Hello and welcome to the Levy Letter for this Thursday. I hope your days going well and thank you for another big response to our programme yesterday. Lots of messages with your stories and opinions about cleanliness in hospitals and also messages of admiration for the little girl who helped rescue her injured mother after a serious car accident. Its an amazing story and happy birthday to young Alice who celebrated her 9th birthday yesterday. Im sure her mums very proud of her.
Coming up on todays programme, we'll be looking at how the region's schools performed in the very latest national GCSE league tables. If youre at school or got children in school you wont want to miss that. We'll find out why fuel poverty affects thousands in our part of the world who heat their homes with oil. And we'll be meeting residents who say they face a daily clean up after their street was invaded by a large flock of starlings. That sounds like something out of the Hitchcock film The Birds doesnt it? Well have more tonight. And of course well have the days weather forecast from Paul. Thats all coming up at half past six on BBC One. I hope you can join me then. In yesterdays letter I had a story about a posh school bringing etiquette lessons into its curriculum, I promise you, its a genuine story and the examples of proper manners I had are absolutely true! Well later in the day I had this email from Derek in Ludford, I have noticed that not many people rest their elbows on the table when eating dinner, because most people now eat dinner in front of the TV and don't use a table, me included in sorry to say. True for all too many of us at times. I wonder what the proper etiquette guidelines are for eating TV dinners? Words I admit this probably isnt a story thats going to change our lives much, but I saw in the news today that an Australian dictionary has organised an online vote to find the Word of the Year for 2007. There are some slightly unconventional phrases included, some of which I have to say I havent heard of before, but have a look at these and see if you think theyll make their way into general usage. For example, have you been looking for a word to describe using the floor as a substitute wardrobe? Try using floordrobe. Or maybe well all be talking about the scourge of globesity, the rise of global obesity. A salad-dodger is an overweight person, thats fairly self explanatory I think. These are all quite easy to grasp, but a few of them are a little bit more obscure. A Kipper is an adult child who refuses to leave home. If youre wondering, it stands for Kids In Parents' Pockets Eroding Retirement Savings. I dont think I would have guessed that one. Manscaping refers to the practice of male grooming involving the removal of body hair. If youre Tanorexic youd be obsessed with maintaining a tan. Good luck in our climate, I think those last two are probably more common in Australia as over here we rarely have the weather to expose our skin long enough to care about tanning or body hair.. And Password fatigue is something anyone who works with computers is likely to understand. Its the frustration caused by having to deal with too many passwords and not being able to remember them all. I think Ive been an undiagnosed sufferer of password fatigue for some time. And lastly, have you ever come down with man flu? It refers, slightly unfairly in my opinion, to minor colds contracted by men who then go on to exaggerate and draw out the symptoms. I dont know what thats about. So there you go, never say the Levy Letter doesnt expand your vocabulary, although if you sprinkle those into your every day conversation you might have a little bit of explaining to do from time to time, not all of them are at all obvious are they? Expensive Britain This might confirm what a lot of people suspected, but new research from one of the worlds biggest banks claims that Britain is the third most expensive country in the world to live in. Apparently, only Norway and France have a higher cost of living. However, moving to Spain or Australia would allow you to maintain your lifestyle on a lower budget. One years expenditure in Britain would last 14 months and one week in Australia, and 15 months and three weeks in Spain according to the study. According to the foreign office, 500,000 Britons spend part of the year living outside of the UK, while 5.5 million Britons live abroad permanently, making their money go further it would seem. If youre planning to move abroad, or if you do in fact read the letter from another country, email me and let me know what you think on this. If you want to get in touch with me directly to mention something for the letter, if you want to plug an event for a good cause, or if youve got a story for Look North you can reach me at [EMAIL PROTECTED] Thats it from me for today, I hope you enjoy the rest of your afternoon and I hope youll join me for Look North tonight at half past six on BBC One as usual. Take care and bye for now, Peter And for the latest news and more where you live, go to: http://bbc.co.uk/humber and http://bbc.co.uk/lincolnshire ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the BBC Look North newsletter, go to http://www.bbc.co.uk/england/looknorthhull/newsletter/newsletter_index.shtml, enter your email address in the unsubscribe box. 1.94.4
