Welcome to my Desk, where you’ll find all sorts of items to hold your interest. Unlike my real office desk, which is cluttered with books, files, news cuttings and the remnants of my lunch, this Online Desk will be efficient and easy to navigate.
Learn some of the tricks of solving those weird cryptic crosswords on my tutorials page.
If you wonder about the origins of some of our wonderful English expressions, Words & Phrases is the place to find out more.
Read about the puzzling but positive effect Lovatts has on your health in Puzzles & your Health. We’d love to hear from you, so write a letter to Christine’s Mailbag. You might want to comment on my regular column @ Christine’s Hello.
There’s something for everyone here, so come on in!
Latest Posts
You had me at hello…
Did you know that November 21 is World Hello Day? Observed since 1973 in hundreds of countries around the globe, World Hello Day first came about as a way to encourage us all to use communication rather than force to settle conflict and discord. To participate in World Hello Day, all one needs to do is simply greet ten people. Easy!
There [more…]
November Around the Globe
Did you know that before January and February were added to the Roman calendar, around 713BC, November was the ninth month of the year? This is how it got its name; novem means ‘nine’ in Latin.
As the year draws to a close, you’d be forgiven for getting excited about December and all its summery, festive glory. But November has its own [more…]
In search of balance
Sometimes the day’s chores can seem overwhelming, but there are ways to create a fresh rhythm to life that has room for work, play and downtime…
Here we share ideas that can help to achieve a rewarding lifestyle balance as well as some valuable tools to help you stay centred.
1 Get up earlier
In his book The Miracle Morning, Hal Elrod suggests getting up [more…]
A fiesta of Spanish words in the English language
Or should I say Hola? Because this column is about the Spanish language. There are approximately 405 million people in the world speaking Spanish as a native language, making it the second-most-spoken language by a number of native speakers, after Mandarin Chinese. Spanish is also one of the six official languages of the United Nations.
There are 22 countries in the world [more…]
Discover fascinating words that have changed their meaning
With spring marking the changing weather, when the cold winter winds are swapped for floral-filled days, it got me thinking about how the meaning of words also changes. One of the continuing controversies of my job is dealing with that fickle aspect of the English language, words that change their meaning – known as a semantic shift. If you look at [more…]
Phrases we use from the silver screen 🎥
While many of us crave the sunshine and heat of summer, one of the silver linings of the chilly winter months is that they offer the perfect excuse to cosy up at home and get lost in our silver screen favourites. As well as an almost endless source of entertainment, I’ve found films and television shows to be great sources of [more…]