Saturday 28 May 2011

Bonkers Is Off Again...!

Now I did have a couple of posts in mind for this week, but what with being locked out of Blogger half the time, and frenetic preparations for my imminent work trip (to Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany and Poland), I am afraid that they rather went by the board. However, neither one was especially topical, so hopefully they'll keep.

And then today I have been working on and off most of the time, finding out about the companies I am going to visit. As ever, my research has thrown up some intriguing new technical terms that I must endeavour to convey in my best German, including "spandrels", "purlins", and "jig dwell time". In between all that I managed to nip out to run some last minute errands, catch up with a couple of friends for lunch, and intermittently acknowledge the remarkable stream of birthday greetings that have been coming through on Facebook. I really appreciate them all, and am sorry not to have replied individually to everyone who has left a comment.

I have to say that a major highlight of this birthday thread on Facebook has been the slew of new Bonkers coinages:

Little Bonks

Bönkchen ("Little Bonks" in German!)

La Bonk (a particular favourite)

Bonqueuse

Bonkerlicious

Happy Bonksday

You can bet that I will try to work these new "Bonkersisms" into my future conversations - if not perhaps my interviews - at every possible opportunity, and it will amuse me to try and come up with one or two more on the long road ahead. I am back w/c 20th June, and will probably have to park Bonkers until my return, as is the way of these things.

But meanwhile here is my birthday card from Charlie the cat, whose paw-writing, spelling - and grammar - appear to be deteriorating markedly with age. As you can see, her deployment of the apostrophe is spectacularly arbitrary. Mr Bonkers generously made allowances for her, explaining away this rogue bit of punctuation as a backward flick of the "r". In fairness, the "a" also looks a trifle windswept, so perhaps I should give her the benefit of the doubt.




Photo of map from Johomaps.com

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Belated Birthday Greetings, and Good Luck with all of the Travelling:-)

Charley Bonkers is clearly a star.

cheerio, Anna in Edinburgh

Vanessa said...

Hi Anna,

Thanks for your good wishes! Charley Bonkers (spelling is approximate) is indeed a star. Currently asleep on the bed where I may just get 5 hours sleep before I need to get rolling!

Anonymous said...

Have a save and productive trip!

Carol said...

Have a fun, scented, and safe trip, Bonks!

ScentScelf said...

Bravo, Charley.

And to you, Bonks, wishes for safe, rewarding, entertaining, and enlightening post-birthday travels.

May Blogger be better behaved upon your return. :)

Anonymous said...

Have a great trip, Bonkerlein! I hope to see you on your next one! :)

Ines said...

Have a good trip and I expect you to let me know when you're back, when will you be in Slovenia. I'm hoping we might be able to arrange something. :)

Anonymous said...

Happy belated bonksday! And, joining with Charley, I will add many happy return's. :)

Vanessa said...

Thanks, everyone! Let's see if I am still locked out of Blogger - I was earlier today when I tried to leave a comment...

Carol said...

Don't eat the cucumbers!!!

Vanessa said...

Too late, but thanks! Just a couple of slices of cucumber, half a tomato and a few leaves of lettuce. I am in Northern Germany, though, so it was a bit reckless of me...

: - )

Martha said...

Have I mentioned that I love your travel blogging? If travel bloggers wrote like you I'd, well, read travel blogs.

Vanessa said...

Hi ChickenFreak,

I don't believe you have, but it is kind of you to say so.

A fairly mad post on my recent trip will be along in due course, once I have slain the many-headed hydra of post, emails and laundry mountains that assailed me on my return last night. Or cut a few heads off at least, say.