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jigjag

As I have never watched a single minute of any of the recent Games, those horrible phrases had eluded me. I doubt they can be prevented in future, though. "To medal"??? aaargh.
How is the Mersey these days?

Rosalind

Lovely to hear from you.

I haven't seen the Mersey for a few months, though I did go under it today on the way to Everton.

I had an afternoon at New Brighton earlier this summer. Very nice now with the shops and theatre. There is now a water-skiing feature, though not clear if it is open to the public. A big improvement from our childhood of jam sandwiches and bottle of water!

jigjag

I cannot imagine a nice New Brighton, maybe I will try to visit some time. My son went to Pier Head and sent me a photo of one of the ferries (furries!) and said the River no longer smelled bad. Still trying to remember a school "treat" there- in best blazers and Panama hats! I guess we were forbidden to swim or even paddle.
Actually I'm not sure I ever want to go back. Is Bidston Hill now covered with little boxes?
R

Tonnes of fun to be had at ... carnival.
That's part of a headline I saw in a local newspaper today. That spelling of ton should only be used when referring to 1,000 kilograms, I think.

Rosalind
It is well worth a visit if you are in the area.The new lengthy promenade is used a lot for filming. I haven't been to Bidston Hill for many years.

From today’s Guardian…

Fussy people with power biting insect’s head off! (7)

It's a conspiracy to irritate me. Three times this morning I have come across people using "honing in" when they mean "homing in". One was in a headline in the sports section of the Guardian!

chrise@467 getting irritated prompts me to repeat a couple of my pet hates: 'rammed' for 'crammed', used by Giles Coren in today's Times. 'A vacuum cleaner so rammed with gunk...'. Actually he's quite a stickler for accuracy, so perhaps I am wrong and he is right. Have you ever googled his famous rant to the subeditors who changed a word in one of his pieces?

Secondly, the cricket analogy 'off my own bat', so often rendered as 'off my own back'.

Paul
I suspect fewer and fewer people play cricket any more. My grandson goes to a large comprehensive where street dancing is a subject with exams (or at least tests, not sure) but cricket is not on the curriculum. I don't think it was in his father's school, either.

Two irritations for me:

Forment, when foment is the word - to encourage or stimulate. There is no such word as forment.

And much more common is testament when testimony is meant - evidence in support of something. Testament means part of the Bible or it's a word used in connection with wills.

But recent days I've seen so many sentences along the lines of: "The queues outside Westminster Hall are testament to the affection felt..."

TESTIMONY!