We have started to receive Christmas cards, which is really nice. First, as always, we had one from R who is now living in New Zealand. But also from M & B who are on their way to Vancouver for Christmas and New Year and also one from B and L and about whom I feel very guilty since they don’t have computers and I should really write to them more often.
I have some very nice watches, which I tend to wear when we go out or at weekends. But, during the week, at work or when working at home I wear a particular watch.
This was originally titled The Kindness of Strangers Friends but my titles don’t allow for different font styles. Anyway, on to the post ……..
Many things here are the same, well, almost the same, as in the UK. We are, generally, not so different at all. But it’s the little differences that count. Some of those things are really nice and some are more than a little frustrating.
There are moments when I am happy to be alive and, particularly, happy to be here, in Italy and, for that matter, in Milan.
I know I’m getting old and I know that it must be the same for many of us ‘oldies’ but I can’t help getting annoyed about the bad spelling and incorrect use of words that I find.
Apparently, Americans (as in the people from the USA) use alot instead of a lot, quite alot. I’m not sure about afew or abit but I guess it’s much the same.
However, when I see English people using it, it really bugs me. The prevalence of the joining of ‘a’ to other short words is rife on the internet. Type one of them into Google and see! But why? These days we have spell checker. And, so far, as I type this into my word processing package, afew and abit are underscored in red to show that they are not words, whereas the package automatically changes alot to ‘a lot’ and I am having to go back and remove the space, leaving the ‘new word’ underscored in red.
I wonder if, in years to come, a lot will become alot?
Another one that does get to me is the incorrect use of your. This applies when they mean you’re. I realise that this has something to do with the increased use of texting. After all, when using predictive text, typing in your instead of you’re is so much quicker and, I have to admit, I’ve done it myself occasionally. But, when it comes to writing, why do it? It doesn’t take much effort to get it right.
However, the concern from my point of view is that it’s not that people are being careless or trying to be quicker, it’s that they honestly don’t know the difference. I used to see it at work in the UK. It seems that anyone under about the age of 30 didn’t practice spelling or grammar when they were at school.
And, perhaps that’s it. And for people who didn’t have much schooling, I can, kind of, understand. But for those people with degrees or, even, ‘A’ Levels (or whatever they’re calling them now), the propensity for using any of the above examples is simply showing what a poor education you’ve really had.
And that’s another one. ‘They’re’. Often, ‘there’ or ‘their’ is used instead. And from people who present themselves as ‘well educated’. It’s a joke.
Language is a beautiful thing, much more than just a method of communication. And I am not putting myself up as the perfect example of using English correctly (often starting sentences with and ‘and’ or ‘but’ which I realise may be just as annoying to other people), but these examples I’ve given are basic and make the reading of a piece, post or blog and, especially, a CV so much more difficult as my eyes are drawn to these fundamental errors and my opinion of the people reduces accordingly.
However, if you wish to annoy me alot just sprinkle afew of these into you’re blog and, maybe, afterall Ill get used to it in abit and just pose the question ‘am i bovvered?’, to witch the ansa maybe no, knot rilly.
It is true that, mostly, people are nice. And when people are nice, it lifts you and gives you warm and good feelings inside.
Well, summer has truly started. Not only is it hot, and I mean hot all the time, even during the night, but the mozzies are well and truly back – big time.
I’ve noticed he has hardly been mentioned in the blog recently and thought I should put this right. Note that the picture is NOT Rufus. This is how he SHOULD look if we were to treat him like a show dog and not have his hair cut. He actually looks much cuter.
Yesterday morning it rained on my way to work. Not particularly heavy, but it would have made the roads potentially greasy. For that reason I tend to be a bit slower, try to give myself more time for braking by positioning myself further from the car in front, etc.
But why, I ask, that when it rains, people do the strangest of things. I mean, it’s as if it’s not raining when they pull out in front of you. This also happens when it snows.