What an exciting week for Space Travel!
A Million years ago I lived in Florida and was lucky enough to watch several Space Shuttle launches. I surprised myself by my feelings and emotions at the power of those rockets, and so can begin to understand the ESA engineers and their joy at Rosetta and Philae's success.
ESA has some great animations about the Mission:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvkPFXdpOQQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YwrcZVM1MA


Fancy a Space Quiz?
http://www.space.com/20378-stars-quiz-space-trivia.html

Here's a cute game to help you learn space vocabulary:

http://www.eslgamesplus.com/space-and-solar-system-esl-vocabulary-game-moonshot-game/

And just in case you would like some grammar practice, here you can brush up your prepositions in an astronomical way!
http://a4esl.org/q/h/9901/jd-astronomy.html

One of life's mismatches occurs every year at this time: 11 November. In Germany, it's the start of Carnival. In the UK and the Commonwealth, as in many other countries, it is the saddest and most solemn day: Remembrance Day, where we remember the dead of all wars, past and present.
Today is Remembrance Sunday, when the Queen and other members of the Royal Family together with politicians and representatives of many countries meet at the Cenotaph in London. Here's last year's ceremony:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lS37lHMwYQg

Here's a Canadian site with some facts about Remembrance Day:
http://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance/information-for/educators/facts-on-remembrance-day

When I was a child we sometimes called it 'Poppy Day', and you will notice pretty much everyone in the UK wearing a poppy at the moment. Here is the history of poppy day and why we wear poppies to remember the war dead:


http://www.learnenglish.de/culture/poppyday.html

This year, as we remember the Centennial of the start of WW1,  the Tower  of London has drawn many visitors to see some special poppies :

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-29965477

It's Holiday time for some of you and so I know you will be hoping for extra practice exercises here this week.

Your wish is my command!



Here are some mixed tenses:
http://www.learnenglishfeelgood.com/mixed-verb-tenses5.html

Prepositions:
http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/quizzes/preposition_quiz1.htm

Idioms:
http://www.usingenglish.com/quizzes/439.html

But all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy so we'd better have some fun too.

A very popular TV Programme in the UK and USA is "Who do you think you are?".
Celebrities - actors, sportsmen and women, singers -  are assisted in finding out about their ancestors. Sometimes there are real surprises.
Here are two of my favourites:

Alan Cumming, Scottish actor:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvdvJpAAaU0
 And Kelly Clarkson, US Country singer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9q0I9hLP0w

Enjoy!

So enjoying the extra hour this morning! Here's what The Independent has to say:

Why do we change the clocks?

The idea of moving the clocks forward during the summer and then back again was first proposed in parliament in 1907. Later, in the Second World War clocks were put forward an hour to boost production in factories and so that workers could get back home before the blackout.
The Government put the clocks forward again for the entire time between 1968 and 1971 as an experiment– but it was deemed that it made Scotland too dark in the mornings.

Read more here:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/clocks-go-back-remember-to-change-yours--for-possibly-the-last-time-ever-9817740.html

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Having got so excited about Michael Faraday last week, let's continue the theme for a few minutes this week too. We talked about the Royal Institution's Christmas lectures, but of course they have a lot more to offer.,
Here's the dedicated Video site:
https://www.youtube.com/user/TheRoyalInstitution

Here's Richard Dawkins explaining the universe:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dw4w1UsOafQ

And  a young Carl Sagan doing the same:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdXtjNSDi4s


What fun we had with those faulty (or not) sentences. For those of you who would like to practise a bit more, try these:

http://www.esl-classroom.com/grammar/gq1.html

http://www.grammarbank.com/simple-past-present-perfect-tenses.html

In this week's news, just when support for the EU in the UK was at an all-time high, Ker-poww! Here is a nice explanation of why the UK is facing a large repayment bill to the EU:
http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2014/oct/24/britains-two-billion-euro-bill-explained

I always find the comments from readers especially interesting.

Good morning everyone. I have been saving one of my very favourite Georgians for this week. He only just squeaks in to being a Georgian, and for quite a lot of his life he was a Victorian, but being born in 1791 when King George III was on the throne (or not) he qualifies for our series.
(Interested in King George III's illness? Watch this documentary about Royal Diseases:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJecSrFfprI)

I had forgotten what a wonderful person Michael Faraday was. When I was a little girl Thursday afternons were very special: it was the day the  mobile library came to our area and I could go and choose my books. There was a children's biography of Michael Faraday in the van, and that was often the book I chose.

Those of you who are in lessons next week will find out more about why MF is my heartthrob, for the rest of you here's a documentary about British scientists:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hu3TCj_zr2Q

Last week some of us got quite stuck using different tenses.
Here is some online practice:
http://www.learnenglishfeelgood.com/mixed-verb-tenses3.html

Good afternoon from sunny Landkreis Verden, where Karoline (oven range) has been lit for the first time this year as Rouladen are on the menu for this evening. October, especially when it is so golden, is one of the very best months.

This week some of  us will be thinking about birthday cakes, inspired by Anya's 7th birthday last Thursday. She told me she had chosen a Frozen cake, which confused me for a second.
Here it is:

That is one cool cake.
Here are some birthday cake ideas:

http://www.marthastewart.com/274819/birthday-cakes
http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/collection/birthday-cake

Here's a terrific site packed full of things for you to do to improve your English:
http://www.manythings.org/

And just for those of you not yet Frozen fans:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moSFlvxnbgk

and, as we know, some People are worth melting for:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KODq5mpAbTs

Many, many years ago whilst volunteering with Blackfoot Indians in Montana I spent 10 days (or nights) sleeping on a child-sized camp bed. I remember exactly the bliss of getting into a real bed again. That is the feeling this week with the arrival of my new - although clonky - keyboard.
Some of us are enjyoing flicking through English-language magazines. Here are the websites with tons of free material:

The classic British women's magazine:
http://www.goodhousekeeping.co.uk/

Best in the USA for crafts, recipes & home ideas:
http://www.bhg.com/
You can sign up for their free emails on different categories too.

Popular science (UK):

http://sciencefocus.com/

Gardening (UK):
http://www.gardenersworld.com/

And for a completely different view:
Australia:
 http://www.aww.com.au/

Southern USA:
http://www.southernliving.com/

For IT fans:

http://www.computerworld.com/

And the news:
http://www.newsweek.com/en

Now, that should really be enough to keep you busy!