miércoles, 13 de marzo de 2024

NEW YORK CITY - THE GANGSTER MOB TOUR

Hi my dear friends. Today we are going to know a bit more about gangsters, New York and the Mafia.

Hola mis queridos amigos. Hoy vamos a conocer un poco más sobre gangsters, Nueva York y la Mafia.



Info: Speak Up magazine.

Photos: NuevaYork.es  /  nycgangstermobtour.com  /  nycgangstersandghosts.com  /  freetours.by.foot/  untapped.new.york.



THE GANGSTER MOB TOUR - NEW YORK

If you want to find more about the dark side of New York history, then you should try the "NYC Gangster Mob Tour".  It concentrates on an organization that still fascinates people:  the Mafia.

Italians had been moving to New York since the 1880s, but this story begins during the Prohibition era. 1928 was the start of the Castellammarese War, between rival Sicilian-born gangsters: Giuseppe "Joe" Massaria and Salvatore Maranzano (from Castellammare del Golfo).  The conflict also involved two Jewish gangsters, "Bugsy" Siegel and Meyer Lansky, and another Sicilian, Charlie "Lucky" Luciano.  Massaria and Maranzano were both killed in 1931. At this point Luciano emerged as the most powerful mafioso and decided to divide control of New York among five families.  Unlike most Sicilian mafiosi at that time, he worked with crime families from other Italian regions and with Jewish and Irish gangsters. In this way he effectively created "organized crime".




NOLITA

Much of the violence of the Castellammare War took place around Mulberry Street. Today New Yorkers refer to this area as "Nolita" or "North of Little Italy".  This is now one of Manhattan's most chic neighbourhoods and is full of fashionable shops and bars, but back in the Prohibition era it was home to speakeasies.  It was also the favourite haunt of gangsters. Their memory lives on in the many movies that have been filmed around here, like "The Godfather, Goodfellas, Donnie Brasco and American Gangster.



MEET THE MAFIA

The Mafia may be a sensitive issue for Italian Americans, but in New York City it's also a form of tourism thanks to the NYC Gangster Mob Tours.  Lucky Luciano who was born in Sicily in 1897 and who died in Naples in 1962, features prominently in the tours. 

When the Italians came over New York, some of the immigrants snuck in and they weren't the better people of the Italians that immigrated there. They were known as the Black Hand. They were a group of extortionists that used to extort money from all the Italian storekeepers that were in New York city, with threats of killing them or bombing them if they wouldn't give them what they asked for.

Charlie Luciano was a gentleman who was a big-time mobster and he was also the founder of the Five Families in New York and the creator of what is known as "organized crime". He used to hang out in this neighbourhood, he lived on the Lower East Side, made lots of money during this time of Prohibition and eventually in gambling and other things. On the block of Mulberry Street, was the Gambino crime family territory, and if we walk up the block, you will be able to see what was the Ravenite Club which was the social club run by the Gambino crime family where John Gotti, the head of the family, was caught by the FBI.




ON LOCATION

Italian Americans tend to hate the many fims and TV shows that portray them as mafiosi and, not surprisingly, there are plenty of film locations in the Gangster Mob Tours. Mulberry Street is full of restaurants. These ones were fronts for all the mob families, especially the Colombo and the Genovese families. They would use the restaurants to hold their meetings, either in the back room, the basement or upstairs.  A famous Tour is called Mulberry Street Bar, and it is where the movie "Donnie Brasco" was filmed, the very opening scene at the bar inside and also the TV show from HBO, "Sopranos". Mulberry Street Bar was used as the Averna Social Club in the series.  Further down the block there was a shooting in 1972 of a gentleman named Joe Gallo who was a capo in the Colombo crime family and was accused of killing Joe Colombo the year before.



VOCABULARY

UNLIKE: a diferencia de  /  SPEAKEASY: bar clandestino  /  HAUNT: lugar frecuentado  /  TO SNEAK IN: entrar furtivamente  /  STOREKEEPER: tendero  /  THREAT: amenaza  /  MOBSTER: gangster, mafioso  /  EVENTUALLY: finalmente  /  GAMBLING: juego  /  BLOCK: manzana de calles  /  TO PORTRAY: RETRATAR  /  FRONT: tapadera  /  THE MOB: la Mafia.

lunes, 19 de febrero de 2024

THE BAILEYS STORY - THE CREAM OF IRELAND / LA HISTORIA DE BAILEYS - LA CREMA DE IRLANDA.

Hi my dear friends. Today we will know a bit more about a beverage that, for sure, we have tasted, or not but that it is worldwide famous: BAILEYS and that it is "The Cream of Ireland".

Hola mis queridos amigos. Hoy conoceremos un poco más sobre una bebida que seguro hemos probado, o no pero que es mundialmente conocida: el BAILEYS y que es "La Crema de Irlanda".



Photos: www.theorchardcentre.com  /  Info: Speak-up magazine.


Baileys Irish Cream was invented, for the international market, in 1974. There is no Mr or Mrs Bailey: the name was used purely for branding.  Before 1974, attempts to blend and stabilise alcohol and cream had failed. Today, Baileys is the world's top-selling liqueur brand. Every minute, more than  2,300 glasses of Baileys are drunk across 180 countries.



THAT SWEET TASTE

So how is Baileys made? The basic ingredient is cream. The milk is produced on 1400 Irish farms and is transported to a facility in County Cavan where the cream is separated. The cream, alcohol, and whiskey are then homogenized to form an emulsion, to prevent the separation of the whiskey and cream. The 17 per cent alcohol content preserves the cream. The final product is made in Belfast. Today, the brand is the property of the drinks giant Diageo, the owner of Guinness. There are different flavours: coffee, crème caramel, mint chocolate, and hazelnut.




ON THE FARM

Baileys opened one of its dairy farms to the public in 2002: this is the Orchard Centre at Hayden Farm in County Wicklow.  The Hayden Family has been farming for four generations.  The 140 Frisian cows grazing happily outdoors are called "Baileys Ladies". You need to book in advance.  Businesses even send their employees here for some original team-building exercises.



MEET THE LADIES

You could be forgiven for thinking that the delicious drink, Baileys Irish Cream, has been around for a long time. In actual fact and as it has been commented above,  it was invented in 1974. The cows that provide the cream live on 1400 different farms in Ireland. You can, however, visit one farm in County Wicklow, and enjoy the "Baileys Experience". The Orchard Centre at Hayden Farm is home to 140 Frisian cows that are also known as the "Baileys Ladies".  John Hayden explains that when groups come to visit the farm and the focus of their visit is the whole Baileys Experience, as well as meeting the Baileys Ladies themselves, the cows that produce over a million litres from the farm every year, they are also introduced to Baileys: they are shown how Baileys is made, the different ingredients, the different flavours...

The visitors are shown some very really new and exciting ways of drinking Baileys, like the frappé Baileys, which is great for summertime barbecues, and it's a real fun, interactive experience. 

And after having met the Baileys Ladies, and visiting the farm, to see the very natural way the cream is produced and after tasting Baileys, they realize what is the spiritual home of Baileys.

In order to meet the "Baileys Ladies" you must book in advance but as Joe Hayden thinks, it's worth the wait because you can find there some wonderful activity-based and team-building programmes that are focused on the whole Bailey's concept.

The most popular one is the "Build a Baileys Cow" event that lasts about an hour and a half where your group are broken down into teams of maybe 12 or 14 people per team.  They are taken out to the pasture where they can see what is called the "Parade of Champions".  That is where they take the five top cows from their dairy herd and give a commentary on the characteristics that make the perfect Baileys cow: how she looks, how she walks, the beaufitul legs, and other vital statistics that are essential to having the perfect Baileys cow.

The teams are then invited, using a sketchboard, to design their own perfect Baileys cow. They are then provided with about 300 black-and white latex balloons, balloon pumps, tape, art material, cane posts, timber and they have to physically build their own Baileys cow. It's so funny!  When the cow is finished, they must then build a transportation system for the cow, using Guinness barrels and pallets and other materials from around the farm. And finally, they have the "Baileys Grand Prix". This is where they line up all these beautiful ladies on their transport systems and... all the teams have a Grand Prix Race to the milking shed.



VOCABULARY

FOR BRANDING: para la designación de la marca  /  ATTEMPT: intento  /  TO BLEND: mezclar  /  TO FAIL: fracasar  /  TO GRAZE: pastar  /  SHORT GLASS: copita  /  ORCHARD: huerto  /  TO FORGIVE: perdonar  /  TO BREAK DOWN:  dividir  /  PASTURE: prado  /  DAIRY HERD: ganado lechero  /  CANE: caña  /  MILKING SHED: cobertizo donde se ordeñan las vacas. 




MORE INFO

For more information on the drink's history, ingredients, etc  visit: www.baileys.com. If you can get 10 Baileys fans, you can visit The Orchard Centre www.theorchardcentre.ie  at the Hayden FArm in Co. Wicklow, a 90-minute drive south of Dublin.  The nearest train or bus station is Gorey.






viernes, 24 de noviembre de 2023

NASA - 65 YEARS IN SPACE / NASA - 65 AÑOS EN EL ESPACIO.

Hi my dear friends. Today we are going to look at the stars. NASA celebrates 65 years in Space. It is very strange the out space world!  It has always fascinated me! And what is more, I think it's impossible to understand it!

Hola mis queridos amigos. Hoy vamos a mirar a las estrellas. La NASA celebra 65 años en el Espacio. Es muy extraño el mundo del espacio exterior. Siempre me ha fascinado. ¡Y lo que es más, creo que es imposible de entender!




Info from: Speak Up magazine.

Photos: www.lanasa.net  /  www.national.geoghrapic  /  RTVE.es  /  hoy.com.do  /  descargas.intef.es  /  mas.laopiniondemalaga.es


For millennia, people observed space and wondered what was up there. It's only the second half of the 20th century, though, that travelling into space began, an extraordinary feat made possible by organisations like the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).


SPACE RACE

In fact, the founding of NASA had much to do with pride.  Less than a year before, the USSR launched Sputnik, the first artificial satellite to orbit the Earth.  It was not all about getting ahead of the Soviets, though.  NASA's achievements had consequences that expanded into all the scientific fields, contributing hugely to the understanding of the cosmos and our own planet.




THE UNIVERSE

Thanks to NASA's manned missions, but also to its telecopes and probes, scientists have been able to study the evolution and expansion of the universe, from the Big Bang to the present.  We have learned, for example, that the universe is 13.77 billion years old and that only 4.6 per cent of it is made up of atoms -with the rest being dark matter and dark energy.





LIFE IN SPACE

In november 2013, scientists used data from the Kepler space observatory to conclude that there could be up to forty billion Earth-like planets orbiting stars at a distance that could make life possible.  So if anyone finally does discover life out there in space, the odds are it will be NASA.





VOCABULARY

FEAT: hito  /  PRIDE: orgullo  /  GETTING AHEAD: avanzarse  /  ACHIEVEMENTS: logros  /  

HUGELY: enormemente  /  MANNED MISSIONS: misiones tripuladas  /  THE ODDS ARE:  lo más probable es.



THE MOON

"I'm gonna step off the LM now. That's one small step for man; one giant leap for mankind" 

These are the famous words astronaut Neil Armstrong said before becoming the first human to set foot on the Moon. It was July 20th 1969 and the mission was called Apollo 11.

Five other Apollo missions would land on Earth's satellite afterwards. Along with the research data they brought home, the astronauts carried back some four hundred kilograms of Moon rocks,sand, dust and other celestial materials for us to study. 

Study of rock and soil samples from the Moon provide useful information about the early history of the Moon, the Earth, and the Solar System. Although they may not seem that interesting at first sight.

NASA's research indicates that the Moon could have been formed from the debris resulting from the Earth being struck by a celestial body the size of Mars. This theory is backed by the chemical composition of the lunar rocks and the meteorite remains that have been found on its surface.

It has been forty-five years since the last human walked on the Moon and NASA is indeed planning to go back up there.  NASA is refocusing on the Moon and they want to send people back there and there was some talk about robotic missions, too, both to do in situ science on the surface, but also to hopefully bring back some samples. 




VOCABULARY

LM: módulo lunar  /  LEAP: SALTO  /  set foot: PISAR  /  samples: MUESTRAS  /  DEBRIS: detritos  /  REMAINS: restos 

lunes, 17 de abril de 2023

LE MYSTÈRE DE L'ÎLE DE PÂQUES / EL MISTERIO DE LA ISLA DE PASCUA

 Salut mes amis. Aujourd'hui un peu de Français. Nous allons lire à propos de l'Île de Pâques. 

¡Hola amigos! Hoy un poco de Francés. Vamos a leer sobre la Isla de Pascua.




Photos: Abc.es  /  amazon.es  /  autofacil.es  /  rtve.es  /  wikipedia.es



LE MYSTÈRE DE LÎLE DE PÂQUES, EST-IL PERCÉ?

L'Île de Pâques est située à 3.700 km à l'Ouest de l'Amérique du Sud dans l'Océan Pacifique.  L'Île habitée la plus proche est l'Île Pitcairn à plus de 2.000 km à l'Ouest.  De forme triangulaire et d'environ 23 km dans sa plus grande dimension, l'Île couvre 166 km carrés, et sa population comptait plus de 2.200 habitants en 2002.  Elle fut visitée par le premier européen le navigateur Jakob Roggeven le jour de Pâques, le 6 avril 1722, et comptait alors près de 4.000 habitants.




L'Île de Pâques fut annexée par l'Espagne en 1770 sous le nom d'Isla San Carlos, mais l'Espagne s'en désintéressa par la suite alors des Français s'y installèrent après 1864 et l'Île est devenue une possession chilienne en 1888.




Sur cette île se trouvent près de 890 têtes de statues monumentales appelées Moaïs.  Celles-ci sont sculptées dans la pierre et disposées sur l'Île de Rapa Nui protégée par l'UNESCO.  Les statues proviennent d'une carrière située sur les flancs et dans le cratère du volcan nommé Rano Raraku.  On peut y voir un très grand nombre de moaïs, certains terminés et dressés au pieds de la pente, d'autres inachevés, à divers stades entre l'ébauche et la finition.  Le plus grand qui ait été érigé mesure 10 m de haut et pèse 75 t.


L'un des inachevés fait 21 m de hauteur pour une masse estimé à 270 t.

Environ 400 statues ont été dressés sur l'Île et un nombre équivalent est resté inachevé dans la carrière principale. Le mystère de leur contstruction n'est plus.  L'Île avait été boisée et la théorie communément admise est que les statues auraient été déplacées debout depuis le site Rano Raraku où elles étaient taillées en position horizontale dans la roche volcanique jusqu'à leur destination finale, par un mouvement de balancier régulé par des tireurs de cordes.



Mais le mystère autour de la raison d'être de ces statues reste pour une grande partie entier. Ce qu'on sait de l'Île de Pâques, c'est que les premiers habitants, ils sont arrivés dès le IVème siècle, et que ces statues, elles ont été sculptées entre le X et le  XVème siècle. 

Certaine d'entre elles, portent des sortes de chapeaux, et leurs orbites, ont certainement acritées, à l'origine, du corail. Mais, pourquoi ces statues ont-elles été réalisées et disposées ainsi sur cette île?  Les hypothèses sont nombreuses, et aucune n'est pour leur certaine. Pour certains  spécialistes, ils s'agissait d'honorer des chefs de guerre importants,car il a été trouvé sous certaines d'entre elles des tombes.  Pour d'autres, il s'agissait d'offrir une protection aux habitants de l'Île, car il a été démontré que les statues regardent toutes en direction du village à l'heure présent. Mais ce qui rend impossible la confirmation de ces hyptohèses, est que les habitants même de l'Île, étaient déjà divisés lorsque les premiers  explorateurs hollandais arrivèrent en 1722.  En effet, à leur arrivée, l'Île ne ressemblait à ce qu'elle était dans le passé puisque une bonne partie des milliers de personnes qu'elle abritait, avaient péri au XVIIème siècle en raison d'une grande sécheresse.



L'Île semble alors avoir subit un effondrement écologique et culturel. À la suite des pénuries de ressources naturelles, et notamment de bois, les conflits éclatèrent entre les tribus, laissant place à la guerre at au cannibalisme. Un état de délicat sens de la société et parachevé par le esclavagisme du XIXème siècle.




QUESTIONS.

1 À quel pays appartient actuellement l'Île de Pâques?   

2 Comment construisaient-ils les Moaïs?

3 Quelles sont les théories qui expliquent l'existence des statues?

4 Quelle a été la cause des luttes entre les tribus de l'Île de Pâques?

5 Comment est la description des Moaïs?

6 En Français: "En las antípodas de estas noticias tecnológicas que permiten informarse con un clic, yo os recomiendo el libro "magazine man and food" de la editorial 180 grados."


VOCABULAIRE

Percer: descubrir  /  -carrière: cantera   /  -boisée: poblada de árboles  /  -sécheresse: sequía   /  --effondrement: desmoronamiento, hundimiento  /  pénuries: problemas, penurias  /  éclater: estallar  /  -parachevé: rematar.


RÉPONSES.

1 L'Île de Pâques appartient à Chili.

2 Les Moaïs ont été sculptés dans la pierre qui provient d'une carrière près du volcan Rano Raraku.

3 Il y a plusieurs théories. Protection pour les habitants de l'Île, honorer les chefs de guerre importants, mais on ne sait pas bien.

4 La cause des luttes entre les tribus pourraient être  la sécheresse, les pénuries de ressources naturelles et l'esclavagisme aussi.

5 Les Moaïs sont des statues énormes construites en pierre qui sont debout et disposées sur l'Île de Rapa Nui.

6 Aux antipodes de ces nouvelles tecnologiques´qui permettent de s'informer avec un clic, je vous recommend le livre"magazine man and food" de l'éditorial 180 degrés.  



miércoles, 15 de febrero de 2023

HOT CHOCOLATE - A SHORT STORY / CHOCOLATE CALIENTE - UN RELATO CORTO.

Hi my dear friends, today we are going to read "A short Story" by Rachel Roberts, "HOT CHOCOLATE". I hope you'll like it!  Intriguing until the end! Nothing is what it looks like!

Hola mis queridos amigos, vamos vamos a leer "Un relato corto" de Rachel Roberts, "CHOCOLATE CALIENTE". ¡Espero que os guste! Intrigante hasta el final. ¡Nada es lo que parece!


From: Speak Up magazine.    Photos: Freepng (2)  /  Illustoon.es




FICTION  -  HOT CHOCOLATE

He was back! I knew I'd seen him around turning a corner in the street, or a few rows behind me in the cinema.Once or twice I'd seen him in the street beneath my window. Another day I was sitting in the magazine section of the library and I looked up to see him, or someone very like him, disappearing behind a shelf. At first, I told myself I was mistaken, or that my imagination was playing tricks. I didn't want to even consider the possibility that he had come back. Whatever the reason it could only mean one thing: trouble.


Then, when he walked into the café one day  and sat down at my table, there could no longer be any doubt. I knew by the expression on his face that he was going to torment me.

I stared at him. He smiled back. "Well," he asked, after a few minutes. "Surprised to see me?" 

I was, of course, deeply chocked and yet at the same time a little satisfied: I had been right to think it was him. I raised my chin defiantly.

"Why have you come?" "To see how you are." He looked me up and down slowly. "Not too well, it seems." "I'm well enough." "You look a lot older,"


I opened my mouth to return the insult, but then, looking at him, I realised that he hadn't aged a day. That really wasn't fair. Didn't horrible people age badly? With a character like this, he should have looked awful, but there was, just the same as  he had been 20 years ago. He smiled again and called to the waitress to bring us two hot chocolates. This was in very bad taste. Obviously he wanted me to feel uncomfortable. I decided to pay my bill and leave. I didn't know what game he was playing but I wasn't going to let him upset me.



I took the brake off my wheelchair and began to wheel it towards the counter , my wallet ready on my knees. With an almost imperceptible movement  of his foot, he pushed one of the café chairs into the gap between two tables and blocked my exit.

Not so fast," he said softly. "You haven't had your hot chocolate. It's very good here, you know."

I was stuck. It was a rainy day and the café was busy; chairs, tables and shopping bags filled the room. The only other route was blocked by a pushchair in which a young child was sleeping deeply. I couldn't leave without making a  scene.

"I can't drink hot chocolate," I said. "Diabetes."

Ah, so that's why you're in the wheelchair. Lost the circulation in your legs, eh? What was it? The drink?"

I glared at him. "Keep your voice down!"

How could he have known about my drink problem? Had he been keeping an eye on me, all these years? The thought terrified me.

"It was so easy to guess," he said, as if reading my thoughts. "You've got an alcoholic nose, red and swollen."  "Charming as ever," I said bitterly.

"Come on, relax." He leaned back in his chair. "Aren't you curious about me?" Don't you want to ask me anything?" "No, I dont". I want to go home. It's time for my medicine. I..."

"Oh dear," he said. "You have to be careful with medicine. We wouldn't want anything bad to happen.

This was too much. "Bad!" I shouted, waking the sleeping child in the pushchair. "You were  the one bad thing in my life!"

People were starting to stare. The mother of the sleeping child had pulled the pushchair closer to her. If I moved suddenly I might just make it to the counter, then I could pay and go. I'd leave the town and go to my sister's in Yorkshire. I'd been a fool to stay in the same area. He had found me too easily.


He leaned over and laid his hand firmly on my arm. "Think about it," he said gently. "There must be something you want to know, after all this time. What it was like for me, perhaps? You're not well; this could be a good time to ask me. You might not have much time left."  He raised his eyebrows encouragingly.

I hesitated and then I couldn't help it. The question that had tormented me all that time, the persistent little voice that only a large whisky could silence, suddenly became too much for me. I asked him the thing I had desperately wanted to know for 20 years: "Will there...Will there be consequences? For me, I mean, for what I did?"

"Consequences?"  "Yes.    Will there be some kind of punishment, you know, later?"

He threw back his head and laughed until the tears rolled down his face.

"You should have thought of that before," he said, wiping his eyes. "Before you put that overdose in my bedtime drink!"


                                                    ******************************

VOCABULARY

ROW: fila  /  BENEATH: bajo  /  TO PLAY TRICK: jugar una mala pasada  /  TO STARE; mirar fijamente  /  AWFUL: horroroso  /  TO UPSET: molestar  /  BRAKE: freno  /  TO TAKE OFF: levantar  /  WHEELCHAIR: silla de ruedas  /  TO WHEEL: rodar  /  COUNTER: mostrador, barra  /  STUCK: bloqueado  /  PUSHCHAIR; cochecito de niño  /  TO GLARE: mirar enfadado  /  SWOLLEN: hinchado  /  BITTERLY:  amargamente  /  TO LEAN OVER: inclinarse  /  EYEBROW: ceja  /  I COULDN'T HELP IT: no lo pude evitar  /  TO WIPE: secar.


viernes, 27 de enero de 2023

IRELAND - DUBLIN'S WAX HEROES / IRLANDA - HÉROES DE CERA DE DUBLÍN

Hi my dear friends, do you like Museums? Today we are going to know  a bit more about a Wax Museum, in Dublin. I hope you'll like it and you'll go and visit it!

Hola mis queridos amigos, ¿os gustan los Museos? Hoy vamos a saber un  poquito más sobre el Museo de Cera de Dublín. ¡Espero que os guste y que vayáis a visitarlo!


Information: from Speak Up magazine.

Photos: www.mibauldeblogs  / www.tripdavisor  /  www.conociendo/  www.porconocer.



IRELAND  -  DUBLIN'S WAX HEROES


During the Renaissance, wax modelling was a respected art form. Today, there is something a bit old-fashioned about wax museums.  Yet even in these times of sophisticated entertainment, they remain popular.


Dublin's National Wax Museum is certainly helped by its location.  Since 2009, the Wax Museum has been based in an imposing historic building in the Temple Bar district, in the heart of the city.




EDUCATIONAL

Wax museums are...educational.  In Dublin the visit starts in a room with figures of the country's famous writers -Ireland has produced four Nobel Prize winners. From the Writers Room, a squeaky door leads down into the vaults where gold reserves and arms were kept in the past.  A ghostly voice accompanies visitors into the first of the rooms where the safes used to be.  Here the story of Ireland is told in simple language.  We meet St Patrick, the Vikings, VIPs from the Tudor period such as Queen Elizabeth I, rebelds against British occupation, and the peace process agents in Northern Ireland.  Upstairs there is an extensive interactive exhibit on Irish contributions to science -from the inventor of the rechargeable battery to the first person to artiticially split the atom.




FUN

Wax museum are...fun.  Here, the myths and legends of Ireland are presented in a lively, interactive way.  In one large room visitors can walk around between big names in music and show business, such as U2.  On the upper floor you can record a karaoke song.  In the cafeteria a wax figure is eternally reading a newspaper.


BIZARRE

Wax museums are definitely entertaining, but can be...well bizarre!  The Horror Room greets visitors with a barking werewolf guarding a quiet vampire. You can take a selfie being attacked by Freddy Krueger from Nightmare on Elm Street. And -probably not for everyone- a 2€ coin gives you the opportunity to "electrocute" a death row inmate.


In some ways, wax museums seem to belong to another era, and Dublin's is no exception.




VOCABULARY

-SQUEAKY: chirriante  /  -TO LEAD: llevar, conducir  /  -VAULT: cámara acorazada  /  -SAFE: caja fuerte  /  -TO SPLIT: dividir  /  -UPPER: superior  /  -TO BARK: ladrar  /  -WEREWOLF: hombre lobo  /  -DEATH ROW: corredor de la muerte  /  -INMATE: preso.


martes, 27 de diciembre de 2022

THE THEATRE OF LIFE . A TRIBUTE TO ALL ACTORS AND ACTRESSES AROUND THE WORLD. EL TEATRO DE LA VIDA -UN HOMENAJE A TODOS LOS ACTORES Y ACTRICES DE TODO EL MUNDO.

Hi my dear friends, today "a short story" for you to read during these Christmas Holidays! It is a tribute to all actors and actresses around the world because I love theatre and the work they do! They are all fantastic! I hope you'll like it!

Hola mis queridos amigos, hoy "un relato corto" para que leais durante estas Fiestas Navideñas. Es un homenaje a todos los actores y actrices de todo el mundo porque ¡Me encanta el teatro y el trabajo que hacen!  ¡Son fantásticos!  Espero que os guste.




Info: from Speak Up magazine.

Photos: www.amigosdelreal.es  /  www.teatro.real.es  /  20minutos.es



                                                THE THEATRE OF LIFE by Talitha Linehan

It was time for Arjun to rejoin the ensemble. It had been a long time since his last performance and he was ready for a new one.  He knew this would be one of his last acts.  He was preparing to retire from the Theatre of Life.

"I want to be powerful and beautiful," Benson was saying , as Arjun joined the other players.  Benson was the newest member of the ensemble and was planning to play a rich woman in his next performance.

In his last show, he had played a businessman who had defrauded his clients and then murdered a colleague to cover up his crime, before eventually being arrested and imprisoned.

"I'll do better this time,"  said Benson, who always abandoned his script midway through every gig and improvised, something that was acceptable but not encouraged.  Almost all new players improvised . They couldn't resist the temptation to satisfy every instinct, regardless of the consequences for themselves or the other players.

Arjun greeted the members of the ensemble, some of whom he hadn't seen in a long time. They all introduced themselves by the names they'd had in their last performance, a customary practice in the Theatre of Life.

Every recital revolved around an extended circle of family and friends, whose lives intersected in various ways.  In his last perfromance, Arjun had played a humble pastor who'd dedicated his life to helping pthers.

He'd evolved through his work and his personal difficulties -he'd lost his wife in a car accident only months after they'd married-  and after the acto, he'd taken some time out to reflect on his role.


Now Arjun was about to play a man again, but this time he would have to overcome a childhood deprived of love.  It was important for the players to be assigned diverse roles throughout their time with the theatre.  They all played people of both genders and of various ethnicities, religions, sexual orientations, and levels of intelligence, materialism, and success. Every time they faced at least one important challenge.




In his early performances, Arjun's biggest challenge had been related to a loss that had impacted his ego; loss of power or material possessions, for example.  But in his recent ones, he'd suffered more emotional and spiritual loss.

While playing a pastor, for example, after his wife had been killed, he'd questioned the existence of God and almost lost his faith.  He'd adhered to his script, however, and experienced a spiritual evolution that had helped him to help others.

"I don't want to play an addict again," said Imani, and threw aside her script. She was another of the newer members of the ensemble and had always improvised.

The group's leader, Saul, who'd retired from the Theatre of Life and the returned to lead it, spoke up. He said: "Once you can demonstrate to us that you can stick to the script and overcome your addiction, you'll never have to play an addict again".

The other players joined him in encouraging her. "Come on, you can do it this time". "We will all be there for you."  "We will help you in whatever way we can".    "You say that everytime ," said Imani, "but you never help me enough."

"We can only do so much," said Saul.  "You are the master of your performance."

If  you say so, said Imani.



Arjun put out a hand out to comfort her.  He remembered when he was  new to the Theatre of Life. He'd ended early because he hadn't liked the role he'd been assigned, but he'd finally learned to adhere to the script and to evolve as a player.

"It takes time,"  Arjun told Imani.  "We were all where you are at one point."

He read through his own script, which was a general guideline of how the performance should progress -the actions he was to take, the challenges he was to overcome, and the interactions he was to have with the other players.

"This won't be an easy one," said Arjun. "The best ones never are," said Saul.  "But you are ready for it now, my friend. Your time with us will soon come to an end."


Some of the players went on stage before Arjun, and some of them would begin after him. When the time came for his turn, the remaining players came to see him off.

"Good luck, old friend!"  "Break a leg!"  "See you on the other side."

These were the last words Arjun heard as he stepped into the portal to begin nis new life on Earth, where he would forget who he really was ant that his life was simply a performance, one through which he was to learn and evolve and from which he would soon transcend.

                                                                     *****************************

VOCABULARY

-TO REJOIN: reunirse  /  -ENSEMBLE: grupo  /  -ACTS: actuaciones  -TO COVER UP: encubrir  /-EVENTUALLY: finalmente  /  -GIG: espectáculo  /  -REGARDLESS: sin importar  /  -CUSTOMARY: habitual  /  -TO REVOLVE AROUND: girar alrededor  /  -HUMBLE: humilde  /  -TO OVERCOME: ssuperar  /  -DEPRIVED: privada.  /  -YO THROW ASIDE:  deshacerse de , tirar  /  -TO SPEAK UP: alzar la voz, hablar claro  /  -TO PUT OUT: extender  /  -TO SEE OFF; despedir  /  -BREAK A LEG: mucha suerte  /  TO STEP INO: entrar.




                                



lunes, 26 de septiembre de 2022

THANKSGIVING DAY/ A SHORT HISTORY. ACCIÓN DE GRACIAS. UNA BREVE HISTORIA.

Hi my dear friends. Do you know Thanksgiving Festivity? It's very popular in USA and Canada and today we are going to look at its origins. I hope you'll like it!  Happy Thanksgiving Day!


Hola mis queridos amigos. ¿Conocéis la festividad de Acción de Gracias? Es muy popular en Estados Unidos y en Canadá y hoy vamos a ver sus orígenes. ¡Espero que os guste! ¡Feliz Día de Acción de Gracias!


Info: from Speak Up magazine.

Photos: grandlodgeofkentucky.org  /  e-lingua.es  /  freepik.es  /  en.wikipedia.org  /  elvalleingles.es





A SHORT HISTORY OF THANKSGIVING

Like many other festivities, the holiday of Thanksgiving usually includes a delicious, abundant meal.  The classic Thanksgiving  menu consists of dishes like mashed potatoes, green beans, corn, dinner rolls, cranberry sauce, gravy, pumpkin pie, Brussels sprouts and of course, roast turkey. But how did turkey become the star of the table? It all started four centuries ago...




AN AUTUMN PARTY

The "first Thanksgiving" took place in the Plymouth colony (in modern-day Massachussetts) in 1621. The year before, a group of English colonists known as the Pilgrims had arrived there in search of a new home. Only half of them survived their first New England winter.  Helped by some welcoming Native Americans of different tribes, they learnt some farming and fishing techniques. In November 1621, after the Pilgrims' first succesful corn harvest, they organised a celebratory feast with their Native American allies to thank God for it.  However, no turkey was served here.

According to the chronicle  written by Pilgrim Edward Winslow, the menu included deer and "wild fowl" which historians interpret as ducks or geese.  The Pilgrims repeated the feast the following year, and thanksgiving celebrations became common practice in other New England settlements, too.





THE WOUNDS OF A NATION

Before Thanksgiving was an official holiday, turkey had become a popular dish to serve on special occasions.  The reasons behind this are that turkey was abundant in America, it was affordable and unlike cows or hens, it was rised to be slaughtered and eaten.  Plus, it was big: one single turkey was enough to feed a whole family.

In 1827, Sarah Josepha Hale, in her novel "Northwood", described a New England Thanksgiving feast with a roast turkey "placed at the head of the table".  Hale and other supporters started campaigning to establish Thanksgiving as a official national holiday.  In 1863, Abraham Lincoln finally accepted the proposal, asking all Americans to take it as an opportunity to ask God to help all the victims of the ongoing Civil War.



PARDONING THE TURKEY

Sending the U.S. President a turkey as a present had become a common thing to do by the 20th century.  And this tradition gave rise to another tradition: pardoning the turkey.

The first president to throw a ceremony to pardon a turkey from the Thanksgiving table was John F. Kennedy in 1963.  Pardoning the turkey became an "official" act in 1989, and from then on presidents have chosen one or two turkeys every year to be sent to a farm to live instead of becoming the Thanksgiving dinner.


VOCABULARY

-mashed potatoes: puré de patatas  /  green beans: judías verdes  /  dinner rolls: panecillos  /  cranberry: arándano  /  pumpkin pie: pastel de calabaza  /  Brussels sprouts: coles de Bruselas  /  pilgrims: peregrinos  /  welcoming: hospitalarios  /  harvest: cosecha  /  allies: aliados  /  deer: ciervo  /  wild fowl: ave salvaje  /  geese: ocas  /  settlements: asentamientos  /  affordable: asequible  /  unlike: a diferencia de  /  ongoing: en curso  /  to give rise: dar lugar  /  from then on: desde entonces .




lunes, 12 de septiembre de 2022

ULURU - Australia - THE SACRED ROCK / Uluru - La Roca Sagrada.

Hi my dear friends. Australia is a very far continent which is difficult to travel to if you are in Europe. for instance. So, today we are going to visit Australia with this post and especially we will go to Uluru, The Sacred Rock. I hope you'll like it!


Hola mis queridos amigos. Australia es un continente muy lejano al que es difícil viajar si estás en Europa por ejemplo. Así que, hoy vamos a visitar Australia con este post y especialmente iremos al Uluru, La Roca Sagrada. ¡Espero que os guste!


Info:  from Speak-Up magazine.   Photos: worldhistory.org  /  lonelyplanet.es  /  viajes.nationalgeographic.es  /  asknature.org  /  sharkbay.org  /   daily.mail.org





ULURU, THE SACRED ROCK

In the heart of Australia's Northern Territory lies Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, an expansive arid zone colloquially called the country's red centre.  Its focal point is Uluru, a mamoth red rock also known as AYERS ROCK, a name given to it by European settlers a century ago.  Now returned to the Anangu people, Uluru is a deeply sacred monument to its traditional indigenous owners, who have lived there for over thirty thousand years.





FORMATION

Uluru, which means "great pebble", started to form about 550 million years ago.  Rainwater ran down high mountains, eroding sand and rock and forming big fan shapes on the plains.  The whole area submerged, and sand and mud covered the seabed.  The weight turned the sand into sandstone and the softer rocks eroded, leaving this spectacular form.





CONTOUR AND COLOUR

Standing 348 m high, and with a total circumference of 9.4 km, most of Uluru's mass is below the surface, reaching depths of up to 6 km.  It is formed out of arkose rock: the red and grey surface is the rusting of iron found naturally in arkose, while the rock's original grey colour can be seen inside its caves. From a distance, Uluru changes colour from ochre to rust to plum and charcoal. The thorny devil (Moloch horridus) is a lizard endemic to Australia which lives there.





ANCESTRAL BEINGS

The features of Uluru have a deeper meaning for the Anangu.  According to indigenous cultural beliefs, it was created in the very beginning of time when ancestral spirits crossed the land creating landscapes and life.  The gigantic fissures in the sandstone are linked to these beings, and the caves around Uluru's base are still used to perform sacred rituals.




SONGLINES

While visitors can no longer climb Uluru, you can still walk numerous hiking tracks around it.  The Anangu welcome visitors who wish to learn about their ancient history, culture and their spiritual connection to the land, which, according to their beliefs, carries creation stories known as "songlines" recounting the adventures of their ancestral beings.




VOCABULARY

-SETTLERS: colonos.-DEEPLY: profundamente. -PEBBLE: guijarro. -TO RUN DOWN: descender.FAN: abanico -  -MUD: barro  -SEABED: fondo marino  -SANDSTONE: arenisca. -TO REACH: alcanzar.  -ARKOSE: arcosa (un tipo de arenisca)  -RUSTING: oxidación  -PLUM: ciruela  -CHARCOAL: carbón.  -HIKING TRACKS: pistas de senderismo.



miércoles, 25 de mayo de 2022

THE ROYAL ALBERT HALL - ICONIC VENUE / UNA SALA ICÓNICA.

Hi my dear friends. Today we are going to know a bit more about an inconic venue in London -The Royal Albert Hall. I hope you'll like it and you'll go and visit it! 

Hola mis queridos amigos. Hoy vamos a saber un poco más sobre una sala icónica de Londres -El Royal Albert Hall- Espero que os guste y que os animéis a visitarla.

Info: from Speak Up magazine.

Photos: getyourguide.es (2)  /  tripadvisor.es  /  expedia.es  /  thetimes.co.uk  /




ICONIC  VENUE  -  THE ROYAL ALBERT HALL

One hundred and fifty years old, the Royal Albert Hall is a world-famous venue for concerts and indeed all types of events, and is also one of Britain's most distinctive buildings. With a design based on a Roman amphitheatre, the concert hall is 41 metres high and has a glass and wrought-iron dome made up of almost 350,000 kilos of iron and 280,000 kilos of glazing.


DEBT TO ALBERT

The Royal Albert Hall owes its name to Queen Victoria's husband, Prince Albert, and was actually part of a much larger project, which was Albert's own brainchild. In the 1850s, the state bought an enormous estate in South Kensington with the intention of creating a cultural quarter. Albert wanted to extend the influence of science and art on industry. The area, quickly nicknamed "Albertopolis", would eventually also be home to the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Science Museum, the Natural History Museum, Imperial College, the Royal College of Art and the Royal College of Music.  Sadly, Albert died in 1861, aged just 42, but the hall was named after him. The still-grieving Queen Victoria laid the foundation stone on 20 May 1867 with a golden trowel.




MUSICAL EVENTS

The hall has played host to an incredible number of events and activities. Music was very important in the early years. In the days before microphones, 1,000-strong choirs produced a wall of sound. Richard Wagner was just one composer who appeared on stage -he would conduct and then rest in a large armchair... on the stage. In 1891, the world's first science fiction convention took place, with a fortune-telling dog, followed ten years later by the world's first bodybuilding contest (one judge was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes' creator)




DIFFERENT SPORTS

In 1909, the hall held Britan's first indoor marathon, accompanied by a military band and an Italian tenor. The hall has actually seen numerous sports, including tennis, boxing and table tennis. In 1991, it saw the first sumo-wrestling tournament held outside Japan.







 "THE PROMS"

In recent decades, the hall has become synonymous with "The Proms", a popular annual eight-week summer season of daily classical music concerts. The tone has become very nationalistic in recent years. Rock and Pop have also had their part to play. Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin loved the hall, calling it "the Holy Grail" for musicians. Since 1964, Eric Clapton has played there over two hundred times, comparing it to "playing in my front room".  Ozzy Osbourne of Black Sabbath, meanwhile, played there a couple of times in 1971 and 1972.



AN IMPRESSIVE INSTRUMENT, THE ORGAN.

The equally impressive interior is dominated by the Henry Willis Organ, the largest instrument in the world when the hall opened. With a wind system powered by two steam engines, the 150,000 -kilo organ is 21 metres high and 20 metres wide, and its 9,999 pipes measure 14,5 kilometres in length.  The magnificent interior, however, also had terrible acoustics, as the shocked public discovered during the opening ceremony. There was an echo!!  A joke was born: "The Hall was the only place where a British composer could be sure of hearing his work twice". The problem took almost a hundred years to solve!!




VOCABULARY

-VENUE: sala  /  INDEED: de hecho  /  WROUGHT-IRON DOME: cúpula de hierro forjado  /  GLAZING: acristalamiento  /  TO OWE: deber  /  BRAINCHILD: creación  /  ESTATE: finca  /  TO NICKNAME: apodar  /  STILL-GRIEVING: todavía de luto  /  TROWEL: pala  /  FORTUNE-TELLING:  adivino  /  PROMS: recitales  /  HOLY GRAIL: santo grial  /  STEAM ENGINE: motor de vapor  /  PIPES: tubos  /