REFLECTION ON SRC NEWRY AND ARMAGH

I feel really lucky to have had this opportunity through the "Employ me" course, not only to receive new training and insight into Web development and Technology Systems, and OCR ITQ training on Word, Excel,spreadsheets, and PowerPoint, but just to have the experience of the collage itself.
Newry SRC is a vibrant wonderful place with amazing courses, wonderful equipment and teachers, an amazing refectory and cut price hair cuts, even massage and beauty therapy.
The library is a great place to concentrate, and having access to the computers and all the facilities has really made a difference in my life right now.
I will partake in future courses for sure at night as I wish to know more about all the different courses offered. The essential English and Maths skills are also fantastic, even though I don't partake in this course having already gained 11 GCSE's including English and Maths, it is a real winner for those who need it.
The Newry campus is so modern in design I can say on entering the buildings I am inspired.
The Armagh campus has so many interesting courses including music which I would love to do but alas my life is at a later stage and this wasn't available when I was in my teens.
Just love the whole experience and the new friends I have made.

SPOOKY SPIDER SPINNINGS DOWN BY THE OLD CANAL

Newry canal and bus station

One of the students said that his cousin had been bitten by a poisonous spider in Dublin. He showed me the graphic images where the spider had literally taken a bite out of his cousin's wrist. Early one morning at the bus station I came across these spooky spider spinnings on the railings next to the bus station.
I showed my colleagues on the course at break time and I was told that there are poisonous spiders in Newry canal living under the bridges. Apparently they have arrived here on the boats from the nearby port of Warrenpoint. Yikes! I hope I never meet one myself but they do produce some amazing shapes, especially with the morning dew still hanging on them.

GLENANNE

GLENANNE

Probably my favorite bus view, this lake in the middle of the country side. How I dream of what it must be like to live here with that view outside your window. Only three houses sit by this lake and one newly build currently for sale. I checked for how much and its going for 185,000 pounds.

Well I have always lived in the towns and cities but I can't help dreaming of Sunday afternoons with all the family around for dinner and then just dreaming on the view after lunch, watching the wildlife and the setting sun.

Here is a  pic of the same lake in winter. 

BUMPY BUS

Can you believe what I have to endure for this course? Well to my surprise on this particular morning a double decker bus awaited me and four other passengers for the journey to Armagh from Newry.
Yes a double decker bus. We picked up another four or five people along the way with the grand total of  ten passengers on the journey. As I mentioned before, the bus does take a rather alternative route and when we hit this country road with low branches the result was a very noisy interlude with tree branches crashing onto the front and roof of the bus. It was crazy and the noise deafening. Apparently this double decker is still running between the two destinations and they haven't take it off yet, nor cut down the branches. It is a pretty road though!

And if you are not in too much of a rush you will come across the rush hour on the same road.
It could be cows or sheep blocking that road. Last week thirty sheep got out of their field and blocked the road for a while. The bus driver got out and tried to open a gate into a field but it was locked. After about fifty meters they all turned left and headed into a private house and went following the leader up the drive. SO funny!

Morning Rush hour

we can go now

THE BEAUTY OF A WINTER MORN

SEE HER THERE IN THE AIR
VEIL UPON THE LAND
THE BEAUTY OF A FOGGY MORN
HERE IN MY HAND

Lorraine

AUTUMN POEM

With the energy of a spring lamb,

I embrace the autumn winds running late for the bus.

Witness to the aftermath of the gales the night before

Strewn leaves making every puddle a delight.

I arrive to watch my bus leaving, and waiting for another,

The river flowing past carrying debris from the night before.

Life is good today

Spring inside

Autumn outside

Bumpy bus, you take me high and low through a winding world of wonderful views

Houses dotted, rivers entwined by the divine.

Flooding in the fields, shining in the sun

New born lakes mark the tempest of the night before.

Country roads dressed in autumn, orange gold and red.

Cows, sheep, all to pretty to eat, chomp the grass to lawn effect

Hardly moving through the day.

Big bellied clouds ride the sky then drop to wash the bus and all.

And in between the sun shines as if the storm had never happened,

Glistening the leaves and torn branches to leave them dancing.

Setting sun

I wish you’d stay fixed forever like that in the sky.

Your golden light to match the fall.

Falling, as on my way I go

Home to light the fire.

Where orange glow reminds me of the day and dancing leaves the flames.

Lorraine

THE BUS RIDE FROM NEWRY TO ARMAGH...A FEAST FOR THE EYES

One of the most awarding experiences of this course has been believe it or not, the bus journey from Newry to Armagh. The bus embarks on a one hour journey winding through small country settlements such as Whitecross, Newtownhamilton, Markethill, and Glenane.
Even though I grew up in Newry it was my first time on this route and these settlements I saw for the very first time. I started the course in Autumn when the leaves just started to fall and hedges began to mutate into a feast of gold, rusts and brown.
Some days were met with foggy morns where the mist lay hanging in the fields softly lit by the breaking sun.

Foggy morn in South Armagh

Rising sun softly lighting the fields.

After having lived abroad in the Middle East for the last eighteen years I am simply awed and mystified by hte beauty from the bus window. This journey even inspired me to write poetry.

VIEWS FROM THE BUS. A BIG RAINBOW DAY!

Ireland is the land of rainbows they say and I must agree. These pics were taken alone the route on showery days with the sun popping in an out long enough to prism the clouds into these glorious rainbows

"Ireland" is the land of rainbows they say and I must agree. These pics were taken alone the route on showery days with the sun popping in an out long enough to prism the clouds into these glorious rainbows.

THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST....FEEDBACK!

Last week we had a feed back session with one of our course organizers. I thought it was welcome, especially at this stage when we are just half way through the course. There fore any adjustments can be made in time for the students to benefit from the second half of the course.
Can you think of any name for the course apart from "Employ Me" ? was a question put to us.
How about "Bridge The Gap"
or " Never too late" as most of the students are over 35.
It was said that we feel as a group that it is great to have courses for the over 35 age group as most of the courses are aimed at a younger audience 16-30

It was also said that we are not so proficient in  the Dreamweaver software and that the course criteria are not yet on Moodle, so we feel a lack of clear aims and objectives for the course.
Yesterday the criteria are now on Moodle and the lesson was much better.

THE STORY OF A STORY BOARD

I don't like my site so far. I cant connect with it for some reason. I have been using word to prepare the story board so far. Then my colleague sitting next to me said "why don't you use publisher? It's so much easier than word to create the boxes for the site". I never heard of publisher until now and luckily she was sitting next to me so that I now can use this option which I really like.


I am also finding it hard to choose a set colours for the site as they all look good to me and so I have decided to re-do the whole thing in a simple white background. |I wont have buttons but instead just text that links to the various pages.


Yes I like it much better already and the little logos I made on wordle.com look much better now also.

This is the old version

OLD VERSION

NEW VERSION

I Like the white colour better, its more neutral and cleaner. The final product will not have the boxes, and just the text. Publisher makes it easy for me to copy the page seven times so that I can work on each page individually.