Looking back

To mark my eightieth post I am looking back.  My fortieth post was The story so far…

At death’s door was written in response to a daily prompt about stopping blogging for ever and looked at expressions connected with death.  A later post on the same subject was Pegging out.

Friend or foe? * was a post about friendship.  Foe is another word for enemy.

With Hindsight Here I looked back on my blogging experience and rewrote my first post.

Blooming marvellous is a slang expression often used sarcastically, when something has gone wrong.  I hope my post didn’t go wrong.  It considers plants and flowers in the English language.

A lottery?  There are so many get rich quick adverts for lotteries, I am not going to explain the meaning of the word.  This post is about chance and luck.

Last orders (Part 2) The second instalment of the instructions I was given as a child.

Decisions, decisions This is a popular expression when someone needs to make a choice and is not sure what to do.  A quick look at the language used about decision and indecision.

If you play your cards right… means if you act wisely.  Here some expressions derived from popular card games are examined.

Adam’s ale is water.  This is a post about water in solid, liquid and gaseous form.

A word in season was the title I chose for a Christmas post.  The post is about manners.  In his second letter to Timothy Chapter 4 verse 2 (NIV) Paul exhorts him to “Preach the word: be prepared in season and out of season: correct, rebuke and encourage“.

Boxing Day is the day after Christmas Day.  My post was about the word box.

Happy New Year! introduce a post about new year traditions and other sayings about time.

Good, better, best is an example of an adjective with irregular comparative and  superlative forms.  The content is related to the title.

Facts and figures Numbers and physics feature here.

How are you feeling? Highs and lows

That’s funny! Fun and laughter 🙂

What’s in a name? People’s names in sayings and expressions

Hints and tips To mark 6 months of blogging I wrote a very different post.

Putting pen to paper an alliterative post

How did I get here? This is a post about why I write, which I wrote in response to a group writing project (challenge) on another blogging platform.

Dear School * A quickly written poem about going comprehensive.  The challenge was about places we liked in our childhood being demolished.

Business as usual: Work (Part 1) Sayings and phrases about work and attitudes

Playing ball: Sport (Part 1) To play ball implies playing according to the rules.  Sporty language.

I’m a bookworm, are you? My response to a challenge about the relative merits of books and e-readers.

A long innings? Sport (Part 2) A post about terms from the game of cricket.

Back to business: Work (Part 2) Work and tools feature here.

Do you roll your R’s? Another alliterative post

My blog A post about the choice of name for my blog in response to a daily prompt.

Jack or knave? Nursery rhymes and other phrases including the name Jack.

Sense and Sensibility is the title of a book by Jane Austen.  Sayings about common sense and the lack of it.

How are you? Illnesses and remedies, but not from a medical point of view!

Out of sight…
…out of mind.  Expressions about craziness.

Home truths Home, houses and streets are mentioned in this post.  (Home truths are usually things we’d rather not be told!)

Hands up if you agree!  Some expressions involving hands and parts of them.

Anyone for seconds? Expressions about the number two and second.

A Four-legged Friend – Menagerie (Part 3)  There was a popular song with this title.   These animals all have four legs.

Furry Animals – Menagerie (Part 4)  There are mammals in all these phrases.

Turn and turn about  Change and turning are included in this post with my poem Turning points.

Pegging out A term from crib(bage) used for dying is the title of a post about old age and death.

What are you worrying about?

Much ado about nothing
is the title of one of William Shakespeare’s comedies.

What a to-do!

This means a fuss.  The Oxford Concise Dictionary gives the derivation from “What’s to do?”  Nowadays we might say “What needs doing?” or “What needs to be done?”

What’s to do?
can also mean “What’s the matter?” or “Why are you upset?”

Oh dear, what can the matter be?
is the first line of a traditional song.  The second line is “Johnny’s so long at the fair.”  If you don’t know the song, the lyrics are available if you click on the link.  They might make you laugh!

In a flap
is a similar expression.  Ladies’ full skirts flap when they bustle about.

Make a fuss.

Sometimes this is the right thing to do.

Don’t make a song and dance about it
is a more colourful way of saying  “Don’t make a fuss!”

Don’t just stand there; do something!
There’s an emergency of some sort.

When someone is worried they may feel they are
in deep water
or
out of their depth.

I’m throng.

A throng is a crowd.  Here it is “very busy”.  The same situation could elicit any of the next four expressions.

I’m meeting myself coming back.

I don’t know which way to turn.

I’m running round in (small) circles.

I can’t see the wood for the trees.

The last of these deserves a second look.  If you are in a wood, you can only see the trees.  You have to distance yourself from the wood to see it in its entirety (or one side of it anyway!)  It is the same with problems and difficulties.

Don’t look so worried.
People have often said this to me, especially as a child!

To be beside oneself/ out of one’s mind with worry
and worried sick are traditional expressions.
Anxiety and depression count as illnesses nowadays.  And rightly so – they can be very debilitating.
Left untreated they can drive you round the bend (crazy).

I’m at the end of my tether.
Goat’s are tethered to a pole.  The end of the rope or tether at full stretch is as far as they can go.  Someone using this expression is usually feeling stressed and that they cannot do much more.

They may even be past caring
and feel that they have had enough.

Someone trying to console a worried or sad person may have the following advice to offer:-

Don’t lose any sleep over it
 or
don’t dwell on it. (Dwell is an old word for inhabit or live in.  Going over and over something doesn’t usually make it better.  But you do have to come to terms with it.)

Four more ways of giving good advice.

Put it behind you.

Keep things in proportion.

Rise above it.

Don’t let them get to you.

 

Take a deep breath.
This helps to calm the nerves.  If someone is hyperventilating, they can be encouraged to breathe into a paper bag and keep it over their mouth and nose until their breathing is more normal.  I’m told that breathing in more carbon dioxide helps to reduce the heart rate.

The use of “mind” as a verb is interesting.  Never you mind means don’t let it trouble you.

In St John’s Gospel Chapter 14 verse 1 (NIV) Jesus says, “Do not let your hearts be troubled.  Trust in God; trust also in me”.

I don’t mind has a few meanings.  It doesn’t bother me.  I don’t have a preference.

Cheer up!
is an instruction to become happier.  This can be easier said than done.

St Paul writing to the Philippians Chapter 4 verse 6 says, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”

And he follows it with a promise of peace.