In our heads, we're all still in our thirties ...
This woman changes dentists, and notices that the fairly unusual name of the new dentist is the same as the name of a boy she went to school with, 30 years ago. However, when she sees him, she thinks it can't be - this guy is ANCIENT, must be his father.
Then she sees his diploma on the wall. WOW. Graduated 22 years ago. Must be the same guy. She's quite shocked at how he's aged, but says cheerfully enough as she sits down in the chair of doom 'I remember you from Ridgeway High School'.
His brow wrinkles. 'Were you my teacher?'
Most of the time I am perfectly happy to be living 400 miles from my nearest and dearest but I'm getting really excited about upcoming family gathering
Maybe because the last 3 were funerals and weddings and the ex-in-laws all look alike. It is agonising when I'm 3 glasses of wine in and they come over to chat and I can never work out whether I should be saying Wow
you look great, or we already talked half an hour ago ...
THIS gathering is MY family. Apart from the fact we all close our eyes when we smile, we are all different.
Plus I'm can hardly WAIT to see my daughter (okay, I'll have to see some of the penguins) after 15 months!
After that, of course, I will be quite happy not to see them again for at least a year ...
Boring and unglamorous subject, yes, but blast it, a real problem. I sit at a computer most of the day, and in summer, even cold days, my ankles puff up.
I start every day with ankles like a racehorse and end it with shirehorse fetlocks.
I'm up and down the whole time getting coffee, I walk the dog every day, and I do a dance routine to keep fit at least 4 times a week, so it isn't lack of exercise. Same routine, winter and summer, why does it only happen in summer, and can anyone tell me how to stop it happening?
I have this awesome, but old, Japanese guide book about living Japanese style and I so want to go, not a package tour, a real poke-around. Who wants to come along, even for just a few minutes, in imagination?
It all sounds so incredibly exotic. Chapter headings include
*exchanging greetings
*using the bath and toilet (Japanese ones ARE different!)
*using the public bath
*typhoons and earthquakes
*travelling on the cheap (I'll quote from that one in comments)
*visiting a hot spring
I posted a video, then deleted it, it was all street markets and Western-style entertainment, thanks but no thanks, got that here.
Anyone been? Even better, lived there?
If you're a woman, I mean, and (desperately) seeking men?
I've had photo ratings from women, not very good ones, but never noticed a female face on my WVM list. Surely they had to have looked at the profile to click on photos? So much to learn.
Just interested to know whether men can see men looking, or women can see women, since I had a look at the competition in Scotland and don't want to make the local lasses nervous.
I switched WVM off in the past so I could flit around unseen and keep a favourites list: apparently every time you look at your favourites, you appear on each of their WVM lists. Haven't done that so far with Elegsabiff and am fascinated to see in the short time the profile has been up I have had nearly 1000 views, not bad for an old baggage with unflattering pics.
I've been favourited 6 times, wow, I LIKE that. If women DON'T show up on a woman's WVM list, I can set up a few favourites myself without looking like a stalker about to change my orientation.
And thanks everyone who played on the quiz, the answers are up and in the immortal words of Young Mr Grace, you've all done Very Well. Ah, they don't make bosses like that any more.
Anyway. Back to business. Anyone who could put me straight on the WVM situation, ta very much.
I do expect you all to pass this little quiz, but it makes me grin every time it gets emailed to me:
1) How long did the Hundred Years' War last?
2) Which country makes Panama hats?
3) From which animal do we get cat gut?
4) In which month do Russians celebrate the October Revolution?
5) What is a camel's hair brush made of?
6) The Canary Islands in the Pacific are named after what animal?
7) What was King George VI's first name?
8) What colour is a purple finch?
9) Where are Chinese gooseberries from?
10) What is the colour of the black box in a commercial airplane?
Remember, you need only 3 correct answers to pass. No Googling.
There have been blogs lately about how many languages people speak: couldn't comment there, I have some Afrikaans, scraps of German and French and can greet people in 13 languages including Welsh - the conversation bogs down after that, though. Sawu bona.
I do speak quite a few variations of English, but got the giggles the other day when I got a LinkedIn message from another writer saying if I wanted to chat him up, here was his email address. That's American for chat, right, he doesn't really want me to flirt with him? He's married!
To the English, if you knock someone up, you are thumping on their door. To Americans and South Africans, you got them pregnant.
Some difference.
I do know if you said you gave someone a friendly pat on the fanny to some English speakers, no-one would raise an eyebrow. To others it would be very inappropriate!
I told a friend about a date I went on the other night, it was good, I pulled. Slightly shocked reply ... (translation: he liked me)
This subject has probably been done to death, but if you do have examples of phrases which mean something completely different to different people, even though both speak English as their home language, give it a bash. Er, I mean, post an example.
I have a snail halfway up the kitchen wall, and would like to offer it to sale to the highest bidder.
I have to say right away I have not seen this snail in action. However, its presence on the wall argues a speed which would encourage breeders and owners of racing snails to add it to their stable.
Firstly, I live in Scotland, therefore my doors and windows have impressive seals. Draughts are not encouraged in a cool country known for gale-force winds 350 days of the year. For the same reason the door did not remain open at any point for long enough to allow normal entry.
Secondly, there is a dog flap in the door. Not a cat flap, which a sufficiently determined and muscular snail could perhaps push open. This is a foot-square dog flap. Even the cat has to exert some force to open it. The snail is a mere inch and a half long.
It is therefore clear that this snail lurked either on the doorstep and shot inside when I was taking out the trash – impressive enough in itself – or waited patiently for the dog or cat to thrust a nose out, listen to the creatures of the night, and pass through the flap to use the toilet that was once my courtyard. It is a fairly quick process - maximum 50 seconds.
QED. This is a quick snail.
My ex is mild-mannered, calm, rational, and frugal to the point where when he does open his wallet the Queen winces at the light. In all the years we were married I saw him lose his temper once.
So he'd been working on contract in the US and went up to Canada to meet up with my daughter and some family friends. When he tried to fly back to the States, he was told he couldn't, he was outwith his residential allowance for the year. So my mild-mannered ex throws a strop of note and furiously books himself AND daughter, (who was already booked on a flight to London!) onto the first plane leaving the country. Lufthansa. To Germany. First Class.
I wish, I really wish, I had seen it, I have never understood what makes somebody do something completely alien to their character. Although it has happened to someone equally close to me since, I didn't see the actual metamorphosis that time either.
Have you ever flipped and done something completely out of the norm? What triggered it?
I never knew this before about green eyes.
Green is the rarest of eye colours, occurring naturally in only 2% of the world's population. It is the only eye colour that changes, becoming more green, gray or blue based on mood, weather or surroundings.
People with green eyes are often leaders. They tend to be good listeners and excellent speakers, attracting other people like magnets. Naturally curious and very intuitive, the green-eyed person is always easy to talk to and makes an excellent lover. Tough, quick-witted and caring, they also make wonderful friends.Those interested in becoming friends and lovers please form a orderly queue on the left, while I work out why my eyes are hazel as often as they are true green. If I can just get the switch permanently flicked across to green, the future looks rosy.
Signed
Green-eyed Monster
(sometimes hazel)
Elegsabiff Blog (358)