A couple of weeks ago, the main shopping street in Southampton ('Above bar street', don't ask me what they mean by above, it's not above anything), which is 'pedestrianized', become suddenly unnaturally over-run by a bunch of little stalls. The English like to think of them as mini-German Christmas markets. There are a few that sell random wares, one that sells dried meats, one with Belgian waffles and mini-pancakes, some with candy, and the largest and busiest one sells hot mulled wine and German sausages. This is all well and good, I suppose, except for the fact that it turns an overcrowded walkway into a complete mess. And unfortunately for me, to get to Boots you have to pretty much walk all the way down the street past the mulled wine. The last two weeks this has been proven to be very difficult and time consuming. It's probably only going to get worse in the next few weeks...
One thing that has also for some reason suprised me is the presence of Christmas trees on campus. They have suddenly sprung up in quite a few places. Yesterday I left the library around 2 and went back in around 4 and a Christmas tree had popped up in the lobby bit. I suppose there is no reason for there not to be trees around. Of course, my confusion is helped along by the fact that it's not particularly cold, there was no Thanksgiving, and it in no way feels like Christmas.
It's been a long while since I have listed some American/British translation, so here goes:
'Doing the dishes' = 'Doing the washing up'
'Dish soap' = 'Washing up liquid'
'Laundry soap' = 'Washing powder'
'Coupe' = 'Coup-eh' (it has an accent on the E)
Oh, and the two washing machines that I have seen have been in kitchens. Like where a dishwasher would be, under the counter. And neither place had dryers, but students live there. They are apparently more common in parental residences.
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7 comments:
I like the washing up translation. It sounds very cleanly.
In England, 'coupe' rhymes with 'toupee'.
Did they have those washer/dryer combo thingies? Someone in my building has one of those. She was all telling me how European it was, but it apparently takes about 4 hours to do a complete load of laundry. I think in that case I'd rather have a dishwasher.
Oh, and vacuum = hoover and toilet paper = toilet roll.
Haven't seen any washer/dryer combos, but my exposure has been limited. It took me a while just to figure out what the machine in the kitchens was.
Is going to a pub after a game going to a "drink up?" Or perhaps that is just a New Zealand thing.
ok, i'm commenting after a bit of a sabatical. i was living with a family in a london suburb for about a month a few years ago, and they had a mini washer/dryer stacked thing going on, but told us that we shouldn't use it so we had to hang things on the line outside. needless to say my underwear was strung across my room because i didn't feel like displaying that outdoors for england to see. apparently the dryers are used sparingly, mostly in the winter. and yes, they take a long time to actually dry clothes (i used it before knowing the 'rules')
Going to the pub is 'going for a pint' or 'going to the pub'. But vacuuming is 'hoovering'. Apparently dryers can be rather expensive to operate or something as far as energy goes. These people drive hatchbacks because they are more fuel efficient. Things can just get pricey rather quickly it seems.
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