Hi all I'll start by saying my flight home is now booked for the 11th June, it's due to arrive at Heathrow at 11.35 am. Mum, I'm sorry it's a Monday, but I can easily make it back to Chelmsford by myself if it's really awkward, I even contemplated with Kim + Gemma how fun it would be to make the journey back entirely by myself, although I think the walk back from Eves Corner would be tough and I left my door key at home, so that's probably not a clever idea. Anyway, I'm by myself here at the moment. When I've been busy teaching or making a trip into Tiruvannamalai I've felt fine, but when I have marking or planning and I'm left by myself I miss the company of people a lot, I ... read more

Hey all. Not much to say about teaching, it goes on as ever. But there's plenty to say about my camera. There are pictures to go with my update of Bangalore, although only the best ones are there because I took so many. In fact it's a bit embarrassing, I appeared in more of my photos than anyone else! I'll try not to let it happen again. Then there are a couple of pictures from my placement, but I'll add to them over time. Anyway, we had lots of fun in Bangalore, lots of young people having fun. We still got on with everyone and had a lot of fun. It was really like many other nights out I had, building a fort out of frames, mattresses and sheets when we got back to the dorm ... read more

Hello all, My teaching's got much better since I last taught, 7th standard are familiar with me and we can share quite a few laughs together but at the same time we get through the work. The big test is tommorow when I'll see how many out of 31 hand in the first major homework I've set them (which I'll need to have marked by Friday!) I find that in the vast amount of classes I share with Kim (8th once a day, 9th once a day and 4b once a day) I find it naturally ends up with her being more the teacher and me the helper, but we're both happy with how it works and I can always jump if she seems a bit stuck. I'd say that my favourite classes are definitely 7th ... read more

Hi all. I've got a lot of things to write today, and plenty of time on my side to do it with! This week has had my sides splitting on multiple occasions, it's been great fun. I was very down on Friday after my 7th Standard after school class didn't turn up, but it's all picked up. The day after Me, Colin and Rose went into Kanji because Colin wanted to buy a kind of male skirt thing (I wasn't that interested - and he's since discovered that there can be difficult practicalities sitting down - and all the students and staff have had something to say about it!) Rose wanted to see the hostel again to see the kids, I think her and Kim miss them quite a lot, they were quite resentful about moving ... read more

Hi all. I'm in Mamallapuram at the moment, and am feeling very relaxed. Me, Colin, Gemma, Rose and Kim all came down yesterday evening and are staying in a cheap guesthouse that has hammocks on the roof! Last night we sat in a rooftop restraunt/bar that overlooked the beach and played very chilled out music. We must have stayed up until about midnight and then stayed another hour or so in our hammocks, it was a very late night but a good night. Something I'ver learnt is that beer is not cheap ouyt here. A 650ml bottles costs around 1.20, which is really not much of a reduction from U.K. prices, which is surprising. Anyway, today we got up leisurely and we did a bit of shopping in the morning. I bought a slightly offensive and ... read more