The Garden Fence - help and support in tough times

moneyistooshorttomention

"Furriners" are allowed to ignore every single "rule" we have.....:):rotfl: - on the grounds it takes years to figure them all out....

ivyleaf

One of my friends calls the evening meal "supper". I found it very confusing when I was first getting to know her. We call it "dinner", but when I was a child "dinner" was what we had in the middle of the day, and later on we had "tea". Interesting how things change.

And why "school dinner" versus "packed lunch"? I know they're officially "school lunches" but I don't know anyone who calls them that.

FurryBeastOz

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

"Furriners" are allowed to ignore every single "rule" we have.....:):rotfl: - on the grounds it takes years to figure them all out....

Thanks. I am London born and raised, but now a Scot (still British though::D. I think I'm just thrawn.

THIRZAH

I grew up in the Isle of Ely-there we used to have an early lunch called "docky" .

carolbee

monnagran wrote: »

Carolbee. I am and I thank God every day.

We are just along the coast from Sandown and often go along there. Not in the tourist season though.. Enjoy the race. I might wander down the road to watch a bit if it's Not raining.

Hope you enjoy the rest of your break.

x

Hope you enjoyed the race Monnagran.

We are staying at Adgestone and walked right down to Shanklin and back. Bit tired now!

moneyistooshorttomention

...and then there's the question of exactly what food you're going to get given at lunchtime (even if it is a "lunch" meal - rather than a "dinner" meal).

Problem solved to some extent in Wales - where if it's called "cawl" then you know it will be soup of some description, bread and a chunk of cheese with it. So that's quite handy when out and about for the day and wanting a bit of lunch - if there is cawl on the menu then you just have to ask whether it includes meat or no (chances are it won't) and you know exactly what you are going to get and that it will cost somewhere around £5 (seems to be the "going rate" that I've noticed).

Whereas normally lunch could be (often is ) soup, bread and cheese BUT it might be something like omelette/salad/bread OR it might be a main meal OR who knows?:rotfl:

But then - things can vary in all sorts of respects re food generally. For instance - if I've requested a "cream tea" - then I expect to get a scone (or two), butter to spread on the scone/s, then jam to put on top of that, then clotted cream to dollop on top of that. But there is a big debate as to whether the cream or the jam goes on first. It's sorta thought it's the Cornish way to dollop the cream on last and the Devon way to do otherwise (I've never yet quite figured that one out:rotfl:) and I am West Country (which is where the "Cream Tea" came from in the first place).

I just know that, if I'm the one doing the "cream tea" then the clotted cream gets dolloped on top afterwards (same as with a pudding) and I've been most astonished before now to not even get given any butter and having to draw the conclusion that they must mean me to use the cream as butter substitute and put it straight on my scone - I "think":rotfl:. Add that I "know" the scone in a "cream tea" doesn't contain anything sweet (eg sultanas or sugar) - but have found even that isn't universal.

Right - so that equals it's "all round to mine" then and you'll get your butter and put your clotted cream on afterwards and the scone definitely won't be sweet. Being me - even the jam will be healthy and you'll probably get strawberry chia jam sweetened with something other than sugar and not know the difference between that and conventional supermarket jam. LOL.

ivyleaf

THIRZAH wrote: »

I grew up in the Isle of Ely-there we used to have an early lunch called "docky" .

That's an interesting one THIRZAH! Is it peculiar to Ely, do you know?

moneyistooshorttomention

Quick google says "docky" is (maybe????) an East Anglian term for lunch.

Oh boy...by now....I am getting to the stage where I pity "furriners" trying to work out whats what anywhere -because we sometimes have a "heck of a job" to work out exactly whats what about something ourselves.

I wonder if other nations have the same problem working out "whats what" as we do:rotfl:

Look on the bright side time is that it must be "good training" for peeps to be lawyers of some description - ie by the time we've (sometimes) had to go in for asking umpteen questions to work out whether the other person means what we mean by the word/phrase used at that point in time:rotfl:

milasavesmoney

Money, your meal explanation certainly helps me clarify some questions that I have been having about meals mentioned on this board. Tea has been the most confusing to me, but I had worked out that most are referring to dinner. I was wrong about high tea, as I was thinking it was a more formal type event with fancy tea sandwiches, cakes and other desserts. Also it took me a while to figure out that pudding meant desserts. When we say pudding it is a specific word used for a creamy egg milk cooked dessert with flavoring added...usually vanilla or chocolate. Banana pudding refers to a dessert of layers of vanilla cookies, bananas, vanilla pudding and either meringue or whipped cream topping.
I was wondering what is meant by cream tea. Totally lost but now I'm even more lost.

And grockles is a word I have never heard before, so thank you. I thought it either meant tourists or a type of bird.

monnagran

Carolbee: i bet you are tired. Thats a bit of a trek. Lucky old me only had to wander a couple of hundred yards down to the beach. The tide was out as far as it would go when I went down but I had about a 180 degree view of the race. There is something wonderful about the sight of all those yachts strung out as far as you can see. Enjoy the rest of your stay.

At the moment we have 5 adults and half a dozen children rampaging around. Well, the kids are rampaging, the grown ups are trying to enjoy a glass or two of something to deaden the pain.

A barbecue is on its way.

This business of what various meals are called is irrelevant to me. I make it quite clear what I am inviting people for and am not above asking what sort of meal I can expect if invited out. I learned my lesson early on in marriage. I lost count of the times we turned up for an evening meal absolutely ravenous and were offered coffee and biscuits, necessitating a stop off at the chippie on the way home. After that we used to have a good filling meal before we left and of course several times we then faced a four course dinner when we arrived!

My ex had a horrible habit of inviting people round for 'a bite to eat." I never broke him of that so then got into the habit of contacting people to find out what they were expecting. The invitees were usually as bemused as me. Much better to be upfront, it made for much happiness all round.

x

P.S.. Mila, a 'chippie' is a take away food shop that sells chips - you would probably call them French fries but chips are chunkier. With them you can get white fish that has been dipped in batter and deep fried. Sprinkled with salt and malt vinegar this is delicious. Traditionally this was wrapped in newspaper and eaten while walking home from the cinema but the health monitors have banned the use of newspaper so now it is wrapped in white paper or placed in some sort of polystyrene container.

Also these days you can get a lot more such as sausages, meat pies, pieces of chicken etc, etc.

Just thought you would like to know.

Edited to add. Cream tea. Scones, jam and clotted cream.