Satisfied my inner geek this evening on my walk to school. I had to look up the etymological origins of “perfect” because although I figured out that in grammar terms it was perfect because it was now a static/unchangeable action, it comes from latin of course and the meaning is “completed” and this actually makes me feel very happy!

I’ve struggled with remembering which words mean which tense in grammar because they’ve never really made any sense to me, but I’m making my own set of mental memory hooks for them. Learning a foreign language abroad comes bundled with the fun of re-learning your own language at the same time – yeah, you think you know your own language?! Think again! Both times I’ve been abroad learning the local language I’ve learnt so much more about the English language in the process.

So.

Infinitiv: infinite potential to be.

Presens: now!

Perfekt: completed (and unchangeable, perfect in memory).

And then on my way home I got all confused because I was trying to translate “If you like reading my blog…” in my head and got as far as “Hvis du kan lide at læser min blog…” because reading=læser but it’s not because it should be the infinitiv form, which is to read, which is læse. And I got the words in slightly the wrong order, but at the moment that’s by the by.

Somewhere along the line english got sloppy and we started using present tense verbs instead of infinitiv: “she is reading” being present tense, and “do you like reading?” being infinitive really, it should be “do you like to read?” but we use “reading” instead. And then wonder why it gets so confusing trying to figure out when to use an infinitiv form or a present form… yeah, one happy (if tired and getting muddled) geek here, trying to translate sentences into danish in my head and getting it mostly right!

Apart from language stuff, it’s been much of a muchness today. The new method of dealing with the fire is working brilliantly, I’m using less wood overall, and warming the house up a bit faster too – the wind has dropped though, and it’s now plus degrees again, so that’s probably helped. I stack the furnace with nicely dry wood, leaving the charred remains of the previous night’s final addition at the bottom, push my tray of kindling and firelighter in at the bottom through the grate, light it and hope. If it starts going fine I leave the grate door open a little for half an hour to get it all burny, then bash it down and re-stack it and almost close down the vent. After that I can leave it burning slowly for an hour or so each time, bashing it down well before adding an armful more logs, for three or four hours by which time the boiler is up to temperature and the house is warm and I only need to add two pieces of wood per hour after that, or a little more if someone wants a shower. And I’ve not spent the day as a slave to the furnace either.

Today I got a sourdough made and proved and baked all in a day because I forgot to put it in the fridge once it was in its tin, so it was risen and ready to bake when I got home from school! The smell is unbearable, it’s making me feel so hungry but it’s still too soon after my bedtime insulin, another half hour though and I’ll be calling it a night and crawling into bed. Still longing for a piece of fresh bread!

Charley has been our artist in residence today. When we lived in the apartment, he wanted to draw big and I’d often get really stressed because he’d drawn all over the walls and floor. Felt tip pen is really hard to remove, I discovered. And a rented apartment is not the easiest place to discover this. So now we’ve moved, and the whole ground floor is going to need to be renovated at some point, but even despite that it’s OUR house and y’know what? He can draw on the walls here! They’re just walls! They are a giant canvas and he is LOVING it. Now we have dragons on the walls. I’m going to have to bust out the paints, I think. Once I’ve found a cover for the sofa that is because dried paint on fabric goes hard and uncomfortable!

Erika cracked us up when I got home tonight. After she’d squealed her way ecstatically through unloading the groceries she brought her trike into the kitchen to show me the new stunt she’s been working on with daddy. This involves her being given a push start to career across the floor on her trike and she loves it! One evolution of this stunt saw her standing on the trike to be pushed. Girl has balance. At one point she was trying to back up and she somehow turned the scuttlebug (and herself) on its side. Oops. So the “crash” was reenacted many many many times, each time more elaborate than the last. We brought checking the trike over for damage into her roleplay. And then she showed off, standing on the trike in the middle of the room, and jumping off. Heart in mouth. Enough! If daddy wants to watch her carry on he’s welcome to, but my heart can’t take much more of that kind of thing!! I found this image earlier today, and think it suits her very very well at the moment. I’m going to draw something inspired by this, with the quote, on one of the teeshirts she’s growing into.

And as I got some free time again (thank you God!!) after Erika went to sleep with minimal fuss again, I had another go at those pesky cardigan sleeves. And cracked it. I think. At least, the stitch pattern is right finally, but I’ve not worked enough of the sleeve up to figure out if it’s the right ease yet. It’s looking hopeful though!