Wow, thanks for all of your cold and flu remedies -- that's definitely a post to keep! Because of you, I:

drank hot grapefruit juice, even though grapefruit juice is my least favourite juice

took Theraflu

rubbed Vicks Vaporub on the bottom of my feet and put socks on them, despite extreme skepticism

cringed at the thought of garlic tea, but decided the frequency of 'garlic' showing up in your suggestions meant something, so we roasted a couple of large ears of elephant garlic in the grill, and ate them with crusty bread for dinner

rested, rested, rested

and I'm happy to report that while I'm not at 100%, I felt well enough today to go into the office. On the way back home, I even stopped at our local Whole Foods and bought a bunch of sunflowers to go in our entry (and let's face it, sunflowers just naturally make you feel better). I have no idea which of the above actually worked, so I'll credit you all. And with Marcus' help, the random drawing of commenters resulted in anatomist winning the small parcel of notecards I promised as a token of my appreciation. Congrats, anatomist. E-me with your snail mail address, and I'll send them post haste.

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This afternoon, I was instant messaging my friend Irene Nam, and for some reason, our conversation turned to sayings our parents are known for, and then sayings that are common from our countries. For example, I told her that one of my dad's fondest expressions is 'See that? Yuh get a Spirit Tap!' which means, in essence, that some event has happened to you that can only be interpreted as God smacking you upside the head to sit up and take notice.

My father is nothing if not pithy.

This, of course, got us talking about sayings from our countries. For example, while Americans might say that 'the apple doesn't fall far from the tree,' when discussing how much a child is like her parent, in Trinidad we'd say 'Cow don't make goat.' And if someone in England 'knows which side his bread is buttered on,' a Trinidadian might remark, 'monkey know which tree to climb!'

Irene was clearly amused by my Trini-isms, and offered that in Korea, it's not uncommon to hear someone say that her 'mouth is pondering,' which means that she knows she's craving something to eat, but has no clue what. I think my mouth ponders all the time.

So, naturally, this got me curious: what's your favourite saying? It could be one you use a lot, or your mom used to use, or is commonly used in your native country? I'd love to hear.

(And now, I suppose to end this post, I should say something Trini like crick, crack, monkey break he back, for a piece of pomerac.)

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One more thing: don't forget to visit Shutter Sisters tomorrow for Love Thursday!