DOCTOR WHO & OUTLANDER, TRAVELLING BACK IN TIME

Today, The Morgans and The Grandma have been preparing for their next time travel. They have the help of Doctor Who and Claire Randall, as well as the powerful skills of Elsa Morgan, who masters all kinds of time mechanisms, including the TARDIS, and a new secret mechanism that allows time travel: José Luis Morgan's Bon Bon Bum.

The family wants to travel to the Highlands of Connor MacLeod and William Wallace, as well as see for themselves whether Nessie is really a reality or a legend. They have hired Sherlock Holmes, Doctor Watson and Scotland Yard to investigate the theft at the British Museum and clear them of all suspicion.

Before preparing for this new adventure, The Grandma has been talking about the Middle Age and the origin of some of the oldest police forces in Europe, and they have been studying a little English grammar with the Zero Conditional, the First Conditional and Since/For.

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Doctor Who is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series, created by Sydney Newman, C. E. Webber and Donald Wilson, follows the adventures of the Doctor, an extraterrestrial being from a humanoid species known as Time Lords. 

The Doctor travels through space and time using a time travelling spaceship called the TARDIS, which has an exterior that resembles a British police box. The Doctor encounters various civilisations, which he seeks to protect by outwitting foes and solving crises. The Doctor usually travels with a companion.

Beginning with William Hartnell, fourteen actors have headlined the series as the Doctor; the most recent being Ncuti Gatwa, who portrayed the Fifteenth Doctor from 2023 to 2025. The transition between actors is woven into the story via the plot device of regeneration. When a Time Lord is fatally injured or weakened by old age, their cells regenerate into a new body; while they retain their memories, their personality changes. The different portrayals function as distinct stages within a single, continuous narrative. Due to time travel, these different incarnations occasionally cross paths.

A British popular culture staple with a global cult following, the show has shaped generations of British television professionals. Fans of the series are sometimes referred to as Whovians. The series has been listed in Guinness World Records as the longest-running science-fiction television series in the world, as well as the most successful science-fiction series of all time, based on its overall broadcast ratings, DVD and book sales.

The series originally ran from 1963 to 1989. There was an unsuccessful attempt to revive regular production in 1996 with a backdoor pilot in the form of a television film titled Doctor Who. The series was relaunched in 2005, with production moving to BBC Wales in Cardiff.

Since 2023, the show has been co-produced by Bad Wolf and BBC Studios Productions in Cardiff. The Doctor Who franchise -or Whoniverse- spans a wide range of media, including television spin-offs, literature, audio dramas, and films.

As a global cultural phenomenon, it has become one of the most frequently referenced and parodied series in television history.

More information: Doctor Who

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Fear me, I've killed hundreds of Time Lords.

Doctor Who

 

Outlander is a historical fantasy television series based on the book series of the same name by Diana Gabaldon. 

Developed by Ronald D. Moore, the show premiered on August 9, 2014, on Starz. It stars Caitríona Balfe as Claire Randall, an English former World War II military nurse in Scotland who, in 1945, finds herself transported back in time to 1743. There, she encounters and falls in love with a dashing Highland warrior named Jamie Fraser (Sam Heughan), a tacksman of Clan Fraser of Lovat whom she later marries. Here, Claire becomes embroiled in the Jacobite rising.

The 16-episode first season of the television series is based on the first novel in the series, Outlander, and was released as two half-seasons, with the first part being aired from August to September 2014 and the second part from April to May 2015. The second season of 13 episodes, based on Dragonfly in Amber, aired from April to July 2016. The 13-episode third season, based on Voyager, aired from September to December 2017. The 13-episode fourth season, based on Drums of Autumn, aired from November 2018 to January 2019. The fifth season of 12 episodes, based on The Fiery Cross and the beginning of A Breath of Snow and Ashes, aired from February to May 2020. The sixth season of 8 episodes, based on A Breath of Snow and Ashes, aired from March to May 2022. The seventh season, which consists of 16 episodes, is based on the end of A Breath of Snow and Ashes, An Echo in the Bone, Written in My Own Heart's Blood and elements of Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone, and was released as two half-seasons, with the first part aired from June to August 2023 and the second part from November 2024 to January 2025.

By February 2022, development had begun on a prequel series titled Outlander: Blood of My Blood, which will focus on Jamie Fraser and Claire Beauchamp's parents. 

In January 2023, Outlander: Blood of My Blood was officially confirmed for a ten-episode first season, and Outlander was renewed for a ten-episode eighth and final season, premiered on March 6, 2026, based on Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone and parts of the upcoming tenth and final novel in the series.

More information: Sony Pictures

 That amount of time does not exist.

Claire Randall

JANE GOODALL & DAVID ATTENBOROUGH AT LONDON ZOO

Today, The Winsors and The Grandma have visited the London Zoo, the world's oldest scientific zoo around the world.

It has been a controversial visit because Chloe and Osama Winsor were against this trip, but with the help of the primatologist and anthropologist Jane Goodall, and  the biologist and natural historian David Attenborough, all together have understood the importance of a zoo to help and protect animals, and ensure their survival.

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London Zoo, previously known as ZSL London Zoo or London Zoological Gardens and sometimes called Regent's Park Zoo, is the world's oldest scientific zoo. It was opened in London on 27 April 1828, and was originally intended to be used as a collection for scientific study.

In 1831 or 1832, the animals of the Tower of London menagerie were transferred to the zoo's collection. It was opened to the public in 1847. As of December 2022, it houses a collection of 14,926 individuals, making it one of the largest collections in the United Kingdom.

It is managed under the aegis of the Zoological Society of London (established in 1826), and is situated at the northern edge of Regent's Park, on the boundary line between the City of Westminster and the borough of Camden (the Regent's Canal runs through it). 

The Society also has a more spacious site at Whipsnade Zoo in Bedfordshire to which the larger animals such as elephants and rhinos have been moved. As well as being the first scientific zoo, London Zoo also opened the first reptile house (1849), the first public aquarium (1853), first insect house (1881) and the first children's zoo (1938).

ZSL receives no state funding and relies on 'Fellows' and 'Friends' memberships, entrance fees, venue hire, and sponsorship to generate income.

The Zoological Society of London (ZSL) was established by Sir Stamford Raffles and Sir Humphry Davy in 1826, who obtained the land for the zoo and saw the plans before Raffles died of apoplexy (a stroke) later that year on 5 July, his birthday. After his death, Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice, 3rd Marquess of Lansdowne took over the project and supervised the building of the first animal houses. The zoo opened in April 1828 to fellows of the Society, providing access to species such as Arabian oryx, greater kudus, orangutan and the now extinct quagga and thylacine. The Society was granted a royal charter in 1829 by King George IV, and in 1847 the zoo opened to the public to aid funding.

More information: London Zoo

Dame Jane Morris Goodall, 3 April 1934, formerly Baroness Jane van Lawick-Goodall, is an English primatologist and anthropologist. Considered to be the world's foremost expert on chimpanzees, Goodall is best known for her over 55-year study of social and family interactions of wild chimpanzees since she first went to Gombe Stream National Park, Tanzania in 1960. 

She is the founder of the Jane Goodall Institute and the Roots & Shoots programme, and she has worked extensively on conservation and animal welfare issues. She has served on the board of the Nonhuman Rights Project since its founding in 1996. In April 2002, she was named a UN Messenger of Peace. 

More information: The Jane Goodall Institute

Valerie Jane Morris-Goodall was born in 1934 in Hampstead, to Mortimer Herbert Morris-Goodall, a businessman, and Margaret Myfanwe Joseph, a novelist who wrote under the name Vanne Morris-Goodall.

As a child, as an alternative to a teddy bear her father gave Goodall a stuffed chimpanzee named Jubilee, and she has said her fondness for this figure started her early love of animals, commenting that My mother's friends were horrified by this toy, thinking it would frighten me and give me nightmares. Today, Jubilee still sits on Goodall's dresser in London.

Goodall had always been passionate about animals and Africa, which brought her to the farm of a friend in the Kenya highlands in 1957. From there, she obtained work as a secretary, and acting on her friend's advice, she telephoned Louis Leakey, the notable Kenyan archaeologist and palaeontologist, with no other thought than to make an appointment to discuss animals.  

Leakey, believing that the study of existing great apes could provide indications of the behaviour of early hominids, was looking for a chimpanzee researcher, though he kept the idea to himself. Instead, he proposed that Goodall work for him as a secretary. After obtaining approval from his wife Mary Leakey, Louis sent Goodall to Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania, where he laid out his plans.

In 1958, Leakey sent Goodall to London to study primate behaviour with Osman Hill and primate anatomy with John Napier. Leakey raised funds, and on 14 July 1960, Goodall went to Gombe Stream National Park, becoming the first of what would come to be called The Trimates. She was accompanied by her mother, whose presence was necessary to satisfy the requirements of David Anstey, chief warden, who was concerned for their safety; Tanzania was Tanganyika at that time and a British protectorate.

 

More information: British Council

Leakey arranged funding and in 1962, he sent Goodall, who had no degree, to Cambridge University. She went to Newnham College, and obtained a PhD degree in ethology. 

She became the eighth person to be allowed to study for a PhD there without first having obtained a BA or BSc. Her thesis was completed in 1965 under the tutorship of Robert Hinde, titled Behaviour of free-living chimpanzees, detailing her first five years of study at the Gombe Reserve.

Goodall is best known for her study of chimpanzee social and family life. She began studying the Kasakela chimpanzee community in Gombe Stream National Park, Tanzania, in 1960. Without collegiate training directing her research, Goodall observed things that strict scientific doctrines may have overlooked. Instead of numbering the chimpanzees she observed, she gave them names such as Fifi and David Greybeard, and observed them to have unique and individual personalities, an unconventional idea at the time. 

She found that, it isn't only human beings who have personality, who are capable of rational thought and emotions like joy and sorrow. She also observed behaviours such as hugs, kisses, pats on the back, and even tickling, what we consider human actions. 

Goodall insists that these gestures are evidence of the close, supportive, affectionate bonds that develop between family members and other individuals within a community, which can persist throughout a life span of more than 50 years. 

These findings suggest that similarities between humans and chimpanzees exist in more than genes alone, but can be seen in emotion, intelligence, and family and social relationships.

 

More information: National Geographic

 
Goodall's research at Gombe Stream is best known to the scientific community for challenging two long-standing beliefs of the day: that only humans could construct and use tools, and that chimpanzees were vegetarians. 

While observing one chimpanzee feeding at a termite mound, she watched him repeatedly place stalks of grass into termite holes, then remove them from the hole covered with clinging termites, effectively fishing for termites. The chimps would also take twigs from trees and strip off the leaves to make the twig more effective, a form of object modification which is the rudimentary beginnings of toolmaking. Humans had long distinguished ourselves from the rest of the animal kingdom as Man the Toolmaker. 

In response to Goodall's revolutionary findings, Louis Leakey wrote, We must now redefine man, redefine tool, or accept chimpanzees as human!

In 1977, Goodall established the Jane Goodall Institute (JGI), which supports the Gombe research, and she is a global leader in the effort to protect chimpanzees and their habitats. 

With nineteen offices around the world, the JGI is widely recognised for community-centred conservation and development programs in Africa. Its global youth program, Roots & Shoots began in 1991 when a group of 16 local teenagers met with Goodall on her back porch in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. They were eager to discuss a range of problems they knew about from first-hand experience that caused them deep concern. The organisation now has over 10,000 groups in over 100 countries.

Goodall credits the 1986 Understanding Chimpanzees conference, hosted by the Chicago Academy of Sciences, with shifting her focus from observation of chimpanzees to a broader and more intense concern with animal-human conservation. She is the former president of Advocates for Animals, an organisation based in Edinburgh, Scotland, that campaigns against the use of animals in medical research, zoos, farming and sport.

More information: Wanderlust

 

Chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans 

have been living for hundreds of thousands of years 

in their forest, living fantastic lives, 

never overpopulating, never destroying the forest.

I would say that they have been 

in a way more successful than us 

as far as being in harmony with the environment. 

Jane Goodall

YAIZA FOSTER, A NEW LIFE IN THE HIPPODROME CASINO

Today, The Fosters and The Grandma have said goodbye to one of the members of the family, Yaiza Foster, the Argentinian croupier who has found a new job in the Hippodrome, the most popular casino in England.

Good luck, Yaiza!

Roll of the dice, sister!

Before saying goodbye to Yaiza, the family has been practising the Zero Conditional and playing some games to honoured their croupier.

Finally, The Grandma has explained one story about salmon and another about the importance of Navajo and Basque languages during the WWII.

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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

IF ALEX WEASLEY PLAYS WELL, HE WINS WIMBLEDON

Today, The Weasleys & The Grandma are visiting Wimbledon courts, where Alejandro Weasley is playing n the oldest tennis tournament in the world.

Before this, the family has studied Zero Conditional & Comparative of Equality.

  

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The Championships, commonly known simply as Wimbledon, is the oldest tennis tournament in the world and is widely regarded as the most prestigious. It has been held at the All England Club in Wimbledon, London, since 1877 and is played on outdoor grass courts, with retractable roofs over the two main courts since 2019.

Wimbledon is one of the four Grand Slam tennis tournaments, the others being the Australian Open, the French Open, and the US Open. Wimbledon is the only major still played on grass, the traditional tennis playing surface. Also, it is the only Grand Slam that retains a night-time curfew, though matches can now continue until 11.00 pm under the lights.

The tournament traditionally takes place over two weeks in late June and early July, starting on the last Monday in June and culminating with the Ladies' and Gentlemen's Singles Finals, scheduled for the Saturday and Sunday at the end of the second week. Five major events are held each year, with additional junior and invitational competitions also taking place. 

In 2009, Wimbledon's Centre Court was fitted with a retractable roof to lessen the loss of playing time due to rain. A roof was operational over No. 1 Court from 2019, when a number of other improvements were made, including adding cushioned seating, a table and 10 independently operable cameras per court to capture the games.

Wimbledon traditions include a strict all-white dress code for competitors, and royal patronage. Strawberries and cream are traditionally consumed at the tournament. Unlike other tournaments, advertising is minimal and low key from official suppliers such as Slazenger and Rolex. The relationship with Slazenger is the world's longest-running sporting sponsorship, providing balls for the tournament since 1902.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, 2020 Wimbledon was cancelled, the first cancellation of the tournament since World War II. The rescheduled 134th edition was staged from 28 June 2021 to 11 July 2021, following from the 2020 cancellation. The 135th edition was played between 27 June 2022 and 10 July 2022, and regularly scheduled play occurred on the middle Sunday for the first time. It marks the centenary of the inaugural championships staged at the Centre Court. The ATP, ITF, and WTA did not award ranking points for the 2022 tournament, due to controversy over the tournament excluding players representing Russia and Belarus.

The 2023 Wimbledon Championships will be the 136th staging and will run from 3 July 2023 to 16 July 2023 and it will be the first event of King Charles III since the death of the former patron, Queen Elizabeth II, on 8 September 2022.

More information: Wimbledon

The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club is a private club founded on 23 July 1868, originally as The All England Croquet Club. Its first ground was at Nursery Road off Worple Road, Wimbledon.

In 1876, lawn tennis, a game devised by Major Walter Clopton Wingfield a year or so earlier as an outdoor version of real tennis and originally given the name Sphairistikè, was added to the activities of the club. 

In spring 1877, the club was renamed The All England Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club and signalled its change of name by instituting the first Lawn Tennis Championship. A new code of laws, replacing the code administered by the Marylebone Cricket Club, was drawn up for the event. Today's rules are similar except for details such as the height of the net and posts and the distance of the service line from the net.

The inaugural 1877 Wimbledon Championship started on 9 July 1877 and the Gentlemen's Singles was the only event held. 22 men paid a guinea to enter the tournament, which was to be held over five days. The rain delayed it four more days and thus, on 19 July 1877, the final was played. Spencer Gore, an old Harrovian rackets player, defeated William Marshall 6–1, 6–2 and 6–4 in 48 minutes. Gore was presented with the silver challenge cup, valued at 25 guineas and donated by the sports magazine The Field, as well as a prize money of 12 guineas. About 200 spectators paid one shilling each to watch the final.

The lawns at the ground were arranged so that the principal court was in the middle with the others arranged around it, hence the title Centre Court. The name was retained when the Club moved in 1922 to the present site in Church Road, although no longer a true description of its location. However, in 1980 four new courts were brought into commission on the north side of the ground, which meant the Centre Court was once more correctly described. The opening of the new No. 1 Court in 1997 emphasised the description.

Wimbledon is widely considered the world's premier tennis tournament and the priority of the club is to maintain its leadership. To that end a long-term plan was unveiled in 1993, intended to improve the quality of the event for spectators, players, officials and neighbours.

More information: English Club

There's a certain beauty and majesty to Wimbledon.
The elegance, the way the grass looks on TV.

John McEnroe

THE GRANGERS VISIT ATLANTIC CITY, ROLL OF THE DICE!

Today, The Grangers and The Grandma have travelled from New York to Atlantic City in New Jersey. Before this trip, they have studied the Future Simple, and Zero and First Conditional clauses. 

Finally, they have continuing reading Oscar Wilde's The Canterville Ghost and they have predicted the future.

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Atlantic City, often known by its initials A.C., is a coastal resort city in Atlantic County, New Jersey, known for its casinos, boardwalk, and beaches.

In 2020, the city had a population of 38,497. It was incorporated on May 1, 1854, from portions of Egg Harbor Township and Galloway Township.

it is located on Absecon Island and borders Absecon, Brigantine, Pleasantville, Ventnor City, Egg Harbor Township, and the Atlantic Ocean.

Atlantic City inspired the U.S. version of the board game Monopoly, especially the street names.

Since 1921, Atlantic City has been the home of the Miss America pageant.

In 1976, New Jersey voters legalized casino gambling in Atlantic City, and the first casino opened in 1978.

For many years before the city was founded, the island site of the future settlement was the summer home of the Lenape. While the precise date of the first permanent occupation of what came to be Atlantic City has not been precisely determined, it is commonly thought that in 1783 Jeremiah Leeds first built and occupied an all year home on the island. However, it was not until 1850 that the idea arose to develop the location into a resort town and in early 1853 the name Atlantic City was adopted.

More information: Atlantic City

The history of gambling in Atlantic City traces back to prohibition and the 1920s, with racketeer Louis Kuehnle running an underground hotel and casino. Enoch "Nucky" Johnson followed and furthered Atlantic City's rise through the Roaring Twenties as a destination for drinking, gambling, and nightlife.

In 1974, New Jersey voters voted 60%-40% against legalizing casino gambling at four sites statewide, but two years later approved by 56%-44% a new referendum which legalized casinos, but restricted them to Atlantic City.

Resorts Atlantic City was the first casino to open, in May 1978, with a ribbon-cutting ceremony featuring Governor of New Jersey Brendan Byrne.

Atlantic City is considered the Gambling Capital of the East Coast, and currently has nine large casinos.

In 2011, New Jersey's then 12 casinos employed approximately 33,000 employees, had 28.5 million visitors, made $3.3 billion in gaming revenue, and paid $278 million in taxes. They are regulated by the New Jersey Casino Control Commission and the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement.

In the wake of the economic downturn following the Great Recession and the legalization of gambling in adjacent and nearby states (including Delaware, Maryland, New York, and Pennsylvania), four casino closures took place in 2014: the Atlantic Club on January 13; the Showboat on August 31; the Revel, which was Atlantic City's second-newest casino, on September 2; and Trump Plaza, which originally opened in 1984, and was the poorest performing casino in the city, on September 16.

Executives at Trump Entertainment Resorts, whose sole remaining property at the time was the Trump Taj Mahal, said in 2013 that they were considering the option of selling the Taj and winding down and exiting the gaming and hotel business. Trump Taj Mahal closed October 10, 2016, after failing to come to terms with union workers.

Caesars Entertainment executives have been reconsidering the future of their three remaining Atlantic City properties (Bally's, Caesars and Harrah's), in the wake of a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing by the company's casino operating unit in January 2015.

In 2020, Bally's Atlantic City was acquired by Bally's Corporation.

More information: Atlantic City Free Public Library

 Put your makeup on, fix your hair up pretty
And meet me tonight in Atlantic City.

Bruce Springsteen

THE PLAZA HOTEL IN MANHATTAN, 'THE WAY WE WERE'

Today, The Grandma has visited The Plaza Hotel in Midtown Manhattan, and she has remembered Katie Morosky and Hubbell Gardiner meeting by chance some years after their break-up in front of the Plaza.

Meanwhile, The Newtons have continued preparing their Cambridge Exam. They have studied the Zero Conditional.

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The Plaza Hotel, also known as The Plaza, is a luxury hotel and condominium apartment building in Midtown Manhattan in New York City.

It is located on the western side of Grand Army Plaza, after which it is named, just west of Fifth Avenue, and is between 58th Street and Central Park South (a.k.a. 59th Street), at the southeastern corner of Central Park. Its primary address is 768 Fifth Avenue, though the residential entrance is One Central Park South.

The 21-story, French Renaissance-inspired château style building was designed by Henry Janeway Hardenbergh. The facade is made of marble at the base, with white brick covering the upper stories, and is topped by a mansard roof. The ground floor contains the two primary lobbies, as well as a corridor connecting the large ground-floor restaurant spaces, including the Oak Room, the Oak Bar, the Edwardian Room, the Palm Court, and the Terrace Room.

The upper stories contain the ballroom and a variety of residential condominiums, condo-hotel suites, and short-term hotel suites. At its peak, the Plaza Hotel had over 800 rooms. Following a renovation in 2008, the building has 282 hotel rooms and 181 condos.

A predecessor hotel of the same name was built from 1883 to 1890. The original hotel was replaced by the current structure from 1905 to 1907; Warren and Wetmore designed an expansion to the Plaza Hotel that was added from 1919 to 1921, and several major renovations were conducted through the rest of the 20th century.

The Plaza Operating Company, which erected the current building, operated the hotel until 1943. Subsequently, it was sold to several owners during the remainder of the 20th century, including Conrad Hilton, A.M. Sonnabend, Westin Hotels & Resorts, Donald Trump, and a partnership of City Developments Limited and Al-Waleed bin Talal.

The Plaza Hotel was renovated again after El Ad Properties purchased it in 2005, and the hotel was subsequently sold to Sahara India Pariwar in 2012 and then to Katara Hospitality in 2018. The hotel has been managed by Fairmont Hotels and Resorts since 2005.

Since its inception, the Plaza Hotel has become an icon of New York City, with numerous wealthy and famous guests. The restaurant spaces and ballrooms have hosted events such as balls, benefits, weddings, and press conferences.

More information: The Plaza Hotel

The hotel's design, as well as its location near Central Park, has generally received acclaim. In addition, the Plaza Hotel has appeared in numerous books and films. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the hotel's exterior and some of its interior spaces as city landmarks, and the building is also a National Historic Landmark.

The Plaza Hotel is at 768 Fifth Avenue and One Central Park South in the Midtown Manhattan neighbourhood of New York City. 

It faces Central Park South (59th Street) and the Pond and Hallett Nature Sanctuary in Central Park to the north; Grand Army Plaza to the east; and 58th Street to the south. Fifth Avenue itself is across Grand Army Plaza from the hotel.

The hotel's site covers 4,995.6 m2. It measures 87 m along 58th Street and 84 m along Central Park South, with a depth of 61.21 m between the two streets. As completed in 1907, it measured 44 m along 58th Street and 76 m along Central Park South, with an L running the entire 200-foot depth of the lot along Grand Army Plaza.

The Plaza Hotel, a French Renaissance-inspired château-style building, contains 21 stories and is 76.79 m tall.

The guest rooms have also housed notable personalities, such as opera singer Enrico Caruso, as well as novelists F. Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda Fitzgerald. Frank Lloyd Wright often stayed at the Plaza when he was designing the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum on Fifth Avenue, considering the hotel to be his home. Art dealer Joseph Duveen, 1st Baron Duveen, who helped assemble the Frick Collection at the nearby Frick House, lived at the Plaza and held important auctions in the ballroom. In addition, the Beatles stayed at the Plaza Hotel during their first visit to the United States in February 1964.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation recognized the Plaza Hotel as a Historic Hotel of America.

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The Way We Were is a 1973 American romantic drama film directed by Sydney Pollack and starring Barbra Streisand and Robert Redford.

Arthur Laurents wrote both the novel and screenplay based on his college days at Cornell University and his experiences with the House Un-American Activities Committee.

A box-office success, the film was nominated for several awards and won the Academy Awards for Best Original Dramatic Score and Best Original Song for the theme song The Way We Were. It ranked at number six on AFI's 100 Years...100 Passions survey of the top 100 greatest love stories in American cinema. The Way We Were is considered one of the great romantic films.

The soundtrack album became a gold record and hit the Top 20 on the Billboard 200, while the title song became a gold single, topping the Billboard Hot 100 and selling more than two million copies. Billboard named The Way We Were as the number 1 pop hit of 1974.

In 1998, the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame and finished at number eight on the American Film Institute's 100 Years... 100 Songs list of top tunes in American cinema in 2004. It also was included in the list of Songs of the Century, by the Recording Industry Association of America and the National Endowment for the Arts.

The musical score for The Way We Were was composed by Marvin Hamlisch.

More information: Roger Ebert

I currently live in the Plaza in New York and I love it
-all that history, all those interesting stories.

Tommy Hilfiger

DOWNTON ABBEY, TWO CANDIDATES SEARCH FOR A JOB

Today, The Stones & The Grandma have continued their English lessons. They are working in a new home for Brauny and they have decided to contract a home service to help her in her day by day. 

References are very important in work and they have received excellent ones from two great candidates, Anna and Mr. Bates, who worked for the aristocratic Crawley family some years ago.

The Stones have been discussing who the best candidates to work under Brauny orders are.

Finally, the family has reviewed Zero Conditional and There is/There are, the first of the three conditional structures that they are going to study.

More information: Zero Conditional & There is/There are

Downton Abbey is a British historical drama television series set in the early 20th century, created and co-written by Julian Fellowes.

The series first aired on ITV in the United Kingdom on 26 September 2010, and in the United States on PBS, which supported production of the series as part of its Masterpiece Classic anthology, on 9 January 2011.

The series, set in the fictional Yorkshire country estate of Downton Abbey between 1912 and 1926, depicts the lives of the aristocratic Crawley family and their domestic servants in the post-Edwardian era -with the great events of the time having an effect on their lives and on the British social hierarchy.

Events depicted throughout the series include news of the sinking of the Titanic in the first series; the outbreak of the First World War, the Spanish influenza pandemic, and the Marconi scandal in the second series; the Irish War of Independence leading to the formation of the Irish Free State in the third series; the Teapot Dome scandal in the fourth series; the British general election of 1923 and the Beer Hall Putsch in the fifth series.

The sixth and final series introduces the rise of the working class during the interwar period and hints at the eventual decline of the British aristocracy.

More information: ABA English

Downton Abbey has received acclaim from television critics and won numerous accolades, including a Golden Globe Award for Best Miniseries or Television Film and a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Miniseries or Movie. It was recognised by Guinness World Records as the most critically acclaimed English-language television series of 2011.

It earned the most nominations of any international television series in the history of the Primetime Emmy Awards, with twenty-seven in total, after the first two series. It was the most watched television series on both ITV and PBS, and subsequently became the most successful British costume drama series since the 1981 television serial of Brideshead Revisited.

On 26 March 2015, Carnival Films and ITV announced that the sixth series would be the last. It aired on ITV between 20 September 2015 and 8 November 2015. The final episode, serving as the annual Christmas special, was broadcast on 25 December 2015. A film adaptation, serving as a continuation of the series, was confirmed on 13 July 2018 and subsequently released in the United Kingdom on 13 September 2019, and in the United States on 20 September 2019.

The series is set in fictional Downton Abbey, a Yorkshire country house, which is the home and seat of the Earl and Countess of Grantham, along with their three daughters and distant family members. Each series follows the lives of the aristocratic Crawley family, their friends, and their servants during the reign of King George V.

More information: Movie Web

 You are being tested.
You know what they say darling,
being tested only makes you stronger.

Cora, Lady Grantham

IF YOU LIKE COMICS, YOU MUST READ 'ASTÉRIX ET OBÉLIX'

Astérix et Obélix

Today, The Watsons and The Grandma have continued working with their English for Sales course. They have been studying Zero Conditional.

The Grandma has explained how important is to read comics to improve your knowledge in English and your vocabulary. She has chosen one of her favourite ones, Astérix et Obélix.

The Adventures of Astérix, in French Astérix le Gaulois, is a French bande dessinée series about Gaulish warriors, who have adventures and fight the Roman Empire during the era of Julius Caesar.

The series first appeared in the Franco-Belgian comics magazine Pilote on 29 October 1959. It was written by René Goscinny and illustrated by Albert Uderzo until the death of Goscinny in 1977.

Uderzo then took over the writing until 2009, when he sold the rights to publishing company Hachette. In 2013, a new team consisting of Jean-Yves Ferri (script) and Didier Conrad (artwork) took over. As of 2019, 38 volumes have been released, with the most recent released in October 2019.

More information: Zero Conditional I & II

The series follows the adventures of a village of Gauls as they resist Roman occupation in 50 BCE. 

They do so by means of a magic potion, brewed by their druid Getafix -Panoramix in the French version-, which temporarily gives the recipient superhuman strength. The protagonists, the title character Astérix and his friend Obélix, have various adventures.

The -ix ending of both names, as well as all the other pseudo-Gaulish -ix names in the series, alludes to the -rix suffix (meaning king) present in the names of many real Gaulish chieftains such as Vercingetorix, Orgetorix, and Dumnorix.

In many of the stories, they travel to foreign countries, though other tales are set in and around their village. For much of the history of the series (Volumes 4 through 29), settings in Gaul and abroad alternated, with even-numbered volumes set abroad and odd-numbered volumes set in Gaul, mostly in the village.

More information: Albert Aleandro Uderzo, Astérix loses his creator

The Astérix series is one of the most popular Franco-Belgian comics in the world, with the series being translated into 111 languages and dialects as of 2009.

The success of the series has led to the adaptation of its books into 13 films: nine animated, and four live action, one of which, Astérix & Obélix: Mission Cleopatra, was a major box office success in France. There have also been a number of games based on the characters, and a theme park near Paris, Parc Astérix. The very first French satellite, Astérix, launched in 1965, was also named after the comics character.

As of 2017, 370 million copies of Astérix books have been sold worldwide, with co-creators René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo being France's best-selling authors abroad.

Prior to creating the Astérix series, Goscinny and Uderzo had previously had success with their series Oumpah-pah, which was published in Tintin magazine. Astérix was originally serialised in Pilote magazine, debuting in the first issue on 29 October 1959. 

Astérix et Obélix

In 1961 the first book was put together, titled Astérix the Gaul. From then on, books were released generally on a yearly basis. Their success was exponential; the first book sold 6,000 copies in its year of publication; a year later, the second sold 20,000.

In 1963, the third sold 40,000; the fourth, released in 1964, sold 150,000. A year later, the fifth sold 300,000; 1966's Astérix and the Big Fight sold 400,000 upon initial publication. The ninth Astérix volume, when first released in 1967, sold 1.2 million copies in two days.

Uderzo's first preliminary sketches portrayed Astérix as a huge and strong traditional Gaulish warrior. But Goscinny had a different picture in his mind, visualizing Astérix as a shrewd, compact warrior who would possess intelligence and wit more than raw strength.

However, Uderzo felt that the downsized hero needed a strong but dim companion, to which Goscinny agreed. Hence, Obélix was born. Despite the growing popularity of Astérix with the readers, the financial backing for the publication Pilote ceased. Pilote was taken over by Georges Dargaud.

When Goscinny died in 1977, Uderzo continued the series by popular demand of the readers, who implored him to continue. He continued to issue new volumes of the series, but on a less-frequent basis. Many critics and fans of the series prefer the earlier collaborations with Goscinny.

Uderzo created his own publishing company, Les Editions Albert-René, which published every album drawn and written by Uderzo alone since then. However, Dargaud, the initial publisher of the series, kept the publishing rights on the 24 first albums made by both Uderzo and Goscinny.

More information: René Goscinny, Astérix and Obélix creator

In 1990, the Uderzo and Goscinny families decided to sue Dargaud to take over the rights. In 1998, after a long trial, Dargaud lost the rights to publish and sell the albums. Uderzo decided to sell these rights to Hachette instead of Albert-René, but the publishing rights on new albums were still owned by Albert Uderzo (40%), Sylvie Uderzo (20%) and Anne Goscinny (40%).

However, René Goscinny's daughter, Anne, also gave her agreement to the continuation of the series and sold her rights at the same time. She is reported to have said that Asterix has already had two lives: one during my father's lifetime and one after it. Why not a third?. A few months later, Uderzo appointed three illustrators, who had been his assistants for many years, to continue the series.

In 2011, Uderzo announced that a new Astérix album was due out in 2013, with Jean-Yves Ferri writing the story and Frédéric Mébarki drawing it.

A year later, in 2012, the publisher Albert-René announced that Frédéric Mébarki had withdrawn from drawing the new album, due to the pressure he felt in following in the steps of Uderzo. Comic artist Didier Conrad was officially announced to take over drawing duties from Mébarki, with the due date of the new album in 2013 unchanged.

In January 2015, after the murders of seven cartoonists at the satirical Paris weekly Charlie Hebdo, Astérix creator Albert Uderzo came out of retirement to draw two Astérix pictures honouring the memories of the victims.

Download 43 Astérix Adventures (English Version)

The year is 50 BC.

Gaul is entirely occupied by the Romans.

Well, not entirely...

One small village of indomitable Gauls

still holds out against the invaders.

And life is not easy for the Roman legionaries

who garrison the fortified camps of Totorum,

Aquarium, Laudanum and Compendium... 

IF YOU GO TO VENICE, YOU MUST WEAR A MASK

The Beans in Venice

The Beans are in Venice enjoying the city and its people. Before going to the reception offered by the City Hall, the family has continued its English classes. Today, they have been talking about some conditional structures: Zero and First Conditional.

It's a special visit for Ana Bean, who is in love with the city and for The Grandma who has great memories of her past with Corto Maltese in this wonderful place. Venice is being a great experience for all the members of the family: Tania and Paqui Bean has fallen in love with a gondolier, a Venetian boatman.

More information: Zero Conditional & First Conditional

Moreover, The Grandma has been talking about sustanaible houses and buildings that avoid pollution and energy consumption, something very important for cities that are under danger of collapsing like Venice.

More information: Passive House International

The Carnevale di Venezia is one of the most famous carnivals around the world, and a charming characteristic of the city. Its origins are centuries old, and it still attracts thousands of tourists each year who arrive in Venice to admire the sumptuous costumes and masks parading in the streets and squares. Creating masks is, indeed, an art in Venice, a tradition dating back hundreds of years, making the carnival of Venice truly unique.

Paqui and Tania Bean with a handsome gondolier

The carnival became a public festivity in 1296, with an act of the Senate of the Republic of Venice, but its origins are even older. Already in 1094, official documents brought traces of public celebrations in the last days before Lent. 

At this time, and for the following centuries, the carnival consisted in several weeks of festivity and fun in the whole city, during which people could indulge in music, dances and parties, barely working. Wearing masks and costumes made it possible for people to hide any differences of class or status, and it was even allowed to make fun of the aristocracy. This time of regulated social outburst was a way for the Most Serene Republic of Venice to maintain order and power throughout the rest of the year.

More information: Simply Masquerade

Public shows and exhibitions were organized everywhere in the city, with musicians, dancers, acrobats and jugglers. At the same time, parties and raffish performances also took place in private houses and cafés, and theaters hosted a growing number of masked plays.

The carnival became internationally famous and prestigious in the 18th century, when it reached its widest fame. It was in this period that the writer Casanova spent his life in Venice between wild parties and love affairs. At the end of the century, with the French conquest of the Republic first and the Austrian occupation later, the tradition of wearing masks was forbidden, and the carnival survived, even though reduced, only in some island of the lagoon. It was only in 1979 that the ancient tradition was restored, in the form still seen today.

More information: Venezia Autentica

Who are The Beans hidden behind the masks?

The magic of carnival gives to Venice an enchanted atmosphere. Masked people fill the streets with smiles and laughter, and several events are organized all around the city. The carnival usually lasts a couple of weeks, but the most important days are those between the last Thursday and the very last day, Tuesday. These are called giovedì grasso and martedì grasso, literally ‘fat Thursday’ and ‘fat Tuesday,’ in opposition to the following Ash Wednesday that marks the beginning of Lent, a period traditionally dedicated to fast. However, the weekends are usually the privileged time for tourists and visitors.

On the last Sunday and last Tuesday of carnival, a big wooden stage hosts the award ceremony of the best masked costume, which is elected after several parades that take place during the central days of the festival. This stage is also the theater of different plays, where traditional masked characters like Arlecchino interpret comic adventures. It is also possible to participate to sumptuous masked parties in 18th century style, organized in ancient Venetian buildings, but the dimension of the squares and streets is the most popular one.

More information: The Telegraph

To build a city where it is impossible to build a city 

is madness in itself, but to build there one of the most elegant 

and grandest of cities is the madness of genius. 

Alexander Herzen