Thats class Nick, love it. Better than my carboard wheel clamp story. I don't know if you've noticed but like me, with some gentle nudges from our good members, your spelling has been getting better since you joined GC Not brilliant at it myself, missed that bit of school, well, missed most of school actually My Mum, God rest her soul was a Black Country Lass, as you know. She taught me to read and write. The rest of it, i've taught myself. Didn't do History or Botany at school, but I can now sit down & argue the toss with a Professor in either subject. Didn't go to College till I was in my thirties, have since taught at College & loved every minute of it Thanks to Gardeners Corner I can now spell Jamaica and indeed have sent some of the other members seeds there. Jules, Penny, Atticus & John... Sven is now growing seeds that you sent to me
Internet forums like these are great for learning all sorts, including practising spelling - better still, if you use Firefox as a browser, it has an in-built spell checker and will put a red line under anything that it thinks is spelt wrongly; all you need to do then is hover over the word with the red line under it, and right click, and it will give suggestions as to the correct spelling or the word that it thinks you are trying to spell: I have improved my spelling a lot over the years, simply by using this type of spell checker or heading off to Google and looking things up. However - ONLY do things like this if you feel you want to, as at the end of the day it is what you are saying that is important, not how it is spelt, and as Sheal rightly pointed out anyone that doesn't like it can go forth and multiply.
But you would miss the spontanaity that people like Nick bring to the conversation. I am guilty of seeing what looks wrong and go off to check (i.e. sponenaety spontanaity) Nick just verbals it and sets it down. The images developed by the reader can interpret the expression in the writing down and one reader may visualise something different - but so what. Black is black and white is white - unless you are an island in the Solent.
Absolutely right - and that is why I say that there is no need for Nick, or anyone, to worry about their spelling.
I just LURVE this forum, it's brilliant - the banter, the camaraderie and the helpful advice whenever you have a serious question are just the best.