Rembrance Day in London

If you are new to London or have not been to Whitehall for Remembrance Day, check out this site http://www.londonevents2011.com/remembrance-sunday-london-2011.html. Crowds will gather at 11am GMT on Sunday, November 13th at the Cenotaph in Whitehall to pay their respects.

Check out GroupOn!! Save money

Low on funds but still like doing cool things? Check out GroupOn for amazing deals for meals and things to do!!

Real Food Harvest Festival

Stuck for things to do this weekend? Why not check out the "Real Food Harvest Festival" down at Southbank by the London Eye.

Here you will get to experience over 120 producers and a top line-up of chefs, livestock and entertainment, this is a fantastic opportunity to taste and buy the very best produce the UK has to offer at this time of the year.

It's a free event so why not check it out?!

Impact Drinks and Walking Tour of London

HI there,
This weekends Impact Teachers events are kicking off tomorrow night.
Tomorrow we have Impact drinks from 4-6pm.

Saturday, we are going to take a walking tour of London. Here you will get to see all the best sites of London as well as some of the lesser known (but very intersting) sites.

If you are interested in any of these then send us an email!

Hope to see you there!!

Notting Hill Carnival

If you are looking for something to do this week-end why not check out Europe's largest street festival, the Notting Hill Carnival.
http://www.nottinghill-carnival.co.uk/

Paul’s India Adventure – Day 3

19:00 hours.....dinner awaits soon – what culinary adventure will we experience tonight – we will see dear reader....I hear biriyani may be on the menu.....curry has become an everyday part of life....I wait each day to see which new treat we will receive.
Today was a good day....I was on my cameraman duties...this duty was much hindered by the lack of electricity compared to the rate that the camera’s use the batteries up. Still plenty of footage was taken and still more awaits – ready for you to sample to your hearts delight in the not too distant future. Anyhow, the day began with eggs – fried – my favourite of the egg world – who does not like the humble fried egg crammed between two slices of bread...........however not in India – instead we have fried egg with a rice dish called Pongal – which contains large peppercorns served with Dahl. Does it beat the fried egg sandwich – it’s a close run thing I think it’s fair to say. Work began with lesson observations for the team whilst I strolled around the grounds taking pictures and videos of the some of the classroom activity.
Not too long after Danielle, Joel, Megan and Jeff departed to head towards Purnea school for further observations of the members of their mentor groups whilst I stayed back to help out and record as much of Amy’s special session on Numeracy as was humanly possible on the camera.
It was a good session – Amy communicated well with the teachers who all seemed to have fun and get really involved in the activities. They ran around the grounds finding the relevant shapes for their shape game and all wanted to learn as much as possible.
Amy tried everything to get injured in the line of duty – although I don’t think her aim is to get sent home. First her foot was nearly guillotined by the white board – I caught most of this on camera I am proud to say – it certainly would have made it in to You’ve Been Framed, and then attempted to re-brake her ankle by tripping over her Sari and falling much like a person falls when they get out of a car – it’s that – “oh no, I think I’m falling fall” – it lasts about 30 seconds by which time people around the individual wonder how they could not possibly have managed to stop themselves falling. Still she recovered gracefully, well, sort off gracefully, and continued on with a successful session.
Following the return of the others via auto rickshaw rather than the normal “window conditioned” jeep we had lunch before beginning on the Sessions and mentoring. The team all did well, they carried out lessons that were both fun and full of tips to ensure that those there did not feel that they were simply involved in a lecture and I feel they give good positive feedback to the teachers and help to give them plenty of tips whilst boosting their confidence and performance in the classroom.
And now I sit here writing this blog...waiting for dinner and hoping that no nasty little bacteria – not good bacteria like Yakult – hits me too soon thus reducing my food intake or increasing exit speed.
Good night dear reader....farewell for another day.

Monday (Day 2 of Paul’s adventures in India):

So after a good nights sleep I decided a bucket shower was in order – this is certainly a great wake up call and if you were feeling at all sleepy at the time it will soon disappear. A bucket of cold water over the head is certainly a shock to the system – still – it was nice to get clean. Both me, joel and jeff are amazed at the ability of pastor Daniel to snore throughout the night, reaching new levels in terms of noise and gravitas in the snoring world. Following on we had another great breakfast – including a semolina dish which really helps to set you up for the day. I find myself increasingly eating more than I normally would – gone are the days of a bowl of cereal for lunch – now its curry all the way. We then got to work with all the team setting out to observe the teachers whilst I tested out my camera skills whilst being assaulted by the two geese who seem to have taken a disliking to me since I shined my torch at them from a distance on Sunday – those pesky geese – I now feel I cannot turn my back on them for fear that they will be creeping up on me, ready to pounce and peck me to death – still Barclay is here to protect us all and put them into place – he knows how to teach them a lesson – ask the poor old third goose who is no longer with us and has instead gone to reside in goose heaven. It was interesting to see the teaching over here – it amazes me how they manage to do so in classrooms where you can hear all the people next door to you. From speaking with the team it appears many of the teachers have taken on the tips which they were given last time which is great to know and means that the charity trips really do make an impact. We then travelled on to Purnea to do some more observations / filming and I had a chance to speak with pastor Daniel about India in general and some of the elements that particularly interest me like the caste system, politics and then general challenges that India faces as a developing country. Back to base for lunch....another fine feast and then to the afternoon session which was really good – Jeff used all his drama skills to really engage the teachers and it was good to see the icebreaker sessions help the teachers to come out of their shells and relax around each other – even if they all sit in gender aligned rows. I did some more filming, pictures and general resourcing (as the master resourcer) and the day continued until six, followed up by coffee on the sun roof – well really just roof. Nursery rhymes were the next job of the day – we all spent the best part of an hour reliving our childhood lives whilst reciting Baa baa black sheep....and various other hits for example the Final Countdown – not a nursery rhyme as I’m sure you are all aware. And then dinner – another feast of Mutton Curry with Rice, Chapatti’s and Poppadoms. I’m certainly getting use to eating curry all the time....then on to the final event of the night....round 2 of Taboo after the men thrashed the women in round 1 – leaving them feeling shamed – failures of Taboo – but alas – it all went wrong in round 2 – I’m not sure how it happened – I’m sure there was some cheating going on...the result of this was that we all had to dress up in Sari’s – I think Joel suited the pink Sari best....and now dear readers I end here – writing in the morning because I was too lazy to do so last night – I have just stuffed my face full again – this time with eggs, pongal – a rice and pepper dish with Dhal – I will continue our adventures tomorrow in part 3 of Bihar twenty eleven!