Move over Mrs. Malaprop

Like so many others who work in Geneva, every day I drive to the border where I park and then hop on the bus to cross town to my place of work.  It's about a 40-minute bus ride but I at least get to read for about an hour a day that way.  Listening to the people around me it is obvious there are quite a few English-speakers on the bus too.

One day my friend asked if I could give her a ride home that evening since she was car-less.  So we hopped on the bus heading back to the border and were chatting away (non-stop - as you do - being women of "a certain age").  Ursula has a voice that carries (to put it politely).  She is 10 years older than me and I was (trying) to ask her very discreetly if her doctor was OK with her continuing to take HRT - hormone replacement therapy for the menopause - given that she had been on it for quite some time and was nearing 65.  I was interested because I take it and it changed my life so I want to keep on taking it.

Ursula turned round and said quite airily "Oh yes, no problem.  Last time I was a the vet's he said he didn't see why I should come off it"!  The sad thing is that I understood perfectly what she meant and didn't even bat an eyelid - until I saw the shaking shoulders of some of the men standing just in front of us, trying desperately not to burst out laughing!  Ahha, but one of the joys of being "women of a certain age" is that we couldn't have cared less!