STIR-UP SUNDAY

The last Sunday before Advent (about 5 weeks before Christmas) is called Stir-up Sunday in the UK. Traditionally, it is the day when the whole family gets together to start making the Christmas pudding. Everybody has to give one stir and make a wish. A coin (it used to be a silver one in the olden days) is also added with the ingredients, and it means good luck for the person who later finds it. The Christmas pudding, a rich and dense fruit cake which is flamed before being served, has a medieval origin and very interesting traditions around:

- There must contain 13 ingredients, which represent Christ and the 12 apostles.
- Stirring must be clockwise (otherwise it means bad luck)
- It is usually decorated with holly, which represents Christ’s crown of thorns

In 1664, the Puritans banned Christmas celebration along with Christmas pudding, as some of the ingredients were considered “unfit” for pious men and the traditional flaming seen as reminiscent of pagan celebrations. In 1714, the king George I indulged himself with Christmas pudding on his first Christmas in England, and that moment is said to be the re-establishment of pudding as one of the symbols of British Christmas.

I’m sorry to announce that Stir-up Sunday this year is already gone (it was November 21), but after reading all about its juicy story one feels like trying and see what happens…..
Click here for one of the (thousands of) recipes of Christmas pudding (and more!) and here to read more about traditions. By the way, the story of George I is also a juicy one………..

Facts and Fiction

Isaac Newton's notebooks provide us with really interesting facts about his studies, his personality and his own life. From How to make excellent good writing ink or An easy way to lessen or enlarge a picture to his lists of expenses or money lent to friends and college partners, this webpage will give you factual information so that your imagination can change it into fiction......

An easy way to lesson or enlarge a picture

Make a square, & then divide it into

divers equall parts with the compasses, & draw o'rethwart lines with a ruler & a pensill, so that the pictur be divided into equall squares, & so make squares on a faire paper as little or big as you will, but let ther bee soemany, as there is in the picture, then observing the order of the squares draw the pictur over with a pensill pasing

from square to square.

A is for Apple

What can you see in this picture? Let's consider some simple answers for a simple question: "There is a tree in front of a country house" "It looks like the English countryside" "The tree looks like a fruit tree"....Then, someone could look at the picture again and add "I can see an apple on the ground....the tree must be an apple tree..." And here lies the difference: It IS an apple tree and not an ordinary apple tree, but Sir Isaac Newton's Apple Tree at Woolsthorpe Manor, Lincolnshire (in the UK). It is believed that that tree inspired Newton's in 1665 when "the notion of gravity came to mind" after he watched an apple fall. The tree was a rare variety of Flower of Kent and some descendants of it grow now in different places in Cambridge, one in the back yard of the Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematicals Science, another one in the University Botanic Gardens. According to popular myth the apple actually hit his head and made him start thinking about it. However, according to his own notes, he was sitting indoors when THE APPLE fell off the tree. Whose side are you on?

Once upon a time

Once upon a time, there was a strong, hard man called William, duke of Normandy, who one day set off to England with a small army. At that time, England was a rich country, and King Harold and his men were ready for the battle. However, the Norman duke defeated the English king at the battle of Hastings and became William the Conqueror. It was the year 1066 and History proved to be, once again, as exciting as a good story.

Bayeux tapestry is a beautiful work of art which tells the story of this battle and much more. It is both an amazing History lesson and a chronicle of medieval world. Pay attention to the scenes about everyday life, some episodes taken frm Aesop's fable or even the presence of Halley comet. Click here and enjoy!

Are you into History? Click here to learn about the Anglo-Saxons and the Normans. Dare to play games and see what would have happened if.........

Descriptions: about heroes and villains

James Bond

"Name: Bond, James. Height: 183 cm, weight: 76kg; slim build; eyes: blue; hair: black; scar down right cheek & on left shoulder; all-round athlete; expert pistol shot, boxer, knife-thrower; does not use disguises. Languages: French and German. Smokes heavily (NB: special cigarettes with three gold bands); vices: drink, but not to excess, and women."

Ian Flemming From Russia with Love




Rosa Klebb

Rosa Klebb would be in her late forties, he assumed, placing her by the date of the Spanish War. She was short, about five foot four, and squat, and her dumpy arms and short neck, and the calves of the thick legs in the drab khaki stockings, were very strong for a woman. The devil knows, thought Kronsteen, what her breasts were like, but the bulge of uniform that rested on the table-top looked like a badly packed sandbag, and in general her figure, with its big pear-shaped hips, could only be likened to a 'cello.

Ian Flemming, From Russia with Love

Gala Brand

Hair: Auburn. Eyes: Blue. Height: 5 ft 7. Weight: 9 stone. Hips: 38. Waist: 26. Bust: 38. Distinguishing marks: Mole on upper curvature of right breast.
Hm! thought Bond.

Ian Flemming, Moonraker

Sometimes, objective descriptions are really good at expressing emotions. What do you know about James Bond?

Describing people: beyond hairstyle and routines

If you grew tired of describing people in your class or in your family, have a look at the usual procedures when reporting someone missing (may it remain as a curiosity, of course) by clicking here. Also, listen and enjoy a fine example of language in use from Hair.

FRANK MILLS
I met a boy called Frank Mills

On September twelfth right here

In front of the Waverly

But unfortunately

I lost his address

He was last seen with his friend,

A drummer, he resembles George Harrison of the Beatles

But he wears his hair

Tied in a small bow at the back

I love him

but it embarrasses me

To walk down the street with him

He lives in Brooklyn somewhere

And wears this white crash helmet

He has gold chains on his leather jacket

And on the back is written the names

Mary

And Mom

And Hell's Angels

I would gratefully

Appreciate it if you see him tell him

I'm in the park with my girlfriend

And please

Tell him Angela and I

Don't want the two dollars back

Just him!

Getting started

Hi everybody, welcome to this new blog intended to help you learn and share all those little bits that make your learning experience different. Let's work together on this common project. Any suggestions out there?
If you are in the mood for poetry on this November Sunday, treat yourself with this animation. Let the great Blake himself tell you his vision of a "burning tyger".....



Would you like to know more about this artist and writer? Click here
for further information and let us know!