Welcome to my Civiblog! After getting my head around the idea of a blog and looking about a bit, I decided that this is the ideal hosting place for it. As way of introduction, I'm a member of the Glasgow South Group of Amnesty International, also a groups trainer with Amnesty and have been a volunteer member for the past 17 years. After some attempts at academic research life and subsequent disillusionment with it, I decided to venture into the field of NGOs and the voluntary sector in my working life. I'm now a project co-ordinator for a small charity. My project aims at refugee integration through flexible language learning provision, which is neat for me as it brings together my language teaching background and my desire to work in the field of refugee support and integration.

I'm also an avid traveller, ever interested in getting closer to the human spirit through meeting people from all over the world, and if one characteristic describes my personality, it's my enthusiasm for almost anything. My interests range from politics to literature, running to Thai boxing, gardening to cooking, sustainable transport to gadgets, socialising to electronic networking, languages to dancing. And more of course.

Hopefully this blog will be a treasure chest of the special people, places and expressions I come across in the future.