lit's language limitations

World Cup has started. Unfortunately I have one more week of course to attend, otherwise I'd be living the vampire lifestyle. Very tempted to fall sick this week, but not too sure whether it'll just mean I have to attend the courses at a later time. Now that would be a major pain in the butt.

Went to the airport to see one of my course-mates off yesterday. Somehow I keep finding myself visiting that place, like some kind of Groundhog Day scenario. Maybe I should volunteer to be an airport guide. Wonder if they have staff discounts for duty-free goods.

With all the problems in the world today, it seems kinda frivolous to be stuck on coming up with original well-wishes. At least, that's what I thought until it confronted me in all its hideous glory. To be fair, it's probably a lot easier to tackle this issue than Iran's nuclear crisis, so let's have a quick look.

If you think about the phrases we use to wish someone well, I think you'd find that the variety's limited to the usual suspects: take care, all the best, keep in touch etc. I can't come up with anything that conveys the same meaning, but hasn't been repeated by countless other people seeing their friends off at the airport. In English, there are only so many ways to transmit a message of goodwill, without using words that sound like they were made up by a ferret strapped to a pneumatic drill.

So the question is, why, in spite of all the linguistic geniuses that do speak the English tongue, don't we have many different ways of telling our friends that we care for them? Has anyone come up with some highly original expression that carries the message across, freeing us from the trite tyranny of 'take care'? (That was two questions. Great S'pore Sale: buy one get one free)

I really do wonder.