November 2010

Historically, these great British Isles, where I live, have a habit of being invaded. (Although, thankfully, not for some time.) The upside to this, of course, along with nice straight roads built by the Romans, is that the English language is a rich and colourful blend of Latin words, Anglo Saxon words and French words. But that’s not all. The Brits, of...

So you’re having a house built. It’s a superb design. A grand design in fact. And yes. It is the same house from yesterday. But this time the walls have gone up, the windows have gone in and the roof has gone on. And it’s looking mighty fine. But wait. What’s this? There’s no foundation? No problem, you say. We’ll put...

So you’re having a house built. It’s a superb design. A grand design in fact. The builders are dedicated and conscientious and they’re on site on time every day. The materials are superb, the craftsmanship is second-to-none and the whole build is going well. There are some great features including a spa bath, massive walk-in wardrobes, and a huge kitchen that’s...

I was at a networking meeting the other day when someone declared that blog posts should always be infotaining. i.e. informative and entertaining. Well, quite. It got me thinking about portmanteaus: those words that are a blend of two other words. Or to be more precise they’re the beginning of one word joined to the end of another. Some are rotten. Like...