7. My working day

On week-days the alarm-clock wakes me up and my working day begins.

It is six o’clock. If it is spring or summer I jump out of bed, run to the window

and open it wide to let the fresh morning air in. In winter I am not so quick to

leave my bed, and I bury my head under the pillows pretending not to hear the

alarm-clock. But all the same, it is time to get up and I start getting ready for my

work.

I make my bed and go to the bathroom where I brush my teeth and have a

shower. While I am having breakfast, I turn on my tape-recorder and listen to

pop-music. Breakfast, as my parents say, must be the most substantial meal of

the day. But usually neither my mother nor me have any time to cook it, so I just

have a cup of tea or coffee and some sandwiches. I leave my house at ten

minutes past 7, and, as I live quite near the bus stop, I am there in five minutes.

It takes me about twenty minutes to get to the University. Our classes start at a

quarter to eight. We usually have 3 or even 4 classes a day. They last six or eight

hours. It is not easy to study at the University.

My working day is not over even when the classes come to an end,

because I have a lot of work to do at home. It usually takes me about three hours

to get ready for the next working day. But when at last my working day is over I

feel both tired and satisfied.

Sometimes in the evening my friends come to my place and we talk or

play; sometimes we go for a walk, but not very often. I go to bed at about eleven

o’clock.

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8. My Day-off. Hobby

The Weekend

Most people in Britain work five days a week from Monday to Friday.

Schools, colleges and universities are closed on Saturday and Sunday.

Weekend starts on Friday evening when people leave work and wish each

other a nice weekend.

Those who work away from home may go home. Some people go away

for the weekend. They stay in a hotel or boarding house in the country or at the

sea.

People who stay at home at the weekend try to relax, enjoy themselves.

On Friday night people like to go to a bar for the happy hour, or the theatre.

Nowadays it is not "in" to go to all-night parties, they get up early on Saturday

morning. Saturday morning is the time for cleaning the house, washing the car,

doing the laundry. Women usually do housework, sewing and gardening.

Saturday morning is a busy time for shopping. On weekdays shops close

between 5.30 and 6 p.m. (They're closed on Sundays.) The shops in the centre of

big cities usually close at one in the afternoon.

At about one o'clock people go out for lunch. After lunch they go for a

walk or do some sports. On Saturday afternoon sporting events take place -

football, horse-racing, rugby, cricket and other sports. People either go and

watch or sit and watch the sports programmes on television.

Saturday evening is the favourite time for going out: parties, dances or

theatre, maybe pictures. Some people like to go to watch a band.

Church bells are a typical feature of an English Sunday morning. On

Sunday morning most people stay in bed till 9 o'clock. Then they have a cup of

tea or coffee. They look through the newspapers. Reading Sunday papers is one

of numerous traditions in Britain. There are quite a number of papers which are

published weekly on Sundays.

After breakfast most people go for a walk or to the local pub. Usually men

go to the pubs alone and their wives and children prepare for brunch.

At one or 1.30 people have brunch. It is a good time for all the family,

when grandparents, parents and children go out to some restaurant and spend an

hour or two over brunch. Brunch is a huge meal. They have all sorts of salads,

vegetables, chicken, cold meat, pies, fruit, coffee, pudding.

Sunday evenings are rather quiet. Most people prefer to stay at home and

watch television or just get ready for Monday. So they usually have an early

night.

Hobbies

A hobby is a favourite occupation of a person in his free time.

There are more than 1000 personal interests and ways to spend one's free

time. The most popular hobbies are stamp-collecting, collecting view cards,

match-box tops, badges, stones, flowers, shells, coins and books.

Gardening and cultivation of flowers, especially roses, is the most

common hobby of all among Englishmen.

Some people are interested in photography. They like taking off old

buildings: palaces, castles, churches and old houses of historical interest. And

some of people like to take photos of friends when they don't know they are

being photographed. Others are interested in video films and they record family

events there.

Playing a musical instrument, watching TV, swimming, fishing and

watching birds are also popular leisure activity in Britain.

A useful hobby is collecting tape recordings. You may have recordings of

operas, light music, folk music and concerts.

It's impossible to describe all these 1000 hobbies known in the world. The

main thing is that they increase your knowledge in some particular field and

broaden your outlook.

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