me: So there we all were, office neighbour, #1, K, S and me. Getting this guided tour through those back to back houses on Inge Street. All very charming. You know, you see all this interesting stuff and at the end you can go for a wander around. We come face to face with this little old lady with her grandson, and she starts on us about how she lived in one of the houses, bugs and rats everywhere, and how she 'was buggered while sleeping outside once.' Followed by a lot of 'You don't know you're born.'

I think this encounter ruined the trip for some.

J: Hang on. When you say this old woman was b*ggered while sleeping outside, do you mean b*ggered as in subjected to the act of b*ggery, or, just, like, something went really wrong, as in: "That's b*ggered it"? And how come this isn't on your weblog (or have I not noticed it)?

(Incidentally, in emails from your good self in the last week, both sh*t and b*ggered seem to have made it through the profanity block. Hm)

me: I mean b*ggered as in subjected to the act of b*ggery. She went to tell her 'mom' who then hit her about the face til she bled, so 'no one would notice the other blood.' Followed by another 'You don't know you're born.' (What does that mean?) I can't believe I'm emailing all this, but hey, when have we ever exchanged a simple 'Hi! Hola! How are you?!' over email?

J: Your email about the old woman with the sore bottom made me laugh very much indeed, ditto the follow-up. Obviously she's never quite managed to put it behind her (pun unintended). I'll never look at that house in quite the same way again.

"You don't know you're born" is a much over-used expression which people start to use even as early as in their thirties. So the average person could easily have a good 40 or so years of patronisingly telling younger people that they didn't know they were born. The funny thing is, older people are keen on telling you how [1] Nobody had a tougher time than they did when they were young, while at the same time [2] Nobody knows how to enjoy themselves like they did when they were young. There was infinitely more suffering, and yet people were infinitely happier. It's mental, isn't it. Having said that, I must admit that I have never been subjected to the character building act of, er, being b*ggered, so obviously, in a completely straight-faced way, I feel very sorry for the old girl.