Tuesday, November 10, 2009

A riddle - revealed (scroll down)



As part of my OU course our tutor set us the composition of a riddle.

This is mine - can you guess what it is?

I hold items with my holes
I clank metallic, plastic, hard.
I contain the plain mundane.
Water washes me
from my handles to my soles.
I am tasteless but can be chic
in Nigella blue.
Are you bowled over by me








REVEALED


Everyone who guessed a colander - you can all give yourselves a clap. Go on then - I can't hear you. This is the French Fancy colander that graces my worktop and that is almost too pretty to use. It's not the same blue as the Nigella blue but poetic licence and all that.

42 comments:

Helen said...

A sieve / colander?

LadyFi said...

Oh gosh... um... a wallet, a dishwasher, sandals?

I'm not very good at guessing puzzles! ;-)

Dumdad said...

Food blender or lemon squeezer?

Dumdad said...

P.S.

This blogpost was worth visiting if only to view the lovely Nigella!

Dumdad said...

What about a toothbrush holder/stand thingy?

This Ro(a)mantic Life said...

I have no idea! Soles suggests footwear to me, and I know you love your Rocket Dogs ... but do those have handles?

Anonymous said...

Thank you for Nigella, Sparked up my morning considerably. I am thinking a sieve or collander.

Susie Vereker said...

I don't know - a salt pig? Two salt pigs?

Ken Devine said...

Yep! Colander it is although I've never come across a blue one.

Michael said...

I'm horrible at these sort of things but jsut to say its so nice to meet another ex pat Londoner..although you are a lot closer and more able to pop home when wanted. Brittany is so full of history and how lovely it must be.

Veggie Carrie said...

I too was thinking it sounds like a sieve/colander... are we right?

Steve said...

I'd be more than happy to strain my vegetables for a nibble or two of Nigella...

Tess Kincaid said...

Colander was the first thing that popped into my head, too.

It reads so nicely as a poem. Well done, my friend!

(hey, I want to see your fur hat)

Angie Muresan said...

I say... dishwasher? I have no idea. But isn't Nigella breathtaking?

Lulu LaBonne said...

Got me there sweetie, handles and soles - sounds like a Paul Simon song

Rob-bear said...

Not a clue about this one.

The only one that I know is about the 29th day.

Do tell su the answer sometime, J.

Anonymous said...

Got to be a colander, or slotted spoon.A fun bit assignment...how's it all going at the OU. I do miss it but only now and then.

I thought...'God FF is beautiful', then realised it is the lumptious Nigella.

cheshire wife said...

I don't know. Could be a colander. Could be a credit card holder, but do they ever get,washed?

Ms Scarlet said...

A wheelie bin wearing shoes.
Sx

French Fancy... said...

Aha! she said enigmatically - it's always enigmatic when you *aha*

French Fancy... said...

TMF/Ladyfi/Dumdad - 'could be could be' - done in a 'now then now then' Jimmy Saville type voice

ContemTroub - not RD related. My favourite waterproof pair have begun to split now (Stewart tartan ones) - I'm trying to resist getting some more. I've got a few pairs of boring bad weather boots I guess I need to wear out first. Damn this economy drive.

Ian, Ken and Carrie - possibly so me dears

Susie - no. I've never had salt pig love - it gets quite steamy in our kitchen and I prefer the salt to be enclosed - but a very ingenious guess.

mmm - to be honest (and I've got to whisper this) sometimes I would rather be in the USA than in Europe. I'm a real Americanophile and even though Mr FF could find something in his field quite easily in the old Silicon Valley neck of the woods, he flatly refuses to.

Steve - I think you and Dumdad might have to fight for her.

willow - thank you - coming from you that is praise indeed. Out of the 20 of us mine was the only poem - other students wrote line and lines and lines.

Angie, Lulu and Rob - nope; I love Paul Simon;what's the one about the 29th day?

Moannie - Mr FF thinks I'm beautiful and I bet he says it to me more than Charlie boy says it to Nigella - they're like ships that pass in the night those two (from what I've heard)

cheshire wife - have you ever heard Bernadette Peters say 'possible, very possible' from Into the Woods?

Scarlet - I like your guess best of all.

Michael said...

Hee. howrefreshing to have a "European" Brit who actually likes American. I think if Brits are really honest with themselves, and put all snobbery aside, we are far more similar to our Australian, American and Canadian cousins than the continental Europeans.

I quite agree Tea should be served at 4 but during the week that is rather impossible if one works. We never really had a big Sunday lunch, just egg on toast often, but maybe that was jsut us.

A Super Dilettante said...

It's like the final act of Puccini's Turandot. I feel like bursting out one of the famous arias to answer your riddle. I believe this could be footwear. BTW, I didn't cheat.

Rob-bear said...

OH, dear; you don't know the quintessential (I believe French) riddle!

Send me your e-mail and I'll pass the riddle along, or I could give it to you as a comment, though it will take some space. Which ever you prefer. (My e-mail is with my blog)

Carol said...

Hmmm, is it one of those spoons with the holes in? Lets the water out but keeps your meatballs etc from falling back into the pot!!

Can't wait to find out what it is

C x

Jennysmith said...

Blimey FF, I couldn't even solve the ones in my Beezer comic!

I love that photo of you there. You look gorgeous. xxx

French Fancy... said...

mmm - I'm the only person I know who admits to preferring the American lifestyle to the European one. I sometimes think I really am in the wrong country.

ASD - you couldn't cheat - unless you take my brain out and scrutinise it. The answer is not on the net. You shouldn't be typing - go and rest your poor hand

Rob - will do - when I'm in a riddle-solving mood. I'm useless at them actually

Carol - the answer is below but you're very close

Jen - I'm useless at them as well. By the way the photo with this post is Nigella Lawson. I'm in the previous post.

Anonymous said...

This was very clever indeed.
I crave a colander at Anthropologie (shop) what a pass we have come to when we long for domestic items...
hm........
Someone recently put a candle inside a cheese grater and it cast cool shadows
who would have thought...!

Reasons said...

Wow thank goodness I got back to blogging in time not to miss your colander post!!!

Good think I know you can take a joke ;-) xx

LadyFi said...

Very pretty - and it can double as a hat too!

Ann said...

I would have said colander, but then again I can say that, seeing as the answer was there for me to see.

Phil Lowe said...

aaaaah, Nigella cute colander lady extraordinairre!Yes, yes ,yes! Naughty colander! Blue and Blue! Naughty but nice. Exhausted now! You are on my fridge door Nigella! Lurve you bigtime.

Rob-bear said...

Holey colanders, Batman; let's get cooking.

Pasta, perhaps? Alfredo sauce with French cheese? C'est bon!!

b said...

The answer is a colander? It certainly doesn't look like mine.

Mine hangs on the wall, it has all the dates on it and I can write my meetings and other important info on it so I always know what I'll be doing on any given day.

And I've already bought the one for 2010.

(Jes' kiddin')

Berowne said...

"b," above, stands for
Berowne.

The comment was whisked away before I got to finish it.
Ah, technology...

Rob-bear said...

BTW -- that picture of you with the fancy desert; was that taken this year or last year?

French Fancy... said...

ewix - I seldom buy nice house things these days for two reasons - no room left and not much money for 'silly' things, things that are not really needed. I've spent it all buying everything that I am now surrounded with. Whoever would have thought of putting a candle inside a cheese grater - oh, for an artistic imagination :)

Reasons - glad you still make me laugh! Welcome back to the blogosphere

ladyfi - it does look nice on my head actually - although I look a bit crazy with the three feet sticking up

Ann - yep, it got revealed I'm afraid

Phil - Nigella really gets more and more like a caricature I think - and her jumpers get tighter and tighter. She's almost like Jessica Rabbit - but then I'm not a bloke.

Rob - I love pasta and could eat it every day actually

Hello Berowne - that made me laugh - it did, honest.

rob - no, that's not me. That is a very well known English chef/cook/entrepreneur called Nigella Lawson. She is married to one of the Saatchi brothers and is quite famous over here. I'm the one in the previous post.

Clarity said...

I guessed Colander, but sweetie you made it easy, you flatterer, you, x.

♥ Braja said...

OK, THAT was clever :)))

French Fancy... said...

Clarity - I wish you'd blog more often - I miss you

Braja - cheers, me dearie - look, I've gone all olde English - and I did it in a Dick van Dyke accent.

Phil Lowe said...

Nigella's jumpers getting tighter and tighter? Oh gosh I've suddenly gorn all giggy. And Jessica Wabbit was the hottest cartoon ever. :0)

Phil Lowe said...

make that all giddy.