HUSH

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE


Last Thursday when I got up, the sky was overcast, and , according to what the naughty weatherman had said the night before about Brittany ( heavy showers and mist),  I thought it was the right day to declutter my study room. After last Summer carelessness that place was the worst clutter hotspot, and, little by little it had turned into a daily offender !

So, I rolled up my sleeves, set my timer for one hour and I tackled my deadly boring task.
One hour later, I had torn and thrown away a stack of useless papers  (drafts,leaflets,reminders I was clueless about, and so on ..), my precious
tools ( eraser,ballpointpens and lead pencils) were having a break in a drawer while waiting to get back to work, in short my " den " was spick and span. Every nook and cranny had been combed through.
I was wondering which room to continue with, when, fortunately, a ray of sunshine came through the window to free me from my devilish cleaning binge.

Great ! The rising tide had cleared up the clouds, and a wonderful Breton sky was calling me outside. 
With no time to spare, I put on my rubber ankle boots, slipped on a windbreaker, just in case, and off I was !

I was clearing myself a path through the undergrowth ( Jeez ! Brambles grow
at top speed off my back) when suddenly I tripped over something and nearly fell.
I knelt down to find out the alleged culprit, and what I discovered under a 
layer of fallen leaves and chesnut burrs really blew my socks off !!
A notebook !! I'm not going to lie : I was flabbergasted !
What the hell did that mean ?

I sat down on a stump, opened the notebook and read :

Name :               Mrs Deer
Address :            Perky Busy Bee's Undergrowth
Nationality :        Breton
Marital Status :    Single with one dependent child
Job :                   Animal lovers'entertainer

I glanced at the top of the page and read the title :

Mrs Deer's personal diary

I flew back home with my treasure, curled up on the couch and started :

The Undergrowth Chronicles

I am pretty engrossed in my new bedside book, but I'll let you know ...

To be continued

OFF TO A GOOD START

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO


Last Monday, while catching the last rays of Summer sunshine,I was wondering what to start this week's chapter with.
Don't get me wrong ! Of course, I already had my leading thread !
Rambling with Ulysse,my faithful and devoted courier, on the moor among heather and gorse, playing fetch with Canaille, my tireless goalkeeper, and last but not least, burning off Summer-stored calories on my bike give me a fair bit of time to craft my little stories ! The only snag is their beginnings. After all those months'blogging, starting to write is still a daunting project, and I often freeze up at the sight of my blank page !
So, last Thursday I was pondering about that prickly issue when it came to my mind that you were partly responsible for my mild anxiety. Yes, you readers !
Let me explain that.
Once, I heard a book reviewer say that the beginning is where the reader decides whether to keep reading, and now his remark flashes through my mind whenever I am about to write a new chapter !
If I hook you right off the bat, my readership will skyrocket. But, if I fail to grab your attention, then my blog traffic will plummet in a wink.
So, first thing to do today is to thank you for your loyalty, your leniency and, of course, for your advice and comments. Some are breezy and timely, others are teasing, but none nondescript ! You are more and more numerous, and this is hands down the best booster ! Thanks a million !!
Now I'll stop congratulating you, otherwise you'll get too big for your boots !

So there ! Bob's your uncle ! You see, I have started my chapter on the sly ! I hope you don't mind ...

Anyway, I don't want to be a pain in the neck, and, even though it is Autumn this week, I won't ask you the spoof question : " What is your favourite
season ? "
All throughout our school days teachers used and abused that topic and we had to rack our brains to write a witty essay !

Yet, let me point out that for weight watchers like me, Autumn is an enchanted interlude. I can say good-bye to uncomfortably revealing cotton
T-shirts, and hello to lovely cable-knit pullovers and corduroy trousers. Fall clothes are flattering without being bulky !
Another good thing : picking apples (a lot of stretching because either the apples have grown higher or I have shrunk) and chestnuts (a lot of bending
up and down on sloped ground), then racking up big piles of crunchy leaves will jump-start my energy level and improve my muscles tone !
With all those awesome outdoor workouts, I am willing to bet I'll win next stage hands down !
So, ready, steady, go !!

UNEASY RIDER

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

I have already told you about my smoothly-running method to stay consistent in blogging. On weekdays mulling over an idea while walking the dogs ( which means a fait bit of time as Canaille and Ulysse are warring brothers and can't even do their business together !).Then,on Sundays, collecting my thoughts to try to build a well-crafted story.
Till last week things were going like clockwork, but I had not reckoned with my " Tour de France winner training "...
Jeez ! First, I didn't know that pedalling could be so grueling, secondly if I  had not skipped anatomy classes at grammar-school,I would have gained a better understanding of how muscles and bones work together.
After my fourth day ride, I felt a kind of muscles soreness, but no pain, no gain !
On the fifth day I found it difficult to stay on track, but, anyway, I leaped out of bed and jumped on my beloved bike.
Well, on the sixth day I was sore all over and barely able to move. Delayed Onset Muscles Soreness, better known as DOMS, was Mr Google's diagnostic.It's an acronym that fitness buffs are said to wear with pride !
Rather foolish pride, isn't it ? Or, maybe, I am not really a gym buff.
I was so washed-out and listless that I even had to resign in disgrace from my duties :

My hubby was promoted dog-walker.
Mr Picard managed our meals ( better than I do, actually).
The feather-duster dismissed the hoover.
Last but not least, I had to shelve my computer ! Poor me, even typing really was agony ! It was as if someone had stabbed my shoulder blades with a hot knife and then just left the knife in there !

Had I gone overboard too quickly ?

Yet, the reviews on my new hobby horse sait it provided workouts easier on one's joints than running on a treadmill. But easier doesn't mean easy, and of course, doesn't mean as easy as ABC, either. 
They also said it toned legs, hips and glutes. Well, I must be the exception that proves the rule..
My legs are like cotton wool and I can't sway my hips anymore. As for my glutes, they demand thick-padded seats !!

First, I thought I should kick back, but no snap decision : Rome was not built in a day, so I will pull my socks, keep pedalling, turn a corner to cross the line.
Sooner or later, the yellow jersey will be mine !!

Don't chuckle to yourself and in the meantime no blabbing, please !

BURNING FAT FESTIVAL

CHAPTER THIRTY


Last week I proposed a toast to celebrate the end of Summer holidays and I hope you had one ! Don't you think it is uplifting and energizing to celebrate little things in life ? Well, I do ! Long time ago I read in a book of wise sayings that we should enjoy the little things, for one day we may look 
back and realize they were the big things. Those words are still etched in my mind, and whatever happens, I try to remain optimistic and look on the bright side.
Anyway, we have to face the fact : Summer has really come to an end ! Fewer holiday-makers, backpacks and back-to-school stationery on display, quieter seashores, noisier school playgrounds, yes we do have to bid farewell to Summer time. It's high time to turn the page and take a fresh start. 
Doesn't September feel like New Year for you ? For me it does ! I enjoy making post-summer resolutions : it does help me to face my friends' departure,shorter days, falling leaves, let alone all the Autumn snugs such as the Tax Property sheet crouching in the letter box, or even worse my bathroom scale's evil eye !!
Indeed, with that monster in my bathroom it is quite impossible to enjoy a gentle waking up ! Hopping onto it is more like a crash landing ...
So, moving on will be my one and only September resolution !
When I say " moving on ", I really mean it. I don't mind all my past defeats,
I'm ready for a new challenge. No more basking and lounging around. The muffin top hunting is open !
Don't get me wrong ! I am not the physical type, so of course I won't take the plunge and go bungee jumping, for example ( even if I jump head first off a high bridge with a tiny elastic rope around my ankles, I guess my extra kilos won't stay on the bridge rail, our relationship is too tight).
Going to a gym club, you said ? Forget about it ! Just to think about all those twits and other divas preening and fixing their hair and headbands to ensure they look super cute in their workout gears make me sick ( not to mention 
the cost of a membership card doomed to be never recouped, of course).
No, I think my home, sweet home is the best place for an efficient workout
routine : no sweaty neighbours, no prying eyes, just me, my muffin tops and my birthday present...Guess what !!
A new tracksuit ? New trainers ? A health and fitness tracker ? No, I have 
already got all that stuff.
No, a home recumbent bike ! It has got a comfortable seatback, the pedals are out in front of the body instead of below it, so I can pedal and read or watch BBC news at the same time ! 
I have already started my 20-minute-cycling daily workout and I do enjoy
it ! 
Fat better watch out ! Dany The Perky Busy Bee is back on track, and even if she has a rough ride, she will ride the obstacles out, and why not next Summer slip on the yellow jersey !

LET IT BE SAID !!

PS about the title of this post :

Don't confuse Burning Fat Festival and Burning Man Festival. The former takes place in Brittany, the latter in Nevada.
.

A TOAST TO SEPTEMBER !

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE


At this time of the year, when I was still working and that Summer was drawing to an end,and back-to-school days floating around, I used to wake up in the middle of the night, all in a sweat, my heart pounding and with a tight knot of fear in my stomach.Well, maybe not really fear, but let's say a kind of stage-fright. Yes, even though I was a teacher, I must confess that all throughout the very first week, getting into new classrooms and meeting new crops of students made me feel like Daniel walking into the lions'den !
I guess for me the kick-off of school year was just like the three knocks at the theatre, for actors.You know, sweaty palms, racing heart and a feeling of dry mouth or butterflies...
Fortunately, once the curtain up, I didn't get the chills any longer. 
Working with adult learners has always been a bundle of laughs, and now I often happen to miss those early September feelings !
Thanks again to all those who have kept in touch, and read this blog every week. I do hope I bring you as much as you do to me !!

Anyway, Summer 2015 is nearly gone, and I am quite happy because I have achieved what I wanted. Of course,I didn't have lofty goals, yet they were absolutely uplifting.
Spending time with longlife friends ( we have known one another for nearly 60 years), remembering the good old days (oldy but goldy), drawing plans for an old people's home ( just for the 15 of us) was really great fun !
Celebrating special dates with my relatives was also cheerful and so emotional : my mother's two brothers singing a song my father had taught them 65 years ago ( when coming back from Indochina) was a pure purple of patch !!
Oops, I was about to forget all the treats ( sometimes a bit too boozy) which helped my top muffins to settle..

Now, Winter is just a few short months away, and it is high time to pick up apples, make apple sauce jars and freeze them.
No blackberry jam this year, but instead crème de mûres. Yes, I have decided to take the plunge ! Don't get me wrong : even though I am drowning in fresh and super ripe berries, I won't open an off-licence in Audierne. I just want to make the most of this year's surprisingly good blackberry harvest, and, treat my guests with a a home-made kir.
So, guinea pigs are welcome !!

Cheers !

CEREALSGATE

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT


Some days ago I got an email from a former student of mine telling me he found my weekly posts quite useful because they help him to expend his everyday vocabulary.A bit of buttering up probably, but I must confess I was absolutely elated. I guess it was the highest reward blogging had bestowed upon me since the early days of The Adventures of Dany The Perky Busy Bee.It really made my day !
It is true that all throughout my posts I try to use new words,new phrases, because most adult English language learners I've taught said they were constrained by a lack of vocabulary, and were often stuck for words. I also manage to arrange frequent encounters with new words. According to a recent survey, four exposures to a new word are necessary to remember it :

. You never saw it .
. You have heard of it, but you don't know what it means.
. You recognize it in context,it has something to do with ...
. You know it.

In my opinion, the more exposures students have to a word, the more likely they are to store it and use it properly.

Indeed,the size of your vocabulary matters when you want to talk about this and that. Low vocabulary can turn into a trap.That's one of the very first things I noticed when I started teaching adults. So, let me tell you how.

I had been teaching for hardly one year when one Friday my boss asked me if I could stand in for another teacher who was on a sick leave.I agreed to do it, so he gave me all the instructions for my one-week mission starting the next Monday.
As soon as I read the information, my heart started pounding,my knees shaking and some butterflies went through my stomach : the week after I had to give one-to-one tuitions to Kellogg's Human Resources manager,four hours a day from Monday to Friday !
The only thing I knew about Kellogg's was the cornflakes I put on the breakfast table every morning. My knowledge of cereals stopped there !!
I was scared because, first, Human Resources managers are not people you can clap on the back, and secondly, my food-processing vocabulary would not hold water over one hour !I was in a fine mess !!

I spent the whole weekend cramming for my " impossible mission ". I learnt all  I could about wheat,buckwheat,oats,maize,barley,rye and so on ...I spent two hours in the nearby supermarket reading the English lists of ingredients on packets of cereal bars, fruit-flavoured snacks, etc

On Monday morning I was so sick of all those cereals that I let the children help themselves with their favourite ones. All the way to Kellogg's headquarters I was all at sea !
My knocking at the manager's door was just like " For Whom The Bell Tolls ", but what else could I do ? Take a French leave ? My boss would have fired me.
So, there I was, expecting the door not to open, but of course it did !

To my " Good morning, Sir ", the man answered in French and explained that apart from food-processing vocabulary, he was hopeless at English, and , to top it all, at the end of the week he had to entertain his American bosses every evening, treating them with good meals and showing them around Paris.
He was really stressed out, unlike the Perky Busy Bee who perked up in 
a wink.
The first hours were a real nightmare for him : he was as red as a beetroot and all in a sweat, but little by little he gained confidence, got used to paraphrasing when stuck for words, and last but not least, stopped 
preparing speech in his head before speaking !
I hope after that intensive training he could enjoy Paris by night with the
American team ..

Anyway, for me that was a kind of trigger for my teaching methods and I hope it is still useful.

Enjoy yourselves and make the most of the last days of August !

PERKY BEE VERSUS GLOOMY TOAD

Chapter twenty-seven


To make sure to never run out of ideas and stay consistent in blogging, I had decided to update " The Adventures of Dany the Perky Busy Bee " weekly, I mean once a week. Playing with the big boys and posting twice or three times a week was a task I didn't feel up to.

My weekly routine suited me perfectly. From Tuesday to Saturday, while walking the dog along the Breton paths, I used to weave my next story. I just paid attention to stick to my own demands : write something funny, true-to-life and with expansive vocabulary.Then, you know the rest..

Unfortunately, my smoothly-running method froze up nearly two weeks ago and left some of you somehow puzzled. 

So, first, let me answer your questions :

I was not off on holidays : Audierne is too gorgeous to leave it. Its motto is :
Audierne, love it or leave it !

I was not healing my sunburns ! Among my readers, there are some malicious tongues, aren't there ?

I was not babysitting for Mrs Deer. The fawn has grown up, it has little horns,and is a cheeky boy ! It has turned the hazelnut leaves into lace !

I was not overwhelmed by gardening. the showery weather has kept me inside and the wild garlic and wild carrots have given room to four-leaf clovers. I hope that if I let them enjoy the place, they will bring me good luck. It is said that the first leaf is for faith, the second for hope, the third for love and the fourth for luck ...

Last but not least, I was not stuck for ideas. There is always something nice going on around.

SO, WHAT ???

Well, over a fortnight ago, I was about to chew the first bite of my dinner, when suddenly I felt a kind of swelling under my lower jaws. In a wink the perky busy bee turned into a gloomy toad.
It wasn't that painful, but not really attractive..
After a sleepless night, tossing and turning in bed, I rushed to my GP who diagnosed a salivary gland disorder . What a plague for a chatterbox like me!
I was on antibiotics for five days, but looking like a toad or a hamster was not my cup of tea.
Fortunately, that misfortune had already happened to my best friend's husband and she gave me an efficient tip : a mouthwash of lemon juice ! It really worked !! It blew off my socks ! In a split second, the wonder juice had deflated my unattractive swellings ! ( What a pity it didn't remove my jowls, as well !)/

So, now you know why the Perky Busy Bee was as silent as a grave !

Looking forward to answering any questions about vocabulary, grammar or busy bees' way of life.

In the meantime, enjoy yourselves !