Yes really - if you go by the solstice then Tuesday is the shortest day and on Wednesday the days start to get longer so hence me and Mr S celebrate. Likewise we are starting a new decade, not that the media agree with us! I just want things right - unlike the Japanese who are born aged one, we don't become one year old until we have lived a whole year - so no year nought we begin with one - so that means that a decade goes from one to ten and the next begins on eleven - easy.
It's like the greengrocer's apostrophe which drives me mad - I just long to have a red marker pen and change all those silly '''''. Try reading Lynne Truss' book Eats shoots and leaves it is hilarious and I just love it, if you want a chuckle then it is a good book to dip into. I suppose that most families have private jokes and names for places. When I was small my grandfather used to confuse me with the way he would pronounce place names - Barnstaple was one, he just placed the emphasis on different syllables - doesn't seem funny when you write it, but I was completely sold on his way of saying it and couldn't understand why people laughed.
One such place name has developed because of a road sign written thus:
DOWNEND MAJOR
Road Works
Commence here...........and so on.
Obviously the place Downend Major was undergoing road works - or was it? The best road sign, apart from the obvious Heavy Plant Crossing (is that an aspidistra?) was in a cul de sac:
Drive Slowly over Children Playing
I assume that there was a word missing - humps perhaps?
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I was trying to put credit on my phone - the message went something like " You could win prizes, sports kit, clothes or few minutes for your phone" - my phone does not need sports kit - but I could not get through to tell them!
ReplyDeleteHappy New Decade however you are counting!