Preparing II

It's all English nowadays for me during the weekends. In my urge to prepare as good as possible I searched the web for all kind of different useful help. I've found a lot of teachers on youtube  who all wanted to share their knowledge from almost every subject non native speakers have to understand to speak and write English properly. In my search I've found a website I submitted to, http://englishworldwide.ning.com/
I don't know if you have ever heard of it? It's some sort of communety with al kind of people from all around the world. I can write, chat, and speak with them about almost all the topics you can come up with.
I have already 2 friends and just posted my first blogpost. Of course I'm curious about your comments and therefore I copy it here for you, my only reader:-)

Blogpost on LEWWWP:

With facing an upcoming exam and the knowledge I could really fail the exam I started to search on the internet for extra help. First I've found the Flo-Joe website with a lot of practice for the exam. Than I found this site. It made me curious and so I started to be a member.

The exam will be the CAE (Cambridge Advance Certificate) and my main problems are:
speaking, and grammar. I still manage to use the present and the past in on sentence, and some more maybe common mistakes. I still think Dutch and so I get mistakes in word order. All together I makes me insecure. However if I never do an exam I will never know what my level is. I hope to learn here to overcome my fear to write and speak. After all no one will kill me if I make msitakes. And when I write someting really stupid please note I didn't meant to hurt someone

Preparing

I've found it; the website you mentioned during our last meeting, Flo-Joe. They've a Facebook page as well, very handy to use, with a lot of exercises and information. You can find them on facebook using the following link:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Flo-Joe

I've stuff enough now to prepare. However the most important part, time is still missing. Last weekend I convinced myself to do a few exercises and a listening test. Before I knew it the weekend was already gone and I hadn't done anything at all. This has to change if I want to get a good outcome off the exam. Thank god I still have time.
One of the things which kept me from studying was our Basil. For the last two weeks I had in mind to brush and cut the hair above his eyes and off his feet and wash him after this. After this I have to dry him with the blower and when we finally are finished he is always so beautiful and cute. See the photos to prove I'm right.


This morning I went by bike to the university. It was cold with a beautiful sun. The road looks very slippery due to the freezing at night. So in the beginning I felt a bit scared, and when I saw all the other bikers go fast without any hesitation I thought don't be so scared and bike! So I did manage to arrive at work without falling or slipping.

Tomorrow it's my Basil day; therefore I have to go home during lunch time. I never go by bike then and I have a legitimate reason to use the car.
If the weather is nice around 13.00 hours it is possible I'll go back by bike.

The rest of the week the forecast predict a lot of rain so it is not likely that I'm going to cycle this week. If I'm right with this prediction I can tell you coming Friday.

What have I done

That's the question which keeping me busy the last weeks. Since I've spoken out loud I want to do my second exam for English this May I've started with getting nervous. I'm so bad in doing exams, and I'm still not recovered from the first one were I had a terrible black out and was not even able to speak more than three words in one sentence. To get used to writing I will try to do a regular blog about whatever will pop up in my mind. I was also thinking about writing a few exercises from the book in here, if I cannot come up with a decent subject to write about. In the end I'm not a writer and my fantasy is not big enough to write a story. However for now I'm already satisfied with this post and I'm hoping you too. Below a beautiful photo from Texel, nothing to do with the post but just a view I really miss.

Time flies

How many times have we discussed this already? The way time flies, and with this photo I show you the place I was more than a week ago. A week already. In this week we went back to work. Busy as usual. In the last weeks before the year-end closing we have to finish a lot and every day we have to face new issues. Last weekend we celebrated my birthday with the family. All together this time. This means with brother Bert and his wife Bianca, because for Kees and Ma it's no longer possible to come over to our home. It was a long and tiring day. After nine everybody went home and we collapsed on the couch.

Zwarte Piet and more sunshine

What a wonderful surprise this day was. Sunny weather, in a part of the year we usually have rain, wind and a lot of really cold weather. I had to go home during lunchtime to walk Basil and I gave myself the luxury to spend a bit more time outside and went by bike this morning. This means I have to bike the road from home to the university twice today. That was no punishment at all. I’ve enjoyed the sun at my face and of course there was a lot of wind, but who cares as long as the sun is there? I’m already looking forward to go home in an hour and hope I can sit outside for a few moments after five. I keep my fingers crossed we have this at Texel in two weeks. I think it’s too much to wish for. 



Then something else, everybody is making a real issue of our Zwarte Piet, even de VN is involved now, it’s too crazy for words I think, however I’m afraid that we have to get used to a colored Piet in the future. Colored is also wrong to use for some people so I think we have to call them just Piet.

Eight month's of silence

How fast time goes is something you aware at the moment you look back. Just like I did when I saw the date of my last post, Februari 2013! How on earth can I get better as I'm not practice at all. Exam advanced has to wait a bit longer than December that'sfor sure. So I won't bother you with all the things I have done these last eight months, I just start with today. This morning I had to go with Basil to the vet. Do get his teeth cleaned. I don't know a proper translation for the Dutch word "gebit" and therefor used teeth, however I think there is another word to explain this, maby something as dental cleaning.

As from yesterday evening Basil was not allowed to eat so I had to do his late round alone, because Jan Cees couldn't handel not to give him his treat during the walk. The hero;-(  This morning Bas and I left for the vet round 8.45 hours, and one hour later he was sleepy and ready for the "narcose" I could stay during the cleaning and luckely it was not neccesary to remove elements. With a dizzy but awake dog and a bag of new special dental food I was back home again round noon. Basil has slept almost the whole afternoon and he also eat some of his new food. 

Winter ....

As we are all looking forward to warmer and sunny weather, the winter in the Netherlands is still going on. Except for the cold it is great fun to walk with Basil, because he really enjoys running in the soft white stuff on the ground. Another problem what shows up is we have to be a bit more careful with car driving, the roads are slippery although their are good prepared with salt. Today I survived, lets see what tomorrow will bring us.