English in Madrid

From booze to black belts: Virginia's drunk raccoon suspected in karate shop break-in A raccoon that broke into a Virginia store and joyfully drank its way through the liquor aisle is now suspected of a wider crime spree , officials say. A Hanover animal control officer suspects the stripe-tailed mammal also broke into a nearby karate studio and then raided the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) for snacks. "Supposedly, this is the third break-in he's had," said Officer Samantha Martin. The raccoon, now nicknamed the " trashed panda", was first discovered passed out in the bathroom of the Ashland liquor store two days after Thanksgiving. After sobering up , the unlikely outlaw was released back into the wild . A new study found the masked mammals known for rummaging rubbish bins for easy food, are evolving and getting comfortable around humans. Ms Martin says it's only a matter of time before the masked bandit strikes the shopping centre a...

Italian cooking awarded Unesco cultural heritage status Italian cooking has been awarded special cultural heritage status by the United Nations' cultural agency Unesco. National favourites including pizza are already on Unesco's list of "intangible cultural heritage", but now Italian cooking traditions and the way they are practised and transmitted have been awarded. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who has been pushing for her country's cuisine to be recognised since her election, said: "For us Italians, cuisine is not just food or a collection of rec ipes . It is so much more: it is culture, tradition, work, wealth." For millions of fans the news confirms what they already believed - from Sicilian Cannoli to Calabrian 'Nduja - Italian is the best. The announcement was made during a Unesco assembly meeting in the Indian capital Delhi on Wednesday. The cultural agency described Italian cuisine as a "means of connecting with family and the com...

Have a look through these Christmas tweets. You can reply in X/Twitter or write a comment in the blog. Some of the links will take you to Lyrics Training - it's free! Click on Go to lyricstraining.com , press here to start the game and finally click on Maybe Later . #oldtweets Read about the Christmas switch-on in an English town 👇🏼and go through the #Quizlet : https://t.co/L4OMzYPHF0 #talkabout What do you think about the Christmas displays around Madrid? https://t.co/tgU7WiT1CU — English in Madrid (@madteacher72) December 1, 2025 BBC News - Abstract Christmas tree sparks protests in Brussels http://t.co/0Ew9yLUy Are you happy with the Xmas decorations where you live? — English in Madrid (@madteacher72) December 1, 2012 Here you'll find a Quizlet with an A-Z list of Christmas-related vocabulary: https://t.co/tKtOBPgW72 Here is an A to Z list (2 parts) of all things Christmassy. https://t.co/hNGfhka5gU — English in Madrid (@madteacher72) December 16, 2015 . You know th...

  ' Rage bait ' named Oxford word of the year 2025 Do you find yourself getting increasingly irate while scrolling through your social media feed ? If so, you may be falling victim to rage bait, which Oxford University Press has named its word or phrase of the year. It is a term that describes manipulative tactics used to drive engagement online, with usage of it increasing threefold in the last 12 months, according to the dictionary publisher. Rage bait beat two other shortlisted terms - aura farming and biohack - to win the title. The list of words is intended to reflect some of the moods and conversations that have shaped 2025. What is rage bait? Even if you don't know the term, if you're a social media user, it's quite likely you have been rage baited. According to Oxford University Press, which publishes the Oxford English Dictionary, it is defined as online content deliberately designed to elicit anger or outrage by being frustrating, provocativ...

Here are seven Phrasal Verbs that are worth learning: #CAE #speaking #PV Where do you see yourself in five years time? I COULD WELL BE in the same job I have now. I wouldn't RULE OUT workING abroad AT SOME POINT THOUGH. I MIGHT HAVE SETTLED DOWN and have a wife and two kids BY THEN. Who knows? https://t.co/kFYY298Keh — English in Madrid (@madteacher72) November 30, 2022 Spanish PM refuses to RULE OUT suspending Catalonia's autonomy https://t.co/VmxFV1YW2M #PV to rule out = not to consider (descartar) — English in Madrid (@madteacher72) October 8, 2017   #PV PULL OUT (OF STG) - to stop being involved in an activity e.g. The favourite PULLED OUT OF THE COMPETITION due to injury. e.g. After a long war, the Soviets PULLED THEIR TROOPS OUT OF Afghanistan in the 1990s. e.g. Lack of funding meant he had to PULL OUT. — English in Madrid (@madteacher72) January 14, 2020 As a child I used to watch it. Now it's just hyped up trash. I reckon the UK should pull out of the event...

'Why I queued for almost 24 hours for a jacket potato' On a grey and wet November morning, a queue of more than 150 people - which will later swell to over 400 - is stretching down Fargate in Sheffield city centre. Amelia Sorby, 33, stands proudly at the front of the queue after arriving at 18:30 the previous evening, armed only with a camping chair and a thick winter coat. The hordes of people have braved the weather for the official opening of Spud Bros – a jacket potato business started in Preston which has grown to become a TikTok sensation. Ms Sorby is one of about 4.8 million social media followers of the company's founders , brothers Jacob and Harley Nelson, but, for her, being part of the queue in rainy Sheffield is less about the spuds and more about the "great vibes ". "I didn't sleep last night. I was so excited, I just walked around," she explains. She describes the Nelson brothers as "great people" who " give some...

  Image created by Chat GPT This is Bessie. She literally fell into my life. I noticed her from my flat as I was feeding the pigeons. The only way that she could have got into the garden is from the roof of one of the surrounding buildings - and it's a big drop . She had her hiding place that was impossible for me to reach. It took me ten days before I could catch her. I fed her every day and night, hoping that she would trust me a bit more. I sat in the dark, occasionally with the torch of my mobile phone to see her and talked to her so that she would gain my trust. Eventually , I was successful. I took her to the vet to see if she had a chip so we could discover who her owner was. But she didn't have one. So she has ended up with me. She is only about a year old so she is very playful . She  follows me around like a dog and she is very affectionate . 🐾 Bessie in the Garden She watched me from the ivy ’s shade , Eyes like lanterns, half afraid. I left her food, and wh...

Valencia leader resigns over handling of deadly floods The president of Spain's Valencia region, Carlos Mazón, has resigned after months of pressure over his handling of flash floods last year. A total of 229 people died in towns in the Valencia region on 29 October 2024, with a further eight dying in neighbouring regions , in Spain's worst natural disaster for decades. Many in Valencia blamed   Mazón for the scale of the tragedy because of how he and his government responded that day. It emerged that the regional president had spent nearly four hours in a restaurant with a journalist, Maribel Vilaplana, while the floodwater was wreaking havoc  and he did not attend emergency meetings during much of the day. Mazón's government also failed to  issue an emergency alert to the phones of Valencia residents warning them of the floods and providing advice until after 20:00, by which time dozens of people had already died. "I can't go on anymore... I know that I...