Guy Fawkes Night

In 1605, thirteen young men planned to blow up the Houses of Parliament. Among them was Guy Fawkes, Britain's most notorious traitor.

After Queen Elizabeth I died in 1603, English Catholics who had been persecuted under her rule had hoped that her successor, James I, would be more tolerant of their religion. James I had, after all, had a Catholic mother. Unfortunately, James did not turn out to be more tolerant than Elizabeth and a number of young men, 13 to be exact, decided that violent action was the answer.

A small group took shape, under the leadership of Robert Catesby. Catesby felt that violent action was warranted. Indeed, the thing to do was to blow up the Houses of Parliament. In doing so, they would kill the King, maybe even the Prince of Wales, and the Members of Parliament who were making life difficult for the Catholics. Today these conspirators would be known as extremists, or terrorists.

To carry out their plan, the conspirators got hold of 36 barrels of gunpowder - and stored them in a cellar, just under the House of Lords.

But as the group worked on the plot, it became clear that innocent people would be hurt or killed in the attack, including some people who even fought for more rights for Catholics. Some of the plotters started having second thoughts. One of the group members even sent an anonymous letter warning his friend, Lord Monteagle, to stay away from the Parliament on November 5th. Was the letter real?

The warning letter reached the King, and the King's forces made plans to stop the conspirators.
Guy Fawkes, who was in the cellar of the parliament with the 36 barrels of gunpowder when the authorities stormed it in the early hours of November 5th, was caught, tortured and executed.

It's unclear if the conspirators would ever have been able to pull off their plan to blow up the Parliament even if they had not been betrayed. Some have suggested that the gunpowder itself was so old as to be useless. Since Guy Fawkes and the other conspirators got caught before trying to ignite the powder, we'll never know for certain.

Even for the period which was notoriously unstable, the Gunpowder Plot struck a very profound chord for the people of England. In fact, even today, the reigning monarch only enters the Parliament once a year, on what is called "the State Opening of Parliament". Prior to the Opening, and according to custom, the Yeomen of the Guard search the cellars of the Palace of Westminster. Nowadays, the Queen and Parliament still observe this tradition.







On the very night that the Gunpowder Plot was foiled, on November 5th, 1605, bonfires were set alight to celebrate the safety of the King. Since then, November 5th has become known as Bonfire Night. The event is commemorated every year with fireworks and burning effigies of Guy Fawkes on a bonfire.









Some of the English have been known to wonder, in a tongue in cheek kind of way, whether they are celebrating Fawkes' execution or honoring his attempt to do away with the government.

Guy and the Plot Today

Beyond Bonfire Night, Guy and the Gunpowder Plot have left a legacy.

Today, we use the word "guy" to mean "person" or "man", as in "that guy across the street". Although the Oxford English Dictionary won't vouch for this theory, many linguists and historians think that our use of the term in that way is from our friend Guy Fawkes. It's difficult to trace the exact path of the word over the centuries, but it probably started by referring to the effigy of Fawkes that was thrown on top of the bonfire every November 5th as "a guy". Still today, as they walk down the street trying to collect money for fireworks, kids will ask for "a penny for the guy." From there, it's not a huge leap to talk about "a guy" as a living person. The use of the word would have grown from there.

Source: bonfire.org

Did you notice how many Phrasal Verbs were above? Get using them!!

• blow up
• turn out
• carry out
• work on
• pull off

Formula One / Sport Idioms

Even if, like me, you don't follow motor-racing as a rule; you can't deny that this year's Formula One has been exciting. Here is a summary of what happened from the viewpoint of the BBC:

Raikkonen pips Hamilton to title

Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen won his first Formula One drivers' championship as Lewis Hamilton's bid came to a dramatic end in the Brazilian Grand Prix.

Hamilton's attempt to make history by winning the title in his maiden season ended when he finished only seventh.

His challenge was ended when problems with his McLaren dropped him to the back of the field early on.

His team-mate Fernando Alonso's hopes were dashed as he finished third behind Raikkonen's team-mate Felipe Massa.

Finn Raikkonen, who has won two more races than anyone else this season, won the championship with 110 points, with Alonso and Hamilton tied on 109 points.

Hamilton ended the season in second place on countback, with one more second-place race finish than Alonso.

Things started to go wrong for Hamilton from the start. As Massa eased into the lead from pole position, the Englishman was slow away from his second place on the grid, and was passed by Raikkonen before the first corner.

Then, as they entered the first turn, Alonso drew alongside Hamilton on the outside, claiming the inside line and third place as they went into the second part of the chicane.

Hamilton then unwisely and unnecessarily tried to re-pass his team-mate on the outside into the Subida da Lago corner at the end of the back straight.

He got onto the slippery outside of the track, and slid off into the run-off area, rejoining in eighth place.

Raikkonen sensed Hamilton's early mistake might provide him with an opening to snatch victory.

"I got a good start and was side by side with Felipe," ssaid Raikkonen. "But the main thing was not to race with him, but get past Hamilton.

"I then saw Hamilton go off and I knew maybe we had a chance."

In itself, that error was not enough to end his hopes of becoming champion, but worse was soon to come.

Hamilton quickly set about regaining places, but ran into more problems on lap eight, when he slowed almost to a halt as his car slipped out of gear.

The gearbox electronics corrected themselves, enabling Hamilton to get back on his way, but by then had lost more than 40 seconds, and was at the back of the field.

The 22-year-old spent the rest of the afternoon fighting through the field, desperately trying to gain enough places to stop one of his rivals beating him to the world championship.

In an attempt to ease his task, McLaren chose a radical three-stop strategy, the thinking presumably being that with a lighter car he would find it easier to overtake his rivals.

The teams have to use both of two types of tyre during the race.

And McLaren chose to get the slower, softer tyre out of the way early with a short second stint.
That way, he would be on the faster tyre at the end of the race when nearly all the other drivers were on the slower one.

But the strategy did not pay off.

Hamilton did get up into the points during his third stint but, once Raikkonen assumed the lead after passing Massa during the second pit-stop period, the Englishman needed to finish fifth to stay ahead of the Finn.

And although he drove flat out to the end of the race he simply ran out of time.

Alonso's hold on the title he has held for two years ended in a damp squib.

The Spaniard was never in contention for victory in a race that was dominated by the Ferraris.

And although he had the edge on everyone else, third place was not enough to stay ahead of Raikkonen in the standings.

Have you ever been to see an important sporting event? What for you is the most memorable sporting occassion? Why? What happened?

It's difficult to start work in a new department but once you learn the ropes, you'll be fine.

There are lots of sport idioms, such as the previous example, in English. Take a look at the following list of Sport Idioms. Choose ones that you think will be useful, create some examples and then post them here.

Madrid travel guide

MADRID.

What does it mean to you?
What's your favourite neighbourhood? Why?
What advice would you give to a visitor?
What changes have you seen?
How would you compare it to other cities that you know?

Have a look at some of these extracts from the Wikitravel guide to Madrid. Do you agree with them? What advice would you add?



Madrid is the capital of Spain, as well as the capital of the autonomous community of the same name (Comunidad de Madrid). It is Spain's largest city, with a population (city) of 3.228 million (July 2005) and 5.843 million (metropolitan area). Madrid is best known for its great cultural and artistic heritage, a good example of which is the El Prado museum. Madrid also boasts some of the liveliest nightlife in the world.

Culture
The culture of Madrid was dominated by its religious and royal history. Enormous, monolithic cathedrals and churches are plentiful in Madrid, as well as medieval architecture, although nowadays Madrid is just as much a cosmopolitan city as Berlin or London.

The citizens of Madrid, who refer to themselves as Madrileños or the more traditional and currently seldom used term "gatos" (cats), live by a daily routine that is heavily influenced by the harsh climate. Due to the typically extreme midday heat, a "siesta" is observed during which some citizens take a break to cool off. Small stores are often closed during this time. Workers and those more afflicted by Western lifestyles choose not to observe this long break and work traditional business hours, which are usually between 9 a.m. and 6-7 p.m. During summer many offices, however, will have a summer schedule requiring workers to start at 8am and finish at 3pm (most commonly without the standard 1-2 hour break for lunch). Offices usually close during the weekend but businesses are often open Saturday morning (downtown stays open until afternoon). Most grocers are closed on Sundays, but some major chain and department stores, like FNAC, will be open throughout the day.

Madrid possibly has the largest number of bars per capita of any European city and a very active nightlife; Madrileños are known to stay up until as late as 6-8 a.m. It is important to note that, due to this lifestyle, lodging located near the Gran Via may end up a nightmare for light sleepers.

Madrid has become very modernized as of late, with an elaborate transportation network comprised of buses and the Metro. The city contrasts with some large European cities in that it is extremely clean, and city employees in bright yellow vests can almost always be seen cleaning the streets and sidewalks. Like most large cities, however, there is a substantial population of vagrants and beggars lining the streets.

Madrid is one of the biggest and most cosmopolitan cities in Europe. Communities of West Africans, North Africans, Latin Americans, other Europeans, Chinese, Indians, Filipinos and Pakistanis are prominent.


Speak

The majority of Madrid's residents do not speak very much English. Even employees at U.S. franchised businesses such as McDonald's and employees at cash exchange centers rarely speak much English. You can often find someone with a fair grasp of English at larger hotels and tourism sites, but it would nevertheless be helpful to know at least a few common Spanish words and phrases.

















By car

Transportation by private automobile in Madrid can be very difficult. The Spanish capital suffers from the typical problems of most big cities: far too many cars and not enough space to accommodate them. Sometimes there can even be traffic jams in the Paseo de la Castellana at three o'clock in the morning (then again, three in the morning is early to some Madrileños). The problem is compounded by the narrow streets in the old town, where a lorry delivering beer barrels to a local bar can cause a huge tailback. Looking for a place to park your car can be very time consuming, and difficult if one is not skilled in the art of close proximity parallel parking. Many Spaniards are also lacking in this art, prompting them to simply park in the street, blocking other cars in. If you find yourself blocked in by such a practice, honk your horn until the driver returns, he will usually just be popping in to a shop, and it will make you feel better. If you parallel park your car in Madrid be very aware that most Madrileños park by sound alone. They will feel no remorse for repeatedly hitting the car in front and behind them while trying to get into or out of a tight spot. If you value your car's paint job, or you have rented a car, it may be best to park underground. Though this is no guarantee for nobody hitting your car, the chances are somewhat diminished.


On the other hand, travel by car can be advantageous; going home by car on weekends is, of course depending where you live, usually faster than by public transport.


10 things you must do before you leave

• Get lost in the Museo del Prado.
• Go shopping in Calle Fuencarral (trendy) or Salamanca district (posh)... it's up to you!
• Eat a bocadillo de calamares (squid sandwich) near Plaza Mayor.
• Struggle among the crowds in El Rastro on a sunny Sunday morning.
• Go to a theater on Gran Via and enjoy a musical show.
• Go for some tapas in La Latina (don't forget patatas bravas).
• Spend an afternoon in El Retiro.
• Get back to 16th century in Plaza de la Paja and surroundings.
• See a sunset at the Templo de Debod.
• Have a drink and dance in Malasaña district until dawn, then have a chocolate con churros breakfast.
  (now you are a madrileño!)