I was listening to an interviewer talking to someone who has the impossible job of interpreting the latest lockdown rules for the general public, a couple of hours after the latest change.
He was dealing with the very real possibility that, if only advised not to break the rules, many people who had not thought of breaking them before this advice would probably just go ahead with the plans they had made for Christmas which followed yesterday's rules to the letter.
It was like, he said, telling someone not to think of an elephant. There, you see? What are you thinking of now?
A good example of this was when - some years ago - I had a violent argument with a drunk person in a pub. My car was parked outside and I finished (I thought) by shouting "... and don't you DARE let my tyres down!"
You guessed it. I went outside to drive home to my cottage in the country, and found four tyres flat to the road. What an idiot I was.
Something similar. We had employed a lovely Parisian girl-friend of mine (in the photo above) as a model for H.I.'s Summer School one year, and I was making her a cup of green tea in the kitchen of the venue. She is a very strict vegetarian - verging on vegan - and, like a lot of fussy eaters, she followed rigid rules about food and its preparation which were probably passed down from a drug-addled hippy living in Haight-Ashbury sometime in the mid-sixties.
I was just about to pour the water into the cup when she came running up with a look of extreme panic in her eyes and said, "You should NEVER make green tea with boiling water!!!"
I humoured her by waiting a few seconds before I made her tea.
Now, every time I make myself a cup of green tea I hear Mylene's words ringing in my ears as if she were in the room. I still use boiling water, but I cannot rid myself of a sense of guilt for a crime which I don't believe I have committed. It is a form of mental illness.
"You should NEVER make green tea with boiling water!!!"
ReplyDeleteShe is absolutely right..and you should'nt pour boiling
water on ANY type of tea..or coffee in fact, that's why
most coffee m/c's only boil to a certain temperature
below boiling..! As they are thermostatically controlled!
My first drink of the day at about 6:30 is Green tea, lemon,
and honey...! :).
I drink coffee when l go to Costa at about 8:30..but, drink
a variety of teas at home, Earl Grey usually, always with
lemon...! :o).
Goodness! vegetarians/vegans..no disrespect..l cannot image
life without meat..l know there are various reasons for
being one or the other, in fact l've admired them for there
beliefs towards animal life..and, yes, l would call myself
a hypocrite, l would never dream of shooting wildlife/game..
but, when it's brought to me deceased, out comes my trusty
blade..l will skin/gut/clean it...
I've consumed a roast partridge etc for my Sunday lunch...
Half a bottle of vino calapso..and l'm just about to settle
down and watch a couple games of footy...HeHe! Job done! :).
Best get on...
Oh! What's grey and has a BIG trunk...???
A mouse going on holiday...!!! :).
Don't you start.
ReplyDeleteHeHe! How do bears make love...???
ReplyDeleteReady! Teddy! Go! :o).
I feel for those people who have ordered a turkey and other food that will feed six people for two days, have made the spare beds up and re-organised the furniture, or have paid for rail or bus tickets so they can spend a few days with people they may not have seen for a year. Assuming there will be no public transport on Christmas Day, I think a lot of people will be doing a risk assessment and sticking with their plans.
ReplyDeleteI think so too. I feel for the shopkeepers who have stocked up and have to close. Many of them will be bankrupted.
DeleteIt's like me telling Willie to make a shorter comment because my battery keeps going flat, sure as eggs are eggs, he'll make an even longer one.
ReplyDeleteHis batteries never go flat.
DeleteSeems as if they might have done.
DeleteI can guarantee that, if you screw up tinfoil into little balls and throw them around the house, you will absolutely NEVER be bothered by elephants under the beds.
ReplyDeleteI tried that and it didn't work, but we didn't talk about the elephant in the room.
DeleteLOL. I have a litany of things to feel guilty about when I run out of things to feel guilty about. Some of them date back to 6th grade.
ReplyDeleteI have a lot of things I should feel guilty about but don't.
DeleteSome people like to use guilt and this is tiresome. Use (or over use)of guilt by an individual indicates something is askew. A red flag.
ReplyDeleteI don't feel that guilty about a cup of tea.
DeleteActually, I think it is a fond memory, though of Mylene or green tea, I know not which.
ReplyDeleteWell I do miss Mylene because she has - I think - moved back to France. It is a shame that was the last piece of advice she gave me.
DeleteA good one that has never, ever left my brain whilst making a cup of tea. Salt told me: 'Always replace the cap on a whistling kettle after making a cuppa. Mice can crawl through the spout looking for water, drown, and you won't be able to see them next time you put the kettle on.'
ReplyDeleteStill freaks me out whenever I see someone leave off the cap.
It's a good thing that I don't use that sort of kettle, otherwise that would stick with me for life too. It probably still will. We have no mice at home but my workshop is mouse city. Now, when I leave a bucket of water (to catch drips) there, I put a stick in it so the mice can climb out. I don't drink the water...
DeleteHahaha, Tom - she is right about the preparation of green tea - though I think if someone likes to throw mixed pickles on his ice cream - why not? (As long as he doesn't try to force me to eat that -- yet he might try to convince me..)
ReplyDeleteAs to the "elephant thinking" -- some pedagogues recommended to say to a child "Don't do this and that..." so they would do the contrary -- but children are clever, they look through it very quick - and anyway : I love a direct conversation and take children - and adults - seriously.
Yet I thought it a wise news article when a German philosopher proposed not to mention Islamic assassinations in the press for four month - because otherwise you always have free riders.
Do you think that people would keep the rules (how do they know them, by the way?) if nobody talks about them, or ordered people to follow them?
I think they did that the whole summer and autumn, mumbling and faltering - at least in Berlin -- the result we have now: deep, deep red Corona-area is Berlin now.
The fact that she was right about the tea makes me want to carry on using boiling water.
DeleteI once had a child in my workshop and I was demonstrating how an air-hammer works on stone. I told the child to look down the little hole in the end, but not to put his finger down it. He immediately put his finger down it.
Actually, this morning I realised that the man was asking people not to panic-buy at the supermarket. Today, no British lorries are allowed in or out of Europe so there will definitely be panic-buying.
My mother once told me not to stick Smarties up my nose
ReplyDeleteWas this before or after you had stuck a Smartie up your nose? My mother once told me never to run when carrying a sword. This was because she saw me running with a sword. Better advice would have been, if you have to run with a sword, hold it behind you like the Samurai do.
DeleteSnorting Smarties is an actual thing on YouTube..
DeleteTeenagers are filming themselves crushing the
popular pastel-colored candy and snorting it...
So..Is there a Smarties high?
It appears the answer is no.. Although “burning”
is mentioned...!
It's a good job there 'NOT' inserted at the other
end..but that's a 'whole' different story..! :o).
I was going to comment..but...reading Willie's comments ..you can't top those!!
ReplyDeleteYes you can.
Delete