Phew phew phew what an exciting day that was yesterday, two fantastic games of Rugby. Wales (sob) just losing to the Springboks and then the All Black taking France to the cleaners and showing everyone how Rugby should be played.

There's an idiom hidden in that sentence. Here are some more:

http://a4esl.org/q/h/9807/km-animalidioms.html

http://a4esl.org/q/h/9801/sb-idioms.html


https://www.englishclub.com/ref/Idioms/Quizzes/Food_1/index.htm


Some of us talked about the Queen last week. Here's a link to the Royal web page:


http://www.royal.gov.uk/

And here is the story of the Royal Family and the Rugby World Cup:

https://storify.com/BritishMonarchy/rwc2015?utm_source=embed_Header


So now I have to mentally prepare for today's games. Enjoy your week!

Good morning everyone: the first frost of autumn has touched our garden overnight.  Note to self: must bring in the agapanthus.

Britain has been in a baking fever the last weeks: The Great British Bake Off finished last Wednesday, and what a thrilling final it was.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b013pqnm

is a link to the Programme Website and there you can scroll down for recipes and stories.

The World Rugby Cup continues and just gets more and more exciting. Next week we'll be looking at more flags and countries so here's some online practice for capital cities:

 http://www.eslgamesplus.com/countries-and-capitals-drag-and-drop-spelling-game-for-esl/

We saw last week how important it is to recognise if a word is a noun or a verb. Try out your skills here:

http://www.english-online.org.uk/games/verbnounbothnew.htm

Enjoy!

Jubilations here in downtown Morsum as Australia beat England in the Rugby World Cup yesterday evening. This means England and Wales are through to the quarter finals and England are out!

It was an Aussie week anyway, what with Cousin Nicholas' visit.
Nicholas' wife Lorraine told us about the Bilby, an Aussie animal, which is replacing the Easter bunny.

 
 
 
http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/countries/australia-quiz/
So Horst has been busy making bilbies.

Let's take the chance to look at some Downunder English


http://www.education.vic.gov.au/languagesonline/english/english.htm

http://www.elllo.org/study/australia/english_2004.htm


http://www.australia.com/en/things-to-do/art-music-culture.html


 http://a4esl.org/q/h/9801/mg-australia2.html

Good morning from Penguin HQ!

The Rugby World Cup started this week, what excitement. Unfortuantely Wales has lost its two very best players due to injury, so we are not expecting  many wins.

Here's the official Website:
http://www.rugbyworldcup.com/index.html

And here's a worksheet about the competing countries:

http://www.henry4school.fr/Sports/pdf/20%20countries%20Rugby%20World%20Cup%202015.pdf

This week some students were struggling with since, for and ago.
Here's some practice:

http://a4esl.org/q/h/lb/usf.html

http://www.esltower.com/GRAMMARQUIZ/intermediate/since%20for%20last%20ago.htm

And a recommendation from a friend learning Dutch:

Duolingo:
https://www.duolingo.com/

Make sure the page is in German and then you can choose to learn English. It's free and, dare I say it, fun!

Good morning everyone, it being September, back-to-school month, The Penguinet is raring to go again.

It's been a busy summer.

Most of this year has been spent worrying about my Mum, who has been in and out of Hospital since April. I am now a very frequent flyer on KLM.
Anyway during my last visit at the end of August she decided she wanted to go into a Care Home and with 24 hours was in Hendford in Yeovil.
http://www.caspiacare.co.uk/hendford/
I then had five days to move everything personal into her new room and clear out her house ready for sale.
It was great fun for me to try and make her room as personal and homely as possible.
And she is loving the homemade cakes every day!


At the beginning of August we squeezed in a visit to the beautiful Spreewald - where it was absolutely boiling hot - including a Fürst Pückler Parfait in Schloss Branitz in Cottbus, home of Fürst Pückler himself.




So now you have caught up with our News and are eager to practise your English.

Here's a nice quiz about the use of already and yet:
http://www.usingenglish.com/quizzes/122.html


The Labour Party in the UK has had a busy week electing their new leader. Here's the BBC's Brief history of the Party:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_mAGXIWb9Q

Have fun!

Good morning everyone.
The Penguinet will be back in September. See you all then!

Good morning everyone from rainy (good for the garden) Morsum.

Much as I miss my dear students and our interesting discussions, having more time at home means more time listening to BBC R4. I cannot recommend this wonderful Station enough, and if you visit the Website you will find many programmes to Listen Again or download. It's all free.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4


I can also spend more time baking.  Today's cake is a Gooseberry Meringue pie.
Here are some gooseberry recipes:

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/glossary/gooseberry

Gooseberry is also used in an Idiom:

To play gooseberry

https://www.englishforums.com/English/IdiomGooseberry/crmp/post.htm

Have a great week!