To Harrogate for the IATEFL Conference.

 Written in very small letters, but a nonetheless genuine greeting: Harrogate Welcomes You.

                                                   

And, indeed, on our first day there, this beautiful city is bathed in warm, morning light as seen from our 7^th floor bedroom window at the Crowne Plaza Hotel.  Ever the linguist : why the 'e' in 'Crowne''??                                                     

Here are the lady buds who have travelled from Greece to attend the IATEFL Conference – an excellent reason for a stomp to Britland. The additional member to the group, standing next to me, is Christina, currently teaching and studying for her doctorate at the University of Central Lancashire. I attended her excellent presentation (more on that later!) and simply had to introduce her into our Greek community!                                                   

Here are Angeliki and I hobnobbing with our Patron, Professor David Crystal. Sadly, this was to be his last IATEFL conference as he’s retiring from these duties. He will be sadly missed – our warm, modest giant of a man and a linguist!                                                     

But we had to take full advantage of the grand weather and we did some sight-seeing. Below you can see some of the beautiful old stone buildings, traditional sweet shops and tea-rooms with vibrant plashes of spring flower-beds – so charming!                                       

It was also a great opportunity to have a family meet-up. Below we see my sister and her husband, along with the lady buds, sampling some delicacies at the Jinnah restaurant with its authentic Kashmiri cuisine. We all agreed their food was excellent and their family-size nan bread, impaled on a sword-like instrument, had us all tearing off large tasty chunks!!                                                                  

                                     
 Here we are: two intrepid orienteerers map-reading at the huge Harlow Carr Royal Horticultural Society Gardens. Here we are to meet up with my brother, his wife, their daughter and her two little ’uns. This was a wonderful place for them to run around to their hearts’ content, while we made more sedate circuits, savouring the flower displays.                                              

Mission accomplished – we all had tea together and posed for a shot for the family album. Callum seems less enthusiastic about the photo shoot – good to capture moments like that😊!