Monday, October 19

Five Random Words.

Today, I am playing Five Random Words. My words were chosen by Violet Sky., at my request, so it is an optional game.
I like these games. I never know what I am likely to come up with, until I begin to write.

Well sometimes I think about it, and do have an idea, but often it is not until I am in the process, that it flows.

BOATS
Boats tend to make me rather nervous. I seem to have a type of motion aversion/sickness. I once travelled on the InterIsland Ferry from Wellington to Lyttleton. It was an overnight journey, with hard bunks to sleep on. I spent most of the night sitting on the edge of the bunk, watching the horizon through the porthole. It was the only way I could prevent the feeling that I was about to vomit. I rocked & rolled for days after that trip. My sense of balance was well & truly out of whack. The service no longer runs, but I would never have wanted to repeat my night of sailing.
I have done the InterIsland trip from Picton in the South Island, to Wellington, in the North Island. That is a much shorter trip, but depending upon the weather, it can be rather unpleasant, or quite mildly enjoyable. Cook Strait is notorious for being unpredictable, so it is not always plain sailing, so to speak. Not very pleasant with small children though! Nervous mothers and boats do not mix!
I did think I would love to go on a cruise, but we never did. I have been on Yachts, sailing in Auckland Harbour. I have wished I was anywhere but on the yacht! I have ridden on the Harbour Ferries on Sydney Harbour. Mostly those trips have been pleasant.
I once went for a Dinner Cruise, on a Chinese Junk, in the Harbour at Singapore.
My brother & I once travelled on the RiverCat up the Parramatta river, & that was a lovey trip. Much more pleasant than a stuffy train.
I have ridden on boats on the canal waterways on the Gold Coast. I detested the smell, and the noise.
No, you can keep your boats, I will always prefer to fly.

SPOONS
As it happens, I am rather particular about spoons. Which spoons for what purpose. Gom is inclined to eat his icecream with a soup spoon, if that is the first one he enouncters in the cutlery drawer. As far as I am concerned, the only use for soup spoons, is to eat soup. Dessert spoons are for dessert. Teaspoons are more versatile, I will use them for all sorts of things, from cups of soup to sneaking slurps of Chocolate spread from the jar.
Has any one else noticed how there is a dearth of Tablespoons these days? Once upon a time, any self respecting canteen of cutllery contained at least two large tablespoons. Now they are like hens teeth, ...unable to be found except in the set of measuring spoons. Or at Garage sales of deceased Mother's odd collection of utensils, which the family regard with disdain.
I still wonder where the teaspoons of my life have all gone. I suspect they must sneak off with the odd socks, to dance in some secret dimension. How else to explain their mysterious disappearances?

LANGUAGE
Language is a tricky word to write about. I have only one language, English. The English I know and speak is not exactly the same as the English others speak. Much of it is the same, but there are the words which have grown over the years and generations, and have come to mean different things, in different countries, though we may all speak 'English'. Even in New Zealand, where I grew up, there are regional differences in the use and meaning of certain words.
Then there are the 'colourful' language words, some of which are universal I suspect. Some words regarded by the English as 'swear' words, are quite meaningless as such to another person from a different language speaking background. A Dutch friend once told us how he could never understand why anyone would want to use the term bullsh!t as a swear word. He said to him, it simply meant the feces of the bull, and therefore was unremarkable.
My mother often complained about the improper use of terms in everday use. We could not convince her that language is a living thing, and therefore is constantly evolving with time and use.


BEARDS
Ah yes, beards. Not everyone's choice. My brother has a full beard, which he grew when he was quite young, and he has only shaved it off once since he first grew it. Our mother had nagged at him for years to get rid of it. She used to hate finding hairs in the handbasin, after he had trimmed it up. It seemed no matter how careful he was, there were always some hairs to be found. I don't know that his wife cared one way or the other. She had only ever known him with a beard. When he did shave it off, everyone was horrified, including himself. When he had first grown the whiskers, he was a very thin man. When he eventually shaved it off, he was a much larger man. I think he frightened himself, as much as anyone, at the stranger who looked out from his face. Of course, he regrew it, and I am sure he will never take if off again.
I don't recall ever going out with a man with a beard. Gom once grew a short lived moustache when they were 'in', back in the day.


POTATOES
Last word. Potatoes. We love our potatoes, and would hate to be without them. We like them most ways you can cook or eat them. In New Zealand we also had Kumera, which were the equivalent to Sweet Potatoes here, in OZ. The sweet potatoes they call Kumera over here, just do not taste the same.
We were suprised when an Australian girl bemoaned the fact that her NZ inlaws were feeding her potatoes every day, and she felt this was causing her weight gain. We grew up with potatoes being a daily accompaniment to meals, and never felt they were 'fattening'.
I still love the New Zealand South Island potatoes the best of all. I am not sure why, but perhaps it is the soil, or the fact that it is colder than the North Island, but somehow, they just taste wonderful.
Though my MIL & I were worlds apart in every way, she could cook the best roast potatoes I have ever tasted.

So that wraps up my five words.
Violet Sky got hers from Ian at and I still think so..
I am sure, if you would like five words from either they would oblige.... or I would be happy to provide five words if you would like some.

Crowded House, Distant Sun.

16 comments:

Marigold Jam said...

What a fun idea! It gives another dimension to blogs as it is interesting to see what such simple words conjure up. I am with you on the BOATS - I feel sick on the mobile library so boats unless they are withing a few metres of land are a definite no no for me too. Like you I never seem to have enough tableSPOONS - what do other people use for serving? And many teaspoons have gone to join yours wherever it is that they go. LANGUAGE is fascinating isn't it? I realised just how interesting English is when with French friends who wanted to learn more about it. BEARDS I have little experience of and POTATOES - well like NZ they are a staple here in the UK or were before pasta and rice became fashionable!

Jane x

VioletSky said...

I think this was my favourite meme. It is so interesting the stories that come out once you start thinking about it - and there is always a story!
I'm with you on the spoons, I will hunt for a particular shaped spoon for eating certain foods and I much prefer the smaller European teaspoons.
Thanks for playing, Meggie.

Thimbleanna said...

How fun Meggie! What a random group of words too. I laughed at your bit about potatoes -- my sister said she learned to hate potatoes because when her german mil visited for a month, she had them with every meal. I'm like you though -- we grew up with them at almost every meal -- meat and potatoes LOL! What's not to love???

Q said...

A very fun meme to read. Five words and you managed to tell a story.
I have been catching up this evening. Seems I fall behind every week.
Sherry

Fi from Four Paws and Whiskers said...

I do love the potatoes here! My friend put me onto Agria for roasting and baking - purrfect.

Anyway - great post - and I will NEVER do the ferry across cook strait or lyttleton to chch again ever.... but I will swim with the dolphins at Kaikoura and do some as boat trips as long as I feel I have some choice whether I go out or not.

A spoon is a spoon to me - but my partner is quite fussy - doesn't help that my kids hide/lose/ bury - who knows - the spoons he really likes so he took to hiding one in his wardrobe lol.. next to his Ribena that they also quite like!
:)

Lucy said...

I loved those NZ kumara...

Tom has been known to embarrass me by suggesting to our friends that they might have pilfered our missing teaspoons, by mistake of course. I'm glad to hear that teaspoons everywhere have migratory tendencies. Personally I like to eat soup with a dessert spoon.

Digitalgran said...

What a great idea. I might have a go one day if I ever run out of things to share on my blog.
I've noticed the lack of tablespoons too. I gave my DIL a couple of mine after finidng it hopeless to serve food without one on a visit. She still doesn't use them herself :)

Anonymous said...

Great exploration of your five words. I once had a beard. Had it for about 5 years back when they were trendy. But, I never was able to get used to the way it felt on a pillow at night. After I shaved it off I never once missed it.

Leanne said...

You are so clever with words. I think teaspoons are like weight they /it never changes they /it just moves from one place/person to another. If you get what I mean.

Pan's Island said...

I love this little game - please send me 5 words!

Susan said...

Hi Meggie! I really like what you did with your words! Especially the spoons...I'm so like that. I would never eat soup with a teaspoon, and I eat my cereal with a soup spoon as well.

I've never understood why poop is an okay word, but shit isn't. Or why butt is okay, but ass isn't. It just doesn't make sense. And talk about speaking different English...American English is way different that British English!

The Sagittarian said...

Haha, I remember those ferries. Apparently when we were really little our parents took us on that overnighter to wellington and couldn't work out why the steward kept knocking on our cabin door to see if we were ok and wanted anything...until she realised my brother, who had been consistently asking in that whiney way kids have "whats this for?" over and over again and he had been pressing the service bell!

Warty Mammal said...

I wonder if tablespoons are scarce because people are less inclined to serve dinner at the table these days? I'm certainly guilty of letting my family lapse into savagery, slopping food on their plates right at the stove and telling them they'd darned well better be grateful for it.

New Yorker wannabes said...

Funny thing...for me is exactly the opossite: I prefer the boats instead of flying lol

Enjoy your weekend Meggie!
xoxo

Christine Thresh said...

I would like five random words. I enjoyed what you did with your words.

Sheila said...

I did the five random word thing Meggie. But when mine were sent to me, I immediately had a vision of a painting I'd seen and the words fit it beautifully. We have owned several boats during our married life, can't say I'm keen. I was only sea sick once, what really sickened me was the amount of money needed to keep them afloat.
Hubby has had a beard for many years and like your brother only shaved it off once, talk about scaring the grandkids, I doubt it will come off again.
I only speak english, and I too like potatoes, most kinds except those purple gourmet foodie ones! I haven't tried them, but I really don't think anyone needs to eat purple spuds at three times the cost of white ones!
BUT on the subject of spoons, what I notice is that teaspoons in Cananda are twice the size of the ones we used in the UK.
I recently bought new cutlery, flatware (whatever you call it)and the set included two tablespoons, one regular and one perforated.
And of course those HUGE teaspoons..!