Apples and Kisses

 There is a common proverb, "An apple a day keeps the doctor away", which in Italian will sound exactly the same, "Una mela al giorno leva il medico di torno" But, leave it to passionate Italians to come up with "Un bacio al giorno toglie il dentisto di torno" ("A kiss a day keeps the dentist away."

World of Words

Busy schedule of the land of Doldrums:

“At 8 o’clock we get up, and then we spend
“From 8 to 9 daydreaming.
“From 9 to 9:30 we take our early midmorning nap.
“From 9:30 to 10:30 we dawdle and delay.
“From 10:30 to 11:30 we take our late early morning nap.
“From 11:30 to 12:00 we bide out time and then eat lunch.
“From 1:00 to 2:00 we linger and loiter.
“From 2:00 to 2:30 we take our early afternoon nap.
“From 2:30 to 3:30 we put off for tomorrow what we could have done today.
“From 3:30 to 4:00 we take our early late afternoon nap.
“From 4:00 to 5:00 we loaf and lounge until dinner.
“From 6:00 to 7:00 we dillydally.
“From 7:00 to 8:00 we take our early evening nap, and then for an hour before we go to bed at 9:00 we waste time.
“As you can see, that leaves almost no time for brooding, lagging, plodding or procrastinating....”

Excerpt from "The Phantom Tollbooth" by Norton Juster.

If there is anybody out there who is interested in the captivating world of words and this somebody hasn’t yet read this delightful book with their kids or by himself, he should get it without delay.

Confusion of Languages

After Icelandic language lesson today while all new words were floating, fresh and shiny, in my mind, it was time to practice. Bakery looked like a good place to start especially since we learnt all the different names for different baking goods.
“Ég ætla að fá horn”, I started more or less smoothly, aiming to buy some croissants. The salesman asked how many I wanted to buy.
“Sān ga, qing,” leapt out of my mouth before I caught it.
There was nothing wrong with the answer, I indeed wanted to buy three croissants, but the language was totally wrong, it was Chinese.

You can’t throw away three years spent in China, can you?

In honour of China and one of its favourite colour, there is my gem for today. This house on Tjarnargata was simply striking against the blue sky. But the most interesting for me was this additional window where one expects to see just a plain corner. It made you pause and take a second look.