It was the best of times, it was the worst of times….

Best in the sense that I was in the city of romance with my wife and we spent our time goofing around the exclusive 16ieme arrondissement. Our hotel was in the shadow of the Arc de Triomphe and when we entered cafes, restaurants and shops, we would be greeted with a cheery ,’Bonjour Monsiur/Madame!’ with none of the notorious Parisian froideur that I’d steeled her to expect. The Louvre was breathtaking, the Eifel Tower never loses its appeal and the food, particularly the patisserie products was a gastronomic slice of paradise…..

Worst? Oh gosh, was it cold! And boy was it expensive! The moment we stepped off the Eurostar, we didn’t fancy going straight into the Metro so we decided to gad about the Gare du Nord and find a nice cafe….. First bad thing: France has introduced a smoking ban…so the musty, deathly tang of Gitanes in the air was really notable by its absence. Even if one doesn’t smoke, you want your Parisian cafes to reek of the demon weed: anything else is as incongruous as seeing Jean Paul Sartre on a treadmill. Second bad thing; my modest beer in this modest cafe set me back 8 Euro! That’s £8! For a beer! A beer that didn’t have a lump of gold in it! There would not be much beer drunk on this trip.

It was nice, it was lovely, but it was also nice to get home. When I go out this Friday I certainly won’t grumble about bar prices!

Mike

Say what you like about The British Political System, but the fact remains that it remains a model for many countries throughout the world and has a long and distinguished history.
Some people say that you should never vote because the government always gets into power and while it’s very easy to understand such cynicism in light of the recent political scandals, I must admit that my experience yesterday was rather different….
As many of you must know by now, it has become increasingly difficult for non-European citizens to come to the UK to study English because of the tight restrictions introduced by the UKBA and many great language schools around the country, including our own are not happy about this.
Yesterday, I represented the English Studio at a lobby organised by English UK in The House of Commons, where we got the chance to present our case to various members of Parliament. I’m very pleased to report that my local MP Andy Slaughter came along to the meeting and took the time afterwards to talk about what he proposes to do to help us. It was very gratifying to be brought to the House of Commons tearoom and have the person you helped to elect actually take the time out to talk to tell you how they propose to help you.
Let’s hope that we will be able to get something done about this situation with our visa student restrictions, but it was great to know that Parliament is actually there to help the people, a fact that is often forgotten.
Mike

Hi guys,

I would like to remind you all about what you need to do to apply online. This will stop mistakes and will get you your oyster quicker.

Your course needs to be at least 14 weeks and you must be studying full time (5 days per week) and attending your classes.

You will have to pay by card, if you don’t have one, ask a friend.

You must upload a passport style photo (do not scan your passport). Anything else will be rejected. You can see some BAD photos above.

If all your details are correct you should receive your confirmation email from TFL within 3-5 days of applying.

Thanks for reading

Stuart