Writing Challenge: Live from the Penguin Cam

This morning I have visited this cam and there happened to be two penguins.

I supposed they are two guys and here goes my story:

Outgoing: Look! She's back! Come and tell her, NOW!

Shy: Hey, it's like a piece of cake for you, but I don't think I can. Anyway, it doesn't have to be against the clock. Haste makes waste, and we have lots of time, you know!

Outgoing [sounds angrily]: No more excuses! It's high time you told her how you feel about her. Your one-sided love drives me up the wall. I have to see it every day, you know.

Shy [sighs]: Oh, I'm between a rock and a hard place. I know, you and other friends have said positive words about me to her. But what if this is a flash in the pan?

Outgoing: You have to do this sooner or later. I'm telling you; this love can't last until the cows come home. You have been having this crush on her for nearly 5 years (penguin year). Just wear your heart on your sleeve, that's all.

Shy: OK, you're right. But I need a dry run. Can you be her for a moment? I'll say my words and you tell me if it's OK or not, OK?

Outgoing: Sure [can't be more curious to hear the words].

Shy [breathes deeply, sincerely looks into Outgoing's eyes]: Dear Beauty, my heart to you is given. Oh, do give yours to me. We'll lock them up together. And throw away the key.

Outgoing: What can I say?! You must have spent hours searching those words on Google [That's exactly what Shy did :D]. It's perfect!

Shy: Really? You think everything will go well if I say those words to her? Please tell me you are not pulling my leg!

Outgoing: This will work without a doubt. I'm as honest as the day is long! Break a leg, mate!

Shy: OK. I can't thank you enough! Here I go.

Explanations:

A Piece of Cake: A task that can be accomplished very easily.

Against The Clock: Rushed and short on time.

Haste Makes Waste: Quickly doing things results in a poor ending.

It's High Time: If you say it's high time that something happened, you mean that it should already have been done.

Drive Someone Up The Wall: To irritate and/or annoy very much.

Between A Rock And A Hard Place: In difficulty, faced with a choice between two unsatisfactory options.

Flash In The Pan: Something that shows potential or looks promising in the beginning but fails to deliver anything in the end.

Until The Cows Come Home: For a very long time

Wear Your Heart On Your Sleeve: To openly and freely express your emotions.

Dry Run: Rehearsal.

Pull Someone's Leg: Trick someone as a joke.

Without A Doubt: For certain.

Be As Honest As The Day Is Long: To be completely honest

Break A Leg: A superstitious way to say "good luck" without saying "good luck", but rather the opposite.

I Can't Thank You Enough: A polite expression of gratitude.

This is the site where I took above idioms from (and I also searched for better meanings from other sites).

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Many thanks to my sister Mitran for encouraging me to take part in this challenge!

And I greatly thank teacher Tara for helping me correct some mistakes!

Tags: Corrections, Penguins, Writing Challenge

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SpamBuster Comment by Ha Nguyen on October 13, 2012 at 11:41: It's so nice to see your comment, Bimal!

I think your English is much better than mine, really. The evidence is, I'm lazy of reading your blogs since there are too many new words for me :P About this blog, I guess watching animation movies helped me a lot in writing it :D

Yes, most of us are learners who want to improve English skills. On EC, we're really lucky to have good teachers to ask for help whenever we need. In my opinion, we do learn a lot when reading good blogs written by advanced learners and/or corrected by teachers, but on the other hand, we also learn when reading blogs with mistakes, since we can recognize the mistakes and try not to make the same ones when writing. So, reading blogs on EC does help us to improve our English.

Your habit of reading blogs on EC every day is really admirable to me, Bimal! I'll try to read more and more :)

Thanks so much for your great comment!

Comment by Bimal on October 12, 2012 at 21:26: Dear Ha Nguyen,

It is an outstanding performance! Actually, my English is not of that standard to analyze and write a comprehensive remark in relating to your blog. However, I read blogs in EC as a habit and learn something new every day. What I feel that reading blogs of other members is a good habit to improve English in different aspects. I think we have a good panel of English teachers in EC, and they always help us (through my experiences) to make our blogs correct in grammar. And also, their suggestions and guidance are very useful to improve our writing skills. Different members write blogs on different topics on their interest and whatever it is; our ultimate objective is to improve our knowledge in English. (Am I correct?)Hence, if we have a good collection of blogs in EC, (good collection means “blogs edited by our precious teachers”), we can exploit it as a valuable source every day.

Good Luck!

Bimal

SpamBuster Comment by Ha Nguyen on July 27, 2012 at 12:27: Yeah, no doubt, Sis Mitran :) Look at your current avatar, I feel like you should be my Y.Sis *kidding* You'll always be my sister, I don't want you to become my mom :D

SpamBuster Comment by Ha Nguyen on July 27, 2012 at 12:25: Hahaha... Thank you, Sis Charos, for your great comment :) Here, I took all those idioms from this site, and also searched some better explanations from other sites :) Thanks again, dear Sis! :)

SpamBuster Comment by Ha Nguyen on July 27, 2012 at 12:14: @ Butterfly: My dear, thanks a lot for leaving a lovely comment on my blog :)

@ Expector Smith: Thank you in advance for your praise, Sir. I really admire your English. I'll keep learning and practicing and hopefully, someday my English could reach your level :)

Comment by mitran on July 27, 2012 at 12:11: Ha, the answer is very easy. Because I'm young..ehehehe.....

SpamBuster Comment by Ha Nguyen on July 27, 2012 at 12:10: Dear teacher Tara,

Wow, you made my day with your comment, I'm as honest as the day is long :)

Thank you so much for the corrections, I'll correct them now.

SpamBuster Comment by Charos on July 27, 2012 at 12:07: Wowowow, Dear Sis, it seems that I missed an amazing and funny idioms pool here! You know what? I wish i had a rich vocabulary like those penguins have!!! lol... Bravo, Ha, excellent job! :))

SpamBuster Comment by Ha Nguyen on July 27, 2012 at 12:04: Dear teacher Anele,

I really appreciate each and every comment of yours. You're right, I really felt that way when I was writing this blog. Without Mitran, this blog wouldn't exist :) I don't know why but I feel more comfortable calling her my sister rather than my mom :D

And thank you so much for the compliment! I'll keep practicing without a doubt! :)