Example: Sit down, please.

The best city in the world

This year Sydney, Australia was voted the best city in the world. As an Australian, I feel very happy about that but my blog isn’t about Sydney. I’m Francesca Williams, from the city of Melbourne, where I’ve lived all my life. I’d like to tell you why I think my home city is better than Sydney.

I’m an actress and I’m working in Melbourne at the moment but I often work in Sydney because they make a lot of TV programmes there so I know the city well.

People say the best thing about Sydney is Bondi beach. I went there in January and it was sunny but windy. The beach was busy and it was noisy because there were so many people. My city is on the south coast and there are wonderful, quiet beaches without many tourists.

Melbourne is also famous for old, interesting buildings, such as the Chinese museum, and there are exciting street markets you can visit. There’s a very modern Arts Centre too but of course, the Opera House in Sydney is the most famous concert hall in Australia.

Melbourne has a very good public transport system with buses, trains and trams. If you want to use your car, the roads here are straight and you can drive easily and safely. In Sydney you get lost in ten minutes because there are a lot of roads you can’t drive down!

Finally, there are many different nationalities who live in Melbourne so there’s an enormous variety of foreign food to enjoy. My favourite food is Italian but you can eat all kinds of European and Asian food. Tomorrow night I’m going to try a new Mexican restaurant which has opened recently. Read my next blog for my food review!

Memories and Music on a Desert Island

Memories and Music on a Desert Island BBC radio started broadcasting in 1927 and some of the programmes it broadcasts today are almost as old. One programme that has a long history is Desert Island Discs . For over 70 years, people from all parts of society and the world have been invited to go on the programme to talk about some of the special or interesting things that have happened to them and choose eight pieces of music that hold a special memory or meaning for them.

The people who have been on Desert Island Discs range from actors and musicians to scientists and politicians. Some people are less in the public eye but have made great contributions to society, such as pioneering surgeons and scientists. It can be interesting and surprising to hear about the fascinating lives of these less-well-known guests.

 So what kind of music do people choose as their favourite tracks? The music is often classical but there are also a lot of modern songs, too. The author J. K. Rowling chose a mixture of music that ranged from the Beatles to Beethoven. In-between each track, she talked about her life, telling listeners about her time as a schoolgirl, and the train trip that inspired the Hogwarts Express and Harry Potter, her most famous creation. Princess Margaret, the sister of the British Queen, Elizabeth II, chose military music and also a rock song among her tracks.

At the end of the programme, once the guest has talked about his/her chosen songs and the impact they have had on his/her life, it’s time to make some important decisions. The question is this: If you were sent to live on a desert island on your own, what music track, what book and what luxury item would you take with you? A book that is often chosen is War and Peace by Tolstoy, perhaps this is because it is a very long book. The luxury item can be anything as long as it is not practical and sometimes people ask for very strange things. One comedian asked for a tin of baked beans and lots of people have asked for chocolate, which would almost certainly melt on a desert island.