If you ever wanted

Joy wrote:

"Bastette" wrote in message

Christina Websell wrote:

All the way from Germany on a bus, because she doesn't like flying to
support someone she had never met before.

I don't understand - she won't fly to meet someone for the first time,
but she'll take a long bus trip? Does she fly to the UK now, when she
comes to visit, since she knows you now?

Many people have a fear of flying, and would gladly take a long bus trip
rather than fly. I'm not one of them, but I have no trouble understanding
the concept.

Neither do I. But I don't understand what that has to do with how well
you know the person on the other end. If I were too afraid to fly, it
wouldn't matter much *why* I was traveling!

Sorry, Tweed - I'm just being dense, I guess.

--
Joyce

There is no alternative to being yourself.

Dan M wrote:

On Thu, 01 Mar 2012 11:57:19 -0800, Joy wrote:

Many people have a fear of flying, and would gladly take a long bus trip
rather than fly. I'm not one of them, but I have no trouble
understanding the concept.

I am one of them. When my mom was dieing a couple years ago I flew out to
California because there wasn't enough time to do anything else, but I
drove home. I won't fly unless I am faced with an absolute emergency.

I used to be terrified of flying. I still have anxiety about it, but have
discovered "better living through chemistry". So I rarely board a plane
without a good dose of lorazepam (Ativan) already kicking in. Once the
plane is in the air, I calm down, and then the drug performs its second
task, which is to help me sleep the travel hours away.

--
Joyce

There is no alternative to being yourself.

On Thu, 01 Mar 2012 20:36:50 +0000, Bastette wrote:

I used to be terrified of flying. I still have anxiety about it, but
have discovered "better living through chemistry". So I rarely board a
plane without a good dose of lorazepam (Ativan) already kicking in. Once
the plane is in the air, I calm down, and then the drug performs its
second task, which is to help me sleep the travel hours away.

I don't have a problem with flying - I have a pilot's license and enjoy
being in the air. I just can't take being locked into a small tin can
with all of those strangers. The only way I can even get through an
average airport is loaded to the gills on an anti-anxiety drug.

"Judith Latham" wrote in message
...
In article , Christina Websell
wrote:

"Lisa Katt" wrote in message
...

"Christina Websell" skrev i
meddelandet ...


Hands up who looked at this. This is a person who I first met on a
poultry usenet group who came on the bus from Germany to support
me when my mother died suddenly. We'd already agreed to meet up
later in the year but N decided to come early. I refused her
first offer, saying I could manage but she said "if I turned up on
your doorstep tomorrow would you not let me in?" What could I say?
She came. All the way from Germany on a bus, because she doesn't
like flying to support someone she had never met before.

I looked. But like your friend N, I have another native language and
sometimes I do not have the energy to write in English. Elisabet

I know. When N was here she sometimes went to bed early as speaking
English all day exhausted her. I did offer to learn German but she said
not to bother as she thought I was too old to learn it! What she meant
was I hadn't learned it at school. Only French was available when I
was in school. The very idea of learning German was a no-no.


I was taught german at school for two years, french for for five years. I
was better at german as I felt it was structured more as english is.
However languages was really not my thing, and I couldn't speak either
french or german now after all these years. DH works in a school and one
of the teachers who teaches french, often speaks to him in french and
tries to get him to reply in french but he only remembers a very tiny bit
and the teacher just sadly shakes his head.

The lady at work always speaks english as her partner is english as are
everyone she mixes with. When she speaks to her family in german they
complain at her english accent.



N has a friend, Ushi who was born in England to a German mother and now
lives in Germany. When she took me to meet her Ushi had never heard N speak
English before and she exclaimed "You have an accent!" I'm afraid all the
time we spent together has resulted in me giving her the Leicestershire
pronunciation. It was hidden for me by her German accent (which I find
charming) but when I listened carefully, Ushi was right.
Nüle was thrilled. Luckily I don't have a strong Leicester accent unlike my
neighbours and my sister in law who N was totally unable to understand. She
went home from my neighbour's house early, because she'd had 2 glasses of
wine with our meal (she doesn't usually drink) and thought because she
couldn't understand them she must be drunk.

I told her I have a hard job understanding my neighbours too. They are one
of those couples who seem to have their own language, have a strong accent,
speak very fast, and intersperse their speech with "whatsit" and although
they always know what they mean, I often don't.
I used to stop them and say "hang on, what does whatsit mean there?" they'd
tell me and would carry on talking with more whatsits. At least they
understand each other.
When I spent time with them I used to return home as exhausted as N was from
speaking and processing a different language all day.

Tweed

"Bastette" wrote in message
...
Christina Websell wrote:

We'd already agreed to meet up later in the year but N decided to come
early. I refused her first offer, saying I could manage but she said
"if I
turned up on your doorstep tomorrow would you not let me in?" What
could I
say? She came.
All the way from Germany on a bus, because she doesn't like flying to
support someone she had never met before.

I don't understand - she won't fly to meet someone for the first time,
but she'll take a long bus trip? Does she fly to the UK now, when she
comes to visit, since she knows you now?

No, she is afraid of flying. She comes on the bus usually. Last time she
came when she brought her mother too, she drove from Germany to the UK to
see me.
I think I missed a comma which made you not understand.
I should have said:
" All the way from Germany on a bus, because she doesn't like flying, to
support someone she had never met before."
What a difference a comma makes.
Tweed

"Judith Latham" wrote in message
...

i don't know if I have a fear of flying as I've never flown anywhere.
I've
never had a passport as we don't need to go abroad and don't go away for
holidays. However, I think I would rather stay on the ground.

I'd never flown before I visited Nüle and I decided I would approach it with
an open mind.
I absolutely *loved* it. Looking out of the window and seeing clouds
beneath, like cotton wool and when we got over to the continent (without
clouds) I could see the cars driving on the other side of the road from up
high so I knew I was nearly there.
On the way back, it was early evening and I could see streetlights coming on
under the plane, like golden necklaces throwing themselves all over.
My first flights were a wonderful experience.

The only downside was the descent which affected my eardrums and I was deaf
when N met me at the airport. "Am I shouting?" I said, she said "yes, you
are"
It soon wore off.
Tweed

Christina Websell wrote:

I don't understand - she won't fly to meet someone for the first time,
but she'll take a long bus trip? Does she fly to the UK now, when she
comes to visit, since she knows you now?

No, she is afraid of flying. She comes on the bus usually. Last time she
came when she brought her mother too, she drove from Germany to the UK to
see me.
I think I missed a comma which made you not understand.
I should have said:
" All the way from Germany on a bus, because she doesn't like flying, to
support someone she had never met before."
What a difference a comma makes.


Ah ha! Yes, that makes a lot more sense. I thought you were saying that
she didn't like to fly when supporting someone she'd never met before.

Do you know about "eats shoots and leaves"? I don't know whether that
one is known throughout the English-speaking world or is just an American
thing.

Quick explanation

Description of a panda's diet: "Eats shoots and leaves".

With one comma, this becomes a sentence about food, violence and
departu "Eats, shoots and leaves."

--
Joyce

Whenever you feel anger, you should say, "May I be free of this
anger!" This rarely works, but talking to yourself in public will
encourage others to leave you alone.

"Dan M" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 01 Mar 2012 20:36:50 +0000, Bastette wrote:

I used to be terrified of flying. I still have anxiety about it, but
have discovered "better living through chemistry". So I rarely board a
plane without a good dose of lorazepam (Ativan) already kicking in. Once
the plane is in the air, I calm down, and then the drug performs its
second task, which is to help me sleep the travel hours away.

I don't have a problem with flying - I have a pilot's license and enjoy
being in the air. I just can't take being locked into a small tin can
with all of those strangers. The only way I can even get through an
average airport is loaded to the gills on an anti-anxiety drug.

I can understand that. I don't know the technical term, but I think it's a
cross between claustrophobia and agoraphobia. I call it "crowdophobia". I
can manage airports and airplanes, but being in a crowded room panics me,
and I have to get out quickly. I even have trouble at large sporting
events, when the event is over, and everyone is leaving at once.

Joy

"Judith Latham" wrote in message
...
In article , Christina Websell
wrote:

"Lisa Katt" wrote in message
...

"Christina Websell" skrev i
meddelandet ...


Hands up who looked at this. This is a person who I first met on a
poultry usenet group who came on the bus from Germany to support
me when my mother died suddenly. We'd already agreed to meet up
later in the year but N decided to come early. I refused her
first offer, saying I could manage but she said "if I turned up on
your doorstep tomorrow would you not let me in?" What could I say?
She came. All the way from Germany on a bus, because she doesn't
like flying to support someone she had never met before.

I looked. But like your friend N, I have another native language and
sometimes I do not have the energy to write in English. Elisabet

I know. When N was here she sometimes went to bed early as speaking
English all day exhausted her. I did offer to learn German but she said
not to bother as she thought I was too old to learn it! What she meant
was I hadn't learned it at school. Only French was available when I
was in school. The very idea of learning German was a no-no.


I was taught german at school for two years, french for for five years. I
was better at german as I felt it was structured more as english is.
However languages was really not my thing, and I couldn't speak either
french or german now after all these years. DH works in a school and one
of the teachers who teaches french, often speaks to him in french and
tries to get him to reply in french but he only remembers a very tiny bit
and the teacher just sadly shakes his head.

The lady at work always speaks english as her partner is english as are
everyone she mixes with. When she speaks to her family in german they
complain at her english accent.


Judith

--
Judith Latham
Stourbridge, West Midlands. UK.

Some people have a natural affinity for languages, and others don't. Some
are really good with one or two, other than their first language. My
brother-in-law lived in Greece for several years as a teenager. There used
to be a Greek restaurant near where he lives now, and he and my sister
always got the best treatment because he spoke Greek to the owner. They
recently visited Greece, and got along very well, but he decided he didn't
speak it very well, so he got some CDs and is studying the language
intensively. He regularly uses Skype to talk to friends in Greece.

I remember a few words and phrases from the Spanish I took in school. Well,
living in Southern California, it would be difficult to forget it entirely.
However, I always had a 'gringo' accent, and have forgotten most of what I
learned. The one thing I did retain was the pronunciation. The rules of
pronunciation are much better in Spanish than they are in English. I can
pick up anything written in Spanish and read it aloud, whether I understand
it or not. My accent would be atrocious, but I'll bet most Spanish speakers
could understand it. You can't do that with English.

Joy

"Bastette" wrote in message
...
Christina Websell wrote:

I don't understand - she won't fly to meet someone for the first time,
but she'll take a long bus trip? Does she fly to the UK now, when she
comes to visit, since she knows you now?

No, she is afraid of flying. She comes on the bus usually. Last time
she
came when she brought her mother too, she drove from Germany to the UK
to
see me.
I think I missed a comma which made you not understand.
I should have said:
" All the way from Germany on a bus, because she doesn't like flying, to
support someone she had never met before."
What a difference a comma makes.


Ah ha! Yes, that makes a lot more sense. I thought you were saying that
she didn't like to fly when supporting someone she'd never met before.

Do you know about "eats shoots and leaves"? I don't know whether that
one is known throughout the English-speaking world or is just an American
thing.


I have the book.