Friday, November 21, 2008

unexpected, alighting, card

Posted by Picasa An unexpected and very welcome country walk with the sun out and wayside sheep grazing contentedly.

In the train, an announcer uses a word that is seldom heard in conversation. "Passengers should alight here for Knole Park", she says. I enjoy the sound of this elegant word, but try as I might I cannot see myself alighting anywhere.

Every year when I make our Christmas cards I have to relearn the appropriate parts of Paintbox I enjoy making cards, but not making the same mistakes every year. This year the consolation is that I make fewer mistakes and learn to find my round them more quickly than I have in the past.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh, you make your own Christmas cards? You are a man of many talents. I hope you will show them here when they are done!

Bee said...

I can just imagine Gene Kelly "alighting" from the train. I think it takes a double-breasted suit, a fedora, and a shiny leather pointed toe!

Zhoen said...

I use alight referring to the cat when he leaps up so gently, seeming to float a moment before touching down on a surface.

But then, I use words like horrid and salutations as well.

tristan said...

... and then you skip along the platform and hopscotch across the street between swerving pink and gold rolls-royces to swing around a lamp-post ( gas, of course ) before gliding like a toreador in to the exclusive snug of the best candle-lit pub in the world, where you spin your fedora across the room with unerring accuracy to rest at a jaunty angle on the mahogany stand before tinkling a few fats waller numbers on the piano and then sinking down into a deep leather sofa with a raucous shout of triumph and a triple brandy between two glamourously curvaceous "hostesses" who stroke your head and loosen your collar for you ... merry christmasses to you and yours !

Dave King said...

I can feel for you. I find now that if I do not use a certain piece of equipment for a while I have to relearn it before I can get back to using it.

Unknown said...

The Oxford Dictionary traces alight, meaning to descend out of or to dismount, back to Old English. I was wondering about the past tense. Alit or alighted? Both have been used: "Alighted at your gate" - The Merhcant of Venice. "I alit upon my feet". Poe.

Lucy said...

Wow, Tristan's on a roll...