I must say that one thing I love doing is travelling. I guess I've been very lucky in that sense because I've had the opportunity to make many interesting trips. I think my travel bug started when I was younger (a lot younger!!) and I used to hitch-hike in Britain in the 70s when it was relatively safe. I remember one trip in particular that I made with a friend from Lochranza on the Isle of Arran (Scotland) to Chester, a distance of about 350 kilometres. In those days the trip would take about 6 hours by train or 8 hours by car plus an extra hour or two by ferry. This day it took about 22 hours!
Anyway, I had been staying at my sister's house at Lochranza (Arran) with some friends. To get home we had to get a bus at about 6am to catch a ferry in a place called Brodick. The ferry took about 1 hour and landed in a place called Ardrossan which is about an hour from Glasgow. We managed to get a lift to the motorway quite quickly but then spent a couple of hours waiting ..... and waiting. At about 10.00 my friend said to me "The next car that stops will be a sport's car with a beautiful woman driving" . Ten minutes later a sport's car stopped and although it was an ugly man driving we were both happy to be on the move. That lift didn't take us very far but we got another lift very quickly. This time it was in the back of a lorry full of drunken soldiers who had just got back from doing service in Northern Ireland (A very dangerous place at that time). They took us 18 kilometres in 11 minutes and then speed off in a different direction. We walked (and danced!!) for a couple of hours as there were very few cars. We got a couple of short rides but weren't having much luck. Time passed and we couldn't get a lift. It got dark and we considered the prospect of spending the night on the road. At about 9 or 10 pm we got picked up by a "silent man". He drove for about 2 hours without saying more than 2 words. Later we decided that the car must have been stolen or something because the man's attitude was very strange. The "silent man" left us about 40 miles from Chester but it still took us a couple more hours to get home. I eventually arrived home at 4am after almost 22 hours travelling. It wasn't most pleasant journey but it's one I'll always remember.
Write about a memorable journey you remember.
Say:
When it was,
Where you travelled from/to,
Why you remember it.
Mention anything else you think is important. Write at least 200 words. Leave a comment on your teacher's blog and the blogs of at least 3 classmates.
I'm a big music fan and I try to keep up to date with what's going on in the music world. I like a wide variety of music styles and it's hard to pinpoint my favourite. When I was younger I was influenced by my older 3 older sisters and I think they helped me appreciate lots of different artists. One of them liked progressive rock, another folk and the third soul. That meant that I grew up on a cocktail of The Velvet Underground, The Doors, Van Morrison, Bob Dylan, James Brown and Tamla Motown. The first artist I got into myself was David Bowie. Later Punk happened and this also helped introduce to Dub Reggae and then early Electronic music, Rap, House and Hip-Hop. In fact, the only music I don’t really like much is Heavy Metal (although I do like some stuff that is sort of heavy-ish like The Stooges or Frank Zappa).
At the moment there are a couple of songs I really like one old (1960s) and one new (2012). I recently discovered the song “Crystal Blue Persuasion” by Tommy James and the Shondells because it was sampled on a song (Sabbatical) by a group I like called De Phazz. I knew Tommy James but not this song. It’s a bit of a hippie vibe but really catchy and uplifting.
The other song I’m playing at lot at the moment is “I fink u freeky” by South African Hip-Hop performance artists Die Antwoord. It’s crazy but the video is brilliant with lots of references to traditional African culture and rituals.
Write about a song you like at the moment.
Say
Who the song is by and what it’s called
Why you like it,
When you first heard it
What kind of music you like
How you discover new music.
Mention anything else you think is important. Write at least 200 words. Leave a comment on your teacher's blog and a comment on the blogs of at least 3 classmates
I'm Simon, your teacher this semester. I'm British but I've lived in Chile for quite a long time. I've been working in FAU since 2005. My hobbies are mainly related to music, movies and books. However, I'm also a big football fan and I love cooking.
Anyway, the first blog task is to write a short introducion of yourself and to post a comment on each of your classmates' blogs.
