Smoking in the movie theaters!? That I don't remember.
I do remember smoking on the airplanes and having to walk past the "smoking section" to use the restroom. It was nasty back there.
When I waitressed in college we had a smoking section and a nonsmoking section. I hated the days I got assigned the smoking section as it was always so stinky and the smokers always seemed more demanding, rude and tipped worse!
Just clicked that clip of Le Nozze di Figaro and DW ran in from the kitchen and couldn't bring herself to leave til it was over. "We gotta go hear some Mozart opera" she said as she raced back to see if she had burned the rice.
saef - It's hard to believe you heard that in person and didn't just melt into a puddle.
Renee Fleming singing "I forgive you" to her errant husband brought tears to my eyes.
Cecilia wasn't so bad, either.
As for the fragrance-sensitive and the heavily perfumed, both ought to be able to share public spaces & enjoy their opera or what-have-you in peace. This situation just wasn't handled well. There is a way to make one's needs known directly, tactfully & unemotionally. And when someone does that, we owe them the courtesy of responding in kind, like courteous adults. These ladies both acted like a pair of bratty children & it was awful to be confined in small space with them. The tension they caused distracted everyone in our seating area from the incredible performance we were experiencing. For that, it's still hard for me to sympathize with either party. But there was no way I was going to walk out that night.
Do you North Americans call quavers "eighth notes" or "quarter notes"? And you call crisps "chips". Read on ...
Bryn Terfel comes from the very rural area I'm posting from, and still lives here. He and his wife want their children to be brought up in their own area's Welsh-speaking environment. And, of course, it's beautiful here. I once saw him in the supermarket buying some crisps called Quavers.
Last edited by silverbirch; 03-02-2011 at 04:44 AM.
Do you North Americans call quavers "eighth notes" or "quarter notes"? And you call crisps "chips". Read on ...
Bryn Terfel comes from the very rural area I'm posting from, and still lives here. He and his wife want their children to be brought up in their own area's Welsh-speaking environment. And, of course, it's beautiful here. I once saw him in the supermarket buying some crisps called Quavers.
And we call chips "french fries" or just "fries" sometimes. But we eat "fish & chips". I would not want to be an ESL (English as a second language) teacher.
English is such a "big" language. I'm glad I learned it as a small child and not as an adult - too complicated!
Speaking of opera I better go see what Mudpie wants. Her quavers are intensifying. I believe she is now what is called a contralto (although she started life as a sweet little soprano).
Everyone send good thoughts today for Raakii please (my car - yes he has a name and it means "lucky" in Japanese). Let's hope it's something small that's wrong.
Time for my hair cut this morning. I'm on the verge of letting it grow out again but can't figure out what I really want. Some mornings I look at myself with this short "do" and think to myself that I look like my mother. I think if I make it more "edgy" it should help (right now it's asymmetrical with one side shorter than the other--perhaps I should exaggerate that). But then again, when it was long I felt like an old person trying to look young and that just isn't right, either. What to do...
My office assistant has had her cousin from Sweden here for the past 3 months and just yesterday she drove him into LA to fly home. While she enjoyed his stay, she's just as happy to get her place back to herself for a short time before others come to visit. Anyway, she's working 4 days a week now and has been taking a lot of extra days off and she says one of these days she's going to go to just 3 days a week. While it isn't too much extra work for me to do, it does make the days long for me. But I guess she can't work forever. She's worked for us for over 10 years and is turning 66 this week.
I'm not much of an opera fan, but my DD sure is. I guess she'd have to be being a music major!
The opera was fantastic - and I stayed awake the entire time.
On the fragrance issue, I absolutely agree that everyone should be able to get out and enjoy things, and like Saef, just wish that people would handle things like adults. Though, I honestly don't know how a person who is sensitive to scents or asthmatic would be able to adjust to heavy scenting from another person. Personally, I think the person wearing the scent to excess isn't being polite to the people around them at all. DH has asthma, so I'm a lot more sensitive to those issues myself than I used to be. I've had to prohibit perfume in most of our kitchens because the close spaces are so hard on people who are sensitive to it, especially when you add in the heated equipment that intensifies everything....
I basically struggle with anything that I feel infringes on the people around me in those settings. Large hats on women at the theater, kids kicking the back of the seat behind me or my foot hitting the seat in front of me, cell phones and emails with bright screens that light up during the show, etc. The woman seated next to me last night got cold halfway through act one and got her husband's jacket, didn't put it on, but draped it over herself like a blanket. In the course of doing so she splashed half of the jacket into my seat, over my left arm and leg. I didn't say anything thinking she would move it, she didn't. At intermission she noticed it and was more careful during act two.
And I'm so glad that restaurants down here are non-smoking now.
Allison! 66 - which I am - is too long to be working IMHO! I would have retired sooner but I needed to reach the point where my medical insurance would be included with my pension.
Another sunny - and cold! - day here, but at least the wind has stopped at my house. I understand it's still howling, with gusts to 75mph, in other areas of our valley. DH has gone to the podiartrist, and then we have a phone conference with a guy regarding DH's father's estate, which affects our taxes. Groan, I just want them moved on to the accountant.....
Silver, I had to look up "quaver" having never heard that term, but it is an eighth note around here. Speaking of British vs. North American terms, when I was 13 I went to England and stayed with my cousin for a couple weeks. My first two experiences with British English terms were "biscuit" and "jumper." What actually happened was right after my cousin picked me up from the airport, we went to a KFC on the way back to her house. I had just learned that a "biscuit" in England is a cookie, and then at KFC I learned that what we call "biscuits" (which is the tastiest thing at KFC) are called "American biscuits." Then my cousin's daughter mentioned something about my jumper and I was looking at her like she was nuts because I was not wearing a jumper. It took a few minutes to sort out that "jumper" meant "sweater." Wikipedia tells me that what I call a "jumper" is called a "pinafore dress" in England.
And I didn't mean that people who are sensitive to smells should never go anywhere, or that it's okay for people to wear ridiculous amounts of perfume. IMO nobody should wear massive amounts of perfume, but on the other hand I would expect a fragrance-sensitive person to avoid going into perfume shops.
They still have smoking sections in some places out here. At least they did a couple years ago when we moved here, but I haven't seen one in quite some time. Once when DH and I were traveling in Japan I accidentally got us train tickets on the smoking car. As soon as the doors closed every single person in the car with us lit up and chain smoked the entire ride. It was awful! I certainly learned the Japanese word for "non-smoking car" after that mistake.
Dagmar, thanks for the bandaging advice! It seems to have re-scabbed so for now we're leaving it without a bandage but if we need to I will definitely try your technique.
Carter's recovery is such a rollercoaster. On the one hand, he's walking well, and getting back to his routine. He didn't wake us up whining for two nights in a row, his bathroom schedule is back to normal, and he's been very well-behaved during the day which is really great. On the other hand last night was a bit of a disaster trying to get him to bed. He kept trying to lick his foot which he could barely reach with the cone on if he fell on it in exactly the right position. Then when we tried to stop him from licking he was extremely growly and if Carter hadn't been wearing the cone DH would have been bitten. It's frustrating because we're just trying to help him, but he doesn't get it, and he has been really lashing out with the growling/snapping if we do something he doesn't like (usually trying to keep his injuries clean, but also stopping him from licking his bed or various other things). He's always growled when we do things like that, but he never used to snap at us like this.
In any case I'm trying to focus on the good things. Once he is better we will be resuming our sessions with the dog behaviorist we hired and hopefully we can resolve any snapping issues then. Tonight we have to make an attempt to trim his nails since when he walks clumsily he has been cutting his foot on his own nails. I'm a little afraid that all the progress we made on getting him to tolerate nail trimming is going to be reversed.
My parents, on a trip to England, said to their hosts that they wanted to buy me some knickers...Mom meant knee-high slacks, but knickers there are underwear here!
And as for 66, she's in a unique position--but it's her "fault" if you will. She's from Sweden, here long term on a green card and has no desire to become a citizen but has no plans on ever returning to Sweden. She's never owned any property and although we've had a 401(k) for over 10 years, she never paid into it. She has no savings. Since she's lived here long enough and has worked her just as long, she does qualify for Medicare and will be able to collect a small amount from Social Security, but I don't know if she'll ever be able to fully retire. She'll have a small "pension" from us when she leaves, but it's not that much. It's sad. One should plan better.
Very true. Knickers are the item of underwear which covers the bottom, etc. They are sometimes called pants (thought you'd like that). Knickerbockers, however, are the kind of cut off at the knee trousers. It's an old-fashioned word but you can see the divergent paths we each took. Just for fun, a vest is also an item of underwear. It's for the top half and could either have sleeves (like a t-shirt) or not (a singlet).
Um. Now we're on the subject: is a beater (wife-beater??) a singlet? You know, like what I think you call a tank top?
Love the jumper story, Jessica!
This thread always gets down to basics, doesn't it? Bodily fluids, dogs, underwear. But the way I look at it, once those things are dealt with, the road ahead is open. It's hey-ho for the open road, as I think Toad says in The Wind in the Willows.
Tank tops are sometimes called beaters here--especially if worn by overly muscular guys that you wouldn't want to meet in a dark alley. Beaters also refer to extremely rusted, barely running, very old cars.
So if it isn't one thing, it's another. My SIL just called. She took my Mom to the doctor and they've admitted her and put her into surgery. Basically more angio to clear out the clogs in her legs. She's on the maximum dosage of coumadin and still keeps clotting in her lower limbs. The good news is that they could still get a pulse in her lower leg, but it was extremely weak. No wonder she says her legs have been hurting.
Silver, I also remember on the same trip having confusion about "pants!" A wife-beater is a tight white ribbed cotton tank top. I've never heard them called just "beaters." A sleeveless shirt in general is a tank top if it's designed to be worn alone. A sleeveless shirt for wearing under other clothes for men is an undershirt. A spaghetti strap top for wearing under other clothes for women is a camisole.
"Beaters" just makes me think of the things you use to beat cake batter!
Allison, I hope the procedure helps your mom to have less pain in her legs.
Carter was very good last night. Third night in a row of not waking us up whining. His scab is still intact as well. I hope the elbow heals soon so we can take the cone off of him.
I brought nuclear kitty home this morning. He's skinny as a fashion model but seems in quite good spirits otherwise. Yelling for food, cuddles, etc. We have to handle him with gloves for the next 30 days but he's used to that.
Mudpie is curled up on the couch and very pointedly ignoring him (and me, the swine who brought him back). I probably will find a present from her downstairs when I come home from work. I took part of the morning off to make sure the two monkeys were ok with each other.
I could get to like this staying at home stuff. Got dinner in the slow cooker, DH's car refitted with my dogwalking stuff (DH took my car as he only has to start it twice), a load of laundry halfway done, and I feel quite relaxed (not frantic as is usually the case in the mornings).
Now if only I could win the lottery I could make this a permanent state!
Allison! 66 - which I am - is too long to be working IMHO! I would have retired sooner but I needed to reach the point where my medical insurance would be included with my pension.
