tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-75247053790515642692023-11-16T20:28:20.604+13:00Not in 140Some things just can't be shared in 140 Characters....DJBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10174562448397117756noreply@blogger.comBlogger69125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7524705379051564269.post-53315418754978705462016-07-06T16:03:00.000+12:002016-07-06T16:04:22.768+12:00Full Circle<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWz6cWblYJcEU8N1n8tZdtP5piPIvobaWecT4zIMyo7_BDjz9UyLdJ1EBC86YBLziwOkAVVXVqSuu8v7dA_JgUoxedIU5pgk1EGqJvH-PfgLCBwzG5wFrd2cD8VYZckK5kau8pq_fz58I/s1600/IMG_5903.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWz6cWblYJcEU8N1n8tZdtP5piPIvobaWecT4zIMyo7_BDjz9UyLdJ1EBC86YBLziwOkAVVXVqSuu8v7dA_JgUoxedIU5pgk1EGqJvH-PfgLCBwzG5wFrd2cD8VYZckK5kau8pq_fz58I/s320/IMG_5903.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Rosario; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">July 6th and I am sitting in LAX (Los Angeles Airport) waiting for the flight home. The photo attached was taken in almost the same place on the way out, so I have come a full circle. No photo this time as I am on my own. Russell has stayed on with family in Cleveland and then will head to Boston to attend Harvard. I am eager to get home and join the family celebrations with the anticipated arrival of a new grandchild. I am marvelling at technology as I receive updates on the progress of our new grandchild into the world in real time, and remember back to delivering a child in Papua New Guinea and my mother only hearing about it when it was all over! It would have been two days between her hearing that we were going to the hospital and finally getting news of the child's safe arrival from us.</span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-11c1fd99-be5c-4bd2-e8e5-bc2f373068ee" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Rosario; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Looking back over our adventures as recorded in this blog I feel like I haven’t recorded the half of it and hope to go back and fill in a lot of gaps before we forget the details. Every day we appreciate how blessed we have been to have received this opportunity and are thankful to the people who have enabled us to go away for twelve weeks. Obviously the Woolf Fisher Foundation who gave us the impetus, but also our family, friends and colleagues (who are friends) have added to their loads to make this possible and we recognise this and are truly grateful.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Rosario; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We have learnt so much and have simply enjoyed being curious and going from experience to experience and soaking up ‘stuff’ and making connections. We have connected ideas and people, dredged up memories long forgotten and added new ones.</span></div>
<br /><span style="font-family: Rosario; font-size: 18.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This is not the last post, but there is a sense of rightness in noting that I was here on April 30th, looking forward to an amazing adventure, and here I am on July 6th having lived it and more.</span>DJBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10174562448397117756noreply@blogger.com1Los Angeles International Airport, 1 World Way, Los Angeles, CA 90045, USA33.9415889 -118.408529999999987.5351928999999984 -159.71712399999998 60.3479849 -77.099935999999985tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7524705379051564269.post-67263334715248817892016-07-06T13:30:00.000+12:002016-07-06T16:22:13.726+12:00Green Water<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZq69tvCcHgvDRuZ9p0lTQU6tRmrxpy1XdkegilBm53I3u3OhAhMOMPHtt-D_ERd_WjjGhqO_1t8dnCdXxRlNBnE68TZWXPC4fXbWrBmhCS8FHfwHNac1SwnsMwcMTk1Pfi8VgykMnBy4/s1600/IMG_7221.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="309" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZq69tvCcHgvDRuZ9p0lTQU6tRmrxpy1XdkegilBm53I3u3OhAhMOMPHtt-D_ERd_WjjGhqO_1t8dnCdXxRlNBnE68TZWXPC4fXbWrBmhCS8FHfwHNac1SwnsMwcMTk1Pfi8VgykMnBy4/s320/IMG_7221.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Rosario; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I had to laugh when I saw this sign in the shower at the airport in LAX. I am quite sceptical of the energy saving notices in commercial establishments when they relate to water. In this case it meant that the water pressure was so low it took three times as long to shower and wash the shampoo out of your hair so they would have been better providing normal pressure and getting you out of the shower faster.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxTInNZRtoHaKg-T392MSC4qK0s51fdcB1kvS91HWg73sTt2DbpGSSov2aZjydi_pi8k7DLrV31Y6uB_a421flLdItJJEoUbbOp6NulFn1CewGdSoj9F2fQJJh3BcvdUNQir8zwxwNaMk/s1600/Screen+Shot+2016-07-06+at+4.19.23+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="312" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxTInNZRtoHaKg-T392MSC4qK0s51fdcB1kvS91HWg73sTt2DbpGSSov2aZjydi_pi8k7DLrV31Y6uB_a421flLdItJJEoUbbOp6NulFn1CewGdSoj9F2fQJJh3BcvdUNQir8zwxwNaMk/s320/Screen+Shot+2016-07-06+at+4.19.23+PM.png" width="320" /></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Rosario; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Many of the places we have stayed have displayed a sign similar to this telling us that if we reuse our towel we will be saving the planet. I would be a lot more convinced if they also provided plugs in the sink. We have stayed in 20+ different accommodations in our travels and the ONLY places to consistently provide plugs in sinks were the homes of our families. In some places there was no plug in the kitchen sink, many either had no plug at all in the bathroom, or it leaked rapidly and was completely ineffectual.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Rosario; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In some places we had no option but to wash our clothes under running showers as they provided no washing facilities and no plugs in basins.</span></div>
<br /><span style="font-family: Rosario; font-size: 18.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I will believe these signs are more than money saving gestures for the hotels when they do their bit by providing well sealed plugs in the basins.</span>DJBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10174562448397117756noreply@blogger.com1Los Angeles International Airport, 1 World Way, Los Angeles, CA 90045, USA33.9415889 -118.408529999999987.5351949000000005 -159.71712399999998 60.3479829 -77.099935999999985tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7524705379051564269.post-85510065265461576132016-07-05T16:43:00.000+12:002016-07-10T18:04:39.085+12:00Travelling Companions<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwOr6NO5pzYIgCFegvp_OmZh02uJR3si_HdRG07gqz1yH7bZz7mpSrDLsth8BqN7cFBNgYMYJmBYtZ_MoBgigPFASrjXYkaB8HVlqyjSZMSWOEYmBJjiloZ1J7PpBFIvo01rcX-v2o1tk/s1600/Trakdot.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwOr6NO5pzYIgCFegvp_OmZh02uJR3si_HdRG07gqz1yH7bZz7mpSrDLsth8BqN7cFBNgYMYJmBYtZ_MoBgigPFASrjXYkaB8HVlqyjSZMSWOEYmBJjiloZ1J7PpBFIvo01rcX-v2o1tk/s320/Trakdot.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There is no doubt at all about who was the best travelling companion on this trip - especially now I am completing the journey on my own.</span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-11c1fd99-be81-fa87-1583-f52e41b8a5b4" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But there have been a couple of other items that must be mentioned. The first is my trusty </span><a href="https://www.trakdot.com/en" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Trakdot.</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> I bought this fabulous device back in 2013 after seeing it in a gadget magazine. I had had a bad experience losing my luggage in LAX and this wee device seemed like just what I needed. I have used it nearly every time I have flown since, from local trips in NZ to Asia to the UK, from Australia to Europe to the USA and it always delivers. When I land I get an SMS and an email from my suitcase telling me where it is in the world. And if I have my bluetooth on I usually get advance notice that my bag will be appearing on the luggage carousal any moment. It is wonderful. I did note on one flight this trip that TSA seem to have taken an interest in it. I had the notice inside my suitcase that TSA had been borrowing through it and my Trakdot had moved from the bottom of the case to sitting on the top. But nothing was said, so it must have been deemed kosher.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The notification emailed reads:</span></div>
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<i><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: rosario; line-height: 25.76px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Your Trakdot device: NamedXX is indicating its location is within the area of Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). If this is a final destination of a flight you are on, proceed to baggage claim to pick up your luggage. If you are at your final destination, but it is not the location of your Trakdot luggage, then proceed to your carrier's Baggage Claim Office and arrange for the luggage to be sent to you from Los Angeles International Airport (LAX).</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: rosario; line-height: 25.76px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Battery: Full.</span></i></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The other must have is the app </span><a href="https://www.tripit.com/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.6667px; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">TripIt Pro</span></a><span style="font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. All your travels in one place. You download the app on your phone and you sign up to create an account with them. The Pro Upgrade costs a fee that is well worth it. I had to allow access to my GMail, and then it takes every travel looking document and adds them to my TripIt account. From there it handles all my bookings like a travel agent sending me notices 24 hrs in advance that I need to check in, what Gates and terminals and even tracks my seats. It informs me of flight delays, Gate changes etc on the day right up to boarding. It provides maps and information about the arrival destination as part of the deal. My human travelling companion has come to accept that TripIt will always be the first to let us know of any travel changes. I have stood in an Air NZ terminal, with the AirNZ app on my phone, and TripIt has informed me of flight changes before AirNZ themselves do - every time. It is well worth the investment.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Notifications received like this:</span><br />
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<i><span style="font-family: rosario; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">TripIt Pro alert: Connection summary for DTW</span><span style="font-family: rosario; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">
</span><span style="font-family: rosario; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">DL 98 arrived at DTW and will disembark at terminal M, gate A3.</span><span style="font-family: rosario; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Your connection DL 5264 (DTW to CLE) is currently ON TIME departing from terminal M, gate A61, at 5:45pm EDT. You have 1h, 53m to make your connection.</span><span style="font-family: rosario; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">For help or changes, contact FLIGHT CENTRE BROKER JIM: 09 815 6675; Delta Air Lines: 1-800-221-1212</span><span style="font-family: rosario; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">View your trip to access the latest flight status information.</span><span style="font-family: rosario; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Happy travels,</span><span style="font-family: rosario; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The TripIt Pro team</span></i></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>DJBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10174562448397117756noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7524705379051564269.post-74893660770015047182016-06-26T17:00:00.001+12:002016-10-30T11:28:04.343+13:00Future Ready<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsecQ_aGLAeltFgyqAMI5oeme5C8r_5gIFz8VXUkVuni-LnuRZLtvrhtIzduDlooCNvwE25jTaZSJU4UuAc2QKp4RA5vJcy2AJaPDeSrflMDrfT6YjEQG9x3I-FZwVC7nGe1Gvpo-4E2A/s1600/ISTE+Group.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsecQ_aGLAeltFgyqAMI5oeme5C8r_5gIFz8VXUkVuni-LnuRZLtvrhtIzduDlooCNvwE25jTaZSJU4UuAc2QKp4RA5vJcy2AJaPDeSrflMDrfT6YjEQG9x3I-FZwVC7nGe1Gvpo-4E2A/s320/ISTE+Group.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The opening Keynote for ISTE 2016 Michio Kaku — futurist and theoretical physicist- connected with a train of thought that has been running as we have travelled around the world and connected with educators in many countries on the #BurtsLearn journey.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">First a little about the Keynote.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Michio Kaku was an entertaining and knowledgeable speaker who challenged every preconception any of us non-scientists may have had. He posed all kinds of challenging questions from a physicist’s perspective and had the engaging ability to laugh at himself and make the audience laugh. His topic was a futuristic one and he undertook a wide-ranging view of the world our young people will be living in when they are our age.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I am not going into detail here about his speech as the journalists from the ISTE team have done a wonderful job of recording his points and </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://www.iste.org/explore/articleDetail?articleid=764&category=ISTE-Connects-blog&article=Michio+Kaku%3a+Can+you+handle+the+future%3f" style="text-decoration: none;">they can be read </a>on the ISTE Blog</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It was his reflections on education that connected with me most directly as I was able to bring a modicum of intelligence to the content, whereas I simply had to take his word about the medical and technical insights he shared.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Before I comment on his predictions I will backtrack over some observations from the previous couple of months.</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Rosario; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In some of the places we visited and shared with educators they expressed surprise that our parent community in Manaiakalani subscribe to a pervasive 1:1 digital approach in our schools. We heard many stories of parents defining the number of hours, or in some case minutes, that young people were allowed to be on digital devices in school for various reasons cited by parents. One of the recurring themes was that digital devices isolate children and stop them being sociable.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We have heard around the world of the growth of compliances as allergies dictate the actions of schools and teachers. Approximately </span><a href="http://www.healthline.com/health/allergies/common-food-allergies#Overview1" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">1 in every 13 children</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> in the United States lives with food allergies. That’s roughly two in every classroom. </span><a href="http://www.foodallergy.org/facts-and-stats" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Eight foods </span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">account for 90 percent of all reactions: milk, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, soy, wheat, fish and shellfish. Even trace amounts of a food allergen can cause a reaction. Classes and schools are issuing stringent rules curtailing the eating behaviour of the 12 in every 13 children who do not have these allergies - and of course the teachers have to abide by these rules too. </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_allergens" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Then there are the non-food allergies</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, some of which are potentially fatal.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi3wGkbr6pwl_Fl9U8yP1J2URLSM6M23Do72RlkolkgZY8mhAOVCoFpivhamvOHcDMfcvKbZkvFp1NrShYKF38EH-9E6M0CFDNJ6p2hJKWdm6yUWVVeChC35w0I1C9yIttVryB0mAaY0k/s1600/Barrier+Free+Environment.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="57" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi3wGkbr6pwl_Fl9U8yP1J2URLSM6M23Do72RlkolkgZY8mhAOVCoFpivhamvOHcDMfcvKbZkvFp1NrShYKF38EH-9E6M0CFDNJ6p2hJKWdm6yUWVVeChC35w0I1C9yIttVryB0mAaY0k/s400/Barrier+Free+Environment.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We were quite taken aback at one District conference we attended to find a notice on our table requesting we refrain from wearing scented products eg perfume or aftershave, as it could produce a fatal reaction in those allergic to it. These environmental allerigies are being taken very seriously in Canada with schools having policies about this.</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Rosario; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We have also seen and heard a lot about the fear in schools of acts of random terror and violence on a large and fatal scale.</span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">These barrier and risk free environments being created in school systems may well a the pressure point that causes society to look closely at the industrial model of education, which is less than 200 years old, and question how much longer we can continue to bring children together for much of their waking day and contain them in social groups for the purpose of learning. Particularly when we consider that there are many more factors (take unacceptable behaviour as an example) that make parents concerned about the particular group of young people their own child is required to spend the day with.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It may well be that the parental concern about time on devices in point (1) above will be counterbalanced by the subsequent points. And they may conclude that the benefits of learning in a different physical environment being supported by technology delivering learning opportunities, outway the increasing risks when children who are strangers are brought together in one place.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It would be a shame if it was negative drivers that brought about the disruption to the status quo of ‘school looking like it was when I, the parent, went there’ that innovative teachers and school leaders have been modelling in increasing pockets of a number of countries around the world. But it is looking quite possible that it might be far more pragmatic factors than striving for innovative approaches to learning enabled by modern technology and creative minds that change the way we bring young people together in school buildings.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And so I return to our Keynote speaker. Professor Kaku introduced us to exciting technologies and innovations that will make learning even more delightful and engaging, and accessible to more people, perhaps everyone in the world. Where I was disappointed was that the examples of applying these futuristic innovations was in the context of a kind of school building/congregating system that is an extension of what we currently do. One of his examples was that when unable to attend school a child would be able to have their surrogate sit in their chair and absorb the learning. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It is understandable that with an audience of 15, 000+ educators he felt the need to assure us several times that we would not be losing our jobs and schools and kids will still need teachers. </span><span style="font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.6667px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">But I had been hoping for more. I had been hoping that he would have taken us beyond this industrial model to a time when our children will not be herded unilaterally into groups for hours for learning to occur.</span><br />
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<iframe width="320" height="266" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/K4HTnWDSHRY/0.jpg" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/K4HTnWDSHRY?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>
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<br />DJBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10174562448397117756noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7524705379051564269.post-17226273040750563792016-06-24T08:36:00.000+12:002016-06-26T01:24:13.294+12:00Happy Place<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5y8HGWn13qXtreWCEZAWrD_ceusUdLL8Ufezqe_sLyCX-pUJRqYQk2MCQdI9OZeXUTzL7c0ENW__21BmkZOUPpJ1_ZfsFX48ihVAnhS322AGSC5gxsPoTETHz6YrdvE8zpyQmw5fqh2A/s1600/Screen+Shot+2016-06-25+at+2.41.09+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" height="207" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5y8HGWn13qXtreWCEZAWrD_ceusUdLL8Ufezqe_sLyCX-pUJRqYQk2MCQdI9OZeXUTzL7c0ENW__21BmkZOUPpJ1_ZfsFX48ihVAnhS322AGSC5gxsPoTETHz6YrdvE8zpyQmw5fqh2A/s320/Screen+Shot+2016-06-25+at+2.41.09+AM.png" width="320" /></span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, USA</b></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">From our arrival at the small airport (Wellington size), to our stay in a condo, to the conference, to the time spent on the beach, to our departure through TSA we experienced unfailing friendliness, helpfulness and genuinely happy people.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We highly recommend <a href="https://www.google.com/maps/@33.6806026,-78.8740039,5359m/data=!3m1!1e3" target="_blank">this place as a travel destination</a>.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The beach itself is an endless stretch of white sand which is both long and wide, with choppy surf, and balmy tropical water temperature and atmosphere. An extensive stretch of sand pools form between the soft sand and the surf, creating warm pools for children and those who are content to wallow. And the concept of burn time which governs our lives on the beach in NZ doesn’t appear to feature as you don’t seem to burn! Lots of surf life saving teams on the beach as there was quite a strong drag in the surf while we were there, so only confident swimmers were out in it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We are blessed to live in a country with stunning beaches and to have sought out beach paradises in many parts of the world, including PNG. But the thing that struck us about Myrtle Beach was how happy everyone was. Groups of people enjoying themselves in all kinds of ways. There were those lined up under the obligatory hotel umbrellas with two loungers, but the majority of people had other ways of doing ‘holiday at the beach’. On my last walk along the beach I took my phone to try and capture some of it to preserve this feel good memory.</span><br />
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DJBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10174562448397117756noreply@blogger.com0Myrtle Beach, SC, USA33.6890603 -78.88669429999998833.4777438 -79.209417799999983 33.900376800000004 -78.563970799999993tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7524705379051564269.post-26492847249770231542016-06-22T08:36:00.000+12:002016-06-24T08:42:27.484+12:00Profile of the SC graduate<br />
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<img border="0" height="285" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0G6C1NMB3Rp8VBNLEw1xO3yjzW6Fkub6laJq0Es08Eu5wRlzH-BEhuzdg1xNfasPC5oIHYYKaKzbqCZKyOAc5poLNm9hF711v1H85MguGXk6lsCGUmPGG2Nq0FosNWYFZ0cT5xfHsDJM/s400/Screen+Shot+2016-06-24+at+7.53.10+AM.png" width="400" /></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: large; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Many schools in New Zealand have developed a ‘Profile of a Graduate’ from their schools and it is a huge task. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: large; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: large; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It was refreshing to be introduced to the<a href="http://ed.sc.gov/scdoe/assets/File/newsroom/Profile-of-the-South-Carolina-Graduate.pdf" target="_blank"> 'Profile of the South Carolina Graduate'</a>, as something which has been developed for the whole state.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.6667px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>The framework that supports the profile of the South Carolina graduate is vital to helping our state stay competitive in today's global economy as it addresses the need and solution for a sustainable, educated and qualified workforce. <a href="http://www.scchamber.net/workforce-education/profile-south-carolina-graduate" target="_blank">More here</a></i></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span id="docs-internal-guid-267db5aa-7eed-a8d2-2807-a5f5f65bd67b"><span style="font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It undoubtedly contributes significantly to coherence between schools and across the age levels of schooling.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">WORLD CLASS KNOWLEDGE</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 18.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Rigorous standards in language arts and math for career and college readiness</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 18.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Multiple languages, science, technology, engineering, mathematics (STEM), arts and social sciences</span></div>
</li>
</ul>
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<tr style="height: 32px;"><td colspan="3" style="background-color: #6d9eeb; border-bottom: solid #000000 1px; border-left: solid #000000 1px; border-right: solid #000000 1px; border-top: solid #000000 1px; padding: 7px 7px 7px 7px; vertical-align: top;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">WORLD CLASS SKILLS</span></div>
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<tr style="height: 32px;"><td colspan="3" style="border-bottom: solid #000000 1px; border-left: solid #000000 1px; border-right: solid #000000 1px; border-top: solid #000000 1px; padding: 7px 7px 7px 7px; vertical-align: top;"><ul style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Rosario; font-size: 18.6667px; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 18.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Creativity and innovation</span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Rosario; font-size: 18.6667px; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 18.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Critical thinking and problem solving</span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Rosario; font-size: 18.6667px; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 18.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Collaboration and teamwork</span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Rosario; font-size: 18.6667px; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 18.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Communication, information, media and technology</span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Rosario; font-size: 18.6667px; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 18.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Knowing how to learn</span></div>
</li>
</ul>
</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 32px;"><td colspan="3" style="background-color: #6d9eeb; border-bottom: solid #000000 1px; border-left: solid #000000 1px; border-right: solid #000000 1px; border-top: solid #000000 1px; padding: 7px 7px 7px 7px; vertical-align: top;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">LIFE AND CAREER CHARACTERISTICS</span></div>
</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 32px;"><td colspan="3" style="border-bottom: solid #000000 1px; border-left: solid #000000 1px; border-right: solid #000000 1px; border-top: solid #000000 1px; padding: 7px 7px 7px 7px; vertical-align: top;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Integrity. Self-direction. Global perspective. Perseverance. Work ethic. Interpersonal skills</span></div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<span id="docs-internal-guid-267db5aa-7eea-7347-17bd-9e43f691ee30">
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-267db5aa-7eea-7347-17bd-9e43f691ee30"><span id="docs-internal-guid-267db5aa-7ef8-396b-1ad4-60200901b10e"></span><br /></span>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span id="docs-internal-guid-267db5aa-7eea-7347-17bd-9e43f691ee30"><span id="docs-internal-guid-267db5aa-7ef8-396b-1ad4-60200901b10e"><span style="font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Does the benefit gained from the process of wrestling with the tough questions in our school community as we gain understanding and consensus around “What does a graduate from XYZ School look like?” outweigh the benefit of having a rigorously developed state profile?</span></span></span></div>
<span id="docs-internal-guid-267db5aa-7eea-7347-17bd-9e43f691ee30"><span id="docs-internal-guid-267db5aa-7ef8-396b-1ad4-60200901b10e">
<br /><span style="font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Undoubtedly the people who were present at the time when the school went through this process gain enormously and get a great return on their investment of time and creativity. But over time, as more new staff arrive and go through an </span><span style="font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.6667px; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">induction</span><span style="font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> process rather than a </span><span style="font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.6667px; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">development</span><span style="font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> process, you have to wonder if the benefit of contributing to a profile that has been widely adopted brings a greater long term sense of satisfaction.</span></span></span></div>
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DJBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10174562448397117756noreply@blogger.com0Myrtle Beach, SC, USA33.6890603 -78.88669429999998833.4777438 -79.209417799999983 33.900376800000004 -78.563970799999993tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7524705379051564269.post-88523753443592788622016-06-20T08:30:00.000+12:002016-06-24T14:51:28.052+12:00Leadership Keynote<span style="font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.6667px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">The <a href="http://www.scasa.org/content.asp?contentid=201" target="_blank">opening Keynote</a> for the SCASA conference was <a href="http://www.influenceleadership.com/" target="_blank">Chris Fuller</a> speaking on the Five levels of leadership. Chris works with The John Maxwell Company and is one of the world’s leading motivational speakers. He warned us at the outset that he speaks in Tweetable soundbites, and the next hour+ verified this.</span><br />
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I don’t have a hope here of reproducing his speech, despite two of us taking notes flat out. What did become apparent was that the essence of his message had been shared with us by our kaumatua, Ihaka Samuels before he passed away; “If you want to know whether you’re a leader, look behind you and see who is following. If no one is, then you’re not!” Ike had several ways of delivering this message, but you knew what he was referring to when he said, “Look over your shoulder!”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Chris Fuller quoted Margaret Thatcher in a similar vein, “Being a leader is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren't.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">His own way of stating this message was, “If I think I’m leading and they’re not following, then I’m just taking a walk!” adding the quip, “And I’ve walked for some power walkers in my time!”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Five Levels of Leadership he led us through:</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<h2 style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">1. Position -The Level of Rights</span></h2>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">People follow because they </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.6667px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>have to</i></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. You have Positional Leadership. You are the Boss. They don't have a choice. They </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.6667px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>have to</i></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> follow, whether they want your leadership or not.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Note: Your influence will not extend beyond the lines of your job description. The longer you stay here, the higher the turnover and the lower the morale</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<h2 style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">2. Permission - The Level of Relationships</span></h2>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">People follow because they want to follow YOU. They </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.6667px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>believe</i></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> in You. They </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.6667px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>trust</i></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> You</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">They Don't Have to, but they </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.6667px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>want</i></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> to follow You.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Note: People will follow you beyond your stated authority. This level allows work to be fun</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<h2 style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">3. Production - The Level of Results</span></h2>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">People follow because of what you have done for the organisation. Your accomplishments.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Note: This is where success is sensed by most people. They like you and what you are doing. Problems are fixed with very little effort because of momentum.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<h2 style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">4. People Development - The Level of Reproduction</span></h2>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">People follow because of what you have done for </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.6667px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>them</i></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. What's in it for </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.6667px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>them</i></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Note: This is where long-range growth occurs. Your commitment to developing leaders will ensure ongoing growth to the organisation and to people. Do whatever you can to achieve and stay on this level.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<h2 style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">5. Personhood - The Level of Respect</span></h2>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">People follow because of who you are and what you represent. Your </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.6667px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>Values.</i></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Note: This step is reserved for leaders who have spent years growing people and organisations.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Just a few make it to this level. Those who do are BIGGER THAN LIFE.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Some of his quotes captured throughout this keynote:</span></div>
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<table style="border-collapse: collapse; border: none; width: 624px;"><colgroup><col width="*"></col></colgroup><tbody>
<tr style="height: 0px;"><td style="background-color: #c9daf8; border-bottom: solid #ffffff 1px; border-left: solid #ffffff 1px; border-right: solid #ffffff 1px; border-top: solid #ffffff 1px; padding: 7px 7px 7px 7px; vertical-align: top;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Every leader gets the team they deserve, eventually</span></div>
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<tr style="height: 0px;"><td style="background-color: #ead1dc; border-bottom: solid #ffffff 1px; border-left: solid #ffffff 1px; border-right: solid #ffffff 1px; border-top: solid #ffffff 1px; padding: 7px 7px 7px 7px; vertical-align: top;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The law of the lid: Your leadership ability is the lid to your organisation</span></div>
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<tr style="height: 0px;"><td style="background-color: #cfe2f3; border-bottom: solid #ffffff 1px; border-left: solid #ffffff 1px; border-right: solid #ffffff 1px; border-top: solid #ffffff 1px; padding: 7px 7px 7px 7px; vertical-align: top;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">No one wants to be managed, Lead people, manage things</span></div>
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<tr style="height: 0px;"><td style="background-color: #ead1dc; border-bottom: solid #ffffff 1px; border-left: solid #ffffff 1px; border-right: solid #ffffff 1px; border-top: solid #ffffff 1px; padding: 7px 7px 7px 7px; vertical-align: top;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If you don’t have a SUCCESS-OR, then you’re a failure</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Start training your successor</span></div>
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<tr style="height: 0px;"><td style="background-color: #cfe2f3; border-bottom: solid #ffffff 1px; border-left: solid #ffffff 1px; border-right: solid #ffffff 1px; border-top: solid #ffffff 1px; padding: 7px 7px 7px 7px; vertical-align: top;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Every team has a Swing Dog - The one who impacts whether the leader’s vision is carried out or not</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">People join companies, people quit PEOPLE</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Teams need a dragon to slay or a princess to rescue</span></div>
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<tr style="height: 0px;"><td style="background-color: #ead1dc; border-bottom: solid #ffffff 1px; border-left: solid #ffffff 1px; border-right: solid #ffffff 1px; border-top: solid #ffffff 1px; padding: 7px 7px 7px 7px; vertical-align: top;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The elevation of the external keeps us from the squabbling of the internal</span></div>
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<tr style="height: 0px;"><td style="background-color: #cfe2f3; border-bottom: solid #ffffff 1px; border-left: solid #ffffff 1px; border-right: solid #ffffff 1px; border-top: solid #ffffff 1px; padding: 7px 7px 7px 7px; vertical-align: top;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Create a leadership team - if it’s lonely at the top something’s not right.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Only secure leaders empower others</span></div>
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<tr style="height: 0px;"><td style="background-color: #c9daf8; border-bottom: solid #ffffff 1px; border-left: solid #ffffff 1px; border-right: solid #ffffff 1px; border-top: solid #ffffff 1px; padding: 7px 7px 7px 7px; vertical-align: top;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ask the children of your employees whether they like it that Mum/Dad works for you.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If they reply “Oh, it’s a 3 wine night” you’ve got your answer.</span></div>
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<tr style="height: 0px;"><td style="background-color: #ead1dc; border-bottom: solid #ffffff 1px; border-left: solid #ffffff 1px; border-right: solid #ffffff 1px; border-top: solid #ffffff 1px; padding: 7px 7px 7px 7px; vertical-align: top;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If we're not getting better, people are getting bitter </span></div>
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<br />DJBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10174562448397117756noreply@blogger.com1Myrtle Beach, SC, USA33.6890603 -78.88669429999998833.4777438 -79.209417799999983 33.900376800000004 -78.563970799999993tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7524705379051564269.post-54564505895909012762016-06-19T04:22:00.000+12:002016-06-24T04:42:39.933+12:00Innovative Ideas Institute<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-TdSqeDEEWUOMQfgpISP-d74t1dITj9ihpq-JnGNGGbizw1NOkgCi2_1-LVbY1q99tar9Hi0DClnIZB2m5TLi6fdgacVDGByMziHjebkZKHK36rTJ3qRKsDTlIxCiF6Sxrkt7tNHjPOE/s1600/Take+the+Lead+Final.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-TdSqeDEEWUOMQfgpISP-d74t1dITj9ihpq-JnGNGGbizw1NOkgCi2_1-LVbY1q99tar9Hi0DClnIZB2m5TLi6fdgacVDGByMziHjebkZKHK36rTJ3qRKsDTlIxCiF6Sxrkt7tNHjPOE/s320/Take+the+Lead+Final.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioBqWAeuQ6PIwtLhAfcpbgXEHKDTxjawEOE8UM4Eezoc4mMDXnQiy8DVW5Nm8W4wd5UwqyT7kV4r47ocP60KQBw6l4IFEaMQQzEqV099VsnE39Jz4XwB9jHfz9iC55Mlsxe5nilm1MVWU/s1600/IMG_7027.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioBqWAeuQ6PIwtLhAfcpbgXEHKDTxjawEOE8UM4Eezoc4mMDXnQiy8DVW5Nm8W4wd5UwqyT7kV4r47ocP60KQBw6l4IFEaMQQzEqV099VsnE39Jz4XwB9jHfz9iC55Mlsxe5nilm1MVWU/s320/IMG_7027.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We were privileged to be invited to attend the annual conference of the <a href="http://www.scasa.org/innovativeideasinstitute" target="_blank">South Carolina Association of School Administrators</a>. The title of SCASA makes it clear who the intended audience is and the theme “Innovative Ideas Institute” makes the purpose clear. Innovative leadership was front of mind throughout the three days, and was unpacked through the keynotes, sessions, vendor exhibits and networking opportunities. And clearly anyone prepared to hold their conference practically on the sand of a stunning surf beach and rely on the delegates to show up to sessions has confidence in the coherence of the group around their vision.</span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-267db5aa-7e04-b13b-2060-5f14143a15fe" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We had no idea what to expect and discovered a group of warm and energetic educators at an event the size of ULearn in NZ - about 1500 attendees. The focus on innovative leadership was inspiring and I will post notes from some of the sessions I attended. We sat in on conversations at the state, district, and school levels and have lots to take home from their approach to teaching and learning as well as leadership.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLFKZkib-u57XJkBINPoBvGDFP_YT4oL1A53e2JtXQlC5WyaLSkZsnWt0HAKiDYd-UInWw2zzzOHr7t1Xw-w4p3_0b7dEj6DVG6MV4fkNORupvCmhSKkBMhDi4pzyH9XzaEKfWZDm47cM/s1600/IMG_7036.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLFKZkib-u57XJkBINPoBvGDFP_YT4oL1A53e2JtXQlC5WyaLSkZsnWt0HAKiDYd-UInWw2zzzOHr7t1Xw-w4p3_0b7dEj6DVG6MV4fkNORupvCmhSKkBMhDi4pzyH9XzaEKfWZDm47cM/s320/IMG_7036.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We knew these people were onto something, which is why we reached out to them in the first place! Back when we were first considering moving from our Ubuntu based ASUS netbooks to Google’s Chromebooks, it was </span><a href="https://www.richland2.org/Departments/communications/Pages/Announcements/DonnaTeuberreceivesthePowertothePeopleDigitalInnovationLearningAwards.aspx" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Donna Teuber,</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Director of Technology Integration and Innovation at Richland School District 2, who generously gave us her time and the District’s resources to share their journey with us. They were one year into the move to Chromebooks and had documented the successes and pitfalls and we learnt so much from that. Some of us still belong to their Chromebook Google Group where we get to see and learn from daily interactions from their extensive team about what is and isn’t working with their various tech solutions around GAFE and Chromebooks. These guys are dealing in numbers that sound more like our whole country than our cluster, so they really do have sample sizes to learn from.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It is resources like </span><a href="https://sites.google.com/a/richland2.org/1two1implementation/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">this 1:1 Implementation Site</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and the vision outlined, that demonstrate the power of the robust technology solutions we have learnt so much from:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>In Richland Two, students will work collaboratively in digital age learning environments on authentic problem and project-based activities which enhance creativity, critical thinking, communication, and problem solving. Through personalised, authentic and collaborative experiences, our students will develop the skills to prepare them for a future that we can only imagine.</i></span></blockquote>
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DJBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10174562448397117756noreply@blogger.com0Myrtle Beach, SC, USA33.6890603 -78.88669429999998833.4777438 -79.209417799999983 33.900376800000004 -78.563970799999993tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7524705379051564269.post-67113958219573098882016-06-17T03:38:00.000+12:002016-06-17T12:56:22.954+12:00Welcome to PortlandOur first impression of Portland, Maine as we flew in at 11pm was, “What a bunch of friendly and welcoming people live here”. Even on the (small) plane strangers were chatting across aisles and offering advice and help. When we landed and one bag didn’t arrive someone came up to us and asked if we had a luggage problem, showed us to the luggage counter and we were reunited with it immediately. Somehow travelled solo on an earlier flight and they had put it into storeage. So we were feeling very buoyant when we were able to get a cab quickly with only a short drive into town ahead.<br />
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We were half a block away from our Air BnB apartment and checking addresses when “Whack”! A car appeared out of nowhere, did a U-Turn in the middle of the street and accelerated straight into the passenger side of our car. We were both sitting in the back and I was on the passenger side. My head ricocheted off the door and cracked into RGB’s head. Our driver was pretty shaken but unharmed.<br />
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We pulled over and very quickly (under 10 minutes) had police, fire engines and ambulance on the spot. Most impressive and never experienced in NZ! Everyone was very kind and helpful to us, but other than feeling a bit sore we really couldn’t identify any injury to justify the ambulance. Those involved were dead keen to get us off to hospital for CAT scans etc but at 12.30 am we just wanted to go home and sleep it off! Fortunately one of the service men had spent time in Christchurch helping out during the earthquake, and recognised our stoic state as reflecting a national characteristic rather than a deep concussion and let us go home armed with directions on how to access the trauma unit at the hospital nearby if needed. He was also undoubtedly aware of our non-litigious society!<br />
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The car was pretty munted along the side, but in hind sight we are impressed by how well the Honda we were in stood up to the impact of a large Volvo ramming it. No glass broken to cause human damage and internally the car kept its shape.<br />
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This morning we have woken feeling very grateful to answered prayers for protection while we travel. We thought we had got through the worst of it when we returned the hire car in Sicily, but clearly we need to keep praying! We have a few aches and bruises and I've discovered that the side of my head that collided with RGB is more tender than the side that whacked the door. All our gear was undamaged and my MacBook Air which was against the car door on the floor in my backpack fired up fine this morning.<br />
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Keep praying for us people. And buy cars with those side door safety impact features if you can.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3HPCnnvy21gn8gKef73fSrHSoINvCxQ1dfPMuCJJyStr3ARb7TQZU9ljJFMjF9oNsGAmUIcjZFSKA6jyRrWmK2Yn3Bp2AeIpM1zYQaSXAULp61hrXeFU7BSMywlcOLqGuDtMOa-rAh3w/s1600/0.02.01.4f08755eee3561127680230ea2973fdf5b0f23e44c8910771ad2a99bd4f56b12_full.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3HPCnnvy21gn8gKef73fSrHSoINvCxQ1dfPMuCJJyStr3ARb7TQZU9ljJFMjF9oNsGAmUIcjZFSKA6jyRrWmK2Yn3Bp2AeIpM1zYQaSXAULp61hrXeFU7BSMywlcOLqGuDtMOa-rAh3w/s320/0.02.01.4f08755eee3561127680230ea2973fdf5b0f23e44c8910771ad2a99bd4f56b12_full.jpg" width="320" /></a>Photo is from our walk along the Portland waterfront this morning before heading out to work. Glorious sunshine to clear our heads and walk off the aches.<br />
<br />DJBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10174562448397117756noreply@blogger.com3Portland, ME, USA43.661471000000013 -70.255325943.477694000000014 -70.5780494 43.845248000000012 -69.932602400000007tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7524705379051564269.post-27043743570334357932016-06-13T08:30:00.000+12:002016-06-19T02:49:48.128+12:00Full Day Kindergarten<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhixjWl0I74r0J6Fsf6wEtEM7S17UeusDXe543b4gXatIRmZtvWPLVvdhi0w62ZRG-o-EjX0VBQkSHYxQGZJJ_KNjCYyc_u0hb8lAAQeYF2h53FXl6r-ujtE27wxvnsQiYKo0_Qrl9c4-w/s1600/Screen+Shot+2016-06-19+at+2.29.39+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" height="168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhixjWl0I74r0J6Fsf6wEtEM7S17UeusDXe543b4gXatIRmZtvWPLVvdhi0w62ZRG-o-EjX0VBQkSHYxQGZJJ_KNjCYyc_u0hb8lAAQeYF2h53FXl6r-ujtE27wxvnsQiYKo0_Qrl9c4-w/s640/Screen+Shot+2016-06-19+at+2.29.39+AM.png" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In Toronto, Ontario it was a pleasure to make daily visits to </span><a href="http://pos.hdsb.ca/" style="line-height: 1.38; text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.6667px; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Post's Corners Public School</span></a><span style="font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> in the Oakville neighbourhood. This is a learning environment with beautiful facilities, a calm atmosphere, clean and tidy property, and a place where mothers and fathers walk their children to school and linger for chats at the gate with the teachers and each other.</span></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2fG7vfiwFu2j9ZvWvEBBeBFr95xMYRyFeOOnzNxwuQbjEYx-47pNa5MPPULXcpOjp2pV1Wqy6KhwYNHtg42T4Yuaz60dZnhsvGs9a8zFwv16muESbtvQsRlx8VJ922yLitGXTsnG63Xk/s1600/Screen+Shot+2016-06-19+at+2.25.44+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" height="123" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2fG7vfiwFu2j9ZvWvEBBeBFr95xMYRyFeOOnzNxwuQbjEYx-47pNa5MPPULXcpOjp2pV1Wqy6KhwYNHtg42T4Yuaz60dZnhsvGs9a8zFwv16muESbtvQsRlx8VJ922yLitGXTsnG63Xk/s320/Screen+Shot+2016-06-19+at+2.25.44+AM.png" width="320" /></span></a><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We took particular note of the Junior school programme. The <a href="http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/kindergarten/" target="_blank">Full Day Kindergarten</a> for 4 and 5 year olds would be the envy of New Entrant teachers in NZ. The class size is 15 -25 learners and has TWO trained teachers; one a fully qualified ECE teacher and the other a fully qualified primary school teacher. (NB: less than 15 learners and the teacher ratio reduces to one teacher).</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Read what they have to say about it </span><a href="http://pcfdk.weebly.com/play-based-learning.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">on the class site</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> or a snippet below….</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Here’s what you can expect: </span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.6667px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">Enhanced learning during the school day </span></div>
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<li><span style="font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.6667px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">Teachers and early childhood educators will work together in the classroom to help young children learn and grow. This team approach will bring out the best in your child through activities and play, guided by a new full-day kindergarten curriculum. </span></li>
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<span style="font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.6667px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">A stronger foundation for learning </span><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.6667px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">Research shows that early learning has long-term benefits for a child’s academic and social skills. A full day of learning early in life can help improve your child’s reading, writing and math skills later on. It also makes the transition to Grade 1 easier – for you and your child. Good for kids, good for parents, good for Ontario </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.6667px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">Full-day kindergarten is an investment in our future. It’s part of the government’s plan to better prepare our kids by giving them the tools they need to succeed and build a stronger Ontario.</span></li>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/kindergarten/theresearchisin.html" target="_blank">Read the government research</a> published about Full Day Kindergartens.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My instinctive response was, “Imagine the progress we could make in our Manaiakalani schools if we were resourced like this!” And then remembered, well actually our MDTA classes do have two teachers and evidence to date has proven significant acceleration is possible.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">See </span><a href="http://mgeorgeinquiry.blogspot.co.nz/2014/11/what-great-graph.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.6667px; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Michelle</span></a><span style="font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and </span><a href="http://peskarenbelt.blogspot.com/2014/11/my-first-year-in-review.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.6667px; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Karen’s</span></a><span style="font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> posts from 2014 and </span><a href="http://stephmpeck.blogspot.co.nz/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.6667px; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Steph</span></a><span style="font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> from 2016 - all New Entrant teachers demonstrating the benefit of a powerful pedagogy and two teachers.</span><br />
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<a name='more'></a>While exploring this concept online, I discovered that our experience of a school in a high decile neighbourhood was <a href="http://torontolife.com/city/toronto-is-failing-me-my-kids-school-is-a-disgrace/" target="_blank">not necessarily the experience</a> of all learners in this city.DJBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10174562448397117756noreply@blogger.com0Toronto, ON, Canada43.653226 -79.38318429999998243.285985499999995 -80.028631299999986 44.0204665 -78.737737299999978tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7524705379051564269.post-65389547311947320922016-06-09T04:00:00.000+12:002016-06-18T04:03:28.888+12:00Local Produce<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPOsTsUff92VW7LG7xmpmMc-3QPzYcaZ0k1O0xCIpPz1UCItnXUxQ1ap9I_M09qtVV8bBA8Y0Tabr8aUF-WmqteZJ3ZbCKo-zMl_mYbFU-erYdb-v3LKR3Dr7f4zR_YGfjkxocKIW1-HY/s1600/IMG_6866.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPOsTsUff92VW7LG7xmpmMc-3QPzYcaZ0k1O0xCIpPz1UCItnXUxQ1ap9I_M09qtVV8bBA8Y0Tabr8aUF-WmqteZJ3ZbCKo-zMl_mYbFU-erYdb-v3LKR3Dr7f4zR_YGfjkxocKIW1-HY/s200/IMG_6866.jpg" width="200" /></span></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjl00UpLQvWObUZwWM7gzdQ-5dWRyihIKqY87OAiKtxSoH6v1ZXCLD25CGuMl4NYjEfcLESXZZzQjP_Jqs1jvhfsl2I4SiHBjgAnb1HSPxby4RVoQ8lbOL0emq4WnTZhKYIp94tHM3SLFs/s1600/IMG_6838.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjl00UpLQvWObUZwWM7gzdQ-5dWRyihIKqY87OAiKtxSoH6v1ZXCLD25CGuMl4NYjEfcLESXZZzQjP_Jqs1jvhfsl2I4SiHBjgAnb1HSPxby4RVoQ8lbOL0emq4WnTZhKYIp94tHM3SLFs/s200/IMG_6838.jpg" width="150" /></span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Rosario; font-size: 18.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We had been looking forward to the food Sicily is renowned for and it did not disappoint. We shopped at the local markets, supermarkets, gelato shops and bars (which are a very different place from a bar in NZ) and on the side of the road. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuaP37N-ejwj5HkPW17nrirNMGK9HpkDo-CrrrK0DPCcXa5d1RFPBYSv4h-Ow-qfrG39Qs_1-47ZFzSZ5um5Pl9qrqHs65dich8gHj8Dx8WM_htXUjlc5enixu8ULxCR7Q5XlFkgLVAu4/s1600/IMG_6849.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuaP37N-ejwj5HkPW17nrirNMGK9HpkDo-CrrrK0DPCcXa5d1RFPBYSv4h-Ow-qfrG39Qs_1-47ZFzSZ5um5Pl9qrqHs65dich8gHj8Dx8WM_htXUjlc5enixu8ULxCR7Q5XlFkgLVAu4/s200/IMG_6849.jpg" width="150" /></span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Rosario; font-size: 18.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The tomatoes are always amazing in Italy and the fruit was fabulous too.</span></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHULTzSFhNsndczEktASJHg6N1yilkUSukw0eHQC9wOEgUYjQ4-4XJQZRfo9HQsreZzv11khbHiGDaMBZuzKXm58ZrzhDoujA773OtvXUxRfEHtqdsht_o02Hgb2IaYasSVKagLkodjzA/s1600/IMG_6802.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHULTzSFhNsndczEktASJHg6N1yilkUSukw0eHQC9wOEgUYjQ4-4XJQZRfo9HQsreZzv11khbHiGDaMBZuzKXm58ZrzhDoujA773OtvXUxRfEHtqdsht_o02Hgb2IaYasSVKagLkodjzA/s200/IMG_6802.jpg" width="150" /></span></a><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Rosario; font-size: 18.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We provided amusement for the people at the supermarket with our shopping conversations involving a great deal of mime and some Google Translate. Twice I brought home meat to cook that we never did find out what it actually was - but it tasted great. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Rosario; font-size: 18.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Rosario; font-size: 18.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It was a bit tricky only having a frying pan and a gas ring, but we managed to create a camp oven out of it when needed.</span></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinCKea_FgkyrmAZbv1HaxNYIbC1oPPPLfibQJy1qpd0xn4yfGMHVhO8EIAP8HuD0HMONJbB83aYWYAvsQ7ODSOENTp0ptlgTZ5xobWVXOMe_ZpNRRdNVKQX2hKM5h_QZdjfMOEkPKCovY/s1600/Screen+Shot+2016-06-18+at+3.59.41+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" height="271" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinCKea_FgkyrmAZbv1HaxNYIbC1oPPPLfibQJy1qpd0xn4yfGMHVhO8EIAP8HuD0HMONJbB83aYWYAvsQ7ODSOENTp0ptlgTZ5xobWVXOMe_ZpNRRdNVKQX2hKM5h_QZdjfMOEkPKCovY/s400/Screen+Shot+2016-06-18+at+3.59.41+AM.png" width="400" /></span></a><br /><span style="font-family: Rosario; font-size: 18.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I do like the way meat, salami and cheese is presented when you buy it from the butcher or supermarket. It comes sliced to your requirements and neatly laid out in layers between sheets of grease proof paper then rolled and wrapped - see the photos on the right. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Rosario; font-size: 18.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It sure beats polystyrene.</span>DJBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10174562448397117756noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7524705379051564269.post-62173448970806988902016-06-08T04:17:00.000+12:002016-06-09T04:19:23.617+12:00Sheep<span id="docs-internal-guid-dd3e94af-30c8-e529-6cca-cbaec8fe4470"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3q1uoWZFPwAZnO36_lJ0tI2zVNJnQgEeDnKDuqg89NILLh3_UhiLK0aTPCwkVFqklaKxSmLLuvYj2p3j5WPgILzReUYQNWebRM-69CS1IPk09wV64-FNVAKwzAHcdGIo0viPy0sHYfJg/s1600/Page_4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3q1uoWZFPwAZnO36_lJ0tI2zVNJnQgEeDnKDuqg89NILLh3_UhiLK0aTPCwkVFqklaKxSmLLuvYj2p3j5WPgILzReUYQNWebRM-69CS1IPk09wV64-FNVAKwzAHcdGIo0viPy0sHYfJg/s320/Page_4.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Rosario; font-size: 18.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I have been intrigued by observing the sheep farming practices on the land by the sea surrounding our cottage. Whenever we went out walking we would hear the sheep before we saw them, as a couple were wearing large bells around their necks. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiN5jNXkm4k4NdiOJ99ZoKcnnmq4cb_3d2kbGMAlojhJiU7hHgkjd_Jrz7wKq4ZC-1O-3yys6df4MVOLn4pcxUJxwzwOXNE9r9l11ZrkrbFKehcLWQLSJdyAaVzfiSDtGA6lodbB7SSku0/s1600/Screen+Shot+2016-06-09+at+3.58.44+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiN5jNXkm4k4NdiOJ99ZoKcnnmq4cb_3d2kbGMAlojhJiU7hHgkjd_Jrz7wKq4ZC-1O-3yys6df4MVOLn4pcxUJxwzwOXNE9r9l11ZrkrbFKehcLWQLSJdyAaVzfiSDtGA6lodbB7SSku0/s200/Screen+Shot+2016-06-09+at+3.58.44+AM.png" width="113" /></a><span style="font-family: Rosario; font-size: 18.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px; line-height: 25.76px;">There were no fences that we could see so t</span>hey were always accompanied by their shepherd. He could take a while to locate if he was on his back under a bush.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Rosario; font-size: 18.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Two things stood out from a kiwi perspective; they were foraging for food in sparsely vegetated dry and dusty land, and they were carrying very heavy wool in a climate where we were glad to be wearing jandals and singlets.</span></div>
</span><span style="font-family: Rosario; font-size: 18.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Today they were moved up the hill near us and I was relieved to see that they were freshly shorn. Just in time for the heat of Summer.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQF_GJx-_AHQ_s-DZmYn9Zgpzu00TF1QEPiyz6QF051fwdGM8o8BfygAuDGPCg7C7qOyInW83goZWZo9WsrlRf4b9YOg1QscJwqksPmQa5DAec6ckZPjEinUIbz-KDNwYUNxcs6rByH5c/s1600/IMG_6924.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" height="299" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQF_GJx-_AHQ_s-DZmYn9Zgpzu00TF1QEPiyz6QF051fwdGM8o8BfygAuDGPCg7C7qOyInW83goZWZo9WsrlRf4b9YOg1QscJwqksPmQa5DAec6ckZPjEinUIbz-KDNwYUNxcs6rByH5c/s640/IMG_6924.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Rosario; font-size: 18.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>DJBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10174562448397117756noreply@blogger.com092016 Piana Grande AG, Italy37.4549807 13.22615819999998612.082048700000001 -28.082435800000013 62.8279127 54.534752199999986tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7524705379051564269.post-58709992826465877552016-06-07T05:03:00.000+12:002016-06-09T05:25:52.435+12:00Coastal Paradises<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Rosario; font-size: 18.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The stunning coastal beauty of this part of Sicily drew us here from when we first <a href="https://www.google.com/search?safe=active&biw=1440&bih=661&tbm=isch&q=piana+grande+Sicilia&spell=1&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiOoMmH9ZjNAhWK1BoKHU0qCNcQvwUIGygA" target="_blank">saw it on the internet</a>. The sea has lived up to the images we had seen and we have spent happy hours swimming, walking and chilling out at the beach. It is one of the earth’s very special places.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0AjM8FOv8_-qphHvrHvMPWlnbdCrP3mawZ56mtYwJJawk-TDHvkUwPfm5M_fQrhNCkSfpE_wcb-dc5cPkjSOkmQ8BYuYhT0aM8ZHMTun-g6YS5g6KDGHN-SlHwfc7NIzSDfnH0Hx5Nd8/s1600/Screen+Shot+2016-06-09+at+4.43.28+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" height="246" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0AjM8FOv8_-qphHvrHvMPWlnbdCrP3mawZ56mtYwJJawk-TDHvkUwPfm5M_fQrhNCkSfpE_wcb-dc5cPkjSOkmQ8BYuYhT0aM8ZHMTun-g6YS5g6KDGHN-SlHwfc7NIzSDfnH0Hx5Nd8/s640/Screen+Shot+2016-06-09+at+4.43.28+AM.png" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Rosario; font-size: 18.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">After marvelling at the scenery, pivot 180 degrees and this beauty is marred by a very thoughtless approach to rubbish disposal. We have met people who are very carefully recycling all their rubbish, but the extent of the problem here indicates that there are a significant number of people using the beach and the sea as a dump. And not just for household rubbish - building debris, tyres and engines all seem to end their life here.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEVIeeakIb4FDsX1GLrcYMBxnu_hDhWzX8jKFQYQwSz11PnJcbiFQx1BnI0YT5lVi_RfHXHsXH6_mXNNCME9L_7VyrX-DB4y8aqw-9vwkYg7PiXz_d7d7uOTLZZnojch6qlG7YiKKALdY/s1600/Page_5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" height="451" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEVIeeakIb4FDsX1GLrcYMBxnu_hDhWzX8jKFQYQwSz11PnJcbiFQx1BnI0YT5lVi_RfHXHsXH6_mXNNCME9L_7VyrX-DB4y8aqw-9vwkYg7PiXz_d7d7uOTLZZnojch6qlG7YiKKALdY/s640/Page_5.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Rosario; font-size: 18.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Rosario; font-size: 18.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sadly they are not alone in experiencing this problem. We have seen it in Papua New Guinea in idyllic Milne Bay, we have seen it Vietnam on Phú Quốc, an island paradise in the Gulf of Thailand. And our own Pt England coastline tempts thoughtless people to take the easy option with their household rubbish.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Rosario; font-size: 18.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In all of the places I have mentioned we notice that at beaches where local livelihood depends on visitors there is often a team who are up early in the morning ensuring the beaches present a pristine appearance when the visitors arrive. But it needs to be done daily because clearly there are more people messing up than cleaning up.</span></div>
<br /><span style="font-family: Rosario; font-size: 18.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We need to do much better right across the planet.</span>DJBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10174562448397117756noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7524705379051564269.post-68832887743605793222016-06-05T08:00:00.000+12:002016-06-24T07:17:45.092+12:00Letter to the Churches<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We are currently near one of the many places Paul stopped on his missionary journeys and see a lot of references to him around us. It has got us thinking about how churches communicate.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This Sunday we decided not to attend a church and instead had our own reflection, in English, at home. During our travels we have had some wonderful experiences which I have <a href="http://notin140.blogspot.it/search/label/Faith" target="_blank">documented here</a> and been very blessed by the services we have attended. But as we have travelled deeper into Europe and have become increasingly challenged by the languages the services we attended have been held in, the more we have understood the barriers churches unwittingly erect for people who do not speak the language.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK5ETW08Fn1FS27I7rZKOL9opF7iMirHbakzO1wjsF3hwQJo8sg7sN-NsZ9i1Pwmn3eIdIckZu1ISZe7RWXNxUGdHD70S2JxZV8x5oCytcCgER9KALjqT-QFmYyGx-JfUmBiS3nRqXRIQ/s1600/IMG_6038.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK5ETW08Fn1FS27I7rZKOL9opF7iMirHbakzO1wjsF3hwQJo8sg7sN-NsZ9i1Pwmn3eIdIckZu1ISZe7RWXNxUGdHD70S2JxZV8x5oCytcCgER9KALjqT-QFmYyGx-JfUmBiS3nRqXRIQ/s320/IMG_6038.jpg" width="215" /></a></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In all churches the bonus we have is knowing the back story in our own language, so hopefully can provide a little bit of context from prior knowledge. In Catholic churches where Mass follows a similar format there is a sense of familiarity which in some ways is a blessing, but can also increase the frustration by not being able to fill in the gaps in between - achingly close to understanding, but not!</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It has made us think about what we should be providing in our own multi cultural church, where one thing we have in common - other than our faith - is that we all have different languages as our mother tongue.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The first and most important gift to us in our travels has been someone welcoming us with a smile. That has not always been our experience, particularly in a couple of cases where we were a few minutes late due to the time our boat docked. What a difference it makes to be made welcome and shown a vacant seat.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Every cathedral or church we attended had super modern sound systems so that the pastor or priest was wearing a microphone and discreet speaker systems meant they could be clearly heard. Well and good, but no good if you can’t connect in anyway with the language spoken.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgw_pIhM_e_mEqWkOYSO9FdjiJgW-iF07sTvOIE91sVT25hwOgCSdLsfTqVuNIU1UrA1YJkUL0Ki_CP0VC342OVNUsxmG4H2EomxPPDFYZmF5yhZk8HP6OLE62QLC_ACV0JDbu1nrueid0/s1600/IMG_6034.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgw_pIhM_e_mEqWkOYSO9FdjiJgW-iF07sTvOIE91sVT25hwOgCSdLsfTqVuNIU1UrA1YJkUL0Ki_CP0VC342OVNUsxmG4H2EomxPPDFYZmF5yhZk8HP6OLE62QLC_ACV0JDbu1nrueid0/s320/IMG_6034.jpg" width="239" /></a></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We have come to appreciate print material. Even in languages using a different alphabet, if we were given some kind of programme of print material we could either look it up on our phone or decode where in the Bible we should be looking and work it out. We were grateful that some ancient cathedrals (ie more than a thousand years old) had electronic signage on the walls with the Hymn number and Bible reading displayed. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">However, as I have commented before - a cathedral comes alive when it is being used for the intended purpose and attending a service is the ONLY way to fully experience a visit to a cathedral or church. On every occasion we have been uplifted and blessed by the powerful music led by organs and choirs. And it is still amazing that no matter how wide the language differences, if you know the story being told the cadence and passion of the speaker has the power to bring the message to life.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We have some takeaways for our return home - to a place where we have wifi, data projectors, screens, sound systems and multimedia:</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A warm welcome from fellow human beings on arrival is super important.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The spoken word is usually too rapid to translate on the fly and make sense of, unless you could afford United Nations style translation kits for everyone!</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Written text is essential. Having the important points in text makes a world of difference. In most cases in NZ this would at the least mean ensuring important text is displayed on screens. This gives people time to try to decode and even to look up in their first language. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It would be nice to be able to provide the most important points in multiple languages, but this is not always possible. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Visual images are very important. They (should) make the message accessible.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We could be using QR codes, apps and all kinds of digital tools to make the services more accessible.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Having ‘No Phones’ signs up around the church is a barrier. We presume they probably mean, ‘silence your phone’ or ‘don’t talk on the phone’. But our phones with translation apps and tools became our communication line and enabled us to participate in the service, not check our FaceBook!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We look forward next Sunday in Toronto to translating a Canadian-Kiwi accent and hopefully a much fuller participation in the service.</span>DJBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10174562448397117756noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7524705379051564269.post-6510485837396165932016-06-03T00:23:00.001+12:002016-06-03T06:08:11.985+12:00Sicily: Four Rs<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 18.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">What have you been up to? Where have you been? What are you doing there? </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 18.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">These are the questions we have been getting from friends, family and followers. Even mine host here is a tad anxious about whether we are having a good time! </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 18.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Answers: Nothing. No Where. The Four Rs - Resting, Reading, (w)Riting, Reflecting</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 18.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And it’s good!</span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnURcJ7UHjVznuMP0R7SkI_GYLdY_RGj2OZr4-9SUY3jWdR83F0-W1kH8GMvW4ALWCBjiBNs3EAH3Di00oQUleddwMgiLr98UicVPBnaARLCBIGJeVwB-J18O8jS5vS_nE7sxvpE2Du78/s1600/Screen+Shot+2016-06-02+at+10.23.36+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="244" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnURcJ7UHjVznuMP0R7SkI_GYLdY_RGj2OZr4-9SUY3jWdR83F0-W1kH8GMvW4ALWCBjiBNs3EAH3Di00oQUleddwMgiLr98UicVPBnaARLCBIGJeVwB-J18O8jS5vS_nE7sxvpE2Du78/s640/Screen+Shot+2016-06-02+at+10.23.36+PM.png" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">View from the rooftop of our apartment this morning</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: 18.6667px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">After entertaining folk with tales from our first five action packed weeks, and endless reports of the ABCs </span></span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">ABCs in the education sense = lots of school visits</span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">ABCs in the tourist sense = Another Blimmin Church/Castle/Cathedral/Crypt! </span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-size: 18.6667px; line-height: 25.76px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">we are sensing concern that we may be bored! </span></span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 18.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Our travel plan always was to pack experiences and learning into every available moment for the first five weeks and then to come to a complete stop and reflect on what we have seen and done. We have a backlog of ‘stuff’ that we have not found time to write about over the last few months/years and we planned to create space to do this. This of course includes our current travels.</span></span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 18.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We asked a number of people for recommendations about a place in Europe that would be good for this. Our requirements were: internet, sun, sea, peace and quiet, access to food somewhere reasonably handy - and cheap!</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 18.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We had a number of suggestions but the standout was from Brian and Jean Annan who advocated for Sicily. I went online and entered our dates and stipulations into Trip Advisor and we ended up in Piana Grande, Riberia.</span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcPe-EBkHble_-ZLj-bMSacok4-vvgCCp5KoAhrt1e-35Oo2Ckp2c3XZf9ZPFqdGK51e4qzvF8rylC75AiKi5E8VJgBUy3fVSIyZXaNo_t36PhMknSVBJcDnF0G037WZ_WlQ1YmOz7iPE/s320/IMG_6852.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="320" /></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Corner of our apartment looking across the bay</span></td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcPe-EBkHble_-ZLj-bMSacok4-vvgCCp5KoAhrt1e-35Oo2Ckp2c3XZf9ZPFqdGK51e4qzvF8rylC75AiKi5E8VJgBUy3fVSIyZXaNo_t36PhMknSVBJcDnF0G037WZ_WlQ1YmOz7iPE/s1600/IMG_6852.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 18.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There are no ABCs of any sort nearby, we are in an apartment on a 3 hectare section by the Mediterranean - 5km beach walk at the bottom of the cliff. Our landlord lives below us and presses tourist itineraries upon us. There is an agriculture service town 6km away, which is nothing like any town people from NZ </span><span style="font-size: 18.6667px; line-height: 25.76px; white-space: pre-wrap;">imagine </span><span style="font-size: 18.6667px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">when thinking about Italy - more like an agriculture service town in the Far North of NZ</span><span style="font-size: 18.6667px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiqGPfLMWzH4BhEbnHq2Sco7f07ygBsTuo7TIM8EMSfKALThBBj7M0V20g5pnZ5TyKbF4-zvUdhrZNAaX_4BZVe7maRlccFQuuoXIZGQvM5lV9hxxZD-zqOwFmBYzy-ypaVov3-j2plZY/s320/20160531_055602.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="320" /></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">On the roof top</span></td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 18.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 18.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We drive into town to buy fresh produce, olives, bread and meat etc and bring it home to cook. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 18.6667px; line-height: 25.76px; white-space: pre-wrap;">The internet comes and goes, but we have great 4G cell reception to tether our phones when needed. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 18.6667px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">We do the things we came here to do. And we are very content, for these two weeks. It really does remind us of a holiday our family had in Henderson Bay in the Far North - minus the boat! </span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">At the far end of the beach below our place</span></td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcoCQNdzz9DHztjGK-cn1lraII2qnZpELQWTJsZbVMNLu22ITwD5N0LB8IHEHfcr3c9pEcj2Kx-C-5_jzG7HpanKWoVKrAsw-hkakvyvPzMD4Jo-9v6lbqfeUzlf8YVlqkuew1vQ2qBXo/s1600/IMG_6784.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span></a><span style="font-size: 18.6667px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br />Pretty much a kiwi camping holiday - just under a roof and with internet.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 18.6667px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If you ask us if we have done this, that or the other that people come to Sicily to see and do, the chances are quite high that the answer will be 'No'. I think you've got the picture here (literally) of what we're doing!</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 18.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">And the super observant will notice that the number of blog posts are multiplying every day, just not appearing at the top of the list as I am back dating them to match the timeline of when they occurred.</span></div>
DJBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10174562448397117756noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7524705379051564269.post-37183494767927869172016-06-02T21:00:00.000+12:002016-06-09T06:25:07.881+12:00Pizza and Cozze<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBgELbOym5NoiDKQ4HvSzOrKEsDISVAFwEuzKC0ssq9AYUUCEajljTDQVIFReNGfe6hEo9DXKHfez__DdPm-6vF8bRHT9RKppiy7C2-1xTsDuHGuupim0kxDqzdJTLRHVEdREJ7Ww9g1I/s1600/IMG_6855.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBgELbOym5NoiDKQ4HvSzOrKEsDISVAFwEuzKC0ssq9AYUUCEajljTDQVIFReNGfe6hEo9DXKHfez__DdPm-6vF8bRHT9RKppiy7C2-1xTsDuHGuupim0kxDqzdJTLRHVEdREJ7Ww9g1I/s200/IMG_6855.jpg" width="150" /></span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We discovered a delightful pizza place</span><span style="font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.6667px; line-height: 25.76px; white-space: pre-wrap;"> five minutes walk up the road from our home </span><span style="font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.6667px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">that reminded us of </span><a href="http://manaiakalani.blogspot.it/2011/01/food-technology.html" style="font-family: Rosario; font-size: 18.6667px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;" target="_blank">Luke’s Kitchen</a><span style="font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.6667px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;"> in Kuaotunu. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Quelli di Piana Grande Pizzeria is a family run business tucked away off the road and difficult for foreigners to find. It opens about 8.30pm in the evening and sells great pizza and cozze (mussels) and seafood antipasto.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCwXNKH_JpAH-KBW5-ctt6xY5YZFB_GDcc62CwZ-rHg9er0u3d5Vv_de0tAzWAmR81vCa9p7B1AsjnlEXgyEWoZyLPCcLEvCC5OzcrK7QFLtbCC4oZ40Dvznk8UF6QAZ33cukNwkKZB0s/s1600/Screen+Shot+2016-06-09+at+6.09.24+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" height="153" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCwXNKH_JpAH-KBW5-ctt6xY5YZFB_GDcc62CwZ-rHg9er0u3d5Vv_de0tAzWAmR81vCa9p7B1AsjnlEXgyEWoZyLPCcLEvCC5OzcrK7QFLtbCC4oZ40Dvznk8UF6QAZ33cukNwkKZB0s/s400/Screen+Shot+2016-06-09+at+6.09.24+AM.png" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Each time we went we were the only non-Italians there and the owner’s sister came out to take our orders as the designated English speaker.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We realised here that the greatest compliment we could pay an eatery was to </span><span style="font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.6667px; line-height: 25.76px; white-space: pre-wrap;">forgot to take a photo </span><span style="font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.6667px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">because we were so enjoying the food! Hence the photos here of empty plates.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8mfUNT0oGoJR10Q7q1kNFHBhJLbgAf-uoE5ol2yZPZG472-BXrf70NGSA6avwePQBzs6Ug28zQqSIrzgz_-ru9mt7-ukeQMQjVHY-0x_IiB1qDZDW-4f-2eVjMUXhPx_hDYUdJkhHE_U/s1600/IMG_6870.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" height="210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8mfUNT0oGoJR10Q7q1kNFHBhJLbgAf-uoE5ol2yZPZG472-BXrf70NGSA6avwePQBzs6Ug28zQqSIrzgz_-ru9mt7-ukeQMQjVHY-0x_IiB1qDZDW-4f-2eVjMUXhPx_hDYUdJkhHE_U/s320/IMG_6870.jpg" width="280" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">We enjoyed seeing lots of families and groups of friends enjoying each others company and eating together. Even on school nights young children were part of the occasion and began their evening meals after 9pm.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">It was here we bought a bottle of Arancello, a twist on the classic limoncillo and made from blood red Sicillian oranges.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">This video shares a glimpse of the convivial atmosphere of the place.</span></div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dxuK9B5LhZfBW9O5GV0Z8Ak10OeeQPCExv_jXWoiWkUWnarQlvGRuhpiCfVqMa2WQdMXhnF69fE3A3V-LZEPQ' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
<span style="font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>DJBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10174562448397117756noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7524705379051564269.post-56145072161362898592016-06-01T14:00:00.000+12:002016-06-02T07:42:43.067+12:00Wedding in Agrigento<b id="docs-internal-guid-dd3e94af-0d5c-a665-4902-e875a54cf4a0" style="clear: left; float: left; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /><img height="265" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/7D04wk50g8ouxPtsTDfVg71WhgcoNgHSebde8we3IoLe_XOxzsNLK5DRd0ctkVFJ7SacgTpYdSvBPCVcuYTD58Ha1bKcBd45cvTxQiPAoAvq4ZzVAopO0NWnYbhfWv2Jlh481GDY" style="border: none; transform: rotate(0rad);" width="239" /></b><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Rosario; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">During lunch today at </span><a href="https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g194662-d1806361-Reviews-Il_Vicolo-Agrigento_Province_of_Agrigento_Sicily.html#review_289545696" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Rosario; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Trattoria Il Vicolo </span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Rosario; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">in Agrigento we were intrigued to have a bride and groom walk up the steep stairs past us - bride in a gorgeous Italian gown and groom in glamourous military uniform - followed by a crowd of paparazzi. We had no idea if this was normal for an Italian wedding, or if we were in the midst of celebrities, and had no way of finding out with our limited Italian.</span></div>
<b style="clear: right; float: right; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br /><img height="249" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/6JuCFWsmZrB30TiQ2evQSA9ALg8eXglUOaVp8EOIJ0YbbOmJ2BaR7ZDJiiiaF8A9-baHWPjXf_Gu3Nk44YjmXw8FoEP9RbSZL98sP6LVmmf79UhYcUMsGgRNf5SlZefxYtqii1IV" style="border: none; transform: rotate(0rad);" width="224" /></b><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Rosario; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">They waved and smiled at us and the owners responded affirmatively to my gestures that I would like to go and join the paparazzi, so I took some pics, including the one here that deliberately includes some of the photographers.</span></div>
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<b style="clear: left; float: left; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihTe1T1oFqInXcXy0xjlZH-JMCsbHiNKqDsLYLTLk9-HeWV6IufYLvBBwcbubbAMUOXEt0fqwoJTWf-nVYcPDCISSmS0ZOIqq4aaQYjBeWPahGaVISXovOFQI3zDzu7IO0QxJZtNssBIM/s1600/IMG_6811.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="115" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihTe1T1oFqInXcXy0xjlZH-JMCsbHiNKqDsLYLTLk9-HeWV6IufYLvBBwcbubbAMUOXEt0fqwoJTWf-nVYcPDCISSmS0ZOIqq4aaQYjBeWPahGaVISXovOFQI3zDzu7IO0QxJZtNssBIM/s200/IMG_6811.jpg" width="200" /></a></b><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Rosario; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Nice memory and we went on our way after a great lunch. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Rosario; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjT_tLBQCTEPk91XpJlOrUj4FnQuG_fzmq8C-JwOXue6gRQeji7ZrIIAWoiuYEI5BSP_ifkBi_7hBx6Ov4AkBEowcyV2j31CDH9aR1q2DHawq0FZB_92twG7Z2El3J77Q91MFlZCah-frY/s1600/IMG_6836.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjT_tLBQCTEPk91XpJlOrUj4FnQuG_fzmq8C-JwOXue6gRQeji7ZrIIAWoiuYEI5BSP_ifkBi_7hBx6Ov4AkBEowcyV2j31CDH9aR1q2DHawq0FZB_92twG7Z2El3J77Q91MFlZCah-frY/s200/IMG_6836.jpg" width="200" /></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Rosario; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When we returned to the carpark - deserving another story and salute to Russell safely negotiating crazy building - I noticed the church next door was now covered in flowers and had a huge florist van outside. It looked like preparation for a wedding, so, after checking with the custodian, we headed on in.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Rosario; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The flowers were stunning and reminded us of the work done by our friend Nat, of </span><a href="http://www.floramayflowers.com/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Rosario; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Flora May floral design</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Rosario; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> in Auckland. We could not believe how many flowers were festooned around the church. So lots of photos were taken. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Rosario; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Rosario; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We scuttled off as soon as we heard the first guests approaching.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyw3aUqLPNIE7TyExnaxNzlHIFfmEIfjcEkvAIcAF4soQ26B2Ry7fyyhxYVgS7JOUV436jM9DEAsWIi2ZSeCZTbX7f3OcDvnrC5LTT3bVfEFOc1HlpcHvnpvG9nZgaulZoZWXEyKNbZYw/s1600/Page_1.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="451" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyw3aUqLPNIE7TyExnaxNzlHIFfmEIfjcEkvAIcAF4soQ26B2Ry7fyyhxYVgS7JOUV436jM9DEAsWIi2ZSeCZTbX7f3OcDvnrC5LTT3bVfEFOc1HlpcHvnpvG9nZgaulZoZWXEyKNbZYw/s640/Page_1.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2bhEFscC74eehCyCDlBRiaB2kL7-1rOuD8W-pqbTNihmv7cC7ls3W-KYB_iFS8TYQQKAGi3LbdBGA6yXMn06KrtJRSlwI7jhSm_iCAgL27qmGXY28d4Ar7x89uXCkwBX2dhc8VspF8dU/s1600/Page_2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="451" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2bhEFscC74eehCyCDlBRiaB2kL7-1rOuD8W-pqbTNihmv7cC7ls3W-KYB_iFS8TYQQKAGi3LbdBGA6yXMn06KrtJRSlwI7jhSm_iCAgL27qmGXY28d4Ar7x89uXCkwBX2dhc8VspF8dU/s640/Page_2.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Add caption</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhed6wLpp7ss27jJn6JhjOZ44fOxi9E16quitKYruL9JKt1FqKpUN1cCXTOOLh_eEwZtCj7vZIciVt3PwQrmbjqFDu0W2fmytSKbjhAl_F6nluR2oCTCdkcvdxkVoEWH_tljIDFOdWCbs8/s1600/IMG_6818.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhed6wLpp7ss27jJn6JhjOZ44fOxi9E16quitKYruL9JKt1FqKpUN1cCXTOOLh_eEwZtCj7vZIciVt3PwQrmbjqFDu0W2fmytSKbjhAl_F6nluR2oCTCdkcvdxkVoEWH_tljIDFOdWCbs8/s640/IMG_6818.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Note the little containers for rice/confetti</td></tr>
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DJBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10174562448397117756noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7524705379051564269.post-29676756534319907162016-06-01T04:30:00.000+12:002016-06-02T19:39:53.642+12:00Selfie Sticks<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bd/No_selfie_stick,_no_weapons_(18379200104).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bd/No_selfie_stick,_no_weapons_(18379200104).jpg" border="0" height="240" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bd/No_selfie_stick,_no_weapons_(18379200104).jpg" title="" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Rosario; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: large;">“Lethal Weapons” </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Rosario; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: large;">or </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Rosario; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: large;">“Weapons of Mass Destruction”</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Rosario; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(Yup - we’ve even seen them pulled out during Mass!)</span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-dd3e94af-0fff-3ab0-ea49-aa064b500553" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Rosario; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It’s been five days since we’ve seen a selfie stick! Gotta love Sicily.</span></div>
<b style="clear: left; float: left; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /><img height="213" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/BijCGFUT_b-m6fLF0ryPPqz3tQBsLnT8LJSpQqKZATvMVMvS9mEXO79bZT_Rl4lQt5OTyFu1-YdtZ_B6COFPWzX_Wo4etzAiuX2dSnGu6XWEXDxyiVoGDtiQdXaXSgz5cKdpT7p9" style="border: none; transform: rotate(0rad);" width="283" /></b><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Rosario; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">On arrival in Hawaii we realised that the selfie stick was a much bigger deal in the USA than in NZ. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Rosario; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And we commented then that some people only seem to see the sights through the screen of their phone, But with their own face obscuring a proportion of the view!</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Rosario; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Rosario; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Then landing in Europe we realised that we hadn’t seen nothin' yet! From Paris to Rome and 8 countries in between we learnt to watch out for crazy people brandishing their sticks. Something about a S-S seems to make the owners oblivious to oncoming cars, bicycles, people, hazards, animals and small children. The worst place on earth to encounter them has to be </span><a href="https://pastoralpencilcasedotcom.files.wordpress.com/2016/04/20160414_141404.jpg?w=247&h=438" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Rosario; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">around the Trevi Fountain</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Rosario; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> in Rome.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Rosario; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And almost without fail, people using them look like they’re having fun, or present an appearance of fun.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Rosario; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One of our tour guides a couple of weeks ago did a quick survey of our group and pronounced, “Good, no selfie stick users here. I can make this an interesting tour!” Then went on to make some un-PC comments about <insert>Ethnicity<insert/> people whose focal point is the end of a stick.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Rosario; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Negative attitudes are probably enhanced by <a href="http://www.lyndablair.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/One-of-the-hawker-selling-Tower-models-and-keyrings-plus-selfie-sticks.jpg">the number of Hawkers</a> who approach you every minute if they notice you don’t have a S-S, trying to sell you one in neon pink, green or yellow. It leads to some pithy responses after a while.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Rosario; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In searching for a photo to link to above I discovered </span><a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3142685/Now-Brussels-tries-ban-selfies-landmarks-New-law-force-tourists-ask-permission-picture-sites-like-Eiffel-Tower-s-just-background.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Rosario; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">this article in the Daily Mail</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Rosario; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> discussing the EU considering banning selfies at major European landmarks. So, have the oldies become a bunch of killjoys or are they really a menace?</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhriChBWvSFt32V-Ti7VSQ-sh-X_22ahV4NMY49ycmBoBJK0U2G69OzUQKUC5gr21KZJrnAxVvY65ZNZZhrSOsOoYqnHd-Dr4JVTzNc66nWy0VAXVyKW5QBfJZDn74zztvv8OtSOb7vOBo/s1600/Paris.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhriChBWvSFt32V-Ti7VSQ-sh-X_22ahV4NMY49ycmBoBJK0U2G69OzUQKUC5gr21KZJrnAxVvY65ZNZZhrSOsOoYqnHd-Dr4JVTzNc66nWy0VAXVyKW5QBfJZDn74zztvv8OtSOb7vOBo/s320/Paris.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dining in a cafe in Paris, the waiter offered to take our photo!</td></tr>
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<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Rosario; font-size: 18.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.38; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I will admit that I do like the selfie sticks that telescope into a small tube AND can be turned into a sturdy tripod. That would be a useful gadget.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Rosario; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And to really show my status as a technophobe or late adopter, we have enjoyed moments on this trip meeting new people when either they have asked us, “Would you like us to take a nice photo of you two together?” or we have offered to do this for others.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Rosario; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Loving the selfie-stick free Agrigento region of Sicily.</span></div>
<br />DJBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10174562448397117756noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7524705379051564269.post-82233160268756467762016-06-01T03:30:00.000+12:002016-06-02T20:16:36.822+12:00The face of Europe<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Rosario; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img height="142" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/29VVZUH_UZxutmUmw2TKs7WxakscbAaqZdXw48p0UntbhXXz8aRYAazJ5WVrnrI44l3YiYRGrPxIXap5bX4sUxWxbwptIBqHRF5-hCXbKDejt0Wpi9dcjXmUA0vsEv3uPfBVazut" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="446" /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Rosario; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Travelling companion or stalker?</span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-dd3e94af-102d-1f14-8659-e788bc900c77" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Rosario; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Everywhere we have gone since arriving in Europe this woman has been there before us, occupying enormous billboards in prominent places.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Rosario; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<b style="clear: left; float: left; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /><img height="276" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/S9BOMRynrhTUh027_NADR9V8Ko_s-2bdrRwIqXAzjbnu0bzFIcYZGWH7x3Brmyi1uYRe5aPnK9PSpy-jQeQyHGac5uWuargz780uaNyrjrmmHOHb-n-lrAklNzejFJ1qVKniIve1" style="border: none; transform: rotate(0rad);" width="208" /></b><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Rosario; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I have noted the billboards and never could figure quite what she was marketing. She became a game on our tour buses - a bit like counting sheep or horses - spotting how many times we saw her.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Rosario; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Until today, in Agrigento. The woman on the billboard was nowhere to be seen in this town, but her name was on a clothing store.</span></div>
<br /><span style="font-family: Rosario; font-size: 18.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">NB: the image above of the billboard is cropped!</span>DJBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10174562448397117756noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7524705379051564269.post-57491830299683832052016-05-25T20:30:00.000+12:002016-06-02T21:53:17.991+12:00Professionals at Work<br />
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<img height="381" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/Ixh4Han5Bp7mIQ1hzxIpzeSpFUFprgmVKxpufzD616F9EN-VhJgolEsnJ7WoLq9nxNCsplmOMm0YmMaWvOKhpM5yte-znE3RUYTdmbX_SWBoeiL5cV4Q58bDg3lJ6ayCV9lMOv-u" style="border: none; transform: rotate(0rad);" width="285" /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.6667px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">Anyone of the teachers who have worked with me on making film and teaching children movie making skills will be in no doubt about my passionate advocacy for the simple tripod.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.6667px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I was thinking of my colleagues when I took these photos (no tripod, but elbows on the railing in lieu) on the Ponte Sant'Angelo spanning the Tiber River in Rome.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.6667px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">Professional photographers were lining up to capture the magnificent sunset followed by the evening illuminations of Castel Sant'Angelo and other buildings.</span></div>
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<a href="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/xynTh4_pV8NXr5m8vYFJvMEPP-G77MD3t7oMTgJgW4wjOJb2SnSEDQMF8p_ZidczOHgjnmInLdUH8sdrar537YNC_OHyxz1dofMv92Ok8kpturOJOis-fqvVEEyFpPH4s7lxz5Ym" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" height="380" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/xynTh4_pV8NXr5m8vYFJvMEPP-G77MD3t7oMTgJgW4wjOJb2SnSEDQMF8p_ZidczOHgjnmInLdUH8sdrar537YNC_OHyxz1dofMv92Ok8kpturOJOis-fqvVEEyFpPH4s7lxz5Ym" style="border: none; transform: rotate(0rad);" width="285" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px; line-height: 25.76px;">I couldn't resist grabbing my phone and capturing this unexpected sight on our evening stroll to the Vatican.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">They all had set-up tripods and I think one would feel uneasy joining their lineup without one!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.6667px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">Right now across our Manaiakalani schools our clever teachers are up-skilling themselves to create a movie with their learners to share on the BIG screen at the Manaiakalani Film Festival 2016. Every year we dissect the difference between the movies that are a hit with the audience - because that is the ultimate test, right? - and the rest. It is always the same answer.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Three things:</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; font-family: rosario; font-size: 18.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A compelling story, to paraphrase Kevin Roberts. Engaging the audience' emotions whether through humour, pathos, sympathy, joy, adrenaline or whatever. The story is essential.</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; font-family: rosario; font-size: 18.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Vision. Are we going to feel sea sick watching this? Did you use a tripod? Did you keep your back to the light source (windows, fluro lights)? These are not fancy techniques for frazzled classroom teachers. Just common sense tips.</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; font-family: rosario; font-size: 18.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sound. Consistent sound levels. Clear speech. Background music only used if needed and used well. The post production team can do a lot to improve the sound you if you keep the sound clear and consistent.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "rosario";"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px; line-height: 25.76px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>And yes, I do recognise the irony of using inferior 'snaps shots' to illustrate this piece :)</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "rosario";"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px; line-height: 25.76px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i><br /></i></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "rosario";"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px; line-height: 25.76px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="http://manaiakalani.blogspot.it/2016/06/capturing-great-images.html">Cross posted on Manaiakalani Blog</a></span></span></div>
DJBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10174562448397117756noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7524705379051564269.post-16086902995652300062016-05-25T13:42:00.000+12:002016-06-18T05:02:43.917+12:00Trevi: worth a good look<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Rosario; font-size: 18.6667px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>The Fontana di Trevi - or <a href="http://www.trevifountain.net/" target="_blank">Trevi Fountain</a> in English -is a fountain in Rome, Italy. It is the largest Baroque fountain in the city and the most beautiful in the world.</i></span></blockquote>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Rosario; font-size: 18.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I can’t imagine going to Rome, </span><span style="font-family: Rosario; font-size: 18.6667px; line-height: 25.76px; white-space: pre-wrap;">whether for the first time or the 50th,</span><span style="font-family: Rosario; font-size: 18.6667px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;"> without visiting the Trevi Fountain. It is entrancing. And this trip we were the beneficiaries of Fendi having spent millions of dollars on cleaning and restoration work. Visitors during the 18 months it was closed would have been keenly disappointed. </span><a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-3301612/Now-s-fashion-makeover-Rome-s-Trevi-Fountain-opens-following-1-4million-Fendi-transformation.html" style="font-family: Rosario; font-size: 18.6667px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;" target="_blank">Read more about that here</a><span style="font-family: Rosario; font-size: 18.6667px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Rosario; font-size: 18.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It must be frustrating as a Roman citizen to have this stunningly beautiful taonga in your home town constantly swamped by teeming crowds. Millions of people visit every year and not only is it impossible to take in an unimpeded panoramic view, but it is so busy there is no space to sit and contemplate either.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Rosario; font-size: 18.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Rosario; font-size: 18.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px; line-height: normal;">I took a photo this time of the people rather than the fountain, and you may notice as I did that the majority</span><span style="font-size: 18.6667px; line-height: normal;"> actually spend most of their time with their back to the fountain. The point of the visit appears to be being recorded in a photo at it, rather than soaking it up. Even those who contribute to the 3000 Euro gathered daily by tossing a coin over their shoulder spent very little time facing it!</span></span></div>
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<br />DJBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10174562448397117756noreply@blogger.com0Trevi Fountain, Piazza di Trevi, 00187 Roma, Italy41.9009325 12.48331299999995318.484985 -28.825281000000047 65.31688 53.791906999999952tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7524705379051564269.post-35019128596100129292016-05-24T13:49:00.000+12:002016-06-18T06:13:02.504+12:0060 Pairs of Haunting Shoes<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiV5wAUZmmGpfb_inJ71acftTghzENdlMeHJGcGWO-cfxazOX1tNRg4hWIjaxsH_R6Mdc_hDX93greCBuAHxDDcCcuqSNuP0rRFQTRxK2DBbLr_edK-UImOBOYD45Ubj8xje1ORqBNwrs/s1600/IMG_6677.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiV5wAUZmmGpfb_inJ71acftTghzENdlMeHJGcGWO-cfxazOX1tNRg4hWIjaxsH_R6Mdc_hDX93greCBuAHxDDcCcuqSNuP0rRFQTRxK2DBbLr_edK-UImOBOYD45Ubj8xje1ORqBNwrs/s200/IMG_6677.jpg" width="200" /></span></a><br />
<span id="docs-internal-guid-91e32e71-5f79-9e16-7cd8-05af631dbf0b"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjRx2R64bQKB7D0wCfkOoICXbIfwU1uVMKmoHJ9ZlPycl3hDOR_bBPY80eZu5Yqjo6qk7yOahYENIllMWF4MUfzmbP51KsFdgjuMBsuD-nDfFHt6qRGwyGike6V-Mv0Sg-BuZmJRtWPBc/s1600/IMG_6680.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjRx2R64bQKB7D0wCfkOoICXbIfwU1uVMKmoHJ9ZlPycl3hDOR_bBPY80eZu5Yqjo6qk7yOahYENIllMWF4MUfzmbP51KsFdgjuMBsuD-nDfFHt6qRGwyGike6V-Mv0Sg-BuZmJRtWPBc/s320/IMG_6680.jpg" width="240" /></a><span style="font-family: Rosario; font-size: 18.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Our arrival into Budapest by boat enabled us to take in the city sights from our vantage point on the water before we docked and one of the things pointed out to us was the Shoes on the Danube Bank memorial erected in April 2005</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Rosario; font-size: 18.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“ to the memory of the victims shot into the Danube by Arrow Cross Militiamen in 1944 - 1945”</span></blockquote>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhct16MAOxR0j2yrI05UdBxukzpHJsB-QsKxv2j-dI9tRmzBtu12dIXSniwtUdyVLKb7RkgJtSrI2mJPaSJ0FgTu8b4YgqmZXeti9JOKuVQ5i1ixxY-23enQpkM2q-ur_x5AHW2dOW6uWE/s1600/IMG_6682.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhct16MAOxR0j2yrI05UdBxukzpHJsB-QsKxv2j-dI9tRmzBtu12dIXSniwtUdyVLKb7RkgJtSrI2mJPaSJ0FgTu8b4YgqmZXeti9JOKuVQ5i1ixxY-23enQpkM2q-ur_x5AHW2dOW6uWE/s320/IMG_6682.jpg" width="240" /></a><span style="font-family: Rosario; font-size: 18.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Hungarian Jews were herded here, made to strip off their clothes and valuables and step out of their shoes. Then summarily shot, keeling forward into the river.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Rosario; font-size: 18.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It was a dark and vicious time in their history and all three local tour guides we spent time with spoke passionately about the horror. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Rosario; font-size: 18.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">One guide recommended we view the video I have embedded below. It is titled, “Tell your children”, although in our context it may not be something to show children as it is haunting viewing.</span></div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/OKpznsxZews?rel=0" width="560"></iframe></div>
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-91e32e71-5f82-2f1e-17af-4b27d6f1ca38"><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoes_on_the_Danube_Bank" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: Rosario; font-size: 18.6667px; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Shoes on the Danube Bank </span></a><span style="font-family: Rosario; font-size: 18.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">is a memorial in Budapest, Hungary. Conceived by film director Can Togay, he created it on the east bank of the Danube River with sculptor Gyula Pauer to honour the Jews who were killed by fascist Arrow Cross militiamen in Budapest during World War II. They were ordered to take off their shoes, and were shot at the edge of the water so that their bodies fell into the river and were carried away. It represents their shoes left behind on the bank.</span></i></span></blockquote>
DJBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10174562448397117756noreply@blogger.com0Budapest, Hungary47.497912 19.04023499999993947.154509499999996 18.394787999999938 47.8413145 19.68568199999994tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7524705379051564269.post-31494086885324195452016-05-23T10:30:00.000+12:002016-06-18T05:13:44.688+12:00Cows in MainStreet Budapest<span id="docs-internal-guid-91e32e71-5f51-c596-7c1c-3cc7f81580fd"></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwAOa87b11EsJhR5RW6hk4UzyD7Y06iT0MRhZAcVcfGuTX_NuJPIBXRqpDsO0DF3cGsM9R2IT-y8jJiPyTign_jIpzEPbqQ9XoYDLb1oGZvg_yFuO7APPXYWDADKLU3fSiUj2_hOC087Y/s1600/IMG_6620.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwAOa87b11EsJhR5RW6hk4UzyD7Y06iT0MRhZAcVcfGuTX_NuJPIBXRqpDsO0DF3cGsM9R2IT-y8jJiPyTign_jIpzEPbqQ9XoYDLb1oGZvg_yFuO7APPXYWDADKLU3fSiUj2_hOC087Y/s400/IMG_6620.jpg" width="400" /></span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I heard the cows before I saw them as I was walking down one of the main streets of Budapest! </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I have no idea what this is about at all, only that I was standing at the traffic lights and heard some distressed mooing.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I looked around and saw a light truck transporting a couple of cows. For the rest of the morning I kept noticing them - sometimes in horse floats, on trailers and once a larger truck with around a dozen quite agitated beasts making their presence known.</span></div>
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-91e32e71-5f55-69e2-49d4-33f187588631"></span><br />
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-91e32e71-5f55-69e2-49d4-33f187588631"><span style="font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It may have something to do with the farmers who brought their cows into town on <a href="http://www.usnews.com/news/business/articles/2016-04-04/hungarian-dairy-farmers-parade-cows-to-protest-cheap-imports" target="_blank">April 4th 2016</a> "to protest cheap imports and tax evasion which they say are destroying fair competition and blocking their access to local markets".</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Or it may not.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">It attracted my attention.</span> </div>
DJBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10174562448397117756noreply@blogger.com0Budapest, District IX., Hungary47.464927900000013 19.09162289999994847.37905090000001 18.930261399999946 47.550804900000017 19.252984399999949tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7524705379051564269.post-58794276227898846862016-05-22T03:05:00.001+12:002016-05-22T03:06:01.075+12:00Airs Above the Ground: Vienna<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfl2XJv8CdRZoGw4yFOv5eRZ5pGV5dwZ9kpeHj4u8Oq2R3drYWtr6UjI9vmiOqURQenwWoZ78NVTmiWF3BcsEniCKi7Z6k4qoUtac9reMHq5oi6B9XqZ0M0zWDCY_7vwXpBc1bq5C5eKY/s1600/Page_8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" height="226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfl2XJv8CdRZoGw4yFOv5eRZ5pGV5dwZ9kpeHj4u8Oq2R3drYWtr6UjI9vmiOqURQenwWoZ78NVTmiWF3BcsEniCKi7Z6k4qoUtac9reMHq5oi6B9XqZ0M0zWDCY_7vwXpBc1bq5C5eKY/s320/Page_8.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Vienna has been synonymous with the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lipizzan">Lipizzaner horses</a> from the Spanish Riding School ever since I was a child and first read a book my mother and grandmother had been enjoying, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airs_Above_the_Ground_(novel)">“Airs Above the Ground”</a> by Mary Stewart. So when Google told me that the day we were in Vienna there was a show on, I was keen to get there.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.6667px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">We headed off the boat first thing this morning with our tour guide and had a fun and informative overview of what she considered the sights and highlights of Vienna and then we peeled off on a hunt for tickets to the Vorfuhrung. It was a bit of a mission. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkRd0YXWGBzPPTAAK_iGYLmgpyhscoZ-0QT6JDhjpjdzKjzJ0nfm_tZ3CjGlJHzXPAVhF-3Ox1P2KIwDp6ht2SgM1ndFRPK39uWHpDWcg7bcbuv52fmPsDzHj-gH1QOZGqBes-UJpcZeA/s1600/ticket.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" height="177" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkRd0YXWGBzPPTAAK_iGYLmgpyhscoZ-0QT6JDhjpjdzKjzJ0nfm_tZ3CjGlJHzXPAVhF-3Ox1P2KIwDp6ht2SgM1ndFRPK39uWHpDWcg7bcbuv52fmPsDzHj-gH1QOZGqBes-UJpcZeA/s320/ticket.jpg" width="320" /></span></a><span style="font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.6667px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">Buying the tickets was easy, but the woman at the ticket counter sent us off on a wild goose chase, “Go out the door, turn right three times and go in.” We joined multitudes of tourists trying to find the elusive door and eventually a local student came to our rescue.</span></div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1e/Spanische_Hofreitschule3,_Vienna.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="color: black;"><img alt="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1e/Spanische_Hofreitschule3,_Vienna.jpg" border="0" height="269" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1e/Spanische_Hofreitschule3,_Vienna.jpg" title="" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lipizzaner horses from the Spanish Riding School </td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We had bought the cheap seats - no seats- and stood for about an hour and a half. But it was worth it. We managed to stand behind the goal posts (imagine it as a rugby field) and had a super view of the show. They pulled out everything I had imagined, from beautiful music to the airs above the ground high school dressage moves. And the show culminated with the eight horse "School Quadrille".</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "rosario"; font-size: 18.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We were not allowed to take photos at all, so I have included a photo labelled for reuse and the ticket we were issued. If you look at the photo you may be able to tell from my ‘behind the goal posts’ description where we stood above the entry door.</span></div>
DJBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10174562448397117756noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7524705379051564269.post-90201593501720091052016-05-20T19:30:00.000+12:002016-05-22T08:45:00.118+12:00Panorama Bistro: Danube Menu<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE4arx1XzffHyJ0SZz3kSqsc4Be0bsTUHr15vera9U1ecIygYjw_Ge8ij_-qqsQi4M6fYUn07ETK5tzrJdvP1dmwTXO5OUNMn76dA8uBbonGG6Sr6ME1W9FnNZtXyPBZvhmj6SCUOMSUs/s1600/Bistro1.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="325" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE4arx1XzffHyJ0SZz3kSqsc4Be0bsTUHr15vera9U1ecIygYjw_Ge8ij_-qqsQi4M6fYUn07ETK5tzrJdvP1dmwTXO5OUNMn76dA8uBbonGG6Sr6ME1W9FnNZtXyPBZvhmj6SCUOMSUs/s400/Bistro1.png" width="400" /></span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">The Avalon team host a “Panorama Bistro Food Tasting” for a small number of guests, and having greatly enjoyed participating last week, we signed up again. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">The food is delicious and sitting in the front of the boat with 12 people in total creates a very special dinner party atmosphere- with three people to look after us, and goodness knows how many in the galley!</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Here's the menu, with the photos I took:</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPrmlPxRGBn-9WUpes3vMvkoQAbKpHUsBEEaWMm6CM5JyE-gsFbK_Zif8eOmxraFmah5iO6HMpHgSsvqPJRqG7YCd8R3L05PEC2ul_1n9zvzeBq0dFKnDqPVyJqX4344Q3gz5aVtmK-k0/s1600/starters.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPrmlPxRGBn-9WUpes3vMvkoQAbKpHUsBEEaWMm6CM5JyE-gsFbK_Zif8eOmxraFmah5iO6HMpHgSsvqPJRqG7YCd8R3L05PEC2ul_1n9zvzeBq0dFKnDqPVyJqX4344Q3gz5aVtmK-k0/s400/starters.png" width="301" /></span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Starters</span></span></h3>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Waldorf Salad</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Basil Praline (tofu)</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="line-height: 25.76px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Schnitzel (we were sailing into Vienna!)</span></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDMdJonDIY1Udsu7vCKPKk8VQkqq1IIM0uD6rQtYxv1arLrY6VWgpM-ZvclDIG0Ka3Hy8A8ViZMuSKWp7X4UImGpXOWejpUhHisV_5R68_G63zHOo1lVdkMqHmYQGiF4NbOM6c20E5r_o/s1600/Screen+Shot+2016-05-22+at+8.20.20+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDMdJonDIY1Udsu7vCKPKk8VQkqq1IIM0uD6rQtYxv1arLrY6VWgpM-ZvclDIG0Ka3Hy8A8ViZMuSKWp7X4UImGpXOWejpUhHisV_5R68_G63zHOo1lVdkMqHmYQGiF4NbOM6c20E5r_o/s400/Screen+Shot+2016-05-22+at+8.20.20+AM.png" width="278" /></span></a><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></h3>
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<span style="line-height: 1.38; text-align: center; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Soup</span></span></h3>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheaUxO_7DezeTpzUiYW0_W2PG0whOGNBcXVrM0oGlVjePg7YQ1adlFkQ9Z7cADqRVz3iFbbOYjRop3EVLpN-bZuupQaNCEfsR0gvhJj2oxmyXN3uodctymxw7gbQR7X-qBkKTzRlhFh6c/s1600/Screen+Shot+2016-05-22+at+8.26.58+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="305" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheaUxO_7DezeTpzUiYW0_W2PG0whOGNBcXVrM0oGlVjePg7YQ1adlFkQ9Z7cADqRVz3iFbbOYjRop3EVLpN-bZuupQaNCEfsR0gvhJj2oxmyXN3uodctymxw7gbQR7X-qBkKTzRlhFh6c/s400/Screen+Shot+2016-05-22+at+8.26.58+AM.png" width="400" /></span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><h3 style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.38;">Main Dishes</span></h3>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Beef Roulade (certain men had two of this)</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Fillet of Pike Perch</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKcWj0YmyZUJnfCBzNGDrYvKDiOi4SH10zCLjtH_fdvwGttfFcmshRqWji08YyJdY0RPCI5byKnVHCEHGXALY4N5rIyyqtfYK-Q8icxtkSAnIqU3ImH8Jv5VkKzh8NVn4rGxBOEnnlU0c/s1600/Screen+Shot+2016-05-22+at+8.34.18+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="303" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKcWj0YmyZUJnfCBzNGDrYvKDiOi4SH10zCLjtH_fdvwGttfFcmshRqWji08YyJdY0RPCI5byKnVHCEHGXALY4N5rIyyqtfYK-Q8icxtkSAnIqU3ImH8Jv5VkKzh8NVn4rGxBOEnnlU0c/s400/Screen+Shot+2016-05-22+at+8.34.18+AM.png" width="400" /></span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Desserts</span></span></h3>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Malou</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Austrian Apricot</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Bright Chocolate</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Cheese plate</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEht1GJt25jHeGotqyenO8gcwpC-PjEdrtJPuCAenKxkurOvuKPUmZBPcECfLoR73lAHcibgACIo_ZAY90YCN12Jkbb1JqDfgdBAUBnHQAcbwgZR0ISnn0a_zyJmAnso0ZMYvI0MGbFsJBU/s1600/IMG_6584.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="141" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEht1GJt25jHeGotqyenO8gcwpC-PjEdrtJPuCAenKxkurOvuKPUmZBPcECfLoR73lAHcibgACIo_ZAY90YCN12Jkbb1JqDfgdBAUBnHQAcbwgZR0ISnn0a_zyJmAnso0ZMYvI0MGbFsJBU/s320/IMG_6584.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">All with wines and coffee/tea etc</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEht1GJt25jHeGotqyenO8gcwpC-PjEdrtJPuCAenKxkurOvuKPUmZBPcECfLoR73lAHcibgACIo_ZAY90YCN12Jkbb1JqDfgdBAUBnHQAcbwgZR0ISnn0a_zyJmAnso0ZMYvI0MGbFsJBU/s1600/IMG_6584.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
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DJBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10174562448397117756noreply@blogger.com0