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life in scotland
Yesterday a tree-cutting chap who was trimming the neighbors' willows offered me a reasonable price to do some trimming in our garden too. He was a bit of a cowboy and we haggled some. Every time he addressed me directly during our conversation, not knowing my name, he called me "my lady."
It came out very naturally, but at the same time was incredibly obsequious. He didn't have a hat but you got this ghost of a doff every time he said it--perhaps half a dozen times during the conversation.
It is sometimes UNUTTERABLY WEIRD living in Scotland.
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Meanwhile, on the other side of the Atlantic, local businesses also carry on. Impossible to say how many times Royer's Flowers in Lebanon, PA, has saved my butt. Next to the osprey webcam they are quite possibly my all time favorite web site.
For example--this morning I shipped out a gift basket to my nephew whose birthday is today. He's asleep in his bed and I'm sending him a birthday present from 3500 miles away which will arrive sometime after he wakes up. I also love the way it was cheaper and faster to send my cousin a wedding greeting via Royer's, along with a bunch of flowers, than to send a telegram.
If, like me, someone sent you a wedding telegram, doesn't that make you feel ANTIQUE?
It came out very naturally, but at the same time was incredibly obsequious. He didn't have a hat but you got this ghost of a doff every time he said it--perhaps half a dozen times during the conversation.
It is sometimes UNUTTERABLY WEIRD living in Scotland.
-------------------
Meanwhile, on the other side of the Atlantic, local businesses also carry on. Impossible to say how many times Royer's Flowers in Lebanon, PA, has saved my butt. Next to the osprey webcam they are quite possibly my all time favorite web site.
For example--this morning I shipped out a gift basket to my nephew whose birthday is today. He's asleep in his bed and I'm sending him a birthday present from 3500 miles away which will arrive sometime after he wakes up. I also love the way it was cheaper and faster to send my cousin a wedding greeting via Royer's, along with a bunch of flowers, than to send a telegram.
If, like me, someone sent you a wedding telegram, doesn't that make you feel ANTIQUE?
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I do say 'ta' for thanks/goodbye all the time now, though.
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Do you find that you can't remember how to pronounce certain words? My husband and I have argued so much over how "coherent" is pronounced that I now can't actually remember which one was 'mine', I use them both interchangeably. Ditto basil. The h in herb is still silent, though!
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I have been in the UK fifteen years now and I do feel increasingly like an alien when I go back to the US. I just don't recognize ANYTHING. Every year the money is different.
which is why I like the ospreys so much--they are equally at home in two different places. And they do it instinctively.
(my children don't like the way I say "osprey." I say "ospree." They say "ospray." they think I am dim.)
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(The guy at Taco Bell called me 'sweetheart' yesterday, though, which was equally baffling.)
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think of it as a variation on "hon"
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I think receiving a telegram would make my day.
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Okay; that's useless.
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In this modern age aren't telegrams emailed from one Western Union office to another and then printed out?
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http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5186113
Tanita Says :)
(Anonymous) 2009-12-10 07:49 pm (UTC)(link)BTW, I'm **NOT** in Scotland, so email me your order if you're not coming home; I'll be back on the other side of the pond in January. Of course, it's freezing here, too, just because I'm here...