Hi everyone,Well it's Jo from BBC Learning English again. I haven't written on here for a while, so I am really looking forward to writing to you and hearing from you again.I thought I would tell you about the busy weekend I had last weekend doing DIY at my Mum's house. So what is DIY? Well DIY stands for Do It Yourself - so it basically means things like painting and decorating, or things to make your house look different or nicer.My Mum lives in a very old house and she hasn't done any DIY for a while, so I have been helping her to spruce up the place a little. To spruce up means to improve the appearance of something.So I gave one of her rooms a much-needed lick of paint. A lick here means a small amount or a thin covering and we often say - to give something a lick of paint - meaning just to paint it.
Then we started on her living room. But before I could paint that - I had to try and remove the wallpaper. As I said the house is very old and once I started to remove the wallpaper or scrape it (scrape means to remove something using a sharp tool), I realised that there were not one, not two but about five layers, or sheets, of wallpaper. So many years ago someone had wallpapered the wall and then when the next person re-decorated, they just put wallpaper on top of that wallpaper. This kept happening over many years so that there were now five layers to remove from the whole wall!It was very hard work trying to remove it all by hand. It took two days and my arms really hurt afterwards! However, it was very interesting to see the different fashions in wallpaper and how those fashions have changed.In the UK now, a lot of people like very simple colours in their houses - and cream is a popular colour. But some of the wallpaper I removed was very brightly coloured with flowers and patterns on it. This was very fashionable in the 1960s and 1970s.So I want to know what your house/apartment/room looks like? What kind of colours are on the walls? What is fashionable in China right now? Are people interested in DIY? Before I go- an English expression actually comes to mind when I talk about painting - using the word paint, but it has nothing to do with painting. To paint the town red. What do you think this means? Let me know and I can tell you the answer next time.So send me a message - I really enjoy reading all your replies.Until the next time,Jo![]() |
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