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er. But mainly you would feel relieved – no more worries, no more problems, everything is OK again – relieved. That is how I shall feel when my internet connection is back – relieved. 
In the meantime, I am using an internet cafe to upload my podcasts. It takes a lot longer to make and upload podcasts without an internet connnection at home. So, sorry, I do not have time to find a good picture to put on the website or your iPod screen to illustrate this podcast. And I may not be able to make another podcast until my internet connection is back. How will you feel about no new podcast next week? Will you be angry, or annoyed, or upset, or frustrated? Or will you feel relieved? I hope not!
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Eddie the Eagle 
Monday 07 January 2008 by Peter Carter 
Every four years, the Olympic Games are held. This year – 2008 – is an Olympic year. The games are to be held in Beijing in China. As well as the main Olympic Games, there are also the winter Olympics. The winter Olympics are for snow sports – things like ski-ing, ice-skating and bob-sleighing. Like the main Olympic Games, they take place every four years. They used to be held in the same year as the main Games; but now they are held in the year mid-way between the main Games. The last winter Olympics were in 2006; the next winter Olympics will be in 2010, in Vancouver in Canada.
Naturally, most of the winners in the sports at the winter Olympics are from countries with mountains and lots of snow – countries like Austria, Norway, Finland and Switzerland for example. In Britain, our mountains are quite small, and we do not have a lot of snow, so generally there are only a few British winners at the winter Olympics. But 20 years ago, in 1988, when the winter Olympics were held in Calgary in Canada, one of the British competitors became world famous. It happened like this.
Michael Edwards was 13 when he first when ski-ing on a school ski trip. He loved it. He also had a childhood ambition to be a stuntman. A stuntman is someone who acts the really dangerous bits in films – where people fall through windows, for example, or drive a car over a cliff. So Michael decided that ski-jumping should be his sport. In ski-jumping, the competitors ski very fast down a long, straight slope and onto a ramp. They then take off and fly though the air, and land 100 or 200 meters further on. It is slightly less dangerous than jumping out of an aeroplane with no parachute. You have to be very brave or very stupid to do ski-jumping. 
It is not easy to be a ski-jumper in Britain. There are, to start with, no ski jumps where you can practice. Michael went to some of the top French and Austrian ski-jumping coaches to ask them for advice. However, as he did not speak any French or German, this did not help him much. Also, Michael was short-sighted. He had to wear thick glasses, that often steamed up as he went down the ski slope, so that he could hardly see where he was going. But he kept on practising and training, and in 1987 he entered the world ski-jumping championships in Obertsdorf. There were 98 competitors. Michael came 98th. The press started to call him “Eddie the Eagle”. 
Eddie (as we will now call him) then asked the British Olympic Committee whether he could represent Britain in the ski-jumping event at the winter games in Calgary. There were no other British ski-jumpers. So the Committee agreed that he could go. He borrowed some skis, and set off for Calgary. In Calgary, Eddie was in competition with some of the finest ski-jumpers in the world. His best jump was 73.5 meters. To me, this seems a very long way to fly through the air with skis on one’s feet. But top-class ski-jumpers regularly jump 200 meters and more. So Eddie did spectacularly badly in the Games, but he became one of the best known people in Calgary. Everyone laughed about him; and wondered whether he would be taken away in an ambulance after his next jump. He waved to the television cameras, and shouted “Hello Mum, it’s me” before he set off down the ski slope. We British love a brave loser, so we loved Eddie.
The International Olympic Committee, the men in suits who run the Olympic Games, did not find Eddie amusing however. They changed the rules to make it much more difficult for someone like him to compete in future Games. The International Olympic Committee must be some of the most boring people in the world. So, at the next Winter Olympics in 2010, there will be some magnificent ski-ing, but there will be no-one like Eddie the Eagle.
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Eddie the Eagle on YouTube 
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Vocabulary note 
Eddie the Eagle - vocabulary note 
Monday 07 January 2008 by Peter Carter 
Here are some words connected to the Olympic Games which you may find useful:
the Olympic Games, or the Olympics 
the Olympics are held every four years, or the Olympics take place every four years. 
competition 
competitors 
to come first, second, 98th 
winner, gold medal, silver medal, bronze medal, gold medallist, silver medallist etc 
a record 
to break a record, to set a new record, a new world record, a new Olympic record 
an event (ie an individual sport, like the marathon, or ski-jumping) 
athletics 
winter sports 
stadium
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Listen to the podcast - then answer these questions
Show questions one by one 
The next Olympic Games will be held in China.
  ?    True 
  ?    False
Ice-skating is one of the sports at the winter Olympics.
  ?    True 
  ?    False
There are lots of British winners in the winter Olympics.
  ?    True 
  ?    False
Michael Edwards decided to be a ski-jumper because he did not like ordinary ski-ing
  ?    True 
  ?    False
Michael learnt French and German so that he could get help from top French and Austrian ski-jumping coaches.
  ?    True 
  ?    False
Michael came last in the ski-jumping championships at Obertsdorf.
  ?    True 
  ?    False
The press called him "Eddie the Eagle". What was his real name?
  ?    Michael Edwards 
  ?    Michael Jackson 
  ?    Eddie Carmichael
Eddie jumped over 200 meters at Calgary.
  ?    True 
  ?    False
After the Calgary Games, the Olympic rules were changed to prevent someone like Eddie from competing in future.
  ?    True 
  ?    False
The next winter Olympics are in 2009 in Vancouver in Canada.
  ?    True 
  ?    False
New Year 
Wednesday 02 January 2008 by Peter Carter 
It is 2008. Happy New Year, everyone. What did you do during the Christmas and New Year holiday? How did you celebrate New Year?
Traditionally in England, Christmas was our big winter celebration. Scotland was different. In Scotland, New Year was the more important celebration. On New Year’s Eve, on 31 December, Scotsmen wore kilts, and had parties where they danced traditional Scottish dances and welcomed the New Year with bagpipes. And we English? What did we do? Well, we either watched television programmes about Scottish people having a great party on New Year’s Eve; or we went to bed early.
But it isn’t like that today. The Scots still party on New Year’s Eve, but so do we in England. The Scots still have a huge street party in Edinburgh, the capital city of Scotland, with bands and singers and fireworks. But so do we in many cities in England. In London, for example, 700,000 people watched a great fireworks display on the river Thames. Of course, not everyone went to a New Year’s Eve party. But many of those who stayed at home watched other people having a party on television. Millions of people watched the London fireworks on television, for example. It is as if we all want to be part of a big national New Year’s Eve party.
Here are some other things which are typical of England at New Year. People visit friends and relatives. They go for walks in the country, or in the parks in towns. Some brave folk go for a swim in the sea or a river on New Year’s Day. People read books, or go to football matches, or write thank-you letters for the gifts they received at Christmas. Travelling at during the holiday is a particular adventure. There are traffic jams on the roads, and long queues at the airports, and our railway system is in chaos, because Christmas and New Year is the time when major engineering works take place. And we go shopping.
Traditionally, all the big stores had sales in January. They cut the prices of many of the things they sold, especially things like winter clothes or goods which they had not managed to sell for Christmas. There were lots of special offers, and people used to queue all night outside some of the stores, in order to get to the bargains first when the store opened. So what is different today? Only that the sales now begin immediately after Christmas. Indeed some stores begin their sales before Christmas Day. And now we can hunt for bargains on the internet as well as in the shops. The newspapers have reported that we British spent £84m buying things on the internet on Christmas Day.
But now it is January. The weather is dark and wet. The long Christmas and new Year holiday is over. It is time to go back to work. Time to lose some weight. Time to give up smoking. Time to pay our credit card bills. Happy New Year.
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Vocabulary note 
A lovely animated version of this podcast 
thanks to Renee Maufroid 
New Year - vocabulary note 
Wednesday 02 January 2008 by Peter Carter 
“So do we” means “we do the same thing”. Here are some more examples:
Our friends go for a walk in the country on New Year’s Day. So do we. 
Kevin goes to a party on New Year’s Eve. So does Joanne. 
On New Year’s Day, Kevin goes to a foortball match. So does his friend George. 
It is raining, and Kevin gets wet. So does George. 
I am going to the sales today. So is my mother. 
Next year we will go to France for a holiday. So will thousands of other people.
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