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Hi, Rachel. What an interesting story! I like surprise, as your “unbirthday” party. And when we want to describe past events, especially to make the narration seem more immediate, dramatic and vivid, we can use the present simple. It's called the "historic present". In Vietnam, there's not Father's day. But we have Vietnamese Women's day in 20 October. It's also celebrated like Women's day 8 March. If U stay in Vietnam, U receive lots of flowers, gifts in two days above, and of course, in other day what we call Vietnamese Teacher's day 20 November. In this day, pupils and students show deep gratitude at their teachers. We celebrate anniversary in school, give flowers and gifts to our teachers. We usually go to teachers'house, talk with, and sometime organize small parties... Full of the joys of spring! Lam Tran

Hello Rachel, I read this post with great interest and thank you for the explanation!Your answer to question no.2 has got more clear to me and, at the moment, I'm sitting with my grammar book to do some exercies related to the rule. What a lovely way to give your hubby an 'unbirthday' surprise! I liked the cake and it also made my mouth water, Yum!. Owen is very cute and Can he eat with chop sticks easily? As for the father's celebrations in Pakistan, there's not much seen around as such, however, people do know that this day is celebrated:). Oh! I must hand in my homework,in this example, present simple has been used to make the past event feel more current. Your explanation will be more helpful to learn it better. Naheed

Dear Rachel, When I read you last mail, I was in doubt that either you are separated from your spouse or you forgot to mention about him. Now it is clear that you forgot to mention it. In our culture we used to celebrated birthday based on lunar calendar and do some worship to god and distribute some food to children and poor people. In Nepal, people use to celebrate father’s day, children day, woman’s day etc. Story about “unbirthday” party is interesting and you are really lucky that your son was not able disclose it properly before party. Here is the meaning of the words: 1. way back (adv) – returning 2. to plot (v and n) to plan to do something (v), a piece of land, often for growing food or for building on, the things that happened in a story 3. to let the cat out of the bag (expr) - to tell people secret information 4. to be bowled over (phr vb) – to surprise or please someone a lot 5. take sth seriously (expr) – not caring much 6. corny (adj) - lacking new ideas 7. a Sydney institution (n) – What people living in Sydney used to do 8. cheap and cheerful (adj –can be used as a noun informally) - cheap but good or enjoyable 9. upmarket (adj) –High quality brand for rich people. 10. a doggy bag (n) –bag provided by restaurant to take unfinished food. 11. kick start (v and n) - to make something start to happen 12. get down to business (expr) – to start doing main work seriously 13. have a go (expr)-Starting

Hi Rachel, my belated "happy unbirthday" to Chris. I used to read The Sidney Morning Heralds, the sports section, by the time of the World Cup because I was intrigued about the socceroos. There were many discussions running there and I had heard about beautiful game, cricket and rugby. I felt like a fish out of the water because I had no idea which are the rules of these games and nothing added up to me. Could you please some day talk about them? I think you've used the present to turn the scenery more vivid. Good night here and good morning there in Australia. Bye

I think you, as a good writer, have used the present tense in order to turn the scenery more vivid to us. Good night here to me and good morning to you there. Bye

Hi Rachel! How was the holiday? Did you and your family enjoy it? Well I hope so :-). Rachel, your blog makes me remember Alice´s Adventures in Wonderland. When I started to read it I immediately thought the unbirthday party had something to do with Lewis Carroll book. Anyway, I liked the idea, and besides that, the cake looks fab! Yummy! Well, here in Brazil Father´s Day is celebrated at the second Sunday of August. Generally all the family get together around a large table full of delicious dishes to enjoy this day with the father, who also receives some pressies. Oh, by the way Rachel, Owen is a cute boy, congrats :-)! Now, I have a go in the homework: 1-The present simple was used in the sentence because you were narrating a story. Vocabulary: way back (adv): come back; to plot (v and n): to make a secret plan; to let the cat out of the bag (expr): to reveal something that was supposed to be keep in secret; to be bowled over (phr vb): to surprize someone; take sth seriously (expr) really care about something; corny (adj): unoriginal; a Sydney institution (n): a landmark of Sidney (?); cheap and cheerful (adj ): nonexpensive and happy; upmarket (adj): appealing for people with high income; a doggy bag (n): a bag that you carry leftover food of a restaurant to home; kick start (v and n): a start, the first step; get down to business (expr): to begin to d what you have to do; have a go (expr): try to do something. Oh my goodness! It´s late! I have to go bed, because tomorrow I wake up early. Anyway, I´m looking forward to seeing the homework answers in your next post. Good night, Ana Paula. PS- Thanks for the pictures. I´m glad to see you were brave to post them ;-).

Hello Rachel! I'm glad to meet your other half, Chris. I guess he was double surprised at the party and that he hadn't take Owen's words serious. Wow! the cake looks great! And now to your question, rather tricky! I think you have used the present simple in this case to talk about things that Owen always does (his habit) when Chris gets home from work(goes running up and announces something to him), and on that Friday night he does it as usual. As for Father's day, actually we didn't have Father's day (POOR our fathers!) :-( But in recent years people have talked about it on the media. So I'm sure we will have a fixed day for our beloved fathers. They are great! I look forward to your next blog. Best regards, Myen,

Hi Richel and everyone, it's my first blog to you and the second blog to this site. I convey my best regard on being the teacher bloger and i wish to learn lots of things from your side. I'm pleased to know about your husband Chir and son Owen and they are really look smart. i have never been hear about unbithday party befor.I'm happy to hear that.As you know that in these days muslim people take the ROZA(fast)and i have a son his name is Tawab and on 09oct is his bithday,so i think i will celebrate his birthday on firs of EID (wich is a relegious festival for muslime people). And we don't have any day for fothers here but we celebrate mother's day and women's day and we buy a gift for our mother , sister's and wife's some gift according our incomes.By the way let's go to the homework in my point of veiw i think that we use simple present for the repeated action, habitual action so you might be use the present tense.I think it will be his daily routine when his fother come to home he goes runing out to him. I know my gramer and english is very poor or weak so i just mention my idea and i look forword to hear the right answer for yous. Have a nice day. bye

hello Rachel,Unfourtunatly for many years in my country we used to celebrate only in Mother's Day on the twenty first of March .While Father's Day is completly ignored .Today ,mother'Day now is called Family's Day as a result both parent can get gifts and fathers at end been satisfied .

How have you been, teacher Rachel? Today, in Thailand it is rainy cats and dogs in the early moring until now. Thus, I can't go out somewhere besides chatting in front of the Internet and keep reading the previous blogs that I missed something out. Firstly, before I will talk another story, I would like to say warm welcome to the BBC blog, because I forget saying in the first comment. And another thing is to be funny talking about Owen, your child, I really give my regard to him and his habbit recollect me as a young boy. Franky,when I was a little boy, I prefered eating a spicy food especially Som-tum, Tom yum Kung- a traditional Thai food. Each of them is very taste like eating lot of chili. Meanwhile I ate Som-tum or something like that, I eagerly drank lot of water at the same time like Owen. If you have ever taste Thai food, I admit that you exactly get it. At this stage, I don't like to eat the spicy food from time to time and when I need to eat, I usually order the chief to cut off a large amount of chilli or something like that - all Thai foods are well-known in term of a variety of dishes isn't it. If you like Thai food, please drop in my country. I recommend that lot of beautiful places and tasty foods make you never get bored. Better luck next time. Wisarut.

Hi Rachel, Most of Australians are sports loving persons Isn’t it? Chris is no exception. Owen will follow his father’s way. Australian players are doing well here. Again they proved that they are real champions. In my previous comments I wrote about the pronunciation of the Australian players. Even you found it difficult to understand Chris when you had met him first. How is about Owen. Does he follow mother’s or father’s accent. “We got you a Birthday cake, Daddy” Owen goes running up to him and announces: Even though it was the event in the past you wanted to show it to the readers as a real situation. Some times the sports commentators use present tense even though the action finished already. The news reporters give news using present tense even though that happening already took place. Like that you wanted to narrate the situation to the readers as it happen recently. In the fourth paragraph, regarding “unbirthday” party arrangement you started with past tense. In the middle you used past perfect tense. I thought of asking you why you used past perfect here. In your answer to Satya’s question, you mentioned that we use past perfect to show the event happened in first. That’s why you use past perfect here. Am I right?

Hi Rachel...I'm so sorry for doing my homework late but I didn't have time to complete it yesterday!... As regards your question about celebrations in our countries...Here in Argentina we have a day for everyone that is to say that we have a father's day, a mother's day, a granparants' day, a teachers' day, a doctors' day etc, etc. I will be celebrating my day (mothers'day) the 3° Sunday of October as I have two children!! I wish I had more time to write but as I have to work here goes the HOMEWORK: "When Chris got home from work on the Friday night (the day before the party), Owen goes running up to him and announces: “We got you a birthday cake, Daddy”! Why have I used the present simple here when I’m clearly talking about the past?" I think it is because you have just stated the time when the action took place (past) and want to make it more vivid. But if it is absolutely possible to mix past and present tenses when narrating why my Work Shop Teacher wouldn't let me to? As regards the vocabulary... #Way back (adv) to return where we were before #to plot (v and n) a secret plan involving several people #to let the cat out of the bag (expr) to tell a secret especially without intending to to be bowled over (phr vb) to be surprised #take sth seriously (expr) to belive that someone or something is worth paying attention or should be respected #corny (adj) not new, different, interesting or surprising a Sydney institution (n) to be very well known in a place cheap and cheerful (adj –can be used as a noun informally) simple and charging a low price but pleasant #upmarket (adj) connected with peolple who belong to a high social class or have a lot of money #a doggy bag (n) a small bag for taking home food #kick start (v and n) to do something to help an activity start or develop more quickly #get down to business (expr) to start dealing with an important subject #have a go (expr) an attempt to do something Bye Rachel

Hi Rachel Your husband is really a lucky man to have a wife like u! The unbrithday party is so greạt In my country, there is no father day. But some people still arrange a party o a gift for dad (me for example) The women day in my country is 8th March and the children day is 1st June and the dad day would be 9th Sept. In that day, we often have an eat-out, but my dad always pay the bill 4 that.Then, sing karaoke in a family karaoke room. It become my family tradition, so funny... My mom and I have birthdays in the same month. Its not intersting to have so much party in a short time. And you give me an idea for an unbirthday party. Maybe it will give my family lots of suprises Good day, Rachel xxx