It was Millennium Eve December 31st 1999. Several of us were musing about where we might be in 10 years’ time. I hadn’t given it much thought, but chipped in that I would perhaps like to live abroad again, having spent an enjoyable year in Lausanne back in the 70s. And so it came about: 10 years or so later, we moved to Puglia in Southern Italy. That was my “Blue Sky Dream.”

I am now using this as a lesson intro: “What’s your blue sky dream?”. The lesson then develops  into a discussion about other idioms using colours. I am not a fan of prescriptive lesson plans; I much prefer a student led lesson based loosely around my prompts. Here is my list of “colour idioms” which I dip into at regular intervals.

• Black & white
• A black hole; a black look, blacklisted, in the black, Black Friday
• As white as a sheet,
• Purple with rage, to hit a purple patch
• A red rag to a bull, a red line, to turn red/red faced, in the red, a red letter day, a redneck
• Feeling blue, blue sky dreams, once in a blue moon
• Green with envy, a green-eyed monster, to give the green light to, green (inexperienced)
• Browned off, a brown study
• In the pink
• To have a heart of gold
• Every cloud has a silver lining
• Incandescent
• Rainbow alliance