Butchered Spelling

October 31, 2012

Hah be be.  I have no idea if that is spelled right.  Just say it phonetically with the accent on the first syllable a few times.  Ha be be, that is the name our tour group operator had for us today.  His name, when translated, is happiness, he said.  And our name would be dearest ones, he said.  Not the dear one you are fondest of, for that has to be said eye-to-eye and with a certain charm in the voice, which he demonstrated on one of the tourists.  But the “hah be be” he would be using is for dear friends, and loved ones, so that was us, today.  He must have used the word in every other sentence.   It was “friends/dearest ones”, look to the left and then “friends/dearest ones” I need to tell you something else about our politics.  I heard it so often, I started to call David, “ha be be”, every time I turned to speak to him.  It was just David and me together today on the bus.  All of the others in our company went elsewhere. 

I was telling Moiya tonight, that although I practise that word many times on him, he never ever called me “ha be be” back.  No calling me dear one.  Moiya said, “Why would he?  He never calls me that and I am married to him.”

Oh well.

Arta