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Gransnet today....Just my opinion.

(558 Posts)
merlotgran Sun 27-Nov-16 11:43:46

Don't want to completely hi-jack the 'Christmas in four words' thread so I've started this one. Feel free to shoot me down. I don't do flouncing. grin

Some time ago, the 'What does Gransnet mean to you?'thread developed into a 'Bring back jingl' campaign. Despite this, it has become clear that we are not entitled to an explanation as to why she is still shackled to the naughty step

We inhabit a goldfish bowl which must be respectable to the outside world looking in on an ageing cyber community. Old people are only expected to be curmudgeonly in books and TV nonsense. Manufactured threads about growing old disgracefully are perfectly acceptable so long as they fit the approved template which has been set by people who are NOT as old as we are.

All well and good until a situation causes a ding-dong. We must be ever mindful that Gransnet is a business relying on advertising revenue. Swearing is tolerated on Mumsnet because it's acceptable in the young and feisty whereas the 'one foot in the grave' club have to leave all that behind and remember our opinions don't really count any more.

The political threads are argumentative because that's politics. You can't put a straight jacket on a well informed if opiniated point of view which is as it should be. Folk who hide behind the sofa when all hell breaks loose should know better than to get caught in the cross-fire.

So....We're allowed to moan about Brexit, complain about our aches and pains and chat about telly dramas/adverts/music. We willingly offer support to complete strangers even though it often comes back to bite us. I'm not the only one who can spot a set-up. Above all, we must remain bland!

There were two members who railed against this. One is sadly no longer with us and the other has been kicked into touch for being too outspoken. Unsurprisingly, they rarely saw eye to eye but that's LIFE!

I'm off to put the joint in the oven. I might even start a thread about it. hmm

Only joking!

grannyqueenie Tue 06-Dec-16 22:15:44

This thread just gets better and better, I've seen words I've not heard spoken for ages. My mother had a "kist" (chest) that she kept in the "press" (cupboard). Although I was brought up in Glasgow my mother hailed from Ayrshire and my father spent a lot of time in Ireland as a child, add to that regular holidays with family in Aberdeen and it's no wonder I'm never sure where various bits of my childhood dialect originated!

Elegran Tue 06-Dec-16 20:18:11

Auld biddies can also be bidey-ins, of course. It isn't just the young who cohabit.

Granny23 Tue 06-Dec-16 20:04:25

We also have 'puir auld biddies' and also bidey-ins.

Granny23 Tue 06-Dec-16 20:01:12

DGS won the talent contest at school last year reciting 'Wee Cock Sparra' complete with all the actions.

Around here we also call a sparrow a speug

Elegran Tue 06-Dec-16 19:19:39

Twa burds sat on a barra
Yin was a speug, the ither a sparra.

And Duncan Macrae's wee coak sparra www.youtube.com/watch?v=HivJ4EosWS8

Elegran Tue 06-Dec-16 19:15:51

gilly It is not a biddy but a bidey-in, like "abide with me".
I suppose a bidey-in abides in the same abode as his/her man/wife?

annodomini Tue 06-Dec-16 19:15:16

Sparrows where I lived (Ayrshire) were 'speugs'.

trisher Tue 06-Dec-16 19:06:05

spuggies in Geordie as well. When you go to the seaside you might go for a plodge (paddle)

DaphneBroon Tue 06-Dec-16 18:23:54

Have we had "I took a right scunner "? Reading another thread and it popped into my head ?

gillybob Tue 06-Dec-16 18:20:20

When I was little my granddad always used to say;

"there's a wee spuggie on the spyutt"

There is a small sparrow on the spout (drainpipe) confused

gillybob Tue 06-Dec-16 18:18:49

Fascinating Granny23 smile

In the NE a "biddy" is an old lady as in "she was an old biddy".

"Fashed" is an old fashioned Geordie word too . Charleygirl

There is a Geordie poem called the Lambton Worm in which there is a line that says:
"He couldn' be fashed to carry it yem, so ee hoyed it doon the well" (It's quite hard typing in Geordie).

Loosely translated to "he couldn't be bothered to carry it (the worm) home so he threw it down the well".

Another (slang) old Geordie word is Netty meaning toilet.

Jalima Tue 06-Dec-16 17:46:47

DM was not Scottish but used to say 'I canna be fashed' in a joking fashion (or perhaps she wasn't joking hmm).

Charleygirl Tue 06-Dec-16 17:01:06

Another word is fashed, meaning I really cannot be bothered.

paddyann Tue 06-Dec-16 16:32:16

Bidey in is a favourite of mine,not a wife not a girlfriend ,something inbetween .Someone who "bides" with you but no formalisation like marriage

Jalima Tue 06-Dec-16 15:52:06

We have been out in mizzle today - no other word describes that mixture of fog and light drizzle so well.

Granny23 Tue 06-Dec-16 15:04:16

What I find really interesting is that these words are not peculiar to Scotland as I had thought but are, instead, common usage across NE England and mainly Eastern Scotland (Glaswegian is a language in itself). No one from the West Highlands of Scotland, nor the NW of England has chipped in with their knowledge or use of these words. This makes me wonder if there is a Scandinavian link too because in the olden days it was easier to trade/travel by sea across the North Sea than overland, until the railways arrived, with western areas of the UK. I do know that words such as Haar for sea mist and Stoor for dust are shared with Scandinavian languages.

My Geography teacher (nearly 60 years ago) told us that Geography underpins every subject History, Sciences, Languages, technology. Even the spread of cultures/religions is influenced by geographic factors. In Kenya, native languages have no words for sunset, twilight, gloaming, days dawning, etc. Instead, they have several words for the sudden onset of darkness. This means that their literature/culture does not have concepts like being in your 'twilight years' nor 'Golden Years', nor even the 'Dawn of a New Age' or something slowly dawning on you. I suppose they would use creeping up on you instead. Fascinating isn't it?

Charleygirl Tue 06-Dec-16 14:58:50

anno I do not have that problem as I never bake!

annodomini Tue 06-Dec-16 14:52:35

Wabbit and scunnert, sums up how I'll feel after I have cleared up the kitchen after a baking session. I may be the world's messiest cook.

Jane10 Tue 06-Dec-16 14:35:20

Ooh yes. I'm definitely wabbit today.
I've also taken a scunner to the wee cakes I've got left!

Charleygirl Tue 06-Dec-16 14:29:23

Do you remember wabbit? Not feeling very well.
Also the word scunner, I am scunnered if I ken fit that means.

FarNorth Tue 06-Dec-16 13:45:09

Where's a wee smiley face with a wig and tartan tammy when you want one?
grin

Elegran Tue 06-Dec-16 12:42:03

Neeps = orange swede turnips, larger and milder than the smaller white and purple ones. Very nice mashed with plenty of butter and pepper. Parsnips also have the --nips ending.

Is this too soon to mention the famed microwave-whole method of cooking the neeps again? Burns night is on the horizon after all.

Elegran Tue 06-Dec-16 12:37:17

Don't we all, indeed?

Granny23 Tue 06-Dec-16 12:28:52

Sorry, struggling with a new keyboard - Burns and just.

Granny23 Tue 06-Dec-16 12:26:41

Elegran I bet Burn's knew a wummin juat like that - don't we all? Must admit to being guilty of same a few times but I'm not very good at keeping it going for long.