Sunday 19 February 2012

An Unexpected Happening

Now, if there are 2 things we all know about WhyNotSmile, they are surely these:

1. WhyNotSmile is strongly against running, particularly in public, and under any circumstances other than when being chased by a dragon or trying to catch a bus.  Let me be clear: it is not merely that I don't like running (in the same way in which I have no especial affinity for bus tours of Canberra or tickling otters, but might well be Happy Enough with them if circumstances allowed); it is more of an actual, active dislike (similar to my feelings on having my eyes gouged out with red hot pokers).

2. WhyNotSmile does not ever get asked out on dates by anyone, ever.

So it was something of a surprise to find myself, not one month ago, in a sports shop, looking for running shoes with my boyfriend.  And not just running shoes for him (although also that), but running shoes for me, because I have taken up running.

Naturally, there is a reason for this, and it should not be considered a permanent thing.

It has been agreed that we'll enter some teams in the marathon relay this year, from church, as a fundraising effort.  So Boyfriend Smile and I are on one of the teams, and I've been practicing.

I have adopted a "slow but steady" approach.  The first month consisted almost entirely of eating chocolate while researching trainers online, because it is Important to have Energy Reserves before you run (no sense trying to catch up afterwards).  Now we're into the second month, and I've actually started going out onto the streets and running a bit (I disapprove of going to gyms, because then you're paying money to do something you could do for free anywhere at all; I also disapprove of running in the rain/cold/drizzle/any form of discomfort).

Happily, I managed to get bargain trainers, reduced from £60 to £20, and wearing them is a little bit like running on clouds.  I cut quite the figure jogging around East Belfast, I must say.

Anyhow, the point is that I expect you all to sponsor me, and I shall set up a Page of some kind so that you are able to do this online at your own convenience.  Because I'm all about the being nice to you.

Sunday 5 February 2012

The WhyNotSmile Guide To The Superbowl

So apparently this weekend is Superbowl weekend, and this is Quite A Thing, although mostly for Americans.  But, as ever, WhyNotSmile is all about the culture, so I hereby present the official WhyNotSmile Guide to the Superbowl.

Now, the first thing to understand is that, despite its Twitter tag, the Superbowl has nothing whatever to do with superb owls, or any other kind of owls.  Nor does it have anything to do with any type of bowl.  The superbowl is all about football, I think, or maybe baseball.  One of those.  I believe it's the final of some manner of contest which has been happening for the past while, and this year the teams are New York and someone that people from Boston would support (I'm cheering for the latter, because I've been told to).

Anyway, as we all know, everything in America is to do with the presidential election, which this year will happen in November, and one of the aspects of that has been that various candidates have been round all the states trying to convince people to vote for them.  I think these are called either Caucuses or Primaries, but that might not be correct.  So in all the states, they chose who they wanted to win, and now it's between New York's choice, and Boston's choice (or maybe the state that Boston is in, which is hard to spell), and whichever state wins gets to choose the next President.

So, as you can imagine, the Superbowl is Quite Important, and should not be taken lightly.

PS. By the way, thanks for the help with the roofs/rooves thing.  I think we have established that it should always have been rooves, and that when I was in primary school, people lied to me.

Friday 3 February 2012

On plurals

Here's a question which I have been considering for at least 3 minutes: is the plural of 'roof' still 'rooves'?

I ask because it strikes me that I haven't heard it used in a while, and maybe it's one of those things that everyone else has moved on from. On the other hand, I'm sure I've seen 'roofs' several times. I don't want to go throwing 'rooves' into conversation and end up being derided as a terrible fool.

In fact, I note autocorrect is fine with 'roofs', but has underlined 'rooves'. Is it possible that the plural was always 'roofs', and I've picked it up wrong and been living in error for 30 years?

Your help us appreciated.