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Speaking of national sports, Olympic-fever is gripping the nation here in Britain. The real event will kick off later this month when the Olympic torch comes to town. The flame will be lit and carried through more than a thousand different towns and villages in the United Kingdom and each of these places will be featured on television, radio and the internet as they experience their fifteen minutes of fame.

I'm particularly interested in seeing some of these places because, like many people, I haven't travelled much around my own country, yet I know that there will be some real hidden gems that will be well worth visiting.

It has become increasingly popular to remain in your own country rather than travel abroad for a holiday. The phrase 'staycation' was coined when it became clear that many people were spending their vacation a bit closer to home. Caroline mentioned in her blog that she would like to become a tour guide one day. I think that it would be wonderful to have extensive knowledge of a place and to be able to share that with other people.

Holidaying at home has a financial advantage: it's generally not as expensive to travel in your own country; you aren't ripped off by extortionate exchange rates; you don't have to spend hours looking for your passport; you don't even have to miss your favourite programme on the television! So I am going to watch the torch relay closely to see if I am inspired to stay at home in England for my holidays.

However, after reading Caroline's blog, I'm wondering if I should travel to Poland instead...

Caroline's blog
Your first blog is very informative, descriptive and funny. I liked the way that you used the metaphor "national sport" to refer to the popular way of spending evenings together over a barbecue. It's a humorous way to engage the reader and a good way to begin your blog.

Generally your level of English is very good but there are a couple of improvements which you could make to make it even better.

Vocabulary
You talk about your favourite activity - "grilling." In English, we talk about "barbecuing" rather than "grilling". The grill itself is called a "barbecue" (which can be fuelled by gas or coal), or you can use it as a verb "to barbecue something". For example:

Put some more coal on the barbecue.

I'm going to barbecue a whole chicken today.

There is a phrase in English "to give someone a grilling" - this means to interrogate someone or ask them a lot of difficult questions. I'm sure that you aren't referring to this type of grilling in your blog, though!

Subject / verb agreement
Try to ensure that you use a singular verb with a singular subject and a plural verb with a plural subject. For example, you say:

But evenings was reserved for our favourite activity...

The correct way of writing this is:

But evenings were reserved for our favourite activity...

Later you write: "Here you can see how baked potatoes looks." How should this be written?

Articles
A couple of times in your blog you have articles missing from your sentences. You can use the definite article ("the") or the indefinite article ("a/an") to make your English more fluent. Try it with these sentences:

Now we are at the end of ____ long holiday which lasts nine days.

I was mostly reading a book and enjoying _____ beautiful weather.

But _____ evenings were reserved for our favourite activity.

He needs ____ special stick to grill _____ sausage.

Have a go, and I'll let you know next week if you're right.

All in all, though, it's a lovely first blog Caroline. I'm really looking forward to hearing more about Poland (especially anything food-related). I think that if barbecuing was a real national sport, then I would definitely like to train to become an athlete!

See you all next week!

Jen

Vocabulary
my life revolves around... - ...is a very important part of my life
kick off - begin
hidden gems - undiscovered places
staycation - a holiday at home
ripped off - cheated out of money
metaphor - a word or phrase which represents something else
engage - hold the attention of