There goes another Christmas.

It may not be Twelfth Night yet but the tree was undressed and put outside this afternoon. It's a tiny living tree so hopefully it will grow a bit and can come in again next year. The cards have been collected up. Now it's time to decide whether I am following my parsimonious cousin's idea and cutting off the best pictures to make my own cards for next year or simply throwing the whole lot into paper and card recycling. Probably the latter. Knowing me, I would forget where I had put the carefully selected Christmas pictures when the time came to make new cards. And besides, what does one do for envelopes for such creations? 

Last night we hosted some friends who have been up in Scotland and are making their way back to their home in France via selected friends and family. We had a good long discussion about how the French and Spanish borrow and mangle bits of the English language. Our friends are much more pessimistic about it than we are. I just find it fascinating but they are almost offended by what is being done to the purity of the French language. As if we could legislate against it. Goodness me, the Académie Française has tried unsuccessfully for donkeys' years. 

And then this afternoon, our daughter asked if she could bring the gang round for tea as her oven has collapsed and died on her. Well, of course, you have to help out in such situations but I hope she gets it fixed pronto quick. I have been catering for friends and family for about two weeks now and have decided that we shall survive on soup and sandwiches and salad for the next week at least! 

Tomorrow everyone goes back to school or work and we all return to our old routine. And as for those have made New Year's Resolutions, I wonder how long they will last. 

At some part this afternoon, we thought about the expression "put your dukes up" for some unknown reason and wondered where the expression came from. So, of course, I Googled it. The general consensus seems to be that it is another example of Cockney rhyming slang: - Duke of Yorks = forks = fingers/hands. Hard to believe but apparently 'the forks' had been a slang term for 'fingers/hands' since the 18th century. It is recorded as slang for 'pickpocket'. 

Another suggestion is that 'dukes' is of Romany origin. This belief comes from the Romany word 'dookin', meaning fortune telling or palmistry. However, my source said that there is little substantial evidence to back this up. So it goes. 

I was amused by this comment I found in my searching: "Most Americans won't realise that the expression 'duke it out', which is the US variant of 'put up your dukes', is in all probability an homage to the favourite son of the ruler who did all that he could to prevent the formation of the United States. The ruler was of course the English King George III and the favoured son was Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany." 

There you go.