I heard some sad news today. A colleague at work, who retired early at the end of last month died last night after a battle with cancer. She was so brave. We all thought she was winning her battle, she was obviously trying to spare us. She leaves behind a father and sister. I had known her for many years, although we were not close friends she was a beautiful person, both inside and out. She always had a kind word to say, never spoke badly of other people and always had time for others. Sometimes words are not enough, but I felt moved enough to write a small tribute to her. Here it is.
Flying now
Last night a beautiful one soared
Leaving behind ominous pain
This morning she sprinkled us
With her tears of April rain.
An unexpected departure,
Tears of disbelief spill over
And how appropriate is our grief
Compared with patriarchal loss.
Sparing us the details
We hoped for some respite
But prayers went unanswered
When she soared away last night.
Rest in peace x
Monday 27 April 2009
Tuesday 7 April 2009
Time for a rant!
Spellcheck
Oh it’s a pet hate of mine. Articles, letters, emails, you name it, anything I happen to read that contains terrible spelling.
The usual culprits which annoy me most…
Loose instead of lose (when you’ve lost something!)
Freind instead of Friend (“i” before “e” except after “c” we were taught at school!)
And don’t get me started on punctuation! I would write a book on it if Eats, Shoots and Leaves had not already been published!
The worse use of grammar one is by the media - “Hotel”. Since when was it “an hotel” with a silent “H”?? The Oxford Dictionary clearly states, as did my English teacher at school that it is “a hotel” and the “h” is definitely NOT silent!!
Proper use of grammar, punctuation and spelling is all being lost in a silent murk of text-speak, email language and the dreaded Americanisation of the spellchecker. No, we do not always use a Z when pluralising words!! I had to type that word twice as the auto-spellchecker changed it to a Z – that really says it all. I have tried to install UK English in my spell checker, but the bloody American software changes it back! Sorry I don’t mean to offend any American readers of my blog.
I don’t have kids, so I am not sure what is being taught in school these days. Most of my grounding in spelling and grammar however, was in Junior school (aged 7-11) and was ingrained in me by the time I went to Secondary school. I guess sloppy use of grammar and so on in the media is not helping, our eyes and ears are seeped with it a lot of the time, so perhaps we are persuaded something is right when it is wrong simply because we see it so often.
But it doesn’t stop me being irritated by it, and here is an ideal opportunity to have a jolly good rant about it! Thanks for listening…..
Oh it’s a pet hate of mine. Articles, letters, emails, you name it, anything I happen to read that contains terrible spelling.
The usual culprits which annoy me most…
Loose instead of lose (when you’ve lost something!)
Freind instead of Friend (“i” before “e” except after “c” we were taught at school!)
And don’t get me started on punctuation! I would write a book on it if Eats, Shoots and Leaves had not already been published!
The worse use of grammar one is by the media - “Hotel”. Since when was it “an hotel” with a silent “H”?? The Oxford Dictionary clearly states, as did my English teacher at school that it is “a hotel” and the “h” is definitely NOT silent!!
Proper use of grammar, punctuation and spelling is all being lost in a silent murk of text-speak, email language and the dreaded Americanisation of the spellchecker. No, we do not always use a Z when pluralising words!! I had to type that word twice as the auto-spellchecker changed it to a Z – that really says it all. I have tried to install UK English in my spell checker, but the bloody American software changes it back! Sorry I don’t mean to offend any American readers of my blog.
I don’t have kids, so I am not sure what is being taught in school these days. Most of my grounding in spelling and grammar however, was in Junior school (aged 7-11) and was ingrained in me by the time I went to Secondary school. I guess sloppy use of grammar and so on in the media is not helping, our eyes and ears are seeped with it a lot of the time, so perhaps we are persuaded something is right when it is wrong simply because we see it so often.
But it doesn’t stop me being irritated by it, and here is an ideal opportunity to have a jolly good rant about it! Thanks for listening…..
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