Happy Christmas 2014!

Wishing you all a very Happy Christmas from Janet's Abruzzo Edublog.  I haven't blogged so much this year, but hope to be more pro-active in the New Year!

George Clooney Ties the Knot in Venice!

The wedding of 2014 sees George Clooney wed Amal  Alammudin in the most romantic of locations - Venice.  I fell in love with Venice years ago and for me it is my favourite place in the entire world, second to Barcelona!

Why the interest in George Clooney?  Well, he has a connection with Abruzzo!!  I went all the way to the fairy tale village of Castel del Monte a few years back, in the hope of meeting him in person!

Image of the village taken by K and then made into a tryptich for one of our walls below;

Sadly the planned meeting was not meant to be, but you can read all about him in these blog posts below:

George Clooney in Abruzzo!
George Clooney in Castel del Monte - Update
George Clooney - Who Else?

More in pictures and news of his BIG Day in the following papers:

The Guardian
The Independent
The Daily Mail

ACIM 2014 Meeting

ACIM 2014 - San Marino

This post is a bit different from my usual ones on my blog and it focuses on a very special trip I made last week.
K and I travelled to San Marino by motorbike to attend the 6th ACIM motorbike meeting.  

ACIM stands for Aprilia Caponord International Meeting. Aprilia Caponord motorbike owners and their friends came from all around Europe, including Holland, Macedonia, Slovenia, France, Switzerland, Greece, Germany, UK and a lot from Italy. 

You can get a taste of the great fun we had by viewing this fabulous Youtube video called ACIM VI San Marino 2014 posted by Canale di SBellu 96. I can be seen sitting at the table at section 1.15.  This was on the Saturday evening's BBQ and presentation of gifts.



It was the most wonderful holiday and we enjoyed ourselves very much, meeting new people and making new friends. The whole experience was efficiently organized, and a special thanks goes to Maurizio and his Aprilia Caponord team, who helped make it such a memorable occasion.

I managed to practise a little bit of French, German, Greek and of course Italian with some of the motorcyclists and passengers.  

In total, there were 42 bikes and 69 riders and pillion passengers, including myself, (in the blue jacket) seen below during one of the frequent stops on the road.

We travelled a total of 550 miles during the 3-day trip and we took in a lot of beautiful sights.  Being part of a group riding in convoy was lovely and wearing the specially designed souvenir t-shirt was a thrill.  The Grand Hotel Primavera where we stayed was superb. 

We visited many different sites and attractions including the Aviation Park Museum, just outside San Marino.  There was an excellent open air display of old aircraft from around the world.  

I spotted an East German flag on one of the planes....I would recognize this symbol anywhere, after having lived in East Germany in the early '80s. Here's a link to a guest post I wrote a few years ago about my Life Behind The Iron Curtain.

The highlight of the tour was this 1944 Dakota which had been owned by Clark Gable.  

 Marilyn Monroe had been a passenger on this plane, and as she is one of my favourite movie stars, I had to sit in one of the seats where she had probably sat!!

We travelled to San Leo a small hill top village with a beautiful and impressive cathedral.

We enjoyed a lovely BBQ meal on the Saturday evening and there was a raffle, and we won an extra t-shirt!  Below you can see me accepting the prize and saying thanks. I am proudly wearing the blue ACIM 2014 t-shirt.

The hotel was just outside San Marino and we explored this tiny republic state on the Sunday morning.  I managed to grab a photo of us setting off in convoy.

Our expert guide Francesco from San Marino, was very knowledgeable and spoke excellent English.  

We learned so many interesting facts from him about this unique principality, and about its successful way of self-government. 

The views from the top of San Marino were truly spectacular!

The San Marino guards in front of the National Palace:

This was a truly amazing trip and the lovely people we met made it even more memorable.  We would love to go on another ACIM trip next year and hopefully meet up with the same group of riders and catch up on their news.

Thanks so much to dear K for your brilliant motorbike riding skills.  We had a lot of fun, didn't we?

The Future Beckons for Wearable Technology

This post has been a long time coming....  I kind of lost track of time the past few months, and for some reason, I did not have much inspiration, pure and simple.  My days of being on a constant roll, of blog title headings popping up all over the place, seemed to be a thing of the past.....  until just now, I caught sight of this post via my daily scoopit feed, and it immediately grabbed my attention.  I knew I wanted to embed this infographic on my blog, something new and exciting and futursitic!   Thanks to Learning Bytes from The Consultants-E Scoop it, I was hooked into reading the infographic below from Elearning Infographics blog. In particular one innovation regarding wearable technology struck me more than anything, the word GoPro.


Find more education infographics on e-Learning Infographics
 
 K has been using his GoPro camera for a few months now.  It is mounted on his motorbike and it videos some of his trips.  He uses it to get feedback on how the motorbike handles over different terrains...It is an extremely useful piece of kit!

Some videos I have seen of what can be done with a GoPro are simply sensational, in particular this Around the World in 360 Degrees - 3 Year Epic Selfie video by Alex Chacon.  He filmed for 600 days around the world with a GoPro on a stick.  The possibilities for using this piece of wearable technology are endless!

Spring Blog Festival

 

I would like to highlight an upcoming online event next weekend which may be of interest to my readers, especially those of you who are bloggers, or are interested in becoming bloggers.  

Below is an extract from the introduction to the session information page, and a link to this exciting event:

'The Spring Blog Festival (SBF) is 3-day blog festival showcasing bloggers, their work, and valuable tips for blogging for reflective practice or with students. This event takes place online on WizIQ, on March 14-16, 2014.  Highlights include: Why blog?, background to blogging, famous bloggers, getting started, and best practices and challenges involved in blogging.

Organizers

The conference organizers are Dr. Nellie Deutsch, Sylvia Guinan, and Shelly Sanchez Terrell 

I am sure it is going to be a very educational and enlightening event!