New addition to the "family"

Sorry everyone for not really updating the blog since the first post. Life has been mundane at best and with the exams approaching, its not exactly what I would like it to be.

Well, today is different. And this is the reason....
In case you're wondering if I put chocolate M and Ms on a piece of toasted bread and made the mouth with some jam then I must say you haven't been quite up to date with the times. This, you see here, is Domo-Kun, a mascot for the Japanese TV station NHK.

You must think its ugly and Pooh Bear is cuter. But its precisely its ugliness which makes its so cute and adorable looking, which proves the dictionary definition is spot on! Anyways, the plush Domos sold in Singapore are ridiculously expensive. We bought the small one for 29 dollars and its the size of a human palm. The bigger one was specially "flown in" from Japan, thanks to an ex colleague of the girlfriend and it cost about 25 dollars. I don't think the difference in price is due to the Yen appreciating but rather the Singaporean distributors trying to fleece us. Despite that, its really money well spent. It might sound really weird but I have never been so fascinated with a cartoon character like that. Perhaps I really like ugly stuff (does not apply to the girlfriend!).

Tomorrow is another work day but thankfully the weekend is finally drawing near. Plans for the weekend? We're celebrating our 1 year anniversary and where I am going for dinner on Saturday is going to be a surprise. I'm certainly looking forward to it!

Before we say TGIF (Thank God Its Friday), I hope to continue where we left off with regards to Grammar. For this episode, we'll talk about collective nouns. What are collective nouns? These are words use to group nouns, namely people, animals or things. Let's field a few examples (highlighted in red):

For people, we have, a bevy of beauties, a cast of actors, a team of soccer players, a class of students

For animals, we have, a colony of penguins, a school of fish, a herd of elephants and my personal favourite, a murder of crows

For things, we have, a network of computers, a ring of keys, a wealth of information and this very special one, a wonder of stars

Collective nouns are singular most of the time. This is because the group is viewed as ONE unit. Therefore we use the singular is or was . Eg - The cast of actors is not too happy with the director.
An exception would be when you want to refer to the individuals or parts of the group. In this case, we would use the plural are or were. Eg - The network of computers are breaking down one by one due to the increased load caused by overuse.

Alright, till the next post!