Do you ever find that random thoughts just pop into you head quite unexpectedly and take you by surprise? This appears to be happening to me with increasing frequency and in the most unlikely of places.
For example, on Monday when I was loading the dishwasher, the name ‘Dean Gaffney’ flashed across my brain. Having no idea of who this was, and having wrestled the pasta bowls into position, I ‘googled’ only to discover that he is an ex cast member of EastEnders with a very conspicuous nasal feature.
On Wednesday, for some reason – just past the Reading motorwary services whilst travelling along the M4, I felt a strange need to find out whether Bill Oddie was married. For anyone interested, he is indeed, to a lady called Laura Beaumont (his second wife, Jean Hart being his first).
On Thursday I was tucking into a lunch of Cajun Chicken (heartily recommended), and it occured to me that Giraffes are quite large animals, and I wondered whether like big dogs this means the age they live to is adversely affected. Because this is something I’m sure you too have often agonised over sitting at home with your cup of tea, or perhaps putting out the dustbin, I will tell you; Giraffes can live up to 27 years of age, their average lifespan however being only 10 years. Personally I’m hoping to come back as an elephant – they live to be 70 and still look good even without night cream.
It was this morning, however, that I happened upon a new form of random thought -‘Incidental Vocabulary’. This so happened when I was transporting an errant screwdriver and microwaveable duck upstairs from the living room, as one does, and the word ‘Ubiquitous’ started to circle around my head. For one I was unaware this word had ever formed part of my literary life, and until now I had no idea of its definition. If you too are in the dark:
Ubiquitous – adjective: exisiting or being everywhere, esp. at the same time; Omnipresent.
I just looked it up. What a lovely word.
If I’m honest the whole purpose of today’s post really has been to use ‘ubiquitous’ in a sentence, as along with ‘Serendipity’, ‘Nostril’ and ‘Crampon’ it has become one of my favourite features of the English language.
I would also like to take this opportunity to thank you for baring with me through such times of random brain activity. You see, I have decided that as the grey matter controls what I write, and with my University course resuming next week, I have decided to let it run off the lead for now and do want it wants – catch a few sticks or chase the odd cat for example.
I just hope it comes back when I call it.