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This is just a short post today - to say goodbye and to answer the questions to the task set in my last post. I asked you to fill in the blanks in expressions related to schools and education. Here are the completed expressions:

1. Learn something in the school of hard knocks > Learn something after difficult or unhappy experiences

2. Learn something off by heart > Repeat something from memory (and perhaps not understanding it)

3. Teach one's grandmother to suck eggs > Give advice to somebody about something when they already know more than you

4. Live and learn > You say this when you discover something very surprising

5. Tell tales out of school > Tell secrets or spread rumours

6. University of life > All the experiences that you have in your life

7. School of thought > A set of ideas which a group of people have about a subject

8. Learn your lesson > Not do something again after a bad experience

9. Teach somebody a lesson > Make somebody experience something bad so that they will improve their behaviour in future

10. School run > When parents drive children to and from school

11. Learn the ropes > Discover how to do an activity or a job

12. You can't teach an old dog new tricks > You say this when it is very difficult for somebody to change habits or learn something new

13. From the old school > Traditional and old-fashioned

And already we are at the end of another month. July has been a busy month for me. Apart from working, I've been lucky enough to have a couple of trips, including a short jaunt to London to visit friends this week. London is of course famous for its double-decker buses, and its cabs, but there is another less well-known way to travel around the city and that is via its waterways.

We took a trip in a narrow boat along Regent's canal from Camden Lock to a place called Little Venice, passing Regent's Park and London Zoo along the way.

In the photo above you can see a canal lock. A canal lock is a means of raising or lowering a narrow boat between the different levels of a canal. As the canal follows the contour of the land it will be higher in some places than in others and if there were no locks then all the water would collect in the low places. A canal lock ensures that the depth of the canal is the same along its whole length. At Caen Hill in Devizes in the South West of England (not too far from where I live) there is a sequence of 29 locks to raise a narrow boat over the hill (). It's quite a sight as you can imagine.

And now I have digressed. Enayat, I wish you all the best for the future, and for the work that you are doing as a member of the Afghanistan Youth High Council. Like you I hope the day soon comes when you will all be living in peace and prosperity.

Best wishes,
Kim

Vocabulary

jaunt = a short pleasure trip
double-decker bus = a tall bus with two levels
cab = taxi
via = using
waterway = river or canal
narrow boat = a canal boat (it is not very wide)
contour = shape
ensure = make sure
digress = move away from a topic
prosperity = the state of being successful, with money