Gaelic Christmas Cards 19 Aug 2010, 5:50 am

I know it's only August so I probably shouldn't be mentioning the word Christmas just yet but all groans aside, Ablekids Press has now added Gaelic Christmas cards to its product list. There are 2 designs each with 2 options. Packs of 6 cards with the Christmas greeting on the front and blank inside or individual cards which also have a Christmas and New Year greeting inside. The cards are size A6 which is 6" x 4"/105mm x 148mm. The packs are available with 6 of the same design or 3 of each design. Other languages in the pipeline are English, French, Polish and Hungarian.

Adventures in China 9 Aug 2010, 3:50 pm

I must confess my thoughts have been in a far off land for the past few weeks. My son set off on a big adventure to China over 5 weeks ago and I have been trying to follow his progress and remain calm at the same time ever since. Years ago whilst still at school, he fell in love with the idea of going to a Chinese Shaolin school of martial arts and this summer he finally arranged to do it. My relief at hearing of his safe arrival was somewhat tempered by the brief descriptions of the daily 'conditioning' - e.g. 'I'm fine, or as fine as you can be when you've been hit 200 times with a stick!'or 'We did stretching today - I was screaming in agony'!!! I don't think you get postcards which quite sum up that type of holiday! Anyway, a tendon injury, which involved a trip to hospital with a suspected broken leg, curtailed the last of his training before he flew back to Beijing to attend summer school. On his way to registration yesterday, the taxi he was in took him to the wrong University and ended up being hit by another car. Thankfully, no-one was hurt. With 2 weeks to go before he gets home, my poor nerves are jangling. He's keeping a diary which must be of book proportions already. Lucky for him, I know a publisher!!

Gaelic from the past 1 Aug 2010, 9:40 am

I have known for a long time that my maternal grandmother was brought up on a croft from a young age by Gaelic speaking relatives after her mother died and her father had to travel about for work. It was a source of great amusement that my Granny, having insisted she knew only a few words of Gaelic, was heard speaking it fluently in her sleep when she was an old lady. During a recent conversation with my own mother, I mentioned some Gaelic words which were part of a commission I was working on. Nothing prepared me for the flood of Gaelic words, phrases and even a word perfect proverb which had been triggered in my mother's memory. She had been brought up with no idea that many of the everyday words and sayings her mother used were pure Gaelic. They just flowed through her speech like a river being fed by different streams - Gaelic, Scots and English.

Ilyria 22 Jul 2010, 6:58 am

Went to see Ilyria's performance of Romeo and Juliet on Sunday at Cawdor Castle. Wellie boots, golf umbrellas and deckchairs aren't the normal requisites for going to the theatre but Ilyria is an outdoor touring company and for the last three years, their annual performance in the Inverness area has been conducted in the pouring rain. This year I was marked down to contribute salad for our picnic. Lettuce based salad eaten in the rain could not be saved by the wit of Shakespearean comedy in previous years so for the sad tale of Romeo and Juliet, lettuce was banished and something a little more robust provided. Terry, bless her, didn't have to sup her wine from a Benecol container this time, having forgotten her entire share of the picnic and utensils last year! Anyway, not a drop of rain fell. Instead we were kept company by midges which made sure some real blood was being exchanged during the performance. Set against the stunning backdrop of Cawdor Castle, Ilyria, as always, gave an energetic performance. Their seamless ability to change costume and character is amazing and whatever the weather, they draw in the audience. Looking forward to next year's offering already!

Gnìomhan 10 Jul 2010, 7:47 am

It has been a long, long time in production but finally the Gaelic translation of the Fruit Lane activities is finished and on sale. There is even a version containing an English translation. I am soooooo very happy about getting this product to market as there is nothing quite like it out there. A combination of crafts, counting, singing and colouring-in are mixed with little tests of general knowledge and observation. It's quirky and original and I hope parents and teachers will have as much fun using these activities as I did making them up. A big thank you to Katie MacGregor for persevering with the translation and to Tommy Wigman for undertaking the musical side. Learning to sing in Gaelic was a challenge I thoroughly enjoyed and I hope many children will follow in my footsteps and learn the Ceum Nam Measan songs too.

Bra Nicht 6 Jun 2010, 11:33 am

I was helping with registration and handing out refreshments at last night's Bra Nicht Moonlight Walk in Inverness in aid of cancer charities.I have never seen so much pink in my life and it looked terrific. Some of the get-ups were hilarious but my greatest admiration goes to the four ladies linked together in a straight line by one ENORMOUS bra. Whether they plumped for the 8 mile walk or the 13 mile one I don't know but either way, they deserve a medal as walking like that for any distance around the streets of Inverness could not have been easy. They were still smiling at the first refreshment tent about 2 miles into the walk and set off again with enthusiasm so I hope they made it to the end. They declared it a test of their friendship and I think they may have been right! I dedicate this blog to one of my greatest friends who is fighting this awful disease at this very moment and to other friends who have also been through this traumatic illness.

Translation matters 26 May 2010, 2:50 pm

With the completed translation of Ceum Nam Measan Gaelic activities tantalisingly close,- not translated by me, I hasten to add - I've been struck, as usual, by the mind-bending variety of options given by Gaelic dictionaries for the simplest of words. When I want to check a word in French, I go to one French dictionary and find it. When I want to check a word in Gaelic, I trawl through two bilingual dictionaries - both ways because often words appear on one side but not the other or the spelling changes from one side to the other!- and a vocabulary book, by which time I may well have three possible translations after which I speak to a native Gaelic speaker who says 'I wouldn't use those'!!! For example, I am driven to distraction by the word 'clock' in Gaelic - 'cloc','cleoc' or 'gleoc'. 'Pendule' in French, 'zegar' in Polish, 'reloj' in Spanish...

Naw-Ruz 21 Mar 2010, 8:02 am

A friend invited me to the Bahá'i New Year Celebrations of Naw-Ruz which took place last night. Having never been to a traditional Iranian new year ceremony, which falls at the spring equinox and symbolises the new life of spring, I was very interested to see what it would be like. Coming after a 19 day fast, part of the celebration is a feast and a great variety of delicious internaional dishes were available.First however, there was an introduction explaining the meaning of Naw-Ruz, singing, Indian and Scottish dancing, a story told in Doric, a harpist and poetry reading. Human diversity is a very important feature of this celebration and the Bahá'i faith. To see everyone enjoying themselves so much on nothing stronger than a cocktail of fizzy apple, bitter lemon and ginger and the joy of sharing their culture with friends was truly heart-warming.

International Women's Day 8 Mar 2010, 7:53 am

Today is International Women's Day and on Saturday I had a stall at an event celebrating this very important day not only in our calendar but around the world. As well as an array of businesses selling fabulous craft work and clothes, the organisers had laid on entertainment including displays of Indian, Fijian and Chinese dancing, Kung Fu, Scottish singing, Gaelic waulking songs, comedy drama including fashion show plus information on how to be more environmentally friendly. With free Fairtrade tea, coffee, chocolate and tiny samples of chocolate brownies to die for, plus free lunch offering a taste of Iranian, Indian and other international cuisine, this wonderful event was an excellent way of bringing different peoples together and celebrating the amazing versatility and endeavour of women.

PDFs 27 Feb 2010, 10:37 am

Ablekids Press is working on a series of monolingual, bilingual and trilingual PDFs - Portable Document Files - which can be emailed to customers, downloaded and printed on demand. The beauty of this type of resource is its flexibility as usually each PDF can be used for several different tasks on top of the original one for which it was devised. Animal Bingo is a perfect example. As well as having the game of Bingo, the additional documents allow for the creation of flashcards, vocabulary exercises, Snap and Memory Games. The extra feature of being able to choose 5, 7 or 9 animals per bingo page is the sort of variation that would never be available in a traditionally manufactured game. Flashcards are another good example of how one product can serve several functions. In a shop-bought pack of flashcards, the customer is limited to one of each picture, whereas with a PDF, unlimited copies can be printed so that whole classes can be involved in an activity and several games devised to exploit the PDFs potential.