CREATING AN ALIBI: IS TRUE THAT YOU WERE IN...?

Paula Bond is preparing her travel to Venice

Today, The Bonds are flying to Venice. The Grandma is still in The USA because she must resolve some business but the rest of the family is arriving to this wonderful city to enjoy the Carnival.

They have been revising some English grammar during the flight. They've practised Past Simple and Past Continuous (While and When) and Countable & Uncountable.

More information: Past Simple vs. Past Continuous

The family has bought some food by Internet and after creating their shopping lists they've written some recipes for The Grandma.

More information: BBC Food Recipes

Finally, the family has prepared a listening playing with Yes/No answers and trying to remember as things as they could about themselves and contrast their alibis.

Download M.José & Pedro Bond's Crosswords

Spaghetti can be eaten most successfully 

if you inhale it like a vacuum cleaner. 

Sophia Loren

WHITE RABBIT: DREAM OR REALITY?

Yesterday, The Poppins practised more Countable & Uncountable nouns. This time, they talked about Much & Many and some especial names.

The family is still in San Francisco where Susana Poppins has an interesting meeting in Silicon Valley next Friday. Meanwhile, The Poppins are enjoying the city and Californian weather and culture. The Grandma has explained some impressions about hippie movement and its evolution. This peaceful movement had a short life but very intensive and it’s a reference in the culture of peace and love. This movement inspired one of the best music generation with the best singers and composers like Joan Baez, Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin, Joe Cocker, Bob Seeger, Jefferson Airplane or The Youngbloods. They’re only a part of a long list of great artist who lived an immortal age.

More information: Countable & Uncountable

Finally, the family has been talking about dreams and Alice in Wonderland, the fantastic an enigmatic Lewis Carroll’s novel.

More information: Much & Many
 

Tomorrow, the family is starting to talk about Present Perfect and its clues: since, for, yet, already and just.

 Although the Chinese had used opium as a medicine, 

there was no widespread addiction before the British arrived.

Robert Trout

BE SURE TO WEAR SOME FLOWERS IN YOUR HAIR

Yesterday, The Poppins continued with their English classes. They reviewed Countable & Uncountable nouns, something a little difficult to learn and understand. They also did some exercises about vocabulary and Second Conditional.

More information: Countable & Uncountable Nouns

The day was like a normal one but The Grandma received some news from Barcelona. Something had happened with her business and she must pay attention to them. After talking with the family and explaining her situation, she listened to every member who wanted to reply her and she took as advice as she could. When you have a problem, the best solution is to share it with the rest of the family because they can be your best counsellors.

Finally, The Grandma decided to talk about public and private educational system with its pros and cons.

More information: PET Listening

Today, the family is continuing in San Francisco. They want to visit Chinatown, the bay with the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz prison, which is now an important museum. 

One today is worth two tomorrows.

Benjamin Franklin

TELEPHONING IN ENGLISH

The Panthocrator of Taüll, Alta Ribagorça

Today, The Holmes have read another new chapter of Oscar Wilde's The Ghost of Canterville. It seems that the ghost is a little desperate with his new American family.

Next, they've listened to a new Grandma's story. This time it has been about Gypsy Culture and religious symbols like Pantocrator and the Black Virgins.

After that, they've gone shopping to practise countable & uncountable. They also have written a shopping list paying attention to money (coins & bills) and numbers (decimals and fractions).

Finally, they’ve started a new manual about Telephoning in English and they have practised some listening.

This weekend, they’re preparing a new journey. They want to go to Italy, from south –Sicily- to north -Milano, Verona, Siena, Pisa, Venice and Florence-, stopping in the way in Naples and Rome.   

  

  

I have two masters: God and the Devil.
 I work for the Devil until lunch, then I follow the Lord.

 Gypsy Proverb

COUNTABLES & UNCOUNTABLES

Occitan Poetry

Today, The Holmes have practised Countable & Uncountable and have read the third chapter of The Ghost of Canterville.

More info: Countable & Uncountable

They’ve corrected some exercises and played some games of vocabulary. They also have listened to another Grandma’s story about the Catharism and its conception of life and spirituality; the Occitan Poetry and the role of the poets in the court during the Middle-Age.

After that, they’ve talked again about how to create a story paying attention to an important element: Linchpin.

Next, they’ve written a haiku to honour their travel to Japan.

Finally, they’ve created an invented story about Robin Hood and his adventures. It has been a little difficult because it was the first time that they did something like this but they’ve done it very well.

This afternoon, the family has received some news: for one hand, Luisa is fine and she’s resting in the hotel with the rest of the family and her towel; for other hand, The Grandma is sad, again, because Alan and René, two closer friends, have decided to go to a journey without return.

That's it then.
Cancel the kitchen scraps for lepers and orphans, 
no more merciful beheadings,
and call off Christmas.

Sheriff of Nottingham

VENETIAN CARNIVAL, W. CHURCHILL & LONDON TUBE

Mind the Gap

I believe our countrymen will show themselves capable of standing up to it, like the brave men of Barcelona, and will be able to stand up to it, and carry on in spite of it, at least as well as any other people in the world.

He nothing common did or mean, upon that memorable scene.

Winston Churchill - June 18th 1940

The Collins Family was exhausted after an intensive weekend enjoying the Venetian Carnival, sailing in gondola, singing Venetian songs and drinking and eating local products with the great company of Eva and Corto. It was fantastic. We took lots of photos which, one day, perhaps we can publish.

Yesterday, three of our members, Laura, Miriam and M. Carmen worked very hard for passing some tests while the rest of the family was writing about sharks, preparing an informal invitation and reviewing English grammar: connectors, countable & uncountable, question tags…

More information: Write Express

Today, we’ve reviewed the Perfect Tenses (Present & Past); we’ve written a formal letter addressing to Nestlé Company and we’ve talked about the relation between Winston Churchill, Barcelona’s citizens and London Tube. In fact, it could seem a sad story but it’s a great demonstration of courage, strength, survival, resistance and resilience of our ancestors and how the common work can help to save lives.

Finally, we’ve prepared a journey for visiting the most important places in London City by underground and we’ve talked about bitly.com an interesting tool for Twitter and we’ve seen other material.

More information: Bitly.com

We’re expecting because Montse Paris and Montse Pottery have work interviews and we’re hoping the best news.

 We shall never surrender - Winston Churchill 

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