(no subject)
--Last post for a while, as I leave tomorrow for the wilds of darkest Wales, to a festive family gathering in a village I can't pronounce. I am totally in the Christmas spirit this year - I can't wait.
--I found out more details about The Baron. He really is a real Baron! Not Dutch but Flemish (close) - the baronial seat is somewhere in northeast Belgium, but unfortunately it ‘passed out of the family at the beginning of the last century’. All he has now is the title...and a lot of startling anecdotes. During a conversation about mid-century fiction (you see - my home life has morphed into some fin-de-siecle drawing-room comedy), I made some comment about Evelyn Waugh, and The Baron casually mentioned that he had known Waugh's first wife, confusingly also called Evelyn. They distinguished between themselves by speaking about He-Evelyn and She-Evelyn. Apparently She-Evelyn used to tell The Baron that He-Evelyn had been ‘a frightful snob, darling, a frightful snob’. I nodded and tried to look like I have this sort of conversation every day.
--I have been learning Russian, as we're planning a stay in St Petersburg in February. I thought that knowing some Polish I would find it relatively easy, but it's so different. The phonology of it is quite unusual - especially with the palatalisations - but it's a very very beautiful language. I have been walking around saying phrases like Через лес (‘through the forest’) over and over to myself and getting used to the sounds - there is a lot to do with your tongue, it's a lovely chewy language to speak.
--That's it. Happy Christmas to everyone who drops in here!
--I found out more details about The Baron. He really is a real Baron! Not Dutch but Flemish (close) - the baronial seat is somewhere in northeast Belgium, but unfortunately it ‘passed out of the family at the beginning of the last century’. All he has now is the title...and a lot of startling anecdotes. During a conversation about mid-century fiction (you see - my home life has morphed into some fin-de-siecle drawing-room comedy), I made some comment about Evelyn Waugh, and The Baron casually mentioned that he had known Waugh's first wife, confusingly also called Evelyn. They distinguished between themselves by speaking about He-Evelyn and She-Evelyn. Apparently She-Evelyn used to tell The Baron that He-Evelyn had been ‘a frightful snob, darling, a frightful snob’. I nodded and tried to look like I have this sort of conversation every day.
--I have been learning Russian, as we're planning a stay in St Petersburg in February. I thought that knowing some Polish I would find it relatively easy, but it's so different. The phonology of it is quite unusual - especially with the palatalisations - but it's a very very beautiful language. I have been walking around saying phrases like Через лес (‘through the forest’) over and over to myself and getting used to the sounds - there is a lot to do with your tongue, it's a lovely chewy language to speak.
--That's it. Happy Christmas to everyone who drops in here!