I love London. Everyone knows that - it's not a surprise. But I've not actually been here that much for the last month. I spent a fortnight abroad on holiday, and since I've been back, I've mostly been in Norwich / Edinburgh / identical hotel rooms around the country.
I took the tube to Chancery Lane for lunch earlier today, and I couldn't stop myself smiling at the miracle of the tube (seven minutes' tube journey for a walk that would take an hour), the brilliant Poems on the Underground (Walt Whitman today), and how London's always the same but different.
On my way back, getting off the tube at Bethnal Green, there was an advert for the Imperial War Museum - a poster I hadn't seen before, advertising an exhibition they had on evacuees. I stopped to look at when it was running. It finished on 27th October, 1996. This confused me, until I realised it must be an old poster - perhaps the poster on top had been taken down, and this poster was still up underneath.
But this poster was ten years old. Surely it couldn't have lasted that long. It hadn't been there a couple of weeks ago, and it looked like it was in good nick. Perhaps it was a spoof or a joke, and I was missing the point. But the phone number was the old-style London one - 0171 - it was definitely genuine. Was it an old poster... or had I travelled back in time?
Reader, this is true. As I came out of the tube station, I started looking for things that would prove I was in 2006. All the cars were pretty old (this was Bethnal Green), all the other adverts were for brands that had been around for ages... I began to wonder quite seriously if I'd time-travelled.
I imagined going back to my flat, and finding the key didn't fit. And then, as it was 1996 and I'd only be 16, I imagined going back to the Midlands to live with my parents. And still have to have violin lessons. The thought was unbearable. Also, my boyfriend when I was that age had practically no lips. I couldn't go through that again.
Luckily, it turned out it was just an old poster.
I need to think of a better punchline for that story.
Husband applications still open. In case I hadn't mentioned it.
3 comments:
You put a comma after the bracket and that is incorrect.
Mum x
Dear Mrs Nunn
Your daughter is easily convinced that she may have time-travelled and is desperately seeking a husband via the internet.
Should the incorrect comma placement really be the bit you are worried about?
From a concerned fan of the "Mrs Nunn" anecdotes.
Mrs Nunn, your grasp of grammar is shocking. Please refresh your parenthetical skills at http://www.getitwriteonline.com/archive/102901.htm
To illustrate my point, the sentence in question is:
"All the cars were pretty old (this was Bethnal Green), all the other adverts were for brands that had been around for ages... "
The comma cannot go inside the brackets, as "this was Bethnal Green" is a subclause - a parenthesis. The comma cannot go before the brackets, because then it would join the Bethnal Green association to the second rather than the first part of the sentence and change the meaning. If we removed the comma altogether (the comma functioning in this case as separating list items), the sentence wouldn't make sense.
Go away and think about what you've done.
Anonymous - you raise a fair point. But I'm fine. Honest. Want to marry me?
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