Bulgaria with Noodles

  We have had some SERIOUS snow. Just when everyone was thinking that the Winter was over and the Spring was on its way, heralded by the snowdrops in my last post, what happens? Yes, we got it wrong. Winter is back with us, at least for another day or two. While her poor husband had to go to school, my dear Irisha went for a walk with Yanna and two naughty little doggies. Tina loves the snow and she keeps trying to eat it. Now it is Saturday and this morning I took that naughty hound for several walks in the snowy park. Still no news from Nissan about our car being repaired. And the situation in China with this new virus goes from bad to worse.

One of the many things I love about Sofia is how Vitosha mountain looms beside it. Even in the middle of the city, in Vitosha Boulevard, there is this ruddy great mountain squatting at the end  of the road, right next to a capital city! Well, I was rather motivated to go up Mt. Vitosha, after reading Claire’s excellent post on the same subject on her superb blog, Auntie Bulgari a. No, we did not take the cable car ( cabinov lift as it is called in Bulgarian) from Simeonovo, which is basically behind IKEA on the ring road. According to Claire, it is wise to call ahead and check whether the cable car is running before you set off (the same goes for the chair lift at Dragalevtsi, apparently). The working days are, shall we say, a bit sporadic. In theory, it is meant to work at the weekends. But, you know, sometimes maybe not. According to Claire, the cabins are dinky – about the size of a large ferris wheel cabin – so you will have one to yourselves. There are actually quit...

Last Saturday, it came round again: the World Scholar's Cup. (Why can't the apostrophe be after the "S"? Is there only one scholar in the whole world?)  Although the WSC wants to get into the Guinness book of Records for the most tacky trophies given out to children, it is a lot of fun and the young people who take part do get to debate some very tough motions. In the Junior Rounds, we had some tough motions and in the Senior Rounds they were even tougher: "Resolved: That schools should teach classes on how to make mistakes", "That only the original writers of a movie should be allowed to write the sequel" and "That leaders of big countries should first practise being leaders of smaller countries." I did not have to do any judging in the morning, as we had quite a surplus of judges. I went along to the training session for the judges, up in the "penthouse" at St. George's, and then I went along to see a few...

Recently there was some discussion on the TES Teaching Abroad forum about whether or not to go to China, in view of this new health scare. Well, the great and good Harry Deelman (of Search Associates) always said that "a gentleman's word should be his bond". Therefore, in my opinion, if the job still exists in August, then you should keep your promises and get on the plane for the Middle Kingdom.  Although the new virus is worrying, the reality is that hundreds (maybe thousands) or people die every year from ordinary strains of influenza. As per usual, I completely agree with the view that it will probably have fizzled out in another month or two. By then, the BBC and CNN will have found something else to exaggerate. (HD also had some wise words about "the CNN factor".) A few months before we left for Kenya, a friend of ours told us lurid stories of expats getting murdered in "Nairobbery". We imagined that we would have our throats cut as so...

Tina in Kalotina, contemplating the workings of the boiler I started writing this in the kitchen of our house in Kalotina. Every so often, there is a little “tinkle tinkle” sound. No, it is not that naughty little doggie, Tina, peeing again. No, it is the sound of the wood pellets falling down into the central heating boiler’s combustion chamber. Very clever, really. I wonder how it knows when to feed in some more pellets. The boiler also makes a golden glow, an orange light that bathes the room. It is like having your own pet dragon in your kitchen. The bad news, of course, is that the whole damn house is so blooming cold that it is going to take ages for the central heating system to warm up every room. Well, that is the main drawback of a pellet boiler, of course.  The boiler uses wood pellets (and lots of them!) The boiler itself takes ages to get going properly and then it takes even longer before the house starts to warm up. But when is the house going to war...

Another very annoying article in the TES provoked me into writing this reply. Homework Dr. Wendy Edwards criticizes teachers who set "finishing off" homework, especially for English, but it is often the case that a class of 30 (or more) students do not all complete a piece of work at exactly the same time. Perhaps she did not know that this does in fact happen. If a student gets most of the work done in the lesson, then asking that student to spend some time at home completing a comprehension exercise, writing a story, doing a piece of proof reading or whatever, is not an unreasonable thing to do. The student has already made a significant start on the work and knows what to do, but he or she just needs some more time to get it completed. Yes, I am sure Dr. Wendy is right in claiming that many schools do not have "finishing off" as a reason for setting homework. On the other hand, many schools do boast about their high academic standards and that might...

Well, it makes a pleasant change to get a letter from a teacher who is hoping to go the Middle Kingdom, rather than the Middle East. Dear Anne, Yes, my real name is “Simon”. My username at the TES is “the hippo” and this is an old nickname from when I was at school, more years ago than I care to remember! Okay, what do you need to do? Well, first you have to read my blog! There are heaps and heaps of posts from when we were in China. Lots of things in GZ will be very similar to SZ. In fact, I remember when I was wandering around Guangzhou, I thought to myself, “I could easily be in Shenzhen!” However, GZ is quite a bit older, so there are some ancient bits that might be of interest. GZ also has the famous (or infamous) snake restaurant, the one where Michael Palin had dinner in  Around the World in Eighty Days. At the top of the Canton Tower Secondly, once you have actually signed the contract and it is all going to actually happen, then you need to get beaveri...