Star Wars trailer

Blondie celebrate 10 years

Special photo exhibition at Somerset House celebrating Blondie's 40th anniversary

Click here for more news

; Cleaning ' Big Ben '

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-28838218

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-28836435

Spectra Light Show in Victoria Gardens

Tunisian Art on Jerba Island

click Tunisian Wall Art for the bigger picture

Fire breaks out on Eastbourne Pier!

Breaking News! Fire on Eastbourne Pier

' Ghost Story ' Coldplay

Zane Lowe interviewing Chris Martin

Steely Dan

 

 

 

' The Chosen One Has Been Sacked ! '

David Moyes, the 'Chosen One ' has been sacked; the final straw was the 2 - 0 defeat by Everton on Sunday. Ryan Giggs will be the caretaker/ interim-manager until the end of the season. Whoever the new manager is, he will still have a tough job!

' Matisse's Cut-Outs '

Matisse' Cut-Outs' at Modern Tate Gallery

Art Exhibition, Art Class and Pop Concert

This morning I went to an exhibition at the Mille Feuilles Bookshop gallery which was paying homage to Tunisian artist Mahmoud. There were 20 of the artist's paintings as a retrospective of his work.
The owner put on some French music as background music and there was brunch in the form of 4 trays of chocolate croissants and coffee/fruit juice. However,most of that food was probably wasted as there were only about thirty people who attended the exhibition.

Later o I went to the second lesson of an art class I started last week; there were only Ines, a young school student, and me. The teacher demonstrated some basic principles of the theory of doing
the perspective plus a portrait.

Last day of the Jazz Festival at the Thalasso Resort Hotel in Gammarth.
First on was Peter Von Poehl, a pop musician from Sweden and then Bastian Baker, rock/pop singer from Switzerland. There were lots of over-excited girls at the concert and they mostly there for Bastian Baker. I preferred the concert by Peter Von Poehl who was more melodic,varied and interesting in his songs.

Radiophonic Workshop

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/music/s7/doctor-who/news/a560751/doctor-who-composers-radiophonic-workshop-to-reunite-for-one-off-gig.html

 

Premier Skills programme on RTCI

Today there was a special programme on RTCI about the Premier Skills Coach Educator Training programme and also the qualities of a good football manager. In the studio today was Patric Fawcett,ICT and ELT Coordinator, David McNally,Senior Teacher, and Rachel May, a student studying Arabic who is also assists the Premier Skills coaches with the coaching activities.
In the studio there was a lively interesting discussion on the Premier Skills project and the qualities of a good football manager. 

From 24 - 28 Marchin Tunis phase 3 of the Premier Skills Coach Educator training took place.This was a review, assessment and certification by Premier League coaches,Jes Weeks and Steven Howey,this was the 3^rd and last of a three-stage course of Premier Skills.10  participants took responsibility as a team to deliver a significant part of a Premier Skills Community Coach’s course to a group of potential Premier Skills Coaches .
They successful qualified as Coach Educators  therefore being able to take over the role of the Premier League coaches in the delivery of the phase 1 training of the Premier Skills Coaching and thus sustaining the Premier Skills programme and cascading their skills throughout Tunisia

5 KM Run in La Marsa

' The Little Coffee Shop of Kabul '

I'm currently reading the book ' The Little Coffee Shop of Kabul ' by Deborah Rodriguez and yesterday I read chapter 34 in which there is a suicide bombing at the Serena Hotel in Kabul. Yesterday there was a gun attack in the Serena Hotel ;rather strange that I had read that particular chapter yesterday' life imitating art? I guess just a strange coincidence!

Kate Bush to go on tour!

Kate Bush will be going on tour in August and September.

Teaching English Radio RTCI programme 4 'Homework '

Paco Lucia Passes Away

Paco  Lucia the great Spanish guitarist passes away.
Paco passes away at the age of 66

 

 

' Day trip to Bizerte '

The train to Bizerte was 10 minutes late leaving and nearly an hour late arriving in Bizerte.The return journey was even worse ! half an hour late leaving and over an hour and twenty minutes late arriving back in Tunis!  Absolutely ridiculous having a timetable! Even the train inspector on the return train to Tunis couldn't give an explanation ; actually he was completely silent as he had no idea about the reason for the delay. Typical! Just like Tunis Air!





The view from the train approaching  the outskirts of Bizerte





The view from the train



The view from the train



A soldier who had just boarded the train











Bizerte harbour





The beach





The beach





Having fun on the beach





Back in the harbour











The train back to Tunis: comfortable but very slow!


At least once I was back in Tunis I was able to get a louage taxi straightaway to return to La Marsa.







' Day of the Bey '

'The Bardo '

I'm on holiday!

I'm on holiday! but I didn't know it until I was at work this morning!

Premier Skills

Premier Skills Football Fun event in Tunis!

I enjoyed doing the English Language activities and I hope I have the opportunity to do it again. I didn't see any girls participating in the morning session so hopefully there were some in the afternoon session. Anyway for my session I focused on the skills of: ball control ,passing and dribbling. There were some gifted players who were able to show off their skills. By the weather was warm and sunny so perfect conditions for the football fun day!

' Teaching English Radio RTCI in Monastir ! '

Teaching English Radio in Monastir

' Philip Seymour Hoffman passes away '

Philip Seymour Hoffman tragically last died of a drug overdose.
Here's a  link to some pictures of his brief career.

Premier Skills on RTCI

Premier Skills is our international partnership with the Premier League operating in 25 countries across Asia, Africa and the Americas from Afghanistan to Zambia.
Premier Skills focuses on developing community coaches and referees and on supporting community projects. The programme has also created a range of materials, including a dedicated website, using football-based content for teachers and learners of English. A key element of the project is week-long training activities for local community-level coaches and referees, which are delivered by professional coaches from the Premier League clubs. Since 2007 Premier Skills has created training opportunities benefitting 2,300 grassroots coaches and referees.

The participants are supported to develop their own community-focused football projects, with many gaining the skills needed to cascade training to other grassroots coaches.

Today The British Council and RTCI broadcasted a special 'Premier Skills' programme.

 

During the programme there was a quiz question and a chance to win a Premier Skills NIKE kit!
The winner turned out to be a non-football fan! , Meriem said she was going to give the prize to her sister - very generous of her!

 

A national web quest competition was introduced and the prizes will be a Netbook computer or a mini-Tablet!

By the way if you missed the programme check out this link:
http://www.radiotunisienne.tn/rtci/sounds/anglais/anglais01022014.mp3

By the way here's a Premier Skills programme on the topic of being a good manager!

Happy Chinese New Year!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-25959699

 

Trip to Cairo

Yesterday morning I got back from my trip to Cairo

Expo - Metissage - Painting and Photography

Doctor Who Fan Talk

Ursula was talking about the 'Doctor Who fan ' talk I'd given the class she was covering. During the middle of my class I went to her class for a twenty minute interview ;the students asked me a wide variety of questions; then later they had to write up the interview. One of the questions asked was ' How did you feel when you first watched Doctor Who ? ' .otherwise the other questions were the typical questions that you get at Doctor Who conventions for instance questions about the special effects, your favourite character, favourite story etc 
Earlier that afternoon I'd done the same Doctor Who fan for Amanda's class and for both the classes I wore my Doctor Who T -shirt from 2012 and I'd also brought along my model TARDIS, a Doctor Who key ring, the Doctor Who annual 2013.

The 3rd Anniversary of the Tunis Revolution

Today's the 3rd anniversary of the Tunis Revolution. Although it's a holiday most places are open including 'Le Coin de Libanais  - by Jimmy's ' ( formerly known as Jimmy's Café ) - where you can have a nice breakfast: coffee, orange juice and croissant ( today a slice of cake) 4.5 dinars; last year it was cheaper - 3.5 dinars. While I was having breakfast I got talking to Sadok , a video journalist who has done some work with the BBC HARDtalk team and knows quite a few of the local staff at BC Tunis.

The streets are decked out with red flags but there isn't much sign of celebrations.
The other day at the New Arab Debate a young woman in the audience said
'there's isn't anything to celebrate!'

So three years later there doesn't seem to be many significant changes; in fact there's more crime and many people worry about the security when going out late at night. Another concern is the economy with the cost of living much higher than three years ago.

New Arab Debates 'The Arab Spring is Over'

This evening I attended the New Arab Debates presented by Tim Sebastian, known for the BBC's HARDTALK programme. David McNally, Jameela, Tom, Elaina, David C. and his girlfriend were also there.Tonight the motion was 'The Arab Spring is over' and the televised debate was held at the Grand Hotel in Tunis. The debate was fairly lively with Tim Sebastian providing humorous comments and thought-provoking questions to stimulate debate between the two speakers.
I found that the comments and questions from the audience were actually more interesting than the two speakers' arguments and towards the end of the evening Tim questioned the confidence of the male speaker ' Your confidence is sagging !'Despite this apparent dent in his confidence he turned out to be the 'winner' as most of the audience seemed convinced by his arguments and voted against the motion.

click New Arab Debates for the Facebook page  http://www.newarabdebates.com/en
  

Graded Readers with Bill Bowler

Bill Bowler gave an interesting talk on using graded readers and told us some useful activities for doing 'writing circle ' activities.

After the talk the promoters generously allowed us to take some free sample readers.
I took 'The Beautiful Game ',The Omega Files ' ,Sherlock Holmes: Two Plays ' , that classic 'Robinson Crusoe ' ,'New Yorkers ',and 'Chemical Secret ';all the readers have an audio CD of the story!

 

 

Interview for Two Jobs!

Sounds You Simply Can't Imagine

Sounds you can't imagine ...

3rd Anniversary of the Tunisian Revolution

' More Than Just Words...'

Yesterday I started two blogs: 'More Than Just Words....' based on interesting comments/remarks I've heard and the other blog is a photo blog 'Blips2014' based on uploading just one photo a day.

Destiny of the Doctor

I've just listened to the Big Finish audio story Destiny of the Doctor 'The Time Machine'; I will need to listen to it again and maybe get some of the other stories related to the other Doctors.
Here's a trailer:

Here's review.

Phil Everly no longer here

One half of the Everly brothers , Phil Everly , passed away yesterday.
That Sibling Sound.

 

..and Eusebio passes away

 

sun,rain,sun

Today the weather is a bit changeable with quite a bit of rain ;while  I was in Café Toque
there was a sudden downpour at half past two.
Earlier I'd had a little walk on the beach and then bumped into Esther, Cormac's wife,on
La Marsa promenade. She mentioned that last week the weather had been fantastic.

By the way, my hamburger lunch was quite tasty, though not particularly cheap ( 11.500 dinars!).
However, with the nice background music it's a nice place to eat and drink.