Fabulous Friday.

I’m trying to keep with the alliteration theme here,  and that title is a only just a slight exaggeration.

I’m certainly not talking about the weather.  There was a German adjective that just popped into my head,  and that was “scheußlich”  (ooh,  spell-check doesn’t like that one),  which I would like to loosely translate into the “Caretaking Vernacular” as “shitty”.   That’s close enough.

I’m not complaining.  Yet.   It’s just an observation.  We’ve had some really fabulous weather back in the summer and spring time.  A little bit of crap once in a while is inevitable.   I haven’t had to dig out the snow shovel.  So that’s a good thing.

See,  when Travelling Companion came in the door last night (at a pretty good time too,  I might add)  the first thing she said was, “I’m working from home tomorrow!”

So what that means is,  since there is a certain amount of evaporated time that gets lost getting ready for,  and then having to drive off to work,  we both get to sleep in,  I don’t have to pack her a lunch,  and generally speaking,  life is nothing short of “fantastic”.   

Oh wait,  my mistake,  I meant,  “fabulous”.  

Take your pick.

Now,  having said that,  one of the things she has to do this afternoon is go on a conference call.   I may have to put in my earplugs,  or make myself scarce.   There’s too much talking,  most of it loud.   I must say,  she does seem to be able to understand all the instructions from AT&T,  which are all in German.   Typically anyone on the call starts out in German,  until they realise T.C. is on the line,  and then they switch to their barely understandable English.   Of course,  it’s not that much worse than whatever version of “English”  that the Brits use.  Some of those guys are pretty bad.  And I’m not referring to the “Queen’s English” either.   Very few people in the UK actually speak the “Queen’s English”.   It’s too bad they don’t really,  and the different versions of spoken English is so varied that people from towns that are no more than a few miles apart have different ways of saying the same word.    I mean,  it’s easy enough to tell the difference from someone from say,  Boston as compared to someone from Indiana,   but in the UK it can be literally a few miles.   Fun to study,  hard to understand.

Much to their credit,  I would say the Dutch have the best handle on speaking an English that can most readily be understood by all parties.   Something along the lines of a “broadcast standard”.    I think it’s a direct result of their exposure to English being spoken on TV each and every night.   I’ve gone on and on about this in the past,  but the Germans and Austrians like to translate (i.e. dub) everything that ends up in front of their audience on the boob tube,  and that’s not the way to help the population learn a second language.  The Dutch use subtitles,  leaving the programming in the original. The fact of the matter is,  people do watch a lot of TV,  and if you want to influence (and possibly educate) the masses,  it’s the perfect medium.  Just my humble opinion,  but one that was shared with my highly educated German teacher from a while back. 

I think that’s going to be about it for today’s missive.  We’ll probably meander downstairs later and eat with “the boys”.   It’s either that or grilled cheese sandwiches and pickles for dinner.   Not too sure I’m overly enthusiastic in that respect.

 

Try not to get mobbed on “Black Friday”  if that’s your thing.

Thanks for stopping by.

 

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