Driving license

I am very happy today. I have just passed the exam to obtain the driving license after 12 years driving. That is awful, you will think. But do not think the worst. I am not telling the whole truth. The fact is that these last days I have read and watched on TV opinions about the results of a survey that suggests that a great percentage of people who have obtained the driving license would not pass the exam today. I think this fact can explain a lot of the accidents that happen on the road every year and recklessness that some drivers show when they are behind the wheel.
I consider myself a cautious and quite good driver. In fact, I have had only one minor accident (not people wounded, only a little hit in the other car) during the last 12 years. But I hope that this statistic continues for a long time.
Despite the facts, I wanted to try to pass the exam again and I did it. I found a link to a recent test in an online newspaper and I get 25 out of 30 questions correctly answered, that is an 83%. That is fine because I was thinking to try the motorcycle exam in the near future and now I am more confident to get it at first try.
However, I think that the most important on the road is to be calm, use your head and do not drive too fast. Anyway, I would recommend you to try to pass the exam again, just for fun. I show you a summary of traffic signals explained on the photograph and I hope it can help you.
Take care on the road.

Hard work

I was reading a newspaper on the Internet a few days ago. It is something that I usually do, but the story that I read then was not so usual. The article told about a job offer. It would be nothing extraordinary if the job offer were normal.
The fact is that in Australia, in the state of Queensland, there have been a reduction in tourists visiting the region in the last year. Then, they have created a campaign to promote tourism in the area. This campaign consists in paying a person to live as a tourist during 6 months in Hamilton Island and visiting the surroundings. The applicant who gets the job will have to swim, snorkel in the reefs, meet new people, enjoy as much as possible in this paradise and then put down in words in a blog his experiences every week.
It is hard to believe but it is true, paradise exists on earth. Everybody can apply for the job. Apparently, the requirements are good knowledge in written and spoken English, good communication skills and to be willing to live new experiences. It does not sound bad. If you are interested in the offer or do not believe me, visit http://www.islandreefjob.com, please. I am sure that you will agree with me that this kind of job offers are not common.

Thinking English

In this post I am going to write about some resources available on the Internet that can be very useful in English learning. In fact, I use some of them when I write in this blog. Sometimes, they are helpful to solve my doubts and sometimes help me to find a bit of inspiration.
First of all, I use some online dictionaries. I will give you the addresses of three of them that I consider more interesting but there are a lot on the Internet.
The Free Online Dictionary is an online application where you can search for words, idioms, acronims, etc. It lists a lot of definitions of each word you are looking for, and you can hear word's pronunciation too.
The Urban Dictionary is useful when you are searching for the meaning of words that are used in the streets and probably are not referenced in standard dictionaries.
Finally, Cambridge Online Dictionary
is a very complete dictionary online and also you can download it and use it in your mobile phone. Moreover, it is supported by Cambridge University.
A translator can be useful sometimes as well. I usually use two that you can find using Google search engine. These are El Mundo's translator and Google translator. Both of them do the same but sometimes you can get slightly different results from one to the other.
I also read English in newspapers, magazines and web pages all over the web. You can try the online version of The Times and Sunday Times. If you are interested in politics, finances and business, then you should visit The Financial Times or The Economist. However, if you prefer magazines you can follow this link and you will get a list of magazines that you can read on the Internet.
If you want to listen to English speaking people you can try with podcast. If you search in Google "English podcast" like I did, you will get millions of results. I will recommend you one and if you do not like it or if you want more, then visit Google. You can visit China232 and listen to some of the podcasts. I hope you find them interesting.
I have more interesting links to share but it is enough for this post, I will write about my "Favourites list" again in the future. Furthermore, I am adding new resources frequently.
Enjoy this links and make your own searches. Surf the web!

Why grapes?

This is the first post of the new year and I have been doing some investigation about the tradition of eating 12 grapes at midnight in 31st December every year.
I have discovered that this tradition was started in Murcia, a region in the southern part of Spain. Apparently, the year 1909 was a year of an excellent harvest of grape. In this situation, the vine growers invented the tradition "The twelve grapes of luck". It consists in eating twelve grapes in the first twuelve seconds of the new year, one with every strike of the Puerta del Sol tower clock, and you should ask for a desire while eating each grape. It is said that if you eat all the grapes in time you will have a year full of prosperity.
This tradition has been adopted by other countries all over the world, mainly Latin American countries and other people related with Spanish culture, like Philippines (that country was part of the Spanish Empire). What is more, if the tradition started in 1909, then this year turned 100. So it is a centenary tradition.
I ate my twelve grapes in time, so I hope that this will be a good year.

Welcome 2009!