Early Risers.

[bbishop]

Toddy (the dog) - in a lump of Mars Bar, and he was on heart tablets for the last 4½ years of his life.

Harvey (the cat) - ground up in a nice hot cup of tea.

Bill

[pH]

16 minutes ago, bbishop said:

Harvey (the cat) - ground up in a nice hot cup of tea.

Taken in isolation, that does sound rather odd!

[pH]

1 hour ago, Kelly said:

I do wonder if my younger brother will develop a Canadian accent now he has emigrated there. 

Could depend on several things e.g. how old he is, how much he wants to develop one, whether or not he is emigrating with a partner ...

 

The longer you’ve spoken with a certain accent, in general the more inclined you are not to lose it completely.

 

And if you have a partner, that’s the person you’re likely to speak to most. If they have the same accent as you, it’s inclined to, at least, slow down any loss of yours.

 

My wife and I grew up within ten miles of each other in the west of Scotland,  have been in Canada nearly 40 years and had lived in England for several years before coming here. When I hear a recording of my own voice, it sounds as if I’m “just off the boat”.

[Kelly]

35 minutes ago, pH said:

Could depend on several things e.g. how old he is, how much he wants to develop one, whether or not he is emigrating with a partner ...

 

The longer you’ve spoken with a certain accent, in general the more inclined you are not to lose it completely..

 

 

 

He moved out there after marrying a Canadian here who then wasn't able to meet the requirements to be allowed to stay. 

 

So he has regular contact with her and her family,  all Canadian and works over there too.

[AndyID]

31 minutes ago, pH said:

And if you have a partner, that’s the person you’re likely to speak to most. If they have the same accent as you, it’s inclined to, at least, slow down any loss of yours.

 

My wife and I grew up within ten miles of each other in the west of Scotland,  have been in Canada nearly 40 years and had lived in England for several years before coming here. When I hear a recording of my own voice, it sounds as if I’m “just off the boat”.

 

Same with us although people do seem to be able to understand us a bit better now than when we came here 38 years ago. I still get a lot of "I love your accent" despite the fact that I'm pretty sure I have no accent at all

 

[Florence Locomotive Works]

Evening all,

 

95 degrees and humid today, so very unpleasant to be outside. But of course I was outside, not voluntarily mind you. I’ve made a design for the condenser in the Stuart Plant, but still need to get materials. Spent about an hour polishing up a brass canon my grandfather made while at sea around 1962, I don’t think it has been polished since! As for accents, my mom is American, but my dad is from Liverpool and grew up in New Zealand. I was born in the USA, but until I was about 9 I had a weird Irish-London-American accent thing going on, which really made people stare at you in Starbucks. I still pronounce my O’s like someone from Britain though, and occasionally someone will ask me where I’m from.

 

stay healthy,

Douglas

Edited June 15, 2020 by Florence Locomotive Works

[brianusa]

5 minutes ago, AndyID said:

 

Same with us although people do seem to be able to understand us a bit better now than when we came here 38 years ago. I still get a lot of "I love your accent" despite the fact that I'm pretty sure I have no accent at all

 

 

On the other hand, my wife has a pleasant NI accent, different from the broad Gerry Adams type.  For some reason I have retained my definitive Plymouth accent and still get the ILYA comments as though it were straight from Chelsea via university,  Having neither lived in both, its a bit of a surprise! 

    Brian.

[pH]

10 minutes ago, AndyID said:

Same with us although people do seem to be able to understand us a bit better now than when we came here 38 years ago. 

Your vocabulary will have changed, which makes quite a difference. We find that affects reactions in the UK as well - the different vocabulary, even pronounced in a Scottish accent, makes people consider you as North American. (Fair enough, I suppose.)

[pH]

20 minutes ago, Kelly said:

 

He moved out there after marrying a Canadian here who then wasn't able to meet the requirements to be allowed to stay. 

 

So he has regular contact with her and her family,  all Canadian and works over there too.

Yeah, he’ll be speaking real Canajun soon!

[Ozexpatriate]

1 hour ago, AndyID said:

... people do seem to be able to understand us a bit better now than when we came here 38 years ago. I still get a lot of "I love your accent" despite the fact that I'm pretty sure I have no accent at all

 

46 minutes ago, pH said:

Your vocabulary will have changed, which makes quite a difference. We find that affects reactions in the UK as well - the different vocabulary, even pronounced in a Scottish accent, makes people consider you as North American. (Fair enough, I suppose.)

I have a very trans-Pacific accent - or so I assume. Americans notice an Australian accent. My family notices an American accent. I'm sure it's very much in-between. Spending more than 30 years professionally communicating on telephone calls getting responses like "what? can you say that again?" it is inevitable that subtle changes take place - and not intentionally so. I don't try to put on an American accent.

 

I still cannot effectively use a fast food drive-through. (Not that I ever want to.) The combination of the total distortion filter used and the probability that the person on the other end does not speak English as a first language means that I can rarely make myself understood the first time - even with the limited vocabulary involved. This is not what happens when speaking in person.

[pH]

52 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Spending more than 30 years professionally communicating on telephone calls getting responses like "what? can you say that again?" it is inevitable that subtle changes take place - and not intentionally so. I don't try to put on an American accent.

I agree completely. Phones do cut out some frequencies, which doesn’t help. But, if anything, they enhance an accent. I worked for a large organisation, and interacted regularly by phone with several dozen other employees. Before the days of caller-id on phones, if I called someone and only said “Hi, John (for example)”, nine times out of ten, I’d get the reply “Oh, hi, Peter”. Very occasionally, they would get me confused with one other guy, also originally from the west of Scotland.

[BR60103]

My mother came from Edinburgh, my father was Canadian and spent almost all my life in Canada (one possibly formative summer in Scotland at age 2). I think I've shed the vestiges of an Ottawa Valley accent. My sister claimed that Dad was the last person in Ontario to consistently pronounce "clerk" as "clark".

Americans think we say "oot and aboot". I think they call the top of the house the "ruff".

My cousin was working in London. She said that any time a Scottish friend phoned, she'd get a message "Your mother called".

I must have requited love.  We spent the day moving bookcases in the basement room (the one without trains).

 

[J. S. Bach]

3 hours ago, Florence Locomotive Works said:

Evening all, ...snip...

stay healthy,

Douglas

What  is running at about 150psi?

 

[J. S. Bach]

A rather late good night owl from the Piedmont.

[chrisf]

Greetings one and all

 

It is difficult to have positive thoughts in these troubled times.  I particularly wanted to have some today because it is the 15th anniversary of my father’s passing and even I cannot be miserable for ever.  The best I can do for now is to take forward the Swiss Christmas trip by paying the deposit and expressing the fervent hope that it will be allowed to run once borders and lockdowns are unlocked.  It will be even better if our ridiculous new quarantine rules are rescinded as quickly as they were imposed.  There are six months before the tour is due to set off, so plenty of time for all to be made well.

 

I made a silly mistake yesterday – I believed what the Radio Times said.  Silly me.  Instead of “Carry On Cowboy” I found myself watching Poirot!  Why on earth would a Carry On film be pulled in favour of that?  Oh well, never mind: the pain was numbed by some rather nice rose wine which washed down my steak a treat.

 

Accents: a London non-accent for me, though someone once accused me of having a Guards officer accent.

 

Best wishes to all

 

Chris

[TheQ]

Mooring Awl,  inner Temple Hare, 

A much better nights sleep,  a very long soak in a hot bath helped.. 

 

Ben the clever Collie,  only needs a couple of times being conned into taking a pill,  before he realises and spits it out. So we keep changing the method.  However the expert at pill rejection was Amber, middle right as you look at the Avatar. No matter what you did as a con, she spat them out.  Only by dropping a pill in, holding her head back and her mouth closed would she eventually swallow the pill. 

 

The west coast of Scotland is a big place,  the accents change hugely between Stranraer and Cape Wrath,  with the " Native" language changing from English to Gaelic as you travel north. 

You go from a near Cumbrian accent close to the Border,  via near Glaswegian,  into the Gaidhlig influenced accents of the north west.  Gaidhlig itself varies tremendously from place to place,  island to island most native speakers can readily spot where another is from. 

 

It will be interesting to see what difference to traffic, the shops opening will make, I suspect not much for me.  We will hold off going shopping for a couple of weeks,  while the desperate lunatics go mad , and for the stores to refine their systems.   Then I'll take a day off work so we can go in while it's comparatively quiet..  Our favourite shops are small,  particularly book shops where it will definitely be one way systems, but there are many dead ends you can't re-route. 

 

Time to... Relax and wait for getting up time. 

 

 

[iL Dottore]

8 hours ago, Kelly said:

You asked for a photo of poppy.

 

Natalie said there was a request for a photo of poppy,  so I came looking at the thread. I noticed a few months ago there was talk of which dog would take which,  which is not the sort of thing anyone should be endorsing I hope. The answer is poppy would run away as fast as possible! 

Thanks for the photo.

She looks like trouble with a Capital T (but in a fun way) 

Would I be right in assuming that she has a mischievous streak?

7 hours ago, Erichill16 said:

Shocking day today. Note to self don’t let SWMBO check whether the electricity is turned on when I’m working on the  house wiring. I did mention to her that I don’t have life insurance.

Anyway goodnight

Robert

Ah! But does she? 

Mrs iD recently informed me of her newly revised life insurance policy and it really isn’t worth the bother to arrange for an untimely demise.... 

6 hours ago, Erichill16 said:

Hey Flavio, according to the BBC they’ve found your gold, you left it on the StGallen to Lucerne train. 

Regards,

your friend Robert.

Not mine, sorry. 
All my dosh is in various numbered Swiss bank accounts (literally) and besides I prefer my “ready money” to be in easily convertible and transportable things that retain their value: uncut diamonds, bearer bonds, etc. 

So much more convenient when moving from one Alpine lair to another....

4 hours ago, pH said:

....And if you have a partner, that’s the person you’re likely to speak to most.....

 

Oh, I don’t know; the dogs are probably getting more quality conversation time from Mrs iD than yours truly at present (presumably because she can train them but not I).
Interestingly, I read somewhere recently that dogs also have accents. Some researchers were looking at how dogs bark and noted differences between the data collected from different countries. Which, if true and corroborated by further research, raises the most interesting possibility of a hierarchy of dog accents (as in “don’t bark at me like that, that’s common mongrel that is”)  

And speaking of dogs, time to walk the Wolfpack!
Bis Später

iD

[polybear]

7 hours ago, Erichill16 said:

Hey Flavio, according to the BBC they’ve found your gold, you left it on the StGallen to Lucerne train. 

Regards,

your friend Robert.

 

If flavio had lost it then surely he'd have reported it?  Unless he shouldn't have had it, of course.....

Now what have you been up to flav??

 

5 hours ago, bbishop said:

Toddy (the dog) - in a lump of Mars Bar, and he was on heart tablets for the last 4½ years of his life.

Harvey (the cat) - ground up in a nice hot cup of tea.

Bill

 

I thought chocolate was poisonous to dogs?  Unless you cut the crusts off, of course

[roundhouse]

8 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

 Still haven't got a wheelbarrow, the queue at Homebase was to long so I didn't bother, I'll try again tomorrow.

We walked past the Homebase in Reigate around mid day on Saturday on our way home, to see what the queue was like. It was round the corner of the store although its not a huge store like many. My other half wont be doing any shopping where there are queues and me likewise as it just depresses me.

 

Being big travellers around the country and abroad this lockdown has had a huge knock on our mood and some days have been quite down (to levels similar to just before I packed up commuting and work two years ago this month) but luckily our beer supplies and modelling is a big boost and many have had far worse to deal with due to loss of loved ones and jobs. That reminds me that I must try and get hold of a long time fiend who hasnt been replying ot emails or texts. He had the virus early on and was very much over it but sounds as if he may have had some complications according ot his last email over a week ago.

 

These days town centres dont have very many shops that I would be interested in even before the virus, our only resaon for being there was for the pubs but that may not even be worth going for if its prebooking or queues. Even our local brewerys range was much reduced on Saturday, down to just 3 or 4 ales but luckily our favourite one was still available.

 

We may not like Amazons tax / employment ways but many other companies do similar where they can  and its way less stressful and easier to get hold of many items but I will order from smaller suppliers once I find good ones to deal with. Currently I am after a supplier that can cut perspex into 3 inch strips. Once I can get that done I can order more N scale track from a particular rock. Without the perspex there is risk of the N gauge stock falling off the High Line to the floor (7 feet drop) as it will be much nearer the edge than the currently laid OO /HO tracks. Today 34096 'Trevone' will get a good run followed by 34040 'Crewkerne'.

 

This morning I may try riniging the builders merchants near Gatwick to see if they have more of the required paving slabs in stock as last week I only managed to get 2. Getting a delivery of 50 or so has over two weeks waiting list and then I would have to shift them off the drive that day, so collecting 10 at a time is much easier to deal with.

 

Today I will put the live railcams of Santa Fe Junction  in Kansas City and my other half will have Elkhart IN whilst she is working. She likes seeing Kiki the cat when they turn up to feed him at the RR museum.

[roundhouse]

49 minutes ago, chrisf said:

 

 

It is difficult to have positive thoughts in these troubled times.  I particularly wanted to have some today because it is the 15th anniversary of my father’s passing and even I cannot be miserable for ever.

Its 6 years ago this week that it was my dads funeral and the last time I had a pint with our late friend Graham as two days later he was rushed into hospital and 5 years ago this week we had the call whilst waiting for the bus from Loughborough back to Kegworth (after a good apres GCR show beers with the Furness crew) that his cancer treatment had failed. We never got to see him again as the bl***y trains were up the creek as usual when I tried to do so the day he passed away. I have also just realised that the day my father died is the same date that I handed my notice which was also the same day a neighbour reversed into one of our cars.

[jamie92208]

Good moaning. It's still sunny at the moment but that will almost certainly  change.  Positive thoughts to those ER's who are feeling the effects of lockdown.  Here it is easing somewhat and we enjoyed our coffee in the cafe in the marketplace yesterday.  In the afternoon I scanned quite a lot of negatives but in between changing masks(photographic variety) over I got all 18 latts for the garden bench stained.  They are hung across the shed on a length of wire.  

 

Today looks good as a friend is coming over this morning and we are going to work on the layout and do some fettling and may actually run trains.  A group of French and English modellers are coning Fruday and bringing some visiting locos to run.  It should be a good day.

 

As to accents I once heard that accents tend to get fairly hard wired in your first school years so that you fit in with your peers.

 

Regards to all.

 

Jamie

[Barry O]

Ey up!

Good nights sleep....

 

Today is paint the railway room en suite in the loft day. Humph!

It may also be Baz has a trip out tobuy more paint say. Apart from going for walks I have not been in a shop since we got back from Oz/NZ in mid March. I have to say I haven't missed it.

 

Having worked away from home a lot in my career being confined to the house is not new to me. I have had a productive timebut still have lots of muddling to catch up on.

 

Her indoors has made some moreface masks. Ever the resourceful she cut up an empty tin of dandelion and burdock for the flexi nose strip.

 

So, lots to do. I need to make sure I use my time wisely today!

 

Positive thoughts to all ERs. BoD hope the family are keeping well!

 

Hope all is well with our missing ERs!

Baz

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone 

 

Not quit as sunny as it has been over the weekend, but I’m not complying about that as it will be a little more comfortable whilst I stand at the workbenches paint the garden bench. 

 

Accents are a funny thing, the last time we were in the US we spoke to several expats during are trips about. Some had been there only a few years and had already started to sound like they’d been there years. Some had been there a long time and still sounded like they’d only just arrived. It seemed to us that the further north from the UK they came from, the longer it took to lose their accent, so we came to the conclusion that us northerners didn’t want to part wi owt!

 

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

[Dave Hunt]

Morning all. Grey and damp here in North Hipposhire but the current muggocoffee is going down well. Just about to tackle the supermarket order for tomorrow's delivery slot; even though we are trying to use local purveyors and market traders wherever possible there are still some things for which we have to resort to the supermarkets although I don't like them for what they've done to small businesses and the high street.

 

On the subject of accents etc. In the far-off days when people still communicated by telephone and wrote with pens, a now well-known extract from an RAF officer's annual confidential report (it remained confidential as the subject was never named) stated, "He has a broad north eastern accent and his writing resembles that of a doctor in a hurry; we therefore have no effective means of communication." Along with other extracts such as, "He constantly sets himself low standards that he generally fails to meet", this sort of thing died out when the system changed and the subjects of reports were given copies rather than just being debriefed by the officer doing the reporting.

 

Have a good week each and every one.

 

Dave

[Dave Hunt]

Double post for some reason.

 

 

Edited June 15, 2020 by Dave Hunt