A Message from Luke

8ixnenLbTHello listeners,

Things have been a bit quiet here at teacherluke.co.uk for the last couple of weeks, and I know that some of you are wondering what’s going on and if I’ve finally been abducted by some curious yet misguided aliens, or worse, I’ve lost my internet connection.

This is one of those letters that I write to my listeners sometimes when I can’t record a podcast. I still have an internet connection, thank goodness, and no the aliens haven’t made contact yet, although if that did happen hopefully they would still let me record episodes from inside their brightly lit spacecraft – I assume it would be brightly lit, but who really knows. Actually, I’d rather it was brightly lit, because dimly lit (or just dark) alien spacecraft are usually more sinister aren’t they? Nothing good happens in darkly lit* alien craft. In a brightly lit one though, the worst you can expect is to be observed, maybe have a probe inserted inside you in some way and then returned to earth with some stories to tell – which nobody will believe except some conspiracy theorists. *is it possible for something to be ‘darkly lit’? -discuss

ANYWAY, what’s been going on?

Well, nothing as exciting or indeed ridiculous as the previous paragraph of this message.

First of all, I’ve been ill with a particularly nasty case of flu, and in fact I’m still suffering. My throat in particular, has been sore and that means that talking for any length of time has not really been an option. So, I haven’t recorded anything over the last couple of weeks, and in fact I’m not sure when I will be able to record another episode soon. Not only have I been ill (and I still am a bit), I’m also entering a really busy period over the next few weeks.

The flu really struck me down. All the old wisdom says that your health is the most important thing, and that you should put that first, so that’s what I’ve been trying to do. Normally I don’t take much time off work but this week I missed a whole week’s worth of teaching. I’ve spent much of the time trying to rest, taking drugs, seeing the doctor, working from home and so on. Sometimes general life just stands between me and microphone.

Getting ill is extremely annoying as I’m sure you know. First of all it makes you feel rubbish, and then it prevents you from doing anything productive. I’ve been forced to lie around feeling sorry for myself when I’d much rather be getting things done – not just for LEP, but also for my work, and for the upcoming BIG EVENTS which are happening this year (I’m greedily getting married twice – to the same girl – and so is she, to me).

Having to miss just one week of teaching is going to make the near future quite tricky. I have to organise replacements for the classes I’ve missed, and this means adding even more teaching hours to my schedule over the next few weeks.

All of this means that I’m not sure when I’ll be able to record again soon. In busy periods I usually take advantage of windows of available time in my schedule to work on LEP – just recording new episodes, or doing lots of other work related to admin for the website, communicating with listeners and potential guests, and marketing of the podcast in general. I expect those windows of time will be taken up by other things over the next few weeks, so that means my microphone and recording equipment might stay switched off for a little while. So, for you, there may be more silence when you want new podcast episodes.

LEP will be back though, I promise, and my quietness is not a hiatus or a proper disappearance, or an ending or anything like that. It’s just that I’ve been abducted by aliens who are now in control of teacherluke.co.uk I’m really busy catching up with lots of important things. Remember, doing LEP is still something I juggle along with my job(s) and other valuable things. I’m getting closer to being able to do LEP as a job, but not just yet!

Thank you for reading all the way to the end of this message! You’re ace. As ever, please feel free to share your thoughts and practise some English in the comments section below, and remember – The Force will be with you, always…

Luke

P.S. Planet Earth is blue, and there’s nothing I can do…