Christmas party at the Lake School of English, Oxford, via Skype to Abruzzo

Today I joined in the Christmas party that The Lake School of English, Oxford invited me to. It was an honour to attend from the wilds of Abruzzo and we were able to connect via Skype. I had the most fabulous time and it was wonderful to see and hear so many of my lovely colleagues and former students. I worked for the Lake School for over 20 years and it was a real wrench to leave them on June 12th this year when I moved to Italy to begin a new life. It was the hardest decision I have ever had to make in my professional life to leave such a wonderful, permanent job, especially right in the midst of the "credit crunch", but coming to Abruzzo was also a fantastic opportunity to experience something completely different and I have no regrets. I am "living the dream" and my life is indeed a total "open book" at the moment!!

Today was the second time I had linked up with the school via Skype. The first occasion was when I was invited to attend an Academic Meeting in November and that was a great technological success. I do so miss the buzz of being with such a fantastic, dynamic, creative and friendly, warm bunch of directors and teachers and they were the happiest teaching times of my life, but the door has been kindly left open for me to teach in the future and I have been booked to do a Teacher Refresher Course in July 2009 and that should be great fun. The school runs courses for Primary school teachers as well. I love doing Teacher Refresher courses as they certainly keep me on my toes!! (Can you spot me in the picture with some of the teachers in the Lake School Home page?) If you are interested in one of the Teacher Refresher courses in 2009, please hurry and book soon as these courses are highly popular. If you would like to ask me any questions regarding the courses, I would be more than happy to answer. Just leave a message in a posting and I will get back to you as soon as I can. I can guarantee that you will have the time of your life at the school. I certainly did!!

At some stage soon, I am going to write a post specially about my happy times at the Lake School of English, Oxford. So keep your eye open for more details and information regarding one of the most formative and inspiring teaching years of my whole career.

If any of the Lake School directors (Susan, Carmel, Lilly), teachers, staff and students are reading this, I'd like to say thank you so much for today and have a very happy Christmas!! See you in 2009.xxxx

NB I am wearing a hat from a traditional English "Christmas cracker" and I have some red "tinsel" draped around me. I really enjoyed singing traditional Christmas carols today such as "Silent Night", "The Twelve Days of Christmas" and of course, the ever popular "Jingle Bells".