Today I learned that the Spanish word azahar (which means orange blossom in English) comes from the Arabic word al-azahar, which means white flower. I knew the word was Arabic in origin but didn’t know what it meant until today.
So, what did you learn today?
casa azahar 
That lab work never is what you expects.
One of my younger colleauges(who is covering for me part time when I´m on sabbatical for finishing my thesis)asked me yesterday about some tests to be taken during an exam today. I instructed her since the tests considered are not routinely done. The tests were taken and the samples sent to the assigned lab facility for processing.
Obviuosly there had been some confusion at the recipient lab since these tests are not done every day. They are quite simple, and the methods needed are every day work. I guess that some people are just lazy, and don´t want to use their brain to think about work…
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That reports don’t write themselves. It’s a pity, but they don’t. Or at least the half-finished one I’ve been staring at for hours hasn’t written itself.
Once upon a time, I used to be able to concentrate and knock these things off in a morning. There’s only 11 minutes of morning left, and I’m getting nowhere.
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Well it was the day before yesterday in fact…That there’s a joyful, exuberant, warm love of country. And there’s a nasty, vicious, mindless thing of country, that has absolutely nothing to do with love, so I’m definitely never going back to my local pub again to watch footie, or anything else for that matter.
By the way, hi az!
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*waves to Fanny* 🙂
Haven’t learned anything new yet today, but the day is still young . . .
az
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I learned… several interesting things from the Dictionary of Unusual Sex Acts that my friends and I found at the bookstore. Many of them weren’t all that unusual, actually.
Did I mention that I love the new layout?
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Yes, I think you did echo – thanks! 🙂
Have you seen Nog’s new custom ‘pixelated’ header?
Meanwhile, agree with you that there is not much *new* about sex acts. Variations on a basic theme, mostly. I quite enjoy the basic theme myself, with a few ‘treats’ now and again.
az
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Hi az. Today I learned that Seville is a less expensive city to visit than London.
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And you also learned that it’s easy-peasy to set up a blog here. 🙂
az
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And I will do so later. Right now I’m expecting nearly 100 kids for a program.
Runs off screaming!
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😮
Well, better you than me . . .
az
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I don’t know why, but the print is too tiny to read on these comments. It was regular size at work.
OK. Here it is. hypatiah2g2.wordpress.com 🙂
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Yay! You made it!
Maybe you just need to change the text size on your computer at home? Though some of the themes here (like this one) go all wonky if the text is set too big.
az
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I learned yesterday that it is possible to be a little bit *too* helpful to others, often to your own detriment. Give ’em an inch, and they take a mile.
Actually, this sounds like something I’ve learned before… how soon we forget.
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Hmmm…I’d say that one is the sort of lesson that we keep ‘re-learning’ simply because we don’t want to become suspicious and uncaring people.
Friends can occasionally go through *needy* times and require extra help and effort. And sometimes it does take awhile before realising that, with certain people, your efforts are being taken for granted and that the more you give the more it’s expected that you just keep on giving.
Anyhow, it’s always a good thing to re-learn, I reckon. Much better than the alternative.
az
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Today I learned that Subaru means both tortoise and Pleiades and that the Subaru logo is actually a representation of the Pleiades, even though it has only six stars showing, not seven.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pleiades_(star_cluster)
Though I wouldn't have thought tortoise a wise choice for a car name.
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Today I learned that Fijian coins still have a picture of Betty Mountbatten on them, even though they became a republic over a decade ago. I assume there’s a reason – inability to think of a replacement image, perhaps. I found this out when some cunning person gave me a Fijian 20 cent piece in my change. *sigh*
So there’s some useless information, if anyone needs any.
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You mean nobody has learned *anything* in this entire month??? 😕
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Well, okay, I learned something this afternoon. Or should I say – relearned it all over again. Which is …
NEVER carry a basket of laundry up to the roof wearing flip-flops or floppy slippers.
Today it was flip-flops – two years ago the stupid slippers. I ended up catching my floppy footwear and falling *up the stairs* falling *full force* on my right knee on the landing. PAIN!!! We’re talking serious PAIN!!!
Strangely, both times I didn’t land right on the knee joint, but on the flat bit just below it. Small mercies, might have shattered my kneecap otherwise.
Meanwhile, two years on, the front of my calf under my left knee is still ‘painfully numb’, meaning it feels numb if you lightly touch it but if that part of my leg ever bangs against anything, even slightly – PAIN!!!
So now it seems I have a matching set. 😕
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Falling up the stairs is a neat trick. Last time I did it, I was on metal stairs on an industrial site… I had the imprint of the tread in my shin for a fortnight.
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What I learned today is to not start preparing for a total ‘croqueta feast’ on the same day as the dinner is meant to be.
Croquetas aren’t actually difficult to make but they require several stages of cooking then cooling and shaping and then cooling again – before finally getting around to frying the fuckers.
I’d only reached the first cooling stage by mid-afternoon. And because I’d also made hummous earlier to prepare some scrumptious hummous-tortilla roll ups as a starter our tiny kitchen looked like a cyclone had passed through it. Bowls, plates, cutting boards, frying and grill pans, salad spinner, etc, were strewn about everwhere.
I mean, there was just no way to get everything back to normalish to ever actually put this meal together by 8.30pm
Happily our dinner guest was just as happy to come tomorrow at 8.30pm as today. Phew!
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Some things are best not rushed …
Maria & me
las croquetas
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Well, today I learned the origin of the word forlorn.
According to Nog a forlorn was a small military formation creating a defensive line, usually for the purpose of covering a withdrawal (what would nowadays be called a rearguard).
Not hard to see how it changed from a noun to an adjective with its present day meaning, as the forlorn was basically a military sacrifice.
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