Cockles!

When you live in London, it’s sometimes nice to have a day out of the city to get away from it all. Leigh-on-Sea is one of the places we sometimes go to as it’s not too far, doesn’t cost an arm and a leg to get to and feels a world away from London! It’s a bit chavvy but I like the fact that it’s genuine and not pretentious. It hasn’t undergone the gentrification of some places and feels true to itself. When we got there on Sunday, it was high tide and the little boats were bobbing about on the water - I like it best like this. In low tide, you can’t see any water at all and the mudflats stretch for miles. There’s a different atmosphere but it still has a kind of desolate beauty.

We walked passed the cockle sheds and along the blustery seafront before visiting a teeny fisherman’s cottage in the Heritage Centre. It was laid out just as it had been in the mid 19th century with two rooms downstairs, one room upstairs and an outside loo! There was an old Welsh Dresser, a small range and flagstone floors. It was unbelievable to think that a family of ten had lived there!

We finished up sitting in our favourite pub, The Crooked Billet, tucking into fish and chips beside a roaring fire. Happy days!

Glossary

1. to get away from it all (phrase)
To have a break
2. to cost an arm and a leg (idiom) 
to be very expensive
3. a world away from (phrase)
Very different from something else
4. chavvy (adj. slang)
This is difficult to define! It is the kind of style that some people have - just think of 'Little Britain'!
5. pretentious (adj.)
Pretending to be something you are not
6. to undergo (verb)
To go through something
7. gentrification (noun)
the process of change that some poor areas go through when they become middle class.
8. to be true to oneself (phrase)
To be honest about how you are
9. high tide (noun)
When the water in the sea is at its highest level
10. bobbing about (phrasal verb)
When something is floating on water and moves around.
11. low tide (noun)
When the water in the sea is at its lowest level
12. mudflats (noun)
Areas of land that you can see when it is low tide.
13. stretch (verb)
To continue for a certain distance
14. desolate (verb)
A place that is empty
15. cockle sheds  (noun)
Little buildings that sell a type of shellfish
16. blustery (adj.)
Windy
17. teeny  (adj.)
very small
18. heritage centre (noun)
A small museum
19. to be laid out (phrasal verb - passive)
To be arranged
20. loo  (noun)
A toilet
21. Welsh Dresser  (noun)
A large wooden piece of kitchen furniture that has shelves for plates and bowls at the top and a chest of drawers at the bottom.
22. a range  (noun)
An old-fashioned cooker that is heated by fire. Some modern cookers are also called ranges but these are different.
23. flagstone  (noun)
Large stones that are used on floors
24. to finish up  (phrasal verb)
To be in a particular place at the end of a series of events
25. tucking into  (phrasal verb)
To eat something with enthusiasm
26. roaring (adj.)
If a fire is roaring, it is burning well and produces a lot of heat.
27. Happy days (phrase) Used literally to mean that life is good.

EXERCISE

• Fill in the missing words

• They are all from the glossary above

• Try not too look at the glossary (learn the words before you do the quiz)

• If you need a clue, click on the little 'note' symbol.