Preparedness for when

mrs-moneypenny

Morning all
GQ I was in agreement with you last night watching the news, you have to have been living in a cave devoid of all contact with the outside world for the last 6 months to not know the date of the referendum so why wait until 10 mins before the deadline to decide you want to vote in it. My bet is these will be the same people who saunter down to the polling station at 1/4 to closing time then get huffy and ring the papers if the staff want to shut up shop and go home on time.

Re Americanisms and different pronunciation. I love the way Americans speak so am not having a pop at anyone. (Elvis is a God and just hearing his southern drawl still turns my knees to jelly even after he's been gone nearly 40 years)
Anyway I had a cold caller ring me trying to sell me some kind of competition/prize draw subscription he sounded just like Donny osmond and I could have listened to him talk all day but thought I was being helpful when I explained to him that the town in the midlands is pronounced less-ter not lie-cess-ter-shire. He was totally affronted and accused me of being antiamerican and slammed the phone down on me. It was obvious after that that we are happy with how we say things and Americans like the way they say stuff.
I'm not normally upset when getting a cold caller riled but on this occasion it did embarrass me thinking he thought I was deliberately being unkind.

Ds2 wasn't too prepared last night, I sent him a text at 9.15 reminding him he needed to be home for 9.45. Dh rang him at 10 asking where he was, just leaving his girlfriends. By 10.25 still not home so rang him again he was about two miles away carrying his bike as he'd had a puncture. Luckily we have a land rover so could drive out to pick both him and his bike up. He's got maths exam this morning.

Slightly off topic, does anyone else have a landy? I think that is the only vehicle that makes total strangers give each other a friendly wave as they pass. When we first got one it took us a while to work out how these people knew us. They don't they just give other land rover owners a friendly wave as they pass by.

GreyQueen

Some of those southern US accents do it for me, too, particularly the Cajun drawl. Mind you, so do someWelsh and Irish ones......

Back to the call centre for 9 am and for more blippin' election calls. Enough to drive a girl potty. I've already returned my postal ballot as I had the wit to set myself up as a postal voter early this spring.

So, all these people who are registering to vote belatedly are so keen on democracy that they CBA to register in time for May's local govt and (in some areas) police and crime commissioner elections? Shame on them. I think extending the deadline is ridiculous. What next, running polling stations until 04.00 so people can vote on their way home from a nightclub? *sighs*

thriftwizard

I think that is the only vehicle that makes total strangers give each other a friendly wave as they pass. When we first got one it took us a while to work out how these people knew us. They don't they just give other land rover owners a friendly wave as they pass by.

No, Mazda Bongo owners ("Bongoliers" or "Bongonauts") do the same! Or sometimes make "the sign of the elevating roof" which is a raise of one arm. They're very jolly & sociable vehicles to own, as well as amazingly versatile & useful. At car boot sales & campsites, we tend to seek each other out & swap stories.

We've also owned two VW vans in the past; many owners (or drivers; a fair proportion of them are rental vehicles) of the older VWs also wave. OH found it all deeply embarrassing...

jk0

mrs-moneypenny wrote: »

Slightly off topic, does anyone else have a landy?

All the yummy mummies round here have Range Rover Sports. They stare straight ahead while forcing you onto the pavement.

mrs-moneypenny

Thanks thriftwizard, nice to know there are other friendly groups out there. Funny how ownership of a type of vehicle can give to aliegence to an hitherto unknown set of people.
Dh is quiet reserved so it took him a while to get comfy with waving at strangers and he would be the waver back rather than the initiator but now he sometimes waves first lol

[Deleted User]

Language and translation of it is tricksy isn't it? particularly when it's exactly the same words but with a different meaning or inflection, most confusing. I remember when we lived in Germany trying to find something in our little local supermarket and when I couldn't asking the one shop lady who had fluent English where I would find it. She responded with 'Du mussen' which translates as a direct order in English of 'YOU MUST' go to wherever I was to go to find it and it wasn't until I talked to a journalist neighbour that I understood it's another way of saying 'you should go' that I stopped feeling slightly taken aback. The German nation is usually so very polite.

The oddities of language use between us in the UK and our American cousins are more often the use of words that are common to both languages but have very different meanings in each hence the SUSPENDERS vs BRACES on PANTS vs TROUSERS causing so much amusement here, does it work the other way too MILA? do some of the words we use have a completely different meaning in common usage in the States? I hope they give you as much cause to giggle over them as they do us!

mrs-moneypenny

jk0 wrote: »

All the yummy mummies round here have Range Rover Sports. They stare straight ahead while forcing you onto the pavement.

Oh I hate that sort of aggressive driving:mad: I think 4x4 owners get tarred with the same brush because of some of the Chelsea tractor bad owners and relate press
4x4s are the staffy of the car world, some people pick them because they look big and aggressive but it's down to bad owners not the things itself. I used that analogy as my dd has a staff who's soft as putty and very well trained but to rad about those dogs you would think they all had the devil gene not that some people are stupid and shouldn't have dogs

It's rare we get let out of a junction by a car driver and we have been sneered at a few times. But Dh is a considerate driver and will always work on the theory that if everyone let one or two people out the roads would run smoother. Yes we all sometimes make mistakes and can get in the wrong lane but we are all human.
It's a firms vehicle that we requested as firm occasionally borrow it back for towing and such, but we have five children so wanted something big enough and practical for everyone plus stuff, was a sad day when the last defender came of the production line, I want to keep this one as long as poss as I'm worried what we'll be offered next time it needs replacing.

mrs-moneypenny

Jk0 I hope that doesn't come across as me having a dig at you for saying it, I agree there are some really inconsiderate 4x4 owners I'm talking
Land Rover defender here and don't think they are a popular townie car of choice.

I had to edit how I'd written it a few times as when I read it it sounded as if I was :mad: at your post rather than the driving you were describing.

jk0

Thanks Mrs MP. No, I didn't think you were having a dig at me for a moment.

lillibet_dripping

.....and don't forget the 'fanny pack' which we were offered whilst staying at Disneyworld!