuuming my room and the stairs (cos I live upstairs), and reading more of my book. Very exciting! But I'm feeling much better today.
More abseiling training tonight and then assessment tomorrow.
Thanks for your emails and comments!!
Thursday, May 18, 2006
Abseiling
I've been really busy! Four sessions a day and then sometimes having to do evening activities too. And then last night I started training for abseiling. Yay! The assessment is next week and if I pass then I'll probably be taking quite a few abseiling sessions. It'll be good to have another different thing to do.
Getting into the swing of things now and nothing is really standing out to tell you about, apart from the abseiling... :-)
If anyone has any questions please ask them because I'm not really sure what is interesting to other people.
Lisa :-)
Getting into the swing of things now and nothing is really standing out to tell you about, apart from the abseiling... :-)
If anyone has any questions please ask them because I'm not really sure what is interesting to other people.
Lisa :-)
Monday, May 15, 2006
Football madness and other things
My first day of sessions went pretty well. I was a bit nervous but it was all fine. Quite fun actually.
Some of the kids were allowed to not do the sessions with us to watch the FA Cup final between West Ham and Liverpool. I have had my first experience of football madness in this country. Third session (after lunch), two of us were taking archery and a teacher from the same school was in the range next door. She kept coming in and giving them score updates. It was really annoying!! It's hard enough to keep the kids interested without having interruptions from a teacher!! In retrospect we probably should have said something to her.
Then in my next session all the kids except one were West Ham supporters. I told them I didn't know anything about football and that I didn't really care about it but they made me pick one to support so I chose Liverpool just to be different! Which ended up being really good cos Liverpool won.
At dinner my friend James came in wearing a Liverpool flag and he got a big cheer from everyone in the restaurant. It was great! And he commented that it was his best entry into a room ever ;-)
After dinner I got dropped off at the ferry at 6.45pm and headed to London. I didn't arrive at N & T's place till about 10.45!! There were big delays on the train and on the tube. I expected it to take about 2 and a 1/2 hours! Crazy. Probably my worst journey ever!
But it was still definitely worth it. One of their flatmates said 'welcome home' to me, which was really nice, and I ended up staying up talking (and drinking a little bit) till about 3.30. Spent the next morning in bed and just hanging out for the afternoon then left to come back at about 6.
This morning I have had two sessions of problem solving. It's a really good session because there are heaps of different things you can do and not many rules and regulations to follow since a lot of it is brain work.
So, that was quite a boring post! There'll probably not be so many from now on unless I have some funny stories about kids or my adventures on days off to share with you.
L :-)
Some of the kids were allowed to not do the sessions with us to watch the FA Cup final between West Ham and Liverpool. I have had my first experience of football madness in this country. Third session (after lunch), two of us were taking archery and a teacher from the same school was in the range next door. She kept coming in and giving them score updates. It was really annoying!! It's hard enough to keep the kids interested without having interruptions from a teacher!! In retrospect we probably should have said something to her.
Then in my next session all the kids except one were West Ham supporters. I told them I didn't know anything about football and that I didn't really care about it but they made me pick one to support so I chose Liverpool just to be different! Which ended up being really good cos Liverpool won.
At dinner my friend James came in wearing a Liverpool flag and he got a big cheer from everyone in the restaurant. It was great! And he commented that it was his best entry into a room ever ;-)
After dinner I got dropped off at the ferry at 6.45pm and headed to London. I didn't arrive at N & T's place till about 10.45!! There were big delays on the train and on the tube. I expected it to take about 2 and a 1/2 hours! Crazy. Probably my worst journey ever!
But it was still definitely worth it. One of their flatmates said 'welcome home' to me, which was really nice, and I ended up staying up talking (and drinking a little bit) till about 3.30. Spent the next morning in bed and just hanging out for the afternoon then left to come back at about 6.
This morning I have had two sessions of problem solving. It's a really good session because there are heaps of different things you can do and not many rules and regulations to follow since a lot of it is brain work.
So, that was quite a boring post! There'll probably not be so many from now on unless I have some funny stories about kids or my adventures on days off to share with you.
L :-)
Friday, May 12, 2006
First actual sessions tomorrow!
Have had a couple more days training. Today some new schools arrived and I helped one instructor with the orientation of a group of kids. We played some games and helped them make their beds too. It was good to finally work with the kids rather than just with my fellow trainees!
Tomorrow I have my first session by myself. I'm taking Aeroball... quite hard to explain. There's a round trampoline with netting around it and netting dividing it into quarters. There's a person in each quarter and a goal behind each person, up well above head height. Your team member is opposite you and you have to try to score with a ball in the goals behind your opponents. It's really tiring! So I might have up to 12 kids to deal with for that. One of the schools that arrived today was all 13/14 yr olds and a lot of them are bigger than me! I really hope I don't have them!! Little kids would be easier...
Also tomorrow I have two quads sessions and archery. They are all with another instructor though so not quite so scary.
Then off to London tomorrow night for Tash's birthday! It'll be nice to hang with kiwis again for a bit :-)
Just a bit of clarification, I am a field studies instructor but also a multi activity instructor, just in case you were wondering why I'm doing all this non-geography-related stuff. So I haven't actually had any field studies training yet but I'll let you know when that happens. Hoping to get some water sports training too.
That's all for now!
Tomorrow I have my first session by myself. I'm taking Aeroball... quite hard to explain. There's a round trampoline with netting around it and netting dividing it into quarters. There's a person in each quarter and a goal behind each person, up well above head height. Your team member is opposite you and you have to try to score with a ball in the goals behind your opponents. It's really tiring! So I might have up to 12 kids to deal with for that. One of the schools that arrived today was all 13/14 yr olds and a lot of them are bigger than me! I really hope I don't have them!! Little kids would be easier...
Also tomorrow I have two quads sessions and archery. They are all with another instructor though so not quite so scary.
Then off to London tomorrow night for Tash's birthday! It'll be nice to hang with kiwis again for a bit :-)
Just a bit of clarification, I am a field studies instructor but also a multi activity instructor, just in case you were wondering why I'm doing all this non-geography-related stuff. So I haven't actually had any field studies training yet but I'll let you know when that happens. Hoping to get some water sports training too.
That's all for now!
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
Filling in the gaps
Okay, so the rest of the training course was good. No-one else from our group had to leave (whew!) and we did some cool things. One day was an EASI (European ATV Safety Institute) Supervisor course so that we can supervise the guests riding on enclosed tracks on little ATVs. It was a good course but quite full-on compared to our other days.
We also did our climbing assessment, which was pretty much setting up the wall for climbing, and is probably different at every centre anyway! ...And a low ropes assessment.
Most nights on the course people went down to the on-site bar and had a few drinks. I miss Monteiths!! Everyone here seems to drink lager :-P which is my least favourite beer! And I don't know what wine to drink yet cos it's mostly from Europe! Although I'm sure I'll figure it out sooner or later :-)
I only ever had one drink in the evenings, if any, because the days were quite tiring and I'm crap the next day if I go to bed late. However, on the last night of our course heaps of us went into Torquay and it was really fun. First we went to a pub and one of the guys was dancing really crazy and the rest of were in fits of laughter. It was good belly exercise!
Then we went to a place called Route 66 where there was an £11 door charge and then the drinks were free. So it was pretty crazy. And, hardly surprising when there is a bunch of young people, quite a few of the people on my training course ended up together. Not me of course! It was a fun night though.
For the trip to Little Canada, I was lucky enough to get a ride with Becky (who I'm now sharing a room with), instead of having to get about four different trains and the ferry over to the Isle of Wight. I was on map duty, and unfortunately I got us a little bit off track. Ooops! But I sorted it out and it didn't actually end up taking any more time than it should've. And we arrived at the ferry terminal in Portsmouth about ten minutes before the next ferry was due to depart. Perfect!
Arrived on the island and we were both craving McDonalds (I know I know, it's terrible) so we drove around for ages and got bad directions from four people before finally finding it. Then on to Little Canada...
As we were both tired and hungover the room looked terribly small and dirty and all we wanted to do was go back to Barton Hall where we knew lots of people! We are next door to a couple from the training course, Gerry and Sarah, who are both really cool. Sarah, Becky and I all were split up from the main friends that we clicked with on the training course so we were all a bit grumpy and negative that first night.
Since then we have moved the furniture around a bit and I've put up some nice NZ photos by Craig Potton and Graham Charles so it looks much nicer and more homely. And we have a barbecue and a picnic table outside and are quite far away from the main centre so it's nice and quiet. some others from our training course have been put in rooms right beside the high ropes course, so no long sleep-ins for them on their days off!!
One gripe still though... We have one chest of drawers and a tiny wardrobe for both of us to share. I'm here for six months!! And it's not much space to store your things...
I have a bit more to add but it'll have to be later because it's dinner time now (5.15pm - so early!).
Please keep emailing me!! It's really great to hear from you even if it is only a couple of lines.
L :-)
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Back now, thought I might as well just add the next bit onto this post...
I realised I haven't really said anything about the food! It's okay. We usually have two or three choices of mains at dinner and lunch (including a vege option) and a cooked breakfast is available every morning as well as about 3 cereals, fruit and yoghurt. But because the food is aimed at kids there's quite often chips and the meals are usually quite simple. And the vegetables are usually soggy and overcooked. Bleuuuggghhh. But there's always salads and one really nice meal is vege curry. Ooh, and chocolate sponge and custard is the best dessert :-)
Since we've been at Little Canada we have just been doing more training. Much the same as at Barton Hall most of the time. We've done orienteering, pit stop (taking the wheels off ATVs and putting them back on again), a beach walk, archery, a seminar on health & safety, and one on dealing with guests (really boring!), and a few other activities.
Some of the things here that are better than at Barton... There's always music playing in the dining room, there are woods all around the centre, and the other staff are really friendly (although apparently at Barton they weren't supposed to socialise with us because we were effectively still guests and not employees).
One thing I have noticed, here and at Barton, is that there's rabbits everywhere! And they're not scared of people at all!
That's probably well long enough for the moment. Apologies if it takes too long to read!
We also did our climbing assessment, which was pretty much setting up the wall for climbing, and is probably different at every centre anyway! ...And a low ropes assessment.
Most nights on the course people went down to the on-site bar and had a few drinks. I miss Monteiths!! Everyone here seems to drink lager :-P which is my least favourite beer! And I don't know what wine to drink yet cos it's mostly from Europe! Although I'm sure I'll figure it out sooner or later :-)
I only ever had one drink in the evenings, if any, because the days were quite tiring and I'm crap the next day if I go to bed late. However, on the last night of our course heaps of us went into Torquay and it was really fun. First we went to a pub and one of the guys was dancing really crazy and the rest of were in fits of laughter. It was good belly exercise!
Then we went to a place called Route 66 where there was an £11 door charge and then the drinks were free. So it was pretty crazy. And, hardly surprising when there is a bunch of young people, quite a few of the people on my training course ended up together. Not me of course! It was a fun night though.
For the trip to Little Canada, I was lucky enough to get a ride with Becky (who I'm now sharing a room with), instead of having to get about four different trains and the ferry over to the Isle of Wight. I was on map duty, and unfortunately I got us a little bit off track. Ooops! But I sorted it out and it didn't actually end up taking any more time than it should've. And we arrived at the ferry terminal in Portsmouth about ten minutes before the next ferry was due to depart. Perfect!
Arrived on the island and we were both craving McDonalds (I know I know, it's terrible) so we drove around for ages and got bad directions from four people before finally finding it. Then on to Little Canada...
As we were both tired and hungover the room looked terribly small and dirty and all we wanted to do was go back to Barton Hall where we knew lots of people! We are next door to a couple from the training course, Gerry and Sarah, who are both really cool. Sarah, Becky and I all were split up from the main friends that we clicked with on the training course so we were all a bit grumpy and negative that first night.
Since then we have moved the furniture around a bit and I've put up some nice NZ photos by Craig Potton and Graham Charles so it looks much nicer and more homely. And we have a barbecue and a picnic table outside and are quite far away from the main centre so it's nice and quiet. some others from our training course have been put in rooms right beside the high ropes course, so no long sleep-ins for them on their days off!!
One gripe still though... We have one chest of drawers and a tiny wardrobe for both of us to share. I'm here for six months!! And it's not much space to store your things...
I have a bit more to add but it'll have to be later because it's dinner time now (5.15pm - so early!).
Please keep emailing me!! It's really great to hear from you even if it is only a couple of lines.
L :-)
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Back now, thought I might as well just add the next bit onto this post...
I realised I haven't really said anything about the food! It's okay. We usually have two or three choices of mains at dinner and lunch (including a vege option) and a cooked breakfast is available every morning as well as about 3 cereals, fruit and yoghurt. But because the food is aimed at kids there's quite often chips and the meals are usually quite simple. And the vegetables are usually soggy and overcooked. Bleuuuggghhh. But there's always salads and one really nice meal is vege curry. Ooh, and chocolate sponge and custard is the best dessert :-)
Since we've been at Little Canada we have just been doing more training. Much the same as at Barton Hall most of the time. We've done orienteering, pit stop (taking the wheels off ATVs and putting them back on again), a beach walk, archery, a seminar on health & safety, and one on dealing with guests (really boring!), and a few other activities.
Some of the things here that are better than at Barton... There's always music playing in the dining room, there are woods all around the centre, and the other staff are really friendly (although apparently at Barton they weren't supposed to socialise with us because we were effectively still guests and not employees).
One thing I have noticed, here and at Barton, is that there's rabbits everywhere! And they're not scared of people at all!
That's probably well long enough for the moment. Apologies if it takes too long to read!
Tuesday, May 09, 2006
Don't forget...
If you put an anonymous comment on my blog (thanks if you have!!) can you please put your initials at the end so I can tell who wrote it? Some of you I can tell but not all...
Thank you!!
L :-)
Thank you!!
L :-)
Little Canada
Just to let you know I've arrived on the Isle of Wight, I have my uniform (woohoo!!), and I'm safe and well. Obviously lots to say but just in brief for the moment...
- The rest of the training course went really well.
- I'm sharing a room with a girl from the training course, Becky. Our room is quite small but we've made it nice and it's a bit away from the main camp area so it's nice and quiet.
- The Isle of Wight and Little Canada are beautiful! The beach is really close and there's lots of forest and birds and animals around. I think I might try to get a second hand bike so I can explore the island a bit more on my own - and do some exercise!
- We've had 1 day off and 1 &1/2 days of training so far, which have both been good.
I'll update more tomorrow. :-)
Tuesday, May 02, 2006
So much to say...
I can't believe it's only been a week since I left London!! It already feels like a lifetime ago. I guess it's mainly because we have been packing so much into every day on this course...
Anyway, back to London again for a minute. I spent all day from 11am till just before 5pm at The Science Museum. The Pixar exhibition was great but only took about an hour an a half to see. There were lots of the actual little models from the Pixar movies and sketches of character development and story boards... It was really interesting to see the whole creative process and those of you that are even remotely arty would've loved it! They also had some of their short films playing that I hadn't seen before.
On Anzac Day I got the train from Paddington to Newton Abbot in Torbay, Devon and then got picked up at the train station by a PGL staff member. I very nearly missed the train from Paddington! So I didn't have time to have a look to see if Paddington Bear was there :-)
While I was waiting at the train station at Newton Abbot a bunch of people around my age came round the corner and they were obviously PGL too. One girl wearing a Nelson Girls College leavers jersey from last year. How old did I feel?!?!?!? Quite nice to meet a fellow Kiwi though. And she's really nice. Hanging out with her today too actually (and some others).
The first day was a bit weird. I guess I still didn't really know exactly what the company was like and was reserved about throwing myself in wholeheartedly in case it turned out to be too cheesy, or whatever...
PGL pretty much run camps for schools during the school year, and for families or kids (indies, or independants) over the summer. The busiest time is actually from mid May to the end of June when schools have finished exams and then they get to do something fun!
We have spent quite a bit of time doing the activities that the guests, as they are called, would do in their week or so here. Which means having to act like kids a lot of the time. On the first day we played a whole bunch of games, which is what they do in the evenings. We have had feedback since then and mine for that session was that I needed to chill out a bit more. Which I have done completely! We get assessed on every session and marked below standard, standard, or above standard. If you get too many below standards then they have a chat with you to see if this is really the right thing for you. No problem for me though! I have four above standards now :-) Yay for me!! A couple of guys that were in our group went home last night. They weren't really taking it seriously...
Other things we have done are archery, climbing, first aid, group management, homesickness and bullying, quad bikes, communicating with adults and guests... In the less active ones there is still a bit of role playing which can be quite fun. A lot of the activity sessions, like archery, we have had one session being taught how to run a session, and then as a group we have had to run the next session, pretending that our fellow group members are guests. (There were ten in our group before yesterday)
It's been quite good. For archery, I had to do a game, so I made one up where if you hit a certain part of the target, you had to act like a chicken, and things like that. We also did problem solving and I did a couple of those mind games where you give a scenario and the others have to ask you yes or no questions until they have figured out what happened.
The people... the instructors are really great. Clare is the leader of my group, but we are taken for different sessions by some other instructors too. We have had individual feedback twice now as well, which is really good as you know how you are going.
I am sharing a room with three other girls. Lotte is from Scotland but she goes to university in the States and her parents have just moved to Invercargill!! Such a ridiculously small world. She is coming to visit in August and is keen to do some skiing so I will probably give her some of your contact details... She's really great anyway. We have a lot in common and see the world in a similar way I think. good to meet someone of a similar mindset to yourself. Unfortunately, she's not going to my centre (Little Canada).
The other girls in my room are Nic and Fiona, who are both really nice too.
There are a few others going to Little Canada who are on this training course, and they are all really cool too. Verity and Joe are in my group and they're both really great. They'll make good instructors. I'm really glad to have met some people who are going to be on the Isle of Wight.
There has been quite a bit of down time in between sessions on the course, and that's when I have been missing you all!! I still have my NZ phone so you can text me on that and it will only cost you as if I was still in NZ! And I have it on silent at night so it doesn't matter what time you text. Although, when I get to Little Canada on the 6th I will have more internet access.
Gotta go!
Anyway, back to London again for a minute. I spent all day from 11am till just before 5pm at The Science Museum. The Pixar exhibition was great but only took about an hour an a half to see. There were lots of the actual little models from the Pixar movies and sketches of character development and story boards... It was really interesting to see the whole creative process and those of you that are even remotely arty would've loved it! They also had some of their short films playing that I hadn't seen before.
On Anzac Day I got the train from Paddington to Newton Abbot in Torbay, Devon and then got picked up at the train station by a PGL staff member. I very nearly missed the train from Paddington! So I didn't have time to have a look to see if Paddington Bear was there :-)
While I was waiting at the train station at Newton Abbot a bunch of people around my age came round the corner and they were obviously PGL too. One girl wearing a Nelson Girls College leavers jersey from last year. How old did I feel?!?!?!? Quite nice to meet a fellow Kiwi though. And she's really nice. Hanging out with her today too actually (and some others).
The first day was a bit weird. I guess I still didn't really know exactly what the company was like and was reserved about throwing myself in wholeheartedly in case it turned out to be too cheesy, or whatever...
PGL pretty much run camps for schools during the school year, and for families or kids (indies, or independants) over the summer. The busiest time is actually from mid May to the end of June when schools have finished exams and then they get to do something fun!
We have spent quite a bit of time doing the activities that the guests, as they are called, would do in their week or so here. Which means having to act like kids a lot of the time. On the first day we played a whole bunch of games, which is what they do in the evenings. We have had feedback since then and mine for that session was that I needed to chill out a bit more. Which I have done completely! We get assessed on every session and marked below standard, standard, or above standard. If you get too many below standards then they have a chat with you to see if this is really the right thing for you. No problem for me though! I have four above standards now :-) Yay for me!! A couple of guys that were in our group went home last night. They weren't really taking it seriously...
Other things we have done are archery, climbing, first aid, group management, homesickness and bullying, quad bikes, communicating with adults and guests... In the less active ones there is still a bit of role playing which can be quite fun. A lot of the activity sessions, like archery, we have had one session being taught how to run a session, and then as a group we have had to run the next session, pretending that our fellow group members are guests. (There were ten in our group before yesterday)
It's been quite good. For archery, I had to do a game, so I made one up where if you hit a certain part of the target, you had to act like a chicken, and things like that. We also did problem solving and I did a couple of those mind games where you give a scenario and the others have to ask you yes or no questions until they have figured out what happened.
The people... the instructors are really great. Clare is the leader of my group, but we are taken for different sessions by some other instructors too. We have had individual feedback twice now as well, which is really good as you know how you are going.
I am sharing a room with three other girls. Lotte is from Scotland but she goes to university in the States and her parents have just moved to Invercargill!! Such a ridiculously small world. She is coming to visit in August and is keen to do some skiing so I will probably give her some of your contact details... She's really great anyway. We have a lot in common and see the world in a similar way I think. good to meet someone of a similar mindset to yourself. Unfortunately, she's not going to my centre (Little Canada).
The other girls in my room are Nic and Fiona, who are both really nice too.
There are a few others going to Little Canada who are on this training course, and they are all really cool too. Verity and Joe are in my group and they're both really great. They'll make good instructors. I'm really glad to have met some people who are going to be on the Isle of Wight.
There has been quite a bit of down time in between sessions on the course, and that's when I have been missing you all!! I still have my NZ phone so you can text me on that and it will only cost you as if I was still in NZ! And I have it on silent at night so it doesn't matter what time you text. Although, when I get to Little Canada on the 6th I will have more internet access.
Gotta go!
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