I love this comment from Ben Elton when he was talking about his writing the other day. His mum told him "Remember, the F-word is an exclamation mark, not a comma". I will strive to apply her philosophy to this Blog too, dear Reader.
It got me thinking about advice from my own mum, from many moons ago. For me, two phrases stick in my memory. "It's black over Bill's mother's", an instant weather forecast meaning "There's a terrific storm brewing way over there, so if you're going out you'd better put on your coat, otherwise you're going to get very wet dear". The other one was "You'll need to go all around The Wrekin", which roughly translates as "You'll have to take rather a circuitous route to get there, so allow plenty of extra time for your journey and whilst you're at it, you'd better take these sandwiches and flask of coffee with you". This latter pearl of wisdom was brought home to me just before I left home when I went for an interview at Aberystwyth Uni, as I literally went "all around The Wrekin" by train. It must have been in the view from my carriage window for most of the journey. For those of you unfamiliar with it, The Wrekin is a rather fantastic hill in Shropshire which can be seen for miles in any direction. Shropshire is home to several other rather splendidly named topographical features - Wenlock Edge (limestone escarpment) and the Long Mynd (some of the oldest rocks in Britain, if not the world).
However, I digress. Which pieces of advice do you treasure from your mum?
Monday, 5 November 2007
2 comments:
Hi, let's start a conversation - right here, right now! I love reading your comments and thoughts about my blog :)
If anyone is having problems leaving comments, you can contact me on vegplotting at gmail dot com or @malvernmeet if a quick tweet is more convenient for you. That way I can get things sorted.
Thanks xxx
My general policy re comments
I value genuine commenters for the conversation they bring. Those aiming to link back and give credence to commercial websites (thankfully rare) will be removed.
Blog posts are kept open for your Comments for as long as possible - for at least 3 months. I've reluctantly taken the decision if a post comes in for a sp@m attack after that time, I'll remove its Comments facility. I've found genuine comments are rarely left after 3 months, but dozens of sp@m comments are :( Removing these takes away the joy that a genuine comment might be left one day.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
From my friend Lo in Corsham, by e-mail:
ReplyDelete…and my mum used to say ‘it’s black over Ethel’s’ !
My nan from Grimsby also used to say:
ReplyDelete"There's not enough blue sky to patch a sailor's trousers" meaning "you might think the weather's clearing up, but you'd better think on."