ALVARO NEIL: THE BICICLOWN

I CAN'T BELIEVE IT, SO I DECIDED TO INVESTIGATE IT. AND IT IS AMAZING. A MAN CALLED ALVARO NEIL, A LAWYER, GIVES UP JOB TO CYCLE AROUND THE WORLD. FIRST HE WENT TO SOUTH AFRICA, AND THEN HE WENT ROUND AFRICA.
HERE YOU HAVE ALVARO HIMSELF SPEAKING ABOUT HIS JOURNEY AROUND AFRICA. AMAZING.

AUSTRALIA

How beautiful Australia is and how far it is.

I love Australia; it is like a big island in nowhere. I know that Australia was an English colony and when English jails were full they sent prisoners to Australian jails. By the other way, many people emigrated to Australia during the 20th century.

Australia has two big cities. Sydney is the biggest; it is the most famous too. But it is not country’s capital.

Australia is so big that there is a desert; there are some rainforests and the Great Barrier Reef.

There are some animals that only live in Australia, for example: kangaroos and koala bears. Kangaroos are mammals, they have powerful back legs and they were jumping everywhere. Koalas are little bears, are mammals too and they spent a lot of time of their lives climbing trees.
Besides, Australia has the world older cricket team and it has famous personalities too. Some writers, actors, actress and singers are from Australia.

Mel Gibson is a famous Australian actor. He plays “Lethal weapon”, “Brave heart”, “Signs”, “Christ Passion” and “The patriot”.

Hugh Jackman is another Australian actor, is well known because he is the main character of “X-men”.

Nicole Kidman and Cate Blanchett are Australian actress. Nicole Kidman is very famous because she has filmed many movies in Hollywood.

To finish with, we have to name Kylie Minogue. Kylie is one of the most famous pop singer in the world.

GUY FAWKES AND THE GUNPOWDER PLOT

1605, Catholics were not happy with King James I because he ordered to all catholic priest to leave England. So, they decided to kill the King and all people around him. The best place and the best moment to did it was when King James I inaugurate the Parliament session.

Guy Fawkes was one of the plotters; he managed to rent a house near the Houses of Parliament and to take sixteen barrels of gunpowder to Houses of Parliament cellars.

But there was a problem. Plotters felt bad about the fact that some of the people who will be in the Parliament were Catholics. So they decided to write an anonymous letter advising them to stay away from Parliament.

The letter was shown to the authorities and guards searched all the cellars and they captured Guy Fawkes.

Guy Fawkes was tortured and he revealed the names of others plotters. They were captured and executed.

After surviving to the plot, King James I ordered to all English people to burn a burn a bonfire on November 5th. And nowadays continue celebrating it.

On the 400th anniversary of the plot, some scientists make a simulation with the same amount of gunpowder. When they exploded it they noticed that the explosion was so powerful that everyone within one hundred metres of it would have been killed, including the King James I. So maybe a Catholic monarch would be put on the English Throne, as Catholics Plotters wanted.

Enjoy the video, it is funny.

BRITISH TOPICS (3) (SYMBOLS)

In the world there are many symbols. In Spain we have the Legion’s goat, in US Uncle Sam, but what about British?
The bulldog symbolises britishness. Sometimes bulldogs are associated to Winston Churchill, because he had one as pet.
Britannia is the female personification for Great Britain. Britannia is the name written in Latin.
John Bull is the person who symbolizes the typical conservative British personality. It is like Uncle Sam in the US. It is not a real man. It is a middle aged man, wearing the Union Jack as a waistcoat (chaleco).
Continuing with clothes, the costume that has been worn for more than five hundred years is the Morris dancing costume. By the way, if you look with attention you can find some movements like Vasque Countrys traditional dances.

BRITISH TOPICS (2)

Everyone knows that British like having tea at 5 o´clock in that afternoon, but we have to learn many others activities they like.
They like playing scrabble and cricket too, but I thing it is so boring...
They like eating fish and chips. By the way, the best “Fish and chips” in all London City is near the Tower of London. They think that the best and the most important meal of the day is the breakfast, so they have a complete dish of meat, eggs… They only take a break for lunch. But if you go to London you Hill see that there are people eating in Burger Kings and similar fast food restaurant in every moment.
They like moving by double decker bus (Mancunians travel by tram, there isn’t any underground in Manchester.)

BRITISH TOPICS (1)

I am going to talk about British topics and British lifestyle. I think the most famous topic is about doing queues for just everything, in the bus stations, in the supermarket. They like queueing and you can be in danger if you jump the queue. And be careful, in rush hours you have to move faster than ever if you want not to have any problems.
In the U.K. used to be cold, that was we thought, but we have know that nowadays a lot of people die because it is impossible to pay the VAT of the heating and the electrical bill.
I have always thought that London was a foggy city. It isn’t true. I ‘ve been there and it isn’t foggy. But unfortunately we can say that London is becoming a smoggy city. Many cities have air pollution or rivers contamination, and although London is a super big city it has to care its environment too.
By the other hand, they like animals, British still continue hunting fox. Many hunters, many dogs, just one fox. What a pity!
I know that in Spain we unfortunately have the bull fighting but maybe in the future it will be forbidden.
I prefer looking fox puppies to kill them.

IN THE REAL WORLD

Sometimes we forget the world around us and we act like a shy jellyfish, going everywhere using waves, floating, getting nowhere. Sometimes we forget people around us. Im not speaking about hunger in Nigeria or far away. I'm speaking about people close to you, in your neighborhood, in your community.
Years ago, Michael Portillo went to a BBC2 TV programe and step into Jenny Miner's shoes. Jenny Miner is a woman who has four children, two jobs and she is trying to turn over a new leaf with her family. The politician worked at a supermarket and as a educational assistant. Then he tried to manage looking after Jenny's children. I suppose this experience was a real eye-opener for Michael. We can't forget that if a politician wins an elections is becouse people wanted so. And if you want to do a good job as a politician, you have to know people's problems.

I would like to watch this programme here in Spain. I think it would be interesting.

SHAKERS

I really didn´t know nothing about Shakers. But we read a text.
They are living in America, in The Sabbathda Lake Shaker Village in Maine, just in the north east of United States.
As you can wath in the video they still live like Jesuchrist did. They are like Amish, but this affirmation is not true. They are different. They are a community, a religious community. They live in a particular space, they have a village for themselves.
They live as Christ did, so they have a celibate life, where male and female members have diferent places to live, to work, to pray...
They live confessing their sins and being pacifists.
Shaker community has a communal life, so the most important thing for them is to remember that community steals your independence. There was a clearly example in the text. If you want to do something but the community needs you doing another thing, you have to give up (renunciar) and do community's requirements. Maybe that is the reason why today community has only four members.