Someone pointed out to me that in the romance languages, when you want to say that you are right, you say you have reason -j’ai raison, ho ragione – but that in the Germanic languages you say that you are/have right – ich habe rechts, I’m right.
I was charmed by this insight into how language makes our world view different, so, of course, I decided to tell the internet.
Can you believe how much NaBloPoMo is still left?
Me: Michael, stop turning off all the lights. I don’t want to be fumbling around in the dark whenever I go into the hall.
Him: Electricity is very expensive.
Me: I know, I pay the bills.
Him: We will all be paying the bills.
On Wednesday night I came in late. Daniel had made cheesy shapes in the afternoon and one of them was lying on the kitchen floor. I picked it up, blew on it and ate it. I did have some qualms but, you know, the floor was clean, I had blown on it [protection against all known germs], I was hungry and otherwise the cheesy shape would have gone in the bin. I noticed it seemed to have lost its cheese on the way to the floor and was mostly cheese flavoured dough.
I came back to the kitchen ten minutes later and there was another cheesy shape on the floor without its cheese. How could this be? Everyone was in bed. Who could have taken a cheesy shape from the plate on the counter, put it on the floor and eaten off all the cheese? That’s when I realised I had shared the previous cheesy shape with the cat. I put the next one in the bin.
The Princess is taking drama after school [no better woman] and is to star in a modern version of Beauty and the Beast* where Beauty is a spoilt older sister.
She reported that she was told the news thus by her drama teacher [of whom she is very fond]: “You are the spoilt, bossy Beauty, you [pointing to small winsome child] are the lovely little sister and I am a casting genius.”
* Her father tells me that the play is called “Beauty is a Beast”.
You will recall that we had a very successful house swap last summer (successful for us anyhow, I’m hoping it was successful for the French people also). We are now on this house swap website and people keep offering us their houses. So far we keep saying no as it’s a bit early for us to know what our plans are. Sample conversation.
Mr. Waffle: We don’t want to go to Brighton, do we?
Me: No, I don’t think so.
Herself: Oh Brighton, I must go to Brighton, I shall die, if I don’t go to Brighton.
No more Pride and Prejudice for her.
Me: What are you reading?
Herself: Ross O’Carroll-Kelly in the paper.
Me: Oh, a fan of the Rossmeister, are we?
Her: No, I read it for Honor.