My Bonus Blog

It’s the 29th of February on the calendar and I am going to start my final blog with congratulations to all those people for whom this date means more than just another turn of a calendar leaf. My best wishes go to those who were born, got married or got engaged etc on February 29th. It is a special day, make the most of it! :)

I would like to thank everybody for their kind words regarding my pregnancy although I think that this joke got a little out of hand as I am not actually pregnant with twins or ever one for this matter. I do apologise for my strange sense of humour.

Trudi was right when she said that I am going to answer all outstanding questions in my last blog. So here goes.

The reason I am moving to London is that Alex is English. He currently works as a financial adviser in Bristol but has been given a transfer to London. We are both looking forward to starting a married life in a fresh new exciting place.

Trudi, thank you for your best wishes. It was great to have you as a teacher not just for your help with my English but also to hear about your fascinating life in China.

I would also like to thank the BBC Learning English for the opportunity to do this blog and to all those who have contributed over the past month. Here are a few replies to some of your recent comments.

Tanya, the child in the photo is the four-month-old son of my good friend.

Nestor, I hope you had a great Birthday on Tuesday. I know you are new to this web-site, I hope you enjoy it.

Brian, I prefer triplets! ;)

Hyoshil, earthquakes are not a common thing in Russia, but I heard there was a minor one in Moscow a few years ago.

John from China, I hope you enjoy the Olympics. I was interested to read your comments on parenting. I am sure one day I will get to experience all the ups and downs you mention. And hopefully the example I set will be sufficient to keep m children on the straight and narrow.

Stephen, next time you are in Russia you should come to Izhevsk. Maybe it is not as glamorous as Red Square, but my grandmother will make sure you don’t starve.

Kuldeep, you are absolutely right about our Government’s policy to encourage families to have more children. You may be aware that Russian population is shrinking and it has been estimated that families should have 2.48 children to keep the status quo.

And finally, with a tear in my eye here is my final story.

It was another wonderful day in the Forest. The sun rays were dancing on the smooth surface of the Forest pond and little frogs were jumping from one little lily pad to another in preparation to June’s Best jumper Competition. The tension was mounting up…

All the frogs in the pond had been training long and hard to win this competition. They set aside several hours a day for training. Max the frog was the most determined to win. He had been dreaming for weeks of the pride he would feel when he received his gold medal and would get to hear the froggy national anthem croaking out around him. Unfortunately, Max was not the most athletic of frogs, but what he lacked in athleticism he made up for in ruthlessness. Max had noticed that Jim the frog had been performing particularly well in training. He had also noticed that some of the girl-frogs had taken a shine to Jim so Max tried to talk Jim out of training very hard to go on a date with one of the girl-frogs and therefore he had to cut back on training. He managed to put other frogs down with constant bullying until they pulled out of the competition. He had done away with the hopes of other frogs by hiding their jumping shoes.

The day before the competition Max thought to himself, “Bring on the gold medal”. In fact he had done so well that there was only one competitor left, a girl-frog called Lily. She was so good at putting on an English accent that nobody could tell what nationality she was.

They took two jumps each. Max went first and he started with a mediocre jump, then it was Lily’s turn and her jump was so small that she scarcely made it into the water. Max was now so convinced he would win that he forfeited his final jump. Lily lined up again and this time she managed to produce a better leap that was sufficient to beat Max by half a frog’s toe. Max couldn’t believe he had been taken in by her poor first jump and done out of his gold medal. If only he had not eaten up so much time preventing the other competitors from taking part and had just trained a little bit harder…

Byeeeeeeeeeee,

Anastasia

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