Archive for January, 2008
I had great hopes of introducing a few of my gentle readers (and even some less gentle ones) to a little Scots this evening. But a spot of searching of online dictionaries led me to suspect that I had got the word I wanted wrong.
Yesterday saw a scene of great domesticity: a bit of Star Trek on repeat by way of background, a mound of socks before me. It was the day of the Sock Amnesty, when errant socks meet their partners again, and some sense of order is restored in the sock drawers of Him and Her. (On occasion, the event is upgraded to a Sock Cull…you can guess the rest. My mending skills are not always what they could be.)
A friend of mine is particularly swift at matching socks with their pair, and even has a small (I think home made) certificate to prove it. I was positive that what she was doing was ‘flyting’ socks, but when I looked it up, ‘flyte’ mainly seems to mean scold. I guess you could stand over the mound of socks and harrangue them, but it hasn’t worked for me before.
I was then going to put another word as a title to show that I felt a bit stuck at getting the wrong word. So I looked up that one, and it didn’t mean what I wanted either…
It’s all very well having had 25 years as a MacKenzie, Scottish relatives, around half my life living in Scotland…but I don’t really come across as a native when I speak. English mother, most of the rest of my life in England, and I sound it.
The more you stay around here in Scotland, though, the more extra words creep in that don’t get much use down south. (Though ‘minging’ seems to be doing quite well for itself now in the rest of the UK, I see.) Ever the linguistic magpie, I enjoy adding them to occasional, or even everyday, use.
Only difficulty is when I overextend myself, thinking I’ve got it right, authentic even, and it’s not. Though I just tried a different search, and the term ’scunnered’ (or ’scunnert’) turns up as I thought it did, meaning frustrated.
Ahm a wee bit scunnert but ahv no goat ma heid in ma hauns yet. In my next search, I found scunnert as fed up, but I also in turn came across www.urbandictionary.com so I can track down a few more words, Scots and other. Mair anon.
January 15th, 2008
Strange feeling, giving away work. Delightful too. I’d been anticipating for a little while being able to pass on the Ireland programme I work on - today I got to write that ‘introducing my new colleague’ email.
In some ways, you kind of feel you could have written it any time. It’s a bit like the feeling when the day comes round to get on a particular plane to a long-booked destination. You could have done it earlier, or any day, in some ways - but the point when it finally happens seems ever so ordinary. (Maybe that’s just my experience with flights. Every year I seem to take longer and longer to believe I’m finally on holiday.)
It’s been a nice programme to work on, encouraging schools in Ireland to link with schools in Scotland. But as I’ve been running it on my own, from the Scotland side at any rate, it can be a bit of an anti-climax. No one to commemorate it with you. On the up side, the colleague taking it on also works with me on with students, so I’ll no doubt keep up with bits of what’s happening.
I’ve been aware for some time of how much my work relies on emails to make things happen. With an email I…confirm someone can go abroad, make their day with the placement they longed for, or equally confirm that they can’t have their heart’s desire but they can still go somewhere worthwhile. It’s simultaneously powerful and very ordinary.
Today I used an email to cut my workload. It would be nice to try a different one tomorrow to give me a payrise…but there’s probably only so much power you can wield at a time.
January 14th, 2008
Not the green ones. Sorry. Still can’t acquire the taste. But as a way to build myself back up to some gardening, am starting pretty much as basic as I can, and trying sprouting seeds.
One of my colleagues is a long way ahead of me in this, and has given me some tips, including germinating them in the airing cupboard. Last week, I managed to grow some alfalfa sprouts - having invested in my alfalfa seeds as part of the Grand Esoteric Foodshop at the start of the month. Probably should have left them a bit longer, but they happily leapt into Thursday’s stir fry, even if they were still fairly tiny.
Now it’s the turn of sunflower seeds. Both times, you add water, swill them about in their jar, and squint at them for the first day or so. And then - the first sign of something else growing. It’s that day to day change that’s particularly exciting. Being able to eat the fruits of my labours is - for once - a bonus. But I’m hoping to transfer that kind of bonus into a bigger activity this year.
Part of the problem is work. It tends to peak at just the time you need to put things into pots, let alone into the ground, and has, till now, kept up until the point when you’d hope to start enjoying the produce. But maybe this way, I can build up a little sense of achievement to keep me going in new gardening experiments.
Mustard and cress sandwiches anyone? You know it’s only a matter of time. And water.
January 13th, 2008
Now that all the Christmas socialising has died down, nice to have a few extra people to see. Out to lunch today with someone who used to go to the same church in Edinburgh, plus her husband, and a few other joint acquaintances.
How do you pick up when you’re not seen each other for several years? Or, with another friend we saw last Saturday night, several months, when she’s been on the other side of the world? Thankfully, fairly easily, it turns out. Put some people together around some food, and it usually all works out.
We’ve lamented the fact that we’ve had some good friends move away over the last few years - with a couple more to go from our church small group later this month. The one consolation, it seems, is that we do seem to be able to pick up again with people, whether the gap is short or long, the distance near or many countries away.
Maybe it’s part of the Edinburgh Factor. (Nothing to do with house sales, although I’m sure Edinburgh’s attractiveness as a city will continue to keep people doing well in that sense.) Over the years, I’ve termed such friends who move away as Edinburgh Ex-Patriates - they don’t talk about if, but WHEN they return.
And even if it’s just a weekend, it’s great to have them about. Maybe Edinburgh is a more transitory city than some - though equally, should you stay, it seems to get smaller by the year, as your networks of friends of friends grow greater. And if you’re going to ‘lose’ people - which is probably inevitable as time goes on - you might as well be somewhere they want to come back to.
January 12th, 2008
Just when you thought you’d finally done with leaving dos…another one! Our great PA to the Director and Depute Director is moving on, but her excellent skills meant that she thought to invite some former colleagues to the pub with the rest of us this evening.
The one upside of having people leave is getting a bit more social time with people outside the office. There was a good crowd along to support - and what with it being the end of the first main week back, a certain interest in restoring ourselves, whether with a pint or fine conversation.
I made an effort…I did talk to one or two newer people. But often enough, things like this also give you the chance to have a half-decent chat with people who work in the same office, but whom you don’t see very often. Open plan environment is one thing, group of people all with lots to glue them to their computers is another.
Also really nice to chat more with a colleague who’s now working elsewhere. With lots of new people joining us fairly recently, it is also good to chat to someone who already knows you, and where you can find out what’s happened next in their lives - as well as the opportunity for some joint reminiscences about other colleagues who have also moved away.
Will I up my pub activity this year? Let’s see. With a return of Tattie Fridays (people heading off to get baked potatoes on a Friday lunchtime), as ever, the office does great things for company but less useful ones for your waistline…If I want the people time, I’ll have to choose between hot or cold carbohydrates, it seems.
January 11th, 2008
An opportunity to rib one of my colleagues about a misspelling in a recent email. Trying to indicate a street near our office as our meeting point in case of fire, he alerted everyone to meet at ‘Gentile’s Entry’. (Edinburgh residents can work out the original version.)
For a cultural organisation, you could argue this was a problematic choice: where are our Jewish, and any other faith, visitors meant to go? But I had the opportunity to hear a more regular mis-pronunciation the same day, heading up the close that leads up to the Royal Mile. A tourist stopped me and asked for ‘Princess Street’.
‘Princes’ is not used in so many place names, I’ll grant you, which I think is why ‘Princess’ seems to be said by various visitors to Edinburgh. It made me think that there are probably not so many mispronunciations that give you another word instead of your original choice.
Dan and another friend who grew up in London used to come up with alternative pronuncations for London areas. ‘Streatham’ became ‘St Reathams’, and so on. Dan equally was very pleased a few years back to hear me saying ‘An-tig-u-a’ for another Edinburgh street name, rather than ‘An-teeg-wa’. I had to make the joke against myself for a long time to stop that one being repeated back at me.
My brother came up with two of my favourite mishearings of place names. When a school friend got into an Oxford college (Somerville), he managed to understand that she had got a job at the then local supermarket (Somerfields). Equally, when I got the news of where I was going to be during my gap year teaching (Warsaw), he thought I would be just up the road, so to speak (Walsall).
New housing estates breed rather odd names (Edinburgh will currently offer you Q, The Visio, along with the lovely East Pilton Farm Rigg - try saying that to your taxi driver after a hard night out). I can’t help but think they’re missing out on some great mispronunciations to come.
January 10th, 2008
Blog writing is a dangerous thing. Yesterday I learned that one friend reads this blog ‘most days’; another met me at a group yesterday and mentioned she’d read the Robin Hood post from the day before. That’s immediate feedback for you!
Of course, they could have also posted a comment, and then I’d have known about them reading it. But there again, am I posting comments on others’ stuff? I read most of one friend’s film blog posts, but tend not to comment - don’t correct a man with superior film knowledge, eh? Or something.
All of which could mean there are others reading it, that I have no idea about. I don’t know if there’s some way of telling who’s read it, whether or not they leave a message. At least a few people I know who’ve mentioned something, I don’t even remember telling about the blog…
Anyway, can’t help but feel that it’s gratifying for people a) to have bothered reading it and b) to have said something after, one way or another. It makes me inclined to keep going, at least. This is bad news for the casual reader, who hoped for something light and frothy about the next series of Big Brother. For everyone else…maybe I’ll have to up my bus usage so I have enough to write about. You have been warned.
January 10th, 2008
…but they killed the leading lady. Being a bit taken aback by the sudden departure of Marion as a character from “Robin Hood”, with the series recently finished on the BBC, thought I’d see what others’ reactions were.
Talk about an outpouring. I didn’t sit and count how many comments(though it was a fairly interesting indication of how many different countries now view the programme, one way or another), but there must have been nigh on a hundred responses on a BBC page.
It did make me think back to my own reaction when another leading lady, Trinity, was killed in the final part of the Matrix trilogy. I may not have been ‘in shock’ and all the other descriptions when Marion was killed, but I do remember the shock seeing it happen the first time, as it were. (After all, sword through the middle vs large metal pole through the middle - not a lot to choose between them as a way to go.)
Here’s one way in which the internet is interesting - if you do feel upset, cheated (or equally elated, amazed) about the outcome of something you’ve been following, you can quickly find some more people who share the same opinion, or round up a few if you’re an early commenter.
It’s worth noting that only about 10% of those who commented upheld the way “Robin Hood” was handled - the rest laid in with some pretty strong adjectives describing the distress viewers had. Maybe it’s more so because ”Robin Hood” was seen as a family show. (I do struggle with that a bit, given the amount of death and bloodshed shown in it week by week.)
But clearly, Marion’s character had impressed on the feisty heroine front. It seems we have a need for such roles on TV. One person commented on comparisons between Billie Piper’s character of Rose (in “Doctor Who”), and that of Marion, as an indication of how strong female roles are really popular with viewers, but get stopped after a while.
I wondered why this has such a shock factor. Is it because we are unused to seeing female characters die in film or TV? Is it because we don’t normally see female characters who are also fighters? It’s worth bearing in mind that it’s only relatively recently that women in the British army have been allowed into front line positions, and some are still unhappy with this decision, even though there are women who are prepared to serve there.
Are we upset at the death of a woman, or the death of the love interest? Or are we just shocked at story conventions being turned upside down? I remember a similar reaction at the downbeat ending of “Twin Peaks”, nearly two decades before. It seems to be worse where a couple show signs of getting together in a drama, and then the opportunity is taken away from them.
This is a long post already; I’ll bring things to a close. But I think it’s interesting to see what people demand of their entertainment, and why, in relation to ‘real life’. Deputy article following soon.
January 8th, 2008
There’s been a shift in the Frydman tectonic plates. I find myself interested in playing games.
Lest you rush off to warn Dan, not those kind of games, but card games, possibly even the odd board game.
The world is split into various groups, it seems to me (and yes, there’s a board game for that too, which goes on all night). Those who enjoy board games tend to be on a different continent from those who don’t. (I think there’s probably a separate large island for jigsaw puzzlers. I may swim there some day.)
So to cross over into the game zone is really quite a shift in the substratum. It helps a great deal not to be fazed by losing. (I don’t think I will enter the ‘taunting other players while winning’ archipelago, though I must admit to taking a certain amount of satisfaction winning car races on Facebook.)
So why stay away? Sometimes what others have said, sometimes what I say about myself. I have long qualified as a ‘bad loser’, a state which it seems best to avoid mention of entirely, and the easiest way to do this seemed to be to avoid games. Equally, where others flock to be sociable, and to find activities to do with others, I am quite keen on the opportunity to curl up with a good book, and so on.
What’s changed? Sure, games are still about competition - nothing but, for some people. Again, I used to avoid having to be around others being hyped up when thinking they’re on a winning streak.
Now I guess I just think that these things matter less. I am more interested in the game as a way of being with people, possibly learning something new. (You certainly learn about friends and family in a new way when you see them play games…and what they do to each other in the process.)
So: having graduated to gin rummy playing, while on holiday with Dan, we played some more while in London with Jen. I lost all but one game, which was a little annoying, but not desperate. (Beating them at Star Wars Top Trumps on return was rather nice as a comeback, it has to be said.)
I found myself thinking it might be fun to get a book of card games and try out other ones. Reading “The Solitaire Mystery” and rewatching “Casino Royale” over the holidays does have to be factored into this thinking too, but there’s also a curiosity - 52 cards, meaning so many things to so many groups of people over the years. Whether for fun, to occupy most lunch breaks (computer solitaire being one of my former colleague’s habits), or just to try something new, it could be interesting to add another game or two to my repertoire.
So, gentle and not at all competitive reader, let me know if you’ve got any good tricks up your sleeve in this regard. We might even have reason to look for a charity shop tux to go with them.
January 7th, 2008
Dan’s creating a curry…and I’m free to tap away, and come up with a new blog post.
To be honest, it’s a chance to sum up a lot of what the holiday has been about. Food, reading, and a bit of tinkering around the house.
Food…it’s been a nice opportunity to cook. Admittedly most times of year are good to cook, but staying at home means there’s a bit more time for it. Managed to feed one couple who have entertained us many times, but also a good friend back in Edinburgh from her home in Bangaldesh. Hopefully the start of a bit more hospitality at home this year.
Reading…an opportunity to introduce “The Kitchen God’s Wife”, by Amy Tan, which I’m working my way through. Some books you speed through - this one you don’t. Reading about the Cultural Revolution is sobering stuff, even if the characters are (probably only somewhat) fictionalised.
On the plus side, you can certainly get caught up in the descriptions of the places, the landscape, the names of cities that slowly I’m learning, through hearing them via colleagues who work on programmes with China. Given those all-important Olympics this year, probably no bad time to be learning a bit more about China.
And tinkering…some mine, some from Dan’s mum. A year or so back, we were given his and hers aprons. Although I like a little light kitchen goddessery, I was slightly taken aback to have a) named aprons and b) ones bearing the terms ‘kitchen god’ and ‘kitchen goddess’. Jen kindly aided us to bring the aprons back to a plain state.
So. New year. New aprons. They’re what every respecting god and goddess are wearing.
January 6th, 2008
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