Nice People Thread No. 15, a Cyber Summer

chris_m

We've got a few good 'uns up here in Cumbria too.

Anyone fancy a try at how Torpenhow sounds when properly pronounced in the Cumbrian dialect - in other words how to say it if you want anyone local to understand where you mean?

vivatifosi

In Hertfordshire, you can tell who is not "from these parts" by how they say Berkhamsted.

My dad is from there. He calls it Berkumstid
My good friend, younger, is from there, she calls it Berkamstid
The newbies call it Berkhampstead

Generali

chris_m wrote: »

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Kuga or
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Cougar

Hmm, choices, choices

Why on earth Ford opted to give their compact SUV a name that sounds just like an earlier, and rather poorly-selling, sports coupe beats me.

Companies like Ford pay fortunes to get names for cars that don't inadvertently sound like a slang word meaning sexually voracious middle aged woman in one obscure language.

Winter has arrived. It was a double duvet night last night. Brrrr.

vivatifosi

It never dropped to the low teens there did it Gen? Like we tend to get in the daytime... Except today, that was rather nice, though the weekend looks as though it will be a washout. It is a bank holiday after all.

Pyxis

chris_m wrote: »

We've got a few good 'uns up here in Cumbria too.

Anyone fancy a try at how Torpenhow sounds when properly pronounced in the Cumbrian dialect - in other words how to say it if you want anyone local to understand where you mean?

I would guess at Tupno?
Topno?
Torno?

Generali wrote: »

Companies like Ford pay fortunes to get names for cars that don't inadvertently sound like a slang word meaning sexually voracious middle aged woman in one obscure language.

Yes. One classic example which you probably know, was the original name for the Rolls Royce Silver Shadow. It was going to be Silver Mist. At the very last minute, someone discovered that Mist was the German word for dung.

I think that something like that was why Opal Fruits was renamed Starburst.


Another word I misread, and sometimes still do, is awry. I said it as
or-ree, instead of a-wry.

Generali

vivatifosi wrote: »

It never dropped to the low teens there did it Gen? Like we tend to get in the daytime... Except today, that was rather nice, though the weekend looks as though it will be a washout. It is a bank holiday after all.

Mid teens! It was 10C last night. 10C! It's just not right. I blame climate change, apparently it can cause extremes of cold as well as heat.

It's going to be 8C tonight so I guess I'll need to put some kind of survival kit together. If I don't post tomorrow fear the worst.

The roads were dead this morning, even the travel news bloke mentioned it. I suspect that it was because it was too cold to get out of bed for many!

Anyone that thinks I've gone soft is welcome to join me on a 200km training ride on a 38C day when the weather gets back to normal

@Pyxis - funnily enough the Em-air-de (Mazda's MR2 in phonetic French) which sounded rather a lot like 'Merde' has never been a huge seller among our French comrades. Having said that I understand that getting the fuel for your car there is proving problematic for the Gallic rogues. May 68 all over again.

vivatifosi

I don't think you've gone soft Gen, just that your blood has thinned.

In all seriousness, it is something to think about if you do come back to the UK. We moved back in a not particularly cold spring. It was absolutely freezing to us and that was just moving back from Melbourne.

How long have you been there now? It feels like about three years, but I suspect it's a lot longer.

Generali

vivatifosi wrote: »

I don't think you've gone soft Gen, just that your blood has thinned.

In all seriousness, it is something to think about if you do come back to the UK. We moved back in a not particularly cold spring. It was absolutely freezing to us and that was just moving back from Melbourne.

How long have you been there now? It feels like about three years, but I suspect it's a lot longer.

I feel the cold worse than the kids over here but I think that's the draftiness of the houses. We have about a 1/4" gap under our front door! Actually the last time I went back to the UK in winter I was bloody miserable but I didn't mind the cold. I find the UK summer harder to deal with because you bloody heathens are too tight to put in air con.

November 2008 we moved here so 7.5 years. I won't be buried here though I don't think. We'll see how we find Canberra.

I went out for a really nice walk at lunchtime around the edge of the botanic gardens. I did a bit over 2 miles according to the app on my phone that measures such things.

vivatifosi

I don't know what to make of Canberra. I've never been there. As a kid, it looked very futuristic, like something out of the Jetsons, with leading edge architecture including a dome. My family there find it quite sterile and provincial (that's the Melbourne ones, not the Qld ones).

It is definitely on my to do list. Last time we were there it didn't make it onto the to do list as we went to the Blue Mountains instead, but do hope to get there next time.

Generali

vivatifosi wrote: »

I don't know what to make of Canberra. I've never been there. As a kid, it looked very futuristic, like something out of the Jetsons, with leading edge architecture including a dome. My family there find it quite sterile and provincial (that's the Melbourne ones, not the Qld ones).

It is definitely on my to do list. Last time we were there it didn't make it onto the to do list as we went to the Blue Mountains instead, but do hope to get there next time.

I quite like Canberra. It has something of a villagey feel to it with defined areas and feels less suburban than Sydney (I really don't like suburban living, never have). It has its quirks (no front fences allowed!) and is a much more manageable size than Sydney despite its huge blocks. It's a great city for cycling which is good for me.

As a tourist it's worth a visit. The Australia Museum is good and the Parliament Building is a pretty amazing example of modernist architecture. Loads of good places to eat because so many people there are on expenses.