words, phrases

Researching for the Italian version of Lexulous?

How are you doing at this fine game anyway?

They should do a valley version for those who aren't "Knocked out, loaded." er "pissed to the gills." er "three sheets to the wind."

Or fer those who "can't work today – the winds gone the wrong way."

Last bit from Dan Soucoup's The Nova Scotia Phrase Book.

Middle Aged?

Hey man...

They been calling me middle-aged since I was in my thirties so this piece in the local London Press about the reading in Leytonstone Library is innerestin' but truth is Taking the Stairs was mostly written when I was just into my thirties, a young man.

However...

I was in a Park in Islington trying to get away from a lady at the college who is going through a divorce and asking me what I did during my lunch hours? I've had a few close escapes in my time but I have a top three list of responses to questions you'd rather not answer:

1. "Never a dull moment," is a good one to come back with or

2. "It's all happening."

3. Also "Back in two minutes."

On the subject of middle age, when I was in Toronto in 1998 I met an older lady at the Imperial Library Pub at an event and she said she just had a tiff with her boyfriend. "What did you fight about?" I asked. "Oh the teenage stuff," she said, "How do I look, do I look fat in this, do you still love me?"

So middle age is really closer to teenage in my estimation....

I ask you this... then.

Does a middle-aged man appear just as startled as a teenager when the same woman announces: "Tomorrow, I'm working a full shift – you'll have me all to yourself?"

Some stuff n stuff

Just finished reading a book by Nigerian writer, Lanre Soyode whom I met at Leytonstone Library at an event, recently.  The book is about a money scam involving a bank and a fraudulent account and is set in London and Nigeria and has a happy ending with lots of twists and turns. It was weird to be involved in the reading because we are living in these recessive times and my book is about the pitfalls of money, trying not to sell out, and so on. 

It was a Saturday all ages event which also featured a beefy feller with some large snakes in a separate room in the library, a first for me. 

Also it was good to drink with George Murray in London, briefly about a week afterwards. We called Paul in Toronto that evening.