I've been living in London for quite a few years now. I don't get to head North to visit my home town of Newcastle very often, but when I do, there's always one sight I really look forward to. Here it is:

The Tyne Bridge

This is the beautiful Tyne Bridge. It's the first landmark you see when you arrive in the city from the South by train. When I see that bridge, I know I'm home.

Here is a photo I took of the city's monument to George Stephenson, who, together with his son Robert, established the world's first locomotive factory.

The statue of George Stephenson in Newcastle

Here's an animation of Stephenson's famous steam locomotive, The Rocket. Click through the animation and you will be challenged to name the parts of the engine - and to build it!

Of course, a bridge had to be built so that the trains could cross the river! It's a split-level bridge, with cars and people using the lower level and trains running on the upper level. Here it is:

The High Level bridge in Newcastle

Here's another monument: this one was built in recognition of Charles Earl Grey, who, amongst his other achievements, introduced the British people to a particular blend of tea. Which blend of tea? The clue's in the name: According to legend, the tea was specially blended by a Chinese guest for Earl Grey and his wife, to suit the water at his home. Is it true? I don't know. But I do know that even as I write this, Earl Grey tea is being served to tea-drinkers all over the world.

Earl Grey's monument in Newcastle

Another place that I'm especially fond of is the Central Arcade. It is over 100 years old, but, as you can see from the photo, it has been beautifully maintained over the years and now hosts coffee shops, boutiques and a music store. It is very well-loved by the people of Newcastle, myself included!

Newcastle Central Arcade

If you ever get the chance to visit Newcastle, I'm sure you'll be very impressed by the city, its people and the architecture. And don't forget to have a cup of Earl Grey tea!

All the best,
Catherine

P. S. Read on if you'd like to do some language exercises about the passive forms I've used in this blog post. I'll give you the answers in my next post!

Language work: the passive.

Exercise 1. Here are some extracts from my blog. All of them are passive forms. But which tense are they? For each one, say whether it is: past simple passive, present perfect passive, present continuous passive, present simple passive, passive infinitive or future passive.

(For a summary of passive tenses, look at this episode of Learn It:)

• The bridge was opened
• many of them were built by Victorian industrialists.
• you will be challenged
• a bridge had to be built
• this one was built
• the tea was specially blended by a Chinese guest
• Earl Grey tea is being served
• it has been beautifully maintained
• It is very well-loved by the people of Newcastle
• you'll be very impressed by the city

Exercise 2. Rewrite these sentences in the passive form. Keep the tense the same (but passive)

1. George Stephenson and his son Robert established the world's first locomotive factory.
2. The city of Rio will host the 2016 Olympic Games.
3. The people of Newcastle love the Tyne Bridge.
4. We are developing a new communications system.
5. Daniel Day-Lewis has won the award for best actor.
6. Charles Earl Grey introduced the British people to a particular blend of tea.
7. They had to wear protective clothing in the museum.

Come back soon to get the answers!

My father complains all the time. His back aches, the supermarket seems to be further and further away every day, computers... oh, don't get him started. He was very active when he was younger and all of a sudden his years are weighing heavily on him. "It is tough being old", he says. But some old people are tough. They are as tough as old boots.

You're never be too old to enjoy an afternoon by Buckingham Palace.

Take three elderly men in the headlines recently. Sir Ranulph Fiennes, the great British explorer, has pulled out of an expedition across Antarctica because of severe frostbite. Some people were disappointed. I wasn't. He is 68 years old and had the stamina to ski in temperatures close to -30C. No matter that he had to give up now. For me he is even a greater hero than when he was younger.

Pope Benedict XVI took a lot of flak because he resigned. I praise his courage to stay in the post till the ripe old age of 85.

But the person I would give a gold medal to is Fauja Singh from India. He has finally given up his career as a marathon runner. Singh is 101 years old! That's resilience for you!

I think we should celebrate old people more. We should tell them every week how brave they are. It is tough being old, but we should be grateful for it. There is a quote attributed to French actor and singer Maurice Auguste Chevalier: "Old age isn't so bad when you consider the alternative."

Go and give a kiss to your old relatives!

Graciela

Glossary:

don't get him started - don't encourage him to discuss the subject because he will never stop complaining about it.

his years are weighing heavily on him - he is very old and feels weak and vulnerable.

as tough as old boots - very strong and does not get injured easily.

frostbite - injury to the fingers, toes, ears or nose caused by very low temperatures.

stamina - the ability to do physical activity for a long time.

took a lot of flak - was heavily criticised.

ripe old age - very old.

resilience - ability to recover quickly from problems and difficulties.

London fashion week has just ended. Fashion shows have been happening all over the city. Newspapers and magazines are still full of gossip about who is the model of the moment (Cara Delevingne). Celebrities and journalists have announced what the best-dressed will be wearing in the coming seasons. Anna Wintour has been photographed without her trademark sunglasses. She is smiling! Clearly, clothes can bring you true happiness. I have decided that tomorrow, I will 'dress for success.'

I open my wardrobe door. Rows of clothes stare back at me. I realise that most of my clothes are black, dark brown and grey. They droop sadly on their hangers. Are they depressed, I wonder? I decide that 'a pop of colour' is needed for successful dressing, and choose a red cardigan. Now, I need to look chic and sophisticated: black and white stripes. Next, I also want to look cool and casual - on go the denim shorts! And finally, for practicality (it's cold outside) black tights and long boots are a fashion staple.

I shut the wardrobe door, decide that success is a state of mind and resolve to ignore London Fashion Week.

Catherine

Vocabulary

doors will open - new opportunities will become available
droop - hang downwards
staple - something necessary and important that people use regularly
slump - fall further down
resolve - decide or promise to do something

Hope I keep finding all my lost things ringing.... Like my cell phone.....

Last night, I went out with friends to a Syrian restaurant called Damascus. And i stupidly asked " Which cuisine do you serve?", it just slipped out of my mind that Damascus is the capital of Syria and is so much in news these days due to civil unrest. "Damascus, madam, capital Syria. Syria very beautiful but now lot of war", replied the Syrian waiter in broken english. We could see the pain in his eyes. I wanted to ask more but could not as they mainly spoke Arabic.

And then it struck me that I was wasting the golden opportunity to learn another beautiful language, Arabic. What is the point of living in Dubai and not trying to learn their language (although english is widely spoken, but Dubai being the multicultural society, you have here people from all parts of Middle East). Middle East was the cradle of various ancient civilisations, birth place of three major religions, Islam, Christianity and Judaism. And they say that people in Middle East were writing arabic poetry and literature when english had not even originated. May be learning a new language will help breaking the barriers that our minds have built over ages.

This world is such a beautiful place, so many cultures, so many languages, so many books to read, so many places to visit, so many things to learn, and most importantly so many people to love. All of this and such a short life!!!

So keep loving, keep learning and keep growing......

This is my last blog for BBC learning english blog. It was a beautiful experience writing my all four blogs. You challenge yourself and each time try to write better than the last time to keep readers interested in your blogs. And the best part of the whole process is the comments from the readers from all over the world and it feels so great that you have touched the heart of someone siting far away from you.

Dhow cruises ferrying on today's Dubai Creek

Picture showing the wind towers and boats of old Dubai

Before the advent of crude oil, Dubai was a pearl fishery village with its population mainly concentrated on both sides of the Creek. The pearl industry suffered huge losses in later 1930's when Japanese invented an artificial way of cultivating pearls. As a result Dubai had to develop itself as one of the main ports and a free trade zone to save its economy from sinking.

This brought many foreign merchants to this land. The markets (also known as souk) began to flourish along the creek side. Today, there are around 200 nationalities in Dubai. And the gold souks, textile souks and spice souks in Deira are mainly dominated by the people of Indian and Iranian origin.

The mornings at creek are chaotic and full of hustle-bustle with loading and unloading of the cargos but as the siesta approaches, things begin to slow down. Sunset on the other hand unleashes the splendid beauty of this place. Dhow cruises, aroma of the sizzling barbecues, cool sea breeze, dazzling waves in the moonlight hold the calmness and serenity in the atmosphere even though one is surrounded by hundreds of people, with street dances and night markets in full swing. A true delight indeed!!!

Dance performance at the creek in a 2 week long celebrations of Eid in Dubai

Isn't it a beautiful place to spend some time with your loved ones....?

Navneet

The bhangra gained popularity with the migration of the Punjabi diaspora to the West. The bhangra music has topped the UK charts several times. It has amassed its international appeal mostly from the fusion with hip-hop and pop music. Even America has seen many bhangra performers impressing the judges of the popular show 'America's Got Talent'.

Punjabi weddings like any other Indian weddings start 3-4 days in advance but the most awaited function is the dance night or as they say the cocktail party where there are 3D's: drinks, DJ and dance. The whole family and friends dance on the beats of bhangra music and celebrations continue till the wee hours of the morning.

Once a colleague from Southern state of India who happened to attend a Punjabi wedding asked "Though I enjoyed 'balle balle' (common expression of joy used in Punjabi songs) but isn't it amusing that people from groom side danced for half an hour outside the main entrance before entering the banquet hall." I just laughed and answered, "That's the way we are - born to dance. And it's really easy, when you are delighted or in a festive mood just put your hands up in the air and move them up 'n' down. Ha Ha!!!! That's the easiest move in bhangra".

Thanks
Navneet

Secondly, welcome to Navneet who was born in India but now lives in...well, I'll let her tell you more later.

You mention typical games. I don't know 'last and first': can you explain it? Many years ago one of our bloggers explained the rules of a game with a handkerchief: I still play it with children even now. Children's games bring back memories and are even great ice-breakers for adults. The children I work with love the '2p game'. A 2p is a British coin of small value. It is brown in colour and so if you play this game on a wooden or brown coloured floor it works very well. This is how to play. You need two teams. They sit on chairs (or on the floor) opposite each other. Give everyone in team 1 a number. Give everyone in team 2 a number - but start at the opposite end of the line. This means that if you have 2 teams of ten, number 1 in one team sits opposite number 10 in the opposing team. In a line down the middle of the floor between the 2 teams, place 5 coins. Mark a square on the ground (or put a chair) at each end of the room.

One square belongs to team 1 and one square to team 2. The aim of the game is to get 3 coins in your square. This is how you do it. The person in charge of the game calls out a number. The 2 people with that number run to the middle, pick up a coin, run to their square, put the coin in the square and then run back to pick up a second coin and put it in their square. Of course there is now only one coin left, so it is a race to see who can pick up the last coin and take it back to their square. The person who has three coins, wins a point for their team. The coins are then replaced and another number is called. This is very simple, but kids get very excited and there's a lot of screaming! I'm looking forward to hearing about typical children's games from your country!

Navneet, your English is very good and you write in a nice, chatty style. A couple of points to pick up, before I set you some homework.

"My mother has been a typical Indian homemaker." Is she still a homemaker? If so, it would be better to say 'My mother is a typical Indian homemaker.' (you could also use the word 'housewife') or you could say 'My mother has always been...'.

"From typical": the correct phrase here is 'By typical'

Lovely use of the phrase "the empty nest syndrome creeps in"

"Inter-religion marriages still raise eyebrows and are not fully accepted by the society...": you don't need an article with the word 'society'

"As much as I remember...": the phrase you need here is 'As far as I can remember...'

"...stand up and face so many audiences!!" In this case, audience is a singular word, so it doesn't take "many". You could either say 'face so many people' or maybe 'face such a big audience'.

So...now to the homework. You use "Mom" to talk about your mother. Of course, it's correct, but it's not British English. British English would be "Mum". So here's a short quiz about some of the differences between British and American English. Can you match the British English words 1-24 with the American English words A-X?

British English
1. Pavement
2. Aubergine
3. Chips
4. Crisps
5. Caravan
6. Petrol
7. Autumn
8. Football
9. Queue
10. Handbag
11. Bill
12. Vest
13. Waistcoat
14. Gearbox
15. Lift
16. Trousers
17. Pants
18. Postcode
19. Jam
20. Boot
21. Courgette
22. Biscuit
23. Curtains
24. Bank note

American English
A. Fries
B. Gas
C. Fall
D. Zucchini
E. Undershirt
F. Jelly
G. Trunk
H. Chips
I. Transmission
J. Cookie
K. Purse
L. Elevator
M. Drapes
N. Trailer
O. Zipcode
P. Eggplant
Q. Check
R. Bill
S. Pants
T. Underpants
U. Vest
V. Soccer
W. Sidewalk
X. Line

Take care...and don't forget to tell me about tradional children's games in your country.

Carrie

ice-breakers: games and activities designed to help people get to know each other
in charge of: in control of

My mother has been a typical Indian homemaker. From typical I don't mean orthodox or conservative rather a devoted mom and wife who sacrificed her career to be available to her family 24*7. But the problem arises when children are all grown up and ready to move to different parts of the country or rather world for better careers and lives. It is then the empty nest syndrome creeps in. But being a strong lady that she always is, she never held us back rather gave us the wings to fly.

She stood rock solid behind me when I decided to marry into another faith (Inter- religion marriages still raise eyebrows and are not fully accepted by the society mostly in small towns in India) or when my brother dropped out of the premier institute to start his own venture (because in both the cases we had annoyed our dad).

But wheresoever we are mom,your life long teachings are with us; to value relationships; to have faith and to never stop learning and surprising the family!!

Yes, she really surprised the whole family when in her early fifties she took to classical singing. As much as i remember i have only heard her singing when we played antakshari ( it is an asian subcontinent version for popular pastime games like 'word chain' or 'last and first' but here players use songs rather than words). And she became an example of courage and determination for us when she performed in front of a fully packed auditorium. God knows when will I be able to stand up and face so many audiences!!

At last i would say my love to all mom's and may no child be deprived of this unconditional love.

Well, taking into account all these comments, here is my last blog

Ideas for a book in english

I love technology, and I love reading, so I got very excited last christmas when my wife bought me a Kindle as a present.

They call it a revolution, but reading a novel on an ebook reader is indeed not so different from reading a paper book. You have a search function, that is very useful to find a sentence or a word that you want to find, you can share your favorite highlights, but on the other hand, for example, you cannot use it on the plane while taking off or landing, and once a month the reader could run out of battery

Anyway, I don't think that any of these differences really matter.

Where I see a really big difference is about publishing books. It's now far easier to publish a book and reach a potential reader, you can save a lot of costs in printing, delivering and so on.

And another important thing is that the day after you published something, everyone in the world could easily get it and read it.

That's amazing. You don't even need an editor , you can even publish your book by your own.

So, as a final, difficult exercise to improve my writing skills in English, this is my idea, and the second beginning of this blog.

I recently bought some ebooks regarding learning English, something like "100 phrasal verbs you should know for your business English" and other stuff like that.

Their price was very low, about one dollar, so I bought them without further thinking.
For sure I can't write a book on English verbs, but I wondered which other topic could be popular on an ebook store. I looked for a topic on which I could say something interesting.

I finally came up with these two titles:

1) 100 tips you should know if you are going to Italy

2) 100 meals you should try while travelling in Italy, and why

Both of them give me the possibility of writing short stories while presenting the different topics.

The structure could be very easy for each of them, similar to the book I already wrote on the eighties, few years ago, and I think that a lot of people that are planning to come to Italy could enjoy reading something like that. Obviously I need to have a professional translator as a partner, to correct my mistakes and to write it in a proper way.

Which one do you like the most?

I'm going to take into account your preferences while deciding which one I should try.

Another thing, I think I'm going to miss you and your comments. It would be good to keep in touch, and maybe is someone happen to come to Milan, or I visit some other country, we can even met, a day, to have a drink talking in a shiny English!
So, this is the end,
Thank you Carrie and thank you all.
Bye,
Omar Degoli

That's why many people use to write letters to their future themselves, letters written to be read after 10, 20, perhaps 50 years. Just to start a discussion between two different yourself: the present and the future one.

When my wife got pregnant, before knowing the sex of our child, I opened two different email accounts, one for the name of the male, the other for the female. When we figured out that we were waiting for a little girl, I dropped one address, and went on with the other. I gave the address of Anna to my wife and to our parents too, so she will have a way to better know her grandparents.

The first times I wasn't even a father yet, she wasn't borned yet, and for a lot of time, even after that, I wasn't able to sign the letters calling me father, or daddy, I only starter after several months, I started writing her calling me Omar, like a friend.

I share the password of this account with my wife, I just know half of the password, she knows the other half, so that no one is able to read messages that are just for our daughter Anna. This is a very important point. It makes you think very well of what are you writing, because it's like a spoken word, there is no come back, and it's very difficult because there are a lot of variables you don't know.

She's one year old now, and I think I will be very different in 2029. I know sometimes people becoming older begin to forget how it feels to be young, starting to have different views, maybe more conservatives one, or just more judicious.

I just have little idea of how I will be in seventeen years, I haven't the faintest idea of how my daughter will be by then, and above of all, I can't even guess how our relations will be. I remember my teen age years, and I know it wasn't easy to deal with me then.
Today I'm already very different from how I was when I was eighteen, so maybe by 2029 me and Anna will have run into some difficulties in communication.

If it will be the case, I hope that reading what I'm thinking now about her, about my life, could be useful to understand better each other, finding out that we are more similar than she expected, for example. If it's not the case, and we'll perfectly understand each other, I just needn't have to worry about it, and if so, I think it will be in any case just a good present for a girl on the beginning of her adult life.

Did you ever find a letter or a diary or letters written by your parents in the past? How did you feel reading it?

On the plane to Milan, I wondered if physics could be considered like a foreign language: you need to learn the rules, the words, and then you can speak physics properly. I think I probably speak a better English than physics! Then I started reading favourite italian magazine, a magazine that put together the best articles in international magazine translating it into Italian.

I found an interesting article on what's happening now in South Sudan, (another topic you know I'm interested in) and after that, I found a really inspiring article on the new frontier of education.

I read the story of Sebastian Thrun, formerly professor at Stanford, and the guy who developed the Street view project at Google. He realized that teaching to a small group of students, most of them paying high tuition fees, most of them from USA, meant a waste of the opportunity of teaching students from all over the world. Nowadays, technology give us the possibility to change the education system, so he founded Udacity, a free online non profit university with the purpose of providing free high level education that overcome all the boundaries: time, money, language, geography, age, gender.

He is a very famous guy in the internet, so when he announced he intended to put his whole course on how to build a search engine on the internet, open to everyone, he received something like one hundred thousand answers!

So he quitted his job at Stanford and is currently running this free university, offering a small group of courses, hosted by very skilled professors.

In the meanwhile, many other projects started, with the same purpose, so I did a quick research and I found out a really bright chest of wonder.

What I love the most of BBC LE and of this blog is that every reader, every comment comes from a different country, a different culture. It's one of the most challenging and most exciting sides of writing here, and I got excited at the idea of learning many other things in the same way.That's the reason why, eventually, I enrolled in a course of computer science in this new university, to learn a computer programming language called Python, together with students from all over the world. I think that this revolution in the education system is a dream that is going to be realized for poor people, less developed countries, and for everyone deserving a chance to improve his life.

And I hope this also could help me learning two new languages, English and computer science!

Omar, I love your idea of a website with lots of checklists on it. I would definitely sign up for that!

I understand exactly what you mean by saying "life's teachers". Whilst a "role model" is technically the correct term, I think "life's teachers" is more evocative. A role model is someone who is regarded as a good example to follow. They haven't necessarily given you any good advice or taught you anything: but the way they live their life is inspiring. I think what you mean by "life's teachers" is something even more than that?
Your English is, as always, very good. I thought today we'd take a quick look at comparatives and superlatives.

We use comparatives to compare one person or thing with one other person or thing. We use superlatives to compare one person or thing with many other people or things. My colleague Sean says "It's easy - when you compare it's comparatives (better than/more interesting than etc); when it's super duper it's superlatives (the best / the most interesting!)..."

There are some rules when making comparatives and superlatives:

• The simple rule is that if the word has one syllable like 'small', 'cold' we add '-er' for a comparative e.g. old/older; fast/faster and '-est' for a superlative e.g. fast/fastest. We never use 'more' + a comparative ending in 'er'


• With words of three or more syllables like intelligent we can't add 'er'. So we say 'more intelligent' and 'most intelligent'.


• This also applies to adjectives formed with -ing and -ed and those ending in -ious and -ful e.g. boring/more boring/most boring; beautiful/more beautiful/most beautiful


• With words that end in 'y': change the 'y' to 'i' and ad '-er' for a comparative e.g. easy/easier; lovely/lovelier and '-est' for a superlative e.g. easy/easiest; lovely/loveliest

Of course, this is English, so there are always irregulars! e.g. good/better/best; bad/worse/worst

You said "although the more older I become" - here you have used a mixture of the rules! Remember, 'old' is a short word, so you just add -er and you don't need the 'more'. If you had used the word 'ancient', that would have been 'more ancient'.

'Although the older I become, the more like him I become' sounds better and is a bit more informal. You can use 'like' instead of 'similar to'

Homework
Are you missing the Olympics? I am. So, here's an idea for you to practise your comparatives and superlatives. Think of your favourite athletes or country and - using these adjectives or others of your choice - list some things about them! Lists again! Try to use a comparative and superlative.

Fast (eg: Usain Bolt was faster than Yohan Blake. In fact, he was the fastest in the world as he broke the Olympic record.)
Strong
Beautiful
Long
Great
Brave
Good

Quadruple London Paralympics champion David Weir

Take care

Carrie
Sad: in this context it means embarrassing not unhappy
Super duper: slang meaning great, wonderful, marvellous!

but now I'm back and raring to go!

Before I pick holes (only joking) in your blogs, I thought I'd tell you about my own experience of the Olympics. This week I feel my Olympic journey has come a full circle. Let me explain. In 2005 London was one of the cities shortlisted to host the 2012 Olympics. On 6 July I was sitting in the BBC office in the centre of London, just before lunch, when it was announced that the choice was between Paris and London. I quickly left the office and rushed down to Trafalgar Square to await the result of the vote. Thousands of us were squashed into the Square. At the front there was a huge stage, a giant screen and loudspeakers. On the screen we could see Jacques Rogge. He said "The International Olympic Committee has the honour of announcing that the games of the thirtieth Olympiad in 2012 are awarded to the city of......." And then there was a long pause. All of a sudden the people right at the front of the crowd starting cheering - then he said ".....London!" and the whole of Trafalgar Square erupted. You can see the BBC news report here

Minutes after the announcement was made there was a roaring overhead and the Red Arrows flew over the Square, trailing red, white and blue smoke.

This Sunday marked the end of the Olympics and Paralympics. On Monday there was a huge parade through the streets of London. The GB athletes were carried through the streets on 21 giant trailers pulled by lorries. I, along with thousands and thousands of other people (some newspapers say there were 1 million people), waited for hours to see the athletes pass by.

As the parade reached Buckingham Palace, I found myself once again standing in Trafalgar Square. And once again, there was a roaring overhead....and there were the Red Arrows again, trailing red, white and blue smoke. So you see: a full circle!

Now then, back to your blogs. I'm not going to say anything about your first blog, as I think it was such a great way to get people talking. Actually, I am going to say something: well done to everyone who commented and joined in the discussion: this is another way to improve your English. Don't be afraid to have a go at writing something: whether it's a single line or a whole essay.

Let's start with a few vocabulary bits from your other two blogs. Nothing major!

• Play and games "And what kind of plays do they play?" To play as a verb is used in sport (to play football); but as a noun (a play or plays) it's theatre! For sport, the noun is a game. So, "And what kind of games do they play?"

• Make a party: "They make a very big party" - here you need to use 'throw a party' or simply 'have a party'.

• Skinned: "They were so skinned, lightweight..." I think you mean skinny (very thin)? Do you know that if you go in to a coffee shop and ask for a "Skinny latte" you will get an espresso coffee with nonfat milk?

Now then, here's some homework:
You wrote:
"I recollect it from the ground". Recollect is a formal way of saying 'remember' e.g. "Do you recollect when we used to go to the seaside for our holidays?" I think you were thinking of the word 'collect', but what you should have said was "I picked it up from the ground". Pick + up = verb + preposition. However, sometimes the second word (in this case 'up') gives a special meaning to the verb. This is called a 'phrasal verb'. So, "I picked up my cup of coffee" = verb + preposition. "I went home after work to pick up my car" - meaning I went home to collect my car, not literally pick it up - is a phrasal verb. Take a look at the eight sentences and decide whether they contain a verb + preposition or a phrasal verb:

1. Have you had your interview? How did you get on?
2. He failed his exams, so he dropped out of college.
3. She dropped her keys and had to pick them up from the floor.
4. I was very angry, so I shouted at him.
5. She fell asleep in the car and crashed into a tree.
6. I go to the gym every day to work out.
7. They saw their friends in the street and ran out to say hello.
8. We couldn't have a cup of tea this morning because we had run out of milk.

Raring to...: to be eager to do something
To pick holes in something: to find weak points in something
Erupt: in this case, to suddenly start shouting and cheering
The Red Arrows: the Royal Air Force Aerobatic Team

I also have a list of the businesses I'd like to start and one item of this list is to set up a web service to provide lists for everyone who need to check if he is ready for something (camping for a weekend, buy a new house, having a child...)

Well, ok, I love lists. I think you got it :-)

Yesterday, at work, we were attending a training course, and the teacher asked us to write a list of our guides, our life's teachers, a list of the people from whom we learned the most important lessons in our life. We were told that next time we would make some consideration about it.

So I'm compiling this list in English, as a way to kill two birds with one stone!

The short list of my life's teachers

1) My father. Very easy answer, I think many of us would put a parent, or a relative, in such a list. So do I. I'm quite different from my father, although the more older I become, the more similar I become to him in many things. But when in trouble, and I need to examine myself, thinking about what he would do in the same situation really help me in making the right call. And the right one doesn't always mean the more profitable to me.
My father doesn't speak English, so I can write it here, without being too much embarrassed.

2) My friend Pier. I know him since 2003, I think. We didn't share childhood, I met him when I was nearly thirty. He is always active, lively, positive, always ready to help you, and he is always talking too. He really talks a lot. he's humble, and he is one of the most munificient people I've never met. So there are many sides of my character i can improve learning from him (but I'm not telling you which ones! )
Here is a picture of him, in one of his unusual bad moments.

I know this list could be longer (hello Mum!), but it's just a starting point, I will be working on it from now on.

Who are your life's teachers? They could be also poets, historical figures, or the old lady that lives near you. And if you are fanatic about lists like me, please tell me, we have a lot to talk about!