December, the 1st

Well, the day is almost over and I have to sum up.
First,  I've been talking to Jeffrey for the first time today! We've been talking (for the most part that is he who has been talking) for about half an hour. It was really great. I like his pronunciation very much. I hope we will talk now and then.
Secondly, I listend to two episodes of Luke's English podcast. They were numbers 86 and 87. They were pretty good.
Number 86 was about criminal law, it had some legal English. I've decided to copy the vocabulary fro, his site.
VOCABULARY
Homicide = The killing of another person
Suicide = The taking of one’s own life
Murder = An intentional act of homicide
Manslaughter = An act of homicide which does not include intention, but for which the defendant is responsible. E.g. A man gets drunk and drives home. He can’t control the car and so he kills a pedestrian.
Attempted murder = The crime of attempting to kill someone, but failing
Involuntary manslaughter = An act of manslaughter in which the person is guilty of killing someone but they didn’t want to and did it completely by accident
Mitigating factors = These are factors which make a crime less serious. E.g. in an act of murder if the murderer is not of sound mind, or if they kill the person because they are forced to.
Aggravating factors = These are factors which make a crime more serious. E.g. if an assailant or attacker uses a weapon, or if a murder involves excessive cruelty or pre-meditation.
Assault = The crime of hurting someone, usually physically.
Aggravated assault = More serious than assault because this involves a weapon or serious physical damage.
Commit = A verb used with all the above-mentioned crimes. E.g. to commit murder, to commit suicide (not technically a crime). It just means ‘do’ but it’s the appropriate term when referring to crimes.

In episode number 87 Luke and his cousin presented 6 phrasal verbs and 6 idioms. It was a kind of a game when they were talking and you had to catch these verbs and idioms in their chat. I have to admit that it was rather difficult.
The 6 Phrasal Verbs
(Luke’s phrasal verbs all begin with the letter L)
To lapse into something “I lapsed into a dream” -to go down into a different state
To let up “The snow just doesn’t let up” -to stop
To lust after something “They always lust after a big news story in the paper” -to really want something in a sexual way
To lash out at something “They lash out at criticism” -to react aggressively to something
To leaf through something “It’s nice to have a cup of tea and leaf through the paper” -to slowly turn the pages of a book or paper
To laugh something off “They just laugh off the criticism” -to deal with criticism by just laughing about it
The 6 Idioms
(Oli’s begin with the letter M)
To be no match for someone/something “This boxer is no match for Mike Tyson” -he’s not as good as Mike Tyson
To take matters into your own hands “He took matters into his own hands” -to take control of a situation yourself
To get a dose of your own medicine “He’s going to get a dose of his own medicine tonight” -to experience for yourself bad things which you normally do to others”
To take a trip down memory lane “Looking at those old photos made me take a trip down memory lane” -to make you remember something
To make a mental note “When you have an iPhone you don’t need to make a mental note” -to remember something
To take the mickey out of someone “They kept taking the mickey out of me for my new haircut” -to make fun of someone, to tease someone.

Thirdly, I've listened to the first chapter of 'Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets'. It is read by Stephen Fry. He reads just wonderful. I'll definitely go on listening to this audiobook. Unfortunately, I haven't managed to read a lot but only two  pages of the third chapter.

Fourthly, I have done Unit 8 from 'A good turn of phrase' or, to be more precise, the second part of it. Sometimes it is difficult to understand if these idioms are used nowadays or they are old-fashioned. 
 
Finally, I think that today was a very good day. I know that I have to work hard every day in order to get good results, that is why tomorrow I will keep on doing this.