Food for thought :o)

Mauricio de Sousa has good news!

"Monica´s gang" is now available in English and I think it is a good idea to be familiar with their names in order to follow the stories.
A quick introduction:
- Monica: she uses her blue bunny Samson to defend herself when the boys tease her;
- Maggy: the girl with an uncontrollable appetite (she loves watermelons!);
- Smudge (a-ha! Who do you think he is???): he is the one who has aversion to water;
- Jimmy Five: he has trouble pronouncing the R´s.

"Mary and Max": A must-see part of the film (trust me!)

Not many of you have heard about "Mary and Max", I guess... It was written and directed by the Australian Adam Elliot and his film is a mix of animation/comedy/drama.

The plot is a simple tale about two very different people who start a pen-friendship. A pen-friend (=pen-pal) is someone you write letters to and receive letters from, although you may never have met.

Mary is a chubby (=rather fat) and lonely 8 year old girl living in the suburbs of Melbourne, the only child of an alcoholic mother and a distracted father; Max is a 44 year old Jewish man who lives in New York, overweight, suffers from Asperger´s Syndrome and is subject to anxiety attacks.

This film is a journey that explores friendship, trust and plenty of other issues.

I have chosen my favorite part of it to touch your hearts.

"Long Long Way To Go" (by Phil Collins): sing along!

This song is part of a live show performed in Paris and it is simply beautiful. It is described by Phil Collins as an effective ballad with a personal and political message. Enjoy it!!!

Lyrics:

While I sit here trying to think of things to say / Someone lies bleeding in a field somewhere / So you can see we´ve still got a long long way to go / I´ve seen all I wanna see today

While I sit here trying to move you anyway I can / Someone´s son lies dead in a gutter somewhere / And it would seem we´ve still got a long long way to go / I can´t take it anymore

Turn it off if you want to / Switch it off it will go away / Turn it off if you want to / Switch it off or look away (chorus)

While I sit and we talk and talk and we talk some more / Someone´s loved one´s heart stops beating in a street somewhere / So it would seem we´ve still got a long long way to go, I know / I´ve heard all I wanna hear today

(chorus)

An advertisement that teaches us something...

We are exposed to an endless number of adverts every single day, aren´t we?
Ads are all over (we see them in newspapers, on television, on posters...) and they can be of several types (humorous, informative, shocking, eye-catching, sexy, interesting and so on...).
I have seen this one on the Internet and I liked its clever way of warning people about something important.
It is a very straightforward message: if you drink it, you get to see how your car is going to look like.
The lesson is clear: don´t drink and drive. It is definitely not worth it. ;o)
A bunch of kisses!

Comic books are great fun! :oP

Comic books (or comics) are magazines which contain stories told in pictures. In my opinion, they are also a fantastic way of learning English considering that comic books are affordable, easy to be found, the stories are amusing and you can easily develop your language skills as you go through the pages entertaining yourself!

We all have our favorite characters, so it´s just a question of popping into your nearest newsstand (or newspaper stand) and choosing one that appeals to you!

I picked a special one for today´s post: Calvin and Hobbes!!! It was taken from the book which brings a collection of their wild, playful adventures! The book is called "There´s treasure everywhere", by Bill Watterson (a gift I received from a very dear friend of mine, Carol :oD).

Have fun, then! ;o)

XXX

Tip #1!!! :oD

I have been thinking about what to write today as this is going to be my very first English tip here... It took me a long time to make up my mind and what I really wanted was something optimistic, positive and nice so that it could bring good luck and good vibrations to the blog. ;o)

Hope you like my initial choice!

* a flying start:  

If someone or something gets off to a flying start or makes a flying start, they start very well, very successfully.

Example: The project has got off to a flying start, with over a million dollars raised in the first week.