Randomness

So this morning I learnt something, I discovered that Mardi Gras, Fat Tuesday or whatever you call it, was a celebration to do with lent!
How cool, a carnival , beads, boobs and mucho alcohol.

How do we celebrate it in the UK (and parts of Canada) ?

We make pancakes (crepes) and eat them, sometimes we flip them in the air, some people hold pancake races- basically running down the street frying pan in hand flipping said pancake as you go.

Hmmm now which looks more fun ?

I admit I used to love pancake day - For some unknown reason most British people are brought up thinking that Shrove Tuesday is the only day we are allowed to eat pancakes.
This must be the only time of year the people at Jif lemon look forward too. Jif lemons are silly plastic lemon shaped containers of lemon juice, most Brits (well me) like our pancakes (crepes) with just sugar and lemon juice. Yum Yum yum.



A couple of other things:

On the news last night there was a story about the family of a 10 year old girl who were suing their local school district & a construction company which left their daughter with a six inxh scar on her head and three metal plates.
Now thats a terrible tale don't get me wrong but when the reported read out the name of the company and then went on to mention it several times. I had to laugh,I couldn't help my self.

The name of the company : Big Boys Steel Erections.

***

Remember the Jilly Cooper book I ordered off ebay from the stupid woman who doesn't do pay pal ?
Well still no book, no check been cashed, so I send her a message asking for the status of my order.
This morning we get this back:"hello, I haven't received any payment from you. and also your husband wanted to cancel the bidding, and the only way I could stop this bidding was to let it end and then leave feedback."

• Ok so first off I asked her to withdraw the bid, because she basically could not be bothered to get off her ass and go and find out how much the shipping would be.
• Secondly, no she let the auction end and then sent a payment invoice the next day with 10 pounds shipping (around $20)
• Thirdly I emailed her to say I had sent the check (the next day)
• Lastly , she hasn't left us any feedback whatsoever!
  

I think personally she is probably going to have to pay bank charges for cashing a check in Otherwise I am sure she would have contacted us long before now ( It was sent on the 5th) if she had not heard anything.
Maybe she will in future learn her lesson & only offer items for sale to UKers.

I think I am just gonna tell her not to bother, cancel the check , the only problem now is WP's generous mood Re the book has long expired so I wont be able to get it for a long while now. Which is pissing me off because I really was looking forward to reading it.

Stupid welsh person.

Yay ! Goodies through the post!

The postman came today armed with packages, most of which for WP, he is addicted to e-bay that man!
I set about opening them, boring things like X-box cables, window cranks & airbrush valve thingys.
The last one was for me!
From my good friends Tracey & Stephen (in Wales, not England as I said last time!)

A Birthday Pressie Yay! (Which is on Friday but how could I wait!)

Tracey is one of those people who think about the gifts they buy and give useful kick ass things...

Here it is :

No excuse me , I am off to pamper myself....


Before I go, the wonderful people at Blogger/Google yesterday decided that it was time I switched over to the new version, I said no to Beta but still they insisted firmly that from now on I was to use my Google account to sign into blogger ! Thanks (not at all) good people at Google.
On the bright side at least now they wont sign me out of my email whenever I sign into blogger as was the case, and seeing as I now have labels I will make this my first labeled post!

Ta Ta.

Well can you say it ?

This is a really quick post inspired by our discussion about Wales.

For those of you who want to try saying something Welsh here is the name of one of its villages:
Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch It really just trips of the tongue doesn't it ?
The English translation is "The church of St. Mary in the hollow of white hazel trees near the rapid whirlpool by St. Tysilio's of the red cave".


At one time a local government official of the town suggested that English people wanting to reside in Wales should be tested on their pronunciation of the town.
Rattling off the name would be an excellent way of overcoming Welsh fear of cultural domination by the English, according to a local government official in the Anglesey town.

"I am certainly not anti-English," said Alan Jones, the clerk to Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrob-
wllllantysiliogogogoch community council. "But there needs to be some effort by newcomers to mix in, and learning how to say the word properly would show a real willingness."

How to say it 101

LLAN - FAIR - PWLL - GWYN - GYLL - GO - GER - YCH - WYRN - DROB - WLL - LLAN - TY - SILIO - GO - GO - GOCH

• LLAN - To start off with, pronounce this section as you would do the Scottish word "clan".Then listen to the sound recording above taking particular notice of how the "ll" is pronounced. It is difficult to explain in words and is more easily learnt by oral example, but we will have a go here anyway. Lie your tongue flat in your mouth so that the tip is firmly touching the bridge behind your front teeth. Keeping the tip of your tongue in place, try and touch your back teeth with the sides of your tongue - now breathe out forcing the air to run strongly over the back of your tongue. This will cause a vibrating noise near your back teeth. Again, keeping the tongue in position, gently change the shape of your tongue until the sound becomes more controlled. This is the "ll" sound you are looking for.
  

• FAIR - Simply pronounce this section as you would the english word "fire", (not like you would expect to pronounce the word "fair" in english!) and change the "f" for a "v".
  

• PWLL - Now you have been practising your "ll" sound this will be a little easier to explain. The "pw" section is pronounced like the "pu" in the english word "put". Now add the "ll" on the end as described above. Now listen to the sound file again!
  

• GWYN - You may have heard the Welsh name "Gwyn", well this is pronounced in exactly the same way. Just say the english word "win" and put a "g" in front of it. (pronounce the "g" as you would in the word "gone"). Easy.
  

• GYLL - This is a bit more tricky. First say the english word "gil" (as associated with fish!"). Then change the "l" (as in "let") to "ll" as explained above. Listen to the sound file again.
  

• GO - Looks easy doesn't it - it is! Pronounce it as you would the "go" in "gone"
  

• GER - Simply say the word "care" but change the "c" for a "g".
  

• YCH - Like the pronunciation of "ll", this is another tricky section to explain. Think of something you don't like and say "yuck". Now take the "y" from the beginning to leave "uck". Now change the "ck" to "ch" as pronounced in the Scottish word "loch".
  

• WYRN - This looks more complicated that it is. Just say the english word "win".
  

• DROB - First say the english word "draw" and then add a "b" on the end. Easy.
  

• WLL - You've learnt this already. It's pronounced the same as "pwll" above but without the "p".
  

• LLAN - Again, this is exactly the same as the "llan" at the beginning of this section.
  

• TY - Simply pronounce this section as you would the "t" in "twig".
  

• SILIO - Just say "silly - o". The "o" is pronounced as in "cot".
  

• GO - As above.

• GO - As above.

• GOCH - We're almost there. Simply say "go" as above, put the "ch" after it and that's it! Put it all together and keep on practising.

Phew!!
They do provide a sound file here.

Good luck ;) and have a great weekend.

OOp's

Oh My I made a terrible Faux par in my post the other day.
I never even noticed until my good friend Tracey (sender of gifts) pointed it out.
I said "my friends in England" Oops, they don't live in England , they live in Wales!

Now to people outside the UK this may not seem like much of a slip but believe me it is. Imagine if I called one of you Americans "Canadian"- Although I still cannot tell the difference in the accent- at all. To me North America has 3 accents overall, General, Southern- Ya all and NY/NJ Soprano style. As you can see most people fit under the "general" label, Canadian included.

Now Tracey is English so I can get away with my slip a little better but her hubby Stephen is not English and he is very proud of his Welsh roots , so sorry S please forgive me.
Its not because I am a Cestrian Honest!

Its a bit of a stereotype that us Chester dwellers hate the Welsh (Chester is right on the England/ Wales boarder)

Cestrians are often perceived (partly-jokingly) of being 'anti-Welsh' although many have Welsh ancestors. This is exemplified by the fact that the Town Hall clock does not face west, towards Wales, and an archaic law which states any Cestrian may shoot a Welshman with a longbow if he loiters within the walls after sunset when the curfew bell chimes (although this law no-longer offers legal protection against prosecution for murder). However, many Cestrians work and shop in Wales, and Chester shares a radio station with Wrexham, Wales.

There is plenty of "good" things about Wales:

• Tom Jones
• Catherine Zeta-Jones
• Anthony Hopkins
• Ioan Gruffudd
• Coal
• Leeks
• Daffodills

I could go on and on about the merits of Wales but I wont for more info visit here

Now to all Welsh visitors:

Nadolig LLawen a Blwyddyn Newydd Dda

EDIT: Btw to all the Beta blogger people on my blogroll, I have visited you today but I cannot post under my blogger account for some reason, only my gmail account (which I dont dam well want to post under). Blogger has decided that I am using the wrong password or should try again later. &**^^%^&*&*%$%&*(())_