Got to grit my teeth
Spring is just around the corner here and a couple of warmer days last week indicated as much. Whilst spring symbolises daffodils in bloom, lambing, returning to greenery all around and general growth and liveliness in the UK, in Beijing it indicates something less pleasant. Beijingers have to get to grips with grit. To explain, spring is the annual sandstorm season and this entails a few months of dust, dirt and grit blowing around the city. On the worst sandstorm days, conditions are downright appalling because the sky turns a browny orange as it’s laden with sand and it’s impossible to breathe or even open your eyes properly. People either take cover until the storm passes; wrap chiffon scarves around their faces like full face turbans or wear face masks.
I read over the weekend that this year will be especially grim according to Beijing Meteorological Station because the winter was comparatively warm and there was little rainfall in the desert areas surrounding the capital. It’s predicted that we have approximately 11 days of dust storms ahead of us(and I bet this is a conservative estimate as we always get more bad weather than the weather office predict!). It feels like winter has dragged on for months but excitement for the arrival of spring is tainted by the knowledge that I’ll be eating mouthfuls of grit and blowing sand out of my nose.
Look at this picture of a sandstorm in 2007. Wish you were here?!
Ok that is my moan for the day over, just had to get it off my chest! Hope Nastaya is well and working hard, toiling away at my phrasal verb challenge;-) You said you opened a Facebook account, my friends have been crazy about Facebook for months and I wonder of anyone who works in an office in the UK ever does any work anymore-they all spend all day on Facebook!! It’s pretty useful for posting pictures and videos and quickly getting in touch with friends I must admit but some people find it as addictive and time-consuming as computer games. Beware Anastasia; don’t let yourself be sucked into the world of Facebook!!! (I think it’s great for nosy people like me to look at friend’s profiles and photos though!)
I liked the picture of St. Basil’s Cathedral. Is it possible to get married there?! Who designed it? I ask because I vaguely remember being told a gruesome story about the architect of that place. I don’t know if this story is correct but hopefully Nastya can verify if it’s right. I was told that the Queen or King of England asked the architect of St. Basil’s to go over to London to design and build a similar structure there. Whilst on the boat on the way to Great Britain, the crew who were following Ivan the Terrible’s orders pulled out the architect’s eyes and blinded him so that he wouldn’t be able to work again and no country (especially not Britain) would be able to have any building quite like St. Basil’s.
Waiting to see the invitations tomorrow, I bet everyone will have different opinions as ‘beauty is in the eye of the beholder’. Does anyone have a similar expression in their language? If Alex has a job in London, what does that mean for you? Will you be moving there with him? Where and for how long? Tell us about Alex’s job and your plans for the future…Perhaps you are unemployed now as you are planning the patter of tiny feet by the end of the year: 0
As a final note for today, here is an extract from your horoscope for the Rat year Nastya, I read it in a magazine here yesterday and it seems quite apt for you (the pig)
‘Congratulations, as a pig this year you are endowed with the best love luck of all the twelve zodiac signs. Expect opportunities to blossom, since you’ll suddenly find yourself being perceived as more attractive and welcomed into the lives of others like never before. It’s time to start a serious relationship…’
sending you a big gritty grin :-))
Trudi
PS Do you know what the title means? It's a 'grit' related idiom that fits with my topic today.
Vocabulary
To get to grips with something to deal with a problem or challenge
Grit (n) small bits of stone or sand
Appalling (adj) really bad
Laden with full of/ loaded with
Grim (adj) very unpleasant
Meteorological (adj) scientific forecasting of weather
Conservative estimate a cautious/moderate guess often under the real number
Tainted (adj) spoilt
To get something off one’s chest to say something you have wanted to say
Toiling (v) working really hard
Vaguely (adv) unclearly
Gruesome (adj) horrific, frightful
The patter of tiny feet referring to the sound of a baby you might have in the future
Extract (n) a small part of a longer article or piece of writing
Comments
Hi Trudi! It must be terrible to walk on the streets when a sendstorm is falling. In answer to your question Trudi, I think 'got to grit my teeth' means to try to accept and deal with a difficult situation that you´re facing. I´m looking forward to reading the right answer. Best wishes, Ana Paula.
About your expression "beauty is in the eye of the beholder’, I didn`t know it. It is correct, I think. In Spanish we have one that is not exactly the same meaning.My poor translation would be. "Everything depends on the cristal through one look it"
What do I like on commenting people from the Far East countries? Could I greet, for example, someone from England with ´Helo brother´, as I may see to write people from these countries here? Even when we, Slovaks and Czechs, had been living as two nations in one state formation for many decades befor 1989, it weren´t common here. Only politicians ´unisono´ used this saying in their speaches that there were living two brother nations. What a far away history sounds it now, almost unbelievable as I am trying to write about it. Now, rethoric has changed dramatically. Maybe, there has only a little common bounding interest left even between family members these days. You know, I grew up with no brother in a family. In my 14th my Grandpa passed away which was the first and biggest lost for me. Now, it has been three years since my nearest cousin died in his only 53, just on the surgery table. I would see him seldom and he didn´t care about the youngest in a family. And, it seems I´ll spend all my working life among women - so where are you, my brother and Hello! PS: Leila, thanks God you and your husband are safe. Car crashes are daily nightmare here now. I´ve spent 11 years on roads alone and had some too. This is why I am in this terrible office, for my real profession I would have to drive 100 kms daily.
Hi dear Trudi , What are you up to ? How is your angle ? hearing about Beijing 's Sandstorm was interesting ,as I haven't heard about it . Here in Iran , in my province we usually face some thing like that a few weeks before start of spring , although it 's not quite sandstorm . Do you know that in Iran new year starts in the beginning of spring ?I 'm wondering in how many countries does new year starts in the spring ? Thanks Trudi , you always ask my question about Anastasia ( some question that I don’t dare to ask them ) .I saw that our dear teacher Stephan keeler have put comment on your Blog . It means that he reads our Blogs and comments regularly . I hope that all our BBC teachers make a favor and create a facebook Profile to be in touch with them , time to time ( I hope all teachers excuse my boldness ) . Recently I have signed in Facebook and I like it's atmosphere and I think every one can manage her/his time on a good way there . And what do you think about being hooked here on BBC Blog ? As me and most of other readers and Blogers have hooked on BBC BLOG more than one year . I hope this comment will be show up here as most of my previous comment has not show up , yet . Kiss your angle for me and solong .
The gas company of mine has incresed gas price which is already so high about 15% and the company has just announced they made a huge profit last year.I am not happy about the anouncement at all and it's not fair but what can I do except grit my teeth.Take care and see you soon
Hi, Trudy! In my country (it will be more exactly to say in the country where I am living now) a spring is just around the corner too. I think, the spring which is there, in Ireland, is recalled the spring in England. The similar daffodils in parks and other flowers which names I don’t know not only in English but in my native language too and there are greens all around. The weather is good now: a rain was stopped a week ago and we are living entire week without any rains: it is seemed like a miracle. I am living in Ireland near two and half years and the weather is looking all the same in summer and winter: the temperature is between 12 C and 17 C (very rarely +20 C), it is rained all day and flowers do not disappear in the winter. I saw the blowing cherry-trees in January! The sandstorm caught me only once or twice for all times which I was living there. It was not like to the sandstorm in Beijing and today I am not preparing for something which could be bad or tough, or “to get to grips with grit”. My native language is Russian although I am not a citizen of Russia, and I found the equivalent the expression “beauty is in the eye of the beholder’ but I cannot to translate it to English because there are the words in Russian which are impossible to me to translate. In short, I can use translit to show the pronouncing of this phrase in Russian “Ne po-horochemu mil, a po milomu horosh”. I think, perhaps Nastya or anybody else from Russia can translate it.
Hi Madam, Here also, w.e.f. April, during & after reaping of matured-wheat-plants, We bound to face extremely high temperature (between 35 to 49 degrees celsious)heat waves clubbed with dust, Grit & sandstorms. Thereafter, during July-August, worst starts though temperature recedes. Humdity starts. Everyone baths in sweating especially during power-cuts which is almost a regular feature here. In fact, it is very very difficult to get grips with these kind of weather conditions. Is it not? I shall be feel obliged if you kindly throw some light on use of word "Having, Having been etc" from different perspectives. Have a nice day.
HI Trudi. In your first sentence should I understand that when a time indication (last week) is a part of expression (a couple of warmer days) it need not to be placed on the end of the sentence as your fix word order learns? When it´s so thanks for learning me lots of new English grammar mysteries. Warmest greetings and wishing the spring with no unpleasant sandstorm days there!
Hi Trudi, Do you believe horoscope?. Do you believe astrology? I would like to share of the news I read in the news paper today. Railway minister of my country presented the railway budget yesterday. Do you know what he did before leaving his house for budget presentation? He received blessing from the cow and compared cows with the railways. The news paper even published the photo of the cow with the minister. Top People are more superstitious. I read a article in one of the leading weekly magazine few months back the top leaders of major political parties ran into astrologers know whether the government will complete the full term and over come the crisis. Who will win the election if the election comes nearby? Do the Chinese more superstitious.
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