Thursday 12 April 2007

That's a BIG number.

I have just used the phrase 'I'm not going to be a million miles away from home to be honest', which elicited a positive response from the person to whom I was speaking ( they are coming to pick up my car to fix the resultant dent ftom a recent prang I had doing 1mph in a car park - BLUSH)

So anyway, I then pondered the phrase. Delicious to have the time to do that when you're on holiday, isn't it? What it means is that I am going to be fairly close to home. So why didn't I say,'I'm only going to be two miles away from home ' instead.

I have said, in the past,'I'm not a million miles away from being ready' i.e. I'll be ready in a couple of minutes ,and ,'Well, for goodness sake, it's hardly a million miles away is it!' i.e. no I'm not going to give you a lift to the pictures.

Why do we use such a massive number to mean something so small?

I googled - a million miles- to see how actually far it was, and didn't get much help and haven't really got the time this morning to spend on research as I, quite literally, have a million tonnes of ironing to do.I did find out that some guy seems to have taken 17 years to have notched up a million miles in the same car and it's now going into a museum.

It was a Saab!

PS Kirsty how am I doing on the blogging table - I MUST have moved up a couple a spaces :)

7 comments:

Graeme said...

Must have moved up a couple of spaces on the blogging table?? Surely you can't be a million miles away from the top??!!!!!

Unknown said...

Ha ha! Good one! You lot make me laugh so much!

My family are the Kings and Queens of exaggeration. I think it comes from my mums side of the family, but I do tend to exaggerate things to make my point.

Liz - don't worry, keep it up for the rest of April and I am sure you will get closer to the top. I am going to redo the statistics each month!

I am loving how much you are blogging though. It always keeps me entertained.

xxx

Bec said...

Ok so K is doing the blog table, but have to say have been slightly disappointed with how much kirsty actually has - or hasn't blogged he he he shame you can't put yourself on the statistics hey k - now that would be interesting - would that make you blog more like it is with everyone else he he he he :-> just a thought luv ya -x-

Bec said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Bec said...

(Just in case you are wondering I hit enter twice - which is why there is an entry deleted whoops :-> xxx

Unknown said...

Yes! But may I say that I never said the aim was to get to the top of the list! That was everybody elses take on it! I just wanted a way of organising my blog list, and that seemed to be as good as any! The fact that people are blogging more regularly now is a bonus!

I am not a frequent blogger. I don't claim to be. I am just glad that it is me organising my blog that way rather than someone else so I don't have to feel competitive!

xxx

Bec said...

Very true :->