5 again

1 Ghastly morning, I hit the worst depths yet.  The phone rang.  It was Janet.  I greeted her, wondering who on earth was Janet.  She was apologising for only just having read my email of a couple of months ago saying that Russell was dead, and commiserating.  I finally worked out which Janet she was but was rather unnerved by the call and not at all in the mood for the morning’s paperwork, which was filling in the form to claim bereavement benefit.  What a dispiriting term that is anyway.  I found it very difficult to cope with it – it was straightforward, but it was what it represents.  Anyway, it’s done.

2 A die has been cast and an offer accepted.  I’ll tell you more another time.  It’s the right thing to do, though I know some of you won’t agree with that.  Which is why I’m keeping schtum for now.  Should that have a double mm, I wonder?

3 Roses invited me through for pasta bake and we shared a bottle of wine.  She has mice in her attic, so I’ve taken through a couple of mousetraps, baited with Nutella.  She intends to make much of it in a blog post.  I can hardly blame her.

4 I’ve mostly been doing laundry, though I have also hoovered the carpets.  I’d got to the stage of using the emergency knickers and I couldn’t change the bedclothes because there were no more sheets.

5 Bex called in for a cup of tea this afternoon and I remembered, rather too late, that I hadn’t put the chooks away.  So I went out to shut the door of the henhouse anyway – either they’re in or they’ve roosted in a tree and I’ll let those ones in tomorrow morning.

4 comments on “5 again

  1. 63mago

    “bereavement benefit” is an unlucky formulation, right out of “Amtssprache”, “officialese” would be a good translation I think.
    What you do and deceide is Yours, not any of your reader’s business, as is my humble opinion, just saying, sorry for mentioning this.
    And I really wonder how this humble word “stumm” came into English ? Through a war ? It seems not to have an English root, at least Grimm does not give one. And what it stands for, how it is used, in actual English – its a bit of a mystery for me. GRIMM’s Woerterbuch needs twenty (!) columns to explain it fully, there is a lot to be saied about this humble word, but it basically means nothing but mutus, silent, without words. Ach, Germanistic follies …
    I wonder whether Nutella will be successful – sweet mice ? HA !

    Reply
  2. Z Post author

    It was adopted into the English language in the 1950s from Yiddish, spelt shtum from the German stumm, according to the dictionary I looked in. Of course, we are very welcoming to words from other languages and English is hugely enhanced by them.

    Indeed, if I were undecided I might ask but I’m not. Ho hum.

    Bereavement benefit is, indeed, a rotten name and it’ll be a paltry amount for a short time.

    Reply
  3. sablonneuse

    Well, I’m intrigued by your second point but why should you worry whether ‘any of us’ might disapprove of any decisions you make. It’s up to you what you choose to do and I should think most of your readers will be happy if you are.
    Hope it all goes according to plan.

    Reply

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