2004-12-26

pne: A picture of a plush toy, halfway between a duck and a platypus, with a green body and a yellow bill and feet. (Default)
2004-12-26 04:36 pm

Random thought: Upside-down and back-to-front

Occasionally, the thought comes into my mind that German has only one term "verkehrt herum" ("the wrong way around") for what can be expressed in English with more precision—the three expressions "upside-down", "back-to-front" and "inside-out" come to my mind.

For example, telling someone that they're wearing their T-shirt "verkehrt herum" is ambiguous between "you've got your T-shirt on back-to-front" and "you've got your T-shirt on inside-out".

pne: A picture of a plush toy, halfway between a duck and a platypus, with a green body and a yellow bill and feet. (Default)
2004-12-26 04:51 pm

Christmas

Stella and I spent Christmas Eve wrapping and labelling presents. We had intended to have a little devotional part including singing a carol/hymn or two and reading from (the Luther translation of) Luke 2, but that didn't happen, partly because Amy started fussing.

Christmas Day we spent in Tornesch with my family. Elaine's fiancé Benjamin was also there. Jennifer kindly picked us up in the car.

We opened presents and had a nice time until dinner around noon; in the afternoon, there was more chatting and a fair bit of playing Hangman and guess-what-I've-drawn using the two Magna-Doodles that Stella and Emily got for Christmas. (And no, Stella doesn't feel too old to be given one of those :D). Then cake and a bit more chatting, until we decided to watch a DVD: Father of the Bride. After that, Elaine drove us home.

My loot: two books on C#, some chocolate (well, that was officially for Martin, him of the userpicture), a pair of socks, and the sweets on my "Christmas plate" (which was actually a bag). Not a lot, but I hadn't been expecting much since I had got a couple of expensive presents for my birthday last month which were combined birthday/Christmas presents. And I'll probably get a prepaid card for my mobile phone from Stella as a belated Christmas present.

pne: A picture of a plush toy, halfway between a duck and a platypus, with a green body and a yellow bill and feet. (Default)
2004-12-26 06:37 pm

A German-English Christmas poem

I found it rather amusing :)

Presumably written by a German, since it seems to assume stereotypical German (mis)pronunciation of English in a couple of places (e.g. rhyming "need" and "street", or "runs" and "Gans").