Uno, as you probably know, represents the number one in at least two languages (Spanish and Italian are the ones that I am familiar with). It is used specifically for nouns that take the masculine form, though this is not always straightforward. The word for a car is masculine in Spanish (“coche”) but feminine in… Continue reading Word of the week: Uno
Breakfast TV here in the UK currently offers us three main options: “BBC Breakfast” on BBC1, “Good Morning Britain” on ITV and comedy shows on Channel 4. “Milkshake” on Channel 5 is aimed at young children, and 10 years ago, when our children were 4 and 6, we often tuned in for episodes of “Peppa… Continue reading Word of the week: “Cheers”
Happy Pi Day to you, belatedly. I write these words in the last hour of 14 March here in the UK, or 3/14 in US notation. Out there in California, Oregon and everywhere else in the Pacific time zone, you still have many hours to celebrate. For the first time ever, my children and I… Continue reading “How I want a drink, alcoholic of course…”
Back in November, in this piece about the word “whitewash”, I wrote about the pool table that we bought for my son’s 16th birthday. I set it up that evening and we have played at least three games on it every day since then. Most days we play at least six games, and sometimes (at weekends, or in the Christmas holidays) we… Continue reading 500 games of pool
Most Saturday afternoons the BBC2 schedule includes a movie and a show called “Talking Pictures” that features interview clips with the director or star of the film. Yesterday the subject was Ingrid Bergman, a true Hollywood star. After a screening of “Joan of Arc” (1948, directed by Victor Fleming), “Talking Pictures” included interviews with Ms Bergman from 1971, 1973 and 1980. The interviewer in the 1971… Continue reading An afternoon with Ingrid Bergman
Today is known by some as Blue Monday. This piece in The Scotsman describes as “the most depressing day of the year”, for the following reasons: “It’s the day when the financial pressure of the Christmas just passed hangs over us most, the weather is at its worst, and the extra pounds we’ve acquired over the holiday… Continue reading “Blue Monday” and the Henry Fern Collection
Here’s a conversational game that I have been playing since I was a teenager. Maybe you do something similar. You ask a question, the answer you receive sounds like it might be an insult, and you act offended and say, “Alright, I was only asking …” For example, you might be struggling to remember the… Continue reading “Alright, I was only asking …”
Following on from our Christmas Eve viewing (“Casablanca”) we settled down on New Year’s Eve to watch another film that won the Oscar for Best Picture: “Rocky”. My wife is a big fan of the “Rocky” movies but the only ones we had watched together were 21st century additions to the franchise, “Rocky Balboa” and… Continue reading Word of the week: Rocky
My 14 year old daughter suggested that we watch a film on Christmas Eve. Much of our TV viewing involves live sport, quiz shows and “Strictly Come Dancing”, and series like “Friends”, “Big Bang Theory” and “Modern Family” on Netflix, but over the years we have made an effort to watch films on Christmas Eve… Continue reading Word of the week: Casablanca
Back in 2018, in this piece, I recorded my satisfaction at the state of my children’s teeth, and my own. I have a wide selection of fillings (white at the front, amalgam at the back), and crowns on many of my molars. They regularly need some kind of treatment, but I had gone 30 months… Continue reading Still all clear at the dentist
