I've not posted anything for a while, mainly because I am so busy with school-based blogs right now.
However, here are a few pictures from the last month or so, including the most recent at the weekend, when Sandy had his 7th birthday party at the bowling alley in Eyemouth.
Only one short meeting to go, at 12.30pm today, when all the British folk meet to discuss the weekend and sum up.
Lat night we had a great dinner, which was 5 courses and went ton from 8pm until midnight! We were entertained by some Czech illusionists and circus performers, which added to the spectacle nicely.
It has been a great Conference, where I've met up with many folk from last year, and made many, many new contacts for eTwinning. It's a very big, happy family- I wish it could be this way at work in Scotland!!
Czech performers at dinner!
With Owain, Cecile, Pascal and John, who were all at Bucharest last year. It was nice to catch up with old pals again.
View of the crowd at dinner.
At the second workshop this afternoon.
Today is a very busy day! There were some introductions at 9am, followed by the results of a big survey that was carried out a few weeks ago, which I took part in, then it was on to the first of today's workshops. I went along to the Creativity workshop which was really interesting, as it gave me some good ideas for the future.
I'm off now to "Using eTwinning tools in a pedagogic way" which is then followed by a workshop for all the eTwinning Ambassadors. That one will finish at 6pm, and there will then be the chance to look around the various displays that each country has brought. I'll take some pictures and hopefully get them on at some point.
It's actually very difficult to find a Wi-Fi signal for free in the hotel. There is an option to buy internet time, but that's very expensive at about £12 for 24 hours, so I have managed to get a password from a guy from Poland, which gives me free access for a while today. If that runs out, I'll have to try to find another way of getting free access!
I'm staying here at the Clarion Congress hotel in Prague for the annual eTwinning Conference, which starts officially later this morning. There'll be nearly 500 teachers from all over Europe.
I'm writing this from Prague, catching up from last weekend when we spent a few days in the Lake District. It was really nice there, and we stayed in the same place that Anna and I stayed in seven years ago- the Derwentwater Hotel near to Keswick.
This was Sandy and Olivia outside the pencil museum in Keswick.
At Ashness Bridge, looking back to Derwent Water.
Close to Ashness Bridge is Surprise View.
Each Christmas and New Year, Edinburgh centre hosts a sort of carnival with fairground rides for children, and older children too. Today, we went along and although it was cold, we had a few shots on a number of the different rides and slides. There was a European Market, which included a Finnish stall!
By the Finnish stalls of the European Market.
By the entrance to the Winter Wonderland.
Sandy gets connected up to the giant trampoline!
Sandy on the giant trampoline. To be honest, he wasn't very sure about this!
Sandy and me at the bottom of the big slide!
Time for a German hot-dog.
As you can see from the photos and video, there is quite an attraction down at our harbour!
We went for a walk today down to the harbour. It was very cold! While we were there, one of the fishing boats that often lands fish and crabs was unloading some of its catch. Also there was the resident seal, that can often be seen swimming around the harbour. Today however, we saw it performing a trick! It took fish from one of the fishermen in the boat. Watch it on the video above. It was as good as being at the zoo!
I went along to Raceland today, where 30 of us from Dunbar were involved in a Grand Prix on the outside karting circuit. A great day was had by all, and I managed to come 2nd in the Grand Final, which pleased me very much!
Before the start, the competitors get themselves kitted out with race suits and helmets.
One of the races.
Another action shot.
And here are the top two at the end of the day- I came 2nd out of all the competitors!
This is a short video of the karting, taken during the practise session. The races themselves were a bit faster and harder!
On Christmas Eve, Anna cooked some delicious gingerbread cookies with Olivia, some of which were left out for Santa Claus to eat!
We spent the day, as usual, at my mum and dad's, where we enjoyed a wonderful meal, as always!
Sandy spent the morning building his latest lego creation- an X-Wing fighter from Star Wars.
My mum, with Anna.
This is us at Tyninghame, where we walked through the woods towards the beach, on a freezing cold, but very beautiful morning. You can see that Olivia and Sandy are well wrapped up against the biting cold!
Anna, down at the water's edge. Incredibly, there were dogs swimming in the sea, obviously not feeling the cold.
Olivia, eating a snack when we stopped for a rest. We shared pasties that Anna had cooked for us, which Olivia loved and Sandy didn't! I enjoyed the sausage ones particularly. We even fed some to a robin that came across to us and appeared very tame- it must have been very cold.
At the beach at Yellowcraig, on a very cold morning walk, with my mum, dad and brother Keith.
Bonfire night, and it's time for some sparklers, before we headed off to the fireworks.
Sandy and Olivia enjoy a wee break on our walk around Tyninghame woods this morning. It was really freezing- the temperature at this point was around -2C, so we enjoyed having some food to keep us fuelled up.
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