Life on Mars ... bladdered

And another thing ... in that episode of Life on Mars someone said they were going to get bladdered in the pub ... again, hardly authentic 1973 speak is it?

 

DW

Stair CASES, GOODS Trains and Life on Mars

First there was the stair case and now it’s the goods train.

 

These poxy people in the media have decided that stair cases no longer exist and neither do goods trains. AmerEnglish dictates that we must now talk about stairwells and freight trains. Well, I won’t: in the same way that a fireman is a fireman and not a fire fighter. A film’s a film and at the moment stays at the moment. At the weekend is not to be corrupted and here’s a good one:

 

Watching BBC Prime this week and I saw an episode of Life on Mars. Now, they have done a really good job with the decor, the knick knacks, the clothes and the cars but they can’t help themselves with the language. In the episode I saw they had one of the characters saying that things were “out there” ... that didn’t come along until the X Files if you remember ... 1990s, that. Another one was made to say that something would be done “right now”. Not even Michael Parkinson said right now in 1973.

 

Here continueth the fight against the doing down of our language by the 12 year olds that Ed Reardon warns us about!!

 

DW

It's a different world

Here we were again, on the way to Dubai heading for a week a week in Kuwait when the flight was delayed:

 

Late arrival

Technical fault

 

Well, it arrived and would have been ready almost on time I think but whatever the fault was, it did for the flight and I missed my connection to Kuwait. Saturday night is a relatively quiet time at Dubai airport but I still ended up in around four or five queues that I would not otherwise have taken part in.

 

However, I was more than calm for some reason: I knew that Dubai to Kuwait is just a short hop and that there are probably a few flights a day. Right then wrong ... not on Sunday anyway. So I needed to stay overnight in the Millenium Airport Hotel ... Emirates wing. A surprisingly big hotel given its frontage. So I got in the queue at the transfer desk to get a ticket for the next flight, at 1610 onSunday; I queued to have my passport stamped; I waited for the shuttle bus to get to the hotel and then there was a long queue for check in. It was 0430 local time before I got to sleep.

 

At the airoort entrance they were shouting out for passengers for Kuwait so I responded and changed direction. As I did so I stumbled a little, a little, over someone’s bag on wheels. I said sorry and he replied with, “You will be”. Englsihman, of course. I didn’t have the energy or desire to ask him what he meant since it was an accident, a very minor collision and no harm was done. Clown.

 

My luggage was checked through to Kuwait so I didn’t have it with me but a porter insisted on helping me with my brief case. When we got to the room he hovered and I said, I’m sorry I don’t have any Drhams and he replied, “any currency will do”! I admitted his steely nerve but told him that all the notes I had were big ones, eg £20 and I couldn’t let him have so much. OK, he said and left.

 

I slept for around 5 hours or so and forced myself into the shower and then to breakfast ... which, apart from the coffee wasn’t bad.

 

A three star hotel with 600 rooms. Quiet and tidy though but no BBC on the telly!!

 

DW