What makes you grin? Antidote to grumpy thread

[fred]

Ive learnt most Welsh ends in -- Whooooo Isnt it !

[Richard]

Is the Welsh version of Hinterland dubbed Monkey style?

 

I JFGI, it seems all the dialogue is shot twice!

[dollywobbler]

Yup. Takes a long time with several takes in both languages.

[Louise2cv]

First series filmed all in Welsh and then again in English wasn't it?

 

Been some really good Welsh telly (35 diwrnod, Pen Talar, 1st series of Gwaith/Cartref) to go along with YGwyll/Hinterland shame they don't get shown subtitled on BBC4 or something. The current "one to watch" is a political drama based in y senedd: byw celwyd. These big dramas tend to get shown with on-screen English subtitles late on a Tuesday night if you're ever bored and have access to S4C.

 

*a lot of S4C is sweet/naïve/twee/naff bordering on ameteurish but I quite like some of that stuff too!!

 

I draw the line at Fferm Factor... X factor for farming

[MarvinsMom]

Buus.

 

plinky plonk?

 

i understand that means microwave (but it might not too)

[Bren]

 

Harrison Ford in 1978 - went to collect Renault 20 but chose Peugeot 604 instead...

[Louise2cv]

I think you mean Bws. And "pobty ping" except in reality microwave is microdan (mee-cro-dan).

 

You can take the mick out of the lack of vowels and all that (actually there's more than in English) but one of my favourite things about Y Wyddor (Welsh alphabet) is that it is phonetic, so once you know each letter sound you can pronounce any word (perhap excepting 'y' which can change depending where it is in a word). I'm teaching the kids to read in Welsh first for that very reason. English pronunciation is bonkers.

[hairnet]

almost a ftp on the bike due to

 

IGNORE THE FECKING FUEL LIGHT

 

light comes on 20 miles from chester - great gallon left can get to helsby or the next one on the 540 just inside english border

 

pass helsby and no prob

 

get to within a mile of the end of the motorway and bleurrrrgh - like its running on 1 (its a twin) the services is 400m after that

 

cue hard shoulder and hazards and 10 mph

 

but - i pass the end of mway sign and expecting the bike to die and a half mile walk

 

it picks up and runs like nothing happened

 

many wtfs and cruise into the bp

 

wasnt going mad on a gallon shoulda done at least 35 mpg and from where the light happened the a540 services i got to was 26 miles away

 

fkin germans

[MrDuke]

Also, you know when you're on holiday and you walk into a shop/pub and they all start talking in Welsh when they see you?

 

I hate to break it to you, but they were all talking in Welsh before you walked in. You're really not that important to them

 

Sent from my SM-G361F using Tapatalk

[fred]

Having a bit of a sort out in the House (was old dears) and found swords and a old gun and a rocket launcher in the loft

Phoned my Stepdad - ''oh yeah forgot those you keep em''

 

Well roger me sideways

[AlabamaShrimp]

You can take the mick out of the lack of vowels and all that (actually there's more than in English) but one of my favourite things about Y Wyddor (Welsh alphabet) is that it is phonetic, so once you know each letter sound you can pronounce any word (perhap excepting 'y' which can change depending where it is in a word). I'm teaching the kids to read in Welsh first for that very reason. English pronunciation is bonkers.

(Without trying to sound a twat) why are you trying to learn Welsh or make it your kids first language when most of the world seems to be trying g to learn English?

 

I get the whole culture and heritage thing but really all seems a bit pointless.

 

But saying that I do understand why you would do it, I really want to learn at least a small bit of Irish, but it's proper hard, and really wish I was able to teach my son to speak something else as I know it will be more than helpful in future

[AlabamaShrimp]

Having a bit of a sort out in the House (was old dears) and found swords and a old gun and a rocket launcher in the loft

Phoned my Stepdad - ''oh yeah forgot those you keep em''

 

Well roger me sideways

Think we need pictures

[michael1703]

Gutted Lemmy died, but his funeral was bloody funny, loved his sons anecdotes

 

[Louise2cv]

(Without trying to sound a twat) why are you trying to learn Welsh or make it your kids first language when most of the world seems to be trying g to learn English?

 

I get the whole culture and heritage thing but really all seems a bit pointless.

 

But saying that I do understand why you would do it, I really want to learn at least a small bit of Irish, but it's proper hard, and really wish I was able to teach my son to speak something else as I know it will be more than helpful in future

(Not at all )

 

Firstly both Matt and I are English speaking so that will always be the kids first language. I try as much as possible to use what Welsh I do have, but it takes a bit of effort and I don't know enough yet to do it full time.

 

 

Up to 80% (I think) of the people here are first language Welsh so at the very least it's a matter of courtesy.

 

School is Welsh here too so while we are starting out with home ed, if they ever do go to school they won't be starting from scratch.

 

Apart from that there is evidence for the benefits of bilingualism both scientific and anecdotally, it makes sense to choose a second language that they will be exposed to daily under natural circumstances.

 

After that I'm hoping that having two languages now will make learning one of the "more useful" languages easier later on. Megan is already keen to try French.

 

Probably last on my list, but no less important to me is preserving the language.

[Pillock]

I think we're very lucky that out dear old language, as obtuse and difficult as it is, seems to be something approaching a default language across the world. A lot of western countries will choose it if they want to learn a second language, and of course with America using something similar* there's already a lot of people with it as a first language.

 

I was taught French at school, which I believe is a combination of it not being too difficult to learn, and also if they want to take us on a field trip then it's going to be cheaper than Russia or Japan. I would have loved to have learned German instead, I like the procedural way that you can see a word being built - and I have to say German seems more useful to me as a person. If I see a French speaker on TV, I assume they're an artist of some type. If I hear German being spoken, I assume it's cool sciency stuff.

 

I like the idea of the courtesy of learning a local langauge. The kids yesterday were joking that the only French they've retained from school is "I don't speak French, can you say that again in English please?" which seems massively arrogant. My biggest problem is with accents, I feel weird speaking French with an English accent and I just can't get my head around the change of vocal patterns. Welsh, I would imagine, is even harder when there are so many sounds that are hard to describe in English.

 

To sidestep around that particular problem, the language I'm currently picking up bits of is British Sign Language. No pronunciation issues at all

[Louise2cv]

Yes! We did "baby signing" with Megan, the system we used was based on BSL (somewhat simplified for baby hands) rather than markaton. We got a bit too busy when Huw came along but certainly with Megan she was able to communicate with a few signs as a baby and even now can understand "tell daddy mommy want a drink please" through the window.

 

Hope to revisit it again.

[Stanky]

I vaguely recall reading or hearing something a few years ago where some French people - men and women - were saying that they find French spoken with an English accent very sexy over there, and were completely serious, so there is hope for those of us who have a half decent grasp of the words, if not the pronunication.

 

I am very lucky in that I was able to learn both French and German at school, and while my German is a LOT better than my French, I find that when I'm immersed in either language I quickly pick back up. We went to the south of France on holiday in 2014 and my daughter and I went out to the boulangerie early one morning and were accosted by an elderly French gentleman who I had a surprisingly in-depth conversation about school systems locally and back here in blighty. It was only one I had bade him goodbye that I realised what I'd managed to achieve! I must have made sense as it was a proper 'conversation' not just me talking at him in gibberish.

 

I also held a surprisingly good conversation in a tourist office in a small town (Bamberg, if anyone cares) in southern Germany to the bemusement of my brother and a friend when we visited with his band about 4 years ago.

 

There are German and French language meetups in Portsmouth on a regular basis which I keep meaning to go along to, just to keep in practice.

 

Welsh I've never tried to learn, though.

[Pillock]

Mrs_Pillock has written baby signing books, and was on the telly explaining it too.

Both the kids are grown up now but still understand the important bits - only yesterday we were at my mum's for Christmas #2, the youngest (12) reached across for his fifteenth slice of cake... and had "Piggy" signed at him. Great way of making a point without making a scene, I only caught it out the corner of my eye.

 

I'm concentrating on the important stuff for my age rather than baby signing, so I can ask for more beer across a crowded bar for example. 

I find a lot of it common sense, so I'll watch the signed TV programmes and spot what sign is what word fairly easily. There's some nuances that I'm yet to grasp - I though the gurning was silly but apparently it's to do with the emphasis of the phrase. 

 

Best baby signing story - Mrs_Pillock was teaching nursery rhymes in a library. Twinkle Twinkle Little Star in this case. There happened to be an experienced signer in the room. Got to "like a diamond in the sky" and this other woman kicks off, apparently the sign for Diamond is a bit contentious and is sometimes confused with..... erm...... ladygarden. Except she simply shouted "YOU CAN'T SAY C***" across the library, because no sense of volume.

[ShiteRider]

Sorry for the shitty picture but had to snap this when i dropped a jag off the morning.

A-reg 205 in JRG, it looked immaculate as did the 309....the metro less so.

For maximum shite points i took the picture through the dirty winscreen of a ten year old Jazz biffermatic, which i later put sideways through Darwen town centre on black ice.

I'm living the shite dream.

[AlabamaShrimp]

I vaguely recall reading or hearing something a few years ago where some French people - men and women - were saying that they find French spoken with an English accent very sexy over there, and were completely serious, so there is hope for those of us who have a half decent grasp of the words, if not the pronunication.

 

I am very lucky in that I was able to learn both French and German at school, and while my German is a LOT better than my French, I find that when I'm immersed in either language I quickly pick back up. We went to the south of France on holiday in 2014 and my daughter and I went out to the boulangerie early one morning and were accosted by an elderly French gentleman who I had a surprisingly in-depth conversation about school systems locally and back here in blighty. It was only one I had bade him goodbye that I realised what I'd managed to achieve! I must have made sense as it was a proper 'conversation' not just me talking at him in gibberish.

 

I also held a surprisingly good conversation in a tourist office in a small town (Bamberg, if anyone cares) in southern Germany to the bemusement of my brother and a friend when we visited with his band about 4 years ago.

 

There are German and French language meetups in Portsmouth on a regular basis which I keep meaning to go along to, just to keep in practice.

 

Welsh I've never tried to learn, though.

Why do they teach French at school? I mean I know it's technically next to us but really wouldn't Spanish be more useful?

 

I learned German at school but hated the teacher and anything I learned after unfortunately tends to be related to tanks and stuff. I would like to learn more but again it looks hard and I'm a lazy git, besides I feel a total tit trying to speak anything but Yorkshire

[Sloth in a bowl]

Whilst out in the work van today I saw this towbarred pogweasal beauty, it made me smile because I haven't seen a rialto of this vintage in the wild for a good while,

 

 

What would you actually tow with one???

 

Your own personalised A-Team branded trailer of course

 

 

It was Portsmouth FCs punishment vehicle for the worst player of the week, then they got to modifying it a bit.

[hairnet]

the visa yesterday

 

 

permit parking round here but its parked outside the house......

 

has been since bought and theres been footy all the time since then and nowt

 

they can FRO

 

 

[strangeangel]

^^^ not still on the French plates, is it??

[quicksilver]

Why do they teach French at school? I mean I know it's technically next to us but really wouldn't Spanish be more useful?

 

I learned German at school but hated the teacher and anything I learned after unfortunately tends to be related to tanks and stuff. I would like to learn more but again it looks hard and I'm a lazy git, besides I feel a total tit trying to speak anything but Yorkshire

I'm starting to think teaching an Eastern European or Asian language would be even more useful than French or Spanish given current immigration trends. My late grandfather was Polish and came here as a refugee after the war, but his attitude was that he was living in England so he would speak English and he never spoke another word of Polish, so I do regret not having the opportunity to learn the language from him as it would be useful now. Arabic would also have been far more useful than French, given that until recently I shared a room with a majority Middle Eastern group and there are far more Arabs than French-speakers at the university.

 

My school offered both French and German (ironically it is called the Royal Latin School but hasn't taught Latin for years) and I did German to A-level. While I enjoyed it up to GCSE, the emphasis of the A-level course changed to learning about the country and talking about it in the language rather than useful vocabulary and conversation skills, so I didn't really learn much of any use and I've now forgotten most of it anyway.

[hairnet]

^^^ not still on the French plates, is it

 

it is

[hairnet]

i used this

 

 

and some 60 grit

 

 

 

to do this..........

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Aston Martin]

I needed to check on Panda 1 which is in storage 6 miles away, I also needed milk. Which ended in a 30 mile journey, I was already near a couple of B roads, so decided to have a quick blast and then I had to slam on, why are pheasants soo fucking stupid? Luckily my phone flew onto the floor at about 400 MPH, but no damage done and the pheasant escaped.

 

As this area is basically at sea level, roads had puddles in most places. In my head I was in a rally special stage.

 

Considering the car needs rear bumpstops, front suspension work and tyres all around, he did well.

[meggersdog]

So I'm browsing Copart, as you do, and came across a golf convertible.

After looking at the description I had a look at the MOT history.

• Test date 25 July 2013
• Test Result Fail
• MOT test number 3057 1660 3436
• Reason(s) for failure
  
  Windscreen washer provides insufficient washer liquid (8.2.3)

  Centre Rear Statutory seat belt missing (5.1.1)

   

   

   

  There are others but

  

   

  pull the armrest down..job done

[trigger]

What a plep. Clearly it's a 4 seater.

[scaryoldcortina]

Centre rear belt not a statutory belt anyway - as long as you have at least two in the back (could be one side and centre even!) then you are fine for MoT.

 

Oh, unless you remove the front passenger seat - then the Passenger rear seat needs a 3 point belt because it's now the front seat.