My best and Worst Neighbours

I have lived in quite a few different houses and flats in my life what with having moved around the world a lot and so I have had quite a few different neighbours: Seamus, the Irishman who used to come to our house every Sunday to play cards with us when I was between the ages of 13 - 18; the young couple who lived in the flat downstairs from us in my first flat in Portugal who were constantly (and justifiably) complaining about the noise; the sweet old lady who lived next to us in Granada, who had an enormous portrait of General Franco in her flat!!(We found this out after she had mysteriously disappeared and  the workmen who were doing up her flat left the door open for us to go and have a snoop. However, I am going to tell you about the best and worst, both of whom were my neighbours when I lived in Spain.
Lets start off with the worst: When I was about 27, I moved into a flat in San Sebastian in the Basque Country with a neurotic nurse and a student called Gonzalo. It was in an old building and I remember Ana (the nurse) warning me about the neighbours downstairs, a man and woman who were in their fifties or sixties and were apparently bother and sister. Ana told me to take my shoes off in the flat because the noise travelled and these people downstairs were a bit obsessive about that kind of thing. Well, little did I know how insane these people were.
On one occasion, they caught my flatmate Gonzalo on the stairs and "accused" him of opening drawers too noisily! For my part, I tried my hardest to make as little noise as possible, but obviously they had zero tolerance, and in the end it became uncomfortable just arriving home because they would be waiting on the stairs to complain about "walking around the flat in shoes" and other ridiculous things. On one occasion two of my sister's friends came to stay, Tim and Bubbly. They were very colourful people - he had spiky blond hair and looked a bit punky, and she was a very attractive Indian hippie type. When the woman downstairs saw us going out one day, she launched into a tirade about how could I bring this "scum" into the building!! And of course, I remember well the day I moved out. As I was passing her door with my bags, there she was waiting for me, with a large kitchen knife in her hand if I remember rightly, and shouting something like "Good riddance to you and don't come back!"
As for my best neighbours, they were two students called Igor (from Italy) and Sean (from Chicago) who lived downstairs from us (me and my flatmate Martyn) the first year I lived in Granada. Well actually, Igor was a student and Sean had just gone over to Spain with his guitar to busk and hopefully get some classes from one of the Spanish guitar maestros. We all hit it off immediately and practically every evening either they would be in our flat eating and drinking, or we in theirs. We were all pretty young and Granada is a big student town, so we had a pretty good social life, but I remember that Sean often had no money, so we would pay for his drinks all night if we went out to bars just because we wanted his company. Actually, he is still one of my best friends. I went out to see him in Chicago a couple of years ago, he's been here to visit me twice, and we might be meeting up for a week this summer in Colombia or Ecuador.
I wish I had a photo of us all to show you but in those days, I was too busy getting drunk and having a laugh to worry about taking photos ;-)

Task
Write a description of your best and worst neighbours, with a little introduction like mine about some of the neighbours you've had and then a paragraph about the best, and a paragraph about the worst. Remember to say who they were, what period of your life you had these neighbours and why they were so good or bad.

Also, remember to comment on at least 3 other students' posts.

A Place I Spend a lot of Time

Being British, I am much more of a tea drinker than a coffee drinker, but having lived in Spain for eight years, I really learned to appreciate the café culture of the Mediterranean region, and so I learned to drink coffee, not so much because I liked the drink, but because I liked the culture that went with it. So, I like spending time in cafés and one that I really like to spend time in is a Uruguayan café near my house, called Café Palermo.

I have been going there now for about three years probably. I initially started going there because it was open on a Sunday and weekdays until eleven o'clock. That sentence may sound strange to people from another place or another time, but when I first came to Chile, one of the worst shocks for me was how difficult it was to find a café open on a Sunday. I was reminded of that Morrissey song "Every day is like Sunday" as I walked around on a Sunday afternoon unsuccessfully trying to find a place that was open.

Of course, it wasn't just the opening hours that I liked. The way the place was decorated also caught my eye. The decoration is very artistic (not that I know anything about art) and also very cosy inside, which makes you feel happy to sit there for hours. I remember that after I had been going in there for about a year, I noticed that they had put a bath tub in there with flowers growing in it and a glass top which turns it into a table - It's one of my favourite things in there.

I go there just to get out of the house sometimes. I read, do my marking, or just do a bit of people watching - it's better than watching the television. I have to mention that they do a really great passion fruit cheesecake in there, which I think I am addicted to and also that the staff are really friendly. As for the coffee, I guess it's ok, but as I said, I am not a connoisseur - for me the drink is secondary to the experience.

So if you get the chance, I suggest you check it out (I am not on commission!!) You'll probably see me in there!
http://www.cafe-palermo.cl/

Instructions
Write about a place (outside of your home and workplace) where you spend a lot of time. Include:

1. A description of the place
2. When you first went to this place
3. Why you go there and what you do there
4. What you like about it

Then comment on 3 other people's posts, both on the content and the language.

A Tournament I won

I would like to tell you all about the time I won a darts tournament in 2004. I had only been in Chile for about a year and at the time I was living in Las Condes. I used to cycle home from work along Calle Pocuro and one day I stopped in a pub near the big Jumbo in Juana de Austria. It was supposedly an English pub, although the only thing English about it were three dartboards that they had in the back room. I was really interested in this because I used to play darts a lot when I was young (It's quite common to see dartboards in pubs in England) and I had never seen a place in Santiago with a board. So, I started going there regularly to play, and one day the owner asked me if I wanted to take part in a tournament they were organizing. I said I would, and paid my entrance fee.

On the day of the tournament, I went to the pub with a few colleagues from work and my girlfriend. The owner of the pub came up and told me that the best darts player in Chile would be taking part, and he introduced me to him, telling him that I was from England, the home of darts, and that I was really good (which wasn't really true). For me, the whole thing was just a bit of fun, and as I didn't know any of the other players I didn't have anything to prove, so I was really relaxed. That must have helped me because I won match after match quite easily until I reached the final. And guess who was my opponent in the final! Yes, the so-called best player in Chile.

I don't remember much about the final except for the fact that I could see instantly that he was a better player than me. However, I had the advantage of not really having anything to prove, as I said earlier, whereas he seemed to be very tense. Maybe, the owner telling him that I was so good had played into my hands, as he seemed desperate to beat me and maintain his reputation against this pretender. In the last game, he scored really well and got down to a double really quickly, but he just couldn't finish - his nerves were showing. He had at least three chances to win the game but couldn't go out. However, when I got down to a double, I got it with my first dart! What a great feeling!

I won the rather crappy trophy that you can see in the photo below,which still stands on my bookshelf, and perhaps a bottle of wine or something, but for me a far greater prize was the story it gave me of how I had beaten the best darts player in Chile (even though he probably wasn't the best player in Chile!)

Instructions
Write about an event/tournament/contest/competition that you won or did very well in. It could be something from school, university, or your adult life. It doesn't have to be a sport. It could just be the time you won some money at bingo, or something like that. Include:

1. How you entered or became involved in the competition
2. A description of how you won / did so well
3. What you received as a prize
4. How you feel about this experience now

Write between 200 -300 words
AFTERWARDS, COMMENT ON AT LEAST THREE OTHER POSTS. You can make a general comment, ask questions or point out vocabulary or grammar points. 

Adding Other Bloggers

Hello bloggers. Below are the instructions for you to follow to add the other members of the class to your blog:

1. I assume your gmail account is open, but if not, open it and click on the google apps icon on the top right hand side (its the icon that looks like a telephone dialling pad).
2. When you click on it, it will give you lots of options. At the bottom, click on "more" and then scroll down and click on "blogger".
3. When the page opens, at the top, next to the name of your blog, you will see three icons: one with a pen on it; one with two pages and a little arrow; and one saying "view blog". Click on the little arrow on the side of the middle icon (the two pages).
4. This will show you a menu. Towards the bottom, there is an option called "layout". Click on "layout". This will open another page.
5. You will see a template of your blog homepage. Go to the part which says sidebar-right-1 and click on "edit" in the "bloggers"section underneath.
6. This will open a new page called Configure Link List. Now go to my blog and click on the name of one of your classmates. This will open their blog. Copy the URL of their blog (the address of the page) from the address bar. Go back to the Configure Link List page and paste the URL in the space which says "New Site URL".
7. In the space which says "New Site Name", write the name of the classmate.
8. Click on "add link" and then click on "save" at the bottom. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT. If you don't save it, it won't appear on your blog. 
9. Repeat this for all the other classmates.

Great! We are now ready to read each other's posts and comment on them. Any problems, send me a mail to the gmail address.

Topic One - A Photo I like

As you can see, this is a family photograph of me as a little boy. It was taken by a professional photographer in about 1969 or 1970 (yes, you can do the maths to work out how old I am!) in the house in London where I lived in for the first three or four years of my life before we all moved out to the countryside. That's my mum (Valerie), me, my sister (Claire) and my dad (Anthony).

I really love this photo but I have never really stopped to think about why until now. I suppose there are a number of things about it which I like. Firstly, it is an old photo, and when we look at old photos of ourselves and people we love, it is interesting to see how we looked back then and how the world was different. Also, it is a black and white photo, and I think there is something great about black and white. It's as if the subject is brought out in a purer way as there is no colour to distract us. However, I think the main reason why I like it so much is that everybody looks so genuinely happy in it. I think that photos which are posed for don't often capture genuine emotions as well as this one does.

To be honest, I am not really that interested in either taking or looking at photos, but I often look at this one. Mostly, I look at the little boy. It's a world away and it's sometimes easy to think that you're looking at another person, but I still feel a connection with him and when I look at the photo, I feel like he is looking back at me. It makes me quite emotional. For a while, I had it as the wallpaper on my mobile phone, so quite a lot of people have seen it, and they all react in the same way, saying how cute I look, which is great because that is not something that happens to me much these days. :-)

Write a comment about my post, please and then choose a photo you like and write about it on your blog. Write 200 - 300 words. Follow the steps:

1. Tell us what the photo is of, and where and when it was taken.
2. Say what you like about the photo.
3. Mention how often you look at the photo and how other people usually react to it.
4. And of course, don't forget to upload the photo.

Welcome

Hello everyone and welcome to the blog at last. Now that I have got my internet problems sorted out we can start writing. As I mentioned to you a few weeks ago, the idea of this is primarily to give us a platform where we can all practise and improve our written English (me included) by taking a topic a week and writing our thoughts and feelings about it, and then reading and commenting on each other's posts. Obviously these writings will be freer than the CAE writings we'll be doing in class and for homework, but just as important, as the more we write, the better we'll get. Make the most of the chance to read your fellow bloggers' posts, and learn language from them, as well as commenting on them and correcting them if you notice any language errors. We can all learn from each other so don't be afraid to make mistakes or point out other people's. Also, don't feel you have to wait for me to give you a topic. It is your blog, so share with us whatever you want to, as long as it is in English.
Happy blogging!

How to create your blog

BLOGGING TIPS

STEPS TO MAKE A BLOG (TIP 1)

1. go to: http://www.blogger.com/

2. click: create your blog now

3. if you have a google account: sign in first

If you don’t have a google account: create a google account (step 1)

4. (step 2) name your blog

5. (2) choose any template you like

6. start posting (dashboard)

And now you’re ready to start posting!

INCLUDE LINKS ON YOUR BLOG (tip 2)

Follow these simple steps to include links on your blog:

1. as editor, visit your blog dashboard

2. click: design

3. click: add a gadget

4. select: link list

5. add links info

6. save

ADD IMAGES TO YOUR POSTS (TIP 3)

1. dashboard > click: image (add image)

2. examine

3. choose layout/image size

4.upload an image/click on " I accept terms of service"

5. save & publish