When we stayed in London this summer, our apartment was on Holland Road. It was inside a row of typical London town houses: white with black window frames, and black iron fences. I love that simple, elegant style. However, this row of houses needed some TLC(1). New paint would have been good, a  bit of renovation as well. But, for our purposes, the apartment was fine. I asked the owner for his recommendation on getting to the center of town. He advised against using(2) the underground (the Tube), as in the summer it is packed with tourists. So, I got on-line, and found that the number 9 bus went from just around the corner, right to the center, to Trafalgar Square. It was comfortable, convenient, and cheap. We spent most of our time exploring London. Back at the apartment, we would have dinner and then go for a walk. Our street was very noisy, but just one street away everything became quiet, and the neighborhoods were much nicer. We stumbled upon a huge park, called Holland Park which had everything in it: large open areas, lots of trees and flowers, a play area for children, and even an opera house. It was a wonderful, green relief from a busy day in the city, a quiet place away from our noisy apartment.

1. TLC is short for 'tender-loving-care'. It can be applied to anything. We tend to use it when talking about inanimate objects, like houses. It means that the mentioned object needs to be cleaned up, repaired, or decorated.

a. The old house needs some TLC, so we'll start by replacing the roof.

b. That truck is in a terrible state. It needs some TLC.

2. 'To advise' can be used negatively or positively. When you advise someone to take action there are 2 ways of expressing it:

a. I advise you to talk to your teacher.

b. I advise talking to your teacher.

However, when you are advising someone to 'not' do something, the structure of the sentence is different:

a. I advise against you going to your teacher.

b. I advise against going to your teacher. * We don't say 'I advise you against going to your teacher.' It sounds bad; the against should come before 'you'.

If you don't want to use the word 'against', you can say:

c. I advise you not to go to your teacher

d. I advise you to not go to your teacher.

 

Any of these is correct.

Click the link for the Android app