Well, Chantal is coming to the end of her four week English homestay with me. She flies back to Geneva tomorrow afternoon, but not after a nice spot of lunch at
The Pony and Trap .
Where has the time gone? It's certainly gone quickly!!
Each morning, after breakfast, we had four hours of English lessons.
This would take us up to lunch time.
On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays we would have an afternoon activity, with longer trips at the week ends.
Chantal was interested in learning about British culture, so rather than use text books, we used newspaper articles, which I find more lively and interesting. Chantal would read a chosen article, writing down the new vocabulary. Then she would read the article to me, enabling me to check pronunciation, stress and intonation. As the most important part of any lesson is student talk, we would then discuss the article and develop conversation from it to activate the new vocabulary.
In four weeks, we covered a lot of work on grammar, ( not Chantal's favourite part of the course!!) and all four skills, reading,writing, listening and speaking. Chantal improved her English level from Lower Intermediate to Higher Intermediate. Two levels in four weeks!!
Chantal main reason for taking a homestay course was because she wanted to improve her conversational skills for her travels. So she needed to be given lots of opportunity to meet new people and talk to them.
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This is Chantal, with Ed a good friend of ours and chef at The Rising Sun at Knapp
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We visited The
The Rising Sun at Knapp
for Sunday lunch as Chantal wanted to try Roast Beef and Yorkshire pudding!!
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After Sunday lunch we visited Leeann ( one of Chef Brian's daughters ) and Geoff her partner.
Its all very exciting as they are getting married next week......in Malaga!!!!!!
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Over the bank holiday week end we went to our holiday cottage in
Padstow.
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| Padstow |
We had an amazing walk along the Camel Estuary. It was a beautiful warm and sunny day.
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| The village of Rock, is a short ferry ride away. |
And no trip there is worth anything without dinner at
Rick Stein's Seafood restaurant.
And of course lunch at
Margots where Chef Brian and Chef Lewis work with Chef Adrian to create amazing food.
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| Chef Brian relaxing after a busy shift at Margots |
When we came back Chantal cooked an amazing curry. We invited Simon and Lucy over and Chantal's daughter Clivia, from
Fribourg for the weekend.
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Simon and Lucy
Chef Brian, Simon's father thought the meal was excellent. |
One Monday afternoon Chantal and I went to visit my mother. It was her 83rd birthday and my brother was there. We all went out to have an English cream tea. We visited a garden centre and I asked my mother to choose something. She picked an ugly frog to put near her pond and told me she was going to call it Carol. I chose a beautiful Rose and bought it for her as well and told her it was also called Carol.
On Wednesday we went to
Cheddar We walked through the Gorge and looked at the caves. Chantal bought some famous cheese, yes Cheddar Cheese, which was made there. We bought some pickles and oat biscuits and a flagon of
Cider. It was delicious.
Well, today is Friday, all lessons have finished and Chantal has received her certificate.
An amazing Bolognese that Chantal made yesterday is waiting in the fridge. The table is laid. We are waiting for Chef Brian to arrive with his famous White Chocolate Cheesecake.
I need to go for a run so I can have second helpings!!!!
It will be very sad to say goodbye to Chantal tomorrow. She has become a good friend and one of the family. We will all miss her.
