Happy as a pig in muck

 

Happy as a pig in muck

Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons

This expression was first used in Britain around 1870. People had noticed that pigs seemed to enjoy wallowing in mud. Much later, they realised that pigs cannot sweat to cool their bodies and so wallowed to cool down. The mud was also useful for ridding the skin of parasites. A number of other animals enjoy a mud bath including the hippopotamus (remember the Flanders and Swann song, ‘Mud, mud, glorious mud?’) the rhinoceros, the elephant, and the warthog.

Pigs are intelligent, sentient beings, and can experience a range of emotions. They can become congenial pets but need companionship and careful handling and socialisation. If not properly socialised, pigs can become aggressive. 

In UK, a person seeking to keep a pig must register as a pig keeper, report and record the pig’s movements, and acquire a County Parish Holding (CPH) number detailing where the pig lives. If the owner wants to take his pig out for a walk, he needs to carry a special licence.

Pigs live between five and ten years, though some might live for twenty-five years. Even small pigs can weigh seventy kilos, and some breeds weigh four times as much

When a pig is happy, it may smile and wag its tail. It may also give soft grunts and come to its owner for a scratch or a stroke.

My sister loved pigs when she was little. She was fifteen years older than me so I never witnessed the porcine interaction!

The Clairvoyant Cabbie

 

The Clairvoyant Cabbie

?

My daughter had a strange experience in a London cab some years ago. The cab stopped at some traffic lights and the cabbie looked at my daughter through the driver’s mirror and said my late sister’s name. My sister had an unusual name, not one that would naturally spring to mind or easily be guessed, so my daughter was taken aback.

 When the cabbie then added my brother-in-law’s name to the mix, my daughter was even more perplexed. He said she was not to worry and that my sister was well and happy. My daughter and my sister did not look alike – blue/green eyes and long blonde hair against dark brown eyes and short dark hair, so there could have been no visual ‘jolt’ even in the unlikely event that my sister and the cabbie had met.

Was it chance that he happened upon my sister’s name? He and my daughter had never met before – it was a casual encounter between driver and passenger and they knew nothing of each other and had not been conversing. My sister had lived near her husband’s family in rural Norfolk for many years after moving from Kent and had never lived in London.

This was brought to mind when I was listening to Radio 4. Julian Clary was a guest on Paul Merton’s programme, Room 101 and mentioned a psychic cabbie in London. Apparently, there is also a psychic cabbie in Gateshead.

 

As Shakespeare’s Hamlet expressed it:

‘There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,

Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.’