It’s been four decades since I was last a child, but it seems like yesterday.
Doesn’t life just whizz past in a way that, when you’re young, you never imagined could happen?
They did warn me but, of course, I didn’t listen.
Anway, one vivid memory of being a boy is of Christmas, and of receiving a plain white envelope from my grandmother.
As every year, the envelope contained a £5 note, which was a lot of money back then.
£5 was many multiples of any sum I would see for the whole of the rest of the year.
And so it afforded many possibilites…
The problem was that, on Christmas Day and Boxing Day (Santo Stefano in Italy), there was absolutely no way to spend the cash.
The Internet didn’t exist back then (when I tell my kids about the days before smartphones and ecommerce, they nod politely, but don’t really believe me…)
The nearest shops were the newsagent’s and a post office, both closed on bank holidays.
Though the newsagents had a chocolate bar vending machine bolted to its outside wall.
(Here’s a picture I found down memory lane: https://goo.gl/images/fieUvA )
Frustratingly, there was no way to get a £5 note into it.
And so I had no alternative but to pace about for a couple of days until the shops opened.
Every year my mother recognised immediately what the problem was.
My money was burning a hole in my pocket!
Well OF COURSE it was.
Should you win the lottery this Sunday evening, when you have no champagne on ice and the Ferrari dealership is closed, you’d feel the same way.
The next problem, of course, was what to spend it on.
10-year-old me had little trouble with that – I’d hot foot it into town and head straight to the ‘Pram and Toy Shop’.
(Another picture from memory lane, courtesy of Google: https://goo.gl/images/fYQqR2 )
Besides prams, they had everything you could possibly desire in the way of train sets, model-making supplies, remote controlled aircraft, and a multitude of irresistable knick-knacks.
Back to 2017 and, hey, what’s the point of all this reminiscing?
Ah yes.
This week we have our Autumn/Fall sale, so I’m supposed to be writing about what you could do if you had a crisp fiver in a white envelope (or the modern equivalent) and were anxious to spend it on something to boost your Italian..
Well, if in doubt, check to see what the other kids are spending THEIR pocket money on!
Which is:
Ten 30-minute online Italian lessons, with a club teacher, £150, reduced to £120 with the coupon code (see below). That’s just £12 per lesson! (Or get them for the same price but in euros which is slightly less, in our ‘old’ shop here.)
What else? The Tenses You Need To Speak Italian is a self-study workbook. This was one of our earliest ebooks and is still our best-seller. Check out the free sample chapter to see how much fun you’ll have with it!
And not to forget the ‘Italian Workout‘ series of self-study workbooks! We have five levels, each comprising an ebook and several mp3 audio tracks, in a zipped folder. The first QUARTER of each ebook (and a couple of mp3s) come as a ‘free sample chapter’, that way you can see whether the material would suit you before relieving that burning sensation…
Click here, choose the level or levels that interest you, click on the cover image, and look for the ‘free sample chapter’ link.
P.S.
You’ll find full details about the Autumn/Fall sale in yesterday’s article.
The coupon code you need to save 20% on anything (everything!) in our online store is:
autumn_sale_2017_save_20%!
‘Spend’ it here.
A domani!