Look forward to your tenacious days ahead…

Posted: January 29, 2012 | Author: Ali Muskett | Filed under: London, Shopping, Words & Language | Tags: it's nice that, language, london, postaday, postaweek2012, selfridges, tenacious, words | Leave a comment

Tenacious. To be honest, it’s not a word I’ve ever used in a sentence except perhaps for when talking about the band, Tenacious D. To be even more honest, I wasn’t even sure how to use it.

You’re probably wondering how I came to be in possession of a card with such an odd fortune on it. Well, it came in a plastic ball…

And I got it from Selfridges.

Selfridges is not a place I normally shop in, but when I passed by the other night I had to stop and go in. In the window there was a huge wooden rollercoaster and what appeared to be a ball-pool full of coloured balls containing words.

This Word-A-Coaster is a project intended to celebrate the English language. It’s Nice That: Words Words Words has taken over the UltraLounge on the Lower Ground floor of Selfridges until March 1st, and this amazing Word-A-Coaster will be in the window for that period, too.

Here’s a bit of an explanation from the It’s Nice That website:

For the showpiece corner window of Oxford Street and Orchard Street, we have collaborated with interactive designer Stewdio to create ‘The Word-A-Coaster’ a playful fortune telling machine. The 14 foot high hand-built wooden rollercoaster (constructed by model makers Atom) is surrounded by a sea of 30,000 brightly coloured balls filled with 30,000 unique fortunes that can be picked up in store for free.

Inside the balls, shoppers will find a small card emblazoned with a uniquely numbered adjective, generated by a clever computer programme that leaves each individual with their own personal, playful prediction for 2012.

When I went to Selfridges the Word-A-Coaster was unfortunately broken, but I was allowed to reach over and pick up a word anyway. I got “tenacious”, and have been puzzling over it ever since. At first I thought it was a word with a negative meaning, but I then realised that it could also be positive. If I am to have “tenacious days ahead” this year, I think that means I will have to stick to my guns and be a bit stubborn about the things I want to achieve. So, losing weight and saving money it is!

For more information about Words Words Words, please visit the Selfridges website.

Not taking the biscuit

Posted: January 23, 2012 | Author: Ali Muskett | Filed under: Dieting & Health, Food & Drink, Words & Language | Tags: biscuit, cake, diet, food, idiom, language, lose weight, postaday, postaweek2012, to take the biscuit | 2 Comments

It’s one thing to repeatedly tell yourself year after year that you need to lose a bit of weight, but it’s something else entirely to be told by a doctor.

I’m not obese. In fact, most people I know genuinely don’t think I need to lose much weight. I ‘m tall and I carry it pretty well, plus I know how to dress for my size. Most people would probably call me curvy or, shudder, cuddly.

But today I sat up and faced facts. I need to lose three stone, so I will. It’s not going to be as easy as that though, I know. Take today for example: my lovely colleague offered to make me tea (which I drink with sugar) a number of times. I politely declined, made myself a chamomile tea and drank loads of water. I was feeling very peckish in the afternoon, and I was offered some amazing smelling Fortnum and Mason biscuits which we had in the office. I wanted one, I really wanted one, so in the end I let myself have a tiny broken corner of one, smaller than a 5p piece. It was really good.

Serious willpower is what I need to accomplish my goal. I’m not going to sit here and say I won’t eat any more chocolate, biscuits or cake this year. We all know that’s not going to happen. I’ve abandoned my Marshmallow Experiment because it was simply too tempting to have chocolate sitting there in the fridge. So, I’m going to try not to buy any calorific food, and allow myself a few treats when I’m out. Let’s see how I do…

Incidentally, the phrase “to take the biscuit” (used in a situation where something is particularly bad or objectionable) is British English and our friends across the pond actually say “to take the cake”. Well, language differences aside, I won’t be taking any cakes or biscuits for quite a while, I think! 😉