Your 2012 Five A Day - May

What is it about jokes of the 'bodily function' variety that reduce one to a giggling adolescent?

 
As an Aussie making her life in the UK, I cannot tell you the amount of times I have let it slip that I got my pants wet stepping in a puddle on the way to work. Or that I left my thongs at the door to avoid getting your carpet dirty.

Yes, trousers and casual summer footwear take on a whole new meaning on the other side of the planet.

But this month's Five A Day reminded me of another Aussie twist on the English language...with the word root.

Here are few definitions from Merriam-Webster. It's an Encyclopedia Britannica company so it must know:

1a : the usually underground part of a seed plant body that functions as an organ of absorption, aeration, and food storage or as a means of anchorage and support and that differs from a stem especially in lacking nodes, buds, and leaves b : any subterranean plant part (as a true root or a bulb, tuber, rootstock, or other modified stem) especially when fleshy and edible

2 a (1) : the part of a tooth within the socket (2) : any of the processes into which the root of a tooth is often divided b : the enlarged basal part of a hair within the skin—called also hair root c : the proximal end of a nerve; especially : one or more bundles of nerve fibers joining the cranial and spinal nerves with their respective nuclei and columns of gray matter—see dorsal root, ventral root d : the part of an organ or physical structure by which it is attached to the body <the root of the tongue>

Nothing odd here. Long, complicated and a bit boring (actually I 'switched off' about two lines in). Just what you expected, right?

But in that land Down Under (you know, where women glow and men plunder), root is another word for having sex.

Yes that's right.

Sex.

So when you ask us to root around and find that information, we suppress a childish giggle.

And when you ask us which route you should take, those fresh off the boat may let an adolescent snigger escape. (The rest of us are sniggering on the inside.)

And heaven forbid when you Americans say you are rooting for us...

*snort*

*blush*

So what cross-cultural euphemisms have caught you out? Go on, you can tell me.

It'll be our little secret...

*wink*

*chortle*

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A Little Tinkering...

Well peeps it's been a cosy, curled-up-indoors kind of Sunday here at Gidday HQ. I've done chores (well, some), read a little, sorted some pics I took in London yesterday, had a chat with Mum and carried out a little virtual redecorating. Yes, in the spirit of trying out new stuff and beginning a shiny new chapter, I have been tinkering away to give Gidday From The UK a bit of a lift. 

This year is about new horizons for me, whatever they turn out to be, so I wanted a 'eyes up', skyward theme. But I also like the relaxed feel of Gidday - a bit like I've invited you over for a cuppa and a chat - and didn't want to morph into something that just wasn't...well, me. So I've decided to use a picture of my very own street in Fabulous Finchley as the backdrop to all things Gidday.

Taken from the footpath right outside my front door

The last year has also seen me out and about a bit and I'm quite chuffed about this new notoriety. And I wanted to acknowledge the generosity of my fellow adventurers in the blogosphere for saying nice stuff about Gidday and for some especially brave souls, letting me loose on their patch to witter on about stuff.  So I've added a new page, Going Walkabout.

Gidday has played host to some Special Guests this year too. I love the variety it brings to the Gidday journey and so am putting this out there now - if you'd like me to write a guest post for you on...erm...something, I am completely up for it.

Speaking of putting stuff out there, I told you yesterday about another new page, Mind The Gap! designed to capture all that's sublime and ridiculous about charting one's course through the Queen's English in Blighty. Please feel free to contribute your stories - the more the merrier as far as I'm concerned (and thanks to Michelloui for her LOL tale of #expatfail on yesterday's post).

The Book Nook (previously the 50 Book Challenge until I got to 50) will remain at large and in the last few months has featured the scribblings of two of you, Charlie Wade with The Bailout (No. 51) and Jack Scott with Perking The Pansies: Jack and Liam Move To Turkey (No. 57).

No doubt there's more to come and not just from Jack and Charlie. You (well some of you anyway) seem to like my mini-reviews so I'll keep 'em coming for 2012.

As for the rest, we'll see what transpires as the year progresses. I already anticipate much travelling and a fair amount of fossicking in old London Town so some new themes may emerge on this front. In addition, the new Gidday HQ offers many opportunities not available in my previous super-small abode. I can see a few soirees of the outdoor variety taking place on the sizeable patio/in the grassy bit of the garden (which may or may not overshadow any future baking exploits). And let's not forget that Gidday HQ is guest-ready - Mum will be here in just 37 sleeps.

And speaking of Mum, she's is a stickler for manners that one - I may never meet HRH but Mum is comforted by the fact I at least know how to behave well. So thank you for all your reading, laughing, scoffing, following and commenting. Let me assure you every one of your comments is eagerly opened as I make my daily commute to and from work. This is the place where I put little old me on the page - whatever that may be at the time - and being cheered, supported and surprised by your feedback can really transform an often lacklustre commute.

That's it for now so I hope you enjoy Gidday From The UK's new duds. I look forward to more exciting travels through the blogosphere with you and if you are ever actually in London and fancy a face-to-face with an irreverent Aussie sheila, just let me know.

If Language Be The Food Of Love...

Eureka!

It means I have found it.

The El Dorado, the essence of life, the I Ching, the holy grail...

It's a funny thing isn't it, that when you start exploring a particular topic, the floodgates open and suddenly, you are awash. Where previously you could find or you knew very little, in an instant a whole deluge of opportunities to broaden a particular horizon appear.
 
Those of you who have been following along for a little while now will know my fascination for the trials and tribulations of the translation kind here in my adopted homeland. The nonsensical expressions of the natives, the faux pas of my own making, the idiosyncracies of place names and the general labour of love that is communicating with the locals.

Source: pinterest

And let me put this in context. I come from a land Down Under where women glow, men chunder and pretty much the only language spoken is English. As do the locals - speak English I mean...although there are about half a million Australians in the UK...but I digress.

And my I Ching? It is quite simply the definitive Anglo-EU Translation Guide. Shared with me (wry smile for free) with my over-the-partition German work colleague.

Some were familiar from my Boden Bonanza back in May 2011.  But there were others that were new - and enlightening. 'You must come for dinner soon' does not constitute an invitation from a Brit (but may from any of the other nationalities in my sphere). 'I only have a few minor comments' is not a well done/pat on the back but is rather likely to precede a complete re-working of...well, everything you were working on.

Needless to say I spent much of my first few years in Blighty hungry and over-worked.

There's been a spike of visits and page views over my last post, where I introduced you to Jack Scott from Perking the Pansies (reciprocal back-scratching at its best, I say). Jack has set up a very useful Expat Glossary on his site to help the immigrant ingenue in fair Anatolia navigate the colourful, lotus-eating-expat populous. Inspired by this charitable act, I have decided to create a glossary of my own, Mind The Gap! to help those fresh-off-the-boat to chart a safe course through the nuances of the indigenous vernacular here in the UK.

As the disclaimer says, Mind The Gap! represents the views and experiences of the author and whoever else she can earbash at the time. All idioms, ideas and idiosyncracies have been pinched without prejudice...and without apology.

In the spirit of community, sharing our experiences to enrich others and supporting our expat brothers-and-sisters-in-arms (aka blah blah blah), if you're prepared to be earbashed and pinched without prejudice, let me know if you've got any personal pearlers to add.

Source: pinterest

You never know. This could mark the beginning of a quiet revolution...

The Language Barrier...Mind The Gap!

I've lived here in the UK for just over 7 years now.  I came from another English-speaking country - a colony of the British Empire no less, built on the entrepreneurial and criminal exploits of those shipped in from the Mother Country.

And I have spent a not insignificant proportion of my time explaining passing comments, pithy retorts and ironic witticisms that lose their essential meaning when transported to the other side of the world.

The comment that sparked it all off 7 years ago was this:

I went for a fossick on your desk.

I had presumed that fossick was a word in use in everyday English language but clearly not.  And I found myself, flush-faced, explaining to the wide-eyed recipient of said comment that it meant to rummage about for something, using all of the relevant Aussie 'looking for gold'-isms I could think of! 

I am secretly quite proud that I haven't yet fallen for the whole 'I was walking to work today and my pants got wet' gaffe (for those non-English people out there, pants are underpants here) but there have been a few faux pas including thongs and vests (both also undergarments) and a few smiles/sniggers/raised eyebrows at comments like this week's pearler, 'suck it up Princess' (directed at one who needs to get over oneself!)

And it reminded me of some of those truly 'choice' (the English would no doubt say 'cracking') sayings that I had under my belt when I arrived 'off the boat' that captured the essence of a sentiment in the way only an Aussie can:

(Best I warn you here: if you would rather avoid references to swearing and general, unlady-like behaviour, you should stop reading now)

Feeling like a shag on a rock - the shag being a bird of the feathered variety - does not mean I would like to have sex in an uncomfortable place but rather that I've been (to use another metaphor) 'left out in the cold'.

As useless as t*ts on a bull - which has now been replaced by the more genteel 'as useless as a chocolate teapot' - you get my drift, right?

...and one of my all time favourites...

Don't p*ss down my back and tell me it's raining - which is really not for use in anything other than highly-social, alcoholically-lubricated situations but really sums up what the little voice inside my head is screaming saying sometimes.
 
So now you've had a peek behind the sunburnt brow of this ridgy didge Aussie Expat.  Shocked?  Well, I may not have painted a very erudite picture, but I'll bet you wouldn't have learnt any of that watching Neighbours!

But you can do your bit for British-Aussie relations yourself by clicking here and swotting up courtesy of the The Australian Slang Dictionary.

Then we might actually be speaking the language!

And that'd be bonzer mate...