Early Risers.

[Barry O]

8 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

 

I have highlighted the only word in this supposedly non-British English speaker-proof paragraph that is not in the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary (10th Edition, OUP, 2020)*, in the sense used. I'll have words about shufti though I think most learners at that level would work it out from the context. 

 

*The standard vocabulary resource for learners of English as a foreign language.

Shufti.. take a quick look.. came from our forces who were in the Middle East during various wars. My father also used "Imshi, Imshi".. work faster/harder from the Arabic "Imshallah" 

 

Local cricketers around here use "Jaldi, Jaldi".. quicker, quicker and "tikka, tikka" ..stay calm.. and the big one "Shabbash, shabbash" as in get that cricket ball smashed out of the ground...all parts of how we have a language that hasn't stopped developing.

 

Baz

[jamie92208]

Good moanong.  It's just stopped raining here and there'sxa patch of blue sky big enough to patch a pair of sailors trousers, as my mother would have said.  

 

We do get our share of Tarquins round here but probably not as many as in the Dordogne, though you can usually hear them coming from some way off. We try to avoid them.  I know that an accent is something you are stuck with but my tolerance level can get pretty low at times.  Usually you hear them complaining loudly about the French.

 

Today, we were planning to try and get the lawn mowed. I suspect that it will be this afternoon before it's dry enough.  I may find some jobs to do in the shed.  This evening we are off for some socially distanced drinks with our newly arrived friends.  Sitting outside round the a firepit.

 

Regards to all.

 

Jamie

[jonny777]

Sunny spells and heavy showers here in North Somerset. 3.5mm since midnight, to add to the 19mm we had yesterday. 

 

This brings our total for the month so far to 131mm, and we might get close to the (my) record May total of 172mm in 2007, but it will be hard to beat that. 

 

Still, the garden is looking ultra green, unlike this time last year when we recorded 5mm for the whole of May and I was on almost full time watering duty. I think the lupins and foxgloves have survived the winds as they are on the verge of flowering. 

[Andrew P]

The Blues Brothers = The No1 Movie in the history of No1 Movies, I have watched it several times and tried to count the amount of cars they got through making it. 

No 1 for action.

No 1 for Music,

No 1 for FUN.

[Andrew P]

Sun / rain / sun / rain. /dull / rain / bright / rain / more light rain etc. so that's the garden work out of the question today then.

 

Have a good day one and all, stay safe and well.

[leopardml2341]

2 hours ago, Barry O said:

Some of the names of places in the North East and Yorkshire can be badly mangled by the bbc. Example "Percy Main" which should be "Porcy Mayen",  "Harewood" which is "Harwood" to the people who live there..especially those who live in the Big House.

There's no wonder then, that natives of Oswadtwistle simply refer to it as 'Ozzy'...........

 

Somewhat less appealing is the locals' reference to Accrington - but surely to goodness they don't have a problem pronouncing that?

 

One of my 'favourites' was Oughtibridge, back on t' right side

Edited May 24, 2021 by leopardml2341
Punctuation

[Hroth]

3 minutes ago, Andrew P said:

Sun / rain / sun / rain. /dull / rain / bright / rain / more light rain etc. so that's the garden work out of the question today then.

 

Have a good day one and all, stay safe and well.

 

Its a good excuse to find something more interesting to do!

 

[leopardml2341]

15 minutes ago, jonny777 said:

This brings our total for the month so far to 131mm, and we might get close to the (my) record May total of 172mm in 2007, but it will be hard to beat that. 

If that's a portent for 'summer', based on 2007 - best forget it

[Andrew P]

3 minutes ago, Hroth said:

 

Its a good excuse to find something more interesting to do!

 

Play Guitar?

[leopardml2341]

2 hours ago, leopardml2341 said:

Now what to have for brekky?

It turned out to be porridge, an apple, a glass of water and a mug of tea

[Andrew P]

4 minutes ago, leopardml2341 said:

There's no wonder then, that natives of Oswadtwistle simply refer to it as 'Ozzy'...........

 

Somewhat less appealing is the locals reference to Accrington - but surely to goodness they don't have a problem pronouncing that?

 

One of my 'favourites' was Oughtibridge, back on t' right side

My Mum was born in Accrington, and always referred to it as Accy.

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone 

 

Well the weather is pretty much like yesterday, so not much work will get done outside today. It’s currently very wet from the overnight rain, but the sun is shining, but there is rain forecast for later. However, yesterday started sunny and the rain started mid morning and stayed with us for most of the day. 

 

This evening Mike is calling round to collect the place names cards that I’ve written for the wedding breakfast, so the Sainsbury’s Grand Prix will be completed this morning instead! Sheila has also decided that she will accompany me as I need to go to a couple of other shops, which are always closed in the evening, so that’ll be most of the morning gone by the time we get back home. So I think I’ll take the rest of the day off and rest for the afternoon, maybe watch some recovered TV that Sheila has no desire to watch. 

 

Stay safe, stay sane, enjoy whatever you have planned for the day, back later. 

 

Brian

[tigerburnie]

Morning, much wetness up 'ere, with more promised later, tummy seems to have calmed down, so I may try doing something later, no idea what.

I never saw the Blues Brothers movie, not really a movie kind of person, took the Grandkids to see a Minions movie and that has been it in the past 20 odd years, don't read fiction either, bores me after about 20 seconds. I have a book case full of non fiction, the vast majority have been read more than once, some on railways, but mostly fishing and wildlife, I used to collect old fishing books at one time. Have a few on sport and cars and a few on music and that kept me amused during lockdown.

[Tony_S]

Good morning.

We are also having sunny spells and showers here, shower phase at the moment. 
I was going to prune a shrub that makes it difficult to open a front window but I will leave that until it isn’t so wet. I will just refill the bird feeders. There seem to be a lot of baby  sparrows that need feeding. 
Tony

[The Lurker]

13 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

 

 

* Anglo-Saxon "Wēalas"

 

 

 

Meanwhile the French have a curious hodgepodge of translations of British countries like Angleterre, Écosse and Pays de Galles**.

 

** It's interesting that Wallonia / Wallonie is essentially the same - meaning "land of the Gauls" depending on which root word is chosen.

 

 

My understanding is that the Anglo-Saxon term meant "foreigner". That doesn't necessarily negate the explanation.

 

Wallonia doesn't surprise me too much given the similarities between Anglo-Saxon and some of the languages in the low countries - Frisian is supposed to be closely related to English.

 

Does anyone know if Galicia in Spain also has the same derivation; a celtic outpost? I have also read that Galatea in Turkey (think Paul's letters to the Galatians) has a similar derivation, and is supposed to be evidence of the Gauls finding somewhere to settle after sacking Rome in 393 BC. I have also read someone casting doubt on this explanation.

[The Lurker]

Greetings from Sidcup where it started sunny and blue skied but where this has been followed by several downpours. Although the sun is shining at present there are dark clouds lurking ominously.

 

I had jab #2 yesterday, No side effects to report, but I do have a bit of a cold so it is a little hard to tell!

 

The weekend was fairly quiet other than that and I have now settled into another week of work. I will enliven this by venturing to the office on Wednesday, part of a gradual acclimatisation to going back in more often, but also because I am meeting friends for a meal out!

 

Best wishes to those who are ailing. Have a good day all

[New Haven Neil]

Morning, from an accent owning furriner.  Despite having had a Manx mother, I'll never be quite 'local' here!

 

Sunny and windy here, pretty much usual.

 

I have a selection of words that pop up occasionally without conscious thought, from my salty sea dog days - from Chinese and Indian crew, especially Indians, who were more talkative than the Chinese if...er....not wanting to be racist here but to get over a truth....not quite so....active.  Possibly a reflection of climate in their home countries, its not a criticism.  One thing I do know, is that either were better and harder workers than the British crews on some of our other ships (the LPG Tankers were all British crewed), many of whom had malingering down to a fine art.  I have some happy memories of one Indian crewed ship in particular, it was a bit of an old tub (the oldest ship in the fleet of 26 at the time) but hard work and hard play, and incredibly happy for officers and crew who worked well together.  My cabin 'boy' (about 60!) kept my uniform better than it ever looked, and used to warn me about behaving ashore!  

[AndrewC]

Moaning all. 

Blues Brothers, a great movie. Then again I grew up on a diet of comedy fuelled by Python, Saturday Night Live, Laugh-In, and George Carlin, so I am a bit twisted at times. First time I "saw" it was at a drive in with my then girlfriend. I went with several mates to the cinema a few weeks later to see it properly. 

 

Today's weather: dry, wet, dry, wet, dry, wet, ...

Mrs got her second jab on Sat. She's been a zombie ever since. An eye infection hasn't helped. I tried to blag my way into getting mine done early but no such luck. She's been sleeping 12-14 hours since with additional mid day naps. Hope she starts feeling better as we're supposed to be off to Brighton for the day on Wednesday to bump into another RMwebbie or 2. 

 

I'm currently enjoying my first day of annual leave since Christmas. An afternoon in the shed is planned. Although I do need to order more kegs for the Krupps Sub beer dispenser. The last of the Delirium Tremens magically vanished yesterday whilst doing that hobby thing that can't be mentioned here. 

 

right, beer o clock (Belgian beer, Belgian time) Enjoy the day. 

[Pacific231G]

Good morning all

Heavy showers and sunshine here in W. London this morning but it was a sunny morning in the 1950s when I dispatched this morning MV (Marchandises Voyageurs = mixed train) down the valley toward the Loire.

 

 

I'm relearning some of the tricks so making the train up from the arriving one took half as long as yesterday even though the couplings (the new fangled automatic ones that the UIC hoped would replace chains and buffers but never did) were being a bit difficult.  With two coaches the MV is usually just a bit too long for the run round loop so it needs a bit of planning. Swapping the arriving empty bi-foudres with the full ones from the winery was the first job but those are now on  their way to whoever is daft enough to drink the stuff.  

 

On the subject of words it's always amused me that many names of British rivers like Avon and Ouse just mean river (or running water) which is why there are so many of them. Some invader like the Normans came along and asked what the local river was called and, since it was the only river the locals knew, they just said it was "The River" in their local dialect/language so they're all really the River River. 

According to the Canal and River Trust the River Cam in Cambridgeshire went one better. It had no particular name as it meandered through the Fens but the  town was called Cambridge (perhaps from Cam's Bridge or something) so it was simply assumed that the river the bridge crossed must be the Cam and so it became.

Fortunately,  the upper Thames didn't end up being called the River Ox.

 

Have a good Monday everyone.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 24, 2021 by Pacific231G
typos

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Quite a morning this morning. Apart from feeling completely cream crackered I still have the extra washing and cleaning to do so that got done first. I did manage to get a bit of solid food inside me and feeling a bit better for that. Then my computer started playing up. I switched on and the screen with the icons came up but the toolbar simply would not load. So after several attempts  I decided to switch off, but it wouldn't let me. The toolbar was there but showing nothing, no internet connection or even battery condition. I am using my back up computer which might conk out at any moment if it gets to warm as the fan isn't working, just as well that its quite cool at the moment. 

[TheQ]

Brought back from Servicemen in other  countries.

Shufti.. English ... take a quick look ..                               Arabic, Have you seen?

Dekko.. English ... take a quick look ..                              Hindi, To Look

Bint       English slightly derogatory word for woman.. Arabic, Daughter,

Wallah... English .. Bloke                                                     Hindi, a person with a job, 

Pukka   English... Genuine,  good thing,                            Hindi, ripe, solid

Char... English   Tea                                                              Hindi  Tea

 

There's a lot more...

[BoD]

An update on Gordon.

 

 

 

[New Haven Neil]

Dhobi for washing is one that I still use, as I'm from a maritime family it was part of my vocabulary long before I went to sea myself.

[PupCam]

On 18/05/2021 at 15:29, PupCam said:

The last time I spoke to the doctor I asked him if I had to make an emergency appointment for him to tell me the results of some recent tests when he received them.   He hummed and hawed and said no, he would make the appointment and call me directly.    I'll be able to let you know how successful that plan was on Thursday afternoon ...

Sorry chaps Puppers has been AWOL for a while.   
 

It’s a long story but I’ll just provide a couple of highlights ....

 

The doctor was as good as his word and in my response of “I feel absolutely terrible” to his question of how did I feel he said you’d better get here for 11:30.   After a physical examination(now there’s a thing!) and seeing that I didn’t really have enough energy to get off the couch he said “I’m admitting you to hospital”.   And so Mrs Puppers took me to  A&E for admission.  It was very busy but Puppers found a cunning way to get to the head of the queue - collapse in a big heap close by people so they can catch you.    Much racing about and I was in Resus within 2 minutes (I should imagine I wasn’t really very aware at the time!).   Anyway, long story short;  I’ve been fitted with a DCC Decoder, no sorry a Pacemaker last week.   There’s a bit of hitch so I’m still sitting here NBM waiting for them to have another crack at it.

 

I’ll be back when I can and best regards to all particularly the poorly ones.

 

Puppers

[Mike Bellamy]

4 minutes ago, PupCam said:

 It was very busy but Puppers found a cunning way to get to the head of the queue - collapse in a big heap close by people so they can catch you.    Much racing about and I was in Resus within 2 minutes

 

Sorry to hear of the problems - hope you are soon up and about and back to 'normal' - whatever normal is these days !

 

Four years ago, I had funny feelings around the heart area and I knew that wasn't normal. Went to A&E about 10.30pm and after a slight delay for a bit of a queue, I told the receptionist I had these odd feelings in my chest. She immediately said 'Go though the door marked 'No Admittance' and we'll see you straight away'. The notice on the wall advised the rest of the patients that there was at least a four hour delay to see anyone. Within five minutes I was hooked up to ECG, and blood pressure and blood tests were being monitored. Kept in overnight, the next morning I had the treadmill test which left me feeling total wiped out. End result mild angina and prescribed tablets for blood pressure and cholesterol.