Americanisms

Mrs C and I are going to a series of operas put on by the New York Met,
which are being beamed to us by satellite all the way to Nottingham’s
Broadway Cinema. So far, we’ve seen three phenomenal productions:
Don Giovanni, Rodelinda and Gounod’s Faust. We’ve booked in to see
“The Enchanted Island” and La Traviata.

In the intervals, we get to see back-stage and also see interviewed
the leading singers. During one such interval in Rodelinda, the singer,
Deborah Voigt, started talking about Handel’s Baroque style. What
sounded odd to me was her pronunciation of the word Baroque … as
Bar-roak, which we in the UK say as Bar-rock.

Occasionally I heard other Americanisms, such as the word “gotten”
instead of “got”. The word used to be used in the UK, and is still
used in the phrase: “ill-gotten gains”. I now find myself saying to
“gotten” to myself (but not to other people yet), as in the phrase:
“I’ve gotten used to it”.

Mrs C and I do watch a lot of TV drama that’s been imported from the
US … The Closer, The Mentalist, Mad Men, Dexter, In Treatment, The
L Word, Six Feet Under, just to name a few, so it’s not surprising
that we’ll be assimilating some of the US language used. I can’t say
the same as regards adopting Danish or Swedish words, giving the
amount of crime drama we’ve been watching from there … I can
remember a few names like Sarah Lund, Strange & Brix from
“The Killing”. The Danish and Swedish languages are all Greek to me.

Merry Xmas from the Eskimo

Our Christmas has started early this year with the arrival of our
daughter L and her two girls last weekend. They will be staying with
us for the best part of the school holidays, and L's partner J will
be here for Xmas weekend. Our other three daughters + partners +
children + Mrs C's sister and mum will be here at various times over
the festive period too.

We'll enjoy seeing them all, but I have to say that we'll feel
somewhat relieved to have the house to ourselves when they've all
gone home. We are really lucky to have a four lovely daughters,
and I'm really lucky to have a fab wife who brought them up to be
so ... all the women get on like a house on fire.

In the past month or so, Mrs C and I have had very little heating on
in the house during the day ... we huddle up together under blankets
and a furry throw in the evenings when watching TV, and latterly we've
been using hot water bottles too. In the last two days, however, the
house has been like a hot house / sauna, with our family being here ...
the cats have fanned themselves out alongside the radiators, basking
in the glorious heat. Well the warmth is really nice, but we'll go
back to life as eskimos, when we're on our own again.

The English Rose

I took the photo of my granddaughter, A, a few years ago ... it's one of
my favourites.

The guy who runs the photography group I go to, has set us a new task,
entitled: "Harmonious", which is rather vague. Anyway, with a bit of help
from Mrs C, we put together the above selection of harmonious colours, with
the English rose partly in mind. We've also put together a still life
composition with several fairly dark & rich colours, which I'll show you
nearer to Xmas. We'll be sending it as a Christmas e-card to family &
friends very soon.

Doodling using Gimp ...

(click on pic to see larger sizes)