The final countdown Four years have passed since I began to learn English in the EOI school . A long way, sometimes easier and sometimes more difficult. Friends that they couldn’t continue studying because lots of different issues such as family, work, health, etc… Great moments like the course final dinner that we made every year. Amusing moments like when some classmate made jokes. Nervous moments like when we took our exams. Good and not too good teachers that taught not only English also a new point of life’s view. All these moments mixed have been the experience that I have had the chance to live behind young and not too young people. And now, it’s really the final countdown for me. I’m taking my final exams in order to get the median level English. It’s being very hard. Working everyday 9 or 10 hours doesn’t leave me much time to prepare my exams in a correct way. And what is more, I won’t have any other opportunity to get this certification because I have decided not to continue studying in a language official school. It doesn’t mean that I’m going to abandon the English study, not in any way, I’m going to continue it, but more relaxed because English for me it’s my entertainment, my passion and a good way for relaxing myself.

Homemade food I remember mother’s meals. They were tasty, healthy and the most important they were made with love. Nowadays we’re living too fast, so we don’t have time for cooking, as a result ours meals are junk food. All my live I have liked cooking, in fact for me it’s a moment of relaxation. Sunday is my day, I usually cook “paella”, which is a meal made with rice, chicken or rabbit and vegetables. I prepare all ingredients for make it and, of course, a pair of beers and a little appetizer that I eat while I cook. I turn on my mobile phone and I tune in the station LBC radio, then I light my cigar and begin cooking. It’s like a ceremony, it’s my moment and nobody can disturb me while I’m cooking because I get angry if someone come to see how it’s going the meal. I believe that everybody should find something for relaxing himself. Life is not only work and there’re little things that can made us more happy, we only have to see around us and surely we’ll be able to find it.

The life change when less you hope. As usual, I was sat in m y car waiting for going to work when I began to think about how my life have changed. (It’s not a long way from my home to the factory, but the traffic is terrible and I prefer arrive before the time). In other time I had a good job, I earned a lot of money, my family was well and we enjoyed great moments together, Suddenly, all began to go wrong, in less than one year I lost my job, I lost my father-in-law, then one of my twins and later my mother. And now, it seems to me that nothing is important, nothing is really as important as you believe. My losses have made me change my mind about the meaning of live and also have made me much more strong for continuing fighting. When during the life you experiment difficult and bad moment, you’re the only one who can decide how to face up to your problems. I try to keep calm and not give importance, considering the problem as one more moment of life. We can fight against all things if we want, there’s only one thing that we can’t do nothing, the death. So, why do we get worried about nothing?. Keep calm, don’t worry, don’t get nervous and made as much as you can to solve the problem, but if you can’t do anything you should accept the situation, this is my personal advice. The problem is not the difficult situation that you’re suffering, the real problem is your mind.

My daugther My daughter’s name is Adriana and she’s 20 years old. She was born in Spain and grew up in a small town called “Burrriana”. She helps my wife with housework and also finds time to take care of her grandparents. Adriana is studying very diligently to become a nurse. She’s a young, beautiful girl. She has big, brown eyes and a very long dark hair. I love my daughter because she’s very kind, generous and a funny person. However, I think she is too shy and a bit insecure. She likes informal clothes such as jeans or trousers, shirts, blouses, sweaters and tracksuits. She likes wearing jewellery such as bracelets, earrings, necklaces o rings. She loves pets and has got two dogs and a cat . She wants to get fit, so three times a week she goes running. In her free time, she goes to the cinema, to concerts and likes shopping for clothes. She enjoys eating Chinese and Italian food, but hates fast food.

Never give up!! I remember the first time that my English teacher taught me this saying. It’s one of my favourite proverbs because always that I feel really down I repeat it into my mind. Maybe, If you have the same age than me, you’ll get to understand what I mean. People middle age like me, sometimes feel very frustrated when, young people or not so young, treat us as if we didn’t know doing things. In Spain we say. “ te sientes como un bicho raro”. Until where arrive the discrimination in our society?. The colour skin, the age, the sex, the good-looking, the money, etc. Have you ever felt displaced?. I’m sure that if you think for a little moment, you will be able to remember some situations where you felt “ como un bicho raro”. I’m going to give you my advice: “never give up”. Yes, I know, it’s easy to say but sometimes very difficult to do. Remember every day when you get up, be ready for fighting with the difficulties that life give you.

The party of my English class. Two weeks ago, I had a party to celebrate the end of my English course. Although this time it was harder than last year I got to pass my exams. we decided to meet for having a good dinner at the pizzeria who owner is one of my classmates. Obviously, I won’t say his name, however I’ll say he’s a friendly and kind person who, despite having only nineteen years, is very mature. We had a great time, the food was good and people enjoyed talking and saying jokes. At the end of our dinner we had coffees and liqueurs. We drunk an Italian drink called “ limoncello”, it wasn’t the first time that I took this drink, however that night its taste was special, like different to others times. Three bottles were emptied in less than a bird sings and made us more happy and young people lost their timidity. (**) On the other hand, soon I realized that only three of fifteen people were older than forty-five. Incredibly, one of them was my teacher, who is forty-eight and he looks like much younger than me. Never mind!!, I said to me, the most important is how young are our hearts. (**) I’m not sure if this expression is correct in English. I want to say that we all drank enough but we weren’t drunk.

Being a grandfather is too hard. I never thought that becoming a grandfather could be so exhausting. I feel really tired when my daughter wakes up me at night for taking care of my granddaughter twice and others until three times. On the other hand, it’s really gratifying when the babies give you a big smile and his look is fixed in your eyes. In this moment, you become like a ice cream down the sun and all your problems have gone. I'm having a great experience and remembering when I was father, but my free time is shorter everyday.

The culture of bribery and robbery As usual I was reading my newspaper when I surprised for a new a bit different. A man has been arrested because he was trying to bribe the police with 20 euros. The man didn’t want to show the documentation of his car to the police because he had irregularities in it. I had just finished reading the new, when one thought came to me. I realize that this case was very similar to others that are happen in Spain but at the political level. Of course, this case is unimportant compared with the millions of Euros that the corrupt such us politicians and businessmen, have stolen and have used to their advantage. The worst is that it seems that this people don’t have a significant punishment and they continue stealing from Spain. Soon there will be new elections, and in my opinion, no politician seems honest enough to govern this country and not keep stealing.

We are what we eat. Everyday we’re living faster, but are we living better?. I mean that it seems that we don’t have enough time to do all things that we want to do. We don’t have time neither to eat quietly. Chemistry industry has invented many products to provide our food long self-conservation, enhance its taste, smell and colour. If you look at some potted food, you’ll realize that nearly 50 % of composition are artificial products that can be dangerous for your health. No one pay attention about this. The “EWG”, ( Environmental Working Group), show a list of 12 worst additives that they are used in the food industry. In the other hand, food additives are defined for the “FDA” (Food and Drug Association) as "any substance which is expected rationally, which is a component of food”. This vague definition makes the lucrative industry of food additives, which will be worth 36.1 billion dollars for 2018, can take advantage of loopholes and behave in a way questionable. According to the FDA, if an additive "is generally recognized, among experts qualified as having demonstrated adequately be safe under the desired conditions of use" then it will not be subject to further testing. A third of the additives of the Dirty Dozen is labeled GRAS and are not tested by the FDA. The company that manufactures food additives is being carried out by more than 20% of the tests. It was discovered by researchers in the Journal of the American Medical Association. If you’re interested to learn more about this subject look at next link: http://www.ewg.org/research/ewg-s-dirty-dozen-guide-food-additives My advice you should eat as natural as you can. Try to avoid fast food and potted food your body will thank to you.