The weekend was quite lovely. Again, due to family obligations on the part of our coach, there was no Lion Dance training on Saturday. Thus, I scored another sleep in. This is becoming a bad habit. I'll not be able to get up when there is Lion Dance training!
The afternoon saw me teaching Kung Fu, again. I acquired a new student but lost two old ones. You can't see me right now, but I'm making a sad face.
That evening was the birthday celebration of my dear friend, T.H. It was crazy fun - a return to the birthday parties we had as children, complete with loot bags. The loot bags created a silly amount of fun. Not only were there lollies inside, but also a paddle ball, a bottle of bubble solution, and glow sticks. After trying, and failing miserably, to master the paddle ball, the lights went out and a miniature rave (minus the drugs) took place.
Then we discovered the Xbox Kinnect. Now that was crazy fun! My favourite has to be the obstacle course. It was more of a work-out than the Wii (largely because you could, and had to, jump)!
Writing-wise, I have set aside my novel for now to work on a short story for a contest my dear friend A.H. brought to my attention. I wrote the short story in a matter of hours on Friday. It's all written, I just have to go back and edit and possibly rewrite. That is my task. Deadline for submission is February 4th. I should have it in long before then.
I had best get editing.
Before I leave, however, I haven't forgotten today's Forgotten English word:
Bensle:
A bleak, cold place. A place where the frost wind finds easy admittance. Also a person with a saucy air - as much thinking that he does not care a damn for the world . . . He passes the poor with a sneer, and capsizes the infirm with a laugh - his bosom is a bleak place, a bensle - cold unfeeling blasts whistle round his frozen heart.
- John Mectaggart's Scottish Gallovidian Encyclopedia, 1824
So, Ottawa would be a bensle today...
2 comments:
Nawh, I wouldn'd say Ottawa is bleak. Cold, definitely, but not bleak. The CBC interviewed a guy who's job is to stand out on a street corner bright and early in the morning for 3 hours to hand out newspapers, and he was surprisingly chipper about the experience.
It seems the word bensle has been replaced with "Scrooge" or "Grinch"; the person description is the same.
And yes, loot bags rule. I must remember to take mine into work tomorrow.
Ottawa looked pretty bleak with hardly anyone out on the streets!
It's funny how thing names are replaced with character/person names in English. The same can be said of brand names. For example, in Canada a tissue is now called a Kleenex. In Australia, we'd ask for a biro, meaning a pen.
Funny, the English language!
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