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 …
Category archives: Writing
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 …
Passing the baton
Strange feeling, giving away work. Delightful too. I’d been anticipating for a little while being able to pass on a programme I’ve worked 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 …
Auld acquaintance 2
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 …
The princess and the Gentile
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’. Where are our Jewish, and any other faith, visitors meant to go? (Edinburgh residents can work out the original …