I've just got a new notebook which I use for writing - ideas, inspiration, all sorts. It's a plain A5 one which I put inside the lovely cover which was made for me by a fellow blogger over a year ago. See the original post and link to her blog here.I was sitting in a coffee shop on the way back from a rather painful remedial massage on Thursday, transferring some notes into it from a smaller pocket notebook.
If you read it, you may get confused. There are an awful lot of elephant references. 'See elephant' it says, frequently. Or 'inside elephant' is another common one.
The slightly more helpful 'notes in elephant' may give you a clue; the pocket notebook in question is a Bang on the Door one which Andy gave me some time ago, with a picture of a fabric elephant on the front. All very easily explained, but you have to wonder what would happen if someone read the bigger notebook without this frame of reference. What elephant? And why?!
Which goes to show how important it can be to know the context of something, otherwise the meaning is entirely baffling or easily misunderstood. You have only one half of a conversation, one piece of the puzzle.
You have an elephant, and you've no idea why.
2 comments:
I love the idea of the unexplained 'elephant' references. I think most people/families have little shorthand 'aide memoires'like this, which are completely baffling to outsiders. two important ones in our family is a whispered "Geese!" and also the exclamation "Maude!" - neither of which am I going to explain here.
Then there is the whole thing of "the elephant in the room" which I thought was a 1980s phrase, but apparently is much older than that.
I love the green notebook cover - very beautiful!
Am now fascinated by geese and Maude!
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