This week I have something a little different for you. Last year my family and I went to Castle Howard. This is an English country home in Yorkshire that puts on a special Christmas display every year. They take a story and decorate the house with that theme. Last year the story was JM Barrie's Peter Pan. I'll show you the dramatic road in to Castle Howard using Google Maps, and then some of the pictures and footage I got last year. Castle Howard was built between 1701 and 1811 by the Carlisle branch of the Howard family. The gardens were designed by George London in 1699. While you can't see a lot of the normal house behind the decorations, this will definitely give you an idea of the size and luxury of these big English houses. I visited with my family and my niece, who didn't know anything about Peter Pan. Luckily we were able to go at a quieter time, usually there would be many more people at this place because families come from all over the country for this experience. As far as I understand Castle Howard still belongs to and is lived in by the Howard family. #emmaseslenglish #englishlisteningpractice #englishchristmas

Wow! Here we are again, at the end of the year!

For those of you who have been with me for a while, you will know what's coming, review and plan.

In this episode I'll give you some tips and thoughts on how to review your year in English.

This is an important step. So many language learners feel like they're not making any progress. It's important to take a little time to recognise how much work you've put in and any progress you've made. Honestly, even if you feel like you haven't made any progress, take time to recognise all the hard work you've put in (and yes, I'm counting watching TV shows and movies with subtitles as hard work 😉).

Let me know how you get on in the comments.

This week we're analysing last week's reading. I'll talk you through some of the references and vocabulary. I'll also put the vocabulary list below.

In the first video I referred to the illustrator as Paul Kirby, which is actually not just confusion because the names sound similar. Terry's original artist who did about half of the covers of the original books was called Josh Kirby. When he passed away in 2001 Terry worked with a few authors but eventually settled on Paul Kidby,who I believe he met through the Discworld Conference and was a big fan.

Vocabulary List

Ticked off - slang - to anger or frustrate someone

Satire - a form of humor that reshapes real life so we can laugh at it

Sledge - a vehicle on sleds that is used to move people and goods through snow (Santa rides one)

Lavatory - Toilet

Deference - polite submission or request (so they are submitting to their age)

Underpinned - to be held tightly underneath something

Minstrel - a singer or song creator

Scribbling - writing quickly and untidily

Wince/Flinch - in the book Terry uses 'wince' which is when our face clenches in response to something we see that looks painful or worrying. I used 'flinch' in this episode is when our whole body clenches for the same reason or when we're surprised or scared.

Henchman - Harry has some stupid henchmen. Henchmen are the bad guys (often not smart) who work for the really bad guy and do everything he says.

Steed - the thing you're riding, usually a horse

Started with humble means - he began with small or not very expensive things (in this case a shed!)

Revert - to go back to a previous place, situation or state

Vicinity - the area around here

Marmalade - a British sort of jam made from Oranges (I'm sure we didn't invent this because we didn't have oranges in the UK for a long time (there's some disagreement about whether the first oranges arrived in the 1300's or the 1500's.)

a dig on our modern world - 'a dig' is when someone tries to make fun of something or to be rude about it.

Concubine - a woman who is married to a man but is not the main wife, emperors often had many concubines.

Never got the hang of dying - to 'get the hang of' something means you get good at it.