This will hurt me...

Not snorkelling weather. Clifton Beach. May 2013. Sunday Top Five ? That's right, here are Five Words That We Really Need To Start Using In English! Pelinti ( Buli ): You know when you're in a rush to eat a hot pie and you have to open your mouth and tilt your head to avoid burning yourself? Ghanaians have a word for that. Myötähäpeä ( Finnish ): the nicer relative of Schadenfreude . Think, "vicarious embarrassment.” Above us the waves. Clifton Beach. May 2013. Layogenic ( Tagalog ): You know how sometimes you can see something (or someone) from far away and it/ they look pretty good, but when you get a close look it's not quite the case? That's layogenic . Cavoli Riscaldati ( Italian ): a very bad move: trying to revive an unworkable relationship. It literally translates to "reheated cabbage." Litost ( Czech ): I'll defer to Milan Kundera on this one: “a state of torment created by the sudden sight of one’s own misery.” Th...

Just beneath the surface. Errol Flynn Reserve, Sandy Bay. April 2013. Chopin's Move , Jean Echenoz: Very French. I didn't like it much. F . The Day of the Triffids , John Wyndham: Another bleak novel from Wyndham. I hadn't read this since high school, but for some reason had the urge to revisit it. The story rollicks along easily enough, even if it never quite manages to convince... C+ .

We have been in receipt of the reports that a pod of bloodthirsty Orcinus orcas – that’s killer whales to you and I – are marauding though the Derwent Estuary , terrorising everything that appears before their beady, perfidious eyes. Of course, Henry immediately demanded to be “taken to the beach”, and thrust himself into the treacherous swells and set about sorting these ‘roided-up dolphins out. But the water was a bit nippy, so we got fish ‘n chips instead.