Apposite?

Image | May 16, 2017 | Rowland Jones

Sitting in the pub I hear a song that is very familiar.

A great song and a great hit for Bonnie Tyler however I was less than impressed when it was the on-hold music when I phoned my cardiologist ……..

Zuiderlucht -latest illustration!

Image | May 15, 2017 | Rowland Jones

I ask you !!!!

Image | May 15, 2017 | Rowland Jones

On the ferry- they said over the PA if we had any questions to go to the info desk. They were hopeless- had no ideas on Fermat’s last theorem, and they thought Fibonacci was fine pasta – their knowledge of infinitesimal calculus was laughable … I ask you!!! Tsk Tsk

Oversight vs overseeing

Image | April 21, 2017 | Rowland Jones

I freely admit to being a grammar pedantUnfortunately, one of my pet hates has reared it’s rather unattractive head – ‘oversight’ versus ‘overseeing’

The concept of ‘overseeing a project to ensure its progress is going according to plan’ is well accepted but surely the noun cannot possibly be oversight, as this means the opposite i.e. something that was missed?!

I despair when I hear politicians management gurus, and various other semi-literates ‘stressing the importance of oversight’!

This has reached its nadir with somebody in the US being appointed Head of Oversight

But then this is the Trump administration so perhaps it is ironically appropriate. . . .

American Football …..an outsider’s view

Image | November 20, 2016 | Rowland Jones

Lesley and I spent October in the US and as is our wont, we spent a considerable amount of time sitting in bars, where we were often confronted by ‘the game’. Now no one could describe me as a sports fan, so as a result my analysis may seem a little off key but as far as I could make out ‘the game’ took one of three forms – two involve adults playing rounders or netball and a third game described as an American football which I found somewhat of a misnomer as there seemed to be little contact between anyone’s foot and the ball in question! Anyway this is my attempt to understand the rules of American football:
1 There are a large un-specified number of players on each team.
2 They all arrive somewhat late to the game by motorbike, since they don’t appear to have sufficient time to take their crash helmets off. I suspect this must happen regularly as they have their names on the shirts otherwise you would be unable to identify them.
3 Somebody blows a whistle and one person throws the ball to another player, who is preferably a member of their own team.
Meanwhile the other members of the teams bump into each other for a while until the whistle is blown again.
4 This is then repeated until it’s time to go home.

Got it?

I did actually explain my hypothesis to an American friend who is a fan of ‘the game’and he confirmed that I had actually grasped the main principles.