(Avanzado 1 & 2) This lion can't be a pet peeve

What are my pet peeves? A pet peeve is an idiom that means a cause of annoyance, like, for instance, the English teacher's pet peeve is not having any entries when he posts something and students can't be bothered to answer. It's not that I'm going to tell you off, anyway. By the way, to learn a few animal idioms go to this page and try and match the missing words with the pictures of animals. And anyone who is the teacher's pet? Just kidding...
Since we're dealing with animals and pets (or we're about to, for students in Avanzado 1, that's next week's topic), I just wanted to share a story with you.
This is two friends who along with their girlfriends cared for the lion where they lived in London until it was a year old. Believe it or not they had bought it at Harrod's! Christian's increasing size and cost of care led them to understand they could not keep him anymore. Eventually they asked some conservationists for help, who agreed to reintegrate Christian into the wild in the Kora National Reserve, in Kenya. Christian would even become afterwards the head of his pride.
When friends Rendall and Bourke were informed of Christian's successful reintroduction to the wild they travelled to Kenya to visit Christian and were filmed in the documentary Christian, The Lion at World's End. According to the documentary, they were told that Christian might not remember them.
A video edited from the documentary received worldwide attention more than 30 years after the event, and several versions have been viewed thousands of times. Basically they're all the same but for the music in the background. I'm not a member of RSCPA (Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals), but to avoid further damage I deliberately avoided the video with corny Withney Houston's "I will always love you"!!!. Aerosmith is the poor second best...The video below shows the lion at first cautiously approach and then quickly leap gently onto the two men, standing on his hind legs and wrapping his front legs around their shoulders, nuzzling their faces. What did you expect? Some gory footage?
It seems that for some reason I just don't understand some people are experiencing problems to watch the enclosed video. It that's so, just click on this link and enjoy it.



Isn't it emotional? It is indeed... Sorry about that final sentence in the video, though, which spoils the whole a bit.
See you!

(Avanzado 2) Ted talks

Ted is not a person. Actually, I don't even know if it stands for something, I reckon it's probably an acronym, as originally the name is in capital letters, TED. I've been listening to some of these lectures for a few years. I stumbled upon one excerpt featured in another video podcast, got interested and found out about the source.

The first talk I listened to was awesome, very inspiring and exhilarating, by Sir Ken Robinson, especially if you are a teacher. I have to admit that after that the thrill has gone a bit as sometimes the lectures drone on an on unless you're a fanatic or are really into, say computer engineering, or advertising, or anthropology or whatever. But there are still some very good lectures. The Jane Goodall talk for the class is a good example. I think it all depends what your field of expertise is.
Talks are about-25-minute- long videos and the page has got a stunning collection in the archives. Do you remember the how-does-the-news-shape-the-way-we-see-the-world listening exam back in December? You might as well figure out now where the heck I got it from.
Besides the TED page the lectures are also edited as a video podcast, so you can easily subscribe to it via iTunes. Check it out if you want to know about what the eggheads of the world are musing on.
See you.

(Avanzado 2) Places to see before you die

If you've already read the Guardian Weekly article, you now know about some of the 500 hundred places to see before they're spoilt.
Not that I think the Tower of London can compare to Machu Picchu, or the Battersea power station (remember Pink Floyd's 'Animals' album cover? Not likely, I presume) to Halong Bay in Vietnam, or the Greenwich museum to the Taj Mahal, a few of the most beautiful places I've ever been to -way way back when I used to travel indenpendently. Long gone days...

If you want to see photos of some of the places and wildlife (in Britain) mentioned in the book 1000 Places To See Before You Die you've got the link here. If you want to go global find out about any other places in the world in this page. There's one in Spain, guess which.

What are the most beautiful places you've ever been to?

*Photo by Carl, believe it or not