JugBlog

recent house guests

2011-09-24T20:59:00.000+05:30

Two species of frog and a jumping spider were visiting the house, yesterday and today. stunning all three of them. Taken with a macro lens, which when you live in Borneo and have such things coming to your house, is difficult to take of the camera, just in case it's needed.

the beauty of the beast

2011-09-08T04:29:00.001+05:30

These were simply so stunning they made me cry, I like plants more than animals in general, but these white tigers left me awestruck.

More primates

2011-09-08T04:25:00.001+05:30

During a recent trip to the Singapore zoo (I'm not really a big fan of zoos but this one had very good reviews, so we went), we saw lots of stunning stuff, here's a few of the primates.

no idea

howler monkey

a white gloved gibbon (I think)

Gibbon

Not sure what this is, maybe a kind of lemur

ring-tailed lemur

More macro shots

2011-08-13T23:57:00.000+05:30

A few visitors to the house, think I'm slowly getting the hang of this, depth of field is key.

New location for 'piles' pictures

2011-08-09T10:04:00.001+05:30

http://stuffpiles.tumblr.com/

My Macro Tumblr

2011-08-09T09:55:00.003+05:30

click the link below to go to Tumblr
My Tumblr Macro shots

First underwater pics

2011-06-10T17:20:00.005+05:30

So, have been on holiday in Sabah and bought a second hand diving camera off a diver who'd just upgraded. Quite difficult to get a decent shot when you are constantly in motion, but you certainly get a grip on your buoyancy rapidly. Best to be slightly negative than neutral.
So I won't post a load, just the highlights.

A blue spotted fan tail ray

Chromadis sp of nudibranch

Lionfish

Scorpion fish

Mantis shrimp

feather stars on soft coral

That's all I'll bore you with, took about 120 shots, about 50 of which were ok. Was very happy with them, for a first attempt, may have to splash out on the external flash though.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

King of the Jungle

2011-03-20T12:58:00.000+05:30

Our next stop was a place called Semengoh Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre. It's not far from Kuching, so an easy 20 minute drive for us. It's a smallish patch of protected rainforest and it is set up as a way of reintroducing injured, stolen, captured animals back into the wild. They have a long list of wildlife released such as pangolins, tarsiers, slow loris, civet cats and of course, the reason why most people visit....the Orangutans. Once again I've only seen them on TV or in a zoo, and my fear was that this place would be just a big zoo. It wasn't. They do say that you are not guaranteed a sighting of the apes, but as they put out big baskets of fruit for them twice a day and 'call' to them....they often come.
So we trudged through a short stretch of forest to the feeding sight (along with about 40 other people) and waited. The park rangers were doing their tarzan type calling to get the apes attention, but as time went by it looked like they weren't coming. The rangers explained to the visitors that 4 orangutans were out near the park entrance, where they also put out food, so most people wandered back off that way. We stayed and hoped for the best. The sky by this time was getting blacker and blacker and the first spots of rain were falling. Visiting time is only an hour and we were approaching 40 minutes by this time. Then, we saw signs of movement high up to our left and what looked like a mother and child stared to make their way down to the feeding sight. The heavens of course chose this exact moment to really open up, and rain poured out of the sky like it does in tropical equatorial countries...i.e. very heavily. Then.....the trees in front of us starting to move like an elephant was barging its way through them... and we got out first sighting of the alpha male...Ritchie.
Anyway enough of my blathering...here's some shots. They are not great pics, but they were still some distance from us and it was pouring down.

The young one makes his way across the ropes to the fruit

He's rather wet as you can see

Their home in the rain (forest)

The alpha-male 'Ritchie' puts in an appearance

Ritchie tucking into the free fruit

Primates

2011-03-20T12:33:00.002+05:30

Well we've just had our first week off and have been seeing some of the nearby places. Bako national park was our first stop for an over-nighter. We drove the 45 mins up to the coast and then it was onto a boat for a 20 min ride to the park. It did feel rather like going into Jurassic park, very exciting. An amazing place. Dense jungle, with plenty of established trails for hiking, and lots of interesting flora and fauna to be seen.
We were not disappointed: Macaques, leaf-eater and proboscis monkeys were all there to behold. I've only ever seen proboscis monkeys on TV and thought they were very strange looking beasts, but I was wrong; they were so beautiful up close, the colour of their fur, the way they moved, their expressions...everything about them was majestic and magnificent. We also saw quite a lot of macaques, which as usual were quite cheeky and liked to steal stuff. Still wonderful to observe, even if they have become somewhat corrupted by humanity.

Watching me watching you

The sunlight enhancing the beauty of the golden fur

Large alpha male had just miss-timed his jump and nearly fell,
he then hung like this for long enough to get this shot,
he was rather excited as you can see.

He then sat eyeing me up, and became quite aggressive, so I moved away

They had this wonderful habit of using the aerial roots of the mangroves as stools

Conveniently placed leaf, he's looking for stuff to pinch.

And he scores a friend's apple core

two young ones playing around

Look what I found!

Kuching and Damai, Sarawak

2011-02-06T13:11:00.003+05:30

So here's a few pictures from out first few weeks in Sarawak. We have spent most of it in the capital, Kuching; as that's where we are working, we did get chance to go north to the coast (Damai) and spent a few days in a treetop cabin next to the sea.

So we arrived just before Chinese new year, which has pros and cons obviously. When you are trying to get stuff done (like find somewhere to live) it's not good, but there are quite a lot of interesting cultural events going on. These dragon dancers were performing all over the city, as well as lion dancers and musicians.

This is the state administrative building in Kuching, which almost dominates the skyline and is a real focal point. Kuching is actually a nice manageable city and very relaxed compared to most Asian cities. A river runs through the middle, and it's very lush and green with trees and greenery everywhere.

We have also arrived during the rainy season, so it has rained most days at least for a little while, and other days have been seriously major downpours.

The city is a nice cultural mix of all the peoples of Malaysian Borneo; Muslim, Chinese, Indian and a large number of tribal peoples of Kalimantan and a smattering of expats. The seperation of 'races' is not as strict as in other parts of Asia, so lots of inter-breeding has taken place over the years, making it very difficult to tell where anyone's origins really are. Which I suppose is a good thing.

The pic below is from the very busy weekend market, that sells almost everything, though a lot of it is given over to local produce and foodstuffs obviously. The smells can be rather overwhelming on a hot sticky day; but it's an amazing place to takes photographs.

Characters like this one hang about on the river taking tourists and locals across to the other side for 0.5 RM or 1 Rm at night, they usually wait and fill up like shared taxi, unless you are willing to pay a little extra for a 'private' trip. An unusual aspect is that they are paddled and steered from the front as you can see.

Our employer paid for us all to go on a river cruise along the river as a team building exercise and to get us out of the hotel for while, it was a bit cheese-tastic....but sipping beer as the sun goes down, aboard a boat with friends, in Sarawak, Borneo...there are certainly worse ways to spend an evening..

Here's a pic of the cabaret dancers, in traditional costumes after performing traditional dancers that had stuff to do with eagles and fish and hunting.

They also worked as the boat crew and served drinks, but they were lovely, and we've all got to earn a living some how, so good luck to them.

I'm tempted to put in some more pics of theevening, I'll restrict myself to one, my fave from the boat trip.

We also went up to a place north of Kuching, called Damai and Santubong a small peninsula that sticks out into the south China Sea. Beautiful little place and we splashed out and stayed in a treetop house on the edge of rainforest and stormy sea. Only the sound of jungle and crashing waves to sleep and wake to. We had a small troop of purple-faced-leaf-eater monkeys for company. It was a very nice four days; here's a few pics, the first of which has been heavily doctored in PS, but I took it in RAW to do exactly that.

Grainy Photo-shopped effort

Sunset

This one's for Ant

Longhouse

Local cooking cakes

Off to see the wild man....

2011-01-17T21:48:00.000+05:30

In a few days I fly to Borneo to take up a new position as a teacher / trainer for the British Council.
I'll be based somewhere near Kuching, Sarawak.
Really really looking forward to a new country, a new job and a new home. It's very exciting.

Orang-utans, leopards, rhino, elephants, geckos, 3.5k orchid species, Rafflesia, amazing trees, great diving, jungle and warmth... the UK weather has had it's fair share of me...I want some sunshine.

Merry Christmas

2010-12-25T15:32:00.000+05:30

Merry Christmas One and All

Europe

2010-12-16T18:31:00.001+05:30

Have been home for a few weeks now, feels strange to be back. The cold is certainly a shock to the system, but there's nothing better than snuggling down under a thick duvet when it's cold.

Had a little side trip to Amsterdam for my sister's birthday, which was nice. Haven't been doing a lot, as it's all a bit overwhelming.

More snow on the way! Quite like it.

A few 'Dam shots:

Ashtray at Schiphol airport

classic Dam shot

Souvenirs :)

Frozen canal

The lost and found tree, Vondelpark

My fave shop name in the world

'Dam station

Tamron 18-270 Canon fit lens review

2010-11-24T13:44:00.000+05:30

This is the lens I bought about 2 months ago now. I bought it because I was sick of carrying 2 lenses around when travelling, and I always seemed to have the wrong lens on whenever I wanted to take a shot.

When I bought my camera (Canon EOS 500D) I got it as a kit, body, 18 - 50 and 50 - 210 lenses. As the lenses were Canon they performed very well and I was happy with them, just not the constant swapping and the larger bag required to transport them.

So I bought myself the above. I've been using it for some months now and thought I'd write a small review to let you know what I thought.

Here's an 'official' review of the lens follow this link to see Digital Photography's review of the lens.

Pros - It does exactly what I wanted it to do; I have only one lens that covers most shots I want to take. It fits into a small-ish shoulder bag with room for a few filters and a spare battery. It feels well constructed and weighty, on a horizontal plane it focus relatively quickly in good light. The shots it takes are clear and have little distortion around the edges...even at the extreme end. This is a strange point....it looks like a decent lens...the Canon lenses didn't, they looked like everybody else's lenses and had this narrow end 52mm diameter or something. This is a chunky beast with a 72mm filter diameter, it looks the business....this shouldn't matter...but it does...a bit. A feauture I like is the lens 'lock' you can see it on the picture above, this stops the lens from moving at all (i.e. the zoom sliding)

Cons - first thing you notice...compared to the Canon lenses that came as part of the kit....it's heavy...there are a lot of lenses in this monster, to do what it does takes a lot of technology and a lot of glass, a few hours of carrying this about on your shoulder and you feel it.
The double 'trombone' mechanism that makes this lens almost double in length at the extreme 270 end, is somewhat sticky in the middle, the transition point (around 120) is not smooth and feels awkward, almost like it doesn't want to go, you have to force it a bit.
Because of it's weight, it suffers badly from 'creep' i.e, if you're not holding the barrel and the 'lock' isn't on...it slides under it's own weight; whether it's point upwards or downwards.
Like I said above...on the horizontal it performs fine, but if you tilt this lens up or down slightly....it doesn't perform as well, maybe due to that lens creep I was talking about. If you switch to manual focus...then fine...but you've bought a AF lens...you expect it to AF! It really struggles getting a lock on things when away from the horizontal, especially the further you move away from the 18 end of the zoom.
The 72mm filter size....looks cool...costs a bomb to buy filters. I bought a polariser for it in KL, and even a cheap one was $80.

Overall...I'm very happy with it, this is an excellent lens that performs well under most conditions and for this price...it really can't be beaten...there is no other lens on the market that has this zoom range!!. There are certainly better lenses, but not at this price range, and not with this zoom range. So if you're a traveller like me, and want one lens that does most jobs...this is it!

Wedding Madness

2010-11-22T09:08:00.000+05:30

Well...we continued walking....we had been told about a nice place to get a drink and something to eat by the sea, so we set off to find it. Little did we know what we would find when we got there...

We got there to find the beach....full...and I mean FULL of people in wedding gear having their photos taken, by professional photographers, with lighting and props and make-up artists etc.

It was such a bizarre sight. One of those cultural things that just makes you smile and scratch your head.

Yeas that's a faux grand piano in the background,
dining table and arbour in the foreground

How they managed to take pics without other couples getting in the pic I'm not sure.

The bicycle was a very common prop for the ladies.

Qi Ao Island

2010-11-21T15:20:00.002+05:30

So we went for a day out, to an island just of the coast of Zhuhai, connected by a rather large bridge. And came across a few surprises. Firstly the bridge itself is a bit odd... huge suspension bridge connecting a relatively small place to the mainland...why?
Well the owner of one of the local bars informed us that... at one stage there was a plan to build a road bridge across to HK, and this large 6 lane suspension bridge to the island was the starting point. They didn't get any further or they scrapped the plans or they ran out of money...who knows.
So anyway, we caught a bus over the bridge, no real idea where we were going or what to expect, we just stayed on the bus until it stopped (it actually just did a 3 - point turn) and all the locals got off, then we walked.
Well.. what we found was a quiet and quite traditional village, small single story houses with walled courtyards attached. Locals just going about their daily lives and wondering (no doubt) what the hell we were doing there and why we were taking pictures of bizarre stuff (doors, numbers, piles of bricks :))

Here's a smattering from the village.

Old door in the village

These 'shrines' peppered the village, all had incense burning at them

This lot followed us for a while thinking we were hilarious

old derelict building

back alley

great hat

and another great hat

Boys and their toys

They were brilliant with their yo-yos

like the hat

New Page

2010-11-21T14:40:00.000+05:30

I've added a new page (Finally!) dedicated to pictures of piles, I realise this is rather a bizarre obsession, so have moved it to a separate place. Still....check it out by clicking on the 'Piles' tab at the top.
I expect now I've realised I can do that....more will follow.

Chinese characters

2010-11-11T09:44:00.000+05:30

Jinding is also famous (locally) for Mr. Pizza...."The best pizza in Zhuhai", which does do very good pizzas btw, but that's not why I'm posting. Adorning the walls are Chinese characters and an English translation / interpretation of each. Here are three that caught my eye.

arrange as you will

Another visitor in the bathroom

2010-11-11T09:37:00.001+05:30

This fella came to say hello last night. Look closely...he's lost a leg somehow.

5 legged cricket? / grasshopper?

Jinding street barbecue

2010-11-11T09:11:00.004+05:30

So ten minutes down the road from BNU is a small town called Jinding. Every night, stalls are set up along the main road selling food; barbecued meat, fish and veg, hotpot is also available (not the Northern England style hotpot, but the Chinese version: a large pan of stock into which are dropped your ingredients of choice for a short time and then taken out and eaten with noodles or rice, quite often with a bit of the liquor from the pan)
The smells can be inviting or a bit full on, depending on the products being sold, some of the mainly meat based stalls are a bit overpowering and are accompanied by a slightly rank rotting smell....not good.
Each stick (you'll see them below) costs between 0.5 and 5 Yuan which is the equivalent of 5p to 50p (UK))
so you can choose 3 or 4 veg, a bit of meat and some noodles and it'll come to about a $1.50 (US) (my keyboard has no pound symbol...sorry). A plate of dumplings, usually made from minced pork, cost about 40 cents ....with a little dip made from vinegar, chilli paste and some coriander...they are awesome.
Anyway it's a spectacle, here're a few pics. These ones are DSLR, hopefully you can see the difference from the last lot.

Hand making noodles

Assorted ingredients waiting to go in the hot pot, take your pick on a stick.

The hot pot in action, complete with smiley faces

Or you can have them deep fried

Largely unidentifiable ingredients

My favourite; freshly steamed dumplings

Duck, very commonly seen like this

A few more pics from Guanzhou

2010-11-10T15:34:00.001+05:30

So...Guangzhou...was preparing for the Asian Games 2010....slightly better organised than Delhi for the Commonwealth, they had pulled out all the stops and the place was obviously ready well in advance, no pot holes, building sites or stinking mosquito ridden cess pools. Well done....India...take note! For those of you that don't know this used to be called Canton...and obviously where the language and food Cantonese originate.
Anyway enough of that waffle.... here's a small selection of shots from the place.

Baskets down a back alley, near the Chen Family Academy

Dried fruits and nuts

Bamboo mat sellers

Outside the Opera House and Art Gallery seemed to be a popular place to have
pics taken before the wedding

Children on a trip to the art gallery (which was excellent btw and well worth a visit)

A common sight all over, young and old alike playing a local version of hacky-sac

5 Montages from GuangZhou

2010-11-09T15:14:00.000+05:30

On a recent trip to Guangzhou in Guangdong province, China. We saw lots of stuff, too many to post pics of all of it, so here's a snapshot of some highlights via montages.

At the crossings.

A selection of some of the folk pottery from an exhibition at the Chen Family Academy.

Also at the Chen Family Academy, a selection of embroidery work, which was quite mind-blowing.

Crammed onto the heavily used metro system, all a bit much sometimes.

An exhibition called Chromatic Interference at the Art Gallery.

Apo logies

2010-10-25T06:20:00.000+05:30

Sorry,

I have been updating my blog or the last few months from my iPhone and was not aware that quite a lot of pictures were not showing up. Having logged onto a real computer and had a look I realise the extent of the problem and will rectify over the next few days after hunting down the original pics.
:)

China

2010-10-15T19:18:00.001+05:30

Can I post from china?
We'll see. I'm near zhu hai, just near Macau. Pics later if this gets through.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Blue Abyss Dive Shop

2010-10-09T14:02:00.002+05:30

Just want to recommend these guys if you're into diving and are looking for a chilled our place to do it. Klemens and Lorenzo, are the owners and instructors, Jun and Garry are the dive masters. All four are great people and very nice dive companions. The shop is clean and professionally run, the equipment is kept in good order. I did 26 dives with them an may be going back to do my rescue and dive master certs with them. Highly recommended.

http://www.blueabyssdiving.com/index2.html

Check them out on facebook too, and be sure to check out Klemens' videos; awesome.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Moalboal, Cebu, Philippines

Gadgets

2010-10-03T17:14:00.002+05:30

So, I'm travelling with a bunch o stuff that could be called 'gadgets'. Apart the from the beautiful piece of engineering that I'm typing this on (my iPhone) and the camera from a previous post, here're the rest, all of which are proving invaluable or have proven themselves long ago.

An Akita solar charger, about as big as a mobile phone, and will produce enough juice for a few more hours power to the Mophie iPhone battery pack sat next to it or will power my mini speakers for hours. The battery pack is a god send and means I don't have to charge my phone anymore, charge this up, slap it on the phone, drain its juice and the plug it back in, minus the phone, I can use my phone all the time.
Then there's these beauties, which I'm very impressed with.

Tiny portable speakers called x-mini, amazing sound for the size, and lock together into an egg for transporting.
This amazingly simple thing, my Mares Puck diving computer, 30 dives and i love it, as cheap and simple as they come. One button and does everything I need.

And last but not least, my
G-shock watch, almost indestructible, solar powered, waterproof to 40m+...awesome

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Cebu, Philippines

2010-10-03T15:26:00.005+05:30

The previous post re: HK seems ti have got lost in cyberspace :-( can't be arsed doing it again, it was a classic and I'll never post something that good again:-P
Anyway, I've come to the island of Cebu, in the Philippines. After a few days in the city, I bought a guide book to work out what the hell to do and decided upon Moalboal, on the south east coast. "diving, eating and drinking" as described in the book. That's me!
2 hrs in a taxi and arrived to this.

A completely flat calm waveless ocean, with corals and fish a few yards off the shore.
Have basically come here to dive, and little else. I'm still here, sat here using the hotel wifi to post this. Have done 20 dives here and will get a few more in before I leave in 4 days' time.
It's a wonderful relaxing place, where the diving takes precedent. Early rises, early bedtimes, 2 dives a day. Apart from an ear infection, it's all been good.

Above, one of the local dive boats.

Me and Woodbridge (the little hippo) preparing for a dive.

The local dive sites of which I've now done most, pescador island being the highlight, with a population of half a billion sardines which having recently
flourished after a net fishing ban, are starting to attract predators such as jack, tuna, barracuda and these fellas, the thresher shark.

That's not my pic, still haven't bought an underwater camera, but that was taken at the site I've been diving. The sardines block out the sun sometimes and no picture could ever give you an impression of just how many and how awe inspiring this cloud of fish are. Other highlights have been the frogfish:

And the Pygmy seahorse:

But I could fill thousands of pages talking about the life underwater here; just crazy amounts of corals (hard n soft), sponges, algae, turtles, thousands of species of tropical fish etc etc etc.
Wonderful. I didn't think I'd dive anywhere better than the Maldives; I was wrong.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Maldives

2010-10-01T13:13:00.003+05:30

So, after my trip to india, Laura and I went to the Maldives for 4 days. Flew to Mali and then caught a twin otter seaplane to our resort. Awesome, seeing the atolls and reefs a few thousand feet below, taking off, landing n taking off again, brilliant and started the hol off in exactly the right way, the Maldives is a luxury holiday, may as well start with a real extravagance.

We spent our time in a place called maayafushi resort. A smallish resort with a beautiful house reef. The diving was prohibitively expensive so we just snorkelled ( and burnt ourselves to a crisp whilst doing so).
We were circled by 5 White tipped, 2 metre long reef sharks at one point, that got us both a little worried, an I saw five unknown rays the next day 'flying' in formation.
Resort was beautiful and neither of us wanted to leave, though the seaplane back was great again.

A crane on the beach!

Our flight back to Lanka was late in the evening, so we took a boat ride over to Mali proper for a look round. Near the end of Ramadan, and as Mali is Muslim, most of the shops and restaurants were closed, and while you can drink on the resorts, you can't drink in the capital. It's a bizarre place 2km x 1km, yet full of scooters and expensive big cars (why?).

Laura, at the seafront, waiting for a restaurant to open so we could eat.
A weird and long day, but a great holiday, a little sad to leave, as I'll probably never go back. I'd done my advanced diving course there 2 years earlier, and enjoyed that time too, even though my folks, who went with me, had all their money stolen from their room :-(

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Indian bike trip or 'how shit are Enfields?'

2010-09-28T11:41:00.003+05:30

So, many months ago Mssrs Martin and Carr started planning a motorbike trip across north india. Carr's idea really, sam bought in quite quickly and I was interested. I'd seen people riding around india on these beautiful old British bikes (now made in Chennai, India) and thought 'what a bunch of wankers' but secretly wanting to have a go. Sadly my contract didn't end in Lanka until October, and when they were planning it, would be term time for me :-( I thought about it for a few days and thought "fuck it", handed in my notice at work and agreed to join them. Mr Carr then rang the bell of C**t and pulled out due to some pathetic excuse that had something to do with large amounts of poo in his pants. Sam n I decided to go ahead. Nearer the date, I bought mr Carr's enfield 350 bullet from him for way too much money, cos it looked lovely on facebook and I was a bit drunk at the time.
I arrived in Delhi, to find the disastrous commonwealth games preparations well under way, in that the city was a bomb site with rubble, deep holes, large pools of mosquito breeding grounds, part finished metro tracks/stations and lots of 'workers' sat round drinking tea, while large machinery sat idle. I'd been looking forward to it, as I hadn't been in Delhi for 8 years and it used to be one of my fave places to wander around. This was my first view of pahaganj!

Not as I remembered at all. Went to pick up my new bike the next day, and it turned out to be a bit older than I'd thought (should have asked really!) but still a great looking bike!

Trip back to new Delhi from old Delhi was a bit of a mare, everything in the wrong place, gears on the wrong side and going the wrong way, back break not where it should be, and it stalled at every set of lights and had to be kicked back into life in the heat of a Delhi day. Not a good beginning.
Sam arrived 6 days later and we picked up his rental bike, and prepared to set off the next day.
First stop: Shimla, in the foothills and once prize hillstation of the old British army days, where the entire Indian administration used to move to en-mass went the heat if the plains got too much.
What a shit-hole! I'd been years before but had forgotten how much I hated it. I have no pics as it rained for the first 2 days of the trip and I wasn't getting my DSLR out in the monsoon. This is sam not far outside if shitla the following day, we were both caked in mud for this entire day.
On to Narkanda, a hard days ride through rain clouds and mud. Visor up, too dirty to see through, trucks splashing thick mud all over us and into our helmets. A woman at one point decided to jump from a low wall directly in front of my slow moving bike, the result being me on the road, cuts and bruises and giving her evil looks. This was maybe the first time of very many that I had to man-handle this heavy bastard bike upright after it lay in the road, often with sam's help.

Narkanda was lovely but we over indulged in the local apple wine (himachal pradesh is famous for its apples).
The 3rd day took us to Reckong Peo, place of permits to enter the valley beyond, our destination Spitti valley, high in the himal and close to the Tibetan border.

Our first view of the snow capped peaks from Reckong P. We had a rest day here and (in theory) got the bikes prepared for the rough roads and high altitude to follow.

Sam waits for bike repairs/maintenance to finish.

All a bit hazy around here, Tabo may have been next, I don't remember. We were heading for Nako, that much I do remember. This is where the brown smelly stuff starting hitting the spinny wind machine, and shortly after Pooh (yeah really) we failed, or rather the bikes failed to climb a hill. We returned to pooh, in the poo. After failing to get the bikes fixed for a day and a half we took out air filters, cleaned plugs, cursed a lot and attempted the incline again. We managed to get to the top and arrived in Nako. A fantastic little Buddhist Himalayan village adorned with prayer flags, prayer wheels and walls, with a nice little gompa to boot.

Walls full of carved slates, Om Mani Padme Hung (praise to the jewel in the lotus) a Tibetan chant/ prayer referring to the buddha's rise from the shit of life to enlightenment.
Part 2 to follow soon.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Into the hills

2010-09-28T10:43:00.002+05:30

So we left Arugambay and headed into them there hills. First stop Ella, famous for a gap! And the view from there down to the plains. Stayed in a nice place but sadly owned by a nut job, who seemed to hate everything and everyone in Lanka, give Ravana guest house a wide birth, don't think he's in 'the book' anymore....he hates that too.

Ella and half its gap, shrouded in rain cloud.
We then decided to treat ourselves to a few days in the Tea Factory, as the name implies, an old tea factory converted to a luxury hotel. It was nice to be cold for once in Lanka, but it did rain consistently.

Not a great pic, but the only one I have from around Nuwara Eliya, where the tea factory is.
We then headed back to Colombo, which was a hideous 7 hr drive along some of the worst roads in SL, which is crazy as it's the No. 1 tourist destination for the locals.
What follows are some just for fun shots I took on the trip, a bit random, but pics I like anyway.

Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

New lens

2010-09-28T10:28:00.002+05:30

Finally bit the bullet and traded the two lenses I got with the Canon EOS500d for this beauty:
http://www.dpreview.com/lensreviews/tamron_18-270_3p5-6p3_vc_n15/page4.asp
Not perfect I'm happier overall; I don't have to continually change lenses, and it all fits in one smallish shoulder bag.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Last trip round Lanka.

2010-09-28T10:20:00.002+05:30

I took over 300 pics so selecting just 5 is going to be hard. We started in Dambulla, famous for its rock cave temples. Photographically not that interesting, but worth a visit. We took in Sigiriya on our way to Polunaruwa, which features in some old Duran Duran vids, and has some very old rock paintings, which they claim are not restored, but I have my doubts.

We moved onto Polunaruwa once an ancient and important city, but now a sprawling mass of fascinating ruins, built over many hundreds of years, containing both buddhist and Hindu temples and architecture.

I've just realised that this is the only pic I have on the iPhone and you don't really get an impression, but I like the pic anyway. We headed up to the east coast and Trinconamalee next and spent some time chilling on the beach. Easily the best beach in Sri Lanka for many reasons, sadly I caught a cold the day we arrived, so the first opportunity to dive on the east coast in 25yrs due to civil war, was lost to me :-(

We then took a lovely drive down the east coast to the south and Arugam bay, and spent some more time chilling, also a beautiful and deserted beach, apart from hardcore surfers.

Cathy and Laura blending in with the sunset.

Back

2010-09-28T09:58:00.002+05:30

So, long time no blog, been very lazy and have been using facebook instead. So what've I been upto. Well... Where to start?
I suppose finishing work is a good place. 1st July I stopped work, and have been on holiday ever since. Hired a car and did one last tour of Sri Lanka, which was great. Some highlights of that to follow. Then a bit of time in Colombo bumming about and sorting out my stuff ( giving most of it away ( you lucky bastards you). Then headed off to Delhi, bought an enfield 350 bullet from a friend, met up with another before heading up to Spitti valley, some of the hardest motorbiking to be done in india, if not the world. Was a very hard trip, and came to an end when my mate came off and dislocated his shoulder, though we had been on the road for 11 days by that stage. So very near the end. Will post pics next. This trip was followed by a trip to a trip to the Maldives, and then a trip to Hong Kong, which was awesome, and I'm sitting in a place called Moalboal, Cebu in the Philippines, where I've been doing lots of diving. Today I passed my 50 dive landmark, rescue diver soon I think. Pics of all of these to follow soon.

Life's a beach

2010-07-09T18:12:00.002+05:30

Stood on the beach, sunset, connected to wifi and posting this.
Trinconamalee, east coast, Sri Lanka.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

And now...the end is near

2010-06-20T11:20:00.002+05:30

So after nearly three years in Sri Lanka, it's time to leave.

No real plans, just handed in my notice and will work my last day for the British Council Sri Lanka on 1st July.
I have mixed feelings about going. This has been a great place for me, I've had a very comfortable life here, not having to worry about money for the 1st time in my life has been very nice. I've spent the last year or so as a senior teacher, so my career has progressed somewhat, which is nice.
The country itself is beautiful and sometimes when I'm sat on the beach with a beer, looking out at the amazing coastline, palm fringed beaches, deep blue green of the sea, I realise and remember how lucky I am to live in such a place. The plants and the trees here are stunning, and under-appreciated by the tourists and locals alike.

Things I haven't enjoyed: Traffic. Buddhism.
When faced with the decision; slow down / wait a few seconds or potentially kill at least one other person, it seems that 95% of drivers here will choose the latter not the former, which is why the second of the two things I haven't enjoyed is there. Respect for all life and compassion for others are central Buddhist tenets, but not here. Here the monks will cry and salivate for war and the death of a whole race of people, they will gather outside a TV station and throw rocks and petrol bombs because a pop star has a girl in a bikini dancing near a statue of the Buddha! in his video. Lots of things wrong with that obviously, 'a mob of angry, rock throwing monks' is not a lexical chunk I usually teach. The Buddha said that the worship of idols and statues was stupid, that rituals and ceremonies were stupid, that we should stop listening to others who think themselves wiser and in a position to tell others what to do, and start listening to ourselves and thinking for ourselves. None of that happens here. So they get angry because of semi-naked girl, without realising that the Buddha would probably laugh at the situation and them; why is there a statue of him (Buddha) in the first place? and why do you think its sacred? when he specifically told people not to do exactly that! Bonkers. Buddhists that do the exact opposite of what the Buddha believed and advised people to do!
Basically I'm sick to death of people trying to kill me too, with buses, landcruisers, tuc-tucs, trucks, cars etc on a daily basis, I'm ready to drag someone out of their vehicle and beat them to death, so it's time to leave.

Tangalle and around

2010-05-30T17:46:00.002+05:30

Tangalle is on the South coast of Sri Lanka, quite remote and very quiet. The beaches are almost deserted (especially during the monsoon period), we did very little except go and visit one of the local temples. It was Wesak festival at the time so there were only about another 1 million people there. It's the location of the largest Buddha statue in Sri Lanka. There was also a perehera happening just as we got there. You'll also see some mangrove seeds before they fall, and then once they've dropped and stuck in the mud and started sprouting, very clever. A frog that decided to come and say hello one evening in the shower. Wesak Full moon is here somewhere too. Follow this link to see the full album and my other albums

Rain, Rain, Rain....beautiful rain?

2010-05-23T10:31:00.001+05:30

Well we've had a few weeks of hard monsoon. Culminating last week with some of the heaviest rain I've ever seen, the monsoon in full effect, and it just kept going and going, more water coming out of the sky than I would have thought possible.

Here's what one of the roads looked like in Colombo. Pity the poor coppers stood in the middle 'directing' the traffic! Thanks to Chris Dharmakirti for the picture.

Galle road

2010-05-17T01:39:00.002+05:30

In a Car on the way back from Hikka, and got the driver to turn off the a/c and we wound the windows down and took pictures from our moving vehicle as we went. He'd turned up 1.5 hrs late, and then proceeded to drive like a crazy fool for the whole journey back. Difficult to take pictures when the cars moving in this bizarre jerky-brakey-acceleratory kind of way. Plus the added joy of all the other suicidal maniacs that so make the Galle road a pleasure to travel along.

Here're some of the things we saw. .

Should call this bikes of Galle Road really.

Here's some other stuff that isn't bicycles.

The things that are missing: drug crazed bus drivers overtaking another bus that is already trying to overtake yet another bus, all with hands glued to horns and a refusal to stop even though there's nowhere for you to go to avoid death. Trucks doing exactly the same thing, potholes the size of the grand canyon and traffic police.

Hipstamatic shots

2010-05-10T17:51:00.003+05:30

This is an iPhone app called 'Hipstamatic', turns your phone into a retro camera, whereby you can choose the film type, lens and flash. The results are wonderful, here's a sample. These were taken on a weekend away in Unawatuna in the south of Sri Lanka.

Street scene, black and white, high contrast

Waves splashing on the rocks at the blow-hole in Unawatuna, Sunset.

Shop front on Galle road

Hikkaduwa beach scene, taken at speed out of the car window.

lunch at the UBR.

see the rest of these shots here in my Picassa web albums

WED 2010

2010-05-06T12:00:00.002+05:30

World Environment Day is approaching. Do your bit, alone we can make a difference, together we can save the world. If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem! Forget elections, politicians and expecting others to solve the big problems. Just do it.

http://www.unep.org/wed/2010/english/

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Everywhere

Around Colombo

2010-05-05T17:48:00.001+05:30

So, went out with the new camera and took some pics around my environs, I like architecture pics so....if you don't, sorry.

Some of them have been played about with in Photoshop, experiments at trying to recreate some styles I've seen used on various iPhone apps.

Orange Seller in Pettah,
messed about with in PS to try out Lomo effect.

The mosque near Lipton Circus round about, Colombo 07, been wanting to take this picture for some time, took lots, but this is one of my faves.

The amazing eye hospital on the corner of De Sarem Place, Colombo 07. That's a papaya tree in the foreground, if you care :)

Details of a Hindu temple in Pettah

Tuc-Tucs, Three-wheelers, Trishaws, call them what you will, basking in the mid day sun in Pettah.

Rubbish piles in Pettah fruit & veg market and someone picking over the good bits for edible food. As you can imagine, the stench of rot, the flies, the crows etc, don't make this a pleasant walk.

no reason just, for me, a nice pic.

a few Bangkok pics

2010-04-16T16:15:00.003+05:30

Red shirts on the streets.

Young Thai girl, playing to pay for her education
at JatuJat Market, one of the largests markets in the world.

More red shirts taking various forms of transport to protests around the city

Bangkok pics follow this link for more of my pics on flickr

Red shirts absent

2010-04-11T17:09:00.001+05:30

After last nights clashes which left 20 dead and 800+ injured, there has been a noticeble absence of red shirts today, the roads have been jammed since we arrived on Wednesday with banner/ flag / clapper waving red shirts, but not today. Everything very quiet, not sure it will last.

Shut down but still partying

2010-04-10T22:41:00.001+05:30

Strangely enough, buses stopped, skytrain stopped, roads empty, locals a bit scared, but come to the right part of town and the bars and clubs are still packed, locals and foriegners alike. It Seems as if nothing stops Bangkok from partying, even a state of emergency and riots in the streets. Weird.

Bangkok slowly shutting down

2010-04-10T18:36:00.001+05:30

We went to visit a friend and came out to find the skytrain had been shut sown. I'm sat watching riots and police firing tear gas into the crowd and firing bullets on tv. I think we may be drawing towards a total curfew. Have taken some pics (on my new camera) but have no way of uploading as yet. More soon.

Bangkok dangerous?

2010-04-10T18:30:00.001+05:30

Well it appears I chose the wrong week for my first visit to Bangkok, or maybe the right one depending on your point of view. The red t-shirt protestors are slowly taking over the city, huge hyper-malls have closed their doors for the week, shopping is difficult, which, sadly, is why I came. More shortly, with pictures.

My beginners class

2010-04-01T16:54:00.002+05:30

GeoTagged, [N6.88647, W79.87119]

And again from a different angle

My beginners class

2010-04-01T16:52:00.002+05:30

GeoTagged, [N6.90075, W79.87132]

Here you are you lovely lovely people.

End of term and holidays

2010-03-31T17:11:00.002+05:30

Well the end of another long term and boy do I need a break.

We were going to catch a helicopter to the north east of the island, sadly that changed to a small plane, then the small plane decided it was going to go a day earlier than planned (while we are still working), because the day we were supposed to go, is good Friday, and the pilot decided that being a Buddhist, he'd like to celebrate Easter. We only bought the tickets a week ago, and obviously good Friday was decided at the last minute.
I lost my cool, as you can imagine.

So no plane trip to the North East. A bus journey to the beach for a bit of RnR before jetting off to Bangkok next Wednesday. Really looking forward to the next two weeks off.
I may blog from Bangkok depending on whether I've got anything to say or not.

Will be putting cruisers level 5 in the queue before jetting off, and upon my return I'll have a few days more training before I can get in my recently acquired Tengu.

Turning 41

2010-03-23T08:55:00.000+05:30

Well well well,

Another years ends and another begins. I spent last night eating amazing food, drinking amazing wine, sitting in an amazing restaurant with wonderful people. Thanks to all those who made last year worthwhile, thanks to Laura for being there when things got dark and carrying me through.
Life begins at 40? not sure about that, but it's certainly different.
The restaurant was 'Chesa Swiss' btw, in Colombo on Duplication road. I shared a cheese fondue with everyone for starters and then had a medium rare black angus tenderloin steak followed by dark and white chocolate mousse and a large baileys, hahaha wonderful.

A link to the Cambridge phonetics website

2010-02-23T09:56:00.002+05:30

Cambridge Phonetics Fun

A link for my students

2010-02-21T12:40:00.000+05:30

Here's the link to the Arundati Roy article about dams

My first adventures in Scuba!

2010-02-01T15:27:00.000+05:30

Yes, This was it... I didn't get much further into the sea, and as you can guess, I didn't see any fish or.... anything. I believe this was in Cornwall somewhere and I'd have been 3 or something.

This mornings dive

2010-01-29T12:05:00.001+05:30

This morning went back to the wreck of the harmony, we saw our old friend the grouper( see posting over Xmas) a nice lionfish and two of these. Porcupine fish ( in the puffer / box fish family). About 3 ft long and with a nasty sting when it expands itself. A good dive.

A flying visit to the south

2010-01-28T18:13:00.001+05:30

Off to unawatuna again, just for a weekend, friends going to the Galle literary festival, I'm goin divin :-)

My dream Classroom

2010-01-25T16:51:00.001+05:30

My dream Classroom is pretty much the one I already have, with a few more added peripherals such as ActivTablets and ActiVote devices on each table, this would allow instant feedback or boarding of learners work and answers, it would also allow the learners to interact with the IWB and to display items that they have on their screens. The classroom has a nice sound system and other audio / visual equipment.

A pictorial voyage of Tamil Nadu.

2010-01-17T14:34:00.126+05:30

We started in Chennai (state capital of Tamil Nadu) and went south by bus to Mahabalipuram (Mamalipuram( which is quite backpackerish)), but was nice and relaxing, we bought 'stuff', clothes and henna tattoo blocks etc. The room had the largest collection of mosquitoes I'd ever seen and no nets. We had to spray; oh boy! they just rained out of the air covering the floor, bed and everything in tiny black bodies. Some nice ruins and old sculptures dotted about the small coastal town, like this; called 'Arjuna's Penance' i.e. one of the heroes from the Mahabarata and Bhagavad Gita. too give you some kind of scale, it's about 30 ft high and about 100ft long.

Follow the link above to read more about this 14C old carving.

We then headed down to Pondicherry about another 2hrs south along the coast, we did this in an ambassador as a treat, great old cars (still being built, I think, in India), much comfier than your modern pokey little taxis.

Pondicherry has a French history as can still be seen from both the architecture, street layout and the roadsigns which are in both Tamil (the official language of Tamil Nadu) and French. It was lovely and wide and open, but...with a crazily wide, mind bogglingly long, stupidly dirty beach, so don't take your trunks. I can, however, heartily recommend a little place called Kasha Ki Aasha where we went for breakfast before heading off to Trichy. Trichy has very little to offer, so here's a pic of a typical Indian scene, top bicycle loading and balancing skills, and this is just an amateur!

We caught a bus to Madurai the next day, top Tamil script reading skills by Laura, my fellow traveller in the pics, made the whole finding the right bus scenario much easier. Good journey inland and south to Madurai and the famous Meenakshi-Sundareswar_Temple. An impressive Hindu temple with four towers, each highly detailed and bearing thousands of figurine sculptures, gods and incarnations of gods.

Whilst circumnavigating the temple we stumbled upon a place, which I later read about in the guide book. A bustling little market in an ancient and intricately decorated piece of stunning building. (See pic at bottom of this post) Sadly, like a lot of things in this part of the world, it was being allowed to decay and fall apart, but it's things like this that make India wonderful, the mix of contradictions and opposites, ancient and modern, ridiculously poor and disgustingly rich, healthy and diseased. Amazing to experince.

We then headed up to Kodaikanal in the western ghats for a spot of RnR for a few days. We had originally intended to go to Ooty instead but had forgotten just how big India is, so opted for somewhere more sensible. We were both mighty glad we changed out minds. We tried one guest-house at first which sounded reasonable in the book, the guy in the hotel had little time and a mobile phone stuck to the side of his face, he showed us a recently vacated, but not yet cleaned or tidied room in a casual "here's my best room" take it or leave it kind of way whilst carrying on his convo via aforementioned mobi. We left it; thanks. We ended up at the slightly more expensive, but worth every rupee, place called 'Villa Retreat". This was our view:

Yes, those are clouds beneath us! The plain being 1.5km down, this to be fair, was shortly after sunrise the next morning, the time we arrived we were in the clouds and the scale was still impressive but not like this.
Talking of the sunrise, the picture below shows what woke us up, we left the curtains open so that it would. There aren't adjectives enough to describe sunrises or sunsets like this one. The flat calm sea of clouds beneath a blanket of deepest blue with a large fusion explosion going off in the distance.

We then headed back to Madurai after a great couple of days in Kodai, to catch a train the next day for an 8hr journey back up to Chennai. Indian trains are superb, but we ended up in A/C cars and they were freezing and I was feeling quite ill by the time we got off, but that's another story.
So I'll leave you with an assortment of images, all images were taken by me on my iPhone btw, so forgive the quality or goggle at the quality as you wish, the first one is a very common sight in India, but not one you're ever likely to see in the west :-) and yes he was driving down the road as I took this out of the window of a car, and yes again that's the baby sat on the tank it's not the other little girls doll. The last pic is also a little crazy but very common, wife on back of motorbike, dressed impeccably in Saree balancing sidesaddle and holding the baby, not a helmet in sight; Hari Ram!

A return to work

2010-01-15T16:38:00.000+05:30

Just back from India, will post pics very soon and write about my whistle stop tour of Tamil Nadu.
Good to be home but....work tomorrow :~(

A change of scene

2010-01-02T15:22:00.000+05:30

My time in Unawatuna is over and I'm back in Colombo for a few days before heading to Chennai, India.
Just wanted to post a last couple of beach shots before moving on.

This is Maria and Teun who were my diving companions for 3 or 4 of my dives, a lovely couple who were very nice to me. Thanks.

And this is the boat that took us out to dive, I wanted a picture of Shirly (centre owner) and Vishni (dive master) but never got my ass in gear and then it was too late.

2009-12-31T10:59:00.000+05:30

so this morning's dive: pea soup, really poor viz; this was a shame as it was Teun's birthday and last dive of the holiday. Teun and Maria have been dive buddies on 3 or 4 of the dives I've done this last week. We did see another black lionfish (see below for a pic) and I think it was am eagle ray we saw but need to check that.

2009-12-30T12:39:00.000+05:30

So, this morning's dive took me back to the shipwreck 'Harmony' or 'Orestes'. 25m down, just off Galle fort. We saw a similar sized grouper to the one in the pic, sat under the bow ov the ship. Majestic, a word I probably overuse to describe things down below :-)
also saw a blue spotted ray, do your own search for that one. Today's image from:
http://i.livescience.com/images/080821-giant-grouper-02.jpg
thanks

this morning's dive

2009-12-29T11:36:00.001+05:30

saw one these this morning whilst on a shallow dive in unawatuna. Majestic and as you can see, quite big close up. It's called a "napoleon wrasse" or humphead wrasse.
Picture from http://static.panoramio.com/photos/original/7624917.jpg

2009-12-27T18:20:00.000+05:30

Saw one of these today on my second dive. Was with a large group of divers who had stupid amounts of gear and a full on camera man. I waved him over when I spotted it, but he culdnt see it and started filming a rock before swimming off disinterested in said lifeless rock. I stayed and watched the "black lionfish" for a few minutes before the camera man came back past, kicked the fish with his fins as he did so, and then finally saw it and got excited, called his mates over with some clever underwater signal and the fish became a sub aqua niomi Campbell for a while.
Picture from www.thescorp.net

Land locked frustration

2009-12-25T09:59:00.000+05:30

Frustratioan. Came to dive and my nose started running immediately upon arrival. When you dive you have to equalise pressure as you descend, can't be done with a head full of mucus. Hopefully by tomorrow I'll be breathing freely again.

2009-12-21T15:32:00.004+05:30

Goin' Down south in a few days to a place called Unawatuna Which is just south of Galle on the map to the left.

Intend to read lots, dive twice a day if weather permits and eat lots and lots of good seafood (the prawns and the calamari are wonderful).

I'll be takin' Iain M Banks' 'Transition' and Steven Erikson's 'Toll the Hounds' for reading material. My lovely iPhone for keepin in touch with the world, my Fins that were a pressie last xmas from ma + da and my newish Mares diving computer also a pressie last xmas. Neither have seen that much action, for various reasons, this year; I intend to put that right over xmas unless another truck runs me over and puts me in hospital again.

And I'll look like this for much of the time (but without the wrist brace):

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year
to one and all.

Devil's Dictionary

2009-12-21T10:59:00.004+05:30

Two definitions one from a standard dictionary and the latter from 'Devil's Dictionary'
Can you guess the job?

1. a man in the past whose job was to tell jokes and make people laugh

2. An officer formerly attached to a king's household, whose business it was to amuse the court by ludicrous actions and utterances, the absurdity being attested by his motley costume. The king himself being attired with dignity, it took the world some centuries to discover that his own conduct and decrees were sufficiently ridiculous for the amusement not only of his court but of all mankind. The ****** was commonly called a fool, but the poets and romancers have ever delighted to represent him as a singularly wise and witty person. In the circus of to-day the melancholy ghost of the court fool effects the dejection of humbler audiences with the same jests wherewith in life he gloomed the marble hall, panged the patrician sense of humor and tapped the tank of royal tears.

Things to ponder before switching to IWBs

2009-12-15T15:27:00.005+05:30

A colleague asked for advice on some things to consider before switching over from low-tec to hi-tec classrooms with IWBs. I thought others may be interested too, as most of them are general. One or two are British Council specific; ignore those.

The term before you switch over to IWBs, make it compulsory that teachers do the free online Promethean Activstudio foundation course (they have to register at www.prometheanlearning.com )

Have a small back-up whiteboard (normal non-tech) in the classroom because things will go wrong, but a large whiteboard just encourages teachers who are ‘reluctant to adapt’ to carry on as usual.

If you only have a 40Gb T: drive(shared resource drive), upgrade if at all possible, to something larger, once you start building up a bank of materials and digitised audio, it’ll fill up quickly.

If you use Cutting Edge at all, get the digital coursebooks for the IWB, they are brilliant. The other digital books or digital add-ons are not that great, though definitely more professional looking than a badly scanned worksheet (Face 2 face & the English File iPack are not exactly user friendly or comprehensive)

Get together with teachers and decide what file structure you will use on the T: drive for shared resources (labelled by book, labelled by level, topic etc, find the system that’ll work best for you. Decide now, not when materials have started to build up in a random fashion.

Instil best practice from the beginning; there is a document (I’ll try to find it and attach) which outlines appropriate styles, colours, fonts etc for flipchart creation. The guidelines are good and not just there for bureaucratic BC reasons, font size and colour are important. Teachers tend to go a bit crazy with colour at first, this, in general, is not good. Use branded templates right from the start, then teachers don’t get into bad or lazy habits.

If you have people there with IWB experience, consider putting them on the Promethean level 2 course, which focuses on pedagogically sound IWB materials creation, these people can then help, assist, train and run insetts.

Talk to your IT guys, how old is the BO/FO bridge? (usually this is also the internet entry point too), if it’s old or you often lose the internet, think about getting it replaced. This can be a nightmare, if the link between the Back Office (where teachers are preparing material) and the Front Office goes down, they have no way of getting their material into a classroom. The USB device restrictions will soon come in to force and they won’t be able to write to non-encrypted USB keys, so you either have to have lots of encrypted USB pen drives as back-up or ensure that the tech that’s in place will work once its throughput is increased.

If you have lots of YL classes and your classrooms are used for Adult / YL, then spend the extra money on the newer boards with the projector attached, these can slide up and down the wall allowing access to little ones and big ones alike. But you have to have proper walls for these to be installed; thin partition walls can’t take the weight.

Decide whether each teacher will get there own IWB pen or whether they’ll be one pen per classroom. We use the latter, but they go missing all the time. Have lots of spare pens!

What will your security policy be? will the doors be locked to the classrooms? Where will remote controls and IWB pens be kept? Will students have to leave the room at break? Can you trust your learners in a classroom full of tech?

If you can get someone with experience to draw up a simple trouble-shooting doc of the most common problems, and then deliver training to the teachers & management team, you’ll save yourself a lot of griping and hassle.

If you don’t have someone with the above skill set, pay for me to come to your centre and I’ll do it!

Great game for the IWB in the classroom

2009-12-10T11:37:00.004+05:30

A game I got a bit addicted to a year or so ago, a friend recently brought it to my attention again (actually I'd been searching for it but couldn't find my way back through the wilderness that is the net). Works fantastic on an IWB and the kids love it. One of my young learners (13!) got to level 8! I tell myself it was beginners luck, cos I can't get that far.

I tried to embed the game widget in here, but my HTML isn't up to it without playing around for hours with the settings. It just kept appearing over on the right of the screen and random bits of text elsewhere.

So....here's the link

Fat Boy Slim and Juggling

2009-12-09T15:34:00.003+05:30

A few years ago now Fat Boy Slim put out a track and held a competition for the best juggling video set too his track.
Here are a couple of the results. One solo affair by one one the worlds best jugglers and another that's a compilation of the World Juggling Federation finals a few years back featuring the top 5 or 6 best jugglers in the world.
Everything you see is stupidly difficult, do try this at home, but don't be disappointed if you get nowhere near this level.

Enjoy

IWBs in the language classroom

2009-12-08T17:25:00.003+05:30

So, here goes; let's open the metaphorical 'can of worms' as Mr Dudeney has called it.

In 2005 I walked into my first British Council job to find that all the clasrooms had IWBs installed and no back up whiteboard! After my first induction session (with the IWB) I was overwhelmed. I'm a bit of a nerd, I love technology. So, I was really excited but scared stiff at the same time. I had ten days (lucky, I know) of induction before being expected to go in to a classroom and teach with this thing, I didn't think I would be able to do it; the intro session was a farce, ran by someone who knew next to nothing about IWBs or the software that ran on them. I was as I have said, filling my trousers with fear.
I locked myself in vacant classrooms for the next 2 weeks at every available moment and went through the manual and did the level 1 Promethean course. When I eventually walked into a classroom to teach, I was confident I could use the thing, but not really sure how it was going to enhance my teaching; besides looking neater and more prepared that is.
How wrong I was and how quickly I began to feel; how will I ever go back to not having one of these things in my class. Here's why:-

1. As I've said above, I can prepare my class and the things I want to board beforehand, it looks better, more professional and opens the board up for student interaction (see below for more details).
2. In the classroom when questions arise or areas of weakness become apparent, I'm able to respond in a way that I wouldn't be able to in a classroom not equipped with tech. Sure I could draw a pic for a vocab question, sure I can model the pronunciation of new words, sure I can show them common collocations and wrack my brains for authentic examples of usage. I can also drag a pic from the resource library to illustrate vocab, or bring up the internet and do a Google image search.
I can bring up the Longman interactive / Oxford multimedia dictionary, which will show learners where the stress is, common collocations and opposites, authentic usages from newspapers and literature and I can play them the pronunciation in both British and American English thus exposing them to different accents to my own; which o you think is better?
3. It gets learners heads out of text books or stops them staring at worksheets and handouts, when learners heads come up; they start looking around and lo, they start talking to each other!
4. Once again, if I walk into class with something that I soon realise is not actually what the learners need, but what the syllabus or can do statements tell me to do, I can react! I can give....OMG...surely not....but yes...a dogme lesson! I can throw my planned lesson in the bin and draw from an infinite number of resources to give my learners what they need, it may be a piece of software that allows us to explore stress patterns or other elements of phonology, it may be a video that exemplifies a certain state or feeling, a newspaper article with examples of difficult language areas and / or models and examples of different genres.
5. Maybe most importantly, I can give control of the board and therefore the control of the lesson to the learners! They can board their work, they can come and correct others work, they can come and manipulate images and words in a way that a standard classroom does not allow. We were watching a youtube clip the other day, a student asked a question about a scene (in this case a beach / surfing scene) so i took a screenshot of the scene, put it on an IWB flip and the learners using their collective knowledge annotated it, I facilitated the screenshot and the watching of the video; the learners did the rest.
6. Have you ever shown learner clips of film that are 7ft by 5ft and backed up by a decent sound system? Impact! That's what we are talking about!

I don't really think I need to go on. I know the common argument, "they take over the lesson and become the focus!". No, they do not. If something takes over your lesson and becomes the focus, you're doing something wrong, don't blame the tech! "It's too expensive for the common or garden developing country". So! A laptop / desktop is too expensive for most schools, so is a decent smart phone or digital camera in such places. Should I not use them if I can? I'm in a developing country, my school is wealthy enough to have them, should I not exploit the technology, because others don't have it? I don't see this as an argument against them. We all use computers and mobiles and digital cameras, do we stop using them because others in the world can't?

I love IWBs, I can't imagine going back to a classroom not equipped with one! Teaching with one is a million times better than without. It's not the focus of my lesson, never has been. It enhances my lessons in countless ways, that if you've never used one, you wouldn't know.

Please, I want to know what you all think. Tell me.

Thanks for your comments

2009-12-07T17:52:00.003+05:30

Hi,

Thanks for your comments; Burcu - I've taken your advice on-board and removed the BBC news feed and replaced it with Yahoo, I always like a bit of news myself. The video was the smallest size I could get it by just embedding the code from youtube, is there a manual way I could have changed the size? The juggling video works for me and I can tell from the comments that it worked for others too, maybe it's your browser.

Yes Jools, I am, I'm ashamed to say, Juggling and Smoking at the same time, at least it wasn't a cigarette ;-)

And Isabel, yes Sri Lanka is another world, too me too! I've lived here 2 years now. You really should try diving though, it's wonderful beyond words.

Diving in Hikkaduwa, Sri Lanka

2009-12-06T14:31:00.003+05:30

Went diving this weekend, first time since April (because of the monsoon) and while visibility wasn't ideal, it was good enough. Saw some interesting stuff, a very large grouper (4ft long, 2ft wide), a few large Moray eels, lots of lovely soft corals in various hues and clouds and clouds of tropical fish too numerous to mention. It was great to be under the waves again, so easy to forget how amazing it is down there.

If you don't dive, I highly recommend it, it's access to a world that we wouldn't otherwise sea (sic).

On the down side, whilst clearing my mask during a decompression stop, I let in a small jellyfish which proceeded to sting me in the eye, that hurt a lot! I really don't recommend that bit.

PADI official website

2009-12-06T08:56:00.004+05:30

All about Eve:

Hi all,

Welcome to my first posting on my first (real) blog; I microblog occasionally on twitter (Twitter ID = fruitus)

This is a pic of me, taken on my phone, as I am setting up the blog and immediately uploaded.

I am 40 years young, currently live and work in Sri Lanka.

I am Deputy Manager ICT for the British Council in Colombo and have been here for just over two years. Wondering where the hell to go next, any suggestions? (it has to be East!).

I Juggle (working my way back to 5 balls after a nasty accident this time last year when a truck almost tore my arm off) and scuba dive as my main hobbies. I read a lot of Sci-Fi and fantasy type stuff, my favourite authors of the moment are Steven Erikkson (Malazan book of the Fallen series is spectactular and unique) and Iain M Banks (whose Sci-Fi has been top drawer for the last 10 years at least.)

My first career was in IT, operating main frame and supercomputers. I actually got to work for my schoolboy hero Seymour Cray in the late eighties and early nineties, I won't bore you...look him up! At the end of 92, disillusioned with IT in general, I changed paths and started doing voluntary conservation work 5 days a week, where I became interested in Botany. I decided to go to university and study it; it's been a passion ever since.

I did my CELTA in 2002, because my wife (at the time, we are sadly seperated) was an EFL teacher and we wanted to continue travelling and working. Very glad I am that I did it, I love my job, most of the time, and get a great sense of satisfaction from it. I also love travelling and this job allows me to do both.

I'm in love with an MMORPG called 'Eve'

Probably the hardest yet best game in the universe. The graphics alone make it worth a look.

I used to spend lots of time on Second Life, but while in hospital with the above mentioned accident, they tried to renew my subscription, failed cos my credit card had changed; so closed my premium account, took my land from me and kept all of my possessions and told me there was no way to reactivate the account. I will never step foot in Second Life again! Linden Labs suck.

So, feel free to comment, give me suggestions on where to go next, recommend stuff to me, whatever!

Thanks for visiting