Skip to main content

Language problems,

 The other day my neighbour banged on my door and asked to borrow something.  I didn't understand what she meant, so she said blanc en neige.  White on snow.  I shook my head, so she hurried back to her apartment and re-appeared with a bowl containing egg whites.  Ah she wanted a hand mixer to beat the eggs whites but blanc en neige?  Then it clicked, whites to snow.  This conjures up  something so much nicer than ' beat the egg whites until they form soft peaks.'

I was trying to phone a dentist but the recorded message said they  would be closed until the 9 May so today I tried again.  Same message except 'en plus' had been added.  Does that mean it could be closed after the 9 May? I wondered.  'Mm', my neighbour said, 'it could mean anything.'  Well if the  French  don't understand it how am I supposed to figure it out?

The 9th May is Putin's excuse to show the world that he is important.  Why did every news channel show him inspecting his armed forces and weapons?  They don't normally so why give him exactly what he wants - world attention.  They should have simply ignored him and his ridiculous goose-stepping generals, or overlaid it with scenes of death and destruction being carried out in his name in Ukraine.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Oops!

 The air conditioning has broken in my car so it was some relief when the temperature dropped  back to the 30 degree mark.  This gave my neighbours fresh enthusiasm to clear up overgrown vegetation.  At my request my American neighbour climbed down to a flat bit of ground where a tree had grown about 6 feet in as many weeks, to lop it.  My job was to clear all the debris when it fell and drag it to a parking space in the courtyard.  The system was working well with another neighbour and her granddaughter joining in to help me clear the debris.  Meanwhile. up above us the American was in full swing, not stopping at 'lopping' the tree but cutting it right back to its roots.  Soon great big branches were hurtling down and that is when it happened.  One branch, instead of coming straight down to the ground decided to take a detour onto his garage roof, creating a big hole right above where his precious car, a Tesla, was being kept safe and sound....
1 comment
Read more

I'm Free

 After being incarcerated in my son's house waiting for the results of the day 2 test I was finally allowed out today.  I went to Chichester and was saddened by the number of familiar shops that have disappeared from the town centre.  Bognor is the same.  You wouldn't die of thirst in either town though as the number of cafes has increased.  Both town centres were busy making it difficult to keep a safe distance from others but many people were wearing masks in the street. I was pulled over by Customs in Caen.  As I opened the trunk of the car one of the officers asked me if I was carrying goods.  'Yes,' I replied, ' French Champagne and French wine'  They nodded approvingly and waved me away. During my 3 days in the house, I have cleaned, filed all their paperwork, mended the shower, cooked dinner and tried watching television, the latter being totally uninspiring.  The news consists of covid, travel restrictions, forbidden Christmas parties...
Post a Comment
Read more

Playing by ear

My father could play the piano.  Not an unusual skill but he was deaf.  He lost his  hearing fighting in the army in India in the 30s so he was an adult when he lost it and therefore remembered tunes, even though he couldn't hear him.  However he didn't have the skill to learn anything new so  either you liked the old music or you didn't.  He used to say that he played by ear and then would roar with laughter.  He would have struggled in many ways with modern living but most of all during the pandemic, he would have lost his ability to communicate as he always lip read.  There must be thousands of people like him today who still rely on reading lips to understand,  in fact all of us do it to some extent, so please be patient if someone is struggling to communicate while you are wearing a mask. I went to the supermarket today and at the check out, the cashier asked me to move the trolley into a particular position.  As I manoeuvred it ...
Post a Comment
Read more