THE BEANS, FADOS & BRITISH LEGENDS IN LISBON

I must ride with my Beans to defend what was, 

and the dream of what could be.

Excalibur, Thomas Malory

The Beans, King Arthur & The Round Table Knights

Today, The Beans have enjoyed another wonderful day together. It's very difficult for The Grandma to write a post today because although she knows that it's the end of a season, it's also the beginning of another one full of hope, effort and common help in the distance.

The Grandma has tried  to share her knowledge with The Beans during some months and she's very happy with the effort and commitment demonstrated by all of them. Listening to old stories, remembering personal memories, talking about literature, history or music, she has tried to cheer them to start again in the wonderful adventure of learning. 

Download King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table

Without temporal goals and without pressure only with the idea of enjoying every moment and giving the best of everyone; without the obligation of demonstrating anything, only with the intention of having an open mind to discover new cultures, countries and stories, The Beans have demonstrated that they are ready to confront whatever they want if they have the strong idea of doing it and the most important, that they are not alone in this difficult and long way to find a success route that determinates the closer future. 

It's very important to trust in yourself to be ready to get over the difficulties but it's also very important to know and reaffirm that you are doing this travel rounded by your special family, fourteen different people with different characters, points of views and origins  but with the same objective: learning new things every day and enjoying every moment, because it's not important where they come from but where they are going to arrive. 

One day, a Bean will come, and the sword will rise... again.

Excalibur, Thomas Malory

Every member of the family has offered her/his colour to a multicultural family that has been able to work very hard every day. Every one of them is important and necessary because The Beans are a sum of all of them and they have left his/her footstep in this wonderful family that is called to do something fantastic in the closer future. Teamwork is the secret of their success, feeling important as a part of a totality and being missed when you're not with them, this family has shined a light in every colour of our hearts.
 

That's no way to say goodbye

The Grandma is sad and staying in Lisbon is a good way to try to change this sadness to joy. She loves fado and admires Mísia, one of her favourite female singers. They have a lot of things in common: both of them are adult, both of them have a life full of incredible stories, both of them have common Catalan origins and both of them like poetry and literature. The most importance difference between them is that Mísia has one of the most incredible voices around the world, and The Grandma has big ears to listen to her fados.

More information: Ancient

Some people say that The Beans don't exist and all is a legend although all the legends have a true base. These same people explain that this legend has been transmitted from generation to generation in an oral way across the Via Rubricatus towns with different versions talking about different families with different surnames: The Collins, The Addams, The Holmes, The Poppins, The Bonds or recently, The Beans.

Princess Leia and R2D2

All the versions of this legend have points in common, a reduced number of people who worked very strong to find something they thought they have lost: trust in themselves and force to continue fighting; an old woman with an undetermined age over the 90's, very rich, who loved explaining old-fashioned stories and was a fan of the Middle-Age, -especially Ramon Llull and King Arthur novels- and contemporany fiction like Star Wars films and The X Files Series; and who tries to follow their teachings. 

From Ramon Llull, she learnt to think and question things without believing in official versions; from King Arthur, the value of the Round Table: honour, courage, loyalty, teamwork and enough imagination to create their own universe to protect themselves from the enemy; from Star Wars, she learnt to fight against the dark forces; and from The X Files to not give up searching the truth.

This is not the end, this is the beginning of a new season because the best is always ready to arrive.

Ask ev'ry person if he's heard the story;

And tell it strong and clear if he has not:
That once there was a fleeting wisp of glory
Called The Beans Family.
The Beans! The Beans!

Camelot, Alan Jay Lerne

Fado is a music genre that can be traced to the 1820s in Lisbon, Portugal, but probably has much earlier origins. Fado historian and scholar Rui Vieira Nery states that the only reliable information on the history of Fado was orally transmitted and goes back to the 1820s and 1830s at best. But even that information was frequently modified within the generational transmission process that made it reach us today.

Although the origins are difficult to trace, today fado is commonly regarded as simply a form of song which can be about anything, but must follow a certain traditional structure. In popular belief, fado is a form of music characterized by mournful tunes and lyrics, often about the sea or the life of the poor, and infused with a sentiment of resignation, fatefulness and melancholia. This is loosely captured by the Portuguese word saudade, or longing, symbolizing a feeling of loss, a permanent, irreparable loss and its consequent lifelong damage. 

More information: Mísia Official Website

This connection to the music of a historic Portuguese urban and maritime proletariat: sailors, dock workers, port traders and other working-class people in general, can also be found in Brazilian modinha and Indonesian kroncong, although all these music genres subsequently developed their own independent traditions.

On 27 November 2011, fado was added to the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists. It is one of two Portuguese music traditions part of the lists, the other being Cante Alentejano.

More information: UNESCO

Try not to become a man of success, 

but rather try to become a man of value. 

Albert Einstein

THE GRANDMA RETURNS FROM ANDORRA LA VELLA

The Grandma has returned to meet a new family

The Grandma has returned. After some months of living alone after saying goodbye to The Bonds and since September, 20 when she suffered an incredible attack and left to publish on her blog. 

She is on fire again and she's ready to start a new journey with a new family.

She's going to leave Andorra la Vella today, her hometown where she has been skiing and visiting her old neighbours and friends.

Tomorrow, December 18, The Grandma is going to join with a new family: The Beans. She doesn't know a lot of things about them, in the same way that they don't know anything about her but MJ and M have been preparing the possibility of starting a new journey together, a journey plenty of adventures, good feelings and unforgettable moments.

She's very happy to start a new life with a new family because she has great memories about her past ones: The Collins, The Addams, The Holmes, The Poppins and The Bonds. She hopes her new family accepts her as a new member and they can travel around the world, discover new cultures and learning a lot of English.

Welcome to The Grandma's Logbook again! We follow...

Europe started out with six countries; 

three small countries and three large countries. 

Jean-Pierre Raffarin

THE LEGEND OF THE GHOST OF A GRANDMA IN SANT BOI

The ghost of The Grandma in Sant Boi

There's a legend, an ancient legend that people from Sant Boi tell from grandparents to grandsons. It's a story about a ghost of a mysterious woman who appears  in a roundabout, near the entrance to the city.

The legend says she's the spirit of a Grandma who had survived the most incredible events of the 20th century, even she had survived to die burnt but one day, meanwhile she was driving by car, she decided to jump out through the window and stay in Sant Boi forever and ever.

Nobody never knew why she did it but the legend says it was very difficult to her to live separated from their families: The Collins, The Addams, The Holmes, The Poppins and The Bonds and she decided to join her spirit to them for the rest of her days.

Legends are material to be moulded, and not facts to be recorded. 

Hervey Allen

THE BONDS: THE FAMILY WHO CAME IN FROM SANT BOI

Selfie near the Church of Sant Baldiri in Sant Boi

Today, The Grandma finishes her current posts in this logbook. From now, she's going to write about her new family: The Bonds. 

Tomorrow, The Grandma is going to be in Sant Boi where she's going to meet her new family: sixteen new members.

From tomorrow, December 27 until March 7, The Grandma will share her new family affairs here and she will explain their adventures everyday. 

Welcome to this new family. Lots of luck and tons of effort to offer in this new project. Welcome to The Bonds and thousands of memories about The Collins, The Addams, The Holmes and The Poppins. You're an eternal part of The Grandma's story.

More information: The Official James Bond 007 Website

Come on Bonds, the History is waiting for us!

 I don't regard James Bond precisely as a hero, but at least he does get on and do his duty, in an extremely corny way. 

Ian Fleming

A LETTER TO AN OLD FRIEND (I)

Bruce Springsteen

Dear Bruce,

We’re here together again. It has been a long time since you arrived here in 1982 and I saw you by first time. These memories in an old indoor stadium next to the magic mountain which would be Olympic years later are unforgettable. You’ve been always with me. You’ve been my best partner when I was alone in a road, in a new city, in a new adventure. You can’t imagine how I have changed listening to you.

People say that music is universal and I agree but, in your case, you’ve joined the best sound of an incredible band with the most beautiful and strong lyrics. I can’t pay attention to a song if I don’t understand its lyrics and I don’t love a song if these lyrics don’t say anything to me that make me think.

You’re my conscious even in the best moments. You’re this voice that keeps me alive, with my feet on the ground looking around and pressing my teeth strongly when the world becomes more and more difficult to understand it and when staying in it is a question of surviving and fighting every day.

I would like that, tonight; you dedicate some songs to my families. They’re good people who are trying to improve their English knowledge and although you’re not the best for listening (dear, you close your mouth too much when you sing), you’re the best poet and the best ambassador of dignity and hope.

Today, I’ve spent some hours with The Holmes. They had an important appointment and they’ve done a great job, because the most difficult is having courage enough to do things, even when you know that you’re against the wind. It has been an enormous pleasure staying with them again. How many memories!  When I was with them, I remembered The Collins and The Addams two incredible families who shared the same experience.

Nowadays, I continue my travel with The Poppins. They’re another good and hard-worker family with a great sense of humour and they’re incredible artists. Tonight, they’re in Stockholm. They’re going to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest. They have more possibilities but, like with the other families, they must believe in them. They must be strong and persistent and they must trust on their future. We can’t know what is going to happen tomorrow but we can fight the future. We must do it.

Well, in a few hours we’re standing together again. Only one more petition: please, play Bobby Jean and Thunder Road for my families and me.

Kisses…

More information: The Official Bruce Springsteen Webpage

It's a town full of losers, and I'm pulling out of here to win.

Thunder Road, Bruce Springsteen

WELCOME TO THE POPPINS!

Magic arrives

The Grandma has returned home. She has spent some days in Panama but now she’s preparing all things to welcome a new family: The Poppins.

Tomorrow, fifteen new members of this new family will start another adventure during more than two months. The Grandma wants to remember with all her heart her other families: The Collins, The Addams and The Holmes and she hopes that this new family spends good moments and learns lots of English.

Good luck to everybody and welcome!

 But then one day I learned a word
The biggest word I ever heard
And this is how it goes, oh
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

Mary Poppins & Bert

THE BEGINNING OF THE END

Indiana Jones

The Grandma has been some days in Andorra. She has been skiing, enjoying her country and its culture and she has been controlling her fortune and legacy. Yesterday, she celebrated her 92-birthday. It was a strange day because she was thinking in all her families and hoping the best wishes for all of them. She remembered incredible moments with The Collins, The Addams and The Holmes and plenty of energy she’s returning to London to continue supporting her last family in its objective: PET.

Today, The Grandma, who is a great admirer of public British television, BBC, has decided to share this channel with her family to help them in their studies. In this case, she offers a link to BBC to prepare the Listening Part.

More information: BBC Listening – 6 Minute English

This afternoon, The Grandma has received some incredible news. An old friend, someone who loves Archaeology like her, is going to return very soon. She’s very happy and expectant.

Since today, the final countdown has started. The Holmes have 60 days to arrive to the final and she is going to work as hard as them to reach it.

Come on Holmes, this is the beginning of the end…

Archaeology is the search for fact... not truth.
If it's truth you're looking for,
Doctor Tyree's philosophy class is right down the hall.

Indiana Jones

BELGIUM: TINTIN & NÚRIA'S HOMETOWN

Tintin & Milou

Yesterday was a hard day for The Holmes. They reviewed some modal verbs (Need and Can) and they wrote two Florence’s postcards to MJ. They also practised some Social English and other themes of English grammar while The Grandma was explaining a story about an old friend who she loves a lot and once had to take another path in her life far away from her.

More information: Need & Can

Today, the family has continued its preparation learning some new things about Adverbs of Frequency in comparative and superlative forms; Relative Pronouns and Conditional Tense. After MJ visit, the family has been talking about the convenience of doing the Cambridge Exam with advantages and disadvantages.

More information: Relative Pronouns

The Grandma appreciates the huge effort of her family day after day and trust on them because she knows that they have nothing to lose and the only possible final is success

Tomorrow, The Holmes will recycle with modal verbs, count with their little calculators and play bingo with Luisa Holmes, the croupier, like party’s soul. After this, the family, who is now in Lîdje, are going to travel to London where they’re going to stay some days and where The Queen, an old Grandma’s friend, is waiting for them, in the same way, that The Collins who are going to receive them in Downton Abbey.

More information: Conditional Tense 

By believing in his dreams,

man turns them into reality.

Georges Prosper Remi, Hergé

GOODBYE EDINBURGH, WELCOME LONDON!

The Holmes visit Edinburg, Scotland

After visiting some incredible places in Edinburgh, the Scottish capital, like Arthur’s Seat, Royal Mile, Princess Street, Calton Hill or the Castle, and some other Scottish places, where The Addams Family has enjoyed its wonderful people, like Connor MacLeod; they went to Inverness to meet Nessie in Loch Ness. It wasn’t possible and then, they flew to London, the English capital, where they’ve spent some days.

They’ve visited emblematic places like Piccadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, Westminster Abbey, The Houses of the Parliament, the London Eye, Saint Paul’s Cathedral, Tower Bridge and the Tower of London and they went to meet the Queen, a Grandma’s friend, who had invited all the family to take some tea in Buckingham Palace.

It has been an interesting trip to improve their English and join to The Collins who received them in their majestic mansion, Downton Abbey. They have talked about environment and gender equality and they've done their first KET exams, too. It has been an intense week.

More information: First & Second Conditional

In a few days, the family is going to travel to Venice and Rome where they will continue its adventures and stories.

 

When you hear someone from the very north of Scotland speaking,

I think it's nice, very musical and harmonious.

Sean Connery

BIC & EUROVISION SONG CONTEST

BIC

Today, we’ve reviewed some grammar doing an exam. All the members of the family have passed the exam successfully. We’ve read a little more and we’ve talked about things and its meanings.

After the breakfast, The Collins Family has helped Karen to create some beautiful songs for participating in the next Eurovision Song Contest in Austria, M. Ángeles hometown. We’ve performed a little contest with France, Ukraine, Portugal, Austria, Belgium and Italy as singers. It has been a great moment plenty of strong, passion and incredible performances. France, represented by Gemma and Montse Paris has won with a full punctuation: 25 of 25 possible.

The Grandma has joined this morning to the family. They’re together again and enjoying of The Mediterranean Sea near Santorini (Greece). 

I need your kisses

to remain your wife.

I need your caress

to be alive.

Are you with me?

Do you feel me?

Do you touch me?

No, no, no. You're bad.

No, no, no. You're bad.

Gemma Collins & Montse Paris-Collins (Monaco & France)

CREATING AN ALIBI

Keep Calm

Today, we’ve reviewed Past Continuous and Past Simple and we’ve started a new reading book about the adventures of two friends, Jake and Ros. We’ve talked about communication skills in group interviews and we’ve studied the order of words in the sentences, especially with the additions: Manner-Place-Time.

The family is sailing in the Love Boat where has happened a strange case: a robbery. An old passenger said that her jewels had disappeared and some members of our family are between the main suspects: Mari Carmen, Montse Pottery, Eva Cyprus, Adriana, Gemma and Dámaris. The Grandma is flying by helicopter to the Love Boat for avoiding any kind of arrest.

Meanwhile, some members of the family are working very hard: Eva Cyprus is designing new spaces in Downton Abbey for the family pets and Belén is preparing a great tour inside The Louvre Museum.

Tomorrow, The Collins Family will give enough explanations about of all them to seem innocent and continue the trip. The Family has a lot of work: preparing eight different songs for participating in Eurovision Song Contest, a Karen’s dream.

Roll of the dice!

Love Boat soon will be making another run
The Love Boat promises something for everyone
Set a course for adventure
Your mind on a new romance

LULLABIES & HOBO's

A Hobo

The Grandma has had some introspective days. While she was spending some days in the hotel, her family was in Rhodes traveling around the island. She has been thinking about the possibility of getting married because she felts alone, although she has adopted a large family. After talking to every member of the family, finally, she decided to continue without a new husband.

Next week, The Grandma is going to meet her family in Santorini, where she will be waiting the Love Boat’s arrival with all her family on board.

Now, The Grandma is happy. She’s preparing her suitcases for traveling around Europe during some months. From Santorini, the family is going to travel to Paris for celebrating Belén’s birthday, and from Paris, they’re going to fly to London near where The Grandma has bought a new house for all of them: Downton Abbey.

Next week, the timetable of The Collins Family is plenty of activities: they’re going to create lullabies and songs; buy some furniture for the new English house; write a tale and plan how to rebuild Downton Abbey for giving enough space and facilities to their pets.

From Wednesday to Friday, The Collins Family has continued its English classes, which are now more important than never because of its moving to Downton Abbey. They reviewed the Past Continuous and sentences with when and while. They played with the Story Cubes and described a neighbourhood. They also walked around Rhodes guided by Adriana and they talked about the origin of some lullabies in different cultures: the Hobo in the USA, the satiric ones in England and the pain songs for a child’s death in Catalonia and in the Gipsy culture.

Eva Maltese has continued searching some information about Corto but nobody knows anything about him. Nowadays, she’s following a new clue: a man called Salvador explained last news about him. In fact, Salvador was the last person who saw Corto in the Greek Island. We don’t know but, perhaps, in the next hours there will be an interesting cliff-hanger. In these moments, The Collins Family must be leaving Kos.

Watch Hobo's meditation by E. Harris, D. Parton & L. Ronstadt

Seven out of 10 Americans are 

one paycheck away from being homeless. 

Pras Michel

GO SHOPPING!

Food

Yesterday, we reviewed countable and uncountable; there is and there are and the undefined some and any. We wrote our own shopping list for celebrating an enormous banquet and we started to prepare a Password game for the next week. 

Countable & Uncountable exercises

The family is still resting in Rhodes. We are here two or three more days and then we’ll start our cruise around the Greek Islands. Eva Maltese is searching some clues about Corto with a little help from the family. We haven’t found anything but we don’t lose our faith. We trust on us. 

We are a great family and we can do whatever we propose. Also, we have regularized our surname: 

We are The Collins! 

With my shopping cart I move through the heart
Of a sea of fools so blissfully unaware
That they're in the presence of something wonderful and rare

As I lift my groceries in to my car
I turn back for a moment and catch a smile
That blows this whole fucking place apart