Start of Term Crazies

It's been a busy old time for me, so I've not had a chance to look at anything particularly Web 2.0-ey, save checking in to see what's going down on my iGoogle and Facebook pages. So what have I been doing instead?

Well, there was a week in Rome, which was amazing. We pretty much checked off a good year's worth of a Grand Tour in a week. Photos from each of the days are here, here, here, here, here and finally here. Rather than setting up a new account with Flickr or Picasa, I stuck with Facebook. It looks like they may be able to start taking more high-res images, which is quite kewl. If they do, I'll be able to upload one of Trajan's Column, which I took in three parts and then had Ian stitch together. At the moment, Facebook can't cope with it because it's too big, so it would be nice to be able to include it in the set.

Then I had my county archery association's AGM. I've been secretary for 6 years, and have got steadily more disillusioned with what I was doing. Coupled with the fact that I've not made any inroads on my degree for a year (well, I've worked, I just haven't produced anything I can hand in), I thought I'd step aside this year and force let someone else take over. Hopefully I'll actually start enjoying archery again!

A while back I mentioned the Cephalonian Method, which had been covered at TeachMeet. So I did try it, really I did, when I took some AHA students round the library. I think perhaps the group was too small, because no one was particularly willing to contribute a question except for the AHA Librarian. Still, I thought the essence of the tour was more to introduce us as a friendly place that wouldn't mind being asked questions at a later date, and hopefully that got across. Certainly, we've already had a number of them return, so they're clearly not totally terrified of us!

But yesterday was the university archery club's second Have-A-Go session, and it occured to me as I was chatting to my novices that I incorporate the Cephalonian Method while I coach. There's a lot of time spent waiting around, since people are often 4-5 to a bow, so you need to keep up a considerable amount of patter to keep them interested while they watch everyone else shoot. So when one asks a question like "how much does a bow cost?", I'll often say something like "a bow like the one you're using will cost about £80-120, but the club provides all equipment for novices, and you won't have to buy your own bow unless you're sure you're going to continue in the sport." Each time, answering the question and adding a bit more. So, snaps to me for that. =)

One of the pictures of Rome to finish this post off:

The Trevy Fountain, taken by me.