A Field Day for Idioms

The fateful words "She is just a sort of bigoted woman " and "That was a disaster" will go down in history as a spectacular case of Prime Minister Gordon Brown shooting himself in the foot. His prospects of winning the forthcoming General Election next week have possibly been irreparably damaged and his reputation lies in tatters. The cartoon above taken from the Independent shows a picture of Gordon Brown shooting himself in the foot over the choice of words he used about pensioner Gillian Duffy when he thought he was in private. Unfortunately, as the whole world now knows, his microphone was still switched on when he got into his car.

I love the headline above- "Gillian only popped out for a loaf and came back with Brown toast". A wonderful use of informal language "pop out" meaning to go out for a short time, and the play on words "Brown toast" which means that Gordon Brown is in desperate straits or indeed, doomed.

Thanks to the English Blog's excellent coverage of the events here, I was able to view some brilliant cartoons and use them as a handy warmer and discussion opener with my eager FCE / Upper Intermediate level students in the morning and my group of lovely secondary school teachers in the afternoon. I had a copy of the Guardian newspaper to hand and the front page showed a dejected Prime Minister with his head in his hands. The following is a Tagxedo of the words that came up in the discussion that ensued.

It's Worth Taking a Look at this Blog

I am delighted to have received this award, which is part of an initiative called "Vale a pena ficar de olho nesse blog", which means "It's worth keeping an eye on this blog". The chosen blog has to copy the picture above, with a link to the blog from which it has received the award . Then write ten more links to the blogs which you think are well worth a visit. They in turn if they would like to, of course, copy the image above and link to 10 blogs, which shouldn't be the ones I have chosen below. I was linked into this project by Chiew from A Clil to Climb blog. I would like to thank Chiew for considering Janet's Abruzzo Edublog in this lovely initiative. This is Chiew's list of 10 blogs here.

Here is my list of 10 blogs which I think are definitely worth having a look at:

Natasa's Blog
Mike Harrison's Blog
Sean Banville's Blog
Zarco English- Tool of the day (AlexgFrancisco)
Life Feast Blog (Ana Maria Menezes)
Traveloteacher (Arjana Blazic)
A Journey in TEFL (Eva Simkesyan)
Bits'n'Bobs Show and Tell Blog (Chris Adams)
The Island Weekly (Anne Hodgson)

Teaching Village Blog (Barbara Sakamoto)

The Homecoming

The engine purring away contentedly at an average cruising speed of 120 kms per hour, I had to find something to do whilst riding as a pillion passenger on an Aprilia Caponord Rally Raid motorbike for 2 days from Abruzzo to Oxford. The only way to beat the volcanic ash from Iceland was to hop on a motorbike and take to the open road. Time flew past, because I was totally absorbed in the nature that surrounded me. I could throw every cliche in the book at this point and they would all be true, so I will limit myself to a few. Yes, I felt "at one" with nature. Deep in thought, I was able to appreciate the spectacular beauty of the undulating hills of the Abruzzo countryside. Yes, the roar of the engine was a thrill, when pulling out into the traffic. Yes, I was surprised to see that a lot of people were staring at the motorbike, an awful lot.

What is the connection to my adventure with the following headings?

• The End of the Road
• Stairway to Heaven
• Pony Express
• Salvador de Madariaga
• Espallier Pears
• The Real Deal
• Ted Simon
• Moles
• Born to Be Wild
• Arabella's Biker Club
• ETD
  
• A White Rolls Royce
• The Parting of the Waves
• The Royal Wave
• "Bella Moto"
• Saddle Sore
  
• The Tunnel by Friedrich Durrenmatt
• Formula 1
• FC Basel
• Akropovitz Exhaust
• Sheepy Hollow
• Eternal Flame

My next blog post which will reveal all is titled "Special -K in April Rally". I had over 2,000 kms to think of this title. Second best was "On the Road", 3rd best was "Easy Rider". Last one was "Janet's Motorcycle Diaries". As you can see, my mind had a very pleasant work-out and I proved that I still do have some grey matter left.

Unfortunately, the group of primary teachers I was going to be teaching for the next two weeks was unable to get to England from Turkey, Italy and Japan. I was allocated another class of delightful Upper Intermediate/FCE level students. A great mix of UAE, Nicaraguan, Swiss, Spanish, Japanese and Korean students.

Coming very soon - an explanation of the above titles!! In the meantime, can you guess what the above could refer to???

Pannier Packed, I'm Ready to Go!

I wonder if I can do it? I have a few minutes to spare, before I pack the computer into my designated pannier, so just a quick update on state of affairs. A trip to Pescara sorted out the new back tyre for the motorbike, which K fitted back home. Thanks very much to Fabio who changed the tyre at Vulcanfit just before it closed for the day.

Karl's military background is invaluable in organising such trips. As a former Flight Systems Engineer in the RAF, it was his duty to give the planes the all clear for take off. Everything had to be meticulously checked off. Today, everything has been planned with military precision and the motorbike is packed and ready to go. The intercom has been set up, so we can chat together to while away the hours. The challenge now is:how will the fully loaded bike cope going up the partially vertical 1.2 kilometre dirt track that was formerly known as a road?

Having to unpack my suitcase and hand luggage which weighed approximately 25 kilos and squeeze things into a pannier, was challenging, but it's done. My biggest problem was deciding which EFL book I should take with me out of the ones I had originally packed. Guess which one is in the pannier? Answer at the bottom!!

Weather conditions for tomorrow are not too brilliant. Fog all the way to Ancona, then light rain until Milan and rain until Basel, where we stop at a Formula One Hotel for the night. From Basel partly cloudy and maybe sunny until Oxford, 2,000 kilometres later. I think a nice cup of tea will be in order as soon as we arrive! Actually, maybe K would prefer a nice cold beer.

A big thank you to all my lovely PLN who have tweeted words of encouragement via twitter. I appreciate it very much. I won't be tweeting along the route as it's going to be difficult in full motorbike gear, but as soon as I can, I will blog or tweet. That's all for now. Ciao ciao!!

NB
The only EFL book I am taking with me to England tomorrow is......"Teaching Unplugged" by Scott Thornbury and Luke Meddings.

Easy Rider to Beat the Volcanic Ash?

Aprilia Caponord Rally-Raid waiting in the garden to whisk Janet back to UK.

Tweets sent as soon as I had decided to travel by motorbike from Italy to England

After a fruitless day being kept permanently on hold by a certain airline company beginning with "R" (and being charged extortionate rates thereby adding to the misery), and after exhausting various other means including a kind offer of a lift by Chris from Bits and Bobs blog, I have accepted the very kind offer of a 1,350 mile one-way lift by motorbike as being the fastest way to get to Oxford by Monday evening. I will therefore be able to teach my group of primary school teachers from Turkey, Japan, Spain and Italy on Tuesday morning. Well, I do hope they will have arrived from their countries by then. I think I might be a bit exhausted, but at least I will be fulfilling my duty. I will also be able to visit my dear mother, who is once again in hospital after having suffered a setback earlier this week.
The Guardian newspaper has the folllowing newspaper article on "The Iceland volcano ash problem:European flights disruption

Aprilia Caponord - Rally Raid
This motorbike has travelled to and from Italy many times. I just hope it doesn't rain. You see, I'm not a good pillion rider at all. In fact, I would call myself an "Unnatural Born Rider".

Riding around in Abruzzo on the Aprilia Caponord Rally-Raid.