Well, today is the start of the 20th Hay Festival. I looked on the website as I was thinking of S and suddenly, I really miss the Festival. We won’t be going at all and this will be the first time in over 10 years that we won’t be there, in any role, punters, debenture holders or box office staff.
Yesterday, as I was posting the post below and changing a few things (because WordPress does funny things to the post sometimes – I think it’s the font that causes the problem), I checked my visitors and found someone else reading my blog at the same time! This is quite freaky. Those of you who have blogs that actually have visitors all the time may not appreciate how exciting this can be. I mean, we’re on the site exactly at the same time!
There you go! I missed my visitor from Oregon. Checking my stats this morning – they didn’t visit last night. Oh well, they will probably never know that the post below was really for them.
I’ve noticed that one of my regular visitors, recently, is from Oregon in the US. It’s probably not soon enough, but welcome. Nice to see you and, may I point out, that this entry is really for you as you are keep returning, probably looking for a new post.
I wouldn’t call this post ‘news’, since that implies something amazing. A round-up of events is probably a better description. And it’s long because it includes a rant, so, sorry about that in advance.
Football. Manchester United versus Milan. Last night, all the bars that had coverage via satellite were doing a roaring trade. I found it difficult to find a place to park – and we’re the opposite side of Milan! It seems that, to really enjoy the evening, people had travelled from outside Milan into the centre to go and watch the spectacle at a bar!
It didn’t quite go as planned on Sunday after all. We DID go for a walk up Corso Buenos Aires on Sunday afternoon as many of the shops were open. We DID take Rufus, who got lots of admiring looks and lots of ‘che bello’s’ and who was perfectly behaved, as usual. V got some presents for the birthday of a girl at work because he always seems to be the one responsible for taking the collection money and finding the presents.
We’ve had a lovely couple of days away. Enjoying the atmosphere, the climate, the country and, most importantly, friends’ company, good food and wine.
I can feel the wind on my face and my hair. I can feel the sway of the boat and the surge as it hits the waves. I can hear the engine and the sounds of the other passengers. It’s comfortable and I feel safe. I’m sitting next to Chiara. She is beautiful. Well, when I say that, her voice is beautiful. She has long, dark hair and a pretty face, although none of this I can see. It’s not that it’s night, it’s total darkness. Really. Not a single iota of light. I am blind. She often grasps for my hand. She has a delicate, slightly cold, hand. Long fingers, Sweet, like her.
OK. So we all (native speakers, that is) know about question tags, don’t we? We know how to and when to use them. We use them automatically, without thinking, all the time for many, many situations. They open a conversation with a stranger, they give others the chance to show that they agree with us (or not, of course), we use them when we’re unsure about something, etc. And, depending upon the fall or rise of the tone will tell the other person what we are trying to say (after all, they may be called question tags, but they aren’t always questions that we create, are they?)