ONE FOR THE HOMELAND

I meant to get this booklet for London Town, Modica - Centro Linguistico Internazionale ready for St. David's Day but when Bertie-Pierrine bounded into my life, she kind of took it over! Anyway, it is ready now and free for our students. If anyone in Modica still thinks Wales is in England, they haven't met me!

Homeland, I think of you!

CHIGNON AND CHAMPERS

Making anything resembling a traditional British Christmas cake for Sicilians is a daunting and somewhat risky task, as they have a strange aversion to dried fruit. However, last night I made Nigella's Chocolate Fruit Cake for the London Town, Modica - Centro Linguistico Internazionale Christmas party this evening, and to my surprise and delight everyone ate it and seemed to enjoy it! [I used dried cranberries in place of the unobtainable currants and raisins and I think it's a good innovation.]

There were other elements to the spread, for which I would like to thank Bar Cicara:

I got a chignon for the occasion - well, a girl has to try at Christmas!

And we all sang along to this:

What with that and my explanation, both in class and in my new booklet, of the absolute necessity of wearing silly paper hats at Christmas dinner, I think I have successfully convinced the Sicilians that the British are mad!

A NEW BOOKLET

A little shameless self-promotion, if I may:

In linguistics, a "false friend" is a word, in the language you are learning, which looks or sounds like a word in your own language, but the meaning is different. Students registering for courses at London Town Modica, Centro Linguistico Internazionale will receive Pat's Little Book of False Friends for Italian Learners of English.

Sai cos'è un "falso amico" in linguistica? È una parola di una lingua straniera che assomiglia a una parola della tua lingua, ma il significato è tutto diverso. Chi s'iscrive da London Town, Modica, Centro Linguistico Internazionale avrà il nuovo libretto di Pat!

Cross-posted at Pat's English Pages.