ADELE, GOD THIS REMINDS ME OF WHEN WE WERE YOUNG

After an intense weekend visiting Mount Saint Michel in Normandy, today, The Morgans and The Grandma have returned to London and they have met Adele, one of the best singers of all time. They have been very excited and happy.

Before this wonderful visit, the family has studied some English grammar with To Be (Past) and Could/Couldn't, and they have talked about the importance of school and teaching to create critical citizens.

More information: To Be (Was/Were)

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I remember when I was a teenager. After leaving my hometown, Andorra La Vella, my family and I lived in a little town in the Garraf coast near Barcelona. 

It was a fishermen village with large beaches of white sand and a quiet sea.

I met him there. He was the most famous clown in the world, and I fell in love immediately. 

We were very young and our story was very short, but I still remember him, I still remember when we were young. Now, he is like a shadow that accompanies me everywhere. I will never forget him. He will be always on my mind and my memories.

The Grandma

Adele Laurie Blue Adkins (born 5 May 1988), known mononymously as Adele, is an English singer-songwriter. She is known for her mezzo-soprano vocals and sentimental songwriting.

Adele has received numerous accolades including 16 Grammy Awards, 12 Brit Awards (including three for British Album of the Year), an Academy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and a Golden Globe Award.

After graduating in arts from the BRIT School in 2006, Adele signed a record deal with XL Recordings. Her debut album, 19, was released in 2008 and included the UK top-five singles Chasing Pavements and Make You Feel My Love.

19 has sold over 2.5 million copies in the UK and was named in the top 20 best-selling debut albums of all time in the UK. She was honoured with the Grammy Award for Best New Artist.

Adele released her second studio album, 21, in 2011. It became the world's best-selling album of the 21st century, with sales of over 31 million. 21 holds the record for the top-performing album in US chart history, topping the Billboard 200 for 24 weeks, with the singles Rolling in the Deep, Someone like You, and Set Fire to the Rain heading charts worldwide, becoming her signature songs. The album received a record-tying six Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year.

In 2012, Adele released Skyfall, a soundtrack single for the James Bond film Skyfall, which won her the Academy Award for Best Original Song.

Adele's third studio album, 25, was released in 2015, breaking first-week sales records in the UK and US. In the US, it remains the only album to sell over three million copies in a week. 25 earned her five Grammy Awards, including the Album of the Year. The lead single, Hello, achieved huge success worldwide. Her fourth studio album, 30, released in 2021, contains the chart-topping and Grammy-winning single Easy on Me. 25 and 30 became the best-selling albums worldwide, including the US and the UK, in 2015 and 2021, respectively.

As of 2023, all of her studio albums, except 19, have topped the yearly best-selling albums chart worldwide in the 21st century.

Adele is one of the world's best-selling music artists, with sales of over 120 million records worldwide. The best-selling female artist of the 21st century in the UK, she was named the best-selling artist of the 2010s decade in the US and worldwide.

Her studio albums 21 and 25 were the top two best-selling albums of the 2010s in the UK and both are listed among the best-selling albums in UK chart history, while in the US both are certified Diamond, the most of any artist who debuted in the 21st century.

More information: Adele

 

It's hard to win me back
Everything just takes me back
To when you were there

My God, this reminds me
Of when we were young

Adele

THE MORGANS VISIT MONT SAINT MICHÉ, NORMAUNDIE

Today, The Morgans and The Grandma are visiting Mont Saint Miché in Maunché, Normaundie

Normaundie in Norman, Normandy in English, is a geographical and cultural nation in northwestern Europe, roughly coextensive with the historical Duchy of Normandy. It comprises mainland Normandy (a part of France) and insular Normandy (mostly the British Channel Islands). It covers 30,627 square kilometres. The inhabitants of Normandy are known as Normans; the region is the historic homeland of the Norman language. Large settlements include Rouen, Caen, Le Havre and Cherbourg.

The cultural region of Normandy is roughly similar to the historical Duchy of Normandy, which includes small areas now part of the departments of Mayenne and Sarthe. The Channel Islands, in French Îles Anglo-Normandes, are also historically part of Normandy; they cover 194 square kilometres and comprise two bailiwicks: Guernsey and Jersey, which are British Crown Dependencies.

Normandy's name comes from the settlement of the territory by Vikings (Northmen" starting in the 9th century, and confirmed by treaty in the 10th century between King Charles III of France and the Viking jarl Rollo. For almost 150 years following the Norman conquest of England in 1066, Normandy and England were linked by having the same person reign as both Duke of Normandy and King of England.

Archaeological finds, such as cave paintings, prove that humans were present in the region in prehistoric times. Normandy also has many megalithic monuments.

Many still-visible megaliths are scattered quite regularly throughout the Norman countryside. The Rozel Archaeological Site presents exceptional traces of footprints and handprints of Homo neanderthalensis.

The testimony of Julius Caesar (in the Gallic Wars) allows us to identify the different Gallic groups occupying the region. In 56 or 57 BC, these populations gathered to resist the invasion of the Roman legions. After the Gallic defeat at the siege of Alesia, the peoples of Normandy continued the struggle for some time, but by 51 BC, all of Gaul was subdued by Rome.

Celts (also known as Belgae and Gauls) have populated Normandy since at least the Bronze Age. When Julius Caesar invaded Gaul (58-50 BC), there were nine different Celtic tribes living in this part of Gaul.

The Romanisation of this region partly included in the Gallia Celtica and in the Gallia Belgica (the Seine being more or less the limit between them) was achieved by the usual methods: Roman roads and a policy of urbanisation.

In the late 3rd century AD, Germanic raids devastated Lugdunensis Secunda, as the modern area of Normandy was known at the time. The Romans built a system of coastal defences known as Saxon Shore on both sides of the English Channel. The ecclesiastical province of Rouen was based on the frame of the Roman Lugdunensis Secunda, whose limits corresponded almost exactly to the future duchy of Normandy. In 406, Germanic tribes began invading from the east, followed by dispersed settlements mainly in the Pays de Bray, Pays de Caux and Vexin. As early as 487, the area between the rivers Somme and Loire came under the control of the Frankish lord Clovis.

Following the disintegration of Roman power in northern Gaul, the region that would later become Normandy passed under the control of the Franks. By the sixth and seventh centuries it was integrated into the Merovingian and later Carolingian realms. Large rural estates, episcopal sees such as Rouen, and fiscal centres marked Frankish authority. The Capitulary legislation and royal courts extended Frankish law and institutions into the area, though local aristocracies maintained significant autonomy.

From the late eighth century, Scandinavian raiders targeted the coasts of northern Gaul. Viking fleets exploited the navigability of the Seine and its tributaries, sailing upriver to raid Paris in 845 under a leader recorded as Ragnar.

Vikings started to raid along the river Seine during the middle of the 9th century. The fiefdom of Normandy was created for the Viking leader Hrólfr, known in Medieval Latin as Rollo. The name Normandy reflects Rollo's Viking (Norseman) origins.

Aside from the conquest of England and the subsequent invasions of Wales and Ireland, the Normans expanded into other areas. Norman families, such as that of Tancred of Hauteville, Rainulf Drengot and Guimond de Moulins played important parts in the conquest of southern Italy and the Crusades.

Over the tenth century the Scandinavian newcomers gradually merged with the Frankish population. Rollo's baptism and the establishment of a Norman episcopate symbolized Christianization, while intermarriage and bilingualism facilitated cultural assimilation. By the mid-eleventh century the dukes of Normandy commanded a polity that blended Scandinavian martial traditions with Frankish legal, ecclesiastical and feudal practices.

In the 1780s, the economic crisis and the crisis of the Ancien Régime struck Normandy as well as other parts of the nation, leading to the French Revolution. Bad harvests, technical progress and the effects of the Eden Agreement signed in 1786 affected employment and the economy of the province. Normans laboured under a heavy fiscal burden.

Following the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars (1792-1815), there was an economic revival that included the mechanization of textile manufacturing and the introduction of the first trains.

Also, with seaside tourism in the 19th century came the advent of the first beach resorts.

During the Second World War, following the armistice of 22 June 1940, continental Normandy was part of the German occupied zone of France. The Channel Islands were occupied by German forces between 30 June 1940 and 9 May 1945. The town of Dieppe was the site of the unsuccessful Dieppe Raid by Allied forces.

The Allies coordinated a massive build-up of troops and supplies to support a large-scale invasion of Normandy in the D-Day landings on 6 June 1944 under the code name Operation Overlord.

More information: Medieval Histories

Mont Saint Miché in Norman, Mont-Saint-Michel in English, is a small rocky island located off the coast of Normandy, famous for its spectacular medieval abbey and dramatic tides. Originally founded as a religious sanctuary in the 8th century after, according to legend, the Archangel Michael appeared to the bishop of Avranches, the site later became one of Europe's most important pilgrimage destinations.

The island is crowned by the impressive Mont-Saint-Michel Abbey, a remarkable example of Romanesque and Gothic architecture built between the 11th and 16th centuries. Over time, the abbey also served as a fortress during conflicts such as the Hundred Years' War, thanks to its strong defensive walls and strategic position.

Mont-Saint-Michel is known for having some of the highest tides in Europe. At high tide, the island appears surrounded by water, while at low tide vast sandbanks emerge around it. Because of its unique landscape and historical importance, the site was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979. 

More information: OT Mont Saint Michel

Aprendre est un tresor ki suit son mestre partout.

Learning is a treasure that follows its master everywhere.

Norman Proverb 

GETTING OVER A BREAKUP, HOW YOU BROKE MY HEART...

… I can tell by your eyes
That you've probably been cryin' forever
And the stars in the sky
Don't mean nothin' to you, they're a mirror

… I don't wanna talk about it
How you broke my heart
If I stay here just a little bit longer
If I stay here, won't you listen to my heart?
Oh, whoa, heart

… If I stand all alone
Will the shadow hide the color of my heart?
Blue for the tears, black for the night's
Fears the stars in the sky
Don't mean nothin' to you, they're a mirror

… I don't wanna talk about it
How you broke my heart
If I stay here just a little bit longer
If I stay here, won't you listen to my heart?
Oh, my heart

… I don't wanna talk about it
How you broke this old heart
If I stay here just a little bit longer
If I stay here, won't you listen to my heart?

Oh, my heart
My heart
Oh, my heart

Lyrics are coming to you all the time. 
I get inspiration in the middle of the night.

Rod Stewart

HIPPODROME CASINO, MAY LUCK BE ALWAYS WITH YOU

Today, The Morgans and The Grandma have been resting after a night of endless dancing. 

This evening, the family wants to go to the Hippodrome, one of London's most famous casinos, to have a good time and play a little time: how much money? how many games? how many hours will they be there? No one knows. 

 

Cristina Morgan has broken another heart. This time Connor MacLeod's one, the most famous Scottish immortal, whom she has wished all the luck in the world and may he remain forever young. 

Before enjoying this promising evening, the family has been studying a little English grammar with Countable & Uncountable and May.

Tomorrow, the family is going to travel to Maunché in Normandy, where they are going to visit Mont Saint Miché and to neighbouring Brittany where they will visit Penn-ar-Bed (Finistère), Aodoù-an-Arvor (Côtes-d’Armor), Mor-Bihan (Morbihan) and Ill-ha-Gwilen (Ille-et-Vilaine). 

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The Hippodrome is a building on the corner of Cranbourn Street and Charing Cross Road in the City of Westminster, London. 

The name was used for many different theatres and music halls, of which the London Hippodrome is one of only a few survivors. Hippodrome is an archaic word referring to places that host horse races and other forms of equestrian entertainment.

The London Hippodrome was opened in 1900. It was designed by Frank Matcham for Moss Empires chaired by Edward Moss and built for £250,000 as a hippodrome for circus and variety performances. The venue gave its first show on 15 January 1900, a music hall revue entitled Giddy Ostend with Little Tich. The conductor was Georges Jacobi.

Entry to the venue was through a bar, dressed as a ship's saloon. The performance space featured both a proscenium stage and an arena that sank into 400 tons, when full, for aquatic spectacles. The tank featured eight central fountains, and a circle of fountains around the side. Entrances at the side of the auditorium could also be flooded, and used for the entry of boats.

Shows included equestrian acts, elephants and polar bears, and acrobats would dive from a minstrels' gallery above a sliding roof, in the centre of the proscenium arch. The auditorium featured cantilevered galleries, removing the columns that often obstructed views in London theatres, the whole was covered by a painted glass retractable roof, that could be illuminated at night. The building included the headquarters of Moss Empires.

In 1909, it was reconstructed by Matcham as a music-hall and variety theatre with 1340 seats in stalls, mezzanine, gallery and upper gallery levels. It was here that Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake received its English première by the Ballets Russes in 1910. The Albert de Courville revues were performed here from December 1912.

The Hippodrome hosted the first official jazz gig in the United Kingdom, by the Original Dixieland Jazz Band, in 1919.

Its reputation was for revue and musical comedy, among them The Five O'Clock Girl, the West End production of Vincent Youmans' hit Broadway musical Hit The Deck (1928) and also Mr. Cinders, both in 1929; Ivor Novello's Perchance to Dream in 1945 with Margaret Rutherford; and the revue High Spirits in 1953 with Cyril Ritchard and Diana Churchill. 

Julie Andrews made her stage debut here at the age of 12. From 1949 to 1951 it was the London equivalent of the Folies Bergère.

The original interior was demolished in 1958, and Bernard Delfont had the Hippodrome converted into the nightclub The Talk of the Town. It featured appearances by many of the popular artistes of the time.

In 2009, the lease on the Hippodrome was acquired by Leicester-born father and son entrepreneurs Jimmy and Simon Thomas, who began an extensive restoration programme taking the Hippodrome back to Matcham's original designs for use as a casino and entertainment venue. During the planning stage, the adjacent Cranbourn Mansions building became available and plans were redrafted to incorporate this former gentlemen's apartment block into the design, doubling the eventual floorspace and linked using a new structure sited within the existing light well between the two buildings.

Investment in the building reportedly came to over £40 million, the funds being raised by the Thomas family from the sale of a number of bingo halls prior to the UK smoking ban, which made it illegal to smoke within an enclosed workplace, on 1 July 2007.

The Hippodrome Casino was opened on 13 July.

The venue on opening included four floors of gaming, including a Gold Room casino sited in the original basement with access directly into Chinatown to the rear of the building, Heliot restaurant, six bars, a smoking terrace and The Matcham Room cabaret theatre. The restoration and construction of the casino was followed on the blog of LBC presenter Steve Allen.

In January 2013, the casino was awarded Best Land-based Casino at the Totally Gaming Awards, which also gave Jimmy Thomas a Life Achievement award for his contribution to the gaming and entertainment industries.

On 4 March 2013, Simon Thomas announced the opening of Pokerstars LIVE, a collaboration between the Hippodrome and Pokerstars, the world's largest online poker website. While initially on the fourth floor, in 2020 Pokerstars LIVE moved to the third floor where it currently resides.

The Matcham Room at the Hippodrome Casino is currently the home of Magic Mike Live London.

In 2020, construction was completed on an expansion of the fourth floor smoking area to include gaming, and the creation of The Rooftop, a new bar and dining space, on the fifth floor.

More information: Hippodrome Casino

Life is a gamble at terrible odds
if it was a bet, you wouldn’t take it.

Tom Stoppard

LET'S DANCE! THE GREAT DAVID BOWIE & THE MORGANS

Today, The Morgans and The Grandma are having a busy day. This morning they have been studying English grammar with the invocative Let's, Some/Any/No for Countable Nouns and the Relative Pronoun Whose.

Carme Ruscarella, the Catalan chef with seven Michelin stars, has paid them a surprise visit and they have been talking about English cuisine and its differences from other cuisines.

Later, the family has been debating which car to give to Valentina Morgan, who is taking her driver's license exam tomorrow.

Tonight, the family is invited to Stereo, a fantastic live music venue in Covent Garden where another old friend of The Grandma, David Bowie, is waiting for them, with whom fun and good music are guaranteed.

Let's go Morgans! Let's dance!

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David Robert Jones (8 January 1947-10 January 2016), known professionally as David Bowie was an English singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. 

He is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century.

Bowie was acclaimed by critics and musicians, particularly for his innovative work during the 1970s. His career was marked by reinvention and visual presentation, and his music and stagecraft had a significant impact on popular music.

David Robert Jones was born on 8 January 1947 in Brixton, London.

Bowie developed an interest in music from an early age. He studied art, music and design before embarking on a professional career as a musician in 1963. He released a string of unsuccessful singles with local bands and a solo album before achieving his first top-five entry on the UK Singles Chart with Space Oddity (1969).

After a period of experimentation, he re-emerged in 1972 during the glam rock era with the flamboyant and androgynous alter ego Ziggy Stardust. The character was spearheaded by the success of Starman and album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, which won him widespread popularity.

In 1975, Bowie's style shifted towards a sound he characterised as plastic soul, initially alienating many of his UK fans but garnering his first major US crossover success with the number-one single Fame and the album Young Americans.

In 1976, Bowie starred in the cult film The Man Who Fell to Earth and released Station to Station. 

In 1977, he again changed direction with the electronic-inflected album Low, the first of three collaborations with Brian Eno that came to be known as the Berlin Trilogy. Heroes (1977) and Lodger (1979) followed; each album reached the UK top five and received lasting critical praise.

After uneven commercial success in the late 1970s, Bowie had three number-one hits: the 1980 single Ashes to Ashes, its album Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) and Under Pressure (a 1981 collaboration with Queen). He achieved his greatest commercial success in the 1980s with Let's Dance (1983).

Between 1988 and 1992, he fronted the hard rock band Tin Machine before resuming his solo career in 1993. Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, Bowie continued to experiment with musical styles, including industrial and jungle. He also continued acting; his roles included Major Jack Celliers in Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983), Jareth the Goblin King in Labyrinth (1986), Phillip Jeffries in Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992), Andy Warhol in the biopic Basquiat (1996), and Nikola Tesla in The Prestige (2006), among other film and television appearances and cameos. He stopped touring after 2004 and his last live performance was at a charity event in 2006.

He returned from a decade-long recording hiatus in 2013 with The Next Day. He died two days after both his 69th birthday and the release of his final album, Blackstar.

During his lifetime, his record sales, estimated at over 100 million records worldwide, made him one of the best-selling musicians of all time. Often dubbed the chameleon of rock due to his constant musical reinventions, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996. Rolling Stone ranked him among the greatest artists in history. 

As of 2022, Bowie was the best-selling vinyl artist of the 21st century.

Bowie died in New York City on 10 January 2016.

Bowie's songs and stagecraft brought a new dimension to popular music in the early 1970s, strongly influencing its immediate forms and subsequent development.

Perone credited Bowie with having brought sophistication to rock music, and critical reviews frequently acknowledged the intellectual depth of his work and influence.

The BBC's arts editor Will Gompertz likened Bowie to Pablo Picasso, writing that he was an innovative, visionary, restless artist who synthesised complex avant garde concepts into beautifully coherent works that touched the hearts and minds of millions.

More information: David Bowie

I find only freedom in the realms of eccentricity.

David Bowie

CAMDEN TOWN, DRINKING A BIG MUG OF THE BEST BEER

Today, The Morgans and The Grandma have visited Camden Market where they have enjoyed an excellent foodie day talking about the personal selection for their Scottish castle. It is a rigorous process because there is nothing more important than knowing in which hands you are leaving your home.

Before the visit, the family have practiced some English grammar with Countable and Uncountable Nouns and with the Vocabulary of Containers.

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Camden Town, often shortened to Camden, is an area in the London Borough of Camden, around 4.1 km north-northwest of Charing Cross. Historically in Middlesex, it is identified in the London Plan as one of 34 major centres in Greater London.

Laid out as a residential district from 1791 and originally part of the manor of Kentish Town and the parish of St Pancras, Camden Town became an important location during the early development of the railways, which reinforced its position on the London canal network. The area's industrial economic base has been replaced by service industries such as retail, tourism and entertainment. The area now hosts street markets and music venues associated with alternative culture.

Camden Town is named after Charles Pratt, 1st Earl Camden. His earldom was styled after his estate, Camden Place near Chislehurst in Kent (now in the London Borough of Bromley), formerly owned by historian William Camden. The name, which appears on the Ordnance Survey map of 1822, was later applied to the early-20th-century Camden Town Group of artists and the London Borough of Camden, created in 1965.

The emergence of the industrial revolution in the 19th century meant Camden was the  North Western Railway's terminal stop in 1837. It was where goods were transported off the tracks and onto the roads of London by 250 000 workhorses. The whole area was adapted to a transportation function: the Roundhouse (1846), Camden Lock and the Stables were examples of this.

More information: Camden Watch Company

Camden Town stands on land that was once the manor of Kentish Town. Sir Charles Pratt, a radical 18th-century lawyer and politician, acquired the manor through marriage.

In 1791, he started granting leases for houses to be built in the manor.

In 1816, the Regent's Canal was built through the area. Up to at least the mid-20th century, Camden Town was considered an unfashionable locality.

The Camden Markets, which started in 1973 and have grown since then, attract many visitors.

On 9 February 2008, Camden Canal market suffered a major fire, but there were no injuries. It later reopened as Camden Lock Village, until closed in 2015 for redevelopment.

Camden Town was contained within the Metropolitan Borough of St Pancras between 1900 and 1965, when it became part of the new London Borough of Camden, of which it is the namesake and administrative centre.

Camden Town is on relatively flat ground at 30 m above sea level, 4.0 km north-northwest of Charing Cross. To the north are the hills of Hampstead and Highgate; to the west is Primrose Hill. The culverted, subterranean River Fleet flows from its source on Hampstead Heath through Camden Town south to the River Thames. The Regent's Canal runs through the north of Camden Town.

Camden is well known for its markets. These date from 1974 or later, except for Inverness Street market, for over a century a small food market serving the local community, though by 2013 all foodstuff and produce stalls had gone and only touristy stalls remained. Camden Lock Market proper started in a former timber yard in 1973, and is now surrounded by five more markets: Buck Street market, Stables market, Camden Lock Village, and an indoor market in the Electric Ballroom.

The markets are a major tourist attraction at weekends, selling goods of all types, including fashion, lifestyle, books, food, junk/antiques and more bizarre items; they and the surrounding shops are popular with young people, in particular, those searching for alternative clothing. While originally open on Sundays only, market activity later extended throughout the week, though concentrating on weekends.

More information: Camden Market

  

I was selling bric-a-brac

in Portobello and Camden Market.
I love objects. But I was embarrassed 

by the idea of collecting,
so I began using these things in my art.

Cornelia Parker

THE TUBE, THE MOST ADMIRED STORY OF CIVIL RESILIENCE

Today, The Morgans and The Grandma had a morning of business closing the purchase of their wonderful castle in the Highlands.

The family has opened a recruitment process to work in their new Scottish residence and the search is being very interesting because the CVs of the first candidates have already started to arrive.

Before attending to these matters, the family has been studying a little English grammar with the Conditional Tense and The Superlative and talking about one of the hardest works: finding a good job.

Finally, They have been talking about the Tube, London Underground and its vital importance during the Second World War as a refuge for the population to protect themselves from enemy bombings, a history parallel to that experienced years earlier by cities such as Barcelona, ​​Viladecans or Gavà, among many others.

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The London Underground, commonly known as the Tube, is one of the most iconic public transport systems in the world. Serving the city of London and surrounding areas, it is also the oldest underground railway network, with its first line opening in 1863.

 

Originally built to reduce street congestion, the early system used steam-powered trains running through tunnels constructed with a cut-and-cover method. Over time, technological advances led to the introduction of electric trains in 1890, making it the first electric underground railway.

 

Throughout the 20th century, different private railway lines were gradually integrated into a unified network, helping shape modern London. The system also played a crucial role during both World Wars, when stations were used as air-raid shelters.

 

Today, the Underground consists of an extensive network of hundreds of stations and hundreds of kilometers of track, transporting over a billion passengers annually. Although known as an underground, a significant portion of the network actually runs above ground.

Managed by Transport for London since 2003, the system continues to modernize with improved accessibility, new trains, and infrastructure upgrades.

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I like taking the subway to work.

 

John Stossel