Just in case any of my non-UK readers did not understand the Cockney rhyming slang in my previous post, there follows an annotated version below.
Me old china [My old china plate = mate] was just telling the trouble and strife [= wife] that now you can go dahn [down] the ole rattle and tank [= [...]
Filed under: Language, Words on August 25th, 2009 | Comments Off
Me old china was just telling the trouble and strife that now you can go dahn the ole rattle and tank to get a speckled hen – or any amount of sausage and mash as it ‘appens – no Lady Godivas though – if you just enter your Huckleberry Finn in the machine. Might go [...]
Filed under: Language, Words on August 24th, 2009 | 2 Comments »
Before any more of July passes by, I feel compelled to record what I can remember of June.
After the very quiet months of April and May from a work point of view, June arrived with pleasant weather, the prospect of replenishing the elderflower cordial stocks and a general question mark about work levels.
Curiously, a couple [...]
Filed under: Food, Friends, Translation, Words on July 10th, 2009 | 3 Comments »
I forgot to mention to my gentle readers that when I was telling my friends about my trip to the German church service, I mentioned that I had not been able to hear all of the sermon.
Kerensa: …but the general theme was Jesus and the vine
Friend:… Jesus and the what?
Kerensa: You know, that bit in [...]
Filed under: Language, Words on May 6th, 2009 | Comments Off
I am currently working on a job with a colleague. I am quaking in my boots because he will be proofreading my work before submitting it to his client. I am translating an area I am not really that comfortable with and I feel sure I’m making tons of mistakes.
But the real reason I am [...]
Filed under: Translation, Words on March 31st, 2009 | 2 Comments »
This afternoon I visited my neighbour, Mrs Cupcake, for a cup of tea and a chat. Her 3 year-old son, Master Cupcake, was drawing a picture at the table as we chatted and occasionally would interrupt us.
I said somebody “was going through an unhappy phase”. Master Cupcake said, “What’s an unhappy phase?” As he said [...]
Filed under: Language, Words on March 16th, 2009 | 1 Comment »
…it was nice knowing you…
In some languages there are words which mean both hello and goodbye. I can’t think of an equivalent in English (except perhaps “Cheers” which in some contexts can mean “Hello” “Goodbye” and “Goodbye and thank you”). For example, in Austrian German “Servus” can be said both on meeting someone and leaving [...]
Filed under: Translation, Words on March 10th, 2009 | 1 Comment »
A friend of mine here in the village earns her living as an actress (and when that work is thin on the ground she runs childrens’ drama workshops in one of the theatres here.) She phoned me earlier this evening with a request: she is going for an audition in London tomorrow and needs to [...]
Filed under: Friends, Words on October 7th, 2008 | Comments Off
I have always had a rather ambivalent relationship with the word “companion”. On the one hand, it conjures up a rather dowdy and spinsterish sort of image of an impoverised unmarried woman in her 30s condemned to spending her life being put upon by a demanding crotchety older woman with nothing better to do than [...]
Filed under: Friends, Words on October 7th, 2008 | 1 Comment »
On the theme of losing it…
As you know, I am at my desk today (see below as to why) and so have answered the phone to a couple of clients. As politely as I could, I told them that today is a Feiertag in England (and Wales but not Scotland) and so I am officially [...]
Filed under: Life, Translation, Words on August 25th, 2008 | 2 Comments »