Dearest students.

The flu has got me. I won’t be able to see you till Monday when hopefully you will be taking the Listening and Reading test. Visit this blog  on Sunday again and I’ll let you know how I am feeling.

Meanwhile, have a look at this video to celebrate Human Rights Day and the 60th anniversary of the UDHR.

Stand up with people all over the world who want to make human rights a reality for everyone!

I have always wanted to have a Warhol  and now with this program I could make my dream come true for FREE. Have a go at it!

It’s fun!!

 

Click here  if you want to try. http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/warholizer.php

 Hydrangea ,pronounced /hai’dreindz(i)∂/ ,is the Latin name for the beautiful Hortensia. Their flower can be blue, white, pink, purple, the exact colour depending on the Ph of the soil. Asturias is full of them and so is my garden .Here is a very nice idea  to make good use of the Hortensias.

This is an article published by N. Bower which I have borrowed without his/her permission . I hope he/she doesn’t mind.

Gather, beg, borrow or steal several Hydrangea heads, from different bushes to get a variety of color. Do not pick them if they are bright blue, they will shrivel up and not look good in the wreath. The heads are easier to use if they are not dry, but slightly dry will work.

Go to a craft store, and buy a 12” straw wreath form and a box of “H” pins (refer to picture).  Put a wire loop around the straw wreath form for hanging later on. Start by pinning the heads with the H pins on the inside of the wreath form, then the top and finally the outside. They should be quite close together. They will dry, keeping most of their color.

Hang your masterpiece in a protected area out of the sun and it will reward you all winter long.

This is clearly not my day . I have got up on the wrong side of the bed. Just this morning and it is only 11.27 I have had two very unpleasant experiences. First, I argued with my youngest son about school homework and then just now I have opened my e-mail and my kind sister has decided that a nice dish for breakfast would be slaughtered dolphins knowing as she knows that I am extremely sensitive to any kind of violence , more when applied to innocents. So that has made my day.

And really I have the impression that I am going to puke after having seen the images of dolphins being killed just for fun. Sorry, I am about to do the same to you  but I feel you need to know.

But a bit of history nicked from different sources on the Internet.

Every year around 2,000 whales are driven ashore and cruelly slaughtered in the Faroe Islands, mid-way between the Shetland Islands and Iceland. For centuries the Faroe Islanders have hunted pilot whales, driving entire schools into killing bays, where they are speared or gaffed from boats, dragged ashore and butchered with knives. 

The Faroese celebrate the butchery of their victims in an carnival atmosphere of entertainment. Indoctrinated from an early age, children are often given a day off school to watch the fun. They run down to the bay and clamber over the carcasses of slaughtered whales.

There is no worst beast than human kind!

Yes, exactly. This is what I am .

You surely remember that some time ago I wrote something about the different kinds of vegetarians , namely, vegan , ovo-vegetarian , lacto-ovo… and I remember that I didn’t know what to call myself, although it was crystal clear to me that I was not a vegetarian.

Well,  I am a pescatarian . New word , by the way. So new, that some British people don’t even know what it means, at least , yet.

It was my teacher in London who taught me this new word. I was so happy with my new acquisition that I jumped at the first opportunity to use it. So, there I was, at a cafe asking for a sandwich.

“What is in there?” I asked the waiter, pointing suspiciously at a sandwich.

“Chicken” he said .

“And this other one?”

“Ham”

Every single time he told me the contents of the sandwich I said “no, no..”

I imagine he was getting quite tired of me when he asked :

“What the hell are you…  a vegetarian?

“No, I am a pescatarian.” I happily admitted.

“What on earth is this? “he snapped at me

And, there was a girl behind me, probably as angry at me as the waiter who explained to the man behind the counter  that a pescatarian is someone  who abstains  from eating all meat and animal flesh with the exception of fish.

So this is it… you already know what a pescatarian is.

Now , this is homework  …. What is a flexitarian??

But , of course, you cannot be in London and not to go to the BBC. And so I went and had a great time. I even saw a quiz being recorded although to tell you the truth I don’t have a clue about the name of this quiz. I also volunteered to do the weather forecast as the pic shows and I became the newsreader for 

a while(I’ll show you the photo some other time) . Nice experience , by the way!!

The BBC is the largest broadcasting corporation in the world and you have to pay if you want to see its programmes. The annual cost of a colour TV licence (set by the Government) is currently £139.50 and with that you get  good programmes without commercials.

The BBC uses the income from the licence fee to provide services including 8 national TV channels plus regional programming, 10 national radio stations, 40 local radio stations and an extensive website, bbc.co.uk which I highly recommend

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/multimedia/

Well, gentle reader. It’s been one month since  my last post.I’ve been darn busy. Doing what? You may ask (or not) but I am going to tell you anyway.

The first fortnight of July I have been collaborating with Richmond London carrying out some review work for a textbook mainly intended for adults. I quite enjoyed this as it is something different from teaching.

Then the second fortnight of July and a bit of August I have been writing a project about School Libraries that has taken me  too long I should say . So as you can see I’ve been busy enough and now….. on Sunday I am leaving for London.

What am I going to do there? I am going to take a course…. yes, a boring course about methodology so when this next course I enter my classes you will see a “brush-up -your- English” kind of teacher … or so. To tell you the truth it is not as dull as it may seem as I hope to have a great time there.I am going to study in a prestigious school called International School in Covent Garden and I’ll be staying in a very nice area near King’s Cross  . The place is called Nido’s and it looks very smart. I cannot recommend it yet but it looks perfect to me.

Hey London!!! Get ready !! I’m coming!!

Forget Viagra and try watermelon instead.  Researchers from Texas A&M’s Fruit and Vegetable Improvement Center say the fruit’s rind can have a Viagra-like effect for men. I’m afraid you would probably have to eat large quantities of the rind , which is the part that you don’t normally eat, if you want it to work right now but I’ve read they are trying to breed watermelons with higher concentrations of citruline , which is apparently the reason of its incredible properties. Guess what… watermelon is in season.

Well, I  don’t know what I am, that’s why I have dedicated some time to finding an answer to what I am or rather to what  I eat or don’t eat. For me,one of the most tiring things about not eating what everybody around me  eats is having to hide the fact that  I just eat differently and having everybody around me worried about what they might offer me; so, when my friends and I go to a party or birthday or whatever occasion where food is involved I ask them not to attract attention to my eating habits. I can tell you it’s not fun struggling to make people understand that I won’t eat anything cooked with meat and what is worst, trying to explain that even though they remove the chicken or the meat I still won’t eat it.

The word “vegetarian” is a blanket term used to describe somebody who does not eat meat, poultry, fish or seafood. But then, within this term there exist different sub-groups.

VEGAN . This person doesn’t eat any animal products or by products and this includes cheese, milk… some of them don’t even wear leather or wool.

LACTO-VEGETARIAN : The same as vegans but they eat dairy products

OVO- VEGETARIAN : The same as vegans but they eat eggs

 OVOLACTO VEGETARIANS  are by far the largest group of vegetarians

SEMI-VEGETARIAN are not vegetarians strictly-speaking as they may eat fish but not meat or the other way round.

Silly things people say to vegetarians ….. when given the chance. I don’t any more.

So what do you eat? A lot of salad? 

     Congratulations!!!!

Yes, I feel so very proud of you. You have done incredibly well in the exams . I know it was hard to face a three member board especially when, just trying to face me while doing an oral exam  was hard enough. Anyway , you’ll find your marks on Monday here www.eoilangreo.net  . Having congratulated you all , I have to admit that  one of my students has failed two skills and I want to encourage this person to sit the exam in September as the marks ,although not enough to pass , are high enough to make me think it’s fairly possible that she’ll pass if she tries just a little bit harder. So, cheer up , my dear student ! I know you can do it! 

Have a nice summer!!!