What Kate and Kris Did

18/03/2025

Arriving in Gjirocaster old town, we were entertained by the Albanian air force band

And yes, that's a guy playing guitar with his teeth.....

18/03/2025

Stunning views from Gjirocaster Fortress

We hopped on a bus from Sarande, which took about an hour. Although quick enough for a day trip, the buses only go there and back in the mornings right now

It gave us a good excuse to explore Gjirocaster by night, which was a surprise.....

18/01/2025

Greeting from Saranda, Albania 🌞

This seaside town is just off the coast of Corfu so the weather is mild.....just what we need because we are not fans of cold winters🥶

We have rented an apartment for three months and are working from here. As it is off-eason, there are lots of empty apartments and the owners are happy to rent them long term for a cheap price. 😀

We can only stay in Albania for 90 days before we need to leave, so that takes us until April.

This is the view from our apartment.....,🥰

Stay tuned for more pics and info from here

07/01/2025

New Year 2025 was spent in our first country of the year - Albania!

We had a week in Tirana exploring the sights and seeing in the New Year ....
...actually, nothing much happened before midnight as bars and restaurants closed. There were tremendous fireworks from 11.30 that seemed to last all night. 🎆

We drank bubbly wine (you can't call it champagne if it doesn't come from France, can you?) 🍾 and watched the fireworks from the balcony of our Airbnb apartment.

We are in Albania for three months - which is how long we are allowed to stay without a visa. As we work for ourselves now, we don't get visas like we did before so we have to limit how long we spend in one place.

We are not staying in the capital city long term though. The sea is calling......

28/12/2024

2024 has flown by! It started in Hong Kong, including travels to the Philippines 🇵🇭, Malaysia 🇲🇾 Macau 🇲🇴Seoul 🇰🇷 and Sri Lanka 🇱🇰.

In August we left our jobs at the British Council and Hong Kong for an exciting new adventure

We set up our online teaching business in September. Over the first three months, we have got more and more students and helped many people get their IELTS certificate for their future work and studies.

As we can work from anywhere, we worked in Bulgaria for the first three months. We didn't get much chance to explore as we were working but we got to know the capital city, Sofia, and spent two months in the pretty town of Veilko Tarnovo.

We are currently back in the UK for Christmas, before heading to our next destination tomorrow....

Want to know where? Stay tuned......

18/11/2024

The old town of Veilko Tarnovo is a maze of narrow cobbled streets lined with traditional stone and wood houses. Many of the houses are shops selling local craft products - wood carving, wine, embroideries etc.

We aren't staying in the old town, because it's mainly for tourists. The newer part of town won't win any prizes for beauty but it's more practical with food shops, takeaways, kiosks etc.

Since we are working during the week, it's much more convenient for us to be here.

06/11/2024

We realise that we haven't posted here lately ...largely because we post every day on our teaching business accounts and forget about this one

Sorry. 😞

We will be better. Promise 🥺

We have been in Bulgaria 🇧🇬 since the end of September and are staying here in the town of Veilko Tarnovo until December.

It's the old capital from the 12th century. You can see why it was chosen....the ridges on the hills around the town form natural protection and house old fortresses 🏰

Stay tuned for photos of the cobbled streets of the old town.....

20/09/2024

As some of you already know, we left Hong Kong last month and are starting an exciting new chapter in our lives, working for ourselves. 🎉

We have been teaching English since 2007 and have always worked for language centres, universities and schools, so it seemed the right time to become independent. 🧑‍🏫

We offer preparation for the IELTS exam mainly, as this is something we are experts in.

If you are not aware of IELTS, it is an international English language test owned by the British Council, IDP Australia and Cambridge English. It is used for students applying to study in English, both in English speaking countries and at universities that teach in English, for employment at international companies where a lot of English is used, and for immigration to English speaking countries like Canada and Australia.

We have been preparing students for this exam since 2008 and we have taught it for the major IELTS preparation centres. We were IELTS Speaking and Writing examiners for the British Council and IDP for several years, and over this time, we feel we have become experts in this area. 👩‍💻

We also offer online classes in other areas of English for adults and teenagers. As we were examiners for other English language exams in the past, which includes preparation for Cambridge exams (First, Advanced and Proficiency) and the Pearson Test of English, particularly the speaking and writing parts. 👩‍💻

If you need support in using English for work, we have a lot of experience in business English and corporate skills and we can help with areas such as interviews, presentations, improving email and report writing and taking part in meetings. 🤝

If you, or anyone you know, are looking for online English classes, please let us know. 👇

We would also be grateful if you would pass on our details to others.

Thanks a lot 🙏

As experts in the IELTS test, we can help you get the score you need. Whether you need coaching in writing or speaking, mock tests or a full course, we can help

26/08/2024

Our third safari to Kumana National Park gave us excellent viewings of leopards. Apparently afternoons are the best times to see them in hot season, because they are starting to move around to find water.

These two males were just chilling under trees.
There were fewer trucks in Kumana and our driver knew exactly where to see the animals

Kumana also had a lot of other wildlife. It was more like an African savannah with wild pigs, deer, elephants and huge flocks of birds by big watering holes

12/08/2024

Sri Lanka safari number 2 - Wilupattu National Park in the north west of the island

It apparently has the second highest number of leopards outside Yala National Park and the highest number of sloth bears.

We did a full day safari. We caught a short glimpse of two leopards playing early in the morning, and a sloth bear heading into the forest, but there was a lot of other stuff to see.

Spoiler alert....there were better shots of leopards on safari number 3 so stay tuned

01/08/2024

Sri Lanka is a country of wildlife, and so of safaris. Safari number 1 was to Minneriya, where elephants gather in huge numbers at this time of year to eat the sweet grass.

31/07/2024

Dambulla cave temple is a stunning place - hundreds of Buddha statues in caverns on the side of a mountain

This one was only 300 steps up so not as big a climb as Sigiriya, luckily. Doing both on the same day was quite a challenge for our legs though 😩

26/07/2024

Sigiriya is a famous rock on the centre of Sri Lanka with the ruins of an old city on top

An illegitimate son of the King of Sri Lanka killed his father and overthrew his brothers to pronounce himself king.

He moved the capital city to the top of this rock. The main buildings were right on the top, accessed by steep steps.

You can see why he chose that location for defence purposes, but can you imagine how difficult it was to build up there?

It was all in vain anyway as his brother returned with an army and took back the country. The capital was moved back to the old location and the rock was given to Buddhist monks.

You can climb up to see the sunrise....but that is before 6 am which seemed far too early. We climbed up at 8 am instead when the view was still amazing but it was not too hot or busy.

11/06/2024

Yey! It's time for another of our New Teacher Tales interviews, where we talk to English teachers around the world about how they started out, their experiences as international teachers and what advice they would give to people starting out

In this post, our colleague Stefanie, from Germany tells us her experiences teaching in diverse places like Vietnam and Italy, and what advice she gives others.

She also has her own blog where she gives great suggestions for lesson ideas. Have a look at the post and check it out!

Stefanie tells us about her English teaching career in Vietnam, Italy, Spain and the UK, and how she found that being open minded led her to meet very kind and helpful people all over.

20/05/2024

We are just back from a couple of days exploring Seoul. 🇰🇷

The city is an interesting mix of modern and ancient.

Although the old royal palaces had been destroyed by Japanese invasions, they have and are being restored and you can explore the stunning grounds 👑

Many people hire traditional Korean outfits and have their photos taken in the grounds.

09/05/2024

🇲🇴 Macau is famous for gambling. It is the only place in China where it is allowed. Apparently Macau earns more income from gambling than Las Vegas!

Las Vegas style, many of the casinos are part of huge hotel complexes with shopping centres and interesting themes.

The Londoner 💂was more 'English' than anything we have seen in England, the Parisian has an Eiffel Tower 🇫🇷 and the Venetian 🇮🇹 has a canal complete with water and gondoelor and moving sky. ⛅

We didn't gamble, because it's a fools game, but we did love the decor 🎰

07/05/2024

A quick hour long ferry from Hong Kong 🇭🇰 took us to Macau 🇲🇴!

Macau was colonised by the Portuguese back in the 16th century and was technically still a Portuguese colony until 1999.

The old town is a World Heritage Site for its combination of Portuguese and Chinese architecture.