The day before Shrove Tuesday's top ten Britishism list
Since we've moved to London - or possibly even before we moved - I haven't really had a moment to relax enough to sit down and write a bit about what we've been up to ... but today I thought, enough is enough, I need to stop waiting for that time to come and write before another year or decade or two goes by.
We're now living in a cozy, little studio flat which I really love. Sometimes I watch one of the many TV shows (I think I mentioned a while back that we are now television owners - not sure how I feel about that yet) where the hosts try to find a couple a home, e.g., Location, Location, Location or Property Ladder, and wish that we were settled enough to buy something ourselves ... and sometimes I watch them and just wonder what on earth people do with all the space they have. As a borderline obsessive hoarder (embarrassing, but true), I think living in small spaces has been really good for me. When we moved out of our two-bedroom apartment in September, I was quite embarrassed to stumble upon some of the collections of junk that I was certain would be of use one day. Now that we have little space, my compulsion to keep things that we don't use is virtually gone. I often think that everyone should live in a studio apartment at some point - especially now that everyone is trying to go green. It really puts things into perspective; it helps you to see that there is quite a large gap between what we think we need and what we actually need to live.
Enough of that. On to a new British words and phrases top ten list:
1. like a baby throwing its rattle out of the pram = having a tantrum about something to get noticed
2. a piss-artist = someone who goes out and gets drunk a lot
3. cut up = cut off (as in that stupid piss artist shouldn't be driving- he just cut me up!)
4. to catch someone up = to catch up with someone
5. how do you find sth? = what do you think about something? (this one makes me laugh- we were watching American Princess (great show... um, maybe not) last week when the 'princesses to be' were in England. A Brit asked one of the American ladies, "How do you find England?" and she answered by saying, "Oh, I didn't have to find it. I just got on a plane and let the pilot do all the work" ... she was funny, even though she wasn't trying to be!!)
6. punter= customer (especially a gambler or one who invests in risky business)
7. Shrove Tuesday = fat Tuesday = pancake Tuesday = the day before Ash Wednesday
8. sarky = sarcastic
9. duvet day = a sickie (today is the National Sickie day, by the way- apparently more people take a day off every year on Feb 4th than on any other day of the year- in the UK)
10. 'use your loaf' = cockney slang for 'use your head' (loaf and bread= head)
It's about that time ...
We're now living in a cozy, little studio flat which I really love. Sometimes I watch one of the many TV shows (I think I mentioned a while back that we are now television owners - not sure how I feel about that yet) where the hosts try to find a couple a home, e.g., Location, Location, Location or Property Ladder, and wish that we were settled enough to buy something ourselves ... and sometimes I watch them and just wonder what on earth people do with all the space they have. As a borderline obsessive hoarder (embarrassing, but true), I think living in small spaces has been really good for me. When we moved out of our two-bedroom apartment in September, I was quite embarrassed to stumble upon some of the collections of junk that I was certain would be of use one day. Now that we have little space, my compulsion to keep things that we don't use is virtually gone. I often think that everyone should live in a studio apartment at some point - especially now that everyone is trying to go green. It really puts things into perspective; it helps you to see that there is quite a large gap between what we think we need and what we actually need to live.
Enough of that. On to a new British words and phrases top ten list:
1. like a baby throwing its rattle out of the pram = having a tantrum about something to get noticed
2. a piss-artist = someone who goes out and gets drunk a lot
3. cut up = cut off (as in that stupid piss artist shouldn't be driving- he just cut me up!)
4. to catch someone up = to catch up with someone
5. how do you find sth? = what do you think about something? (this one makes me laugh- we were watching American Princess (great show... um, maybe not) last week when the 'princesses to be' were in England. A Brit asked one of the American ladies, "How do you find England?" and she answered by saying, "Oh, I didn't have to find it. I just got on a plane and let the pilot do all the work" ... she was funny, even though she wasn't trying to be!!)
6. punter= customer (especially a gambler or one who invests in risky business)
7. Shrove Tuesday = fat Tuesday = pancake Tuesday = the day before Ash Wednesday
8. sarky = sarcastic
9. duvet day = a sickie (today is the National Sickie day, by the way- apparently more people take a day off every year on Feb 4th than on any other day of the year- in the UK)
10. 'use your loaf' = cockney slang for 'use your head' (loaf and bread= head)
It's about that time ...
posted by C Hill at 9:55 PM
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