At the end of 2004, after seven years of "semi-retirement" from fulltime teaching I was ready to "reinvent" myself. The question - what to do?

I have taught in various fields at Secondary Schools and at TAFE colleges over a period of around 25 years full-time and seven years part-time, and also created and managed a small merchandising business during my "semi-retirement". I am also an avid traveller who has backpacked to various parts of the world over a period of about 30 years. TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) seemed a natural choice. Decision made.

Over the next 12 months I studied part-time and in December 2005 completed a Professional Certificate in TESOL from the Global TESOL College in Brisbane ( now known as the Australasian Training Academy). After a whirlwind online application process I accepted a position teaching Oral English at a Normal College (teacher training institution) in Taizhou, Jiang Su province in the East of China for an initial period of one year, commencing February 2006.

I have now been here for over two years, and have had many varied adventures while exploring the great "Middle Kingdom". Many of these adventures are yet to come to light on this travel site ( I have 92 blogs saved but only 43 published!), but they will get there eventually! It will just take a bit of time!

This blog was originally inspired by my colleague Mr Hans Schneider, who has an excellent blog on this site. I am keen to extend my limited knowledge and skills of technology while providing a regular (?) update on my old and new adventures for family, friends and other interested visitors to this site.
In addition I use this blog as a tool to encourage my students to practice their English out of class and to learn more about their own country and beyond.

Read on and enjoy!

Visited Countries Map

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