Picture This../Plantation Paradise
Hello again – good to hear from you Olfa. Thanks to all of you who welcomed me to this blog and commented on either the post or the challenges. I will address those later.
As Olfa has done, let me tell you about the weekend and that should satisfy those of you who want to hear about and see more of Sri Lanka. As the post title suggests, there will be photos too – promise. Here’s one of Isabel at home, especially for Ana Paula.
My in-laws are over from India for a few weeks so we thought we’d take them out of Colombo for a couple of days. We went to an exquisite place near Kithulgula, on the banks of the river Ingoya. It took us about 2 hours to drive there, about 90 km inland from Colombo. The place curiously is known by two names so depending on who we asked for directions, we would draw a blank and then try a second name and come up trumps. Its two names are Royal River Resort and Plantation Resort. If I had to name it, I would choose Plantation Paradise, as it is the most befitting for this four room haven. It's called Plantation resort as it is surrounded by a tea estate. Feast your eyes on these snaps – that’s our room you can see opening out onto the pool.
It is the kind of place you really don’t need to and oughtn’t to step out of. I say this because it has a serenity I yearn for after eight years in Delhi – mostly due to the proximity to and sound of the river. It was actually quite loud! Good soundproofing for the rooms which are often occupied by honeymooners.
I used it to chill out and read – something I rarely get time to do at the moment, though it is what I enjoy more than anything. I was able to spend time with our daughter, Isabel as well as palm her off on her grandparents when I wanted a bit of ‘me-time’. It is interesting what Simon was saying about use of language and what it tells you about a culture. I read with interest his observations on expressions we use with the word time. So, here’s another one for you. In the west, and I don’t know when it started but, we have begun to talk about time in terms of possession – this is my time; I need some me-time; It’s daddy’s time now. My favourite is quality time. Well, it’s breakfast time now, so see you later...
Isabel, Pankaj and I enjoying the water and the sunshine in November!
OK I’m back and it’s time to address last post’s challenges. Although some of you protested that they were difficult, most of you managed to tackle them reasonably well. Give yourself a pat on the back.
Challenge 1: Well done to Beatriz, Jens, Justo and Christine for recognising the literary device I was referring to as alliteration – even if some of you didn’t know the word you were able to identify the words which were using alliteration. These were – tantalize and taste (and together). They both begin with the same letter -‘t’. This repetition of the consonant sound creates a nice effect when reading aloud and is a common device used by writers, particularly in headings/headlines.
Challenge 2: chatty expressions/linkers – there were 2 varieties of expression – those which we can term as conversational fillers/chatty expressions like ‘a little matter of’ and ‘in the good old fashioned way people do’. These serve to bring the reader closer to the writer and make the reader feel as if he is being told a story/listening to an anecdote. The second variety of linkers were words like those identified by Ana Paula – ‘so, actually, anyway, well’. These are like the cement on a sentence and help make the sentence cohesive.
Challenge 3:
Took myself off to – left suddenly/with a sense of purpose
Feel the need to – think it is necessary to
Of some description – we use this expression when we want to be vague/don’t know/can’t remember the exact details
Recreational – here I used this word with water body to indicate a place where people might have fun/do exercise etc. Use for non-work purposes.
Establish a routine – decide on and stick to a set pattern
Daunting – discouraging due to fear of something
At our disposal – available to us
Tantalize - excite
Wax lyrical – talk about in an overly favourable light/poetically
On the precipice of - on the verge of/almost there and yes, this is metaphorical use of the word – well spotted, Toni.
Fill in the gaps – give the missing details
Alessandro - I think the word you're after is enthusiastic/passionate.
Christine - Sri Lanka is called the teardrop island due to its shape - have a look at a map and I think you'll agree, it does resemble a teardrop.
Finally, today’s challenge – that’s right -only one today. Simply this, check the meaning of and use the words in bold in this post about the hotel we stayed at and our weekend. Don’t try to use all of them – choose 5. In my next post, we’ll look at Olfa’s use of language.
Comments
Hi Helen I hope you and your family have good time in a new country.thank you for the information about Seri Lanka.i love traveling around the world,specialy somewhere that is proximity to the river and has a serenity.it is the most befitting for evryone who needs relaxed.i m curious about living in Seri Lanka.good luck
Hi Helen, your daughter is so cute. I'm very fond of baby girls . My English is not very good. But this time I try to do the homework. As I was walking along the road, I saw a house in close proximity to the woods. I went there and curiously knocked at the door. A little girl opened the door and ask me to come in. The serenity of the house was so relaxing. There was a beautiful hand-made basket lying on the table. As I was going to touch it, the girl said-“You oughtn’t to touch it because it is covered with dust “. I asked her to clean the basket. At first, I thought she would refused to do that, but I come up trumps.
well, you´re absolutely right in your affirmation. Enthusiastic explains exactly what I´d like to write. In fact I have to learn to correct my mistakes before submit my comments. lol english is very different of my language so it is easy to make mistakes mainly and can´t find a word with its real worth in english. very nice are you pictures and stories! Regards from Brazil!
Hi HELEN I really envy you about the week you spent with your family in this part of the paradise :d.You have given me desire to learn more about this beautiful country! You ar right to say that the proximity to a natural paysage let us feel serenity, that's some thing we ought not to forget to try in our daily life because it makes a great change on our minds and our ways of thinking. I think the most befitting word to qualify your family HELEN is a melting pot (we say this word in French, i don't know if it's correct in English) family, a family in which the two parents are from different cultures.In my opinion it will make your life very rich in terms of language, traditions...God bless you and your family. Concerning the previous challenges, i draw a blank trying to do them and i gave up :d, you ar right i have to be more patient and concentrate more to fill the gaps of my language. HELEN would you like to tell us a little bit about your experience: do you think it's easy to get through a multicultural marriage? What advices can you give people who would like to take such decision? Thanks a lot dear teacher and good luck.
Hi,Helen I am trying to have a go at doing my homework as much as I can. Last week some of my friends with their sons came over from Korea to see us. We took them to a local festival hall for Halloween party. As Halloween is not popular in Korea the boys except my son were looking at Halloween costumes curiously. The party organiser came up trumps with good games and prizes for children. It was a hectic week but my family had quality time speaking my mother tongue with ease that I yean for a long time and we had a good chit-chat endlessly. Before finishing my comment I love to ask you a question. The question is why you use present verb in this sentence’ My in-laws are over from India for a few weeks'. I think it should be used a past verb. I am not intending to be rude to you but my silly curiosity always causes me trouble a lot. Thank youxx ps;Isabel looks adorable and so sweet.
Greetings to you Helen! Thanks a lot for letting feast our eyes on that paradise! Even more, let me own up to my irresistible admiration to persons who speak more languages. Curiously enough, I have never started to learn French, the language which I wanted originaly. Never mind, I think it is always good to have something we desire and looking for. To say the truth it is hard for me to name befitting those literary devices even in my own language. Once I´ve read that Henrich Schlieman learnt languages by reading ever the same book and that was the fascinating idea for long for me, unfortunately, couldn´t work properly without a little grammar learning at the end. As I am looking at you all in that water pool I have an urge to jump there too, not to say we have temperatures over 20 degree in November here!
Hello to Helen and all. I have read your blog and curiously trying to do the homework,but i think iwill drough a blank since it is too difficult
Hello Hellen. When I read the challenges you sent us on your first entry, I completely drawn a blank and gave up. Perhaps I wasn't clever enough to do them or maybe I was a little idle, or probably both and decided not no give them a go. Today I'm trying to do the task because I think it is more befitting to my level of English. I've never been good enough in languages, but I try to do my best. I need serenity while practising my English and your previous challenges got me nervous, so I couldn't come up trumps. I wish you a whale of a time while you're with all of us. See you soon.
Hi Hellen! Aaaahhh!!! Isabel is sooo cute. Thank you very much for the pic :-). Besides, the Plantantion Resort is really beautiful. It seems that the proximity to the nature always helps us to find serenity, doesn´t it? Curiously while I was reading your blog, I pictured myself reading near the pool... ooh what a befitting scene :-). By the way Helen, could you tell us what you are reading at the moment please? Do you have a favourite book genre? Well, I bid you farewell now. I have to do some key word transformation exercises about reported speech in order to hand to my teacher tomorrow. Gosh! I draw a blank when I have to do this kind of exercise. Anyway, I hope I can come up trumps doing this homework. Best wishes, Ana Paula.
Hi Helen, I am happy to know that you were in my country for some time. Pankaj, Your husband name looks like Indian name. Is he an Indian? Isabel also looks like the same. Tear drop the other name of Sri Lanks is not because of the map. The war like situation in the country make like that. I am so near from Sri Lanka. I am a Tamilian. And I am living in southern parts of Tamilnadu. When compared to Delhi this distance is much shorter. Am I correct? I use this site to improve my writing skill. Of late I hardly post my comment on this column. At least next two months I try to follow your guidelines to write English language with out much mistake. We will discuss the situation in Sri Lanka later. I am curiously waiting to know the real situation. Bye for now
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