A fantastic Teaching Opportunity at the Lake School of English

I have just been contacted by Carmel Engin, one of the directors of The Lake School of English in Oxford. The school is looking for an EFL teacher to cover for maternity leave, starting in October 2009. It is my great pleasure to follow up this request to place the job advertisement on my blog and here it is below. Take note. It is a prestigious Oxford-based school, with excellent staff and wonderful teacher-support. I spent more than 20 very happy years there and you never know, I might see you, the successful applicant, in the future! Have a look at some of my previous Lake School postings on my blog sidebar and see what the school is like. Good luck!

The Lake School of English in Oxford is recruiting an enthusiastic English language teacher to start October 5th, 2009.

A lively, dynamic professional is required to join a friendly, experienced teaching team in a well-established school in the centre of Oxford.

The contract is fixed term (6 months' maternity cover), with a possiblity to extend.

Candidates must be graduates, DELTA qualified native speakers of English, with a minimum of 4 years' recent teaching experience, and available for interview in the UK.

The successful candidate will be expected to teach 21 contact hours per week and to attend occasional social activities and regular academic meetings.

The Lake School directors are committed to ensuring that teaching in our organisation is a positive, interesting and enjoyable experience, with opportunities for professional development. Visit our website to learn more about the range of courses we offer: www.englishinoxford.com

APPLICATION DETAILS:

Candidates should forward their CVs to the Director of Studies, Susan Barber, susanbarber@englishinoxford.com

Please note that only candidates suitable for interview will be contacted.

Making Hay while the Sun Shines!

Whilst out collecting old grass cuttings and hay around the garden I realised I was surrounded by a NATURE Idioms lesson on the make! So inspired by my wheelbarrow full of hay and out in the hot midday sun (yes, I know!! Before you say it, here it is-Only Mad dogs and Englishmen/ladies go out in the midday sun!), I began to muse about which idioms or similes I could use for this particular blog posting.

As Busy as a Bee
Photo above courtesy of KRB
Here is a very nice lesson from BBC Learning English on "BEE" idioms.

At the same time as trying to do my bit to control the jungle that is getting ever bigger by the day, I am in the middle of writing up feedback on my recent teaching experience in Oxford. I was truly "as busy as a bee" during those 4 weeks with work and family committments but I managed to "juggle a few frogs around". Talking about frogs, I spotted one this very morning in amongst my plant pots. It won't last long on this planet if Joey or Victoria get to see it!

Frog photo courtesy of KRB

Here are 3 "BIRD" idioms from BBC Learning English.




I have just found a fascinating article about Blue Tits embracing aromatherapy. Read more in BBC - Earth News. I love lavander and I would like to have a garden full of it (one day...)I also like the sound of apple mint...

A Great Site for Nature Idioms
Have a look at these 20 Idioms on Nature and then try out this fantastic Nature Idioms quiz from www.englishclub.com.

Here's another quiz on Gardening Idioms from the BBC Learning English Quizzes website.

Photo above taken from Barnet Bee Keepers

Have a BEE-utiful day!

Famous Last Words

It was indeed too good to be true. Having just hit the publish button on my "Animoto:Living the Dream" post the other day, I thought, "Oh dear! Have I tempted fate by posting something which seems so idylic?" Well, my dear readers, fate was definitely tempted by my words and slideshow and so it came to pass, that yesterday, K and I were towed home 20 kilometres by a huge emergency recovery truck courtesy of the Automobile Club of Italia - ACI.

As Happy as Larry?
The day started off ominously calm. Blue sky, beautiful sunshine, plants watered, veggies gathered, furkids well fed, compost checked. All systems go! Time to do a weekly shop at the local supermarket 20 kilometres away in Penne. We got into what is affectionately referred to as "The Tank" and off we set as happy as the proverbial Larry . (Thank you Michael Quinion for the meaning of this expression). Shopping duly acquired, loaded up and ready to go home, looking forward to a BBQ on the balcony......It was at this very timely point that FATE decided to pay me back for being rather cheeky the previous day.


Keep Calm and Carry On
The alarm on the car was going absolutely haywire. The annoying wailing sound was high and intermittent. By now crowds of shoppers were looking in our direction and K and I were beginning to get a little bit hot under the collar. I stress "a little bit". In such situations in Italy you would hear the common refrain "Mamma mia!!" meaning "Oh my goodness!" Instead K, in true British fashion, kept calm and carried on trying to work out why the control panel was saying the following: Gearbox: disabled, ABS: disabled, and a host of other ominous failings and dire warnings. With great understatement intended, the signs were not good.... To make matters worse, I had left my mobile at home and the battery on K's mobile was as flat as a pancake and so was as useful as a chocolate fireguard!! It was turning out to be a bad day in my so-called dream world....

Gabriele the Saviour
K remembered he had an ACI membership card for his motorbike and vaguely recollected that possibly our car could be covered by it. In desperation, we asked an employee of the supermarket for help and the polite and very helpful young man kindly phoned up the ACI centre with our details. Bingo! We were indeed covered and so we were informed that an ACI recovery lorry would come and pick us and our vehicle up in precisely half an hour at 16.18pm on the dot. I quipped to K. "We'll be here for hours, I bet!!" I was proved wrong. The huge truck turned up at exactly 16.18 on the dot and the very efficient and smiley representative Gabriele was the saviour of the day. He hoisted the tank up onto the truck and we jumped into the front seat, high up in the air and off we went! After gently driving along the stunning Abruzzo countryside for half an hour, we were duly delivered half way up the dirt track that is our road to home. It was physically impossible for the truck to go any further up our rather torturous and winding"road" without it in turn needing emergency recovery! Whilst there, the car miraculously started up. Maybe the small picture above of San Gabriele that I keep in my bag was indeed looking over us and helped us?

The Moral of the Story?
The theme of "Living the Dream" and its unexpected consequence yesterday, has inspired me today to take the opportunity to use a few idioms and similes in an appropriate context. There is always a story behind every event....

Animoto: Living the Dream

Animoto has to be one of my favourite e-tools. A slideshow can be easily and speedily created and it looks very effective. Looking through Richard Byrne's Free Technology for Teachers blog yesterday, I reviewed his posting on Animoto here and was inspired on the spot to create another slideshow based on images taken from my life in the wilds of Abruzzo.

The Homecoming
Being away from home for 50 days is quite a long time, I have to admit. I missed K, my furkids, my home and my daily routine. Come to think of it. What routine? Every day is a new challenge. Watching a forest sprouting before my very eyes, tending to mega tons of fresh homegrown veggies, checking the olive trees, making homemade tomato sauce, listening to the birds actually singing, sowing fresh lettuce seeds and seeing the first shoots after just a few days.... Life in the country is a far cry from my city girl days. I can honestly say, I have taken to it quite well. Ah. I mustn't forget. My online activities and my unquenchable quest for learning also play a pivotal role!

The Future
Who knows? I don't. It's going to be interesting to see what life has in store for me for the rest of 2009.

Mamma Mia!

Mia mamma, Anna Lucia Bianchini, has defied all the proverbial odds to survive her horrendous and life-threatening brain injury sustained in a bicycle accident on February 25th 2009. She is now back home after 154 long and worrying days. I was in England for 100 of those days to provide moral and physical support to my family. My mother was strong enough to pull through those critical weeks in the Intensive Care Unit at the JR Hospital, Oxford. We will be forever grateful to all the doctors and nurses there who helped my mother towards the next stage of her recovery. The care she received at Isis House was fantastic and the final stage of her rehabilitation at the Oxford Centre for Enablement was second to none.

The Healing Power of Time
With expert care and help, guidance and treatment over the 5 months, mia cara mamma seems to be nearly back to her old self. Of course, after serious brain injury, fatigue is a big problem and my mother now requires a lot of rest periods throughout the day. Pre-accident, rest was definitely not a word in her vocabulary! She was a whirlwind of activity, multi-tasking cheerfully and the centre of our universe. Memory loss is another big challenge. There are sections of my mother's life which have been literally wiped out. She has had to relearn how to walk, think, move, react and essentially "be". The healing power of time, however, knows no bounds and I hope that eventually, things will get easier. Like the picture of the bright moon taken by K from our balcony the other night, the usual cycle of life will carry on and my mother will shine ever brightly to illuminate our lives once more.


A Happy Birthday
In August, shortly after leaving the excellent OCE Rehabilitation Centre, we were able to celebrate my mother's birthday in style and the photo above shows my parents together at long last. It was indeed a special day for all of us.

A Formidable Abruzzese Woman
My mother is a worthy candidate of the strictly limited membership of the Formidable Abruzzese Women's Club. The Wordle below sums up the reason why.

A Huge Thank You
On behalf of my father and my sisters, I would like to say a very BIG thank you to all family members, friends, carers, hospital-support staff, colleagues and well-wishers who helped us throughout this difficult period of our lives. Without your moral support, kind wishes, thoughts and prayers and most of all, practical help, this story may not have had such a hope-inspiring conclusion. We appreciate your help enormously.

My mum on Sunday August 2nd in Marilena and Paul's beautiful garden in Oxford.