Not even Baz?

Er - Bag and I sometimes have to plead guilty to that one!

A few other people call me that sometimes too.

eek I forgot the bananas !

Substitute gin.

martini rosso - not keen on gin !

[hands Maggie a Martini and keeps Maggie's gin for herself]

Cheers!

Hey - I didn't say I drank it for breakfast!




then again - who am I to blow against the wind ??

cheers Ambs!

Was it me, or did the forums have a bit of a technical moment just now?...

I noticed it too........ I had written a post and it got lost in cyber-space......

Me too; maybe they didn't like what I said!

My Grandad was somewhat trifled tonight, because he was looking in the book that my Grandma's carers write in, and most of the entries read, "brought her back into the kitchen and made a cup of tea." My Grandad was protesting that he always makes the cup of tea, and all the carers do is drink it!

I didn't get any emoticoms and then I got welcomed as a guest. Took me a while to realise why I couldn't post but it seems OK now.

I had just typed a PM out when the technical moment fell upon us. I was not happy.

The opening movement to the William Tell Overture really is lovely isn't it? I've just sat and "listened" to it properly.

*I'll leave quietly now..*

Time to go to bed and finish my rather dull book. And then I can start my really interesting magazine

Night night

Another day, another threat of a Tube strike...

Fixed penalty notices...

*just got one £100 !!!*

Aaarrrggghhh, how annoying...

*wants her DVDs to come*

The Dudamel concert in Salzburg is sold out

I take it you were planning to go Nicki...

I got off a bus today, and said 'thank you', as I always do...and the bus driver asked why I said thank you...and I thought a bit of cheerfulness would go a long way...

My 5 cats are fighting over an empty ham packet.

I really fancy an ice cream sandwich

It's funny you should say that! I was buttering some bread yesterday and thinking "why CAN'T you spread ice-cream on bread instead of butter"


My thought for the day is why isn't there a recycling bank for rubber bands - does anyone use them apart from the Royal Mail

Yes I regularly find one by my front door !

Can anyone tell me why hotels always fold over the corner (or two corners to make an arrow) on the loo roll ? I always waste that piece !

I find them useful Good substitute when you can't find a stapler! I've also heard of them being used as emergency saxophone repairs when springs have gone AWOL.

Why are 6.25% of marks on a German paper awarded for the quality of my English???

Possibly because you have to translate into English?
When I was teaching in a French secondary school one of the questions in the English part of the Baccalaureat exam was to translate a short passage of an English text into French. My pupils used to complain that this was the only exam where marks were taken off if they made spelling and/or grammar mistakes in French.

That's right. It just seems silly to test my English in a test supposedly testing my German - so long as my English is clear!

Well, I suppose it depends what you consider to be clear. A misplaced apostrophe can change the meaning of a sentence, one wrong letter in a word can change it into a different word.

You might also be surprised by what some students write. Since you are translating into your mother tongue you know what makes sense and what doesn't but some students write gibberish anyway and when you point out to them that it doesn't make sense, they agree but argue that this was because the text they were translating didn't make sense either .

Just a quick example from an exam paper (by a native English speaking student) on my desk: "It had been raining and it was a dampened sun witch alluminated the acers of the landscape."

That is... an interesting sentence? Surely part of the skill of translating isn't in translating individual words but entire sentences. Writing 'I want in the future by train all over the world to tour' is barely decipherable in English but would be good German. If the text doesn't make sense then you're probably trying to read it like English with different words, whereas to me at least it makes much more sense to read it in German and understand it as German, not via translation to English.

I lost count years ago of the number of times I have said this to students. I also tell them that they can be sure their translation is wrong if what they have written doesn't make sense.

I really only quoted that particular example here to show you why points will be given for English in a German/French/Spanish (or whatever) exam.

Thought for today:

If you can't fix it with a hammer, it must be an electrical fault.

New shoes + blisters = ouch

Two random thoughts, and one not so random: My eyes are sore. I'm getting my hair done tomorrow. Rosemary, you seem so shocked at the above example of a sentence - you should've seen what some of my class came up with in our AS French exams! I just set out to get full marks for English SPG if nothing else, and that was pretty fun.

hi KJ - have you lost the screwdriver then.. ?

Is there a difference between an ache and a pain?

Oooh I hope someone can answer that

The only difference I can think of is that they occur at opposite ends of your anatomy

In the olden days when I was training to be a nurse, we were taught that the words "ache" and "pain" are used to describe sensations which vary in degrees of tolerance.

So..if you have mild pain in your head, you could describe it as a headache , but if the sensation worsens to a degree that becomes intolerable , you could then describe it as headpain.

I've no doubt there's a deeper explanation than that, but I'll leave it to our medical friends to elaborate.

I've always thought the word "ache" implied a rather dull but continuous pain.

One of my friends makes up words when she's translating out loud - quite amusingly! They make sense though There's no point in writing/saying something that doesn't make sense - you'll just have to say it again!



So did I.

I hate my unreliable computer.

I hate it. I hate it. I hate it.

Roll on getting a new one...

My husband just told me I'm wrong for eating the chocolate and orangy bit off my Jaffa cake before I eat the biscuity bit. He puts them whole in his mouth.

How can there be a wrong way to eat a biscuit. (I'm not talking etiquette here, just munching )

Oh, and is it a biscuit or a cake. I reckon it's a cake.

My computer has stayed on for a whole hour without turning itself off...

(in a slightly sarcastic way)...

It's Tuesday. And it's already a Good Day!

i have a hoodie! and it is "grape".

My waterproof jacket is not waterproof at all..

I hav ejust bought a Peking Duck 'wrap' from Somerfield for lunch and there are 40 ingredients, if Ive counted correctly ! Must be a record, unless someone can do better............