Begone!

I finally saw off Thundering Grim, who managed to wreck my editing skills the other day. The river is quite a delicate creature today, trickling along because it hasn't rained for ages and it's like midsummer. Amazing. I have to keep throwing the washing up water over the newly planted garden.

I've recently been looking at some Norwegian folk tales (and if God made anything more beautiful than the fjords, he kept it to himself). It reminded me of my old Norwegian phrase book, which had a health section including everything from a slight cough to cardiac arrest. And, in the section for emergencies, it had useful phrases like 'I am drowning', and 'Hjelp!' (I think that was the spelling). I thought shouting and waving your arms about were the same in any language. I seem to remember'I am choking' was in there as well.

When I was in Norway many years ago, I immediately learned how to say 'ice cream' and 'grandfather'. The family we stayed with had an 18 month old child, and those were his favourite words. My absolutely basic phrases for going overseas are

Please
Thank you
Good morning
Good evening
Good night
How much?
Yes
No
I don't know
I don't speak................ I'm English
Where's the loo?
Coffee