Not Goodbye, But Au Revoir

As another year draws to a close in the F1 season, I can’t help but ask, where did the time go?  Looking back, it doesn’t seem two minutes since the new McClaren was unveiled, and the butterflies started.

As always, this season has had it’s dramas, even despite the predictable Vettel winning so many races.  Even with that, F1 has a draw, a pull right to your stomach that makes you want to watch every race.  The “Dum, dada dum dadadadada dum” always gives me a tingle.  F1 is never predictable, anything can and does happen.

So what have the season’s headlines been?

• Next season’s BBC/Sky deal.
• The Hamilton/Massa feud
• Paul Di Resta’s first season – most definately Rookie of the Year
• Pirelli coming back to F1

You can’t deny that the combination of the new DRS system and the new tyres has been exciting, although even that combination didn't help Valencia.  Sky can have that race.

Hamilton’s bad racing form and multiple clashes with Massa has undoubtedly been a feature of this season.  Jenson on the other hand has thrived at McClaren and with a three year deal, you really feel that McClaren

is the place that he belongs and I predict great things again for him next season.

I used to love Massa, primarily for his little tantrum of “White visor, white visor” the other year which cracked me up.  But his tantrums and nasty comments about Lewis this season have irritated me.  Although with his position in Ferrari at the moment, I don’t blame him for needing to take the frustration out somewhere,  just not on Lewis!  I wouldn’t be surprised if part of his job next season is washing Alonso’s car (joke).

You can’t talk about this season without mentioning Red Bull.  This season has been dominated by Vettel and that amazing car.  You can’t deny that their car this year has been phenomenal, it’s just Vettel I have the problem with.

So now the season is coming to a close, with the championship, both driver’s and team’s already done and dusted.  Does that mean that the last rac, loses any of it’s lure? The answer for me is no. 

I love F1 just as much now as I did when I first started to watch.  Fast cars, racing incidents, driver arguments, tactics and the never ending question.   What will happen this race?

Formula One, I love you still.  Hurry the damn up for next season!!

Old sayings, what do they really mean?

Many sayings we use all the time today come from old stories and sayings, the actual meaning and origin of them forgotten or changed over the years.

I like to collect these sayings and find out where they came from, so here are a few:

“Farming Out”
These days, you would typically use farming out in relation to outsourcing work “I’m farming this job out to someone else”.

The term in fact comes from the 19th century when woman couldn’t afford to keep, or didn’t want their babies.  There were many woman who you could pay to look after your baby, take over it’s care or for more money, adopt the child for.  This was called farming out.  This practice hit the headlines in 1896 when the infamous Amelia Dyer was found to have murdered up to what they estimate as 400 babies.

Amelia Dyer

“Bite the Bullet”
Rather than how we use the phrase now for just doing something and getting it over with, biting the bullet actually comes from the battlefields when anaesthetic was not used or available.  Soldiers were given bullets to bite to help deal with the pain when having an operation.

“Tie the Knot”
We of course use this phrase as a term for when someone is getting married.  This comes from when young couples used to get married and their hands were tied together as part of the ceremony.  These ties were apparently kept in place until after the wedding night.

“The Cold Shoulder”
When people had guests that were overstaying or unwelcome, one of the tricks people used to use for the broad hint was rather than give the guest hot meat on their plate they were given instead, the cold shoulder.

“Rub Salt into it”
Typically we use this meaning that whatever someone has said or done, they have made the matter worse or be for painful emotionally for the person involved.  The phrase actually comes from when they used to use salt in a wound in order to help the healing process.  When sailors were flogged at sea, salt was typically then applied in order to clean the wound and prevent inflection.

Those are a just of the sayings and phrases I have collected.  There are of course loads more that ye old internet can supply.