Week 50 Telephobia

Week 50

Just looking ahead to next week, I see that Sunday is Christmas Day and so I would be late in wishing everyone a Happy Christmas......so, in that case

Happy Christmas! 

It's always a strangely difficult time for me, being so far away from family and friends, but at least we have the internet!

Walking

The weather has been warmer than the "average".

My best walk this week 8.05 kms

Telephobia and other thoughts from the BBC... and idle musings about language

Thank goodness for the BBC......

I stumbled across a story about "telephobia" the other day and I'm rather afraid that I have to add it to my thankfully short list of complaints!

http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20161213-scared-of-the-phone-heres-how-to-overcome-that-fear

It is interesting (and a little bit comforting) to know that it is really a "thing". I'm not sure if I had it in English, but I definitely have it in Dutch!

It’s not about the phone itself, but it’s something about the interaction,” she says. “For some clients, the phone is another place where they might say the wrong thing.”

 Another patient, a 52-year-old financial consultant, also worried about being judged and appearing unintelligent during phone calls. Instead, she defaulted to communicating with clients over email so that she could take time to compose and double check her responses. 

I hardly ever answer the phone these days, unless I can see who is calling; friends, family, clients are OK. I have learnt over the years that I too often get into situations that I can't adequately deal with, so I avoid them altogether!

Just as an example, I sent a text message to our boat painter rather than a phone call. He speaks Frisian and has to cope with my Dutch, so it was probably a more efficient exchange in any case.... it was just to ask if the paint has been organised.

The boat painter's name is Wietze (Veetzer) and the boat mechanic's name is Watze (Votzer). Both good Frisian names!

There was also another story about how native English speakers are often misunderstood by "English as a second language speakers" because of the misuse of words or phrases.

I often find myself thinking that what I just said may not be as easy to understand as I first thought. ie it needs further explanation.

On the other side of the coin is the use of "spreekwoorden" (sayings) by Dutch speakers. They are quite often used when someone is speaking to me and I have learnt to recognise them usually because it doesn't really have the right (literal) meaning. I'll look for a few more, but one of the first I heard was "de kat uit de boom kijken" (literally "watch the cat in the tree") but really meaning "just wait and see what happens - the cat will sort itself out" - or in other words," be patient" - in fact, as I am writing, I remember that Mum used to say "bide your time" quite often.

Around the farm...

Doesn't seem to be much happening at the moment, but the days and weeks are flying by at an alarming rate!

Getting the firewood sorted...

Varnishing boat bits

Also getting ready for the boat painting.... next friday

Free Friday afternoon....

Every now and again I get the urge to have some "normal" food, which achieves much more status than it deserves, simply because I can't get it here! 

So, I made some meat pies, some rhubarb pies and a "chocolate ripple" cake - but without chocolate ripple biscuits! and an "Indian" curry. Friday afternoon in winter.....

I use cinnamon biscuits which have a similar texture. In 23 years of looking, I have yet to find "chocolate ripple biscuits" or anything like it - in chocolate, at least!

With all my thoughts of being too busy, I still found time to watch (over a few weeks) all 66 episodes of Gran Hotel - a Spanish maxi-series set in 1905. I had to read the Dutch subtitles but I stuck with it nonetheless. Janny is usually at volleyball or Local Committee meetings and it is nice and cosy with the fire going and Zoey at my feet. 

A fairly lightweight show; the Spanish would have us believe that Agatha Christie's "Poirot" was actually based on a dapper little Spanish detective!

Bicycle death

After my thinking about road deaths, and bicycle deaths in particular, we had a sad event in Bakkeveen on Thursday night. We sell Fair Trade stuff from our shop including Honey. A couple of people ride their bikes here to pick it up. 

The wife of one of the "regulars" was hit by a car as she turned into her own street - at about 2315 hours - late to be out cycling at age 83!
I also had a fright on Monday morning when I picked up Lucas - still pitch black at 10 past eight AND foggy! I negotiated an intersection after looking for any lights - and out of nowhere came a bike with NO LIGHTS.

I think the automobiles are guilty until proven innocent - but you'd like to have a fair chance!

A lot of the kids just ignore the stop signs, so you have to be on the lookout for them as well.

A few weeks ago I mentioned that there is talk of disabling some functions of mobile phones when in a car. The newest proposal is of banning texting (aka whatsapping) when on a bike. The news story showed lots of people doing it one-handed as they cycled - but of course, they couldn't do it without being distracted from the road/cycle path. When interviewed, everyone agreed that it would be a good idea. No doubt people will still do it, just like mobile phone use in a car.

Ben in Hong Kong

He has one more exam on Tuesday and then he will be heading home on Thursday - but, via Bali!

He is also having discussions about going to Milan for a modelling job.... so we might not see much of him after all...before he heads back to Amsterdam.

View from the last rooftop party.....