In 2016 we escaped New Zealand’s August with a week in Niue 🇳🇺 . This photo is in a cave at the north tip of the island. The blue is utterly clear water in a pool in the cave. Photo from about 10 metres up.
After his visit to the vet yesterday Ares the cat is doing better today. He was given hydration, antibiotics and pain relief. Must keep that trio in mind for when I’m his age. 😀 🐈
Heh, my favourite NativLang is back with this 10 minute video today: Gvprtskvni - how is this even a word, Georgian!?
Starting from one clustery word, we'll go on a journey looking for the "root" of this record-breaking consonant phenomenon known as Georgian.
Ares the elderly cat is now down to 4.52Kg. In July it was 4.6. He now has antibiotics and pain relief and has had a hydrating treatment too. His favourite food is the gravy part of pouches that have ‘meat’ in gravy.
My numerous attempts today to photograph Ares have all come to nothing much. These are the best two. He’s an old boy. Off to the vet today as he’s sneezing quite a bit. 🐈
I’m getting a new crown on a tooth. Last week the new crown didn’t fit. Today a new one arrived … and didn’t fit. Numb face again and a bit fed up. Consolation fries with tomato sauce and aoli. And difficulty eating them.
In August 2012 we escaped NZ’s worst time of year and were enjoying warm sun in Tonga. One highlight was a day trip on a tiny boat to watch humpback whales. We lunched on a minute white sand island with some of the clearest water anywhere.
New socks day is always a good day. If I were mega-rich I’d have new socks every month.
The diggers working behind our house disappeared a couple of days ago so I investigated an odd noise. The farmer next door is spreading lime or fertiliser or something. The cows in the paddock just have to take their chances, it seems. Rainy day.
I was unsure at first about the Australian TV Series, Pulse but it grew on me. 8 episodes.
the story of Frankie … Inspired by the man who saved her life, Frankie … becomes a doctor, working and learning in the … the cardio-thoracic and renal wards of a major teaching hospital.
One of the most-used helper apps on my Mac is PopClip:
PopClip appears when you select text with your mouse. Instantly copy and paste, and access actions like search, spelling, dictionary and more.
I use it constantly to change case, copy, paste and for many other actions.
At sunset in a clear sky tonight I could see 3 maunga (mountains) on the horizon: Ruapehu, Taranaki, Tapuae-o-Uenuku. I always forget how many bits of the South Island you can see from here at dawn and dusk. I left my good camera at home on purpose, so these are iPhone shots.
Last night was a bit chilly — it got down to about -1.3C here at sea level. There was a good frost, and the nearby Tararua peaks were snowy. By this afternoon though we were basking in sunshine from a clear blue sky and 14.2C.
I’m really enjoying reading the book Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language. Currently reading about emoji and their roles in informal text, partly replacing gesture, but with all kinds of depth and breadth. Fascinating stuff. 🤯
We had errands in Palmerston North today and took the dogs with us. At Animates we found a do-it-yourself dog wash, $10 for 10 minutes. Given that Oshi was pretty smelly, we tried it out. It’s easy to control and very easy to work with. Way easier than bathing them at home. 🐶
I’m feeding a friend’s chooks for a few days. She has 3 ‘new’ girls — the black and white ones, and two old girls — the big white ones. 🐔
Feeding a friend’s chooks for a couple of days. One (new) chook was on the wrong side of the fence, to everyone’s great consternation. I used the old throw-the-jersey-over-it trick to catch her and reunite her with her sisters. Birds of a feather do so like to flock together.
On 'taking a wife'
The English language, like probably most languages, is a slippery thing. Words don't always mean what you think they mean.
Take, for example, the notion of one person 'taking' another as their spouse. Do you, A, take B to be your lawfully wedded wife?
seems to have a gentle, perhaps romantic air about it. It's common, and usual, and probably has connotations of an accepted proposal which asked Will you marry me?
Which is why it was only today, while reading about cultures where women and men speak different languages, I realised that taking wives
in historical accounts is in no way gentle. It's a man's word for rape and slavery:
…groups of Carib warriors conquered them, killed most of the men, and took the women as wives. …
…he ordered his crew to kill all the men on the island. … many of his crew stayed behind to make wives of the remaining women.
Source: Cultures Where Men and Women Don't Speak the Same Language.
This is that other meaning of 'take': using force to remove. Here it means slavery. I have no doubt that no-one approached any of the women with some kind of 'proposal' to which they agreed. No, these women were forcibly removed and then obliged to perform sexual acts with their enslavers.
So why do writers use the innocent-sounding term take as a wife
?
Next time I read historical accounts of men taking
women as their wives, I'll pause and ponder what was really going on: rape and slavery.
LOL: D.E.B.S. (2004 film) was amusing. Shades of Charlie’s Angels, Buffy, Desert Hearts. The big award for graduation was a ‘Mary Jane’. The big bad was gorgeous Lucy Diamond, whose car had the number plate: NDASKY. A fun way to spend 90 minutes.
