'Understanding English'
More practice in modern English usage: by Hilary Rees-Parnall Let's face the music!
Many colloquial expressions in English are based on music and musical instruments. Here are some of the common ones.
If you blow your own trumpet , you tell everyone how wonderful you are, but if you play second fiddle , you take a secondary part in something. To fiddle about is to be busy without any purpose, and to make a song and dance about something is to get very excited and make a lot of fuss. If you harp on the same subject, you talk about one thing all the time so that you bore your listeners. To strike the right note is to say or do exactly the right thing, and to change your tune is to change your attitude to something. If something rings a bell, it reminds you of something seen or heard before, and if you ring the changes, you do things differently for the sake of variety. Finally, if something goes for a song , it is sold very cheaply, and to face the music is to face one's critics openly.
Now see if you can put one of these musical expressions into each of these sentences. Answers are on Page 112. 1 That name ___. I'm sure I've met her somewhere before. 2 It's no use trying to hide your mistake. You'll have to ___ sooner or later. 3 This chair only cost me £5 in the sale. It really went ___. 4 John will never be the head of his department - he'll always ___. 5 I don't like that man - he's always ___ and telling everyone how clever he is. 6 Mr. Smith about his new car. It seems to be the only thing he can talk about.
A Life in the Day of Linda McCartney
We described Paul McCartney's life with his group 'Wings' on pages 54-61 of this issue. Now Paul's wife Linda talks about a typical day in the McCartney household.
'We live in a two-bedroom house so as soon as James (2) starts calling "Mummy, Mummy", around seven every morning, he wakes everyone up. Being his mother I like to be the first to greet him, so up I get.
I take him downstairs and start getting breakfast ready.Before long the other kids - Heather (almost 17), Mary (10) and Stella (8) - are also down. If Paul is recording or we are touring I try to make sure he's not disturbed. But if he isn't working he gets up at the same time and joins the kids at breakfast. He's an excellent father, very involved and protective towards them.
It seems mad to have moved from a large house in London to a small place on the South Coast, but it's so much cosier . Paul and I are in the kind of business where we could become totally detached from our kids and hardly see them grow up. If you have enough money to live in a big house, one kid could be up in the attic and another could be in the west wing and you'd hardly see them.
The kids travel everywhere with us. When we were playing up north during our British tour we all stayed at Paul's dad's house in Liverpool. And when we played down south Paul and I commuted from home for each concert which, in the case of the Wembley gigs , meant a two-and-a-half-hour car journey before and after each concert, with Paul driving. When touring abroad we usually rent a house and make it our base so we can return to the kids each night.
Quite often Paul comes with me when I drive the girls to school. Mary and Stella go to a local primary school and Heather attends a nearby art school. I drive a Mini because being American I'm used to wide roads, so with a small car I've no fear about scraping it.
Because we have a big breakfast and a big dinner about six we don't have lunch. So about that time I'm doing jobs around the house. Paul never helps me. He likes tidiness but is not too tidy himself! If I'm working or going out I have a woman in to do the cleaning. But I always do the cooking because I enjoy it. I cook for six every day.
For dinner I make things like quiche Lorraine — without bacon — aubergines, spaghetti, salads and Paul's favourites which are pea soup or cream of tomato soup made from home-grown tomatoes and onions. I also make coffee milkshakes which I love. I'm a real baby that way !
If I'm lucky, during the day I go for a ride on my Appaloosa stallion called Lucky Spot. He's got a lovely temperament. Horse riding is a marvellous form of exercise, both physically and spiritually. The animal is kind enough to let you ride on its back and enjoy the sight and smell of nature. If I can't get a baby-sitter I sometimes sit James at the front of the saddle and off we go.
One interest we share closely is football. We rarely get to see matches but we always watch it on television. Paul is a great Liverpool fan but I support Liverpool and Everton. (Paul chips in : "I've told her you're not allowed to support both but she says she can because she's American.")
Because we live in the country we don't socialise that much. But I think that's also partly because I'm too lazy. There's so much I'd like to do, especially in the photo-graphic field, but I'm loath to leave the life I lead in the country unless I absolutely have to.
I get various offer's to take photographs, and sometimes I might find one particularly attractive. But when it comes down to it I just can't bring myself to leave the kids and go and take pictures. So I stay at home and take pictures of them instead.
Before I turn in for the night I always go to the kids' bedroom and give them each a kiss. Trouble is , James often wakes up and doesn't want to go back to sleep.'
Adapted from 'A Life in the Day of Linda McCartney' in The Sunday Times Magazine, 3 February, 1980.
Notes
'A Life in the Day' is a humorous reversal of the phrase 'A Day in the Life' which conveys an impression of the variety of events that go to make up a single day in a person's life.
recording making records
touring travelling from place to place to give concert...
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