Blogs from Carlisle, Cumbria, England, United Kingdom, Europe

Less than two weeks to go now and still a few things to finalise. Our final team meal last week gave us a chance to have a last catch up before Christmas and New Year. Talk so far has focussed on our vocational days, what to pack, how the presentation is looking and our nerves about leaving our normal lives behind for a whole month! Meeting up regularly has given us all the opportunity to get to know each other. We have also been sending lots of texts and e-mails amongst ourselves as we become friendlier. The group dynamics are changing all of the times and I’m sure that they will continue to do so as we spend more time together and learn more about each other. Some of us have e-mailed our hosts and had ... read more

I have just received the details of my vocational visits and am looking forward to the following programme: · Udupi: Yoga centre at KMC hospital. · Mangalore: Srinivas Hospital and AJ Hospital, both of which are attached to medical colleges. · Mysore: Vikram Hospital and an Ayurveda Spa. · Hassan: Jayashree Nursing Home (a smaller hospital) and the district Government Hospital. · Shimogga: District medical office at the McGann Hospital Thank you to District 3180 for arranging all of this for me. Diane... read more

For somebody who has four jobs, this is a rather difficult question to answer! An even more challenging task is trying to accommodate the different vocational goals of four people within an itinerary packed full of cultural visits; Rotary projects, meetings and presentations; travelling; and time spent with host families. We were therefore very excited to receive the details of our vocational visits yesterday. A great amount of effort has been made to arrange the visits, which include a yoga centre and ayurvedic spa for me; a farm and an agricultural college for Emily; a hotel and a bakery for Nicola; and a newspaper office and a PR department for Tracy. A few queries have been raised about some of the visits and the prompt and positive responses are much appreciated. I look forward to receiving ... read more

Angie kindly drew up a packing list for us all several weeks ago. With less than four weeks to go now, I feel it is time to make a start on this. It always amazes me when I see how little some people manage to travel with. I would really like to achieve this one day. I am sure that if I laid out everything I would like to take with me, there would not be enough room for it all. Also, there definitely would not be any room for all those friends and Rotarians who have told me they want to come too! Perhaps a magic potion to reduce everything in size for packing, and to return them to their original state in India, will do the trick?! A few days ago, somebody said I ... read more

Our first blog post! Just five weeks now until we head to India for our trip so I thought I would post a first blog entry to get us started! Most of you will know that we are taking part in the Group Study Exchange (GSE) through Rotary International. We have been lucky enough to be chosen to visit Karnataka in South West India to learn more about our vocations and the good work of Rotary International. Some quick introductions: Angie Biggs (Kendal) – Team Leader and retired English Teacher Nicola Howarth (Kendal South Westmorland) – Senior Chef De Partie Diane Livingstone (Carlisle Castle) – Information Analyst Emily Maclean (Kendal) – Training Project Coordinator Tracy Calvert (Carlisle South) – Communications Officer Lots of planning and preparation work has been going on behind the scenes to make ... read more

April 28, 2012 – Heading South Today we are on the road, heading south to Dover. We stayed in Carlisle last night, which was situated at the top end of the Lakes District. Pretty countryside, but Carlisle itself was fairly ordinary. It had the obligatory castle and cathedral, and a reasonably nice shopping district – we had a look through the cathedral, which housed a very impressive collection of silver church artifacts and some Roman artifacts, as well as the most beautiful pipe organ I've ever seen. The cathedral architecture was impressive. That said, we were out of Carlisle fairly early this morning – the trip to Dover is fairly long (by UK standards) so we wanted to ensure that we have some time to look around Dover before heading to Margate tomorrow to meet my ... read more

Today is our last day in Scotland and another chapter in our adventure will soon come to a close. Today finds us in Falkirk on a drizzly morning on our way to the famous Falkirk Wheel. This ingenious Scottish invention was developed to enable boats to use the Firth and Clyde, and Union canals without using traditional locks to lift them the 35 metre difference in level. We arrived at The Wheel just in time to buy our tickets and board the next tour boat. It was full of older local people on a day’s bus tour. As we started our boat trip we overheard one elderly lady say, “I thought we were only coming to see The Wheel, not ride it”. We had the usual safety message which mentioned there was no point in looking ... read more

Happy Birthday to me !!!49 years old today ...woke up in my b & B after a fitful night feeling more like 79 ! the bed was so soft it felt like i slept on a bean bag ..actually not slept , so off into am traffic i go destination Preston . Out of Carlisle on the busy A6 .through High Hesket , toward Plumpton , i was feeling low / almost depressed , i dont ever get like this so I put bit down to fatigue , i was missing my wife /kids /dog and also being aware that my birthday would normally be fun filled family day i was a little bit pissed off!. I rang home after recieving birthday texts , my wife said that during every challenge a low point would be ... read more