A little bit of English fun...

We'll begin with a box, and the plural is boxes,
But the plural of ox becomes oxen, not oxes.
One fowl is a goose, but two are called geese,
Yet the plural of moose should never be meese.
You may find a lone mouse or a nest full of mice,
Yet the plural of house is houses, not hice.If the plural of man is always called men,
Why shouldn't the plural of pan be called pen?
If I speak of my foot and show you my feet,
And I give you a boot, would a pair be called beet?
If one is a tooth and a whole set are teeth,
Why shouldn't the plural of booth be called beeth?

Then one may be that, and there would be those,
Yet hat in the plural would never be hose,
And the plural of cat is cats, not cose.
We speak of a brother and also of brethren,
But though we say mother, we never say methren.
Then the masculine pronouns are he, his and him,
But imagine the feminine: she, shis and shim!

 If Father is Pop, how come Mother's not Mop.???

Let's face it - English is a crazy language.
There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger;
Neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren't invented in England.

We take English for granted, but if we explore its paradoxes,
We find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square,
And a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.
And why is it that writers write, but fingers don't fing,
Grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham?
Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend?
If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them,
What do you call it?

If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught?
If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?

Sometimes I think all the folks who grew up speaking English
Should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane.
In what other language do people recite at a play and play at a recital?

We ship by truck but send cargo by ship...
We have noses that run and feet that smell.
We park in a driveway and drive in a parkway.
And how can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same,
While a wise man and a wise guy are opposites?

You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language
In which your house can burn up as it burns down,
In which you fill in a form by filling it out,
And in which an alarm goes off by going on.
And in closing..........

TUTT(+1) - October - Week 54

I chose the theme this week...October...
October is really a beautiful time of the year in South Africa...One of my favourite things in October is that it is when the Jacaranda trees, flower....The flowers are a beautiful mauve/blue colour and this beautiful canopy of blue is created when there are lots of trees together...When the flowers fall, the make a huge mess on the ground, but they are so beautiful, they are well worth the mess....Well to be honest, I have not ever had to clean up after a jacaranda tree, so I really should not comment...

I think Mariette struggled this week - she eventually turned to trusty old Mother Nature for her lovely picture: -

And Claire - Claire went Halloween on us: -

October is the last full month that my mom was still with us - Tomorrow marks the first anniversary of her passing - the last of our "firsts"...I keep thinking of what we were doing this time last year....or rather 52 weeks ago...Fifty two weeks ago, today she died...We had spent so much of this weekend last year at the hospital with her...Hoping and praying for a miraculous recovery, which was not hers to have, and at the same time trying to prepare for the worst....For me it was not a shock when she died, in some way I was relieved that her suffering was over, I am grateful that she did not linger on for months and weeks, hooked up to a ventilator and feeding tube, she would not have wanted to be like that, and she would not have wanted my dad (and the rest of us) to go through the agony of seeing her like that day in and day out for months on end.

When she died, my biggest concern was for my dad, what would he do without my mom...I think in focussing on trying to make sure that he was ok, made me stronger...I did however feel totally lost and alone in those first few months after she had passed away...Mike and the kids were amazing (and still are), but coming to terms with her going, was something I had to do on my own....I think of all the sad times in the last year, when I have thought of her at odd moments, when something reminded me of her, when we were doing something that the last time we had done, she had been with us, of all those moments, my birthday was the worst - I knew that she would not be phoning me, and that made me sob, my mom (and dad) had always been around for that day (more then any other day) - I mean, let's face it, without my mom, I would not be....all of that had a huge effect on me.

So here I am, a year later, carrying her in my heart (where she can never die), my dad is doing amazingly well - he has his sad moments, but he gets through them....I am proud of him and know that my mom is too....I love and miss you, mom, and always will....

Lots of love

My Top Ten Favourite Movies....

This is just a quick little bit of light hearted fun - bonus post...
I love movies, although if we watch movies at home, I generally fall asleep in them....and/or I cry in them....Mike gets a bit frustrated when I fall asleep and Brad and Kayla-Fern never cease to be amazed that I can watch the last fifteen minutes of a movie and end up crying...I cry if the movie is sad, happy, cute whatever...My mom always used to tell me, that when I was three, we watch "Born Free" together....and all through the movie - I cried....I cried because Elsa (the lioness) was going to be bitten by a snake and I cried at a whole lot of other things....Elsa did not die in this movie, but at the end my mom thought - "Thank goodness the movie is over, Linda-Maree will stop crying"...Well guess what, I burst into tears because it was finished...That is just me....
Anyway, my top ten movies are: - Only the first one is in order...the rest are just as I thought about them...
Pay It Forward - My all time favourite - (with Helen Hunt - I love her) I cry every time I watch it
I Am Sam - (With Sean Penn) - Beautiful story - I cry every time I watch it
Sotheby (with Richard Gere and Jodi Foster) - Fairly old movie and not one that was huge at the box office (I don't think)- but a really good story...I might have cried in it
A Perfect World - (with Kevin Costner) - also not a well known movie but a moving story - I think I cried
Dances with Wolves (Keven Costner) - a lovely classic
The Patriot (with Mel Gibson) - Mel Gibson is my favourite actor - This movie has lots of brutality in it, but shows, a man's conflicting beliefs and actions in a time of war - some humorous moments and very touching moment - one when his little daughter (who is autistic) says to him "I will say anything you want, just don't go" - Well - I cried....
What Women Want - (with Helen Hunt and Mel Gibson - again - very cute funny movie - I did not cry.
Indecent Proposal - (with Demi Moore and Robert Redford) - Thought provoking - made me think about what different people would do for money, why and the effect it has on them and the people around them...I did not cry
Ghost - (with Demi Moore and Patrick Swayze) - Lovely movie
The Green Mile (with Tom Hanks) - Based on a novel by Stephen King - This is not a horror...It is a drama I guess, Stephen King has got to be one of the most talented authors of our time...I have no idea where he gets his ideas from, but it must be be very interested and sometimes frightening to have that much imagination.
There are of course many others, which I have loved...but these are the ones that I can watch over and over again....
Lots of love

TUTT(+1) - Vintage - Week ?????

Hello Blog....My name is Linda-Maree and I am your creator/writer, I feel that I had to re-introduce myself because you may have forgotten who I am, since I have not been around for so long....Anyway, now that the formalities are out of the way....Let's blog....

Our theme for the last week of October (I think, and I think it was Week 53, )....was Vintage suggested by Claire...She took a truely lovely photograph of her beautiful daughter Skyla....

Mariette took a photo of a 2005 "vintage, dessert wine..given to her a few years ago by a friend...I love that you took the picture in black and white - gives an authentic vintage effect....

I struggled a bit with the theme...I did think of wine like Mariette, but did not go there....On the Wednesday evening that the photos were due, I suddenly realised what an idiot I had been - Mike has a collection of model aircraft, his passion is bi planes....and he has.... yes, you guessed it - A VINTAGE Tiger Moth - It is hanging up in our lounge....Mike and Brad were out, and since the plane is fairly large, I could not take it down on my own, so I stood on a chair and tried to take pictures of it whilst hanging up - they were not successful, so on Thursday morning, when it was just about time for us all to leave for work and school, I decided it was worth it for me to be a bit late for work, so I asked Mike, who was not yet ready, if Brad (who was nearly ready) could help me take the plane down so I could take some quick photos....Anyway, to cut a long story short, Mike also helped, he insisted that the plane be cleaned as it was dusty and he insisted that the plane get carried outside - BACKGROUND IS SO IMPORTANT - and then for good measure Mike also took some photos....The result was, I did manage to take a lovely photo of a clean plane with a realistic background, AND we were all VERY late for work and school...

Anyway, that is my blog for another week....The next theme, suggested by me is October.
Lots of love

TUTT (+1) - Contrast - Week 51

I am so very far behind in my blog, that I do not know if Contrast was the theme from last week or two weeks ago - I know that we all ran extremely late with photos and Mariett is the only one of us who updated her blog with Contrast...but anyway, Contrast was the first week in a while that all four of us participated....Claire felt ready and able to re-join us...but it will also be the last week with all four of us participating - Pam's "little" (perhaps not so little) organic vegetable is growing in leaps and bounds...and being Pam she has committed herself to a lot of different things....and she begged for a respite...I always try to remember that we do this weekly challenge for fun and if it starts adding to our other life pressures then the situation needs to be reassessed (sorry, it is late on a Friday night and my spelling is probably terrible)...Anyway, Pam, hope the break does you good and hope you can return to us soon, hang in there dear sister in law....
Mariette's photo first, since it was her theme: -

A beautiful picture Mariette, and so vey fitting for the theme.
Claire and Pam also turned to nature - Claire, Pam and Mariette are all experiencing fall or autumn at the moment, so nauture in their parts of the world lends itself to this theme....
Here is Pam's

And Claire's

I did not go the natural route - we are going into summer in South Africa - no in fact Summer has rushed up to us very quickly...and we have experienced really lovely hot highveld weather - the pool is almost warm enough for me to swim - Mike and the kids have swum most evenings this week...Anyway, summer time in SA does not lend itself to Contrast...so I had to choose something different.
After years of renovating, we are finally almost finished...and are now just doing finishing touches...
My contrast picture is of two walls in  my bedroom...the photo frame is one of five, which will be filled with photos of flowers which I took from our white theme and hung above our bed (on the darker wall)..The little candle and candle holder, just match our colour scheme so beautifully and it is the first scented candle I have ever bough that makes the whole room smell pretty - I love it ...This weekend - we are hoping to put the new curtains up and the photo frames - I am very excited...I have a picture in my mind of how it will look - I do hope that I will not be disappointed...

Well that's my Contrast blog done....Our next theme was suggested by Claire - Vintage....
Will be updating that real soon...
Lots of love

TUTT(+1) - Heritage - Week 50

In the week of 24th September, (shew, is it that long since we have posted - sorry, to all my valued readers....), it was my turn to suggest a themw and since SA celebrates "Heritage Day" on that day, I suggested Heritage as my theme...  I also thought it would be interesting to see what Heritage meant to three girls in different parts of the world (remember Claire was taking a bit of a sabbatical).
What I did not think about, was that although Mariette and Pam have relocated to new countries, they are still born and bred South Africans, so is their "heritage" South African or their new country's.... I think that since their formative years were spent in South Africa, South  Africa will always be part of them ...there is a saying "You can take me out of Africa, but you can't take Africa out of me"...but I think slowly over time as they adapt to their "new" countries, part of that heritage will rub off on them.
Mariette, showed, very clearly that SA is still a big part of her, and particularly "Pap and Wors"

Pam, showed the second part of my theory and that is that the "new" heritage will rub off in some way...Her picture and one word "Thanksgiving" say it all, I don't think you can get more American then that...Clever picture Pam - and your comment made me laugh

I chose a picture of a rhino, not actually taken for this theme, but our wildlife is a huge part of our heritage and rhino's are currently a threatened species due to the high demand for rhino horn in Eastern countries and the poaching of rhino has reached drastic levels...Rhino horn currently has a higher price then gold.  I always thought that the main reason for the demand was that rhino horn is an aphridisiac, but I read an article this morning which claims that this is not the most common use, it is however believed in certain areas that rhino horn is a cure for cancer (this believe apparently has no medical basis) and numerous other ailments (headaches/fevers etc).
Rhino poaching seems to be a very lucrative business, there have been over 200 rhinos poached this year - many of them bleeding to death after having their horns hacked off.
Is there a solution to the problem - I don't know, the fact that trade in rhino horn is illegal, has not made an iota of difference, all it has done is drivin the price up on the black market, so that it becomes viable to take the risks, to poach these poor animals, which the banning has tried to save.  Some people (game rangers and game park owners) are suggesting legalising the sale of rhino horn which would enable, the authorities of the various parks and ranches to dehorn their rhinos (humanely), (which would deny the poachers the prize that they require) and, then the owners could legally sell the horn, thus bringing the black market price down, so poachers would not have a market, and then the money made from that could be channelled back into fighting the poaching problem...Great idea in theory, but would it work in practise.  What about trying to stop the demand???
So many possible solutions....
Anyway, here is my picture: -

I will be updating again a bit later - hopefully today, our next theme is "contrast", so check back ok...

TUT - Almost Fallin' Apart...

Well not really - we all just had really hectic weeks the last few weeks - Mariette has still done posts...just on random thoughts and issues....well done Mariette.
As for me, I did not do a heritage post and then last week we all took a TUT break, but this week the theme was "Contrast"....I will be back later do catch up on both TUT posts.... so come back and take a peek, will you...Lots of love