Well, we got most of the family together for a fish’n’chips lunch yesterday, by way of celebrating my birthday. Disappointingly the local chippy was closed, as was the next closest; clearly local people don’t expect to eat chips at the weekend. Maybe they all have more sophisticated plans in mind. So we ended up going further afield. The fish was excellent, the chips themselves less so. Some of our party decided to liven their portions up by popping them briefly in the microwave. Modern living!
In the middle afternoon, we went for a family walk-about, just around the village to help our digestion. The sun was still shining in a practically cloudless sky but clearly the sun was about to dip over hill. The days are longer since the winter solstice but not very noticeably so!
And suddenly it was time for Phil and me to get organised to go into Manchester to listen to the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra in concert. There was an excellent cello concerto by Elgar, played by a Finnish cellist, Senja Rummukainen, on a beautiful ancient cello, from 1707, on loan from from the Finnish Cultural Foundation. Imagine the responsibility of travelling around with such a treasure in your luggage!
The percussionist who clashed his cymbals so excellently in Stravinsky’s Firebird was presented with a huge bunch of flowers in recognition. I would taken a picture of him with his reward but my phone was tucked away in my handbag.
So that’s another birthday over and done with!
Today there are weather warnings for strong winds, apparently, but so far they have not manifested themselves around here very much. It’s just a bit damp and breezy.
According to news reports, Donald Trump has set about bringing peace to the Middle East by resuming shipments of huge bombs to Israel and saying that he would like to see Jordan, Egypt and other Arab nations increase the number of Palestinian refugees they are accepting from the Gaza Strip. This from a man who doesn’t want refugees in his won country and who wants to send Mexican immigrants back to Mexico!
As regards Gaza, he told reporters on Air Force One, “You’re talking about probably a million and a half people, and we just clean out that whole thing and say, ‘You know, it’s over.’”
Here’s a link to a fuller report.
What can you say?
It’s no good, I’ll have to think about something less infuriating.
I read something about unwritten rules of English language. There is a rule about vowel sounds, which says that if there are three words that the order of vowel sounds must be I, A, O, and if there are two words, the first is I and the second A or O. So we have mish-mash, chit-chat, tick tock, ding dong, ping pong, sing song, dilly dally and so on. Just try saying pong ping! It sounds completely wrong, unless it’s the name of a character in Rupert Bear stories - a rather dubious and possibly racist name for a supposedly Chinese character.
Then there is the order of adjectives: opinion - size - age - shape - colour - origin - material - purpose: for example: a lovely little old rectangular green French silver whittling knife.
And the vowels rule can trump the adjectives rule, so that we have a Big Bad Wolf not a Bad Big Wolf!
Isn’t language fun!
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
No comments:
Post a Comment