Ellie had her birthday party yesterday. She went bowling with her friends, then into Burger King and after that they went upstairs at Lets Go to do some ice skating as well. Its a good job this is her second to last birthday party! (I stop once they get to secondary school.)
It was a fun evening though. After the first ten minutes on the ice we were the only ones there. The guy said we were supposed to get 40 minutes but we were on for an hour and they only got off then cos I said it was time to go home. There were a few minor incidents - a bruised bottom and a cut finger (Ellie ran over Jessica's hand) - but other than that they had a great time.
We had to do birthday cake back at our house cos Carl forgot to pack a knife in the bag (he only had the one job - what can I say?), but it was OK cos that meant I got to sit down with a cup of tea and eat my bit of cake in piece.
It was gone 8.00 by the time Carl took them all home.
I have just about recovered from my trip to Turkey, having returned on Sunday night, and now feel able to post some photos. It was very tiring. I went on a Comenius Contact Seminar and the British Council only told me I was going two weeks before, so it was all a bit of a mad rush to get ready. I'd originally applied to go on one in Bruges, Belgium, in November, so to find out I had to travel all the way to Turkey on my own was a bit of a shock! But I made it, and the photo above is the view from my hotel window.
The purpose of the Seminar was to meet people from other countries who you would like to partner up with for a Comenius Project, like the one we've just finished where I visited Turkey, Norway and Germany. There were lots of meeting and presentations but in between we were taken on sight-seeing tours. The Cappadocia region of Turkey has been known to double up as the Grand Canyon for Western movies.
This is me in the Goreme Open Air Museum. It's a place where early Christians lived, carving homes and churches into the sides of the cliffs.
And these are called Fairy Chimneys (or Fairy Chimeneys as our guide kept telling us). He did explain how they formed but I didn't really follow it. I remember he said the tops occassionally fall off and then new ones form. Strange.
This is my group, and a photo just to prove I actually did some work. From left to right they are from the following countries: Turkey, England (me), Spain, Latvia, Italy and Czech Republic. I haven't been back to work yet, but my boss informs me the women at work are disappointed that there are no men in our group! Oh Well!
