I hope you all had a merry Christmas. I have enjoyed some time with the family, opening presents, eating to excess (overeating) and watching TV. I got a new camera for Christmas so hopefully I will be able to some post some new photos on the BBC Learning English website soon.

One of the Christmas traditions we experienced was a pantomime. It was the story of Mother Goose. I say story but actually the show was 10% story, the rest of it was singing, dancing and fooling around! It was all good fun.

Thanks for your all good wishes on the blog and I am pleased that Seva thinks I make a great Father Christmas (or Santa Claus).

Of course, New Year is a time for making resolutions (or promises) to make changes to your life. I am going to eat less sweet things, drink less coffee and to start running. Please wish me luck!

How will you see the New Year in? In London, we have an amazing firework display which is launched from one of the city's famous landmarks, the London Eye, as you can see (this is not my photos! Credit: AP)

2012 is going to be an amazing year for our city because we will be hosting the Olympics.

I hope you have a good New Year and an amazing 2012 too.

Finally, thanks for trying the homework. Here are the answers to last week's homework:

1. I put decorations on the Christmas tree.
2. At Christmas some people go to church.
3. Father Christmas lives in Lapland.
4. I like to buy my presents at the shopping centre.
5. I can hear footsteps on the roof, maybe Rudolph the reindeer has landed!

For your next homework, why not write your New Year's resolution on the blog. Good luck and good bye got now.

Thanks for your comments and for trying out the homework. The answers are below.

I've got to do some last minute Christmas shopping soon so I won't be writing much. But I would like to wish you all a very Happy Christmas wherever you are in the World.

Chrystel has been telling us about her preparations in Paris but maybe you would like to blog and tell me about Christmas where you are. You may not be celebrating in which case you will have time to do my extra homework!

I will speak to you again after the holidays.

Seasonal greetings from Rob.

Who is this mystery man?

CHRISTMAS HOMEWORK:
More prepositions! Fill in the missing word:

1. I put decorations ___ the Christmas tree.
2. At Christmas some people go ____ church.
3. Father Christmas lives ____ Lapland.
4. I like to buy my presents ____ the shopping centre.
5. I can hear footsteps ____ the roof, maybe Rudolph the reindeer has landed!

Thanks for your latest blog Chrystel. It's obvious you love your home city of Paris. I enjoyed seeing your photos and it's made me think that I must visit the city again next year.

Thanks to everyone else for your comments and particularly Maria, who is new to the blog. Many of you sound busy getting ready for Christmas. Chystel's preparations all well underway. Much of her blog involved describing food and drink such as turkey and champagne. I will certainly be tucking in to lots of food at Christmas, especially the turkey. I am also a fan of sweet things so I'll be eating extra helpings of Christmas pudding and stollen cake.

Anyway Chrystel, I enjoyed your blog but have a few comments that may help you with your English.

1. A reminder about capitalisation. As I mentioned in my earlier blog, names of people, places, unique events and nationalities need to begin with capital letters - such as Chinese, Prince Charming and Christmas.

2. You said "I am happy that some of you wish to come in Paris..." but you should say "I am happy that some of you wish to come to Paris...". In English we say we go to a place (to Paris), when we are there we are in the place (in Paris). These little words are called prepositions. They are small grammatical words that usually go before nouns and pronouns. Try my prepositions test at the end of the blog to practice.

3. A small thing but some of your French language is showing in your blog! You wrote the French 'vue' which in English is 'view'. Korean is spelt with a 'K' not 'C'. You also wrote 'ect' but did you mean to write 'etc', a short form of etcetera - who knows what this word means?

Most of you have been researching the islands that I posted a photo of. It was of the beautiful Isles of Scilly, which lie off the south west coast of the UK. They are a group of small islands (isles) known for their relatively warm climate and white sandy beaches. All though they are spelt Scilly you pronounce is 'silly' - even though there is nothing silly about this place! Tatiana correctly identified that the photo was taken from a helicopter!

HOMEWORK ANSWERS:
Thanks for doing your homework and well done to most of you who got the correct answers.
I asked you to practice your present perfect. Here are the correct answers:

1. "I haven't read any good books for a long time."
b. for a long time

2. "Have you seen her recently?"
b. seen

3. "We haven't gone to the cinema for a long time."
b. haven't gone

4. "Where's mum? She's just gone to the shops. She'll be back in five minutes."
b. gone

MORE HOMEWORK:
Try out your prepositions: What is the correct preposition to use in these sentences? (Use: at, on, to, in)
1. Rob is travelling around the World and now he's _____ Sydney.
2. I met her ____ a concert.
3. I sent it ____ Paris yesterday.
4. He's very good ____ speaking French.
5. We may go for a walk but it depends ___ the weather.

Welcome back to Paris and to the blog!

Thanks for everyone's comments. I'm glad to hear my last homework was useful. A special hello to new student Rooshne - welcome to our community.

Chrystel - I enjoyed seeing your photographs of Paris and particularly the ones of the window displays. It's a shame you think they appeal to the adults and not the children but I think they'll get pleasure out of seeing them anyway. Do your children share your love of rock'n'roll?

Christmas lights in Regents Street a few years ago

The Christmas tree in Trafalgar Square

I was also interested to hear about your trip to Cabourg. I love places by the sea. The mood and the colour of the sea is always changing and it's great to be able to look out in to a vast open space.

Have a look at this photo of the sea around the Isles of Scilly. Does anyone know which country this is in?

A view of the sea but where is it?

Anyway, it's time to start preparing for Christmas. I'm looking forward to hearing about your preparations in your next blog.

LANGUAGE

Your English is very expressive and clear. You used punctuation well and you used some great adjectives to describe the sea, such as, a beautiful grey, desert beach.
I do have a few comments about you writing that might help to make your English perfect!

1. It was good to hear that you are enjoying the blogging community but your tenses aren't quite right when you say "It is the first time I write for a blog and I discover the pleasure of a nice community."
In this case you should write "It is the first time I have written a blog and I have discovered the pleasure of a nice community." We call this structure 'present perfect'. It has a few uses; one of them is to talk about life experience. We form this tense by using have or has and then the past participle, sometimes called the third form, of the verb. Here are some other examples of this use of the present perfect:

I have been to Scotland.

I have never eaten curry.

Have you ever ridden a motorcycle?

2. In some of your sentences you used past negatives. You said "I had not my camera". I can understand what you mean, but the correct way to form this type of statement is like this: "I did not have my camera." Negatives in the simple past are formed by adding didn't (informal) or did not (formal) before the simple form of the verb.

3. You wrote the word « cliché ». What did you mean by this? In English we say 'cliché' to mean a phrase or idea that has been used so often that it no longer has much meaning and is not interesting. I'm sure that it is not what you meant! Also, you used speech marks/quotation marks like this « cliché », but in English, they are shown like this "cliché".

HOMEWORK
Practice your present perfect. For each of the questions choose the one correct answer.

1. "I haven't read any good books ..."
a. long time
b. for a long time
c. since a long time

2. "Have you ... her recently?"
a. saw
b. seen
c. since

3. "We ... to the cinema for a long time."
a. haven't went
b. haven't gone
c. haven't go

4. "Where's mum? She's just ... to the shops. She'll be back in five minutes."
a. been
b. gone
c. went

Good luck!

While we wait for Chrystel to return from her trip and blog again, I thought I would give you the answers to the homework I set.

Before I do, I would like to thank you all for your comments and warm wishes.
Pary - thanks for remembering my daughter in the snow. She is well and is now at school but so far this year, we haven't had any snow to enjoy!

So to the answers. I don't think this was too difficult because most of you were correct!

a) This weekend we are visiting Cabourg to see the old castle.
b) When I was at school I liked the teacher who taught me English.
c) I love to go to the cinema with Paul.

Some of you said:
a) This weekend we are visiting Cabourg to see an old castle.
This is technically correct but saying 'the' stresses it is the castle that is unique to Cabourg. An, implies it could be one of many old castles.

b) When I was at school I liked a teacher who taught me English.
Again, this could be correct but using 'the' specifies it was the one teacher who taught English. Saying 'a' implies it was one of a group of teachers who taught English.

There's more about using definite articles and indefinite articles in this webpage.

So good work everyone. There'll be more homework next week.

Bye for now, Rob.

My name's Rob and I'm the new teacher blogger this month.

First of all, a special 'bonjour' to our student blogger Chrystel. Thanks for your interesting blog about Christmas in Paris. It sounds wonderful but I think your city is beautiful any time of the year.

Here in London, the Christmas decorations are also up and people are out and about doing the Christmas shopping.

I live outside London in a small village and our local church is full of Christmas trees (fir trees) decorated with lights, as you can see in this photo.

The Lights of Love festival

Even if you are not celebrating the religous aspect of Christmas the lights brighten up the dark winter nights. It's also a special time of the year especially for children - and just like you Chrystel, I have two of them (but not twins). They have written their letters to Father Christmas (Santa Claus) and next weekend they will be visiting him at our local shopping centre!

Let me tell you a bit about myself. Many years ago I was a school teacher but since then have spent many years making radio programmes, particularly for children. I also love to travel and have visited many parts of the World. Here's a photo I took on my travels in France near the city of Briançon.

An Alpine mountain scene

Anyway, this is my first time writing the Teacher Blog and I look forward to talking with you this month and hopefully helping you with your English.

Enjoy your trip to Cabourg. Bon voyage!

Congratulations on your English. Your blog was clear to understand and you are able to communicate what you want to say. However I hope you don't mind if I comment on a few things that may help you improve your English:

1) Have a think about your word order. When you say "we say every morning Hello to the Santa Claus", the structure is slightly wrong. You should follow the verb 'say' with what is being said. That is: "say hello". And the expression "every morning" sounds better at the beginning or end of the sentence. For example:
a) "We say hello to Santa every morning."
b) "Every morning we say hello to Santa."

2) Also note, I didn't say 'the' Santa Claus. We use the article 'the' or 'a' before nouns, such as 'the door on the right'. But we don't normally use them before someone's name such as 'the Chrystel' or 'the Rob' unless you are specifying one Chrystel out of many with the same name. For example, if someone was to ask "which Chrystel is coming to the party?" you can reply "the Chrystel who lives in Paris, not the Chrystel who lives in Reims."

3) Finally, capitalisation. When describing an actress as French, 'French' needs a capital letter. Names of countries begin with capital letters as do the nationalities of people. Finn wrote more about capitalisation in his teacher blog. Check it out!

4) You also wrote that a famous French actress give the departure to the lights of the Champs Elysees Avenue. Perhaps you could explain more about what you mean. Departure means leaving but did you mean switching on or switching off the lights or was she at an opening ceremony?

HOMEWORK

1) Why not blog about your trip to Cabourg, taking in the points I have made above.
2) Decide if these sentences should have 'the' in them or not:

a) This weekend we are visiting Cabourg to see the old castle.
b) When I was at school I liked the teacher who taught me English.
c) I love to go to the cinema with the Paul.

The best way to improve is just to practice speaking and writing English so we look forward to reading your next blog. That's all from me this week. Au revoir! Rob

The answer is we enjoy both but there is no doubt that since the 18th Century we have been one of the biggest consumers of tea. "A nice cup of tea" really makes our day.

A nice cup of tea

It's good to chat over a cup of tea or coffee

Of course these days we make tea in a rush by just putting a tea bag in to a cup and adding hot water. But the main ingredient to make a proper cup of British tea is to add milk and optional sugar.

Herbal teas have become popular. Flavours include nettle, apple, blackcurrant and camomile flavours. They don't contain caffeine and make a refreshing drink - but it's not real tea to me!

Instant coffee - not to everybody's taste!

So what about coffee? Well it's become more popular recently as the there has been a rise in the number of coffee shops opening everywhere around the UK. Coffee has more of what we call 'a kick' to it. The caffeine in it is stronger and helps make us more alert. It used to come in just instant form where you added hot water to the coffee granules - not for me!

Now you can drink cafetiere coffee, filter coffee and percolated coffee. And these days, Italian style coffee has become big business with people sipping cappuccinos and lattes with their friends. These can be made in various ways with different strengths and different types of milk. I prefer a 'double strength skinny latte. The latest style to come from Australia is a 'flat white' which is a stronger coffee.

'Posh' coffees

Anyway, whatever you prefer there seems to be a type just for you whether it's tea or coffee.

What's your favourite and why?

OK, we know it rains in the UK but for thousands of festival goers the rain is a pain! Summertime is festival time where numerous outdoor music events take place, some lasting all weekend.

Let me give you a flavour of the kind of festivals that take place. There's Wakestock, a sporty style wakeboard music festival. The name Wakestock is a play on the title of the original hippy music festival, Woodstock, which took place in the 1969.
There's the Latitude Festival, which is more of an arts festival, featuring a mix of poetry, theatre, comedy and dance.
Then there's WOMAD, that's short for World Music, Arts and Dance.

But probably the most famous music festival has to be Glastonbury which kicks off this week. It takes place across a number of farmer's fields on Worthy Farm near the town of Glastonbury in Somerset. It is an incredible event with more than 700 acts performing across 80 stages.

Michael Eavis, founder of the Glastonbury festival

The festival started back in 1970 and was set up by a farmer called Michael Eavis. Back then around 1,500 people attended but today, more than 150,000 turn up for a weekend of live music, theatre, comedy and cabaret. And this is where the rain can be a problem. With all these people walking around and camping the ground gets churned up in to mud, making it like a quagmire. However it doesn't seem to stop anyone having fun and the entertainment continues regardless of the rain.

A wet day at Glastonbury

If this is something you want to experience, you need to book well in advance. This years' event is sold out and when next years tickets go on sale they get snapped up immediately.

I have to admit I have never been but would love to go. For now I will have to watch all the action at home on TV, at least I won't have to worry about the weather. This year's 'headline acts' include U2, Coldplay and Beyonce who'll be performing on the Pyramid stage.

Toilets and mud at Glastonbury

Have you been to a music festival? What is the appeal of attending one of these events? And would you like to go Glastonbury?

There's more about Glastonbury on this bbc website
https://bbcstreaming.pages.dev/music/festivals/glastonbury/2011/

Glossary
Festival goers - people who go to festivals
Kicks off - starts
Quagmire - an area of soft wet ground
Regardless - paying no attention to the difficulties
Snapped up - taken very quickly
Headline acts - The big name acts that everybody wants to see

I'm not alone in experiencing the commute to work. All around the World millions of people are commuting - or making a regular journey - to their city centre office, maybe you are one of them? It's something that we have to endure if we want to go to work and earn some money.

My commute starts here - when it's not snowing!

The word commuter derives from the 1840s during the early days of rail travel in US cities such as New York, Philadelphia, Boston and Chicago. The expansion of the railways led to the development of suburbs from which travellers paid a reduced or 'commuted' fare into the city.

Well, firstly living in central London and near the office is too expensive - and do I really want to live next door to work?! Secondly, I have chosen to move out of London to live in a more rural environment that is good for family life. I never thought I would be a regular commuter but I've been doing it for 7 years and I've become conditioned to it. At least on my train journey I am able to relax, listen to the radio or read a newspaper.

My train to work

I have to admit I've become a typical commuter, often catching the same time train and standing in the exact same part of the platform. I would like to change the habit and my aim is to try and cycle the 20 miles to work. It's not a pleasant ride along a main road but it would save me a month's salary and keep me fit. The problem is I lack will power!

Many forward thinking companies are now encouraging people to work at home, especially now that technology means we can be more mobile. It saves them office space and it's also good for the well being of the staff who can waste time commuting to and from the office. Home working can be more efficient and can help with a work life balance. The only draw back is you miss the companionship of your work colleagues. Is this something you do and enjoy?

Inside a busy commuter train

Another benefit of home working is it's reduces the over crowding on public transport. During the rush hour in London many commuter trains are full to capacity because everyone is travelling to work around the same time. Luckily for me, I get a seat on my train which creates some 'seat envy'!

Anyway, for now, the concept of commuting is here to stay and it's comforting to know as my train crawls it's way in to London, millions of people around the World are doing the same thing. If you are one of them, why not tell us about your experience of commuting.

Definitions:
To commute - A regular journey of some distance to and from one's place of work.
To endure - To suffer something patiently.
Conditioned - Prepared for a specific action or process.
Will power - self-control: the trait of resolutely controlling your own behaviour.
Companionship - A feeling of fellowship or friendship.
Rush hour - A time during each day when traffic is at its peak and more people are travelling.
Capacity - The maximum amount that something can contain.

I take my camera with me everywhere and particularly enjoy taking a picture of a view or a landscape. Other people prefer to photograph people or take portraits but I think sometimes people get in way of the view but there are exceptions as you can see below.

No tricks! A real photo of a lightning strike over Sydney, Australia.

Aerial view of the Isles of Scilly

Are you familiar with the saying 'a picture tells a thousand words'? Well, it's true! A photo captures a moment in time and when you look at it, it brings back the memories, feelings and emotions of that moment. It's also an accurate record of that moment which is why some people say 'the camera never lies'.

Photos of the birth of my children are obviously priceless but so too are some special places where I have snapped an amazing view.
Taking a snap is an informal way of saying 'take a photo'. A snap, really implies it is a casual and brief picture possibly taken on a 'point and press' camera. A serious photographer would be using a more sophisticated camera with changeable lenses and where you can alter the aperture and shutter speed. I would like to think I'm like this but inevitably I put my camera into automatic mode!

Large leaves at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew in London.

Storm approaching over the sea in the Maldives

The great thing about photography is it is global. All around the World someone is taking a photo and it doesn't matter what language you speak because a photo can be understood by anyone. Would you agree?

What's made photography more accessible to everyone is the development of digital technology. It's now easy to capture, store, copy and share pictures, particularly through social networking sites like Facebook and Flickr. Do you take photos on a camera or do you use your phone?

I have to admit, with old fashioned photography I had a limited number of exposures on my film so would be more selective on what I would photograph. In a digital world I can now just keep snapping and choose my favourite shot later. I still like to print out my photos and keep them in an album so I can carry them around and bore my friends with them! I hope you like the ones I have shared with you here.

Looking back - a view of Uluru, Australia in a car wing mirror

A seascape at Muckle Flugga, Shetland Islands, UK

So do you have a treasured photo? What is it of and why is it so special?

I hope you enjoyed this blog. For tips from the BBC on taking better photographs click on this link.

Explanation of some of the useful phrases from this blog:
A picture tells a thousand words - one photo can tell a story.
Taking a snap - taking a quick and casual photograph with your camera.
Point and press camera - a simple, sometimes cheap, unsophisticated camera.
The camera never lies - the camera takes an accurate image of what you see.

Have a look at my photos to see what I mean. It does look beautiful, like the picture on a Christmas card but it's not the festive season yet. Outside it was cold and it was also very peaceful because there was very little traffic and the snow softens the sound too.

As water dripped off my roof beautiful icicles formed and hung to the eaves.

Icicles hanging from the roof

There was lots of fun to be had in the snow, especially for children. My daughter has been making snow angels by laying on her back in the snow and spreading out her arms and legs. However the fun doesn't last that long because she gets cold and starts moaning!

Making snow angels is cold work!

Sledging is another fun thing to do and of course, everyone has to build a snowman. But as you can see we have not had much success in making a good one because the snow is too light and fluffy. Can you see what we have used for his nose?!

a small snowman

As I said, getting this much snow is quite rare so we have to make the most of it. The problem is that we are not that prepared for it. Our village shop quickly ran out of supplies like milk and bread. The railway companies couldn't clear the tracks so the trains couldn't run and I don't own a pair of skis to get about on!

After three days the novelty was beginning to wear off. I wanted to get out and about, get the cupboard stocked up and get back to work! Imagine living in a country that has snow all winter.

A snowy field

Well I hope you've enjoyed reading this blog. Maybe you have never experienced snow or maybe you always get snow and what I've got was just a light covering. Please let me know your stories. Bye for now.

Although I work at the BBC in London, I live outside the city in a village called Eynsford. It's a quiet, picturesque place, surrounded by fields and feels like a very different place from the hustle and bustle of the city. However, incredibly it's only 20 miles from Oxford Circus - that's right in the centre of London.

The village is very old and was first written about in the year 864 but it's origins go back further when the Romans built a villa there. The remains of the villa were discovered in 1939 and you can visit them today. Eynsford also has a castle dating back to 1088 and is one of the most complete Norman castles in England. My daughter loves to run around the castle ruins and it's a great place to sit and have a picnic in the Summer.

Just outside the village we have another 'castle' called Lullingstone Castle. It's not a true castle but a manor house originally built in the 15th Century. It was substantially rebuilt in the 18th Century by Sir Percyvall Hart in honour of Queen Anne, who often stayed there. In 2004 the current heir to the estate created the World Garden of Plants in the grounds from a design made in 2000 while he was held captive by rebels in Colombia.

Running through Eynsford is the small River Darent which eventually flows into the River Thames. It's alive with fish, ducks and swans and in the Summer tourists pour into the village to sit by the river and paddle in it. It's possible to drive across the river too through a ford but sometimes the cars don't make it across and drivers need a helping hand to be pushed on to dry land!

The fields around the village are mainly used for growing crops but we do have a herd of Highland cattle which look out of place from their native Scotland. Lavender is grown in some of the fields and in July they turn a beautiful deep purple colour and the smell of lavender is in the air.

As you can see there is much to see and do in Eynsford which is why I love living there. But the great thing is you can jump on a train and very quickly you can be in London and in the office making learning english programmes!
You'll see from some of the photos, we had lots of snow this year which I think makes the place look even more picturesque. Of course village life isn't right for everyone, it may be too quiet or too boring for some but it's great for me! Does this sound like where you live? Would you prefer to live in the city or the country? Write and let me know.

Hope you enjoyed reading about Eynsford and liked my first blog.