SailingBy

I am trying to trace the name of a Russian brand that I have only heard said. It sounds like Sen-see-ali, or Ess-en-see-ali. It sounds like the English words "sincerely" or "essentially".

It is a well-known brand in Russia, and they make things like vitamin and mineral tablets and food supplements. I have Googled in vain. Would be grateful for any help! Many thanks.

At this time of year when I go for an early morning walk I sometimes see frogs just sitting in the road, the unsuspecting prey to any passing vehicle. What is the best way to coax a frog into a suitable container so that I can transport it to the safety of my back garden? Preferably without having to actually touch it?

These are just common-or-garden British frogs, by the way.

I recently attended a language workshop where not a word of English was spoken -- everything was in the foreign language, and our tutor would do funny little mimes to indicate meanings of phrases, etc.

One of the things he did was to illustrate the differences when saying "you" (formal) to a superior person and when saying "you" to a friend. To show that he was addressing a person to whom we should use the former, he bowed low with one leg extended and with his left hand made a series of waves such as the British Royal family use when waving to crowds -- almost circular waves from the wrist, if you know what I mean.

It got me wondering -- it's a gesture familiar from pantomime and the like when a courtier or commoner is addressing the Sultan -- but does it have a name? I mean the hand-wave, but specifically this one, which would be given with a low bow and one leg extended.

Would be very grateful if anyone can help! Thanks.

Does anyone recognise this language? It's the word for "Welcome", and sounds like "boyschvindesh". Would be very grateful if someone could identify the language and how it should be spelt! Many thanks.

I have a young lady (24) staying in one of my rooms as a lodger. She's fine in every way except that she will almost always take a load of her washing out of the washing machine and put it straight in the tumble drier. Even in the summer she was doing this, when it would be dry in a trice if hung out on the line!

My dilemma is of course that the tumble drier just eats electricity (I have one of those electricity monitors that shows exactly what consumption is at any one time). However, she is paying £350 a month for the room and is always very prompt in paying.

There are alternatives: I have a low cost heated clothes horse which she does actually use occasionally, and she will also occasionally put things on radiators or even on the outside line to dry, but there is still most often this automatic transferring of damp clothes to the tumble drier. I thought people her age were more conscious about the environment and so on!

Should I say anything -- and if so, how? Or should I grin and bear it? It's not just a question of the money; like most of us I am doing my best to be environmentally conscious, and I almost never use the tumble drier myself nowadays. Is it possible to ask her to use it less without it sounding like it's totally about the money? Or do you think the relatively large amount of money she is paying without fail every month "entitles" her to use the tumble drier as much as she wants? Thanks in advance for any advice!

My friend and I are very much looking forward to visiting Glasgow next month. Can anyone recommend a pub to go for a quiet drink and a bar snack after a hard day's sightseeing and shopping? Ideally it would be traditional, perhaps old-fashioned, "cosy", and with adequate seating. Your suggestions will be very welcome! Thank you very much.

This is bugging me -- I must have heard this song quite often in the 1990s, or 80s or even before, but can't recall the title or who sang it. I can remember the words of some of the verses, and I'm fairly sure the first verse started:

"Lately I have noticed all my friends avoiding me

And that girl who loved me up and said goodbye"

And another verse may have started "Lately I've been thinking of nobody but myself".

For the life of me I can't recall the tune or words to the chorus, which I'm sure would hold the key to the title. It was a male singer. It seems to me it might be a Don Williams song? Or possibly one of Ray Stevens' quasi-religious ones? Google has not revealed anything. Any help gratefully received! Many thanks.

I am transcribing a market research focus group on the car industry, and a car called what sounds like "Click" has been mentioned a couple of times. There is also "Termeen SM7". Does anyone know what either of these two cars could be? Many thanks for your help.

I've painted myself into a bit of a corner! I have a friend who is a talented pianist. We've not seen each other for years, we live over 400 miles away from each other and only correspond through an occasional email these days. Some months ago she said she would be playing in a concert "near me" and put the name of the town, which I'd heard of and knew roughly where it was, although not exactly. Thinking I would go by train, I said, "Oh, I must come and listen to you, then." She said it would be great if I could be there, and sent me a complementary ticket.

As the concert is taking place soon, first Saturday in July, I started to plan the journey. The first problem is that the venue is semi-rural and it turns out that there is no train station near this place. There is only one train a day to the nearest station 12 miles away and it would mean me setting off at 11 in the morning and not being able to come back till midday the next day. If I drive, it is 65 miles and will take 1½ hours each way. I'm in my 50s and really don't like driving for this length of time. My car is a good runner but fairly elderly and I would worry all the time about breaking down. I would also have to stay the night in a B&B somewhere, or face a drive back at around 11 at night.

Added to all this is the factor that money is tight at the moment and a tankful of petrol plus accommodation is a luxury I don't feel I can justify at the moment.

On the other hand, I really don't want to disappoint my friend or to waste the ticket, which are quite expensive for those paying.

Should I go or not? Your advice will be greatly appreciated.

Polls are always telling us that A was the most unpopular Prime Minister in 50 years, or B was the most unpopular Prime Minister in British history, or C the most unpopular PM since the war. Has there ever been a Prime Minister in Britain who was actually popular throughout his term of office? Apart from Churchill, I mean?

British Y!A-ers may recognise the motto of Whitbury Newtown Leisure Centre!

I can translate "semper" and "omnibus" but am not sure about the "facultas". I'm guessing the whole thing means "Always open to everyone" or something similar?

Did the BBC make this up for the Brittas Empire or is it a known Latin phrase?

Last year when I was in Glasgow there was an open-air market taking place, and I bought a fabulous handmade rectangular wooden fruit bowl. My lodger has fallen in love with it and is desperate to have one for herself when she moves out, so I'm hoping someone out there, possibly from the Glasgow area, might be able to come up with the name of the makers! I have Googled all possible variations of the description and searched on eBay with no success.

I have put some links to photographs of the bowl, but a description is as follows:

It is roughly rectangular in shape, and is large and quite heavy. It is about two feet long, 10" wide and 7" high at its highest point. It is made of a light-coloured, unvarnished wood, and is beautifully irregular in shape. It has three separate "bowls" for holding the fruit, one of which in the middle is on a sort of higher tier than the other two. Unusually, there is no maker's sticker or mark anywhere on it.

I suppose the stall-holders aren't necessarily from Glasgow, or even Scotland, or even Britain, but I feel I have to start somewhere!

Many thanks for looking!

http://i394.photobucket.com/albums/pp25/HappyChip/...

http://i394.photobucket.com/albums/pp25/HappyChip/...

I have two female guinea pigs who have been together happily for two years now. I will be acquiring a gorgeous little female Rex guinea pig when she is old enough to leave her mum. How do I go about introducing the new youngster to the established pair? They have an Eglu in the conservatory with quite a large sawdust-covered floor space to run around in, with various tunnels and boxes to sit in, and a tunnel leading to an outside run. Where is the best place to put the youngster to start with so that they can best get used to each other? Many thanks in advance for any advice!

I have posted a question including a link to a photo from my Photobucket album, but it doesn't appear as a hyperlink and copying and pasting doesn't bring up the photo (it leads to a message saying "Link broken"). I'm a new user of Photobucket and haven't done this before, but I pasted the HTML code; was that wrong?

Should I be doing something else? Any help on how to post a link to a picture gratefully received! Many thanks.

Somebody said to me earlier that they were getting a "spess" for their new computer. It sounded really odd! But then, why do we say "spek" as the shortened form of "specification" when "spess" would be more logical? And why do we refer to somebody's "Merc[k]" as short for Mercedes when Mercedes has an "s" sound in the middle?

Is it because it's very slightly easier to say spek and Merk rather than spess and Merss?

I have a very nice large double room (with double bed) with TV and wireless broadband that I let out to lodgers now and then. Up till now it's always been a single person having occupancy of the room, and I've been charging £80 a week. My current lodger moves out in June and I've had an enquiry from a married couple interested in the room. What should the rent for a couple sharing a room be? On the one hand, assuming they're both out at work at the same time, they would be using the same amount of heating and lighting in the room as one person. On the other hand, they will be using twice the amount of hot water for showers, etc. What do people think would be a fair price? Assuming this would take me over the £4,250 limit in this tax year, what percentage of tax would be taken off the excess income?

Many thanks for your help.

I am puzzled because I have seen "Was für ein schöner Tag heute" on a German website, and on investigation, found other phrases where "was für" is apparently followed by the nominative of masculine nouns. I thought "für" was always followed by the accusative? Would be very grateful for your help! Many thanks.