Hi JPR_Project,

Yes, such temperatures are hard to cope with. That’s why most people have air conditioning in their homes here in Australia.
Glad that you are doing all the podcasts. That will certainly improve your listening skills.
Best regards,
Rob

Thanks for your comment.You say : “46.4°C, recorded in February 2009, when the temperature exceeded 43°C for three consecutive days.
===>I’m not even going to mention it… we won’t survive with temperatures like that.
****P.S. : I follow your posts one after the other. I don’t skip any.
JPR_Project

Hi JPR,

Many thanks for your comment. I have experienced above 30 deg days in Europe so I agree that it can get hot there. Melbourne’s record high is 46.4 deg C in February 2009, when it was above 43 deg C for 3 consecutive days. You might be interested to check out my podcast about this period in the Melbourne region, when bushfires killed 173 people. https://slowenglish.info/podcast-23-black-saturday-february-7th-2009/. Sometimes average temperatures of 26-27 deg C don’t tell you the whole story.

Have a great day.
Rob

You say: “during the hot summer days in Melbourne.” (mdr) ===> SUMMER temperatures, I see on GOOGLE “January: 26°C – February: 27°C,” but in France today we have 38°C. It’s extremely hot.

“DURING MY VISIT TODAY, I bought some JUICY PORK.”==>In France, we don’t talk about “juicy pork”… yuck! We talk about a tender cut of pork.

I was surprised by the expression “WITHOUT ANY,” which I thought was a double negative, but in fact it is perfectly correct, natural, and even very useful in English, especially to emphasize a total absence and reinforce the idea of “absolute zero.”

Hi Ignacio,
Many thanks for your comment. Yes, ‘short for’ is quite a common phrase which means a shortened form of, or an abbreviation of, a phrase. For example, ‘etc’ is short for ‘etcetera’.
This weekend is indeed the F1 race here in Melbourne. However, it is near the centre of the city which is about 30km from where we live on the outskirts of Melbourne. So there is no effect really on us personally. However my wife and I were in the city today to go to a show at the Victorian Arts Centre and we could just hear the F1 car engines as we walked down the street. There is certainly some impact on those who live near the track. Every year there is a protest group who don’t want the F1 race to be at the Albert Park track. Every year they make their protest but the F1 race goes on with thousands of car loving Australians attending. It also brings a lot of visitors to Melbourne and they spend money so it is good for the economy. We also have a MotoGP motorcycle race here each year at the Phillip Island track, which is about 90 minutes from Melbourne. Motorcyclists attend in their thousands and I think it is great. We also have the Superbikes which attracts large crowds at the same track. I have driven my car in club sprints around the Phillip Island race track and it is a wonderful high speed track.
That’s interesting to learn about the markets in Spain. I love these sort of places as they are always full of colour and the food is generally cheap.
Thanks again for your excellent comment.
Have a great day.
Rob

I have a question. When you say that Deli market “is short for Delicatessen Hall” short means near? I´ve never heard the construction to be short for.

This weekend, there, in Melbourne, you have the F1 race. How that affects your daily life?
In Spain, we had two races, in Barcelona and Valencia just a couple of years ago. Now, because of the crisis, Valencia´s race has disappeared of the championship.
In Jerez, where I live, we have a track and a race for motorcycles. As a rider, I suppose you´ve been a supporter of Casey Stoner and Mike Dooham. The weekend when the race takes place, Jerez is invaded by motorcycles. I try not to take the car, because there are thousands of them in the roads. But it´s a good promotion for the town and a good source of money.

Street markets are everywhere in the south of Spain. Yes, they are a very pleasant place to go. You can find “plazas” (squares) which are buildings where food is sold and are open from Mondays to Saturdays and “mercadillos” (literally small markets), in the streets, where clothes are sold, although also some food which usually only open once or twice a week.
The best of this kind of markets is that you usually only buy what you really need: fruit, meat o vegetables. However, when you go to a supermarket the temptations are too strong and always buy some candies or snacks. I´ve got two kids and I try to teach them that fruit is healthier than other things. I´m worry because nowadays kids reject to eat fruit. Some years ago, I went to Norway and it was surprising how kids ate a lot of fruit.

Sorry for the too long comment. Thank you for your postcast and for showing to the world your hometown.