Sculptures by the Sea 2010

Sculptures by the sea is an annual event at Bondi Beach. Lots of different arty sculptures are erected along a beautiful cliff walk and the sculptures can be admired against a dramatic background of sea and rock. It attracts huge crowds, especially on its last weekend so I went to see it very early this morning. It was a gorgeous day for it - summer has at last begun in earnest after a very wet start.

Teaching English: Vision Statement

I have an invaluable and constantly growing treasure trove of multiple high quality, proven English lessons on every area for every level at my finger tips wherever I am in the world. 

Preparing is almost instantaneous.  I just print and photocopy and / or boot up and go... 

As a result, I have plenty of time for a balanced and free life and to continue to invest in my teaching resources and other skills. 

I continually invent, experiment, adapt and grow my teaching skills and materials. 

I am an extremely effective teacher / trainer and make a real difference  to my students' lives.  I build up a network and keep in contact with many of my students. 

I branch out into other forms of training, including coaching and personal development. 

I act as a consultant in teaching and training and earn significant money from my skills, materials and resources.

Exploring and photographing Australia

NSW

• Sydney
• The Blue Mountains
• Capertee Valley
• Kiama
• Forresters Beach 
• Terrigal 
• Port Stephens

Victoria

• Great Ocean Road
• Tasmania
• Melbourne

Queensland

• Northern Queensland

Northern Territory

• Uluru
• Kakadu

Western Australia

• Perth
• Rottnest

Fascinating facts about the Melbourne Cup

This is part of a piece I wrote for my students about The Melbourne Cup to get them in the mood for the race.  We stopped our lesson early and all went to the local pub to watch the race together.  Of course, needless to say, we all had a bit of a punt (I organised the class "sweepstakes") but my horse came second last.  Oh well, gambling and fishing just don't seem to be my thing...

• The Melbourne Cup is Australia's most famous horse race. The race always happens on the first Tuesday of November and it starts at 3 p.m. This is the 150th year that the Melbourne Cup will be run. So, you are here in Australia at a historic moment!

• The Melbourne Cup takes place in (yes, you guessed it!) Melbourne at the Flemington Racecourse. Horses have to be three years or older to take part.

• The Melbourne Cup is known as "The race that stops a nation." That's because just about every person in Australia stops doing whatever they are doing to drink beer or champagne and listen to or watch the race.

• A recent survey calculated that the Melbourne Cup costs the Australian economy over $ 1 billion in lost work. That's because no-one does much work on the afternoon of the race (not even English students) and it’s a public holiday in Victoria. But who cares! It's lots of fun and an excuse for Australians everywhere to have a party.

• Australians love to gamble on any day and especially on the day of the Melbourne Cup. The "sweep" (sweepstakes) is particularly popular where each person puts in some money and they are given a randomly chosen horse. The person with the winning horse wins all the money. Then they get to buy everyone drinks!

• The Melbourne Cup is not really about horse racing at all! It's about having fun and drinking champagne and eating canapés and looking beautiful in the latest fashions. It's one big fashion parade and it's all about being noticed. And often the most popular way to do that is to wear a huge, exotic looking hat.

• Sometimes the fashions at the Melbourne Cup influence what people wear all over Australia and even in other parts of the world. In 1965, everyone remembers when Jean Shrimpton, a model from England, wore a miniskirt. The skirt went just above her knees (shocking in those days!) and caused a worldwide sensation. Soon everyone was wearing them.

• The first Melbourne Cup was run in 1861 and was won by a horse called "Archer." Archer lived in Nowra in New South Wales so he had to walk 800 km's just to get to the start of the race! Seventeen horses took part and the prize was a gold watch and £170 ($ 300).

• In today's race, 24 horses will take part and the prize money is $ 7.7 million and $ 4.5 million of that goes to the winning horse. Even if you come 10th, you get $ 160,000. Over 100,000 people will attend the race.

• The Melbourne Cup is one of the most difficult and challenging races in the world. The race is run over 3,200 metres and it is a handicapped race. This means that the better the horse is, the more weight it has to carry in the race. In the 1890's there was a particularly strong horse called Carbine who won many races. He had to carry a weight of over 66 kg in the Melbourne Cup (that doesn't even include the jockey) and yet he still won the race!

• Only four horses have won the Melbourne Cup twice and only one horse (Makybe Diva in 2003) has won it three times. The distance and the handicap make it very difficult to predict who will win the Melbourne Cup. Any horse can win. Who knows, maybe it will be your horse than wins the race today. Good luck! And if you win, remember to buy your teacher a beer.

Jean Shrimpton in her “shocking” miniskirt that caused a worldwide sensation.  Get a life, people!

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Melbourne Cup at Kaplan 2010

As you can see, there were many different varieties of hats on display...

Thanks Rusty for taking some pics of me...

Priceless moments (2010)

Teaching English

• Working on English lessons
• Exhilaration of pill in lessons
• Working on English maps

Russel's visit

• Especially Wentworth Falls

Movies 

Halloween at School

It was Halloween day at Kaplan on Friday. Some of the staff dressed up as you can see!  I both wrote and found some ghost stories and terrified the hell out of (particularly some) of my students today.  I was worried about one of my tales, thinking it was far too far fetched, but then my 40 year old Russian student suddenly got a crazed look in her eye and insisted that she'd heard the same tale while living in the Czech Republic and she was absolutely, completely positive it had actually happened which created a nice stir in the class and cranked up the eerie atmosphere a notch or too.

Mum, Jo and the kids on their weekend away at Spier Estate

Thanks for the photos, Jo.

Student Site

I've recently created a blogging site for my students.  The aim of the site is to help the class get to know each other (and me) better and to provide some fun writing practice.  I'm very chuffed with the site and it's been very well received by both the students themselves and the school.

You'll notice I have been a bit lazy when it comes to the design of the site.  It looks exactly like this one!  Sometime, I'll give it a spiffy new look.

You can see the student site here.

New studentism

By a French student!

The aim of travel is simple, after 6 months I should speak as Elizabeth II.

Frolicking in the mud at Parati (Brazil)

A few people have asked me recently about the photo with my face covered in mud in the About Me section and how it came about.  Well, below is the answer.  Just play the video and all will be revealed.

Ha, ha, it was a lot of fun!  The video was was taken at Parati in Brazil during my trip to South America. 

Here are some more videos of us playing silly devils - this time in Bolivia.