I'm sorry.
Month: September 2005
I'm hearing in mono
My left ear is blocked and I'm hearing all wonky.
A sign of impending senility
I made myself a cup of coffee this morning. I clearly remember putting the coffee bag in the cup, pouring water, adding sugar and milk.
I do not remember drinking my coffee.
I was brushing my teeth when I pondered the wisdom of doing so before having had my coffee, as it would now taste like ass. When I came back into the kitchen, I was looking for my cup. It was in the pile of washing up that needs to be done. It was empty.
This is freaking me out.
Homesickness
I knew this moment would happen some time or another, but I'm homesick today. I could do with a pint at Hurleys with the boys (and the girls) from Montreal. It was bound to happen and I'm not making a big deal out of it but I miss the old gang.
Tired thoughts
It takes a lot of energy to be happy and cheerful for two people and my batteries are running low. Where's the energizer bunny when you need him?
You say tomato, I say tomate.
Tingo, nakkele and other wonders
English is a rich and innovative language. But you can't help feeling we're missing out. While English speakers have to describe the action of laughing so much that one side of your abdomen hurts (hardly an economical phrase), the Japanese have the much more efficient expression: katahara itai.
Of course, the English language has borrowed words for centuries. Khaki and croissant are cases in point.
So perhaps it's time to be thinking about adding others to the lexicon. Malay, for instance, has gigi rongak – the space between the teeth. The Japanese have bakku-shan – a girl who appears pretty from behind but not from the front. Then there's a nakkele – a man who licks whatever the food has been served on (from Tulu, India).
These fabulous examples have been collected by author Adam Jacot de Boinod into The Meaning Of Tingo – a collection of words and phrases from around the world. “What I'm really trying to do is celebrate the joy of foreign words (in a totally unjudgmental way) and say that while English is a great language, one shouldn't be surprised there are many others having, as they do, words with no English equivalent,” he says.
Having pored over 280 dictionaries and trawled 140 websites, he is also convinced that a country's dictionary says more about a culture than a guide book. Hawaiians, for instance, have 108 words for sweet potato, 65 for fishing nets – and 47 for banana.
The German propensity for compound words pays dividends. Kummerspeck is a German word which literally means grief bacon: it is the word that describes the excess weight gained from emotion-related overeating.
A Putzfimmel is a mania for cleaning and Drachenfutter – literally translated as dragon fodder – are the peace offerings made by guilty husbands to their wives.
Or there's die beleidigte Leberwurst spielen – to stick one's lower lip out in a sulk (literally, to play the insulted liver sausage). Perhaps it's a Backpfeifengesicht – a face that cries out for a fist in it.
Words and phrases can suggest the character of a nation. The Dutch vocabulary, for instance, seems to confirm the nation's light-hearted reputation. The word uitwaaien is Dutch for walking in windy weather for fun.
The Maori-speakers of the Cook Islands sound like an enthusiastic bunch: the word toto is the shout given in a game of hide-and-seek to show readiness.
Perhaps the Inuit notion of a good time must be, of necessity, a little more constrained. The long winter nights must fly by as they play a game called igunaujannguaq, literally meaning frozen walrus carcass. (The game involves the person in the centre of a ring trying to remain stiff as he is passed around the ring, hand over hand.)
But it's those fun-loving people in the Netherlands who should have the last word – the phrase for skimming stones is as light-hearted as the action: plimpplampplettere.
The Albanians exhibit a strange fascination for facial hair. There are no fewer than 27 separate expressions for the moustache.
Madh means a bushy moustache, posht is a moustache hanging down at the ends and fshes is a long broom-like moustache with bristly hairs.
This hirsute obsession is not confined to moustaches. Vetullkalem describes pencil-thin eyebrows, vetullperpjekur are joined together eyebrows and those arched like the crescent moon are vetullhen.
Perhaps nothing so intriguingly displays differences between nations as the unusual occupations of some of its citizens. Geshtenjapjeks is an Albanian who sells roast chestnuts on the street. A koshatnik in Russian is a dealer of stolen cats.
A kualanapuhi is a Hawaiian officer who keeps the flies away from the sleeping king by waving a brush made of feathers. In Turkey a cigerci is a seller of liver and lungs and the Danish have a fyrassistent – an assistant lighthouse keeper.
And Spanish speakers in central America have a description of a government employee who only shows up on payday – an aviador.
Which brings us back to de Boinod's title: tingo is an invaluable word from the Pascuense language of Easter Island meaning “to borrow objects from a friend's house, one by one, until there's nothing left”.
In which our hero foolishly agrees to move a piano
I helped a coworker move a piano and man, those things are fucking heavy. I didn't hurt my back, which is good, but I'm still going to feel it tomorrow. Afterwards, we headed to a pub that said coworker knew in Cambs that had nice atmosphere and good beer. Unfortunately, he didn't really remember where it was and after getting turned around a few times, we ended up in what seemed like a good pub from the outside but turned out to be Cambridge's equivalient of the Peel Pub (as a side note, even the website is ghetto!!!). I mean, it would probably be great if I were a single 18-21 year old.
As it was, the music was too loud, there were too many people and the beer came in plastic cups. You get the picture. I wasn't into that scene when I was the right age for it… Katy called me while we were there. She's not doing so good and that bummed me out cause she's there and feeling like crap and I'm here and there's nothing I can do to make it better and I hate that feeling. I hope she feels better soon :(
All in all, this day was a write-off. Hopefully, tomorrow will be better.
Landlady
The situation with my landlady is really weird. One minute, she's getting on my nerves like there's no tomorrow, the next, I'm scared shitless of dealing with her. And then I spend 10 minutes talking to get and realize that she's a really nice person.
I'm wondering who's bipolar, me or her….
Not a happy bunny
Lots of little things are conspiring to piss me off today.
weekend update
I've been told that I haven't updated in a while so I'll try and compensate in a big one.
Went to Leicester for the weekend to see the Katygirl. She's feeling less than stellar. Poo. She's going to be spending a few more days in Leic, which is a good idea cause her parents can keep an eye on her and that cough of hers, but is bad because I miss her. Between all my trips and her op, we haven't had lots of quality time in the last little while and that sucks ass big time. Blergh.
So, the weekend. I slept in the guest bedroom because I didn't want to smack into her in our sleep (which I've done in the past). The box room has a very small and less-than-comfortable bed. It didn't help that my feet hung off the edge and didn't have enough pillows. I didn't sleep well, and my back hurts. Minor annoyance.
I spent saturday trying to make salsa and my mom's tomato ketchup. The salsa is a bit too liquid, but really tasty. It was a learning experience. Next time, less vinegar (that Polish stuff is really potent!), and make sure that the tomatoes are really, really ripe. The ketchup… I'm less sure of. It tastes good, but doesn't look right. For one thing, it's really darker than my mom's. One reason, I think, is that I used red onions instead of white and I think that the color bled into the mix a bit. Also, I think that I used black mustard seed instead of yellow, which also might have contributed to the darker color. The proof will be in the tasting. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough room to bring them back to Cambridge with me so there's still in Leicester. It was a bit of a bummer though that 3 kg of tomatoes only makes 5 and a half jars of preserves. I was expecting more. Anyway, like I said, learning experience. The highlight of saturday was going shopping in the market. Lots of good food for cheap. Also, I got to wear my new cotton trader duds, which are really really comfy.
Today was supposed to be a slow day, but my back had decided that it really hadn't liked that bed and I couldn't get comfortable sitting down or standing up :( Dinner was yummy, and I took a train back to Cambridge. Hopefully, Katy will feel good enough to travel by mid-week.
Tomorrow, I move a piano. Joy.