The Christmas Card

While queuing in the post office today I eavesdropped on the conversation of the two ladies behind me.  I couldn’t help it.  They had encroached in to my personal space and they weren’t using indoor voices.
 
They discussed two things during the ten minute wait; the first was how one didn’t have a television (that was weird), the second thing was about how many Christmas Cards each had sent and received.   The two women known as L because she was on my left and R because she was, yeap you guessed it, on my right, started talking about it because R, was posting belated cards.
 
L had sent 78 cards and received 11.  A rate of return of 14%
 
R had already sent 93 cards and received only four. A rate of return of 4%
 
I had the same issue this year (and years before).  I sent 53 cards in the end and nine came to me.  Four of those were addressed to my dog.  If you add those to me and Cara together we got 16% back.  In relation to L and R I got the better end of the stick and I’d been feeling hard done by.
 
What does this say about the tradition of sending cards at Christmas?  Clearly some people are still doing it, some aren’t.  Maybe they intend to send them, but just don’t get around to writing them out before mid December.  I’m with R, send them anyway.  It’s the thought that counts regardless of when they arrive.
 
There is something nice about receiving that hand written envelope in the mail box.  You know it’s a card from some far flung place, is it a friend or family member that though of you at one of the loneliest times of the year (seconded only be Valentines for singles).  Is it from a new friend that you randomly added on Facebook so you could play games?  Is it from someone that you only really hear from at Christmas?  Is it from a company you did business with at some time in the past and now they are reaching out to remind you they exist? 

Is it from a relative that has been estranged?
 
It doesn’t really matter.  It’s something for you without anything required in return except a little love.  No bill to pay, no insurance to renew, no reminder that you’ve been slack.
 
Unless of course you haven’t sent any cards...then the person that sent the card you now hold in your hand is wondering...’where’s mine?’
 
There’s still time to post them for this year :-)

OMG!

Today's word de jour is yarely. Possibly not a word you would see on Sesame Street, but a good word none the less.

For me, it ranks up there with betwixt and comely as underused and sorely in need of a revival. These are good words harking back to the days of cummerbunds and bustles. When ladies and gentlemen dressed for dinner and barbers offered 'something for the weekend'.

Many words are over used. Awesome!

Many words are abused. Should I really? Phrase it a different way and I may be more inclined to acquiesce to your request.

Many words are underutilised. Berate, admonish, and chide all sound fabulously better than a good telling off.

I like words, all words, with possibly the exception of Hate. Don't like that one so much. They have a power over me than can’t be described. They have the power to make me feel dumb or eloquent, alas I fear that some will simply disappear. Others will fade into the pile of balderdash that is also known as the acronym.

Everybody

'The best way to become acquainted with a subject is to write a book about it.'
Benjamin Disraeli (1804 - 1881)

They say everyone has a book in them, I tried to find out who ‘they’ were, but failed so I decided to quote a once UK Prime Minister instead, the quote seemed fitting.

I have wanted to do something to remember Muv for a while. I thought about a sunflower tattoo, but decided against it, when I couldn’t come up with a design I liked. I starting collecting copies of The Scarlett Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy because it was one of her favourite stories (I have eight editions now). Recently I have been cooking.

I have decided to write a book about The Things Muv Used to Make. I’ll self publish because I will include anecdotes about her and words of wisdom that I carry with me. So far on the list:

1.Bread and Butter Pudding
2.Steak and Kidney Pie
3.Prawn Vol-a-vont
4.Salmon and Sweetcorn Quiche
5.Asparagus Quiche
6.Parma Ham/Cheese/Fig Pasta
7.Cottage Pie
8.Shepards Pie
9.Lemon Butter
10.Good Cuppa Tea
11.Tea Cosy
12.Gin and Tonic
13.Coffee Cake
14.Rum Truffle
15.Stew and Dumplings
16.Prawn Wontons
17.Chicken Liver Pate and Melba Toasts
18.Christmas Pudding
19.Fruit Cake
20.Almond Slice
21.Banana Custard
22.Soups (Leek and Potato etc.)
23.Sherry Trifle
24.Rhubarb Crumble
25.Lemon Meringue Pie

This is a brain dump, so it is in no particular order or preference, it may also be added to and have thing taken away. I will more than likely divide it into one of the following categories. WD and AD which stands for With Dad and After Dad, her cooking expanded into the more exotic after the divorce, or the classic, Starter, Main, Dessert and Seasonal. As this is a work in progress, this will be decided later. Of course, I may even decide to just make it completely random, just like her cooking style.

I have signed up for an account with www.blurb.com.au to put the book together and as yet there is no release date as I have to somehow figure out how to make these things considering there are no recipes. I’ve come up with a few, I remember a few, but some things elude me, such as the spongy bit on the almond slice and the binding agent on the Bread and Butter pudding. Barb-a-rub Crumble may be a challenge as I don’t think I’ve seen rhubarb for sale in Sydney.

I look forward to the challenge, after all I don’t have any at work at the moment.

1st April, again?

I was on the train travelling to work when this email popped up on my phone. It's from the office manager where I work. I really did have to stifle a snort of laughter upon reading it.

I came into work this morning with the intention of finding out what the term ‘planking’ amongst social networkers means. This was prompted for 2 reasons:

• About 50% of our Corporate Office personnel are young and I feel the need to remain in touch with the ‘lingo’.

• Media vehicles are concerned about the increased number of personal injuries and deaths reported in the past week.

For those of you who don’t know, some rather interesting sites define ‘planking’ as the ‘ART’ (???)of challenging our body physically by trying to balance it on or between objects and it appears that the more extreme the idea the better.

I have been made aware that ‘planking’ is being practised in our own office.

Please be advised that ‘planking’ at work goes against our ‘safety above all else’ value and the practice is unacceptable.

I'm definitely gonna stick to Teapotting after this email, it scared me off being a planker. :-)

Favourite Word

I had to look something up in the dictionary earlier and I happened upon a link to ‘Why is Q always followed by a U’. I read the article which was interesting, but by no means life changing, to the right of the screen under ‘Popular Links’ was a link to ‘The Most Beautiful Sounding English Word’. It’s not something I’ve really given a lot of thought too, but now that I do, I find this subject appealing. Who knew people thought about such things.

I had to see what others thought, after all, there are over 650 comments.

Most contributors stick to topic, but invariably least favourites creep in, favourite sounding names and others just try to corrupt the system with sly suggestions of racism and fornication (one of my favourites).

It would seem supercalafragilisticexpealadosious is a favorite despite not actually being an official word. Edward Lear managed to get runcible into the dictionary, so how come after all these years the Mary Poppins classic still hasn’t made it? It may not be in any official tomes, but it has made it in popular culture along with chim-chiminy-ciroo, well maybe not :-)

Other favourites seem to be words with negative connotations, but sound nice as they roll off the tongue: blarg, gynecological, melancholy, narcissistic, bubonic, jezebel, ennui, and insidious.

The favorites that win though are the nice sounding, happy though provoking classics like; angel, love, soliloquy, cornucopia, gossamer, curvaceous, evanescence, hallelujah, succulent, and serendipity.

The least favourites are headed up by: squelch, crusty, wet, merge, wacky, ooze, crotch, excess, cabbage, fart, tax and cancer. Most of the words in this list had negative meanings, no one voted for desire (for example) as their least favourite.

Moist wins hands down though, with loads of expressions of eww, ugh, revolting and vile used to describe it. It appears that a lot of people associate the word moist with yeast infections and humidity, but Angel counteracts that with ‘Moist isn’t a gross word if you put it before CAKE!’ She has a very good point. Dry cake or dry roast beef stick in the mouth without moisture.

Swift got a vote, but according to Elma, it only works ‘ if it’s whispered’.

Personally I’d have to go with for my current favourites: jezebel, fornication, procrastinate, hippopotamus, and awesome.

The words I avoid would be: c**t (always repugnant even if it wasn’t a swear word), phenomenon, and burp.

The comment from Robbie made me laugh hard though, so I’d thought I share it in full.
“‘The best word to say is botulism. It has awful connotations but it jumps out of the mouth like a prizefighter, ready to strike down anything in its way.
‘You can’t eat that candy in church!
Botulism! Of course I can!”’

What are you favourites and least liked?

Collective Nouns

Written 20th June 2009

It’s not something you think about on a regular basis. You are taught that it’s a flock of birds, a herd of cows and a gaggle of school girls. If you are really lucky you have a parent or teacher that tells you about a murder of crows.

Yesterday I got to give this subject a closer examination as I drove at 110kph along the Hume Highway toward a looming black mass. As I got closer I saw it was, what it was could only be described as a ‘swarm’ of sparrows.

Yes, I know it’s supposed to be flock, but you know what, I saw a swarm. There were hundreds, moving as a single entity before dividing into two as the car passed through them. Not a single bird was damaged. To my left, wandering around in the paddock, was a flock of sheep.

How can that be? A flock of sheep, a flock of birds. Surely it should be a herd of sheep, after all they have four legs and no wings. How got to decide these collective nouns?

I’m pretty sure when Hitchcock started working on ‘The Birds’ he wasn’t thinking flock of seagulls, he was thinking murder of seagulls. Seagulls are so much more intimidating than crows, despite the latter being black, they sound so much nicer than seagulls with their ugly craw. You can bet Janet Leigh was screaming blue murder.

When you spend as much time alone in a car and in hotel rooms as I have lately, you get to thinking about this sort of pointless crap.

My Favourite Things

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens
Bright crimson high heels and feelings of smitten
Being outside watching veg grow in spring
These are a few of my favourite things

Listenin’ to music and wild meeting doodles
Fresh warm bread smells
And laksa with noodles
alpaca that run with the herd, what that brings
These are a few of my favourite things

boys in white t-shirts with blue demin flashes
Make up and costume that match fake eyelashes
memories of childhood and all that, that brings
These are a few of my favourite things

When the cat bites
When the bell rings
When I'm feeling sad
I simply remember my favourite things
And then I don't feel...so bad

Sing to the tune of My Favourite Things from the The Sound of Music by Rodgers and Hammerstein.

My First Blog

First I would like to clarify that I am NOT, I repeat NOT clucky (Muv, all your grandchilden will have fur, fleece or feathers!).

Second, I still think all babies look like miniature old people (with wrinkly skin, little hair and issues with bladder and bowel control) but I found this blog this afternoon and thought it was nice that it’s written from the point of view of the baby, rather than the parents.

How Excited?

So the sun is shining like it’s spring already and on my way into work I picked up my weekly copies of The Brag and Drum Media as I do every Tuesday. Like a good girl I didn’t peruse these ‘til lunchtime.

When I did I found that The Brag had published this review I wrote last week.

How excited am I on a scale of 1 – 10 do you think?

PS. Thanks Edna for the typo advice;)

PPS. Those that didn't already know my real identity will if you actually take the time to read the review in The Brag ;-)