Tea?

[Motobecane]

Good afternoon everyone. A bit of sunshine today!

 

[Motobecane]

Earring of the day:

 

[classic33]

Swiss Roll, Anyone!!

 

[Blue]

No, but thanks for offering.

 

[classic33]

No, but thanks for offering.

More for me then.

 

[Blue]

More for me then.

Παρακαλώ.

 

[Blue]

That's a useful Greek word. Depending on context it can mean please, or hello, or you're welcome, or excuse me.

 

[classic33]

Παρακαλώ.

That's easy for you to say!!

 

[Motobecane]

Παρακαλώ.

So give us a phonetic spelling? It must be double difficult for you to learn a language with a different alphabet.

 

[Blue]

That's easy for you to say!!

It is actually

 

[Blue]

So give us a phonetic spelling? It must be double difficult for you to learn a language with a different alphabet.

Para ka low
With a stress on the 'o' part of 'low'.

It's a very difficult language - for many reasons.

The letters are one of the reasons eg their 'r' looks like an English 'p', what looks like a 'w' to us is one of their 2 'o' letters and what looks like a 'u' to us is an 'e' sound - one of four letters that is pronounced 'e'. Also, their upper case letters are often very different to the lower case. When trying to read at singing speed the brain can sometimes get a bit confused and on top of that, when you learn a song in lower case and then when drunk in a bar the karaoke track comes up in upper case one tends to get a WTF moment. I manage pretty well in either upper or lower case but Mrs B just sits down again when the tracks come up in upper case. Still, as far as I know I was the first British or Irish person to sing karaoke in Greek and Mrs B managed to learn 3 songs herself after some prompting from me. We're both pleased with our efforts and it certainly helps us to fit in with the Cypriots and Greeks.

With me it all started a few years ago when winter training on a turbo and I started to listen to Greek language CD's to pass the time while I pushed the pedals. I sang in Greek for the first time in Oct 2014 and I can now perform about 30 songs. When I hear a song I like I get the Greek lyrics from the internet and then do my own translations into English as an extra help with learning the language. Mrs B doesn't bother with the translating, but she may get there one day! I hope that I've improved since 2014b but FWIW here's one of my first attempts from back then

View: https://youtu.be/IUcHctBE5Lk

 

[classic33]

 

[Motobecane]

Good afternoon from sunny Maidstone.

I had a horrible thing happen yesterday. I was experimenting with making Agar jelly and was trying to set strawberries in the jelly. It was all going quite well but then I went to check whether it was setting in the fridge. Now...I have two fridges; a small fridge in the kitchen and a larger one which is at the top of the stairs which go down to the cellar. The jelly was in the latter. Somehow I managed to drop the half set jelly whilst removing it from the fridge. It tumbled all the way down the stairs and landed on the cellar floor, somehow managing to deposit half set jelly and strawberries on each and every step of the stairs. The thing is that the stairs are carpeted....and being not very good at keeping up with housework, I hadn't hoovered them in a long time.... so they were...er... rather dusty to say the least! Clearing up the mess was really not pleasant!

 

[Motobecane]

Para ka low
With a stress on the 'o' part of 'low'.

It's a very difficult language - for many reasons.

The letters are one of the reasons eg their 'r' looks like an English 'p', what looks like a 'w' to us is one of their 2 'o' letters and what looks like a 'u' to us is an 'e' sound - one of four letters that is pronounced 'e'. Also, their upper case letters are often very different to the lower case. When trying to read at singing speed the brain can sometimes get a bit confused and on top of that, when you learn a song in lower case and then when drunk in a bar the karaoke track comes up in upper case one tends to get a WTF moment. I manage pretty well in either upper or lower case but Mrs B just sits down again when the tracks come up in upper case. Still, as far as I know I was the first British or Irish person to sing karaoke in Greek and Mrs B managed to learn 3 songs herself after some prompting from me. We're both pleased with our efforts and it certainly helps us to fit in with the Cypriots and Greeks.

With me it all started a few years ago when winter training on a turbo and I started to listen to Greek language CD's to pass the time while I pushed the pedals. I sang in Greek for the first time in Oct 2014 and I can now perform about 30 songs. When I hear a song I like I get the Greek lyrics from the internet and then do my own translations into English as an extra help with learning the language. Mrs B doesn't bother with the translating, but she may get there one day! I hope that I've improved since 2014b but FWIW here's one of my first attempts from back then

View: https://youtu.be/IUcHctBE5Lk

Very very impressed! I now know that I can safely say I'm never going to attempt to learn Greek. Haven't watched the video yet as I'm waiting for a quiet moment! But I will.

 

[Motobecane]

Earring of the day: