My review of the year

Around this time of the year (end of one, start of another), I enjoy watching and reading summaries of what has happened over the past 12 months - the good, the bad, the fascinating, the pathetic, the amusing, the annoying ... .
Yesterday, I watched the Google video of the top searches from 2013.

 
http://www.google.com/trends/topcharts?zg=full&hl=en

As usual, there were many things I'd forgotten about.  Did you find the same?


I found myself reflecting on what I'd been up to both personally and professionally in 2013.  Not a bad year in retrospect!

http://www.crossfitinvictus.com/events/january-2014-invictus-events/

In January, I was in Alcalá de Henares, along with many, many other people who are involved in the Cambridge English Language Assessment here in Spain.  The conference kicked off a very important year for Cambridge English:  the Centenary year - 100 years since the first Proficiency exam took place.

In February, I was busy preparing and giving seminars, as well as watching a few webinars.
I would really recommend the Webinar on Youtube on How the Cambridge English Advanced Writing paper is assessed.  Here's the link again:

Right at the very beginning of March, I was lucky enough to be invited to take part in the ih Young Learners Conference in Rome.  I managed to attend some (though not all) sessions and also met some extremely motivated teachers and Directors of Studies and Teacher trainers.  And as usual, I learnt a lot myself and discovered some wonderful ideas and facts on the internet as I prepared my session.

I also met lot of inspiring teachers in Granada and Malaga in April.  I also remember the impressive venues!!!

And in May, in my hometown - Santander, lots of familiar as well as new faces cane along to the Writing Inspired seminar.  Again, I learnt a lot while I prepared the session.

In June, my days were busy, busy, busy as they always are - driving round Cantabria, coordinating the Young Learners Test sessions.  Thanks once again to the fantastic team of speaking examiners that are so reliable and willing.  You make a frantic period of the year much less frantic!!!

July and August were pretty workfree (as you can see from the shortage of blog posts!!!)  

September is the time when most of the Iberian Presenter Team meet up in Madrid to coordinate the year's seminar programme.  The team grew considerably this year and we are busy, busy.  It's great to see so many sessions taking place in Portugal now.

In October, I went back to my daughters' school to help give out the Young Learners and KET  and PET certificates.  I love going back to the school and I get so much pleasure seeing these students grow and bumping into the first candidates who took Starters there and have gone on to study and to use their English to achieve so much.

November flew past, with seminars and another certificate ceremony in Pedreña.

I loved the display that they had up in Pedreña with some students and their aims for what they wanted to do with English - hope you don't mind being 'shared' Pablo!!!

And so, we've reached the end of another year.  Not a bad one in all and once Kings Day is over, it'll be back to work!!!  I'll try and write a bit more frequently on this blog - my 1st Resolution made!!

Have a great year everyone!!!


Anne

Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Cambridge English Language Assessment 

Spain and Portugal

The facts behind the film

I have always loved finding out unexpected or intriguing facts.

We are very near Christmas.  My daughters will both be arriving home tomorrow for the holidays (they are working and studying in Madrid).  No doubt at some point these holidays, we will watch the film Love Actually together.  It's become a tradition (in fact, I have watched this film when it's NOT been Christmas with them several times too!)

Here's a link to the trailer for the film (in case you need reminding...)

I was looking on the internet for something else, when I came across a fun trivia article about Love Actually.  I found some of the trivia amusing so I thought I'd share some of it with you!

1  The word “actually” is spoken twenty-two times in the film.  

'Actually' is actually a very common word in English, so that's actually a pretty appropriate number of times for it to appear!!!

2  The director Richard Curtis always has a character named Bernard in his films.  Why?

When director Richard Curtis was in college, his girlfriend left him for a man named Bernard. As a literary form of revenge, Curtis writes an unpopular character named Bernard into each of his screenplays. In Love Actually, Bernard is Emma Thompson and Alan Rickman’s "horrid son."

3  The airport footage at the Heathrow airport is real. A team of cameramen hung out at the airport for a week, and filmed real families, friends and lovers reuniting. 

4 Liam Neeson is seen several times with a toothpick hanging out of his mouth. This is because after he quit smoking, he was never without a toothpick to take its place.  

And some other bits and pieces about Love Actually - it's been over 10 years since the film was released.  To coincide with the 10th anniversary, some of the cast were asked to share their current activities.

Link to this here.
Reading it, I learnt another bit of trivia:  the Director's children were in the film!!!

Richard Curtis (Writer/Director): It keeps taking me by surprise! It’s quite helpful to know it’s been ten years because it’s an easy way for me to keep track of how old my son was, who appears in the film. There’s a scene where they’re up onstage performing the Nativity play, and he’s got a Spider-Man mask on, and there’s a big close-up of a very perplexed-looking five-year-old. And my daughter is one of the lobsters!

The most hilarious moment of the whole film I always feel is when Rowan Atkinson giftwraps a present.  I've sometimes been in a hurry to buy a present or been worried about the person who it's for turning up before it's wrapped and put away, so to finish, here is the clip.  Just brilliant (as Rowan Atkinson so often is!!!)

http://www.hotflick.net/pictures/big/2003_Love_Actually_219.html

http://klipd.com/watch/love-actually/gift-wrapping-scene

What day is it today?

Today has been a special day.  Not for me in particular, but for the world generally, a sequential date.  I'd never come across that term before - and I've lived through others, but just didn't realise!!

Last year, the 10th November was a sequential date - 10.11.12.  The year before, the 9th of October was too.  (9.10.11)  Today, for a second, we lived through 1/12/13 14:15.16.

http://heidiscottage.blogspot.com.es/2013/11/111213.html

Not that I was aware of this happening - I discovered the term sequential date just 20 minutes ago via a friend's Facebook post!

Apparently, dates like these are often chosen for special events - like getting married.  It will certainly help people remember their wedding date!  Apparently, wedding venues in Las Vegas were really busy when the USA celebrated this same date - back on the 12th of November (because of course there, they write the date with the month first and the day second).

There has been nothing particularly memorable in my day - the usual combination of work and sport.

Mind you, the sunrise this morning was pretty impressive ...

and the south wind meant that Santander was glowing all day!  

Christmas adverts

Today I've been working on some posts for another blog that I sometimes contribute  to (not as often as I'd like!)

Behind the Selfaccessgroup are some very dedicated teachers who want to help students and teachers in their strive to learn English, like English and do well at school and in the PAU.  I've been involved in the group for 6 years now (I've just realised now when I looked at my Documents file that it's been that long!), but the group has been meeting and preparing materials for a LOT longer than that!

One of the posts I'm working on is around the theme of Christmas.  I mentioned a few weeks ago that I really like the Inspiration Room.    When I was preparing that post, I watched the Royal Mail advert that was going to be shown in the lead-up to Christmas on the Inspiration Room website.

I then came across an article in Harpers Bazaar   The article runs through some of the adverts from the biggest firms in the UK, including John Lewis, Marks and Spencers and Debenhams.

For use in class, I'd suggest that you could contrast the Harvey Nichols advert  

'Sorry, I spent it on myself'

with the TK Maxx UK advert 

Our new Christmas '13 campaign is a celebration of that very special moment when you receive a unique gift you know has been chosen with great thought and care.

It'll be Christmas before we know it.  So let's start gearing up by watching some adverts created for this time of the year.

European Profiling Grid

Nearly 12 years ago, the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment was launched.  

Since then, talking about levels of language competence seems to have become a lot easier and clearer. 

Parents and students, as well as teachers and language specialists, publishers, exam boards, seem to be speaking the same language!!  I overhear mothers and fathers saying 'He needs a B1' to get into university.  'She has to pass B2'.

And of course, the Cambridge English exams are all clearly aligned to the different levels.

Some time ago, I found out about another European project:  The European Profiling Grid.  

I signed up to receive information about the European Profiling Grid Project and last Friday, I got an email to tell me that the interactive grid is now available on the official Project Website.

I've copied the Objectives of the Grid from the official website:

Objective

The aim of the European Profiling Grid (EPG) project is to help improve the quality and effectiveness of language training thanks to an innovative instrument: the European Profiling Grid.

Designed for teachers working in Europe in language centres and schools, this tool aims to :

• help better identify training needs;
• provide a reliable means of evaluating and self-evaluating professional skills;
• facilitate recruitment thanks to a transparent evaluation system;
• foster mobility by enhancing professional skills.

The EPG Grid is not only a tool developed for the use of the language teachers but also for their trainers and employers.

The Grid was originally developed by EAQUALS and used in it inspections.  There are now more organisations involved:  

Partners

Centre international d’études pédagogiques (CIEP), France
Evaluation & Accreditation of Quality in Language Services (EAQUALS), UK
British Council, UK
Instituto Cervantes, Spain
Bulgarian Association for Quality Language Services (BAQLS OPTIMA), Bulgaria
Goethe-Institut e.V., Germany
Center für berufsbezogene Sprachen (CEBS), Austria
ELS-Bell Education Ltd (ELS Bell), Poland
Università oer Stranieri di Siena (UNISTRASI), Italy
Hogeschool van Amsterdam DOO (HvA), Netherlands
Sabanci Üniversitesi (SU), Turkey

I couldn't find the Grid on the EPG website, but I clicked on the link to the Webinar that took place last week and listened to it (watching it when the interesting bits I wanted to look at came on).

The webinar is quite long - an hour.  The first part is really an introduction to the Project and the actual Egrid that I wanted to find out about appears about half way through - 30 minutes into the webinar.

As I write this post, the Egrid does not seem to be online, but I did find a pdf document on the EAQUALS website here.

From what I can see, this could be a useful training and development tool.  

And if you didn't read my post back in July about the ELT Snapshot Survey, you might like to read it now because it's very thematically related!

Preparation is the key - tips from the Examiners

I was busy going through the seminar I'll be giving in Bilbao tomorrow, and was checking links to speaking test videos that I'd written about before on this blog, when I came across a clip that I hadn't seen or heard about before.

3 examiners who often appear on Cambridge English speaking test videos appear in a short video giving tips to help candidates do well in speaking tests.

The tips they mention also appear on screen.

http://www.thefutureworkplace.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/hints1.jpg

I noted some down and am sharing them here:

Listen carefully.  (Photos)  Maintain the flow for a full minute. Know how long your answer should be.

Know when and how you have to expand your answer.  Move the interaction forward or to a conclusion.

React.  Don't be put off if the examiner interrupts.

Keep the conversation going.  Extend.  Paraphrase.  Find a way of keeping the conversation going.
Ask questions if you don't understand.

Interact.  Use eye contact and body language to encourage your partner.  Overcome nerves.

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZLpAmvxF3s1O2AGba5Qib5zHqGgMZvp6syaqCToNz3JQdJ4K3XZdGjOi6Pw9iXwQO_E8MmAAa3EfYhWtcbp7EkXQTng07zIgNlnXBw8imjfMMNRXUaY1LfVSiSIdOahq9fh0lYdLaqPU/s1600/EyeContact.jpg

Balance accuracy and fluency.


Some good advice!  From the examiner's mouth!

Inspiration from the Inspiration Room

Tomorrow morning, bright and early I'll be heading along the coast again to San Sebastian.

I'm addressing the subject of writing all morning - Developing Writing Skills for B2 & C1 learners and Preparing for Success at Cambridge English: First for Schools writing.


As I know that some people will be attending both sessions, I wanted to make them different.

For the second session, I'll be sharing some websites to use with teenage learners to inspire them for the content of the writing tasks.

One of the sites I'll be mentioning will be the Inspiration Room.

This fantastic site has adverts from around the world.

I thought the Fiat Texting or Driving campaign from Brazil would make great material for use in class

Fiat’s road safety work in Brazil has included Texting or Driving, a print and poster advertising campaign featuring the letters R (Girl), F (Bus), N (Dog), L (Truck) and Z (Cow). “You either see the letter or the bus. Don’t text and drive”. The campaign won Gold for Poster and Bronze for Art Direction in the Design category at the London International Awards.

A new view of those pictures that circulate from time to time where you can see 1 thing or another.

Webinar: Changes to Cambridge English: First, First for Schools and Advanced

This webinar will focus on the revised versions of Cambridge English: First, Cambridge English: First for Schools and Cambridge English: Advanced, which go live in 2015.

It is aimed at teachers who are preparing, or going to prepare candidates for these exams. The presenters will concentrate on the formats and timings of the exams in order to fully inform teachers of the changes which are taking place.

To register for this webinar, please choose your preferred date and time.

Monday 11 November 2013  14.00 – 15.00 (UK time)

Wednesday 13 November 2013  10.00 – 11.00 (UK time)

Great game for practising compound words

I just received an email with some great online games and resources from Teach them English, a blog written by Adam Simpson that I mentioned in September.

I've been playing Word Vine,

a fascinating and challenging game where you have to drag and drop words onto vine leaves to form compound words.

This would be a great way of learning and practising compound words.  It gets very difficult as you progress through the levels.

Will definitely be bookmarking this game (and playing it when I have time!!)

Enjoy!

Teaching English posters

You may have noticed that I haven't written anything on this blog for several days.  I'm currently packing up the contents of our house - we're going to have some serious work done to it so we're moving out for a few months!!!  After 22 years of living in the same house, we have accumulated rather a lot of stuff.  I wanted to take advantage of the situation to have a sort-out/clear-out!  It's nearly done, but has taken up rather a lot of time and energy over the past two weeks!!!

While I was going through my papers - a neverending task! - I came across a note to myself to look again at TeachingEnglish.com posters.

http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/posters

There are 7 'posters' - more than 'posters', they are corkboards with ideas for teaching writing, reading, vocabulary, pronunciation, listening, grammar, speaking.

You can find some good ideas on the boards - maybe some ideas that you haven't used for a while.

So, I thought I'd share the link with you via this blog.  I hope to get back to writing regular posts!

Revised Cambridge English: First and Advanced from 2015

I am busy preparing seminars for various sessions in Bilbao (at the British Council) 30th October, 13th and 20th November and in San Sebastian (Lacunza-ih), 15th November.


All of these seminars are related to Cambridge English: First and/or Cambridge English: Advanced, so I thought I'd better check out the revised formats of these two exams.   (The seminars I'm giving are not about the changes but I try and make sure I'm informed in case anyone asks!)

As from January 2015, both exams will change.   Very obvious changes are:

- Candidates will take 4 papers instead of 5.  (The Reading and Use of English papers have been combined into a single paper.)

- Both exams will be shorter in total - Cambridge English: First will take 30 minutes less and  Cambridge English: Advanced will be 45 minutes shorter.

You can access the Specifications and Sample Papers for both exams:

http://www.cambridgeenglish.org/exams-and-qualifications/first/exam-update-for-2015/

http://www.cambridgeenglish.org/exams-and-qualifications/advanced/exam-update-for-2015/

I am going to look at the Sample Papers and Audio Samples in more detail now.  ...

Bye!!!!!!

Accessible learning resource - chocolate?

I am in clear-up mode at the moment.  I was going through a notebook I'd taken with me on a seminar trip a couple of years ago and came across a web address I'd jotted down.

I've just checked it out and I can see that it would be a useful resource for students to use at home.

The name of the site is attractive too!

Learning chocolate
' to make learning a new language as fun as enjoying a piece of chocolate!'

http://www.learningchocolate.com/

There are 5 pages of themes - there would seem to be 25 themes per page so.... 125 of them.

Each theme works the same - you see a set of pictures and words (Review).  Each word has a speaker icon next to it.  You click on the icon to hear the word.  The spelling and pronunciation is American English, so make sure students are aware of that if they're more used to British English or another type of English.
Next, there are 3 match up activities.  Then a fill in activity and a dictation of the words.  

The format is always the same so I doubt if your students would manage to do all 125, but I'd suggest that it would be a useful resource to share with students (and parents).

And Learning Chocolate isn't limited to English - you can also Chinese/Mandarin, German, Spanish and Japanese - I might try learning a bit of Chinese later.......

And - what about this lovely picture on the subject of learning and chocolate?  Great idea for working on writing and using interesting words from F is for First-grade Fun!

http://k-1badgerteacher.blogspot.com.es/2012/01/one-of-my-favorite-winter-writing.html

Cambridge English TV - speaking test videos, webinars and so much more!

As I said in my previous post, we Cambridge English Assessment: seminar presenters in Spain and Portugal are gearing up for a new season of seminars and conferences.  We're going to be giving more seminars in even more places.  Hope to meet some of you there!

I am starting to look at the sessions I'll be giving soon in Bilbao and San Sebastian and at the materials I'll be using.

I took a look at Cambridge English TV on youtube and found some great resources there.  Back in February, I mentioned the YLE Teaching Tips available on this Channel.  

Today, I found two speaking test videos - one for Cambridge English: Key for Schools

 and the other for Cambridge English: Preliminary for Schools.

Both show a complete sample speaking test and also provide a link to a pdf. document with comments on the Test and the candidates you see.

http://www.cambridgeenglish.org/images/149448-ket-for-schools-examiner-s-comments.pdf

http://www.cambridgeenglish.org/images/149446-pet-for-schools-examiner-s-comments.pdf

Teachers are always asking for examples of speaking tests to watch and to show their students.  Here you have two good examples!

Other brilliant resources on the Cambridge English TV channel are English Language Learning Tips, looking at various areas such as Tips for Listening and Speaking Tests, etc.  And recordings of webinars if you didn't catch them live.

Definitely worth a visit and saving to your playlists!

Off we go!!!

Our seminar season is about to begin - in Spain and Portugal, we are set to go!

Last Friday, we held our annual Spain and Portugal Presenters' Meeting in Madrid.

Here, you can see us in action!!  It was a very dynamic get-together, with a considerable amount of sharing of ideas.

The Portugal team has lots of new members - so lots more seminars should be taking place!!!
Welcome back to Lucy Bravo and Antonio Malva!
And welcome to the team Idalia Luz, Martin Heslop, Robin Barnes!

The Spanish team also welcomes two new members - Gabby Hewitt, based in Cordoba and Karen Ludlow, who lives in Madrid.

We have many, many sessions lined up so hopefully many of the readers of this blog will see us some time, somewhere!

Useful tools and free resources

Earlier this year, I came across a blog written by Adam Simpson.  Here is how Adam himself describes his blog, Teach them English:

Hi, my name is Adam and I teach English at Sabancı University, on the outskirts of Istanbul. I am an award winning teacher and blogger.

This blog is about various aspects of my life as a teacher.

Thanks for dropping by, I hope you find something of interest.

 I found some interesting things on Adam's blog and subscribed to email alerts about new content.

For the past two weeks or so, I've been receiving emails with some great links to materials and websites on various themes such as

6 Useful tools for teaching and learning vocabulary

15 more free resources for teaching classroom language

 Adam has obviously spent a lot of time looking for these resources and I thought I'd mention them to save you time too!

Where are we heading? Revisited....

Back in April 2007, I was asked to give a workshop and a session at the APPI conference in Lisbon about the situation in Europe regarding the teaching of English.

I spent a good month preparing the session because I wanted the information I was sharing to be as accurate and up to date as possible.

A lot of work, believe me, but as so often happens, I've found that the information that I discovered has come to be so useful since then.  Facts like the percentage of teachers in Europe who were set to retire in the following 10 years (opening the doors to new teachers and maybe the chance to make changes in a school).  I know one school locally that is doing just that.  They wanted to introduce a bilingual project and teach subjects through English.  As teachers retire, the new staff member they take on has a good level of English.  If only this kind of forward planning could take place more often ..... .

Which brings me to what caused me to write today's post.  The school year is kicking off.  The number of emails I'm receiving every day has grown tremendously and suddenly.  I was looking through some of them and clicked on the links in the TeachingEnglish newsletter.

One of the links took me to the

I remember drawing on the information in the previous survey when I prepared my APPI presentation.

I think it will make interesting reading for many of us.  Just added it to my 'to do' list for today!

(Now I can cross off 'Write a blog post' from my list!  Done!!!)

A little help from pins

Many of us are back to work now.  Schools here locally are with teachers, without students at the moment.  Timetables are being finalised, maintenance work being carried out and preparations to welcome the students back to class being made.

I've mentioned Pinterest before on this Blog.  I'm using it more and more both for work and hobbies.  The number of boards I have is growing all the time and I must admit, that the weekly email I get with 'Your weekly inspiration' from Pinterest is one of the emails I look forward to receiving.

So, when I received a second email from Pinterest a couple of weeks ago with the Title 'Teach with a little help from pins', I checked out the suggested pins and boards in it.  I was impressed and made a mental note to share some of them with you via this Blog.

I checked out (and have clicked to follow) the following boards:

Reading ideas.  There are some great ideas here for activities and displays.

Bulletin Boards and Charts

Where I found this:

So, I hope you enjoy my 'important thoughts' for today.  I'm going to press on and get myself geared up for this academic year.  May it be a great experience for everyone!

Useful advice for teachers' first experiences of teaching younger learners (and for parents)

For eleven years, I worked as the director of a large language school. (International House, Santander)

Most new teachers who came to work at the school had had very little experience in teaching children and teenagers - although we also had some teachers who had had the opposite experience - they had taught in primary and secondary schools in the UK and were then moving abroad and had not taught adults except during their 'four week course' as we called the Cambridge English CELTA (Certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) in the staffroom.

As I was reading through the first part of the latest Cambridge English Parents' Newsletter that came into my inbox, it occurred to me that the situations outlined and the accompanying comments and advice would also be very useful for a teacher facing the challenge of teaching young learners and teenagers.  So I thought I'd give it a mention!

http://assets.cambridgeenglish.org/schools/parents-newsletter-issue6-article.pdf

Here is a selection of tips from the newsletter:

When helping children learn a new language, it is important to do things that take into account their stage of development in their own language. 

•  With younger children, try to focus on real things that they will know about, rather than abstract ideas. 

• Embarrassment and self-consciousness can be a complex issue for children and teenagers of all ages, but younger children are often less embarrassed than teenagers or adults about trying new things, like saying new words, in front of other people. 

• Teenage learners are often more independent from adults and teachers, and social factors such as the need to impress their friends may distract them or affect their motivation. This is the challenge with this age group: ensuring that learners have a clear aim or purpose for learning the language. 

Learners in this age group often benefit from tasks that appeal to their interests, reflect their life experiences, and help them achieve a goal that they really believe is important. 

More useful resources from UsingEnglish.com

I'm back from holiday.  Had a great time in Madeira.  Great weather, food, experiences.  Loved the decorations in the streets and around the churches for August 15th.

I won't be working flat out yet, but I will try and write a couple of articles per week.

I've written before about Using English.com and the resources they have.  I have about 50 pdf documents that I've saved in a file on my computer.

Recently, I've had 2 emails telling me about articles with tips for approaching Parts 1 and 2 of the Cambridge English: First speaking test.  I especially liked the suggestions for useful language and approaches for Part 2.

Part 1
http://www.usingenglish.com/articles/how-to-teach-cambridge-first-certificate-fce-speaking-part-one.html

Part 2
http://www.usingenglish.com/articles/how-to-teach-cambridge-first-certificate-fce-speaking-part-two.html

With many students taking the Cambridge English: First exam earlier this year (I know lots of candidates for October 2013), no doubt many of you are already priming them for the different parts of the exam. The two articles on UsingEnglish.com will be very useful for focusing on the Speaking Test.

I've been apologising since June about not writing regular posts for this blog.  Today, I'm not going to say sorry - I'm going to say 'See you soon'.  


On Friday, I'll be heading off to Madeira with the family on holiday.  

http://estevesther.blogspot.com.es/2011/04/madeira-y-sus-flores-1.html

There is something about islands that attracts - last year's trip to Sardinia was a total success - I loved everything about it.  The light, the temperature (it was hot, but bearably hot), the food, the hotel, and especially the colours all around me.  I admit I've mentioned these things before.  



This won't be the first time we've been to Madeira.  We went there 15 years ago when our 2 daughters were very young.  They have vague memories of the visit - mainly of the 'mushroom' shower in the middle of the hotel's children's swimming pool!
  

Later today, I'm going to look through the collection of photos we have for that holiday and catch up on my own memories!

I have a ton of ted.com talks to watch - I might view some of the lighter topic talks while I'm away.  

Design for all 5 senses is one of the latest talks to arrive in my inbox.  Pico Iyer: Where is home? is another.

Pico Iyer's talk seems to fit in with me and my situation (and I'm sure a lot of you fellow teachers can identify with his statement and focus of his talk):

More and more people worldwide are living in countries not considered their own. Writer Pico Iyer — who himself has three or four “origins” — meditates on the meaning of home, the joy of traveling and the serenity of standing still.

And to think about while I'm getting ready for my trip, I'll bear in mind the first of three questions asked by Silvia Marinova a couple of years ago in a TED conversation:

Traveling - what is that all about?

1. What is traveling to you - a way of life, growth, escape or...?

2. Where would you most like to go?

3. Can you recommend a gorgeous place where you've been?

In answer to question 2, I've just been looking at the islands recommended by various websites.  I haven't visited any of the Top Ten on them!  Still a lot of traveling to do then!

http://www.tripadvisor.com/TravelersChoice-Islands-g1

I could recommend serveral gorgeous places to go, but it would all depend on what you're looking for.  Right now, I fancy switching off, changing pace (slowing down) and spending time chatting and enjoying experiences and moments with my husband and daughters.

So goodbye for now.  I hope to come back with photos of me looking as relaxed as as I did here in Sardinia!

Source: http://astoriedcareer.com/2012/12/hope-to-see-you-soon.html