I fancied a holiday!

Fionnuala_2

Hi Savvy, glad to hear you're having such a great time here in NI.

An Irish turnip is a suede...and an Irish suede is a turnip. You have NO IDEA how much grief this caused me when I went to live in England when I was very young and as green as our grass...!!! I love turnip (ie swede) but can't stand swede (ie turnip) so I thought the English were trying to poison me cos I didn't buy swedes on account of not liking them, I asked for turnips but got swedes and couldn't believe the funny colour and awful taste cos it was nothing like turnip and I didn't know what to do as NOBODY in England seemed to understand what the problem was! And after that I bet you they still don't...?

You might hear the phrase "do/get me a message" - when I asked people at work in England to do me a message at lunch time they thought I was barking. All I wanted was for them to get something from the shop for me!

Messages are therefore groceries, and can be used as a generic term for most items bought in a shop.

Scallions, by the way, are spring onions. You can get spring onion crisps over here but not scallion ones.
The NI brand of crisps, Tayto is wonderful - really, really tasty! I missed them so much when in England. You can also get potato bread - best fried, delicious if a heart attack on a fork...

You might find our tea interesting. I had forgotton, but everyone I knows uses a metal teapot and after wetting the tea it goes on the hob to stew. I can't get out of the teabag in a cup routine.

There are loads and loads of places to go pony trekking in NI. Maybe instead of walking up the Mourne mountains we'll just drive the mountain road and head for Castlewellan Forest Park. There's a castle (though can't get in as it's privately owned) and an arboratum, a beautiful lake and some wooded hills which are criss-crossed by bridle paths. There is a stables right next door and they do accompanied treks through Castlewellan Forest Park. I love horses too - used to ride in London (well, in Harefield). Haven't been riding since I got back, so definitely up for this one.

This is exhausting, there is so much to do and so little time! Maybe you could stay another week or come back next March and come along to the NI MSE Meeting?!

Bye for now!

FTS

savvy

OMG! See what you mean about the swede/turnip confusion!! ::) AND the message one!!! ??? MMMMMMMM can't wait to try Tayto crisps, bit stuffed after all these yummy restaurants mind!! :-[ :-[ Definately need to do some more walking and horseriding to burn it all off!!

Got any places to go snowboarding?? I think I'll ring my boss tomorrow and tell her I'm staying in NI for another week!! Corr, it's been a long time since I had 3 weeks off! ::) ::) ;D

arkonite_babe

We used to have a dry ski slope in Belfast, have no idea whether it's still in operation though, that would be the only place you could snowboard.

savvy

Right well I'll try that out when I return to Belfast and fly home in another 2 weeks time!! hee hee

I need to send a postcard back to the msa soon, not that they miss me in there! :-/

arkonite_babe

Saavy,

to help you learn the local dialect, I think you need [link=http://gb.bookbutler.info/Crawl.po;jsessionid=OBU2kb3zuCZFXBUcEKICV5LK?typ=t&lng=2&in=0907528201]THIS[/link]

A wee taster for you....................................

FOODS
Champ = mashed potatoes with scallions
Scallions = Spring Onions
Fadge = Potato Bread
soorlicks = sorrel leaves
yellaman = honeycombe toffee
Dulse = dried seaweed ( a local delicacy!)


CLOTHES

Claes = clothes
simmet = vest


PARTS OF THE BODY

Bake = mouth
cooter = nose
heid = head
hinner end = bottom
lugs = ears
neb = nose
oxters = armpits



Example of dialect in conversation.......................

My heids turned all them weans fightin.

TRANSLATION

I have a sore head because the children are fighting.










You think you'll be able to cope without a translator?

savvy

A wee taster for you....................................

FOODS
soorlicks = sorrel leaves

Oooooeeer!!!

Dulse = dried seaweed ( a local delicacy!)

Aha, I actually eat this now! Didn't know it was a local delicacy!

You think you'll be able to cope without a translator?  :o

Phewwwwwwwww I'll have a go!! You'll have to post some for me to try and translate first though!!

IvanOpinion

Other translations for you

nigh - immediatley, now
Turd - third
boucha - good morning, and how are you doing
Past Affiss - Post Office
Ma ulsters killn ma - my stomach ulcer is annoying me today
Gerra feckin pig oar ear - could you please move your armoured vehicle over here
!!!!!! aff - you don't say ... is that correct .. your pulling my leg
Warra !!!!!! are ye lookin at - generally said by some ugly old boot that you wouldn't touch with a barge pole that just so happens to cross your line of vision as you stand there day dreaming.
Tak the turd on the right - usually means the second left

Hope this helps

Ivan

savvy

rofl&pmsl@Ivan!!! ;D ;D ;D ;D

ok think I got that lot!!

Fionnuala_2

My fav expressions are:

De ye hink I cime up the Lagan in a bubble, de ya??

Whas thon eejit gawpin at?

He was doin a Joey, so he was.

Hectic.

Q.How's she cuttin?
A.Fulla the blade, by, fulla the blade.

Incidentally, Savvy, when you make a statement, eg "I went for a walk" you need to add a further emphasis at the end as this is common parlance in N.Ireland so you would say "I went for a walk, so I did". Or "I had a lovely lunch, so I did" or "The dog followed us, so he did".

And EVERYTHING is superceded with "wee". eg The wee girl had a wee cup of tea and stirred it with a wee spoon and stuck her wee finger out cos she's a stuck up wee cow.

"Wee" also applies to anything of a fixed size, eg a wee pint of beer is the same as a normal pint of beer.

I do hope all this is clear!

FTS

arkonite_babe

Savvy,

try to translate this one ........................

"I've a wild hunnger on me, put twarthy prootas in the pot fer eatin."

;D

I await your reply in anticipation ..................... ;D