10 Quotes To Inspire You To Book That Ticket!

The European holiday season is fast approaching and just in case you weren't already inspired to make plans and travel these quotes should help give you the little nudge you need!

 

 

Stay happy and travel light!

Tips for surviving Topdeck training trip

Topdeck training trips are starting again next month and I have had a few people asking me for tips and suggestions on how to prepare for them. In my opinion there are 3 main things that will lead you to not perform as well as you could on training. 1. Being underprepared 2. Not having enough sleep and 3. Not having enough confidence. Here are my suggestions on how to combat each of these.

1. Preparation
Do your study before hand! I can't stress this enough. I know it seems like a lot, I have had several people tell me already that their homework looks like too much but trust me, when you actually get out there and need to use it, whatever you have is suddenly not enough. You WILL want more recipes, or facts or whatever and at that point, you wont have any time or internet to get them! This results in staying up late night after night to try and find these extra bits of information. Which leads me to my next point.

2.Sleep

Get as much sleep as possible when you can on the trip (at night). Point number 1 directly effects point 2. If you have more information before the trip, you will have more time to sleep whilst on it rather than sacrificing sleep for study. It sounds like the logical thing but trust me once you are on the trip, it is much harder to prioritize sleep than you think.

 

3. Confidence

A lot of the trip (from the trainer's side) is about playing with your mind. To keep your head straight and stop you from giving up have some physical positive thoughts to pull out when your confidence is low. Quotes, pictures maybe a letter, whatever works for you and gives you a bit more of a push forward. Print it out and stick it in a book or your wallet. You wont be allowed to use any technology on the trip so there is no use having it on your phone.

 

On the same kind of note – a really positive song can get you through some of the hard spots. You wont be able to listen to it very often but at the end of a night (this is probably about 2am) I would put in my headphones and concentrate on Rudimental's 'not giving in'. This hardened my mind and sent me to sleep with positive vibes.

 

And finally and equally as important -

Look out for the other members of your TT. This is important for sooo many reasons. The training trip is not a competition. You are not 'up against' these other people. It will be a hard time for everyone and it may also be your first time being in a group that is so varied in personalities and cultures. Help who you can and you will be helped in return. Share information and stories and get to really know everyone. You will be very close with them for the whole trip, and then again when you are working with them! Your TT group will continue to help you out for the rest of your season on the road so being a friend from the beginning will help you for the rest of your TD career.

Good luck to everyone going into training this year,
I hope to see you on the road!

oh darling...

Where anything goes!

 

Carnevale in Venice has been on my 'must do' list for quite some time (remember this?) So when I got my position au-pairing in Veneto I knew that making in for the festival would be one of my priorities.

 

 

The 31st of January marked the start of the festivities and on Sunday I was up bright and early to catch the train in. The highlight of the day was going to be the 'flight of the angel' when at midday, a young girl, the winner of last years 12 Maria's (more on that later), 'flies' on a zip line from the top of the bell tower in St Mark's square down to the Doge who is waiting in the square to greet her. This is a very old tradition beginning in the 12th century when it was called 'the flight of the Turk' after the Turkish man who wowed the crowds by walking a tightrope from his moored boat, up to the bell tower and then across to the Doge's balcony. Nowadays there are a lot more harnesses.

The stage in the square

 

There was a stage set up in St Mark's square opposite the basilica for this event and many others throughout the day. The 12 Marias of this year were first presented to their adoring public just before the angel flew. The tradition of the Marias is even older than the angel, it is supposed to have started in the 900's when the church was looking to gain a bit more popularity with the common people. They would pick out 12 young, poor, beautiful and engaged girls from various towns. They would then shower them with gifts, jewelry and items for a dowry and them parade them through the streets as a show of the kindness of the church before taking them and marrying them to their respective partners. On one occasion the girls were kidnapped from the church by pirates (mostly for their expensive jewelry) and a frantic chase began across the Venice lagoon. All the girls were recovered safely along with the jewels. After this the tradition became even more elaborate, involving re-creations of the chase. The tradition died out (although it lasted about 300 years!) as it became to expensive to continue. The girls were replaced by wooden girls but this didn't go down well with the public who were used to having beautiful young things to oogle at. It went down so badly that eventually the whole thing got called off. I'm not sure when it began again but now the 12 Marias do not have to be poor, or engaged. Just beautiful. They are guests of honor during various balls and via some judging process one is proclaimed the winner and her prize is that the next year she will get to be the angel coming down from the bell tower.

 

The Marias parading through the square

 

Most of my day was just spent doing laps of St Mark's square and out to the edge where it meets the sea, taking pictures of all the beautiful costumes. About 50% of the people there had some sort of dress up going on. From the extravagant head to toe get up which is what I was there to see, to people like me just wearing a mask, some even just had some face paint on, it all added to the feeling of festivities. Some people seemed to be treating it a little like Halloween and were just in fancy dress, I saw  sponge bob and Indians and clowns. Confetti was everywhere and the sun was shining.  In true Venice form the square flooded but they didn't put the usual walkways up, I think maybe it was too crowded. No one seemed to mind.

 

Flooding

Of course I got dressed up!

 

From one side....

... and from the other

 

 

The crowds

Still got to do your business if you are in costume!