New blog on teaching, travel and Poland

I've started a new blog in order to record the Polish adventure on which I am about to embark.

I am travelling to Krakow on Wednesday 25th July to spend a month doing a TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) course and, with any luck, to find a job there and stay until June 2009.

I decided to dedicate a new blog to this trip and my future teaching/travelling/TEFL-ing experiences for the interest of other people, and hopefully as a source of useful information for other people thinking about taking a similar career path.

The URL is www.beetroot-soup.blogspot.com . I hope you enjoy it.

If you're bored at work...

Try my Desk Items Test.

I drew round several items that happened to be within easy reach, scanned the sheet and numbered the outlines.

Can you guess what the items are?
Some are easier than others.

Send me your answers and the person with the most correct answers receives Item 3 as a prize.

The Desk Items Test

I have just started a new job in an office in my home town. It's just a temporary contract through an employment agency, that I'm essentially using to save up some money to go abroad do a TEFL course, but is nevertheless a step up from the temping jobs I've had in the past. These have included more filing and photocopying than anyone should ever have to put up with, winding balls of string in a factory from 6am until 3pm, and taking orders for a company that made toilet cubicles.

Despite my experience at Plimsoll Publishing (a company that sells financial reports to struggling businesses), being so far so good, I do have the occasional tedious, repetitive task asked of me, so am prone to the odd fit of boredom.

Yesterday, for example, whilst checking some email addresses on a database, I found myself drawing round my banana onto the back of an invoice. I then photocopied the banana outline, scanned it and sent it to a few friends in an email. Today, I made up a jingle for the company. It is sung to the tune of "I am the very model of a modern Major General" from Gilbert and Sullivan. Here it is:




If you do not want to suffer profit growth paralysis
We can send you your financial study or analysis

We can put it in the post or send it on the internet
Print it off and read it through and you'll no longer be in debt

Plumber, banker, manager: it doesn't matter what you do
Write it on the order form and we can find the one for you

Order it in French or English, order it in Japanese
Top One Hundred, Acquisition, all for very modest fees

We'll send it to Parcelforce and it should reach you in a week
Unless of course your company's in Guadeloupe or Martinique

Please remember just one thing, and that's to pay your fee on time
Or you'll go to Recofact and you may face a hefty fine

So if you think you're dans la merde (in English that means 'in a stew')
Come to Plimsoll Publishing and we can tell you what to do!

Got the T-shirt

Well, I did the half-marathon and got to the finish line in one piece (as did my four friends who also took part):

My time was 2 hours 16 minutes (and 11 very long seconds).

We nearly missed the start of the race due to queuing up for the portaloos:

But once we'd found the start line and caught up with the crowds, the first half was great - a wonderful atmosphere and a lovely route through Paris from the Bois de Vincennes to the Place de la Bastille (right in the centre of Paris):

From 12km until 16km things got rather harder, and more uphill, but we kept our spirits up by cheering loudly after every kilometre, and making the most of the slices of orange and bottles of water given out to us every 5km:

From 17-20km things were no longer feeling good. My legs weren't really feeling anything at all and had stopped responding to commands. Even stopping to walk was painful, so the only thing to do was to carry slowly jogging on, in a kind of trance-like meditative "feel the pain, love the pain, accept the pain" state, counting down the distance left as each kilometre got longer and longer.

The finish line approaching, I vowed never, ever, to do anything as tiring and as pointless as this again. Helen and I ran the last kilometre hand in hand, managing to keep each other going until the end:

We spent the rest of the day hobbling slowly round Paris wearing our medals proudly:

Now that my legs have recovered, I suppose it wasn't that bad. So much so that I've signed up to do another half marathon in 7 weeks time...

Paris Half Marathon

I'm doing the Paris half marathon on Sunday 2nd March 2008 (that's in 2 days time!), and have decided that as well as it being a good chance to prove to myself that I can endure 2 hours or more of physical suffering and get a T-shirt at the end, I might as well take the opportunity to raise some money for a cause that I think is important.

My charity of choice is Refugee Action, an independent, non-religious national charity that provides help, support and practical advice for refugees and newly-arrived asylum seekers in the UK, many of whom flee to our country from war/poverty-stricken countries in the hope of leading a happy and peaceful life, yet meet with racism, abuse and harrassment when they arrive here.

In the hope that my ears will never again be subjected to the dreadful "they come over here and take our jobs..." crap, I'd like you all to take a look at Refugee Action's website, and if you'd like, to sponsor me to run 13 miles along the banks of the Seine in March on their behalf. I've already raised £250 and even though the run is in two days time, you can sponsor me up until the end of April (or thereabouts).

The website is www.refugee-action.org.uk . To take a look at examples of individual cases, see http://www.refugee-action.org.uk/voices/default.aspx .

Thanks very much for taking the time to read this and hopefully sponsoring me (every little bit counts, if you can't spare much!). Otherwise, wish me luck...

To sponsor me, visit www.justgiving.com/katyyelland

Katy

Blogging and having a job - just not right for each other

Not wanting to be put down as one of those Most Boring Bloggers on the Internet, I have decided that in recent months, instead of signing into my blog every couple of weeks after a twinge of guilt - "oh balls, I haven't written on my blog for ages" - to keep schtum rather than tell you about what I had for breakfast, or some other uninteresting crap.

It's not like I haven't had any ground-breaking, inspirational thoughts over the past 6 months - god, of course I have, like realising that drinking lots of water before bed prevents a hangover, and that too much cheese gives you funny dreams - the actual reason for my absence is that I've got a job.

I won't tell you about that just yet, avid readers, I'll just leave you with a small request....