From BBC Learning English

Thanks so much to our teacher blogger for August, Kieran McGovern, for his posts about Banksy, the British weather and fairies. A great mixture of the real and surreal.

And welcome to BBC Learning English's own Nuala O'Sullivan, who'll be the teacher blogger for the next few months.

Baik, baik saja

And Baik, baik saja to you too Shirley! That's Indonesian for I'm fine thanks. And how do I know that? Well, I spent 3 years in Indonesia, in the lovely city of Bandung. It was a long time ago (in the early 90s) and although I might not remember much Bahasa Indonesia now, I certainly do remember those Jakarta traffic jams!

And you know, spending time in Indonesia isn't the only thing we've got in common either.

When I was a wee girl, growing up in Glasgow, I used to adore adverts too. Here's a story my brothers and sisters still love to tell about me from when I was about 5 or 6: Apparently, the last thing I'd say before I'd go out of the house in the afternoon was, "I'm just going out to the garden to play. Call me the minute the adverts come on." I didn't care what programme was on TV, I only liked watching the ads! Unlike you, I didn't actually want what was advertised – I think I was too young to even realise what adverts were. I'm not sure I even realised those things on the TV were on offer - I just liked the short, snappy jingles and the fast-paced action of the ads!

And even today, whenever I watch TV, I try to get whoever's watching with me involved in a game I call Name That Ad. It goes like this: whenever an ad comes on, you try to be the first person to buzz in before the name of the product is mentioned by the announcer or shown on screen.

Your writing is really good Shirley. Do you write in English in your day job? And where did you learn your English? Did you do all your studying in Indonesia or did you live or study abroad for a while, perhaps in an English-speaking country?

A couple of points in your posting, both relating to numbers and times:

Over two hundred millions of people should be two hundred million people. (And there's something else here I want to ask about – not related to your grammar at all – are you sure your figure of 200,000,000 people in Jakarta is right?)

AM (or am) already means in the morning so you don't have to use both of them in the one sentence. You can say 6 in the morningor 6 am. So what about this one:

at 9 pm in the evening.

Can you figure out you should say?

Looking forward to hearing more about your favourite adverts!

Bye for now,

Nuala

Vocabulary
we've got in common – that is similar about the two of us
wee – a Scottish word that means small (or here, young)
Apparently – We don't know if it's true or not (here, I use it to show that we only have my brother and sisters' word that this story is true. I was too young to remember it, so I want to show that I'm not 100% sure it's true)
the minute – as soon as
jingles – short, catchy tunes that are used to advertise products
buzz in – in a game show the contents use their buzzers to buzz in when they know the right answer
mentioned – said or announced
your day job – your main employment (you might have a hobby or another, smaller – often more enjoyable - job that you do at weekends or in the evenings)

A cat called Willow

You stayed all night at the office Shirley? That's way above and beyond the call of duty. But I hope it pays off. I'll have my fingers and toes crossed that you do well in the competition. Be sure to let us know how you get on.

Do you have a dog? I'm neither a dog or a cat person. I don't have any pets at all and didn't have any either, when I was growing up. You might think that's unusual, especially if you know what my dad was and one of my sisters is – a vet!

My sister lives in Australia and it was her surgery over there that was featured in The Flatmates, when Khalid took the cat to see the vet.

Even though I don't have any pets, there's a local cat that likes to come and visit. She's completely white, her name is Willow and she belongs to my neighbour, a few doors down. She jumps onto our back shed, has a wander around the garden and then comes to the back door and asks very politely to come in. For ages, we didn't let her in, but last week we capitulated and she tip-toed in and had a good nosy around our sitting room.

She's really tame and likes to be stroked. I wonder if this is the beginning of me finally become a cat person!

Your writing is very fluent and easy for me (and everyone else, I'm sure) to understand. You also have a lovely chatty style, which is just right for a blog.

Here are a couple of things for you to look at: countable and uncountable nouns, and prepositions. (I'm sure you know them both fine. This is just a bit of revision, really.)

With countable nouns, we put an s on the end to make plural (dog, dogs, cat, cats). But with uncountable nouns, when we want to talk about more than one of them, we don't put an s on the end (for example, it's luggage not luggages and furniture not furnitures). Of course sometimes uncountable nouns can be made into plurals with an s (We had 3 cheeses after dinner last night) And that could be the case with work – We saw 4 different works of Picasso's at the gallery. But in general, this word is a regular uncountable noun. So, can you see what the problem is here?

… several chosen finalists should present their works.

And sticking with that sentence, there's also a problem with the preposition. Any guesses what you should have written here, instead of in front of?

… several chosen finalists should present their works in front of the judges

Going back to our singular and plural nouns – dogs are countables and when we talk about liking or disliking them, we're talking about the animals in general. So how would you change this sentence?

I think dog is adorable

I loved your dog and cat ad. One of my favourite ads has a gorilla in it. Here's the link to it on youtube:

Vocabulary
above and beyond the call of duty – more than you have to do or obliged to do
a few doors down – a house that is close by but not the one right next door
capitulated – gave in and accepted defeat
tip-toed – if you walk on tip-toes you walk very quietly, on your toes
had a good nosy – looked around (in a nosy or inquisitive way)
tame - (used to talk about animals) the opposite of wild. If an animal is tame, you can stroke it, play with it, and feed it without being scared that it will hurt you

Hope you have a good weekend. All the best,

Nuala

PS Thanks for all your lovely comments. You've made me feel very welcome here. I'm looking forward to getting to know you all better over the next wee while.

Willow's gender reassignment

You might have moved on to kids Shirley but I'm still stuck in the cat person / dog person loop.

After I'd posted about Willow the cat on Friday, I decided to keep my eyes peeled for the creature at the weekend. The minute a saw a burst of white in the garden, I was out like a shot.

Sorry about the quality but with a mover like Willow, you have to grab your chances where you can. Willow may visit but he doesn't stay for long; he might come to say hi but he doesn't sit still while he's doing it, so I was lucky to get this picture at all! (And I figured you'd rather see a slightly blurry snap of Willow than no snap at all.)

After the weekend, I thought I'd better check before I posted the picture of the kitty, on such a public site as the BBC Learning English one, so I nipped round to see my neighbour on my way home from work last night.

She said she'd be delighted to share Willow with you LE folks. She said, 'I'm sure he'll be thrilled to be on …' 'He? He? Oh, he!!' I said, as I picked my jaw up off her front doorstep. Yep, all this time I'd been thinking of Willow as a girl cat but it turns out, Willow's a boy! Time for me to re-think my pronoun usage :)

Congratulations on getting into the final of the ad competition Shirley. Hope you've got more good news for us next time.

The Japanese ad you highlighted is really interesting and beautifully crafted too. I can see why it gives you goosebumps (one word, always plural). It's all about perspective, isn't it?

It reminds of this ad for a … well, I won't tell you what it's an ad for. Have a look at it and see if you can figure out what it's advertising (if you don't already know what The Guardian is).

I'd like to look some more at your singulars and plurals again, if that's OK.

Vocabulary is uncountable, so can you spot the mistake here?

I keep on absorbing more and more vocabularies

I'm just going to reprint one of your paragraphs if I may. I've italicised the whole paragraph below and bolded some words that I'd like you to look at again. For example, squirrels in the list of animals needs to agree with the word animals which introduces the list, and with all the other animals in the list too. Can you see any changes you'd like to make if you were writing this paragraph again?

I am glad that most of you enjoyed the ad that I showed earlier. I was brought up in a family who loves animals. Dogs, rabbits, squirrel, parrot, turtledove, canary, dove, fish; I have had them all! While most of them were being a pet, I found that dogs are more like a friend to me. I think dogs understand human's feeling and emotions. Well, my mom used to have a more "extreme" observation, saying that most of the times our dogs think that they were one of us *lol*.

And I'm really glad to hear that you've always had a bit of soft spot for English but if favourite means the one I like the best, can you see what's wrong with this?

My most favourite class was English.

Looking forward to your next post.

All the best,
Nuala

Vocabulary
gender reassignment – if you were born a man and wanted to live as a woman, you might have gender reassignment surgery (to change your body into a woman's). Here I'm using the phrase to talk about finding out that Willow was a boy cat, after I'd thought Willow was a girl one (so I'd have to reassign or change Willow's gender in my head. I'd have to start thinking of Willow as a male cat rather than a female one)
stuck in the loop – being unable to stop doing something repetitive
keep my eyes peeled for – watch out for something (here, Willow) carefully
like a shot – very quickly
blurry snap – out of focus (not sharp) photograph
kitty – cat
nipped round to see – went to visit someone (here, my neighbour) for a short time
folks – informal way of addressing people
I picked my jaw up off her front doorstep – I tried to get over my great surprise while I was standing just outside the front door of my neighbour's house
crafted – made
figure out – deduce or understand
a bit of soft spot for - feel a lot of affection for something (here, English)

Thoughts of home

Thanks for your last couple of posts Shirley. I'm sorry to hear that you didn't get to go further in your competition but you're right (and very generous!) to say that it's good that at least some of your colleagues got through. I hope next year you'll be one of the ones on the plane to Singapore too.

I can't believe you have such darling little kittens right there at work. We could do with a few of those wee creatures here in the Learning English office. Can you guess why?

Your Blue of Indonesia was a really interesting ad. Isn't it amazing what a few pictures and a well-timed piece of music can do to us?

There was a similarly successful ad in Scotland (quite a few years ago now). It was for beer (what is it about these emotive ad campaigns that are for things that are bad for us? First, cigarettes from Indonesia and now beer from Scotland!).

This ad tells the well-known tale of someone living in a big city, missing the simple pleasures of home, far away.

Actually the guy in the ad seems pretty similar to me (except I'm not a bloke! And I don't use the tube, I ride my bike to work most days) but I feel quite differently about London. It's the multi-cultural, packed, frenetic, pace of life that I like about London, whereas, those very features were things that seemed to be getting him down.

Having said that, the song Caledonia (an old name for Scotland) still brings a lump to my throat every time I hear it! So maybe I'm more sentimental about my homeland than I'm letting on!

I'd like to take a look at some of your tenses in your last couple of posts, if you don't mind Shirley. As I mentioned before, I'm sure you know the rules, and these are just a couple of slips, but I still think it's worth running over the basics now and again.

The present simple (I am, she is, we are etc.) can be used to talk about things we do regularly, our habits or things that are always true. For example, as you said Today is Friday… the office is quiet

But what about this example from your blog. Can you see how you should change it?

Every Friday … many employees are doing Friday prayer

These next three are a bit more complicated. Your have two different tenses in these sentences (present simple and past simple and present simple and present continuous). Any ideas how you could improve these?

The good news was the other team from my company made it through as the winner.

I loved the majestic feel(ing) that they created and they remind people about the color of the packaging with the song.

When I watch a movie or reading a book.

The present perfect (I've been living in London for years. Shirley's been writing a blog for a couple of weeks.) can be used to talk about something that started in the past and which continues up till now. Can you see how to improve this one?

Since then, those kittens practically lived there and being taken care of by the studio crews.

And how about this quandary to end on? If we use the present simple for things that are always true (The sun rises in the east.) what should we say here?

Patrick Swayze RIP. He is quite a charming actor, isn't he?

Even though he is dead, he still lives, through his films. So which is right?

a) he is a charming actor or
b) he was a charming actor

All the best,

Nuala
PS I'm glad to see you've moved from Ms O'Sullivan to Nuala, Shirley. It makes the blog seem much more informal. Thanks.

Vocabulary
frenetic – chaotic, frenzied, very busy
getting him down – making him sad
brings a lump to my throat – makes me feel as if I'm about to cry
sentimental – overly emotional
letting on – telling or admitting to
running over – revising
quandary – puzzle or problem

Missing comments

It seems unusual that there haven't been many comments on any of the blogs on Learning English (the student blog, the teacher blog and the staff blog) recently.

Have you sent us a comment in the last few days (since Monday 14 September) that hasn't been published on our site?

If you have, and it hasn't broken the house rules, please let us know, and re-send your comment using the contact form


Best wishes,
The Learning English team

Limericks

Hi Shirley,

Your quatrain is lovely. It seems very deep (like the well that's mentioned in it) and very peaceful at the same time. Thanks for sharing it with us.

You asked about quatrains from other countries. Here's my submission. The poem I've come up with to represent the UK is a limerick.

An earlier teacher blogger, Stephen Keeler, explains what a limerick is.

Stephen Keeler: 'Limerick: an English verse form with five rhyming lines [a, a, b, b, a]. The third and fourth lines have two stresses each, and the others have three. It is usually humorous and features the names of people and/or places'

Stephen wrote a limerick about himself, so I thought I'd try and top him by writing one about you, Shirley! I've copied his idea and bolded the syllables that should be stressed.

So here we go:

There was a young lady called Shirley
Who wanted her hair to be curly
She tried permanent lotions
And all kinds of potions
But her hair wouldn't wave; it stayed surly

I hope you'll forgive me for taking such liberties with your locks, your desire for a different hair style and all the rest of the nonsense here! It's just a bit of fun and I thought it might bring a smile to your face this weekend. Feel free to make up some daft rhyme about me!

And finally, here's a real photo of Willow. Courtesy of her owner – Chloe

Have a good weekend,
Nuala

Vocabulary
deep - showing or needing a lot of serious thought, difficult to understand
come up with – thought about or suggested
top him – do better than him (in a competitive way)
curly – opposite of straight
permanent – an old-fashioned word (usually we'd say perm). A perm is a chemical process that a hairdresser puts on your hair to make it wavy or curly
lotion – cream (e.g. hand lotion or here, perm lotion)
potions – liquid that has special powers. Often in fairy tales, characters drink potions
wave – curl
surly – unfriendly, impolite or in a bad mood (I know you wouldn't usually describe hair as surly but what else could I use to rhyme with Shirley?)

Comments catch-up

Hi everyone,

Thanks for all your comments for the last couple of week. You've made me feel really welcome here on the blog.

Naheed - I'm not sure how you 'watch ads on the radio' but it sounds like fun ;)

Anand - A good way to check your work for simple mistakes is to do what proofreaders do and that's to use your finger to touch each word you write (yes, almost like you're a child again, learning to read). Somehow the act of touching each word, slows you down and helps you really see each word, and that way makes it easier to spot some very simple slips.

Tanuja, Ramilton and Mahjabeen – Good to hear you liked the 'perspective' ad. It does make you stop and think, doesn't it?

Vladimir thanks for your comments. You're right there are technical glitches now and again but how dull would technology be if it all actually worked all the time? ;)

Rosario, It sounds like the animals in your life really do fight like cats and dogs!

Mahjabeen, Hyoshil and Naheed - Well done on your homework! Good work!

Boska - It's good to hear you find my stories easy to understand. Thanks. Have a look at Mahjabeen, Hyoshil and Naheed's comments for a hint or two on the homework.

Vladimir - I hear what you're saying about animals, children and responsibilities!

Raquel - Glad you're enjoying the blog! I think you're right. I think eventually, I will get a cat of my own (it really is time to stop pretending Willow is mine!)

Ana Paula - I suppose your studies ARE more important than a cat! Keep up the good work at uni!

Paulraj – I know exactly what you mean about ads interrupting the action! It really is annoying when you're on the edge of your seat, and suddenly there's a break to tell you about a new shampoo you just have to have!

Vijay – Thanks for the welcome and I hope the language tips are hitting the right note for you still!

Olya – Glad I could bring back some happy memories for you. It's funny the memories that surface when you least expect them. It was Shirley's blog about ads that got me thinking about ads again. And suddenly, all the memories came flooding back. Glad to hear you like the newspaper ad too. It is a good one, isn't it?

Cheikh Vall – I'll try and pepper my blog with expressions you (and everyone else who reads the blogs) find useful!

Abdisamad Sharif The collocation is to make a programme.

Asad – You hate ads? Well, I suppose one man's meat is another man's poison, isn't it?

Hyoshil – Thanks for that lovely Scottish welcome!

Pilar – Most people pronounce it like this: Noola (but actually there's a very quiet e (or a schwa) in there, like this: Noo(e)la. But honestly, as long as you don't call me late for dinner, I don't mind what you call me!

Lucy - Are you managing to win the Name That Ad game yet?

YPW - Oh yes, I know what you mean! I love reading cookbooks and recipes in newspapers too!

Ena - Isn't it funny that the things we thought were daft about our parents when we were young, sudden make sense when we're older?

Kuldeep - I'll certainly try to keep the flow of anecdotes coming.

Have a good weekend everyone!

All the best,

Nuala
Vocabulary
dull – boring
glitches – technical problems
fight like cat and dogs – an idiom which means to fight a lot (e.g. She doesn't get on with her brother at all, they're always fighting like cats and dogs). Here, Rosario is actually taking about these animals - cats and dogs – so that's why I put an exclamation mark (!) at the end to show that I thought this was funny. I hope you do too!
I hear what you're saying – I understand what you are talking about
you're on the edge of your seat – you are very tense, excited or frightened and can't wait to find out what happens next (in the cinema or the theatre, for example)
hitting the right note – being the right thing for you, being just what you want
surface which you least expect them – come up or appear when you aren't expecting them to
memories came flooding back – the things from your past that you haven't thought about for a long time come into your head and you think about them
pepper – put here and there in a random pattern
one man's meat is another man's poison – a saying that means different people like different thing. We're not all the same in what we like and dislike
daft – silly
keep the flow of anecdotes coming – if you keep the flow of something coming you continue it, without stopping

Single issue voters

Hi Shirley

Your last couple of posts have been diverse and very interesting. Talk about from one extreme to the other. First is was the light and fun-filled joy of shopping, next it was the moral maze of relativism and the key to eternal happiness!

I think you're right about people today living much more by their own standards than by the externally imposed standards (of religion or society) of yesteryear.

You can see this each time an election comes round. People are becoming more and more single issue voters. I can relate to that because, as you know, I'm a cyclist, and each time I have to cast my vote, I find myself asking, 'Now what has this party done for bikers lately?'



What's your single issue Shirley?

I love the idea of midnight shopping. I'm pretty rubbish at shopping. I always say it's because I don't have enough time. But if the shops were open till 12, what excuse would I have then?

Your writing is very clear and easy to understand Shirley. I loved your expression consumerism seduction. I'd never heard of it before but I know exactly what you mean!

There was just one expression you used that I couldn't quite understand:

my favourite boot was still standing snob on its original prize

I think you might mean The boot was still standing stubbornly at it's original price but I'm not really sure. Do let me know!

Let's also take a quick look at some of your prepositions and a tricky pair of verbs.

First prepositions. Can you see what the problem is with these three?

People living in their own rules
the chance of living in Mars
some of them would be in your favourite list

And secondly, here's a pair of verbs that students often find confusing: lay and lie

lay means put down flat, or horizontal, usually for a specific purpose
After the baby fell asleep, she laid him gently in his cot so as not to wake him
Will you lay the table while I make the rice?

lie means be or move into a horizontal position
I'm going to lie down for a bit. I've got a terrible headache
We spent the whole holiday lying on the beach, relaxing

Which verb would you use in this sentence if you were writing it again?

Three of his latest books are still laying peacefully in my cupboard

And all time favourite books? I always find it so difficult to come up with top anything lists. I really have no right to be a blogger! But if I had to, off the top of my head, I'd say Franny and Zooey (J. D. Salinger) and Rebecca (Daphne du Maurier) would need to be on the best books list for sure.

Much easier for me is to come up with good books I've read lately. I liked The Danish Girl (David Ebershoff). Apparently, it's going to be made into a film soon with Nicole Kidman. She plays the role of Einar, who became Lili - the world's first male-to-female post-operative transsexual in the 1930s.

I also thought The Reader (Bernhard Schlink) was fantastic, and thought the film with Kate Winslet was very good too. And that's a first for me. There are so few films that are ever a patch on the book. Are there any films you've seen that you think are better than the books they're based on?

Talk to you soon,

Nuala
Vocabulary
diverse - different
from one extreme to the other – going from one thing to something very different from it (from boiling to freezing, for example)
moral maze – puzzle or problem about how you should behave
eternal happiness – content forever (religious people believe after they die they will find eternal happiness)
yesteryear – in the past
single issue voters – people who vote for a party or political because of their stand on one particular issue (e.g. environmentalism)
to cast my vote – to take part in an election
party - organised political group
pretty rubbish – not very good at
off the top of my head – without thinking too hard about something, spontaneously coming up with
a patch on – as good as (this expression is usually used in the negative - not a patch on, or as here, There are so few films that are ever a patch on the book

Holiday memories

Hi Shirley,

Your holiday in Bali sounds very romantic (congrats on your anniversary!). And your pictures looked great too! They also brought back lots of happy memories for me. When I lived in Bandung, I often nipped over to Bali and remember with great fondness the beaches of Candidasa and the lovely villages in and around Ubud.

Unfortunately, all my holidays there were in the old days before digital cameras so I don't have any snaps I can share with you. But I do have a couple of more recent (digital) holiday pictures that might make you smile.

I don't know if you listened to a recent 6 minute about Chinglish. I captured my own example of this variety of English on film when I was in China (in Tianjin) a couple of years ago. To get the joke, you have to know that a tick is a very small insect which attaches itself to other animals or humans and drinks their blood.


Not perhaps something you really want to queue up for and buy!

And here's one from Budapest, which shows just how fantastic I think I am!

Who says I'm big-headed?

It's hard to say what my favourite holiday has been so far. Now that I'm working all the time and only have five weeks' holiday a year (which I know is a lot compared to some other people), I do look back fondly on my school days when we had weeks and weeks and weeks of holidays. I can't believe I ever had the nerve to moan when I was young, 'I'm bored mum There's nothing to do!' Oh, to have nothing to do now!

And now, from holidays to work …shall we take a look at a few examples from your writing where your meaning could be clearer Shirley?

1. In this one you've mixed up a couple of expressions:

We stayed in one hotel to another

Instead, you could choose from one of these:
a. We went from one hotel to another
b. We stayed in one hotel after another

2. This next example made me smile, unless of course you and your boyfriend have an enormous car, or you're both incredibly vertically challenged!

My friend and I got lost inside the car

3. A temple is a building. It can't pray. People pray. Can you think of a better adjective to describe the temple?

You can see the praying temple

4. This next sentence has a few issues – sparing, directions and for. Sparing is a good word but it's not quite right here. It's also a very formal word, so not quite what you want to use in a friendly, informal blog. Also when you mean 'instructions that you give or get to find a particular place', the word directions is always plural. Finally, you ask directions from someone. It's true you ask for directions but you still have to ask for directions from someone. So let's look at your sentence:

… sparing us nobody to ask for direction

Usually we'd use spare like this:
The solders killed all the men in the village but spared the children
The hurricane destroyed our house but luckily we were spared

You could rework your sentence like this:

Apart from us there was nobody to ask directions from

But if you're lost you wouldn't ask yourselves for directions, so the apart form us is actually redundant. You could reword your original sentence in lots of ways. Here are a few suggestions to get you started:

a. There was nobody to ask directions from
b. There was nobody around to ask directions from
c. There was nobody around we could ask directions from
or, more formally, d. There was nobody from whom we could ask directions

Finally, I don't know what the abbreviation GWK stands for. Can you let us know?

All the best,
Nuala

Vocabulary
congrats - short for congratulations
nipped over – went
snaps – photographs
Chinglish – the incorrect use of English on some Chinese written signs
captured – caught (or here, took)
on film – with a camera
get the joke – understand what makes the punchline (the final part) of a joke funny
queue up – stand in a line behind other people, waiting for something
big-headed – having a very high opinion of yourself, thinking that you are very good or very clever (the joke here is that the picture makes me look like I have a big head, so that makes me look big-headed)
look back fondly – remember with good feelings, with fondness
nerve – the rudeness of doing something that you know will annoy or upset someone
moan – talk negatively or complain about something
enormous – very big
incredibly vertically challenged – humorous way to say that someone is very small
redundant – unnecessary because it is more than is needed

Til we meet again

Hi Shirley,

Your final post is really impressive. Your pictures of Indonesia show it off in its full glory – from the beautifully serene monuments of Borobudur, to the bustling, glittering Jakarta skyline. Glad to see my favourite Ubud too up there in your top three Indonesian spots. BTY, we say 'as one of the Seven Wonders of the World' rather than 'as Seven Wonders of the World'.

I've really enjoyed my first month as the teacher blogger and that's in no small way because of you, Shirley. You've posted often, raised lots of interesting questions, pointed us in the direction of some great ads and shared some really lovely photos with us.

Before I sign off, let me tell you about melting pot. It means a place where people of different nationalities and races come together and live peacefully. I think the idea is that all the people go into the pot (a county, city or place) and are stirred together like a big pot of soup and become perfectly blended together (like a harmonious society).

I found a few references to its origin online. Apparently, the Jewish playwright, Israel Zangwill, made the phrase popular with his 1908 play 'The Melting Pot'.

So it's 'Sampai jumpa' from me too Shirley, and a big thanks to all of you who've left comments.

See you next month, when we'll meet our new blogger for October.

All the very best,

Nuala

Vocabulary
show it off – boast about something or show something you're proud of
in its full glory – highlighting all the good aspects of something
serene - peaceful
bustling – very busy
glittering – filled with shining or sparkling lights
skyline – the shape or pattern made against the sky, especially by very tall buildings
BTY- Short for by the way
in no small way – mainly, in large part
sign off – finish a letter or email (or blogg) by signing your name
harmonious – friendly and peaceful