This week’s English Lunch we started (as usual!) with a warm-up looking at sayings and Idioms. Then we moved on to learn about Fred Dibnah who was a ‘steeplejack’, a steam engine enthuasist but also a real character from Bolton, England.
This idiom warm-up was on a newspaper article (fictional) contains lots of idioms – they’re not difficult to find but do you understand them all?
John Smith has made a name for himself by running a tight ship as the minister for sport. So, it was no surprise to his staff that he reportedly ‘went spare’ when he learnt what had been going on behind his back. Two of his leading managers had been feathering their own nests with government money intended for young people’s sports organisations. ‘Such behaviour is without question beyond the pale’ said Hamilton, ‘and the two people concerned have already been given the sack’
Now to Fred Dibnah… Firstly, if you want to watch just one video today that you will not forget (I promise), then let it be this one! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKPApAsJbj4
Fred was born in Bolton just before the war and became a steeplejack in the 1960s but became famous in the ’80s and 90s when the BBC made a TV series about him. Among other things Fred, with his wonderful Lancashire accent, was friendly, funny and of course fearless. Fred once set that he was never afraid of falling off and that he would die in bed ‘with me boots on’ – he died of cancer when he was just 66.
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