Words .... Someone once said we are known by the words we use.
Allow me to talk a little about words, those lovely, jumping, laughing,
eager little marks we make on paper or tap onto the screen.
Some words run softly, on tippy-toe, almost soundless, others clump around
like a football team milling around on the cement floor of the dressing
shed.
Some words soothe like cold cream on sunburn, while others can set your
blood pounding.
Swearing thrown into a sentence, denotes little but an inability to think or
pause meaningfully in an attempt to find an appropriate adjective.
There are words so rounded at the edges and softened by wear that they no
longer words at all. And some sacred words that have become swear words,
their meanings soiled with improper unthinking and careless use.
Some words stick like burrs and punish at a touch. They are the words we
never forget, insults and denigrating words that destroy our egos and
sometimes even our lives.
But then there are also words that nurse the ego and heal the heart.
There are even some words that remain forever unspoken, clamped in a throat
that aches to let them out ... And often they are the most mean full words
of all.
The choice is ours, words spoken or written. If we use them well and care
how we put them together, if we think before we open our mouths or tap the
keys, we will do more than simply rescue language, we will begin to
communicate more meaningfully with each other.
When we talk with purpose and pleasure to each other in this marvelous
language we have been given as our birthright, then anything is possible and
most of it will be very good.
Take one radical stand and commit to civility in all communication. Compose
every text or email as if it were addressed to someone you love.
You are a person with a point of view that counts - use it ! And if you
choose the right words, you could change the world you live in. xxx
May the rest of your life, be the best of your life !!
All the best for 2016 !!
ANON
MOZZIES !!l
The mosquito infestation has reached a new level in Bulawayo!!
I am not sure what more we can do The Municipality have been amazing. They arrive every week to spray the breeding areas in our suburb. (The next door pool has been empty for ages, if I climb on the tank and look over the wall, I can almost hear the buzz of the breeding mosquitoes in the slimy green cess poo left by the non existent rain!!)
We even filled in our fish pond to stop the invasion, which happily stopped that mellifluous sound of bullfrogs too!
We hung up and enormous mosquito net over the bed, it is glorious, with much sewing and modification, our bed now looks like an elegantly draped Hollywood Four Poster!
I even moved the fan so it was situated inside the net, to blow away the mosquitoes!!
HeeHoo purchased some zappers on Amazon. HeeHoo has an 'Executioner Pro' and I have a plain old 'Executioner'. They look like badminton racquets, but are really battery operation electric incinerators ! Woe betide if you hit your knee or your computer in error....
We lie on our beds, under the mosquito net, watching the telly through a fine mist of the net - Zappers in hand, as they still manage to worm their way in despite our heavily guarded mosquito fortress!!
The sound when you hit one is exquisite, it incinerates with a blitz sound, most satisfying!! HeeHoo still covers himself with Peaceful Sleep as they love the taste of him, especially after his years of research on Mosquitoes at Blair Research Laboratories way back in the dark ages!! He tells a horrifying tale of feeding the test mosquitos on his arm during 'feeding time' at the Lab, instead of taking the time to anaethetise a guinea pig as the feeding trough!!
Serves him right that mozzies love him!!
We can zap up to fifty mosquitoes a night, despite the spraying regime that we undertake with our trusty knapsack sprayer, none of the well known brands of mosquito insecticides work against Bulawayo Suburbs mosquitoes!!
When we are away the attack the poor kitty's ears!!
We had mosquitoes right through the winter even which is unusual....
ZIMBABWE WATCHDOG
How about this for a good start to the new year.
Coming in from the airport this morning - 1st January at 1 o'clock.
I was stopped at the usual roadblock and fined $10 for not having this years radio licence
They are really scraping the barrel!!!
M.F.
Herald
Airtime recharge card ban looms: Government has given mobile phone companies six months to phase out recharge scratch cards and told food shops that kaylite packaging for food will be banned at the same time. Mobile phone companies should promote technologies that can be used instead of recharge cards, while food outlets were ordered to use biodegradable materials that were environment friendly. Litter was the biggest problem. The Government also wants a deposit on all beverage containers to give people an incentive to hand them back in instead of dumping them. Manufacturers, importers, distributors and retailers of disposal diapers have to submit an 'environmental friendly action plan' within six months to deal with the challenge of wast. Fines for littering of up to level 3 ($20) and level 14 ($5 000) for illegal dumping would be imposed, while Government was also working on ways to introduce mandatory community service for everyone caught on the wrong side. However, hundreds of thousands of youths who had found employment in airtime recharge cards selling business, many firms that had invested heavily in technology to manufacture diapers, kaylite and other fragile commodities wrapping products are likely to suffer - Herald, Monday December 21
