Road signs.

[curiouswombat]

Daughter-dear is at Jake's this evening - a group of friends from sixth form having an impromptu party. (Those of you who saw the posts of the Murder Mystery party will have seen Jake - he was the pantomime dame!) If you missed them, but want a laugh - http://www.livejournal.com/~curiouswombat/2005/04/06/

We were at my mother's this afternoon, about as far from the village Jake's family live as you can get without leaving the Island, my mother's village is called Bride. As we walked the dog, Katherine told me that one of her friends was describing to someone new to the Island how to find Jake's house -starting "You know where Bride is?" Fortunately the answer was "No". Kat said she had had to interupt with "I think you mean Braaid!" She said if the answer to the original question had been "Yes" she would have had to cut in with - "Well don't go anywhere near it!"

The idea of anyone fairly new being able to follow directions from Braaid made her (and I) laugh anyway - it is only about five houses and a traffic island!

So, anyway, going to St. Marks, via Braaid, this evening I noticed as usual the sign as you go into the parish, which says 'Marown Welcomes Careful Drivers', and we wondered why they just didn't add under it 'And the rest of you can just Piss Off!'

Then we saw a sign 'Caution. Emerging Tractors.' Not sure why, but somehow it sounded as if they were going to come crawling out of a pond, having hatched from tractor spawn. Or possibly they stay in the pond until they are approaching adulthood, then crawl up the stems of waterside plants until they can dry their newly inflated wheels in the sunshine and drive off over the fields!!

Comments

[julia-here.livejournal.com]

Going from my house up to Yelm, there's a sign that says "Military Tank Crossing." (which happens to be right where my Grandmother's dairy farm was). All my life I've wondered where the civilian tanks are supposed to cross...

Julia, avoiding, at the moment, no less than five discrete tasks. Aren't I accomplished?

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

avoiding, at the moment, no less than five discrete tasks. Aren't I accomplished?

Ah - it's one of those skills aquired after years of experience, isn't it?

[missmurchison.livejournal.com]

The civilian tanks? Would those be the Hummers? They regularly block traffic, blight the countryside (especially the bright yellow ones) and otherwise annoy people by taking up too much space in parking lots. But they don't seem to be doing much crossing anywhere lately. I suspect they're not being driven much since gas prices have gone up here. I understand sales have dropped. What a pity! [/sarcasm]

[desdemonaspace]

How is Braaid pronounced?

I remember staying in a tiny town in Wales that had no vowels in its name: Bwlch (but perhaps w is a vowel in Welsh.)

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Braaid is almost as in Aid, but with a slightly extended hold of the vowel sound in the middle, as opossed to Bride which is exactly as it looks - like the wedding word! (Comes from the dedication of the church - St Bridget, also known as St Bride!)

You're right - w is a vowel in Welsh - sound like what it is rather then how it sounds in English - in other words it IS a double 'u' sound, so Bwlch sounds rather like 'Bulk'.

[desdemonaspace]

Thanks!

I remember the Bwlch townspeople pronouncing the last consonant something like an uvular fricative (like Jew's "ch"s or Arab's "kh.") Hence: "Bulkh."

Oh! Like the "ch" in loch. Now I get it!

[missmurchison.livejournal.com]

Please don't ask why: sometimes things just happen:

[missmurchison.livejournal.com]

And the iconicized version:

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Brilliant - LMAO!