I was struck today, whilst having lunch, about the difficulty, when moving to a foreign country, of knowing the correct/polite manners.
Table and other manners; class differences
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Category Archives: Work
I really should of apologised earlier
Weird thoughts go through my head from time to time. Particularly just before I go to sleep or if I wake too early in the morning and try to get back to sleep.
Last night, at one of these times, I cannot remember which, I suddenly started thinking about “should of”. There, I told you they were weird thoughts!
I don’t even know why it started but I remember, early on, I was thinking about emails at work. Many that we receive (and are sent) are by non-mother-mother-tongue people, of course. But the worst are by people from the UK and one of these, received at work, had “should of” in the text. Sometimes I despair about the level of written English by English-speaking people
Then I started worrying. Yep, worrying. Since I type these entries, normally, quite quickly (they are supposed to be as if I was speaking the words to you) and since we pronounce “should have” as “shood uv”, I can imagine that, at some time, I have typed “should of” whereas I should of typed “should have”. And, of course, the Spelling and Grammar checker would not necessarily have picked up on it (as I have now proved by typing it several times). So my quick read through of the post before actually posting it may not have picked up on it either.
Damn! I really should of apologised earlier. However, if you have read any posts where I have written “should of”, I apologise now. And, if you ever notice it, please let me know as it is too embarrassing to leave it!
And there, I hope, I shall let it rest.
p.s. I deliberately typed “should of” several times here to make the point, so you don’t need to tell me about this post. Thank you.
(False) Lessons in Life.
Christmas is a time for reflection and for remembering things past. This one was no different. At various times over the period I remembered the Christmases we had in the past. The mountains of presents; shopping for the veg on Christmas Eve at “Wiggy’s” shop in Kington; having the open fire to sit around; and the people with whom we have shared our Christmases, including my sister (one time, I think).
However, it was also time to think of deeper things; things more hidden or, rather, not previously analysed.
2009 Predictions
I don’t do New Year’s Resolutions any more. Not least because they were always something stupid that faded quickly such as “I will start jogging” – which I did do once. Started and finished in January! I mean, getting up half an hour earlier in, what was obviously, the coldest time of the year. Not a really clever thing to do. Personally, I think, New Year’s Resolutions should be made about May or June.
And others that I have tried to follow – lose weight; give up smoking; cut back on drinking; be nicer; make substantial savings; etc., etc.
The Crunch
It came unexpectedly. There you were, making your plans for the future. Sure, you had built up credit over a period of time and, maybe, taken out a loan or two based on a future that you had assumed would occur. You thought that growth would never end. You thought that, at the very minimum, things would stay, more or less, the same. That life would continue as it was or get better.
The future was bright and shiny.
Christmas Lunch
I don’t know whether I’ve mentioned it before but our canteen at work is pretty good. And it only costs me 7 cents for a starter and main course. And we get freshly-made pizzas on Friday as long as you order them on Thursday.
The mysterious case of the disappearing heater; fancy dress parties; Be afraid, be very afraid (the de Menezes travesty of justice)
On Friday, I went into the smoking room to get warm and have a cigarette. Later, just before lunch, I went in again – the heater had gone and the chairs had been rearranged now that there was vacant space! The heat already in the room from the heater kept the room above freezing for the rest of the day, so better than nothing. Several people have said that, in the New Year we shan’t be able to smoke inside the buildings any more. It will be quite funny to see the MD outside lighting up! We shall see. On the plus side, at least it won’t get so cold in my office as she won’t have the window wide open in hers whilst having a cigarette. So there are advantages to everything, I suppose.
Last night was a fancy dress party. It was held in a friend-of-a-friend’s shop in an area of Milan that, they say, is up-and-coming. She sells designer clothes from lesser-known designers from all over the world.
I absolutely HATE fancy dress parties. I never have a clue as to what to go as and am always genuinely shocked at other people’s ingeniousness and how something so simple can look so good.
As we had less than 2 days notice and it was Friday night (so no time to try and do something special on Saturday), V came up with the idea of going as 70s people. My era. Sadly, we had all the necessary items in our wardrobes including, for me, a pair of real platform shoes that I had worn only once before. They had brought them in as new items in the 80s in Schuh, in Birmingham, hoping for some sort of revival, I guess. Well, it never took off but I kept them as I loved them. Boy, they looked good last night but how my calves suffered! Anyway, it was a cool party and we got back about half one in the morning.
Finally, I had written a long post about the jury’s verdict on the de Menezes case but feel it was far better covered over at Stef’s site. If I lived in the UK now I would be very, very afraid. What kind of future is there when you cannot trust the police to be truthful and themselves uphold the law against murder?
Oh, yes, and it hasn’t stopped bloody raining for days!
Winter Wonderland; The Smoking Room
This morning, taking the dogs out, it was snowing. It was thick but wet. In less than two hours it had already started to melt although still snowing heavily. And with the combination of the wetness of the snow and the melting it became transparent snow – like looking through a bathroom window – you could see the tarmac, black, underneath the snow which was heavily pregnant with the water – a translucent look.
Credit Crunch or Titanic. The difference being…..?
With the current ‘credit crunch’ crisis, I tend to read Peston’s Picks (mainly for the comments). Recently, one of the comments was very well done and I show it here. It is from someone called Whistling_Neil
As efforts to save the Titanic continued the captain updated the passengers on progress.
“We have installed a lot of extra pumps to pump water from the flooded sections. Some of these pumps have not been switched on because the Chief engineer informs us that we haven’t the power to run them. Some have been found to be discharging the flood water back into the flooded sections and they are now underwater and we cannot relocate them.
Monopoly; Snow; Fat Feet; An Outing At Work!
I won! Since this happens rarely and certainly if V is playing (since he nearly always wins) it was quite something. It was a match arranged by V with some colleagues since one of them, L, was convinced he could take V on and beat him.
But I did like the ‘new’ way of making deals. L started it with the deal he gave to M, letting him complete the ‘dark-blue’ set on condition that he wouldn’t have to pay rent if he landed on them. Then I made a deal with him in a similar vein but also collecting 25% of any profit that he made during the game.
>However, my coup-de-grace was letting V have the final green one in place of a complete one and a half sides of the board! I knew that he wanted the greens so much that he would give anything to get the set.
And it snowed Sunday night, even in the centre of Milan. And it’s been very cold since then. I just HAVE to get another job because they don’t keep the offices warm enough for me. The forecast is for snow and rain from now until next weekend! Enough already! Roll on spring.
In other news: I think my feet have put on weight. It seems to be getting harder to get my socks on.
Also, I found this morning, yesterday someone at work found my blog. I was a bit concerned for a while but then I thought it must be Pietro. Luckily, perhaps, it was. However, whilst I was looking at all the sites they had visited, it did scare me for a while. Anyway, now that he has found it perhaps I should include his blog on my links on the side? Nice to see you Pietro!