Re: Yet another AmE- BrE "dictionary"

On Sun, 16 Sep 2007 18:13:21 +0100, "Mike Lyle"
<mike_lyle_uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

LFS wrote:
Sara Lorimer wrote:

the Omrud <usenet.omrud@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:


mail@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx had it ...


The office-style table at which I am sitting came in
flatpack form. The allen key supplied with it to tighten the
screws was silvery rather than black. I expect that it was
made of lower quality metal and would lose its profile with
repeated use.

I think the same is true for the IKEA desk at which I am sitting, so
I wasn't even right for my own experience. I was only thinking of
the sets (I also seem to accumulate these).


What percentage of us is (are? is.) sitting at desks or tables from
Ikea? I wonder? I am -- but I used a drill (and not an Allen wrench)
to put it together.


I am sitting at what was once our kitchen table and came from John
Lewis about 30 years ago. The only assembly required was to fix in
the legs which are held on by butterfly screws.

The Saturday Guardian has a photograph each week of a writer's study.
Well-known authors often seem to work at desks constructed from a
board laid across a pair of two-drawer filing cabinets.

A door and two filing cabinets make about the best desk you can have.
But I'm sentimentally attached to my rather teacherish solid oak one
with those quarter-spherical brass drawer-handles, which is a lot
smaller than that. It was well matured already when I paid ten to
fifteen quid for it yonks ago. I stroke it from time to time: even the
bumps and gouges have smooth edges, and the colour's a nice gold, with
genuine ink stains. At some stage somebody's left a wet pair of scissors
on it for long enough to leave a stain. Time I got the furniture polish
out from the midden under the sink.

I bought one of those at an auction not long after my first
marriage, maybe 1964 or 65. I paid £30 for it because a dealer
was after it and the blighter forced the price up. It's far too
small for all the computer kit I've got so I, too, am using a
large kitchen table which is still only big enough to hold the
monitor, modem and one of my laser printers. The tower, scanner
and another laser printer are on a shelf unit adjacent.
Why two lasers? The everyday workhorse is an IBM 4029 (truly,
Areff) that I bought in 1993 via employee discount. It's used
most days and is still on its original cartridge. The other is a
colour printer, rather expensive when I bought it, but I got fed
up with buying inkjet cartridges.
--
Robin
Herts, England
.

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