Early Risers.

[jamie92208]

2 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

 

 

Any other thoughts/suggestions for using British English to confuse foreigners?

I thought it was at Altamont when it all went wrong. After Woodstock and “three days of peace, love and music“ it was hippy heaven until the Altamont concert when everything went pear shaped.

 

iD

Yes I was aware of Altomont but for 15 yr old me the end of steam was far more traumatic.

1 hour ago, Andrew P said:

Visitors, (Ex Son in Law) due soon so I've been told we need to tidy up, not sure if that is me or the table along side my chair, either way, I don't have to move very far.

 

 

I'm glad that there is a fellow ER who also gets stickmabout the table at the side of his chair. 

 

Back from the market. It didn't rain and we had a very pleasant cup of coffee whilst sitting outside the Çafé St Jaques with our three closest friends. A little bit of normality is starting to return.

 

As to speaking idiomatic English, how about  "Nathen lass how ist"

Jamie

[Gwiwer]

5 hours ago, chrisf said:

“Portsmouth” should be a stick dance

Indeed it should.  The Mike Oldfield minor-hit version as linked has the percussion taking the place of stick-contacts.  It remains one of my favourite tunes.  Perhaps Chrisf and myself should form the ER Morris Side ..... 

 

18 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

Our neighbour has new fence panels ready to install. They got battered by recent storms and almost certainly by foxes jumping about. The only thing holding one fence panel together is our clematis montana

After several representations to the landlord including showing him in person when I spotted him making a site visit our fence was replaced between Friday and yesterday.  Most panels were very badly decayed, every time a squiggle ran along more bits fell off, magpies had given up landing on the posts because the perch wasn't secure and three panels were only held up by the mortal remains of long-dead ivy.  All changed now.  It looks so much better.  And it won't blow over in the next gale.  

 

4 hours ago, Barry O said:

Woopppiddddooo.. won a £5 prize and a lucky dip on the lottery last night.

And I got the other one!  Woohoo!!!  I promise not to spend it all at once   

 

Good Morning all.  A wet one Upon the Hill of Strawberries though we are promised dry later.  Dr. SWMBO was out and about very early taking her porridge picnic to the river long before I was aware of the day.  She assured me the weather at the time was dry and bright.  

 

Muggercoffy inserted.  Not nice out.  I might have to stay in and perform random acts of  awl-attraction  

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone

 

It was a beautiful sunny day here in England's northwest, up until a few minutes ago, when it started to rain, pah. 

 

Up late again this morning and the plan was to go straight outside to do some work in the garden. However, the rain has curtailed that, so plan 'B' it is then, carry on with the cellar ceiling. 

 

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

 

Brian 

Edited May 23, 2021 by BSW01

[Winslow Boy]

14 minutes ago, Simon G said:

I dont recall seeing any British Airways aircraft maintainers at the Lakeside and Haverthwaite Railway!!

 

Interestingly, in places where I worked those “Homers” were known as “foreigners”.

 

It is a blustery morning here today with occasional showers.  I have been outside digging and weeding in preparation for planting of mangetout peas and dwarf french beans.  When the showers came on, I retreated inside and completed the application of mastic to the shower, so hopefully it will now pass muster.  

 

Interesting that about 'foreigners' as that is what I've heard it called as well. Wonder if its a northern thing?

[Simon G]

3 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

 

Other posters have remarked on the difficulties of people pronouncing certain British names (I had actually written post on this, but it disappeared from my iPad before I could post it. Thank you, Mr Jobs).

But there is another thing that popped into my mind about British English is that there are a lot of slang terms that allows someone from Great Britain to talk English in front of “a foreigner“ without them being able to understand a word or at least not grasp the entire meaning)

Such as: <Had a frustrating morning: came in, had a shufti at the inbox but couldn’t get anything sorted. At this rate it’s going to go pear shaped in no time. Was desperate for a slash, but the bog was out of order, so I nipped across to the boozer and as I was there decided to grab a sarni and a jar. Charlie came in and asked, jokingly, if I wanted to get legless, “not at these prices” I replied “I bought the old trout lunch here once and said goodbye to the best part of a pony. And at the rate you drink, mate, I’d be skint in no time” I went back to the office, had another shufti at the inbox and them decided to skive off home>

Any other thoughts/suggestions for using British English to confuse foreigners?

 

Not British English, but there was a true tale in WW2 when two Gaelic speakers were POWs in Germany.  They escaped and eventually managed to make their way home.  On the way, they were recaptured by the Germans, but confused them by their use of the Gaelic.  They were asked where they came from by the Germans getting a map of Europe.  They pointed on the map to somewhere in northern Russia (this was before Germany tried to invade Russia), so the Germans let them go free!

[Gwiwer]

13 minutes ago, Winslow Boy said:

'foreigners' as that is what I've heard it called as well. Wonder if its a northern thing?

Use of the term varies.  "Furriners" to Cornish folk can be anyone from east of the Tamar right down to anyone from outside one's home village.  

[Coombe Barton]

I see quite a number of posts saying that posts 'disappeared'. This is a function of doing things online across the board. I compose posts in Word (other apps are available) then copy/paste. (or copy/pasta as my autocorrect had it).

 

 

[JohnDMJ]

 

52 minutes ago, Gwiwer said:

Indeed it should.  The Mike Oldfield minor-hit version as linked has the percussion taking the place of stick-contacts.  It remains one of my favourite tunes.  Perhaps Chrisf and myself should form the ER Morris Side ..... 

 

Warning; image alert!

[The Stationmaster]

G'day all,

 

Rain is promised for later but the big black clouds are suggesting that Exeter's seaweed might be losing its potency as they indicate rain sooner than later.

 

The comments about languages and understanding are interesting.  As I think I've mentioned previously there was an SNCF Traction Inspector who apart from sometimes using 'southern English' normally spoke a very Geordie version of our language having spent a lot of time in that area on holidays with relatives when he was a lad. (i'm here using 'Geordie' in a wide sense as i'm not sure exactly which side of the river he had spent his time).  As for those darned foreigners mangling our language one of my team was a Mr Owen and inevitably (with very few exceptions) he became Mr Oven when the French or Belgians mentioned him or spoke to him.  And of course the French pronunciation of my own surname is very different from how it is pronounced in English - a thing I had to quickly learn when dealing with various folk from the mainland.  But the English can be just as bad and a chap I'd worked with back in the '70s often had his name very thoroughly mangled - the worst version being 'Throstle-twight'.

 

Perhaps the worst thing in dealing with folk from other countries is when they talk in their own technical terms as either slang or use abbreviations or acronyms - getting used to 'HLP' pronounced in French was definitely an interesting experience and it was far easier I found to use the full words rather than the acronym.  But in fairness the difference in terms, and pronunciation, used for exactly the same thing in different parts of the British railway network could be bad enough - even when the term varied over just a few tens of miles (or occasionally even less distance).   And of course to many of us, but especially country people, the term 'foreigner' or 'incomer' could be applied to anyone who wasn't born & bred very locally to where one lived and even someone from a village only a few miles away would automatically be regarded with considerable suspicion because they were 'foreign'.  All part of life's rich pageant.

Enjoy the rest of your day if the weather allows and take care out there because plenty of others aren't.  

[Winslow Boy]

1 hour ago, Gwiwer said:

Use of the term varies.  "Furriners" to Cornish folk can be anyone from east of the Tamar right down to anyone from outside one's home village.  

 

So that's the person doing the job but what's the job he's doing referred to as? Is it a 'furriner' doing a 'furriner' or is it a 'furriner' doing a 'foreigner'? I'm confused.

[PhilJ W]

Morning/afternoon from Estuary-Land. Contacted 111 about my 'bug' as it was not improving, if anything it was getting worse. They put me through to the out of hours GP service and I got to pick up my prescription this afternoon.

[simontaylor484]

Picking up on what @The Stationmaster said the trouble with a lot of acronyms when translated into French are backwards.

2 examples i can quickly think of are

 

NATO becomes OTAN

AIDS became SIDA

[Coombe Barton]

'Foreigner' as a job done on works time for 'not work' is a common term in the Midlands.

Furriner is the phonetic way of pronounciation, applicable to either a job or a non-resident. Cornwall is still very parochial.

[iL Dottore]

1 hour ago, JohnDMJ said:

 

Warning; image alert!

Quite!

 

The sight of certain ER members Morris Dancing festooned with ribbons and bells is a sight I really do not want to see. Should I have the misfortune of seeing such a spectacle, I suspect it would be one of those things that one cannot “unsee“ and I would be emotionally and mentally scarred forever....

 

The ever insightful Terry Pratchett wrote a scene in one of his books where some Morris dancers were about to start dancing and he observed “There was the long-drawn-out chord that by law must precede all folk music to give bystanders time to get away”

 

And whilst on the subject of Terry Pratchett one of his most intriguing creations were the Dark Morris Dancers...

 

[jamie92208]

3 hours ago, Simon G said:

Not British English, but there was a true tale in WW2 when two Gaelic speakers were POWs in Germany.  They escaped and eventually managed to make their way home.  On the way, they were recaptured by the Germans, but confused them by their use of the Gaelic.  They were asked where they came from by the Germans getting a map of Europe.  They pointed on the map to somewhere in northern Russia (this was before Germany tried to invade Russia), so the Germans let them go free!

I once read about a Catholic priest who helped escaped allied POW's in the Marseille area. He came from the Western Isles and kept a journal in Gaelic as no German would be able to translate it.

3 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

Use of the term varies.  "Furriners" to Cornish folk can be anyone from east of the Tamar right down to anyone from outside one's home village.  

Here in La France Profonde anyone not from the village is foreign, let alone Parisians. In fact our former mayor, Helene, was looked upon with some suspicion as her family have only farmed here for about a century.

 

As to furriners/homers, in West Yorks they were known as Guvvy jobs.

 

Jamie

Edited May 23, 2021 by jamie92208

[Gwiwer]

1 hour ago, iL Dottore said:

The sight of certain ER members Morris Dancing festooned with ribbons and bells is a sight I really do not want to see

Beware the next Brains Trust   

 

1 hour ago, Winslow Boy said:

Is it a 'furriner' doing a 'furriner' or is it a 'furriner' doing a 'foreigner'?

Yes 

 

Still rainy.  It has become windy again.  And unnecessarily cold for the back end of May.  Any hopes of achieving the G-word have been abandoned.  The M-word will have to suffice.  I am threatened with the S-word as well; scones   

 

 

[Chris116]

14 minutes ago, Gwiwer said:

  I am threatened with the S-word as well; scones   

 

 

Are you putting the cream or jam on the scones first? 

 

I love putting cream on first on one half and jam first on the other half when in Devon or Cornwall, to see how many people want to tell me how to eat my food! 

[The White Rabbit]

3 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

Use of the term varies.  "Furriners" to Cornish folk can be anyone from east of the Tamar right down to anyone from outside one's home village.  

 

Outside one's own street in some places... 

[Pacific231G]

10 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

Quite!

 

The sight of certain ER members Morris Dancing festooned with ribbons and bells is a sight I really do not want to see. Should I have the misfortune of seeing such a spectacle, I suspect it would be one of those things that one cannot “unsee“ and I would be emotionally and mentally scarred forever....

 

The ever insightful Terry Pratchett wrote a scene in one of his books where some Morris dancers were about to start dancing and he observed “There was the long-drawn-out chord that by law must precede all folk music to give bystanders time to get away”

 

And whilst on the subject of Terry Pratchett one of his most intriguing creations were the Dark Morris Dancers...

 

Afternoon all

I've long suspected that if Morris Dancing was a tradition not of England but of the Dordogne, the Jonquils and Samanthas who turn their noses up at it here would tell you how "ebsolutely maahvellous" it is. Mind you I've been to a few village festivals in France and some of them probably deserve the line, often ascribed to Sir Thomas Beecham, about the two things never to try even more than does Morris Dancing. At least Morris Dancing doesn't generally involve bl**dy bagpipes. 

 

Dreaky here today. Got a reasonable soaking during my daily constititional today - fortunately winds moderate enough to allow deployment of umbrella- but the showers were too close together to avoid it and I had no exercise yesterday. 

 

At Le Goudron-Calandre, terminus (since the war) of the Chemin de Fer Economique du Val de Lyre, the afternoon mixed train ran today for the first time in three years hauled by  130TB501  and it shipped out two bi-foudre wagonloads  of the local vin tres ordinaire* from the Cooperative Viticole.

 

 

 

*Our vin ordinaire is probably the  3rd thing with *nc*st and folk dancing that you should never try. I suspect its main use is an industrial solvent!

 

 

Edited May 23, 2021 by Pacific231G

[The Stationmaster]

10 minutes ago, The White Rabbit said:

 

Outside one's own street in some places... 

Or even further along the same street in some places - a nice little example being Comines where you walk along the street crossing from France to Belgium.  The same happens on a number of roads in Basel/Bâle as there you can walk along various roads from Switzerland into France or Germany and vice versa  or similarly in suburbs from Germany to France and vice versa.

[New Haven Neil]

A'noon.  We trundled, ground and rattled to the Big City, partook in a Sunday roast and a pint at the Terminus Tavern, and rattled, ground and trundled back to the Bright lights of Ramsey.  It poured down, of course, and it is blowing a hoolie.  I haven't ridden on the MER for a while, I had missed the grinding of traction motor gears and shooshing of the trolley wheel, a thoroughly enjoyable ride despite the weather.  Daren't post a photo though, I'll have to do so on Night Mail.

 

Home now, coffee brewing, log burner lit, I suspect an afternoon/evening of slouching out is to be undertaken.

[TheQ]

Afta noon awl,

Eyes thought  it wuh time I had a Mardle wih yuh.

 

Several more bits of shelving made and painted.

 

Lifting bracket cut to size, additional hole drilled, I was going to anti rust it. But have decided to try it first. So next week after a grind off of sharp bits it will be tried, if ok then it will be finished.

 

The Main avenue and the route to the mobile home, have been mowed. Many stops to unclog the cutting deck  of grass. Just too wet. 

The trolley was moved down the the gardening shed, and covered in a plastic sheet. This gained many brownie points in making space in the mobile home. There is room in there for the other two trolleys 4ft by 2ft plan area should it be needed.

 

Seaweed inspectors said rain by 15:00 none yet so far.

 

 

[polybear]

2 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

Quite!

 

The sight of certain ER members Morris Dancing festooned with ribbons and bells is a sight I really do not want to see. Should I have the misfortune of seeing such a spectacle, I suspect it would be one of those things that one cannot “unsee“ and I would be emotionally and mentally scarred forever....

 

 

Time to resurrect the Bear/Hippo synchronised Morris Dancing Team me thinks.....

 

In other news:

Yet another rant-free day   The narrow 150mm base unit is now secured, levelled and living very happily next to the dishwasher, finishing off the run of base units.  Tomorrow's job will see the trimming of the decorative end panel - which is complicated by the fact that it needs scribing to the wall, floor and boxed-in pipework - with each having some bearing on the other.  Delivery of the Oven and Hob is also scheduled for tomorrow.....

[The Lurker]

23 hours ago, JohnDMJ said:

Good Afternoon, if I can call it thus!

 

13:23 train to Bognor Regis for my second Jab at (nominally) 13:50. Fine. Back at Bognor station and seated in the 14:17 back home to be told: "This train has been cancelled due to an incident" (one under, it transpires) We were told that replacement buses had been arranged.

 

Bognor Regis station does not improve over the two hours spent inspecting it! No sign of a bus. Many staff being taxied here there and everywhere but not the passengers. The driver of the 14:17 stuck to his duty and, having recognised me from other locations, was very helpful and informative.

 

A train arrived and, after much negotiation between platform staff and control, the 16:17 departed on time (using the 14:17's stock!!)

 

One now OBS (On Board Supervisor) (used to be platform staff at my local station, so on first-name terms) who was caught up in this at Bognor was taxied to my destination; when I arrived and exited the station, there he was, greeting me with "You made it then!" and telling me that the taxi had passed the scene with all its attendant vehicles. As I exited the station, there were the replacement buses; why was at least one sent to Bognor? (rhetorical!) Of note, the bus to Bognor was double decked; the only route it could sensibly take to Bognor was past the incident!

 

In short, what should have been accomplished in about 1.5 hours has consumed the afternoon! Hey Ho!

 

Reference names and languages:

 

 

May I cite a certain city in Belgium, Liège, Lüttich, Luik, Lidje. The English call this by its local French name of 'Liège', however, strictly, we should call it 'Cork'!

Should we call Dublin “Blackpool”?

[Pacific231G]

16 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

Time to resurrect the Bear/Hippo synchronised Morris Dancing Team me thinks.....

 

 

That sounds like an unfamiliar usage of the word synchronised