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Hi Sarah! It’s nice to hear you had a chance to shake off your work stress and have quality time with your parents. I like your picturesque postcards. Especially I love the thatched cottage because it jogs my memory of my parent’s cottage, where I was born. Since my son’s half term started we have done bits and bobs: like nipping out to the local shops to kill the time or popping out for a walk. In terms of homework, I think ‘pop out and nip across’ are informal which I’ve heard my local residents use everyday. We went to Cleethorpes. We had planned to set off 2p,m but as usual we headed towards the beach a bit late due to our laziness. We expected there might have been lots of people with children strolling along the promenade but surprisingly not many people turned up. We played crazy golf and baseball. I must go and drop my son off to the local school for a game with his friends.

Dear Sarah, I agree with you: sometimes the perfect days are the easy ones when you get to rest from the hectic work days. And what a lovely way to rest. The pictures you showed gave us a glimpse of what it is like to get away from everything in England. A real nice day. Let me try the learning chalenges. 1. to pop out: to leave a place. 2. to nip across: to run 3. to set off : to leave by starting the car. 4. to head towards: to go in the direction of 5. to stroll along: to go for a walk along a road or path. 6. to drop off: to deliver something somewhere. 7.to turn up: to appear. My guess for the informal verbs are to pop out and to drop off. But it's just a guess. And the verb that can be used with an object in between the verb and the particle is to drop off. Now let me try to make some sentences. - I was expecting my friend at 7, but he only turned up at 8. - If I want to get to school on time, I'll have to nip across the street. - As I had left work early I decided to stroll along the river. - I dropped the flowers off at my girlfriend's before she arrived home. - I couldn't stand the heat inside the house, so I popped out for some fresh air. I hope I haven't done too badly. Good bye for now, see you soon.

Hello, Sarah! Nice blog and beautiful pictures! This is my first time in a teacher blog, so, I´ll try to answer only some of the challenges. Firstly, I think 'to pop out' was used in your blog as 'appear suddenly'. I mean, you entered into the shops and bought something, but it was in a fast way. Then, I´ve made the following sentence in the same context as used in your entry: yesterday, I popped out into the coffee shop to give a message to one of my friends.

Hi, I liked the challenges of your homework. Let's get straight to the answers. 1) to pop out: a short and sudden visit. ex: I popped out to the coffee shop to have a nice warm cup of coffee. 2)To nip across: to move quickly (informal English). ex: Without using the over bridge, he nipped across the road as he was already late. 3)To set off: to start for a journey. ex: We set off for Chittagong before the sunrise. 4)To head towards: to move in a direction. ex: We headed towards the source of the sound of waterfall. 5)To stroll along: to take a walk. ex: Even staying near the sea, he did not take the chance to stroll along the beach because of his laziness. 6)To drop off: to hand over something to some place. ex: Will you please drop the baggage off to my apartment? 7)to turn up: to appear. ex: I turned up in the meeting in the last moment due to traffic jam. You mentioned about two informal English words. I am sure about the one "nip across" as being informal. However I think "pop out" is also another informal word, although I am not sure about that. The answer to your another question about the phrasal verb which can be used with an object or preposition in between the verb and the preposition following it is "drop off". Thank you in advance for checking my answers.

Hi Sarah, It was not an anodyne blog. In India, you can see plenty of Thatched shed in rural areas. After harvest season the farmers dry up the paddy straw and use it either food for animals or ceiling for shed. It is a living place for most of the poor people. 1.to pop out-to come or go quickly or suddenly. 2.to set off- to begin journey. To head towards-going to one destination. To stroll along-walk along the pavements. To drop off- leave something in one place. To turn up-arrive in one place. I referred some of the words in the dictionary. To pop out and drop something of must be informal one in British usage. Set off- we went to attend one of my relatives’ marriages on Sunday. After attending marriage we set off at 2pm. To pop out- my wife is very fond of Jasmine flowers. The season has begun just now. On our way back she saw some of the flower vendors were selling the flower. She nipped across the road and bought it. To head towards- again we set off our journey to head towards Tanjore, one of the temple cities in Tamilnadu, south India.To turn up- we turned up little late since driver wanted to finish some work in the middle. Though he popped up we could not turn up on time.

Well done on the homework everyone. Paulraj, Halima, Mauricio & Simone: 'to pop out' means that you leave a place, but it also tells us that you will come back again in a few minutes/half an hour. 'Drop off' is fairly informal (formal = deliver), however 'to nip out/across/along to' is even less formal. Bye for now.