Sep 17, 2018
There's nothing like(1) being in a crowd
of 60,000 people. There's nothing like it, if they are all happy
and dancing to the same music. Yes, you guessed it; I went to a
concert with 59, 997 temporary friends. We were all happy to be
together. I took my daughter and a friend of hers, and I was as
excited as they were. Ed Sheeran was the main singer of the
evening. I pride myself in(2) being a sort of up-to-date mum, so I
was already familiar with some of his songs, and what he looks
like. And he's English, so that was a plus for me. He actually
chatted a lot in between songs, and came across as a very friendly,
intelligent person.
As far as his performance goes, he was dynamic, and gave a good rendition of all of his most popular songs. I was impressed with the fact that he was by himself on stage. He used a 'loop' machine to create his music by instantaneous recording of himself. It worked really well. How clever! The girls and I were unfortunately up in what we call 'the nose bleeds' which means that the seats were really high up in the stadium, quite far away from the main guy. Ed Sheeran, luckily, is a redhead, and so we didn't have to strain(3) our eyes too badly to see him. We could see a flash of red jumping and running around the stage; I assume it was him.... Though we had seats, most of the concert we spent dancing on the spot with everyone else around us. The energy in the stadium was electric. From our seats we could also see the sea with ferries coming and going, as the stadium is not enclosed. It was quite a night.
1. 'There's nothing like + gerund/ object'
This is a way of saying that something is the best.
a. There's nothing like my grandmother's chocolate cake; I've never tasted a better one.
b. There's nothing like hiking in the mountains with friends.
c. There's nothing like a cool drink of water after a hot day of work outside.
d. There's nothing like opening the envelope that has your grades, and seeing all A's.
2. 'To pride yourself in +noun/adjective'. This is quite self-explanatory:
a. He prides himself in his work.
b. She prides herself in her dedication to her instrument.
c. They pride themselves in their charitable organization.
3. 'To strain' is a useful verb which means to over-use and therefore to hurt.
a. He strained his back by carrying heavy boxes the wrong way.
b. I didn't have my glasses so I had to strain my eyes to read the medicine bottle.
c. Stretching before exercise can help reduce strains.