Just when i was about to Comment the Laptop came up with the Blue Screen of death i let it switch off then i switched it back on and all is well so not to sure why it did that – have to keep a eye on it now.

Your fans want to know how much curry you have consumed and how many cans of warm beer you have drunk!

BTW, I have a photo of a Moroccan lamp post for you.

Jamie: Actually have you’ve noticed when I’m talking on the site Some times What I say doesn’t make any sense? That reason is because I’ll be typing the comment then say there’s something on the tv I’ll to over or someone says something then When I go back to typing it ends up sounding I bit odd if you see what I mean. Or other times it’s the iPad say I type the word some It will come up with “come” not always but it does do that with some words. :)

Firstly, thanks for your comment! When I set up the blog 11 years ago, I never thought I’d be reaching out to readers in Peru!

As for the comment regarding the grammar, I totally agree – I’m all too aware that my “grammar are awful” – it’s actually like that on purpose. This is hardly the most formal of blogs as you can possibly tell, and I simply type the way I talk.

If someone within a hundred mile radius of Hartlepool asked what I did last night and I reply with “Jamie, Rab and I went to see a gig”, I’d either be met with a quizzical look at why I’m referring to myself in the third person and would have to explain who this mythical third person known as “I” is, or I’d be glassed. Probably.

I’ll continue to use “Me, X and Y” when referring to other people in the blog, just because it’s easier to read for friends and family, etc. But let it be known that each time I use awful grammar like this, a little part of me dies inside. And that part would be my liver. Because I’m usually drunk while I’m typing these posts.

(Yes, I did use the words “But”, “And”, and “Because” at the start of the sentence… *grin*. Mr Lancaster, my favourite English teacher of years gone by would be so disappointed.)

Mr: Streetlight: Nope, seems to be a genuine comment. Ironic, as Chad is an English teacher in Japan)

Sir,

I enjoy your ramblings and photos of your life in the UK. I get a kick out of learning the place names and locales of your world and sometimes give them a peek via satellite. I am learning. You are teaching, maybe without even wanting to. Your turn of phrase, colorful language and the things that hold your interest also hold mine when visiting your portal. You represent worldwide on your mercuryvapour.co.uk blog. Just think, somewhere distant on this planet a youth is learning English reading your words.

I was born and raised in Los Angeles, California with part of my infancy till age four in Lima, Perú. I spoke Spanish first though now speak it with an “American” accent; I have no accent when speaking English other than Southern Californian. I now live in Peru; since July 1996. I am a man of simple pleasures. Among them double spacing between sentences and a five space indentation to begin paragraphs, the lack of which is excusable given current convention (and some software). What I do find inexcusable and most disheartening is to trip over incorrect grammar whilst enjoying my stroll across your words.

Do not get me wrong and I say this with all due respect, but for Christ’s sake you guys invented the English language. Maybe it’s just me. I feel a self loathing for my thinking less of the author when I come across simple school boy mistakes in grammar. It intrudes into the “theater of the mind”, the flow of your tale as I experience it through your words. Again, maybe it’s just me but I prefer “…Jamie, Rab and I attended a gig in Middlesbrough.” instead of your “…me, Jamie and Rab attended a gig in
Middlesbrough.”

Please do not take this in any other way than as a simple suggestion and a selfish request to defend my enjoyment of your prose, allowing me to “be there with you” instead of finding myself reluctantly judging you by your grammatical errors, diminishing my reading experience if you will.

Respectfully,

Javier Vidaurre
Lima, Peru

P.S. Happy New Year