My Future Job

Hello again ladies and gentlemen.

Today I will be talking about what job I will have in the future.

Possibly in the future I would like have my own educational research and development business. I can imagine it would be a job full of meetings with interesting and intelligent people. I also imagine it being filled with interesting problems to solve and questions to answer, relating to how you can improve and accelerate educational functionality.

Of course it would most probably be indoors. Most likely in an office, but hopefully a nice one with a great location and beautiful view.

I would love to travel in this job. I would visit many countries throughout the world to investigate the different ways people teach and learn and use this to make many future developments to help everyone internationally, regardless of money or social status.

A lot of the reason for this is that I have studied many different areas of both psychology and education in my lifetime and this has given me a great interest in different ways people use to enhance learning and help people to improve their future possibilities.

I feel that is a great way to minimise the gap in opportunity between people of different cultures and social levels, giving all the best opportunity possible.

Tiki Tiki tiiiii!!! Almost Fiestas Patrias Again!!

Hello ladies and gentlemen!

Today's blog is about that time of year when everyone puts down their work, forgets about everything and starts to party. Yes, it's Friday! No, only joking, it's Fiestas Patrias, or Independence Day here in Chile.

Fiestas Patrias celebrates the first Chilean government of 1810 and a departure from Spanish rule. It is a time of great celebration in Chile and has 2 things in abundance. Food and drink of course!

The food mostly stays faithful to tradition, with many enjoying the Chilean meat pasty, or empanada de pino. Of course, there are a lot of barbecues at this time, with many delicious anticuchos, or kebabs to be eaten. However, let us not forget the star of the show. The 'Choripan', a paprika sausage in a roll, filled with 'pebre'. Although pebre varies in it's level of spiciness, the general ingredients are usually the same, tomato, onion, coriander and chili pepper, with maybe a touch of lemon. The most dangerous thing is to not overdose on these little sandwiches from heaven.

Now for the drink. Strangely during this celebration, the usual Chilean drink of Pisco takes a back seat to a couple of special favourites, Chicha and the deadly 'Terremoto' or earthquake.

Chicha is a simple sweet drink made from apples or grapes. It can vary in strength, but on average is similar to a traditional hard cider. However, the heavyweight of the pair is the mighty Terremoto.

The Terremoto is a mixture of Pipeno, a type of crude wine, pineapple ice cream and Fernet (a bitter liquor) or Grenadine (a sweet pomegranate liquor), depending on if you prefer it bitter or sweet. Very easy to drink. In fact, maybe a little too easy. Here it is necessary to share a word of caution. Although these sweet, ice cream filled treats seem quite harmless, they are not called 'Earthquakes' without reason. Many have enjoyed these drinks, only to feel the earth move when it becomes time to leave.

Have a great Fiestas Patrias everyone, but please be careful and

try not to move the world too much!

The Best Concert I've Ever Been To

There are many concerts I have loved, but I think that probably one of the best concerts I have ever been to was At The Drive In when they played in Manchester. It was so long ago I don't quite remember, but I think it was 2000.

At the Drive-In was an American post-hardcore band from El Paso, Texas, formed in 1993. The band is considered as one of the most influential post-hardcore acts of the late 1990s and early 2000s  Most people these days probably remember them best for being the band that gave birth to The Mars Volta and all subsequent projects.

The atmosphere was electric. The main thing I remember were many signs all around the venue saying that 'mosh pits' were not allowed. At the beginning of the concert, I didn't quite know why.

When the concert started I realised why! Everyone was instantly energised and the audience erupted in adrenaline fueled madness!

I loved it, not only because of the music, also the acrobatics of Cedric Bixler, the singer, as he climbed the speakers to at least 15 feet up, before throwing his microphone, then himself into the air. Madness! 

Sadly, they split up soon after, but in different projects continue to produce good music to this day.

Video

Hi everyone!

For those of you who don't remember, here is a little reminder of what you must do for your video.

A SUBJECT YOU ENJOYED AT SCHOOL

Record a for 2 minute mobile phone video presentation* about a subject you enjoyed at school

Say:

What the subject was,

Who taught it,

Why you enjoyed it,

What things you learnt in this subject.

Mention anything else you think is important.

Don't forget to send it to me before fiestas patrias!

Good luck everyone,
Andy