John Nicholson / Celebrity local writer

Today I met a group of local authors at an event in Stockton.

John explained how he stuck 2 fingers up at the Publishing world and went as a self Publisher.

He describes himself as an 'Arsey Teessider', ooh who does that sound like then?!!

Here is a link to John's website, he is very popular in the North East.

My first Exhibition!

TONIGHT AT CLEVELAND COLLEGE OF ART.

One of my drawings was on display for the Short Courses!!

Pretty good eh!!!

Inspirational workshop

Today I went to a Creative writing workshop for the very first time.

The workshop is part of a wonderful book festival called Crossing the Tees.

FOLLOW THIS LINK TO THE WEBSITE

The title was; How to write: Getting started, getting unstuck and keeping going.

The workshop was given by Allison Agius. Here is her website.


Thank you Allison you have truly inspired me and I will get on with writing!

The Frog song

Swallow the Green Frog!

This phrase , which means basically, do something you have been putting off and, Get on with it!

It seems to be cropping up a lot lately!!

Funnily enough as I was gardening on Sunday, I came across the biggest Green frog I have ever seen!

Didn't fancy swallowing that! SO I left it to eat the slugs!!!

Edingburgh Half Marathon 2015

A fantastic couple of days in a wonderful city.
I can't wait to explore more of it.
So many corners and hidden treasures.

And to run through the city with thousands of others is a dream.

Harewood House 10k

Today I entered a 10K Trail Race at the beautiful Harewood House near Leeds.

The race was for the charity AGE UK.

I finished in a reasonable time of 1 hour 14 minutes. Considering the amount of  Hills, I am quite pleased with myself!

Crufts 2015

RIGSBY DOG OUR FLAT COATED RETRIEVER AT CRUFTS 2015

Spanish in Midldesbrough

Spanish in Middlesbrough is now undertaking a revival through Cafe PEDRO languages.

The programme has a distinctive Latin feel about it.

We have Maria from Uruguay working with Pedro on a Tuesday evening in the beginner's class.

Anya from the Dominican Republic will be joining us for an Introduction to Spanish, starting on a Tuesday evening 5-6:30 from March 3rd.

Sandra from Cuba will also be offering a Holiday Spanish course, from March on a Thursday afternoon.

Watch the website www.cafepierre.co.uk for further details or contact Pedro, peter.samson56@gmail.com

A busy weekend!!

Phew, what a weekend!

Friday, Christine and I went to the Billingham Forum to see a Johhny Cask Tribute show.
Thank you Victoria, this was my belated Christmas present.

Saturday morning started with a very fast Park Run, just 1 minute off my PB. Cheers Mark, you are an inspiration!!

Saturday afternoon, off I went on the train to the Riverside. Boro 3 Charlton Athletic 1!

Excellent! Still up there with the leaders!

Sunday came and I prepared lunch for the family, then off we went Rigsby and I on an adventure!

8 miles on my bike in the snow!

Back in time for a Skype lesson with Ivan.

Totally Kaput Sunday night!!

I'll have to go to work for a rest!!!

Languages in Middlesbrough and the Tees Valley, an update.

Middlesbrough is now able to say that there is a Language offer for Adults in the Tees Valley.

My company

Café Pierre Languages - 

 is now offering; French, German, Spanish, Italian, Mandarin,Japanese and Arabic.
We are also working with various levels of English through a SKYPE project with students in Spain and  Russia and students in Middlesbrough.

Details on my website www.cafepierre.co.uk 

Various projects are in the pipeline, including Cultural Transfer sessions, starting with Japanese Papercraft. Date to be announced soon.

Café Pierre is also offering it's third Cinema evening at the CLC on Lodore Grove.Tuesday 17th February 6:30 to meet .

The film is the extraordinary ' The Motorcycle Diaries', in Spanish with subtitles , of course.

Geocaching

Last week I tried a new activity, geocaching.
A group colleagues from work and I downloaded the app and went on our way to the first site, hardly 5 minutes away from the office.
A strange activity,it has to be said, not for me, but then again, at least I have tried it.

New venture at Teesside High

My colleague Roberta who was my Italian teacher, has given my business, Café Pierre Languages an amazing opportunity to develop at teesside High School.

We will be offering a short programme of languages in November.
The programme will include, French, Italian, Spanish, Mandarin and Japanese.

Our tutors are all native speakers and I am delighted to be involved in such an important project. I feel as though this is the chance we needed to establish a Language school in the Tees Valley.

The Ryder Cup.

If you want to understand sport, if you want to understand what it means to compete in a sport, if you want to see the pure emotion related to sport, watch Ian Poulter playing golf for Europe in the Ryder cup.
He wears his heart on his sleeve and you can experience his emotion as he chips in on the 14th. Today Saturday 28th September at the home of golf Gleneagles in Scotland.

I don't care if you think golf is boring, I don't care if you think it is a stupid game hitting a little ball with a stick.
Unless you have played this game, you will never appreciate the skill that these players have.
You have to be in awe of the raw talent and for that matter emotion involved in what I would say is perhaps, maybe not as big as the World Cup, but up there as one of the biggest sporting events in the world.

The Jacksons at Hardwick Hall

Tomorrow night Christine and I are going to see the Jacksons at Hardwick Hall .

35 years ago, 4 brothers went to see the Jacksons at Sheffield Fiesta.

Myself and my 3 brothers, Ian, Roy and Gordon.

Michael Jackson was a young lad of 21 only 3 years younger than I am.

He and his brothers were unbelievable! Total class!

Someone said to me, what's the point of going to see the Jacksons when Michael is dead.

Pretty stupid remark really, Jermaine Jackson is appearing, he wasn't part of the Jacksons in 1979 and as far as I am concerned, the Jacksons are Soul Royalty!

Watch this space for a gig report!

Films to recommend

The cinema is a passion of mine, especially in the sense of language learning.

I love the idea of understanding what the French love to watch, what do the Russians watch at Christmas. What makes the Germans laugh? How do the Spanish rate their cinema?

A recent conversation with my Russian student Anya, reminded me of a  Russian film that I have grown to love.

Тимур и его команда

A story about good and evil portrayed by the Pioneers of Russia.

I am now informed that the most popular film of all time for Russians during the Christmas and festive period is;

Ирония судьбы или с легким паром

 THE IRONY OF FATE OR ENJOY YOUR BATH.

I gather that the film is about the Russian Banya.

My favourite Russian TV show is easy!

я люблю Маша и Медведь !!

Happy penguins

В воскресение в Эдинбурге мы пошли в зоопарк, шел дождь и  дождь.

On Sunday in Edinburgh, we went to the Zoo, it rained and rained.

Пингвины были счастливы но люди не были счастливы!

The penguins were happy, but the humans were not happy!

Le tour de France dans le Yorkshire

Quite amazing!
As I sit here in my little house in North Yorkshire, one of the biggest sporting events in the world is passing by a part of my region.
The crowds are unbelievable and the world is seeing my beautiful county in all of its glory.

Felicitations Yorkshire!

They think it's all over! Well it is now!

What a World cup that was!

How will we ever forget the drumming that Brazil got in the semi-final by Germany.
7-1 at the Cathedral of World football that is Brazil.

The stadium will never see the likes again, the Brazilians and for that matter, everyone else who was not German in the Estadio Mineirao in Belo Horizonte were treated to a Masterclass of football by a German team that was ruthless.

The problem is that it could have been 15-1!!!!

Distraught Brazilian fans can not believe what they are witnessing!

 Of course Germany went on to win the World cup, but for me my memories are in the semi final and the whole spectacle of the world cup in Brazil.  Brazil should be proud of the enthusiasm and pure joy that was clearly expressed. 

Russia, you have some act to follow!!!

Bring it on!!

The demise of Spain and another wonder goal from the boys from Down Under.

Australia 2- The Netherlands 3

Tim Cahill's goal is on par with Robin Van Persie's wonder goal against Spain.

Personally, I really can not decide which goal is the best as they were both total class and worthy of this amazing World Cup in Brazil.

Belgium 2 - Algeria 1

I thought for a fleeting moment that Algeria might upset one of the dark horses of the competition, but Belgium showed their class and came through to win.

Brazil 0-Mexico 0

Ochoa made saves to be compared with Gordon Bank's miracle save from Pele for England against Brazil back in 1970. Neymar and the gang are still there and I can only see them getting stronger.

Russia 1- South Korea 1

Bit of a mystery still this game, it was on late and I have not seen much of the highlights yet. This group has to be the most open of all of the groups, any two teams could qualify!

Spain 0- Chile 2 

Who would have thought that Spain would be the first team to leave the competition? Well played Chile! I imagined watching the later stages in Spain in a great atmosphere, drinking 'Cerveza' with the Spanish fans, maybe they will support England? 

You can only hope!!

So all of the teams have now made an appearance, what a competition!

Finger biting already for us English fans, nothing changes really does it!!

The Bell Jar- Sylvia Plath

Every time that I look at 'greatest books' lists, I seem to come across this book. Therefore I decided to give it a go and see what it was all about. I have to be honest that I went into it totally convinced it was a feminist work that men were not allowed to read.
I almost felt like a bit of a voyeur, thinking that I was not allowed to be present.

Well I should say that all men should read this book. It is clearly a book about relationships and how men treat women, but it is above all a book about mental illness.

The allergy of the fig tree, where life's choices are related to the fruit of the fig tree is quite an experience.

“I saw my life branching out before me like the green fig tree in the story. From the tip of every branch, like a fat purple fig, a wonderful future beckoned and winked. One fig was a husband and a happy home and children, and another fig was a famous poet and another fig was a brilliant professor, and another fig was Ee Gee, the amazing editor, and another fig was Europe and Africa and South America, and another fig was Constantin and Socrates and Attila and a pack of other lovers with queer names and offbeat professions, and another fig was an Olympic lady crew champion, and beyond and above these figs were many more figs I couldn't quite make out. I saw myself sitting in the crotch of this fig tree, starving to death, just because I couldn't make up my mind which of the figs I would choose. I wanted each and every one of them, but choosing one meant losing all the rest, and, as I sat there, unable to decide, the figs began to wrinkle and go black, and, one by one, they plopped to the ground at my feet.”

Sadly, I would think that each and everyone of us can relate to someone we know or indeed are, after reading this book.

It is totally thought provoking, sad and true to life.