Whale's shoulder bone
What does it mean to get on ones wick? People are always saying it to me. Is it a whaling term? I thought. I had been reading a book called ‘In the Heart of the Sea’, by Nathaniel Philbrick. It is about the sinking of the Nantucket whaling ship the Essex: the kind of forerunner of Moby Dick. I actually saw a whales shoulder bone in a cabinet in The Royal Children pub in Nottingham. It was massive. That pub had a licence to light its lamps from whale oil because of its whaling connection, not sure if it still has it or not.
http://www.beerintheevening.com/pubs/s/81/8187/Royal_Children/Nottingham
But I digress, as usual. I found out where the term came from to ‘get on ones wick’….and I had to laugh! Trust me! so typical…
http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/11/messages/215.html
But I digress (again and this is beginning to become a habit: lose one habit: – get one free). I was standing at a bus stop today, happily minding my own business. It was raining and I was sheltering under the canopy of the bus stop. A woman joined me. Within seconds she had lit up a fag. She in turn was joined by another woman, who also lit up. They in turn were joined by a man who also lit up! So, there were three people smoking, with me in the middle (a non smoker of 6 months). Then another woman joined us: she took one look at all the smoke and stomped out of the bus shelter and stood in the rain. I should have joined her really but just then the bus came. Why should a person be driven to stand in the rain because they are in the minority. I hate moaning about this. I always said there was nothing worse than a reformed smoker/drinker etc and I don’t want to go on about it. But I can now see where these people are coming from – or I would if I could see through the vicious miasma that is gunging up my lungs AND my vision!
