Touring London
I had quite a road trip today. I still had my bus pass and thought I would go to Trent Park by bus and see how it goes. The tube lines are still closed and it seems that they will be closed for some time. As I expected, it took me about 1 hour 45 minutes and 3 buses to reach Trent Park. It took less time on my way back. But, strangely enough, I didn't mind the long ride today, I can even say I enjoyed it. Maybe this is because I had stuff to read so I wasn't bored, or because when I wasn't reading I was looking out the windows and seeing places I didn't see before, or simply because I enjoy going out at 10:30 am, spending the day out, and coming back at 9:30 pm. Plus I always enjoy walking down Snake's Lane to campus, it's so relaxing and very useful too: I always make use of this walk either to clear my mind of everything or to deeply think about my work. Today I was thinking, and I actually had pretty good ideas during the walk which I started jotting down the minute I got on the bus before I forget them.
But of course the nagging problem that was bothering me today is the lack of music. I definitely need an ipod. I just want more time to sort out things with the new flat expenses and upcoming conferences before I spend another hundred plus quid (there I said it, but of course writing is not as speaking and actually saying quid didn't happen yet :) ). In the meantime, I'll just keep on whistling and singing my way through :) .
Anyway, these are two language comments from today's trip. First, is it allowed for shops to drop the apostrophe in whatever they write on their fronts? Under a shop's name today it said "ladies, mens and childrens footwear". Maybe this won't come as a surprise given that the name of the shop is "Walk n Talk". Second, I think this is probably the third time I've seen a pub called "The Unicorn". What is it with pubs and unicorns? They don't even exist :) This, on the other hand, shows that we better think of the definite article as meaning uniqueness but not necessarily existence of its referent (if you're not a linguist, please ignore this last comment :) ).
So, quite an active day for a 27-year old ;-)
Mai
But of course the nagging problem that was bothering me today is the lack of music. I definitely need an ipod. I just want more time to sort out things with the new flat expenses and upcoming conferences before I spend another hundred plus quid (there I said it, but of course writing is not as speaking and actually saying quid didn't happen yet :) ). In the meantime, I'll just keep on whistling and singing my way through :) .
Anyway, these are two language comments from today's trip. First, is it allowed for shops to drop the apostrophe in whatever they write on their fronts? Under a shop's name today it said "ladies, mens and childrens footwear". Maybe this won't come as a surprise given that the name of the shop is "Walk n Talk". Second, I think this is probably the third time I've seen a pub called "The Unicorn". What is it with pubs and unicorns? They don't even exist :) This, on the other hand, shows that we better think of the definite article as meaning uniqueness but not necessarily existence of its referent (if you're not a linguist, please ignore this last comment :) ).
So, quite an active day for a 27-year old ;-)
Mai
posted by Mai at 2:09 AM
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