:..:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
PEOPLE
Greçinda
So anyway we got talking - the receptionist and me about wotever and then i saw her name badge which said 'Greçinda'.
'Hmm ... Greçinda - I've never heard that name b4"
"No," she said " Me neither - except for the person I was named after"
"So was that Greçinda a friend of the family?" I asked.
And Greçinda the recepionist told me such an incredible story it influenced me to write this collection of how some people were given their names.
Greçinda's mother, Luz, had been sent over from Angola to escape the war but her parents had to stay there. Luz was the only black student in a girls' convent which meant many of the students and even some of the nuns used this as an excuse to ridicule her. Then, to make things more complicated, she got herself pregnant and this made Luz feel an outcast. She felt very sad and lonely. When she was feeling most dejected one the French teacher asked her to wait after class. Luz liked the French teacher, sister Greçinda who wasn't like the rest - she was gentle and helpful.
"I hear u'r pregnant," said the sister when the other pupils had gone.
"Even sister Greçinda is gonna have a go. I thought at least she was different." But sister Greçinda was different and said warmly "congratulations Luz" Finally some words of support.
"Do you know if it's a girl or a boy? Have you thought of a name? Your mother and father must be very proud"
"My dad died in the war. Um... my mum...," But Luz got too choked to continue.
"I'm so sorry to hear about your father," said sister Greçinda. "Maybe if it's a boy u could name her after your father. And if it's a girl u could name her after your mum."
"U don't understand sister," said Luz fighting back the tears. "My mum says I have bought shame on the family. She doesn't want to hear from me again. I can't use her name. A baby without grandparents - without even a name," Luz said and hot tears ran down her face. The sister wanted to comfort Luz.
"Well, um... how about if it's a girl you could use my name. I mean just if you like of course... I would certainly consider it an honour."
At that Luz was in floods of tears. She and the sister hugged and Luz said if it were a girl she would love to call the baby Greçinda.
Some months later in October Luz gave birth to a girl and named her Greçinda Maria Ferreira.
"So what's sister Greçinda like?" I asked
"I only met her once - the day I was born. Which was the day she died"
"What?! So she must've been old - heart attack i guess?"
"Oh no - she was in her early thirties as it goes"
"... but - then how....?"
"Well sister Greçinda would help everyone and in her spare time she even worked in the maternity ward. She was working there the day I was born - the only baby in the hospital. In the middle of the nite there was a huge fire. With flames everywhere but without a thought for herself she rushed in and grabbed me out of my cot. But as she did so her nun's habit caught fire. She was killed. She died so i might live."
Thru our tears I told Greçinda i would tell the story. But Greçinda insisted I should change the names - she said even tho they'd only seen each other that one nite she felt she knew her and was sure it's how the sister would have wanted it.
So at the receptionist's request i've changed 1 or 2 details including the actual name
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
James Victor As far as his 1st name goes 'James' woz simply named after his grandad. It's his 2nd name, Victor, which has the story... ready? JV's parents were living in Edinburgh and at the beginning of summer the mum's sitting at home 9 months pregnant watching a bit of tele when guess wot - her waters break. But she can't get an ambulance coz they're on strike. It's raining so has no luck grabbing a taxi. She ends up taking the 37 bus to the maternity ward! Also on the bus woz her Italian upstairs neighbor on his way to work. During the long ride to distract a mother-to-be as much as pos whose waters have broken and is having severe contractions he tells her crazy tales of his adventures of how he'd walked penniless from Sicily all the way to Edinburgh. Our hero's name? Victor, of course!
Xuxu
Xuxu
My friend name Xuxu
means: a, wee wee / b, Kiss me, kiss me / c, Go away / d, I dunno /
… Read and found out
Xuxu’s from
Malaysia but I met her in Lisboa and we immediately became great
friends. Xuxu is actually pronounced ‘she she’, which, as every
Portuguese speaking kid will tell u means ‘wee wee’ in English –
(tho the Portuguese spell it xixi ) So how do i tell my new friend
Xuxu ( aka xixi, (she-she), wee-wee) – what her name means in
Portuguese. When I finally pluck up the courage I’m amazed when she
smiles and says it means the same in Malaysian too. Why would any1
call their kid ‘wee wee’. She tells me it isn’t her real name
but she’d actually earned it from her school days and was so proud
how she’d tricked the school system that she’s kept it ever since
as a nickname. She explained that one day in primary school she had
to do a maths test but was terrible at maths. Poor Xuxu- who wouldn't have been called that yet of course, got so
nervous she wet herself. Her teacher was understanding and let her go
off and change into dry clothes. She had a gr8 idea– from then on whenever she had a test she would drink a
bottle of water before and then deliberately wet herself half way
thru to get out of finishing the test!
So now u not only
know Xuxu’s story u also know the Portuguese and Malaysian word for
wee wee :) !!
::::::::::::::::::::::
THINGS
still 3 HATRICK // 4 THE EURO // 5 ALFACINHAS ( people from Lisbon // 6 THE UKULELE
7 LOVE + DEUCE (from tennis ) 8
I dont double check the stories.... if i like 'em then i believe 'em
The Euro
Why is there no plural for Euro? a, means something naughty in 1 of the EU member's language? b, Becoz of Esperanto influence which is used as being a neutral language? c, linguistically it's too difficult for certain languages to say eurozzzz
The currency for the EU to be called euro seems a pretty good choice i reckon. But have u noticed there's no plural? Look on the 2 euro coin and the notes. There's only 2 euro / 5 euro etc written, not 2 / 5 euroS etc. Gotta admit i'd never noticed but when I was with Demetri - a Greek friend when i asked if he had 5 euros he started laughing . U know that feeling when some1's laughing but u don't know why? Then he explained euros in Greek means arsehole so I'd ...um... asked him if he had 5 arseholes!! Well, 1st thing i do when i get home is checked out arsehole + euro in google translator but it doesn't actually match. But hey i like the story so i'll leave it here - if it isn't true who'll bother to check anyway and if it is and i don't put it in i'd be - to phrase a coin - a right euros!
..............................
a googol + google
Have u ever wondered wot the flipperty-flujy-thingy-mi-jig reason Google is named after a google.... and wot the wot is a google anyhows? Could it be a, b, c,
well, to begin with there woz this mathematicn dude doing wotever mathematicans do and for some reason wanted to think of a name for 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,
000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.000
,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.000,000 ... which is a 1 followed a by a hundred noughts - plz don't ask me why the mathematician wanted such a name! he'd been scatching his head over this for several weeks and his 8 year old nephew visited him for lunch. He asked the nephew wot he call this number and the nephew replied without hestitation: a google!
!,!!!,!!!,!!!,!!!,!!!,!!!,!!!,!!!,!!!,!!!,!!!,!!!,!!!,!!!,!!!,!!!,!!!,
!!!,!!!,!!!,!!!,!!!,!!!,!!!,!!!,!!!,!!!,!!!,!!!,!!!,!!!,!!!,!!!
A search engine with so many answers could surely only be called Googol. When the designers typed the name in to see its availability they actually misspelt and put in google... , not surprisinly the name that didn't exist woz available! So even when they realised their fluff up they decided to keep it... So now let me just google google to see how many answers actually exisit - how many do u think
?,???,???,???,???,???,???,???,???,???,???,???,
???,???,???,???,???,???,???,???,???,???,???,
???,???,???,???,???,???,???,???,???,???,???
...............................
Hatrick
Why is a hat-trick so called? a, Becoz the players r awarded a hat by the manager? b, fans would throw hats in the air? c, the local hat shop would put a photo of the player in their window?
Hat-trick? a trick of hats? as u probably know, in most sports when a player scores 3 goals it's called a hat-trick.... but what's all this about hats and tricks?? Back in them ol' days until about 1950s i guess people - well mainly men - in UK going to watch footy would wear 'ats 'n' coats (hats and coats) - well, at least in the winter. And if a footballer scored 3 goals the fans would be so jubilant they'd chuck their hats in the air. This display of celebration became known as a hat-trick
............................
Kangaroo
Wot does kangaroo originally mean in aborigine? a, G’day mate / b, The Bouncy One / c, beware of pickpockets / d, I dunno / … Read and found out
Wot does kangaroo originally mean in aborigine? a, G’day mate / b, The Bouncy One / c, beware of pickpockets / d, I dunno / … Read and found out
Wot does
Kangaroo mean in its original aborigine / native Australian language?
If u said i dunno then well done – u’r right!! So here’s how
our bouncy friend got its name – altho I’m told no one knows if
this is actually true... as far as i’m concerned it IS ... I mean
if I like the story that’s good enuf for me so plz don’t tell me
otherwise!
In the 18th
century, when the Brits first went over to wot we now know as
Australia they found other people - aborigines living there. There
were a whole lot of animals they’d never seen before including
some kind of creature jumping around… When they asked wot it woz
called the Aborigines told them ‘kangaroo’. Which, reasonably enuf
i think, the Brits took to mean the name of the animal…. But nope,
if this story is true ( which i hope it is so it IS!) the Brits
must’ve got really confused because when they asked the names of
the other animals like koalas, the duck-billed platypus, the dingo etc
etc. they would’ve got the same answer for each , kangaroo kangaroo
kangaroo. Because apparently the Aborigines didn't give names to their
animals. And ‘kangaroo’ is actually simply suppose to mean ‘I
dunno’.
So now u kanga….
Or should that be roo? Oh, I kangaroo!
---------------------
Love - as tennis nil / deuce
'Love' as a tennis score was 'inspired' from a: a romance, b: an egg, c: a sweet name not to upset the losing player?
Why d'ya say 'love' instead of 'nil' in tennis? And 'deuce'? Well they come from French. Tennis was popular with the French aristocracy in England in the 17th / 18th century and so scoring was in French. When a player had no points in the game the French would say the player had 'l'oeuf' which is French for 'the egg' ( so transl8ed i guess would be for eggsample: "Henrique 'as 15 and Jean 'as the egg" ) U gotta admit l'oeuf sounds just like 'love'. So I guess it's sort of a mishearing inspiration.
And while we're at it 'deuce' is an adaption of 'two' in French = 'deux' to say both players have the same points - well only when it's 40 all that is. ....Which reminds me- wot's with the crazy 15, 30, 40?? Well the scoreboard was originally a clock so it's simply the minute hands every quarter hour - ok so 45 gets changed to 40. And then 'o'clock' is - voilá : game. C'est formidable, non?
...............................
Love - as tennis nil / deuce
'Love' as a tennis score was 'inspired' from a: a romance, b: an egg, c: a sweet name not to upset the losing player?
Why d'ya say 'love' instead of 'nil' in tennis? And 'deuce'? Well they come from French. Tennis was popular with the French aristocracy in England in the 17th / 18th century and so scoring was in French. When a player had no points in the game the French would say the player had 'l'oeuf' which is French for 'the egg' ( so transl8ed i guess would be for eggsample: "Henrique 'as 15 and Jean 'as the egg" ) U gotta admit l'oeuf sounds just like 'love'. So I guess it's sort of a mishearing inspiration.
And while we're at it 'deuce' is an adaption of 'two' in French = 'deux' to say both players have the same points - well only when it's 40 all that is. ....Which reminds me- wot's with the crazy 15, 30, 40?? Well the scoreboard was originally a clock so it's simply the minute hands every quarter hour - ok so 45 gets changed to 40. And then 'o'clock' is - voilá : game. C'est formidable, non?
...............................
No comments:
Post a Comment