I kid you not! People in the UK actually go shopping in their night clothes .

I don't see the problem with that to be honest. In China and Thailand, they do it all the time. JimJams cover up much more of the body than a lot of the flimsy things some of the young vulupturous young ladies wear to go out to the pub in. Oh, wait a minute

Remember not to smile at people in London!

Or talk to strangers!

After all who knows what 'class' they come from...

early one morning in 1971 inna supermarket on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley, CA I saw a young woman in a night dress with something covering her shoulders pushing a trolley...she was a ringer for Bette Davis outta the movie Jezebel and everyone's eyes were on her...she paid for her groceries and left...

I later saw her onna East Bay Transit bus fully clothed and she had a run in her stockings...my perception of her was then severely affected...the datum had disappeared...

oh, lordy...

the stockings issue is significant...I met a middle aged woman who was an associate of my ex's family inna bar (there ain't no pubs down there...they are drinking places) down the Sheddlestone Road in east Glasgow...she had a drink problem but was widely admired otherwise...I noted that she had no stockings and that she had quite shapely legs as well...

at breakfast the next morning I mentioned that Ms so and so had no stockings on at the bar and that she also had nice legs...no one wanted to believe the stockings issue and my admiration of her shapely middle aged legs went with out comment as well...

I was reminded of the scene outta Memories of underdevelopment, a famous cuban film by Tomas Gutierrez Alea where a bourgeois layabout approaches a working class girl and compliments her on her knee architecture...transposed to east Glasgow and middle aged pulchritude...

I could speak glasweigan by that time so I was cool...

an'...let me tell ye about the chorus at the RC church on the Sheddlestone Road during mass at christmas...as we were being seated I was introduced to a family associate/neighbor; a small nondescript woman with a babushka scarf...they sing hymms during the mass unlike anywhere I've been, never seen none in the US or latin america...

the babushka lady was sitting behind me in the pew and from that area I heard an angel singing with non-glasweigan intonation...I didn't want to turn around for obvious reasons...

I asked later and indeed it was her...she sings from the heart and it comes out as king james rather than the local dialect...

re-affirmed my epiphany in Bolivia...that other people's faith you can learn from and to put it down is just to perpetuate yer own ignorance...

At any moment, I expect to see John Cleese enter this thread and do one of his silly walks.

Accents can be surprising. I've worked with a couple of women of Asian extraction (south Asia) who you would expect to talk in that jingle jangle way of those from the sub-continent but no.

One, who was young and very attractice except she had a bit of a large conk (nose), who spoke in broad Glaswegian.

The other, middle aged and a bit of a handful (i.e. large ) spoke with a broad Yorkshire, Leeds, accent.

Never judge a book by the cover nor a record by the sleeve.

My gal is trying to speak "kiwi", the more she tries the harder it is getting for me to unnastand her,

She tells me, "You do not speak kiwi."

<deleted>, what do I a born and bred kiwi speak,

Sheeeeeeesh.

Her Filipino english was OK, now,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,?

Gotta love her for "trying", for me......

Mind you it is often trying for me. ......hehe

Apparently the new PM has surrounded himself with the 'Old Boys' club.

I get a lot of good naturing grief from my lady for my accent in my (pathetic) attempts at Vietnamese. All the stuff I have plus my early time here in Ha Noi taught me the purer form of the language. Down here in the south they speak faster, the pronouciation is totally different and they even use completely different words. Add to that the plethora of diacritics that change the pronouciation and the tones and I often make a right hash of it.

Then to make matters worse she comes from the Mekong Delta region where the language changes yet again taking in some Khmer. She even admits that she has difficulty following conversations between Sai Gon people.

She keeps telling me I speak Vietnamese like a baky (sp?) which is a derogatory word the southerners have for the northerners. The northerners have a similar one for those from the south so it evens up.

Languages, sometimes I think it would all be much easier if we all spoke English, then I think no <deleted>' way. Differences in language and accents are are large part of the enjoyment of life on the road and long may it remain that way.

I am working on perfecting "thủy phi cơ của tôi là đầy đủ của cá chình" but am struggling.

Translation : my hovercraft is full of eels.

I think.

I was on a ferry over to Koh Samet and it was half an hour standing besides 3 UK blokes before I realized they were speaking English. They were Cockneys from London and I only understood about every 5th word... even when they spoke to me directly. I didn't say anything, but had a good giggle to myself about it.

I reckon that linguistics proffessor from Pygmalion would have a hard time of it now trying to discern exactly where people come from.

Back in the day that the story is set in, because people were born in a house and stayed there for their entire lives, he could even tell the street that someone lived on, just by their accent.

Scotland is the only place in the world where you can get a degree in mendicancy and the university careers offices have pictures of London Underground Stations on the walls !!

( P.S You should only talk to a Welshman on a prison visit )

I have a proper accent.

Scotland is the only place in the world where you can get a degree in mendicancy and the university careers offices have pictures of London Underground Stations on the walls !!

( P.S You should only talk to a Welshman on a prison visit )

I have a proper accent.

"ello, 'ello - wot's all this then?

You'd better come along a me.

Supposedly the purest of the accents in English comes from the North of Scotland around Inverness. Very soft and without the harshness of lots of Southern accents. But they speak so quietly you would think that you need a hearing aid!!

Shall try and find a youtoob thing to show you.

Sorry this was all i could find!!