Widdle and Puke

More and more guests arrive, and with them came presents. Most of these were, from my point of view, useless, as they could not be adapted for natural history work. The best of the presents were, in my opinion, two puppies brought by a peasant family I knew who lived not far away. One puppy was liver and white, with large ginger eyebrows, and the other was coal black with large ginger eyebrows. As they were presents the family had, of course, to accept them. Roger viewed them with suspicion and interest, so in order that they should all get acquainted I locked them in the dining-room with a large plate of party delicacies between them. The results were not quite what I had anticipated, for when the flood of guests grew so large that we had to slide back the doors and let some of them into the dining-room, we found Roger seated gloomily on the floor, the two puppies gambolling around him, while the room was decorated in a fashion that left us in no doubt that the new additions had both eaten and drunk to their hearts' content. Larry's suggestion that they be called Widdle and Puke was greeted with disgust by Mother, but the names stuck and Widdle and Puke they remained.'

page 165, My family and Other Animals, George Durrell

So it seems I have a little clearing up to do. I gather, from some of your comments, especially the one that read;

(I laughed so hard that you have called them Widdle and Puke.... what did Puke do to deserve that?!!?)

that a lot of you don't have an clue what 'Widdle' means. Because really? Puke seems worse to you? And so I asked my twitterbugs and the answer was almost universal "I thought widdle was baby-talk for 'little'" Excuse me? Baby talk? Me? Here?

Bollocks to that.

Something that might go a little way to explaining my blog absence in April & May is that I spent weeks 6 through to 14 sitting either on the toilet or on the floor beside the toilet, widdling then puking. Puking then widdling. And so I started referring to myself as Widdle And Puke, the two aforementioned puppies from my favourite book in the world ever. And when we found it it wasn't one but two babies that were fucking around with my bladder and my gag reflex it couldn't have seemed more perfect, of course one was Widdle and one was Puke.

And incase you're still under any illusions:

Widdle

wid·dle [ wídd'l ]

noun (British)

an act of urination. This middle- and upper-class nursery term is a blend of wee and piddle.

You don't need me to explain Puke do you?

*image courtesy of Ashi