Mid-January appears to be a good time to do many things. Bump your car (18 Jan being day of most traffic accidents in the UK). Be depressed (24 January coming up for that one - evidently the day of the year that is most ‘difficult’ for people). Do your tax return (for the self-employed – I …
Author archives: alison
Nostalgia
You know what they say. Even nostalgia ain’t what it used to be. But when does nostalgia start? It’s been a week where The Times has been including tokens to collect DVDs of children’s television. Mr Benn. The Flumps. Even the Wombles. But what have they called it? Nostalgia children’s TV. Is this a sign …
Nice cardi
A bit of a breakthrough. Having tried to track down a plain black cardigan for what seems a long period of time, I finally found one today. Now I know this is not exciting reading. Cardigans. Socks a couple of days ago. It’s just a good job we don’t have thermal vests as well. Jasper Carrot …
When is a wynd not a ginnel?
When it’s a snicket? More viewing the Urban Dictionary slang website last night. My normal test for these dialect search things is to put in the word ‘ginnel’, which is what I grew up with as a way to describe a small path or alleyway. It worked! It also offered ‘snicket’, and I in turn …
Heid on ma hauns
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 …