Aug 29, 2018 Chunks, Phrase of the day Phrase of the day: making a rod for your own back I had dinner round at a neighbour’s place the other week. Our kids go to the same school, which is how we know each other, and while we were eating and drinking wine, the kids played happily upstairs. Well, actually, it’s more accurate to say that they started off playing happily and then all hell […]
Aug 9, 2018 Chunks, Word of the day Word of the day: R&R R and R stands for rest and relaxation, rather than rock and roll. So if you are having a bit of R&R, you are having a break or a holiday where you are doing very little other than lying around by the pool or hanging out on the beach or maybe wandering round a city […]
Aug 3, 2018 Chunk of the day, Chunks Chunk of the day: the last-chance saloon As part of our Lexical Lab summer school, we offer a full and varied social and cultural programme, but most Sundays, students are free to go off wherever they please. Last weekend, a couple of people went on a day-trip down to Brighton . . . and came back shocked by the levels of homelessness […]
Jul 25, 2018 Chunks, Phrase of the day Phrase of the day: How long is a piece of string? As a coursebook writer, there’s one question about my work I dread more than all others. I’ll sometimes be at a conference, standing around on the publisher’s stand – the display space they have where they show all their books – when a teacher will come up, start flicking through one of my books and […]
Jul 18, 2018 Chunk of the day, Chunks Chunk of the day: baptism of fire If you’ve been following the series of blog posts I did about the World Cup, you’ll know that I love football. Now that the World Cup has finished, I’m suffering withdrawal symptoms. Like a lot of other fellow sufferers, I’m basically waiting for the second week of August, when the Premier League kicks off again. […]
