On no, the mystery is no longer

And I don’t like the answer!

OK, one of my good friends (you know who you are – I figure you may not want to be cited here for all to know your perfidy) gifted me with a daily calendar: “365 days of Trivia” (www.pageaday.com). Day number one ruined my life.

“What makes a glass of Champagne fizz?”  Now, I reckoned that I was in for that explanation that I can never remember about the CO2, etc. but no – it was worse, much worse: and again I quote: “Dust particles and dish towel fibers … according to scientists at the University of Reims, in Champagne-Ardenne, France. They found that if a glass was totally smooth and debris-free, carbon dioxide molecules in Champagne would not bubble up; they would evaporate without ever being seen.”

So the fact that I love the bubbles means that I have dirty glasses and that the champagnes I have not liked as well, due to lack of bubbles, were actually served in clean glasses?

My world will never be the same.

Some of my favorite things

Notice I speak of things, not people so don’t expect any tributes to friendship, etc. although my New Year started with the luxury of being with friends and I hope that this year will be one of not only maintaining old friendships, but also of caring for all friendships, be they of acquaintances or family.

But back to “things”: again not an exclusive list, just what pops into mind (and in no particular order either): food (yep that figures high on most of my lists), travel, photography, reading, trivia, words.

I love words: reading them, hearing a good speech, a combination thereof, a play on words, and just plain old individual words.

I subscribe to http://wordsmith.org/awad/index.html as mentioned before and some days are pure happiness: today’s word “yare”.

PRONUNCIATION:

(yahr or yayr)

MEANING:

adjective: 1. Easily maneuverable; nimble. 2. Ready; prepared.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Old English gearo/gearu (ready). Earliest documented use: 888.

So I can imagine myself nimble all whilst being prepared (good thing I noticed this after I had fulfilled some of the items on my current “to do every day” list).

Now what’s even more fun is that this combines two of my favorite things: words and trivia. Note the date at which it was first documented: 888. With a bit of luck it was on the 28^th of August – or the last entirely even-numbered day until the 2^nd of February 2000!

Just makes my day to combine these two things – and the sun is even deigning to grace us with its presence so although the 2^nd day of the year was looking to be pretty bleak (everything still shut, nothing planned with either family or friends, gray skies) – it has done a 180° switch and turned into a great one.

May we always be yare for opportunities and positive changes.

A New Year

All bright and shiny, as scintillating as a freshly

unpacked piece of crystal or cut diamond.

A new set of 365 days, days as yet untrammeled

by care or worry; days that we will open – as if

pages of an uncut book – in order, yet each a blank

upon which to write our own story.

If we hadn’t a calendar and a new start, we

would have to invent one, simply in order to put

behind us those moments and days that are too

heavy to carry for any length of time.

A new year gives us the opportunity to hope again –

to invest ourselves in something new, to strive

for change and betterment, to continue along

life’s meandering banks.

Le Nouvel An

L’unique, l’extraordinaire,

Le nouveau début

À notre vie.

Une nouvelle année – plus banale,

Comme toutes les autres que nous avons commencées

Avec tant d’espoir.

Un nouvel an

Porteur de l’espoir du renouveau,

De meilleurs jours, du Bonheur et des joies

Jusqu’à là inconnus.

La nouvelle année –

Toute fraîche, vide du contenu,

Une page vierge sur laquelle nous laisserons

Des traces à notre guise;

Une année ou tout peut arriver.

Que cela soit “Le” nouvel an, une nouvelle année,

Un nouvel an ou une nouvelle année,

Il/elle sera ce que nous en faisons.

Out with the old, in with the new!

Too trite to be true... but hey, having spent all my philosophical thoughts on the past year...

Trying to determine the origin of this statement led to some very interesting trivia, including one person who maintains that it originated with Lee Douglas IV – of the 5^th clan of the Doogals, who eventually became the Douglas clan- its meaning being ‘out with the old‘ (his mother who was a lady of the night) and in with the new (his mistress). Hmmm...

So then I went on to “wiping the slate clean” as that is what I have done in preparation for THE NEW YEAR.

Finally able to see the design on the bulletin board!

Command central.... ready for 2014

 Now last December 31^st after the death of my sister, I reckoned that 2013 was going to be a good year. Maybe I shouldn’t be making predictions as it was a very mixed year at best.

However, “hope springs eternal” (to use another cliché… maybe my goal should be not to use clichés in 2014? At least I know the origin of this one – Alexander Pope in An Essay on Man) and I am going to think that the possibilities for a lovely year in 2014 are endless.

So greetings and best wishes from my own village!

I’ve got a bleb, or…

Fun words

Sometimes the sound of a word is enough to make me happy, sometimes it is the silliness of saying the word or the thought that it engenders.

I subscribe to “A.Word.a.Day” http://www.wordsmith.org/awad/ and enjoy almost every single one, but todays was simply too much fun: “bleb”

Now try saying that out loud, several times in a row, shout it out, whisper it.

It tickles my funny bone.

Thought to have perhaps come from “blob” (tickles me also), when one looks in the dictionary http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bleb it is only a small blister or particle, it’s sound however is ever so much more.

Imagine throwing into some dinner party conversation: oh, did you see the bleb on my foot… or

I have a bleb somewhere that really bothers me, or do you ever get blebs?

Come on, I dare you, bleb, bleb, bleb.

Or you could, in the medical world, have blebbing (the noun) or perhaps in the philosophical world your thoughts (like mine at this point) are all blebby (adj.).

Have fun – look for more of those: blab, bleb, blib, blob, blub. Roll them off your tongue, look up blib (yep its an actual word)in the Urban dictionary: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=blib (especially #5 – who knew?). Have a great day in the world of words.

Stillness

Twas the day after Christmas

And all through the canton

Nothing was stirring,

Not even the fountain.

Its reflection in the lake

Tall and straight: no wake.

Whispers of air existed not,

Its beauty forever caught.

Jet d'eau, Geneva, Switzerland

Warmth, both physical and of the spirit

One of my favorite young adults gifted me with a “gimmick” – one that I tried out two days later sitting in front of the television.

Although I can’t explain the physical process (or rather probably chemical), this is a wonderful hot water bottle! One presses on the small metallic circle inside the bottle and crystals form slowly over the next 30 minutes (that’s what they say – the heat actually lasted a lot longer). Totally re-usable, one has only to plop it into hot water for 20 minutes or so to re-dissolve the crystals – and Voilà ready for the next use.

But it isn’t just the physical warmth, it is the warmth I feel every time I see it and think of the person who gave it to me! Long may both continue to function.

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La chaleur: à la fois physique et de l'esprit.

Une de mes jeunes personnes préférées m'a donné un "truc" pour Noël. Un truc que j'ai testé devant la télévision quelques jours après. 

Malgré le fait que je n'arrive pas à expliquer le processus physique (ou plutôt chimique), cela marche à merveille. Pendant 30 minutes (ce qu'ils disent sur les instructions, mais en réalité c'était plus long) une bonne chaleur vous chauffe : les cristaux se forment lentement.

Et c'est réutilisable! On a simplement besoin de la laisser chauffer pendant une vingtaine de minutes dans un bain-marie pour que les cristaux se soient dissouts et le tout peut recommencer.

Toutefois, ce n'est pas seulement la chaleur physique que cette bouillotte me procure, mais bien le soleil dans mon coeur lorsque je pense à la personne qui me l'a donné - que tous les deux puissent continuer longtemps à me chauffer!