The Coffee Song and off to Una!
Hello all! Great to hear from so many of you but more about that later…
Well, Dad arrived safe and sound and brought with him lots of goodies for us all. It was like a second Christmas. Isabel took to him well and they were soon getting on like a house on fire. Dad has some great ways of breaking the ice with people, whatever the age. Here they are together on our local beach. 
He also had a few nuggets of information about Brazil I thought were just fascinating so would like to share one of them with you. Marcos, I wonder if you know this song, it’s called The Coffee Song:
Here’s an excerpt from it:
“Way down among Brazilians
Coffee beans grow by the billions
So they’ve got to find those extra cups to fill
They’ve got an awful lot of coffee in brazil
………
No tea or tomato juice
You’ll see no potato juice
'cos the planters down in Santos all say no no no
A politician's daughter
Was accused of drinking water
And was fined a great big fifty dollar bill
They’ve got an awful lot of coffee in Brazil”…….
You can listen to it on you tube if you Google coffee song it will come up with a link. Apparently, it was written by Hiliard and Miles, made popular by Frank Sinatra in the 1940s or 50s and we are not sure but were speculating as to whether it was when there was a glut of coffee in Brazil or a downfall in demand. Do you know anything about this Marcos? This led us on to discussing the emergence of musicals and feel good factor songs in time of great distress such as war time and economic depression and in the present financial crisis we wondered whether the soaring popularity of the musical Mama Mia could be attributed to the same sentiment. Any thoughts on this? Have you seen this movie? We watched it this evening. It was quite enjoyable, if a bit cringe worthy at times.
Now I have to go finish packing as we are taking a trip down to Una (short for Unawatuna) on the South coast tomorrow morning and we plan to be off by 6.30 am at the latest. Don’t worry - I am taking my lap top and plan to use wi-fi to blog with you all when I am down there and if all else fails I can go to a cyber café. I promise to post pictures and info about this beach haven and more from Dad then too. :)
I will also do a special blog dedicated to answering your questions about language learning and commenting on the last blog and the issues it raised. I must just briefly say though how nice it was to read so many positive comments about the LE blog. I promise the LE team didn’t put me up to it!
Anyway, bye for now and wish me bon voyage – how do you say that in Portuguese – is there an equivalent Marcos?
Good night!
Helen
Answers to last challenge
1. And I have never forgotten the flag of your country… (Present perfect simple needed here as you are talking about a current state which began in the past)
2. When I saw you are from Sri Lanka immediately came on my mind: "the country of the little lion". (This whole sentence really needs to be rewritten and Ana Paula did it very well: “When I saw you were from Sri Lanka what immediately came to my mind was "the country of the little lion". Note it is ‘came to my mind’. Try to learn phrases like this as full phrases, not as separate words. It is difficult to find logic in prepositions, and often one verb can be used with many different prepositions depending on the context and meaning – so, I usually advise students to learn by noticing which prepositions are used in particular contexts and to record them as an entire phrase, rather than a simply verb+preposition).
3. I hope that you help me to write this blog during this month. (Common error to mix up usage of hope and wish)
4. I am 31 years old. (No hyphen needed here. We use a hyphen when we make the statement into a compound noun like this: I am a 31-year-old; of course you could just say, more simply: “I’m 31”).
5. I am doing a Master’s Degree. (Don’t forget those tricky articles, Marcos)
6. Since the first class I have enjoyed this language. (here again, we need the present perfect simple to express an ongoing state of enjoyment which started in your first English class).
Comments
Hi Helen, I am really envy -in positive way of course, when I'm watching your pictures. I wish I was there /I am not sure I used this sentence correctly/. Today in south of PL is quite warm: only -6 to compare yesterday when temperature dropped to -21 degrees.:) Anyway coming back to your post about songs and musicals like Mama Mia. I have watched it and for me was enjoyable and I think I will watch it one more time on the weekend - just to forget on a moment about reality. Personally I feel terrible, depressing recently when I watch on TV what happening on the world. Especially wars which brings suffering for children. It's terrifying. And even though I complain sometimes about the weather,lack of money for my travel dreams ...to be honest I am one of the lucky person who live in the country without war. I think that people who live today in a peace country, who know terrible things only from TV will be seeking oblivion at least partly in so exactly films and obviously they will feel better but the ones whom the misfortune affected? hmmm...I hope, I wish that some days they too.
Hi Helen! I think today’s your entry is heartwarming and beautiful. I can feel how much you are in awe of your father, and how good relationship you have with him. I can picture of your face lighting up with the goodies ,and it’s always feel-good to be spoiled by parents whatever age you are. It is nice to hear Isabel was not timid and shy with her grandfather and took to him well. Was it first time she had met him? I wish you have a whale of a time with him and your family,and am looking forward to some pictures and information about the beach where you are heading for. Bye for now and wish you a safe journey Oh, I nearly forget to ask. You said that now I have to go finish packing.. My question is why you put two verbs(go and finish) together in the sentence.
Hello Helen, it's really good to see your dad, say my Hello to him. It's so lovely to see grandad and grand-daughther enjoying their time together. Hope to have a natter with him soon in this virtual class. I've just listened to the coffee song by Frank Sinatra, it's very interesting. Best wishes, Naheed
Hi Helen! I´ve just listened to The Coffee Song. It´s cute :-). Oh, maybe this song has something to do with the Brazilian coffee crisis faced in the end of the 1930´s. There was a glut of coffee stored in the warehouses at that time. Then the government came up with a solution to this problem with the creation of the instant coffee. By the way, I´m not so sure if the soaring popularity of Mamma Mia is related to the difficult time that we´re facing. What I could see here, it was more the frisson of the publicity around a film based on ABBA´s songs. I watched this film a couple of months ago and I have to say that I just went to see it because I love Abba and Meryl Streep. Actually, I´m not so fond of musicals. Anyway, I hope you and your family have a blast in Una :-). Have a safe trip, Ana Paula.
Hi Hellen!Happy journey to Unawatuna and back.I think your stay to Una will be nice to whole family, and special to your father and Isabel.Have a good time.Take care!Waldek u
Dear Helen! We all are going to looking forward on more information about your Dad. Really, the picture with the sun is so imressive! It could tell the whole story behind.. peacefully comming lacy waves but thus all drama in figure´s position.. Have a wonderful journey!
Hi, I am here again, it sounded somehow stupid and now I got it, in my first sentence should it be ..are going to look forward ( ´to´ is not a preposition there). I was unable to solve this yet more times.
Hi, What a nice you are going to holiday as a bigger family.You said your father is capable of breaking ice between people. Some people can do easily it. I believe It is a kind of skill.Isabel is a so lucky and you, all.That kind of people know very well how to communicate other people no matter how old they are.Coming back to musicals or music..Music or musicals are very important to send some messages all over the world.The song about coffe maybe was made with this purpose. Music has a big impact to bring the people together , to be relax and make them think and so on. Lily Marlen came to my mind. It had the feel good factor during the second world war. While the soldiers, both sides were listening it they used to forget they were envy eachother for awhile.But It is too difficult to forget the reality. We should be strong so that we can put up with bad things happening all over the world. Music or musicals is very important for a short term relaxation.By for now.Have nice trip. :))))
Hi, Helen, how are you doing? Do I really need to ask you this? I think you are having a blast these days, right? It was(is?) nice to see the photos in which your dad enjoying as much as your daughter. I have recently started reading your blog and I really want to my pathetic english communication skill(skills?). Actually, I always fumble with phrasal verbs, commas, adjective clauses, prepositions after verbs etc. Let me exemplify from your recent(this?) post: # Isabell took to him well and...(there has to be a comma before and as both are co-ordinate clauses) # He also had a few nuggets...("were" might be missing its subject and "I thought" might be cordoned with commas and there might be a comma before "so") # Marcos, I wonder if...(Please explain me why you have cordoned this sentence with commas. I think there has to be a semi-colon after "I wonder..." sentence as in this sentence both are independent clauses - 'I wonder...this song' and 'It's called...' # you can listen to it...(shouldn't there be a comma after tube) # ...in time of great distress...(shouldn't there be a comma before "such") #...and in the present crisis...(shouldn't there be a comma before "and in ther present...") #...if all else fails...(shouldn't there be a comma before "if" and after "fails"?) If you could dedicate a blog on uses of 'comma', that would be so nice. And one last question: when can we use comma before "as" clause when it is used in the middle of a sentence. I have asked too many questions in this single 'comment'; I'm very sorry for that. By the way, where do you live in India? Good day and have a wonderful trip(tour?)!!!
The pictures of your father and your daughter are very nice. I have seen the movie "Mamma Mia". I like it. I wish you have a good trip to Una.
Sir/Madam:Excuse me , do you have anything concerning adjective clauses, better with podcasts. Thanks a lot
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