The Call of the Wild - literally!

Snowbound in the valley
Well, my prophetic words yesterday in my guest blog spot have come true. I am now truly, deeply, experiencing "The Call of the Wild" in Abruzzo! I awoke this morning to a winter wonderland, our young olive trees bent double with the weight of the huge amount of snow, one of our pine trees almost wrenched from the ground and the sight of our 3 dogs gambolling around in the snow without a care in the world. How lovely thought I!

Troubleshooting
These lovely romantic and whimsical thoughts soon faded. Our car had a "malfunction" issue yesterday on the way back to our home and it managed to gallantly limp us back here. Today the air has been tinged a rather somewhat lilac colour as terminology such as these have peppered the "aria": alternator, rivets, gearbox, electronics , matrix switch, soldering iron, .........
The car is now sadly in bits in "la capanna" and K is doing his best to resolve the unfolding drama. His troubleshooting days with Diamond System USA might save us from a rather tricky dilemma. ie how to get out and about in this weather....without a car? Well, we will have to resort to walking in our wellies a good hour away to the nearest village or send out an SOS to the local farmers! Problemo solved. It will be character building. However, being without a car is not at all amusing in such weather and I will keep you posted...


GUEST BLOG SPOT - Free Technology for Teachers
I was quite nervous before hitting the "Publish" button yesterday. I had already seen the amazing content of the other guest bloggers preceding me and I suddenly realised with a slight chill in my heart that I was way out of my depth. The fact that Richard Byrne had enough confidence in me to risk inviting me onto his wonderful blog saved the day. I will always be grateful to him for believing in me.

What I learned from the other guests
I found out about PREZI from Recess Duty, much more information about using ANIMOTO, Glogster and Wordle from Amy Mayer, Classblogmeister from Mrs L's Rocketlaunchers, read about "Digital Safety" from Laura Costantini and just this very minute I have read about "Edmodo" from Colin Decker. It was truly enlightening to read new information on so many different topics relating to education and technology. I feel privileged to have been selected amongst such illustrious bloggers and educators.

A hive of activity
With the dulcit tones of intense drilling and soldering going on in the room next door, I am left to ponder on life in general. In front of me, I can see the snow falling softly and a wide expanse of countryside all covered in white. A world away from my comfortable existence in Oxford.....