Saturday started well. At twelve am I was firmly planted on my the very awesome Ms J’s lounge room floor. First, a bit about Ms J. She and I have been good friends for 10 years almost. And we’ve known each other most of our lives thanks to universally synchronised and often fleeting meetings. A combined school camp as primary schoolers. A couple of years at the same high school. A random meeting years later at a penthouse apartment. We obviously were meant to be friends.
Anyways, back to the point. We were chatting, having a wine and a whinge and checking out stuff on facebook. There was a lot to discuss, you see invites for our 10 year reunion have started circulating online and we have very opposing views on attendance. We chatted until almost three. Then we slept. Later we would have some breakfast and go about our day. She off to the Sunshine Coast for bridesmaid duty and me, I was off to meet Ms Rianna for more eating and more laughing before coming home.
At breakfast I ate a lot. Like, a lot a lot. And it was amazing. I had a large, full fat milk cappuccino. A water. I know, technically not eating. I had a massive chunk of quiche and I had… A chocolate croissant. Yum. It was drizzled in chocolate and dusted with a healthy dose of icing sugar. I left it until last. Lucky. Because I laughed and puffed icing sugar in my eye. And up my nose. I gagged because I was laughing so hard. Come to think of it, that was a bit lucky as the tears helped remove the sugar from my eye.
The conversation continued and my lovely friend Ms J paid me a compliment on my blog. And in particular, my style of writing. Now Ms J is an established academic, a wonderful writer, tutor and developing lecturer. As you can imagine her praise made me a very happy kid indeed. And you know what, I knew she wasn’t just blowing icing sugar up my you know what because she added ‘your apostrophes are sometimes a bit off though’.
I nodded. They are. My grammar leaves a whole world of stuff to be desired. I commented that I didn’t remember even having learned this stuff. That all I knew was I before E except after C. And that I was pretty sure that that was spelling related anyway. She said I probably hadn’t been taught at all. That it had been taken out of the education system for a while and now there was an entire generation of people with virtually nonexistent grammar skills. But that now, now they have put it back in. Phew.
So I fired off grammar questions at Ms J like my life depended on it. Like when do I use Then and when is it Than? What is the difference between a ( and a { and a [..? And you know, what is an apostrophe..? All was explained and I had a lesson in ‘s s’s and s’. Dogs, dongs and bottles. It was exactly what I needed. I even have notes. Bless.
Post grammar lesson Ms J said that she wished she hadn’t mentioned it. I said I was glad she did. And I meant it. I want to ensure that what I mean to say is what I actually say when it comes to my writing. It makes me a better writer. I think so anyway. If I can remember and utilise the knowledge I have gained. And in a way, it made me feel a little relieved. Kind of like someone who as been told that they had toilet paper on their shoe. I felt saved from public grammar embarrassment.
Tell me. Please tell me that you have at least one of those friends that will tell that you have food on your face? That your skirt stuck in your undies? Your apostrophe in the wrong place? Take the opportunity to give them a shout out in the comments section. Or tell me about your worse grammar related incident. Or your worst croissant related injury. Go on. Tell me.
Suger 
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