My Brother Adrian

I come from a big family; I have 5 sisters and 3 brothers. Today I'm going to talk about my brother Adrian or Ady (Adie, AD) as we call him.

Ady is 18 months younger than me. He lives in Paekakariki, a lovely little beach town in New Zealand, with his wife and two teenage children. He's a furniture designer/maker but he spends a lot of time repairing violins and cellos. He's very good at what he does and enjoys doing it. He's also a very good musician. He plays violin and guitar and loves making music in his spare time. His wife is also a musician so they often play together live in Paekakariki and in neighbouring towns. As a child Ady had the nickname Billy Whizz (a British character from a comic) because he was also running off very quickly. My elder sister used to look after him and if they took their eyes off him for more than a second he would disappear in a flash. Ady has a great sense of humour. He’s always making jokes and fooling around and although he has his serious side, he tends to be smiling and laughing most of the time. Although he studied Kung Fu and other martial arts, he has a very gentle nature. He likes to read and one of his favourite activities is going walking. In fact, he and his family often go on walking holidays, which are very popular in New Zealand. I have a great relationship with Ady and we speak to each other every month. It’s great that we had Skype and internet because it’s easier and cheaper to keep in touch. I love visiting Ady because he lives in a beautiful place and has a beautiful family.

 

Write about someone in your family.

 Say:

Who it is,

Where they live,

What they do,

How often you see them,

What sort of relationship you have with them.

 

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A Beach You Like

The first time I went to the beach in Chile was a special occasion because it was the first time I saw the Pacific Ocean. It must have been in October or November 1996 and I went with 2 Chilean friends, Rodrigo and Chelo. Rodrigo was a student of mine at UMCE and Chelo was his neighbour. They invited me on a trip to El Ouisco for the weekend. We left Santiago at about 6pm on a Friday evening so my first glimpse of the Pacific was actually from a bus on the coast road into Algarrobo. The beach in El Quisco isn't that attractive and the town was (is) quite run down. We spent the first evening on the beach drinking and chatting to other people who were also drinking and chatting and then spent the night in a kind of hostel that cost 2 lucas per person. As you can imagine, it was very basic. The next morning we took a local bus down the coast and went to the beach I'm going to talk about, Canelillo. The sensation was total different from El Quisco beach. Canelillo was a beautiful cove. Golden sands, pine trees running almost down to the waterline, deserted. It reminded me of something out of the Narnia books or Lord of the Rings.

I didn't have a swim suit, but it didn't matter because the water was way too cold for swimming. However, it was nice just to lie on the sand and soak up the rays of the sun. We spent the morning on the beach. As from 11 o' clock other people started to arrive with their deck chairs and their picnics so at about 1PM we walked back to El Quisco along the coast. It took about an hour but it was a nice walk. I’ve been back to Canelillo a number of times; the last time was about six months ago. Unfortunately, they built some apartments on one side of the bay which takes away some of its charm but it’s still a great beach, especially when it’s empty.

 

Write about a beach you like.

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Where it is,

When you went there for the first time,

Who you went with,

What you did there,

Why you like it.

 

Write at least 300 words. Leave a post on your teacher’s blog and on the blogs of at least 3 classmates.

A Present

One present I remember receiving was a musical note shaped earring. My sister Moria (Scottish version of Mary) gave it to me for my 20^th or 21^st birthday. The reason I remember this particular present is that my sister lived in London at the time and I was living in Chester (6 or 7 hours train journey in those days) and she came up especially for my birthday. Moria, or Moe as we like to call her, was a DJ at a well known London club called Stringfellows and I always used to go and stay with her in London so I was really surprised when she came to see me in Chester. She didn’t tell anybody she was coming and, if I remember rightly, she was waiting outside my flat when I got home from work. Just seeing her was a great present so I was really happy when she gave me the earring. Anyway, we went out for a meal and a few drinks with one of my brothers and a couple of close friends. Obviously I wore my new earring (men usually only used 1 earring in those days although I sometimes used 2) and I thought it was really cool. I actually wore the earring until I came to live in Chile when people advised me to take it out for job interviews (in 1996 not many Chilean men used earrings as it was frowned upon). By that time I’d grown out of my earring phase so it was no big deal to take it out. I still have the earring in a box of trinkets I have at home. Every now and I then I come across it and it reminds me of my other life as an aspiring musician.

Write about a present you received.

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What it was,

Who gave it to you,

Why you liked it,

Where it is now.

 

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One of the best parties I ever went to was actually a party I held in my flat on New Year’s Eve in about 2002 or 3 (I think).  At that time I was living in a 2-bedroomed flat on Manuel Montt close to the corner with Elidoro Yañez. My wife and I gave the party. We invited about 30 people put on about 10 or 12 people made it. Even so we had a really great time. If I remember rightly, we cleared out 2 rooms; one for eating and chatting, and one for dancing. We made sushi and bought other things to nibble and, of course, lots of drinks; mainly beer, wine, pisco, rum and vodka. About 8 or 10 people arrived before 12 o clock; the others arrived at about 2 or 3 in the morning.  I’d made up some mix CDs to dance to and everybody really enjoyed the selection (I think I’d prepared about 10 hours of music).  What good thing was that my friend’s Marco and Jacki arrived at about 2AM just as people were starting to get tired. They came with a friend of theirs called Carmen Gloria who was full of energy and ready to have fun and enjoy herself – actually I thing she was a little bit drunk. However,  their arrival gave everybody a new boost of energy and we ended up dancing until about 7AM and then we went to the Mercado Central to get some Paila Marina and recharge our batteries. All in all it was great party.

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Where and when it was,

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Why you remember it,

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Tiki Tiki Ti

I don't normally get involved with the celebrations for Fiestas Patrias. I used to go to barbeques with friends or house parties but I never enjoyed going to fondas in Santiago because I always found them over-crowded and over-priced. In fact the only fonda I ever really enjoyed was 8 or 9 years ago when I went to Algarrobo. I went with my wife, a British friend, Karen, and a Chilean friend Claudio. Claudio's parents have a house in Algarrobo and we went to stay there for a couple of days. It was great being near the beach and getting some fresh sea air. Also, the weather was warm and sunny during the daytime and not too cold in the evenings.

The fonda was on the main road leading into Algarrobo and we went twice on consecutive evenings. There were lots of people but the atmosphere was friendly. We did the typical things like play some games, eat empanadas and drink chicha. There was music and people dancing cueca. Later on we drank piscolas and danced (shuffled about!!) to cumbias.

I think my friend Karen found it somewhat strange. She’s from Liverpool and I don’t think she knew too much about South American culture. Nowadays, being a “fish-e-tarian” I don’t go to so many barbeques but I’m quite happy staying at home and celebrating with my wife. We actually, met on September 18^th 1996 at a house party so it is a special date for us for other reasons:

Write about a Fiestas Patrias celebration you remember:

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When it was,

What you did,

Who you were with,

Why you enjoyed it.

 
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A Concert, Exhibition or Sports Event

I guess I've been very lucky as far as live music is concerned. I started going to concerts on a regular basis when I was 16 and I got to see lots of great bands. Often I got to see bands by chance because they were supporting other bands and other times I went to gigs were lots of bands were playing, often free of charge. The last big free festival I went to was in Bristol in 1998. It was about a month before I came to live in Chile. The festival is a yearly event in a place called Ashton Park. This year was special because my brother was playing the festival with his band (Grist) and my sister-in-law was singing Bulgarian songs with one of her friends. The festival also had a great line up of some local Bristol bands. I went with one of my brothers but met up with a lot more family. In fact the festival is a family event so there were 3 of my sisters, 3 of my brothers, in-laws, and nephews and nieces.

There were 4 or 5 stages and some of the bands performed in big tents. I think my favourite band was Moloko. They played in a small tent to about 300 people and were simply amazing. Especially Rosin the singer who is a great performer. The festival finished with a special concert by Portishead who are from a small coastly town just outside Bristol. They played on the main stage and were watched by about 30,000 people. My favourite part of the concert was when they played "Glory Box" which is the song of theirs that I like most. The sound was excellent and everybody had a great time.

Write about a concert, exhibition or sports event you went to.
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What it was,
Where and when it was,
Who you went with,
What you enjoyed about it.

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An Expert You Admire

There are lots of interesting people related to my field of Applied Linguists and Teaching English as a Foreign Language. The first one who really had any lasting effect on my Teaching was a man called David Nunan. He's an Australian who has worked in lots of different countries and today he is one of the most respected English language teaching experts on a world level.

I first heard about him in the year 2000. I was involved in a course that was supervised by an Australian University here in Santiago. One of the visiting professors referred to Nunan's work and I decided to investigate.

I admire Nunan because he actually started out as a teacher and therefore he knows all the in and outs of teaching. Additionally, he has written some excellent books on teaching that are really accessible to teachers and not just academics. My favourite book by him is Language Teaching Methodology, which is the first one that I read. However, he has also written really good books on Task-based Learning, and Learner-Centred Teaching and Learning. A lot of the things that he writes about are very practical and I guess he is the person who has most influenced my teaching over the last ten years or so. Nunan introduced me to a lot of new ideas about what is to teach without forgetting that the learner is the most important element of the equation.

Write about an expert you admire.
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Who it is,
What their area of expertise is,
How you heard about this person,
Why you admire him or her
What effect they have had on your studies.

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