FAU on Friday

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Someone interesting you follow on social media

November 16, 2023

Hi FAU Bloggers: I guess one of the interesting people I follow on social media is Janelle Monae. She is a singer/actress from Kansas. I first heard of her in 2010 when she released the album The ArchAndroid. It was a really amazing concept album that mixed various musical styles (hip-hop/rap/rock/soul/jazz/classical/pop). I found her to be the most interesting artist of her generation because she was doing something different and extremely creative. She was very open about here influences which ranged from "The Godfather of Soul" James Brown to Pop/Rock Icon Bowie and on thru Debussy and Science-Fiction author Philip K.Dick After The ArchAndroid I followed her career with interest because she what she does goes beyond music. Actually, her first album is still my favourite but I think she is an interesting celebrity who is trying to push the barriers and create change, especially towards things related to racism, feminism and the LGBT community. As both her music and actin

Something you enjoy doing outdoors

November 16, 2023

Hi Blog Heads, In this post, I'd like you to write about something you enjoy doing outside. For me there are three things that come to mind: football, cycling and hiking (otherwise know as trekking). However, as football involves other people, and cycling requires a bike, I'll talk about hiking. I think I developed my love of hiking when I was a young child. My family lived in the countryside in Wales until I was 6 years old and from a very young age we would do a lot of walking. My parents never had a car and I never passed my driving test until I was 53 years old so, walking has always come naturally to me. The walks I remember from my childhood are those we did in North Wales where there are lots of forests and hills that are public footpaths. In fact Britain has an excellent network of footpaths and trails that are well looked after and pass through hundreds of miles of beautiful countryside (You can see some of them here:https://www.nationaltrail.co.uk/). I've also bee

A Chilean Landmark

November 10, 2023

Hi there FAU Bloggers: As a continuation of last week's Chile-themed post, today I'd like you to write about a Chilean building or a landmark that you like. I've opted for a landmark I visited a few years ago, "the Marble Caves" on General Carrera Lake near Coyhaique. I went with my wife and her mum to celebrate my wife's birthday. Up until that point, the furthest South I'd travelled was Chiloe and I was really eager to see what the landscape was like. Well, it was amazing, the area surrounding Coyhaique is beautiful and, for my taste, the most beautiful place of all was the Marble Caves. It's a 4 or 5 hour drive from Coyhaique to General Carrera Lake. A lot of the route is unpaved and also winding and bumpy. The boat tour to the caves departs from Puerto Tranquillo - a tiny village that is basically 2 shops, a petrol station and 5 or 6 little businesses offering boat trips to the caves. We were lucky with the weather, it was mid-September and the it

A Little Bit of Chile

November 03, 2023

Hi FAU Bloggers, As you might have guessed by now, I'm what's known in good Chilean as "pati-peri." However, aside from having been lucky enough to visit some amazing countries in my long life, I have also visited some amazing places in Chile. I travelled Chile from Arica to Aysen so I still have a third of the teritory left to discover. Today I'm going to write about a place in Chile I really enjoyed visiting and that I'd like to visit again: Malalcahuello. I visited Malalcahuello in 2007 when one of my sisters was visiting from the UK. My sister arrive towards the end of February. A few days after she arrived, and along with my wife, we decided to embark on a spontaneous road trip south. We packed up a tent and all our camping gear and headed South. We spent a night in Chanco, a couple of nights in Cobquecura and a night in Curacautin before arriving in Malalcuhuello. By this time my wife was tired of driving and wanted a holiday so we decided to stay a

A family member or a relative

October 20, 2023

Good Morning FAU Bloggers: Today I'd like you to write about someone from your family. It could be a brother or sister, one of your parents or another relative (uncle, aunt, cousin, etc). I'm going to write about my brother Adrian. Well Adrian, or Ade, or Ady or Adie (AD?) as we like to call him, currently lives in New Zealand with his wife and 2 kids - Ella and Freya (although both have left home now). He was a happy child, always joking and trying to make people laugh. One of his nicknames as a kid was "Billy Whizz - after a comic character who did everything very quickly. Ady had a good temperament and rarely got angry. He learnt carpentry when he was a teenager and now works repairing violins and cellos and making groovy furniture. Ady is 18 months younger than me and we've always had a great relationship. He is someone you can depend on and is always ready to help out if things are complicated or you have a problem. The rest of the time he loves fooling about and

Language

October 13, 2023

Hi FAU Bloggers, Let's talk language:) So, I speak English as a first language even though I'm technically Welsh (I was born in Wales). However, my Grandparents on my mother's side were Irish and on my Dad's side with a connection to the Campbell clan in Scotland. I don't speak Welsh, which is a Celtic language, and I tend to describe myself as a British "kiltro." As a child I went to a Catholic School. I had Latin lessons but learnt no Latin and French lessons and learnt no French. My next attempt at learning a foreign language was Spanish almost 15 years after leaving school. At age 29, I went to live in Spain in search of a new life (after 6 years trying to be a musician). I knew about 10 Spanish words when I arrived in Spain and it took me about 6 months before I began to speak any Spanish. People were happy that I only spoke English because they had the chance to practice with me but I became curious about Spanish and I really wanted to learn it. Now,

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