It’s very cold this morning. Ah, but, comment the people I meet out and about, at least it’s not raining! Quite so! One of my neighbours said she has so many layers of clothes on she can hardly move! Such is January.
Serious stuff.
Here are some statistics:
“Deaths
Gaza’s ministry of health says that at least 22,835 Palestinians had been killed by yesterday, with another 58,416 reportedly injured. That figure does not distinguish between combatants and civilians, but an estimated 70% are women and children. About 7,000 more are reportedly missing and most are likely dead.
Israel’s final count for Hamas’s 7 October massacre is 1,139: 685 Israeli civilians, 373 members of the security forces, and 71 foreigners. Deaths in Israel since then bring the total to about 1,200. Thirty-six of the victims were children. The Israeli military says 174 soldiers have been killed in Gaza, and 1,023 injured.”
Just some numbers!
Less serious stuff.
Yesterday we listened to Graham Nash (of Crosby, Stills and Nash - and occasionally Young) on Desert Island Discs. I didn’t know he was a photographer as well as a musician. He was born in Salford but he doesn’t sound like any of the Salford people I got to know when I worked there. He doesn’t sound particularly American either, despite the fact that he’s probably spent more of his life there than in the UK. Maybe he once had a Salford accent and it got polished up, the rough edges smoothed away and a posh veneer placed over it all.
Accents are a funny thing. When you listen to, for example, George Harrison singing as one of the Travelling Wilburys you can still hear his Scouse accent coming through. Here’s a link to Guardian columnist Barbara Speed writing about how she had two accents as a child.
You don’t even need to have changed continents for that double-accent phenomenon to occur. Our daughter had two distinct accents as a teenager; there was what we regarded as her “normal” accent and the way she spoke when she was out and about with friends from school. It’s a sort of natural desire to conform. Sometimes we find ourselves doing it unconsciously, picking up and “mimicking” the accent of the person we are speaking to.
Silly stuff.
Here’s a link to an article about newlyweds who invite their wedding guests to go on honeymoon with them. The wedding day was so much fun that they want to extend the celebration time.
So, you have a big, expensive wedding, your friends and relations spend money on a gift for you, and on a fancy outfit for the big day, and then you suggest that they spend more money on plane tickets and hotel bills. A “buddymoon”.
Considering that most couples these days have lived together for years before marrying, a honeymoon is not quite what it was a hundred years ago. I’ve been reading Louis de Bernières’ book “The Dust that falls from Dreams”, in which Mrs McCosh warns he daughters that dreadful things will be inflicted on them by their husbands but that it’s worth it on order to have children! Hey ho!
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
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