Blind windows and pecking birds

Four in ten French people don't take a soak in the shower every day

Four in ten French people don't take a soak in the shower every day according to survey revealing shocking personal hygiene across the Channel.

French woman shower, according to the survey, once every four days which is about once a week. Not exactly a shock ;-)

Tykocin is a small town with a rich history.

Shocking plastic bag facts

Worldwide, a trillion single-use plastic bags are used each year, nearly 2 million each minute. Usage varies widely among countries, from over 400 a year for many East Europeans, to just four a year for people in Denmark and Finland. Plastic bags, made of depletable natural gas or petroleum resources, are often used only for a matter of minutes. Yet they last in the environment for hundreds of years, shredding into ever-smaller pieces but never fully breaking down.

Pictionary adapted for the ESL classroom

Pictionary adapted for the ESL classroom is great. Recycle the language from the last unit or sections of a textbook. Pairwork with one student having to explain a word, without saying the word or acting it out, so that their partner can draw it accurately on the board. Vocabulary revision, recycling and articulating the given word all in one fun game. Excellent :-)

Board Race

There isn't a good  EFL teacher I know who doesn't use this game in the classroom. Board Race is a fun game that is used for revising vocabulary, whether it be words from the lesson you've just taught or words from a lesson you taught last week. It can also be used at the start of the class to get students active. It is a great way of testing what your students already know about the subject you're about to teach. 
So why use it? Well it is great for revising vocabulary and  grammar. It is so versatile it suits all levels and ages

What is the collective noun for a group of baboons?

What is the collective noun for a group of baboons?  The Pentagon.

I never wanted to believe that my Dad was stealing from his job

I never wanted to believe that my Dad was stealing from his job as a road worker. But when I got home, all the signs were there.

Learn sign language

Learn sign language, it’s very handy. it’s very handy.

What do you call a big pile of kittens?

What do you call a big pile of kittens? A meowntain.

What’s the best part about living in Switzerland?

What’s the best part about living in Switzerland? Not sure, but the flag is a big plus.

My friend recently got crushed

My friend recently got crushed by a pile of books, but he’s only got his shelf to blame.

How does NASA organize

How does NASA organize their company parties? They planet.

Why don’t you ever see hippopotamus

Why don’t you ever see hippopotamus hiding in trees? Because they’re really good at it.

The dyslexic devil

The dyslexic devil worshipper sold his soul to Santa.

The midget fortune teller

The midget fortune teller who kills his customers is a small medium at large.

Clever boy

Teacher: whoever answers my next question, can go home. One boy throws his bag out the window. Teacher: who just threw that?! Boy: Me! I’m going home now.

Riddle

What is greater than God,
more evil than the devil,
the poor have it,
the rich need it,
and if you eat it, you'll die?

Saturday cultural sojourn

Off for a dalliance with culture this Saturday courtesy of the genius that was Mozart and his Magic Flute.

W. A. Mozart - KV 620 - Die Zauberflöte (The magic flute)

Glasses and denial

On asking a lady if she wanted a light switched on, to help alleviate the gloom, she earnestly informed that she had very good eyesight. The one fault I noted, with just a little irony, is that she was wearing glasses that would put Mr Magoo to shame, that is to say, as thick as the bottom of milk bottles!

Problem with your computer

Problem with your computer? Then take it to a trusted computer engineer. Explain the problem and be reassured that it will not be a problem. Collect and pay for the service the next day and be assured again that all is now well in the land of computers.
Arrive home, plug in and switch on, or not as the case may be, and discover you still have the same problem. Go back and discover that the computer engineer actually did nothing, as he did not know nor ask for the password. Oh, he did do something, he took money for nothing! For the last time, methinks.

Today is

Today is Biographers day if you like a good read, whereas tomorrow is World Baking Day, so get in the kitchen and bake that cake!

Torture

 At Guantanomo Bayb the US security services employed various torture techniques. Amongst the torture techniques pressed into service,  no particular order, were Sleep Deprivation, Sensory Deprivation,  Solitary Confinement/Isolation, Forced Medication, Sensory Bombardment (Noise),  Psychological Techniques.

But the tortuerers did not use, I repeat did not use the most foul, odious and offensive torture. It is Saturday morning, down on your knees and oil the floorboards, every square inch, more than once, oil and rub until you sscream for blessed release from the monotony and fumes. Not to mention the strangely coloured rubber gloves...I said not to mention them!

I am thin

I am thin because I take myself lightly.

Computer tan

Time to improve my computer tan...and go!

Noisy keyboards

Perturbing. In  a room with a person tapping merrily on a keyboard, the room is otherwise in silence. How very noisy it is, how very intrusive. Time for some inventive kind of chap or young lady to invent the silent keyboard methinks.

Strange sugar logic

Strange logic. I was handed a large bun coated in icing with substantial  sugar frosting, namely a  Danish pastry today. As the heart blocking, cholesterol super food was shoved into my hand I was reassuringly told that it was healthy and completely natural, and a ''little'' bit of sugar was healthy for me! This thing had enough sugar to give an Orca diabetes in one bite!

the fratellis - whistle for the choir

Umbrella etiquette

Some rules for those unaccostomed to umbrellas.
Hold them as a vertical defence against precipitation, not as windmills.
Remember not to push them into other people
Try not to take the eye out of the socket of a passing pedestrian
Be aware of the lengthy extension it gives to your arm, at all angles
Try not to bounce it off the head of other people
When letting it down, and flapping it open repeatedly, the drops of water will fly everywhere

Warming the planet for bric-a-brac

Walking around the shops one can notice the amazing array of trinkets and general low quality products and souvenir style plastic bits and pieces which people can be bought. They have no real value, especially in tourist areas.
But they have been made, cut, shaped, moulded or processed in some way using a mechanical system and or equpment. Which in turn has used power, electric predominantly, and generated pollution. All so we can buy bric-a-brac to festoon shelves and all to often simpmy to be put away in dark corners. All the time warming our planet.

Peace cannot be kept by force.

 

Peace cannot be kept by force.  It can only be achieved by understanding.

Albert Einstein

The man certainly knew what he was talking about.

St Stephen's Cathedral Stephanplatz Vienna

Observed by the ruling classes in Trecin Slovakia

Chillout mix 2014 vol.5

Arctic Monkeys - Snap Out Of It (Official Audio)

Suede - Always Lyrics

Buckthead - Too Many Humans

Buckthead - Too Many Humans

“If we all do one random act of kindness daily

“If we all do one random act of kindness daily we just might set the world in the right direction.”
~ Martin Kornfeld

or we may simply be ignored!

Britain stays blue, sense and good reason have democratically shone through. Hip hip hooray!

Sculpture having bad day at the Schonbrunn Palace in Vienna

Monumental Vienna

Where the Polish army in Vienna turned back the Ottomans in the 17th Century

Belvedere Gardens Vienna

Atmospheric Bratislava

Beautiful Vienna

Slim building Bratislava

Neptune gets it on in Vienna!

                                                        Neptune gets it on in Vienna!

And don't forget breakfast, but don't make sandwishes from th e breakfast and don't be late on the coach. And off we go, bleary eyed and full of cheap but filling brekkie and expectations at varying levels of anticipation.

Back to childhood. Get on the coach. Is everbody here? Time for he start of endless counting. Off we go. comfortable seats set to become a slow means of torture as the hours slip by, as across Europe and time we slip. Stop. Ordered ti the toilets. and ''you can buy food here''. Really?
Onwards and final blessed arrival...no not yet. A mnii tour of a place noyt yet open for our kind. Onwards. Headcount.
Arrival and the wonderfulness of the anti-climax, for here is our base, our nest in lands foreign. Really, we unpack and stay here in the 1970s? Yes, and tomorrow we set off before the birds arise in search of our dates, places and times to be present according to an unyielding itinerary.