Zipping in my speedy car from one group to the next, I nearly choked on my banana: the news came through of the sad demise of Paul the Octopus.

Some insiders may know that my relationship to these animals has been tricky. For many years I had an octopus-phobia. Really. I mean, how on earth could that happen? It was so bad that I could not even stay in a room with a picture of one - in a magazine for instance - let alone be anywhere near a real octopus.

Well, living in Morsum means I don't get close and personal with Octopi all that often, so I just lived with this quirk. But then my daughter turned into a marine biologist, and the symbol of Aquatica was - you guessed - an octopus.

So I decided to fight my phobia, starting with a cuddly octopus toy from Ikea. How brave I was to push that around Ikea in a shopping trolley. Then it sat around the biggest room in our house, with me giving it a wide berth. In the meantime, I kpt hearing what marvellous and wonderful creatures they are.

And then Baby Johann - after his Mom had checked with Omi - arrived for a breakfast date wearing an outfit with an octopus embroidered on the front. What could I say?

So now I don't exactly love them, but they no longer give me the screaming heebie-jeebies. And when I heard that Paul had died, I was really sad.

Find out more on: http://www.octopus.com/

A history of the world...

... in a hundred objects.

Many of you are already tuning in to wonderful BBC Radio 4, and in that cas you will know about the series "A History of the World in 100 Objects". It's a magnificent row of 15-minute talks describing 100 objects which can be found in the glorious British Museum. Members of Staff there chose objects which they considered vital steps in World History. You can still download the podcasts, but why not visit the British Museum Site and find out even more:

http://www.britishmuseum.org/

The picture on the left shows one of the objects, a plate commemorating the Russian Revolution.

Writing this has ben unusually tiresom, as the letter "e" keeps getting stuck on my laptop. I think this is a consequence of eating toast too close. Or too clos.

Hav a good wk:)

When the autumn leaves fall...

Good morning all from beautiful autumnal Morsum.

Isn't that word "autumn" wonderful? Of course, our US cousins call this "The fall". Last week when I was in beautiful Maryland, people often said to me, "I love your accent!" "You're the one with the accent," I thought privately. But on that I'm not quite right. In many cases - and autumn is one - it's the US word which is the original, it's the Brits who changed - in the case of "autumn" during the 18th century when all things French became very fashionable.

Try this quiz to find out how bilingual you are:)

www.funtrivia.com/playquiz/quiz113979dOe8bO.html

Hi from the US!!!

Really quickly from the US, to say... this Sunday Diane and I are off to New York City to see The Lion King on Broadway and I am So EXCITED!!!!!
Back home next week and more English for you then.
Love from all of us in Columbia Maryland.

Superheroes

When Laura was a little girl we lived in Florida. She went to the Montessori Kindergarten in Merritt Island in the afternoons and when she got home she could hardly wait to turn on the TV and watch "Superfriends".

Don't you just love Superheroes? I especially like the capes.

We could have done with Superhero several times this week; lots of things going wrong, misunderstandings - and the dreadful news from Borneo that a disgruntled employee had poisoned the water treatment system with cyanide: many fish died.

But we never let our heads hang and in the Quest to improve your English I have found the answer:

GRAMMARMAN

http://www.grammarmancomic.com/

It's great!

The last roses of summer

Good afternoon all, slightly later today as we whizzed to the fleamarket in Thedinghausen to buy games for your lessons - successfully I'm glad to say.

The news is so weird these days, isn't it? Single persons make strange pronouncements which are then flashed around the world, causing chaos and mayhem.

Anyway, good old VOA will certainly help you improve your English. Visit and explore this site, you will find links to grammar/vocabulary sections as well as interesting news stories.

www.voanews.com/learningenglish/home

Back now to the Thanhäuser Markt (this time by bike), promised His Nibs a Currywurst...

The Battle of Britain

Oh gosh, had the website chosen and the text partly written (mentally at least) for you this morning - when we listened to BBC Radio 4 while munching our broetchen. The news from the UK has been full of the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Britain the last week or two, and today seems to be The Day. So, still in my slumberwear, I leapt to the laptop to quickly find some info for this week's students.

I stumbled upon

http://vimeo.com/cambridge

And wow wow wow!

Vimeo is a video-sharing site and lo and behold Cambridge University has a portfolio of fascinating videos there, you can even download them...

Have a great week!