Phrasal verbs and idioms in context - Lession 6: Dora bellucci

PHRASAL VERBS AND IDIOMS IN CONTEXT 06
DORA BELLUCCI
 Dora Bellucci sat with her head in her hands in the tiny office of the small language school she ran. She’d just had a meeting with her accountant.
 ‘You’re only just managing to keep your head above water. ‘You’ll have to do something pretty quickly to up your profits or in less than six months the school will go down like a sinking ship.’
 Dora had done everything imaginable to cut costs and increase profits. She’d even resorted to employing “teachers” who weren’t real teachers. English people who had just “stepped off” the plane so to speak – those desperate to find work. This was one way of cutting costs. They were only too happy to accept the paltry rate of 8 euros an hour which she paid cash in hand. Qualified teachers requested almost triple that amount as well as wanting to go through the books which was even more money for Dora to fork out on taxes and what not.
 She’d been really lucky to find that girl Karen from Inverness. She was the only qualified teacher she had in the school and she was someone she could rely on blindfolded. She’d never once been absent from a lesson. Even that time she’d fractured her heel bone she’d still hobbled in to the school in plaster cast. She’d understood the difficulties Dora was going through and had even prepared “pre-made” easy to follow lesson plans with clear explanations for those “teachers” who were not really teachers. She’d prepared at least fifty lesson plans filed according to level, and every now and again she’d arrive with more to add to the big red folder Dora kept on the top shelf of her tiny office. Dora had been so grateful but Karen had just smiled and said -‘don’t worry Dora. One day I will put them all together and make a book out of them and hopefully it will become a bestseller and put an end to all my financial worries. That way I will have killed two birds with one stone; helped you out and made a million for myself.’
 She’d gone on to tell Dora that sooner or later everyone’s boat comes in. Dora was still waiting for hers to come in or maybe it had all those years ago when she’d married Luigi.
 She thought back to the pain he’d put her through. She was still not over him even though four years had now gone by. She’d been so sure that theirs was a happy marriage.
 One week before what she called “the discovery” he’d even stood up and given a speech to the congregation of the church they’d attended for over twenty years. She could remember his exact words as he preached about the importance of the holy sacrament of marriage and how it was a union between man and woman and how no other man or woman should come between a married couple. The congregation had applauded.
 The members of the church group had always thought that Dora and Luigi were the shining example of how a marriage made in heaven should be. Throughout their married life Luigi had never called her Dora. It had always been “mia principessa”, my princess. He’d even taken her to London for a romantic weekend a week before the “discovery”. How could she ever have suspected that he’d been living a double life for the past four years? It was only when he started to call her Dora, and not “my princess” that an alarm bell went off in her head.
 He’d been living with a twenty five year old Bulgarian girl he’d met on an “exchange your views on different paintings blog”. He’d joined in the discussion and soon love poems were flying back and forth between them.
 Worse was to come. They had two children under the age of three. He’d been living with them and Dora at the same time. When he’d told her he was away on business, he’d, in actual fact, been with “her”.
 To add insult to injury he’d moved them into a rented flat two streets away from where he, Dora and their son Mario lived. Dora had made the “discovery” after Mario’s girlfriend Francesca had seen Luigi at the lake with “her” and the two babies. Dora had insisted that Francesca must have made a mistake.
 ‘Maybe it was a man who looked like Luigi.’
 Francesca had told her it had definitely been Luigi as she had spoken to him face to face. She’d asked him whose babies they were. He could not deny they weren’t his as his “girlfriend” would not have taken it well.
 ‘Plus,’ said Francesca, ‘the one who was about three years old had the same curly hair as him and the same glint in her eyes.’
 Dora had felt her whole world come tumbling down upon her. She’d felt she was going to faint. Her son Mario had made her sit down.
 ‘Mum,’ he’d said. ‘I’m finished with him. I don’t want to ever call him dad again. He’s disgusting.’
 Dora couldn’t understand where she’d gone wrong. She’d always been a good wife and mother and an excellent housekeeper and homemaker. Not only, she was also a fantastic cook and Luigi had always had the best of food.
 It had always been said that the way to a man’s heart was through his stomach. Dora had definitely not gone wrong on that one.
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GLOSSARY – PHRASAL VERBS
Be over (someone or something) – to be completely recovered from a bad experience caused by a person or a situation
Come up –arise
Fork out – pay, usually against one’s will (colloquial English)
Go by – pass
Go off – ring/sound (for an alarm)
Go through – experience something, usually an unpleasant ordeal
Help (someone) out – provide assistance to make another person’s task become easier
Hobble in – enter a place walking with a limp
Put (someone) through (something) – cause a person to experience an unpleasant situation
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GLOSSARY – IDIOMS AND EXPRESSIONS
And what not – any other things
Be the shining example – be an exemplified example to others by your excellent conduct
Cash in hand – pay in cash to avoid payment of tax and contributions
Every now and again – occasionally
Go down like a sinking ship – go bankrupt
Go on to do – subsequently do something
Go through the books – be legally registered on the payroll as an employee of a company
Keep (one’s) head above water – manage to survive
Kill two birds with one stone – accomplish two tasks at the same time, thus saving oneself time
Put an end to (something) – cause to finish
One’s boat comes in – when one’s share of good luck in life arrives
Resort to (doing) (something) – do something only when all else fails
To add insult to injury – to do or say something to hurt a person even further than what one has already done
Up the profits – increase profits
Keep your head aboe water!