Paint the town red

What are your plans for tonight?

Will you be painting the town red?

No, I don't mean with a tin of paint but just having a good time and a party.

Why would you do that tonight? Is there something I should know about?

Here are some guys painting the town red.

Happy New Year!

Eyes bigger than your belly

Were you a bit of a piglet over Christmas? Maybe Babcia and Matka wouldn’t settle until you were totally immobilised and were still stuffing lumps of cake into your pockets as you left, to see you through the long journey home.

Maybe you just couldn’t resist temptation and you tried to eat more than you were able to. In other words, your eyes were bigger than your belly!

If that’s the case, you’d better watch this video now! (by the way - belly button is the hole in the middle of your tummy)

To make a mountain out of a mole hill

This is a mountain



And this is a mole hill (made by a mole - kret)



When you make a mountain out of a mole hill, you present a small problem as something very big.

It's like the snowfall in Britain.

'Arctic conditions,(-5), have brought the country to a standstill' - stress!

You can't judge a book by its cover

As the season of goodwill comes towards us, it's a good time to think about being kind to other people.

After all, the world is a dangerous place and there are a lot of scary people out there; people like The Scary Guy, my new buddy on Linkedin.

Just remember, don't judge the book by the cover; what's on the outside, doesn't always represent what's on the inside.

And the scariest challenge of all?

To love one's fellow man - like this:

In the hot seat

Have you ever been in the hot seat? Are you in it now?

No, it's not a heated seat but one that is in a critical, decision making situation.

Everything depends on you; you have to decide because you are in the hot seat.

Well - there was a programme in the UK, called Mastermind, where the hot seat, in this case - a big, black chair, was the focal point of this general knowledge quiz show.

It was an intellectual programme with difficult questions but very clever, well educated people.

However, sometimes the hot seat was just a bit too hot for them.

Framed!

A frame is the outside, wooden part of a photograph or picture.

You can frame a photograph or frame a person.

When a person say's they've been framed, it means they have been set up by the police to look guilty of a crime they didn't commit.

Still with me?

OK, so here's a popular TV show where members of the public send in their disastrous home movies.

You've been framed!

Fallen off the back of a lorry

I hope when you buy your Christmas presents, you won't buy anything that's fallen off the back of a lorry.

It might be a good price but it may well lead to problems - that's because the phrase means it's stolen.

Two of Britain's most popular villains are the Trotters. They will do anything to avoid work and usually buy and sell stolen and damaged goods.

Del Boy is the fast talking, clever con man but his brother Rodney, isn't so bright.

Here they are selling a car. One, careful owner only! Yeah sure.

Shop until you drop

It's the time of year when people do just that. They shop until they are exhausted - and broke!

It's particularly true in a city and anybody in Warsaw will know what I mean. It's crazy really and we all say we hate it. So why are the shops so crowded?

In the UK, there are many game shows based around consumer goods. Actually, I like game shows and I think they can be a fun way to learn language and understand a culture.

Here's one called Supermarket Sweep. Contestants answer questions which buy them time. The more time they win, the longer they have to race around the supermarket and fill their trolleys. Usually, it's about 90 seconds. That's about the right amount of time for Christmas shopping. Give your family members a big hug instead - that's worth much more and can never be forgotten, lost, broken or out of date!

Ah well, let's watch Dale Winton - he's a lot of fun!

Go down like a lead balloon

What happens if something goes down like a lead balloon?

Well, it falls very quickly.

It's a phrase to describe something that is badly received. For example, a play or a film. In work or social environments it could be a presentation that goes badly or a joke that doesn't work - so be careful what you say.

Of course, lead is a heavy metal so a balloon made of it would fall from the sky. It was probably the inspiration for another kind of heavy metal too.

Brass monkeys

Don't you think it's brass monkeys lately?

These are brass monkeys:



We use the phrase as a shortened version of - cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey!

But this is also a brass monkey - the frame on which cannon balls on ships were kept.



But in fact there is no historical evidence to support this!

So we go back to the original idea!

Here's a film about cold weather. Brrrrrr!