In no time : very quickly

we finished the excercise in no time.

At times: sometimes, ocasionally

I like eating chocolate at times.

Take your time: do something without hurrying

You have enough time to finish the excercises, so take your time.

Have the time of your life: enjoy yourself very much

When I was a child a score the first goal I had the time of my life.

Give somebody a hard time: make a situation unpleasant or difficult for somebody.

he recently lost his job, it gave him a hard time.

Ahead of time: so modern that people don’t understand it

I had a colleague so intelligent at the school, that when he made a brilliant question, I had the impression that he was ahead of time.

Time after time : again and again; repeatedly

In order to pass this important exam, you have to check all the exercises time after time.

About time : used to say that something should already have happened.

Peter has finally bought a new house... it was about time.

At a time : on each occasion

Remember that last time your car had a flat tyre, then don’t forget to check the pressure at a time.

In the nick of time : only just in time

I‘ve saved the document in the nick of time, just before the battery was empty.

On time : do something without hurrying.

I took a taxi in order to arrive at the airport on time, otherwise I could miss the flight.

In time : not late

I’m having a lot of problems to solve these math exercises, you just arrived in time to help me.

For the time being : just for the present, not for long.

I have a lot of stress in my job, I can’t sleep very well, and for the time being I‘m desperately looking for a new job.

One of the most beautifil moments I remember was the family meetings that took place normally on Sundays in my uncle Emilio´s house, which has a big room at that time for this purpose, to gather all the family by lunch. We talked each other about all happened since last summer and I felt like and adult among them, despite the fact that I was only a child, and that made me feel special in some way. I was only a little bit naughty child who wanted to live his own silly adventures, of course, and for that reason I had the impression that I was a pirate with my own crew, which was composed of my closest friends, who came from another cities around Spain and spent their summers there like me. This crew although had no captain, no leadership figure was required, cause we all shared the same feelings of adventure and freedom and made all decisions together.

We used to ride our bicycles all day long as the village patrol looking for some action to be taken and feeling connected as brothers. There were however another childish gangs, with whom we were bluffing and competing all the time, playing football matches or racquetball in pairs. It was a healthy rivalry by the way.

As pirates we followed no rules, what was quite exciting and thrilling but nothing to be worried about, just only childish stuff.

Our favourite criminal act was plundering in the gardens to get some free carrots and if we were lucky maybe some apples if no watchdog was there at that moment. We had to put our genius to work on that, we devised a flawless plan to commit the offense without leaving a trail… two of us watched each side of the path, another one was watching the bikes and I was the evildoer, who jump over the fences or walls with a bag in hand to collect all the carrots and some fruits if possible. The act couldn´t take more than two minutes in order not to put in jeopardy the operation. I really was born to do that. We did that from time to time when were really tired and hungry. We weren´t too much greedy.

Before ending my story, I´d like to highlight another special moment for me. I refer to the moment of threshing the barley, what was quite hard but amusing too. You had to wake up very early in the morning and walk to the patch with a cart full of barley pulled by a donkey. We unloaded all the barley and spread it around the patch. We came back to the stable to full another cart of barley, we did this way so many times till the stable was empty. Then we spread the barley more carefully and uniformly along the patch, once done we set up the thresher that looked like a sled. We tied up the thresher to the donkey, one of us placed on the thresher and made the donkey with the leads wander along the patch in circular ways, smashing all the barley spread. After several backs and forth we had to pick up all the smashed barley and load it to the cart and then bring it back to the stable, so many times are required. We worked hard without shirt and with a handkerchief on the head to protect us from the sun. The picture you can see, it´s me as the king of the day.

Sergio and Liliana

Nowadays, many people have been working at home due to the pandemy. There are some  detractors who are against the idea of keeping home working after the pandemy. We think that home working instead of a problem has become an opportunity to make a profit.

First , the costs of the company are reduced, cause people don’t work at the companies, the owners can save some money, as consumption of water  and electricity is minor than before the pandemy. Besides they can look for another smaller place to rent, cause not so much space is needed.

Secondly, the number of travelers falls drastically, no more traffic jams to suffer, resulting in the pollution  levels decreasing, comproving the environment situation. At least a simple solution for the pollution has been found and it implies no investment. So good so far. 

But nevertheless, on the other hand, there are a few questions to be reviewed about the situations inside the home. Specifically the family organization against functional work. Many people at the lockdown discovered a lot of drawbacks: separate  times to care childrens and time to do office work, was the principal issue. 

For this reasons we thinking the working at home is an important solution for the environment, But this option is available  for only for a part of some  employees. 

Firstly, the costs of the company are reduced, as people are no longer working at the office, management can save some costs such as electricity, water and renting too. Management can afford to look for another smaller place to be rented where new offices can be placed.

Secondly, travel by car falls drastically, no more traffic jams in which to be stuck, resulting a pollution emissions decrease. Environment pollution is the foremost problem of the world nowadays. No significant investment is related to Home Office and due to that fact pollution rate drops. Take into account that current measures thought to protect the environment are quite expensive and besides many powerful industries like automotive fears the negative side effects that these measures imply. Therefore, Home Office will not be welcome by most of the big industries members.

On the other hand, it´s normal to assume that companies are suspicious of their workers performance and the fact that they can avoid part of their responsibilities hidden at home. However, during these 2 last years the world hasn´t changed drastically and many people have been forced to work at home and they have performed quite well. Moreover, there are several ways to trace the workers activities, who do Home Office.

To conclude, working at home no longer implies a lack of professionalism, if companies keep their performance. Not all departments and companies can afford Home Office due to their kind of services, but those who can, should do it in my humble opinion. Don´t forget the environment benefits and the fact that Home Office creates more family time, by the way.