One for Cosmo...

Cosmo - (a blog friend from Dublin... who has a great love for coffee), requested another coffee pic.

I have to say that a coffee shop is a great and curious thing. Our local coffee shop has become a second home - of sorts. It is a safe and warm place to escape the wild weather and a source of entertainment as it is a great place to watch the wind punish those on the outside... It is a place to be alone with a good book or a place to meet friends for an hour of laughter and serious discussion... It is a place for community... a place to bump into old friends and make new ones... and it is a place to get that all so important caffeine fix... Best of all it is a warm and welcoming place where you - for the hour that you are there - feel as if the place is your own.

Whenever a new person joins the staff we are always anxious to see how long it will be before he or she starts predicting our order or bringing it to us without being requested to do so (It usually takes about two weeks). Several of the people at our coffee shop are extremely friendly, and I am always a bit blessed by their genuine friendliness. I did, however, at one point begin to question if we were going to the coffee shop too much... the question arose when I started to get my coffees this way:









Later, I really began to question if the workers at the shop pitied me for coming in so much....




Is it just me....? am I reading something into this? Do you think that they are trying to send me a message......??? ;)

SS Minnow?

It does not look like the Tango2 had any better luck than the Tango1!

What did I just say?

Here are a few things that I never would have said before I moved to Ireland:

Said to a group of friends: "How are ye?" (This is one of my favorite things that is said here... but I miss a good southern Y'all from time to time)

Said to a friend: "Look at the pretty hooker out there!" (A hooker is a fishing boat in certain areas of Ireland)

Said to a friend: "Are you going to hurl this year?" (Hurling is a sport in Ireland)

Said to the shop keeper as he stood behind the main counter: "Do you have any craic?" (Pronounced 'CRACK' - it is Irish for good news/fun times)

By Special Request...

From the archives...2004... a blue eyed cow:





There you go Tim.... bring back memories? I still laugh when I look at the other cow being nosey over her shoulder.

More Fun With Irish...

So... in this process of language learning I occasionally make mistakes. Here are a few more that I have had fun making:


Recently I was shaking hands with a new teacher. I wanted to say, "It is nice to meet you", but I really said, "It is nice to beat you up". The man - who is in his 70's laughed and told he that he hoped not.


Recently while in a class the term "Snag Ceol" was used. In English the term "snog" means to kiss or 'make out'. Ceol is the word for music. So, I did the math and without thinking said out loud "makout music?". I now know that it means Jazz.

Sprát

As you may know… we are learning to speak Irish Gaelic. Well… we are now well to the point where we spend a good portion of our day speaking Irish. This does not always go as easily as we would wish. Here are a couple of fun language mistakes I made today: ;)

We were hanging out with a friend at our house, and we were talking about people’s names. I have a real hard time with some of the Irish names – especially the last names. As we were talking, I constantly kept mixing up the word “ainmhe” (pronounced ann-na-vee) which means animals with the word “ainmneachaí” (pronounced ann-na-ma-kree) the word for names. I don’t know how many times I said something like, “I have the hardest time with Irish animals” or “I can never pronounce Irish animals” or “In America we knew a few people with funny animals”. Our friend graciously just kept on laughing and helping me out of my mistake.

Later in the day, I went to a local shop for some milk. While there I ran into a local man who is an expert fisherman. We spoke in Irish about fishing and my lack of knowledge about saltwater fishing. I asked him to help me pick out something that would be useful for when the macrael run later this summer (a time when the schools of fish come so close to the shore that you can reach out and catch them with your bare hands). The man told me (in Irish) to reach up on the shelf and get a “Sprát”. I instantly knew that I did not know that Irish word…. But my mind kept racing…. “Sprát…. Sprát………. Ceard é sprát….?” My mind was blank. I looked at the shelves to try and solve the mystery but the labels were no help. I asked him in Irish “what is a sprat?” and he simply repeated the word “sprat” three or four times each time getting louder and slower. I asked him what it was in English, and he simply replied “SsssssssPpppppRrrrrrrrrAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaT” in a slow motion manner! There for a moment I felt like I was in some version of the movie ‘groundhog day’! I stood there in shock and confusement for a moment before he said in English “those silvery German sprats on the top shelf”. I picked a fancy silvery lore off of the self, and my friend said, “Now sure… that is a sprat”! I still am not sure what a sprat really is… but I don’t think that I will ask again.

An Irish Joke...

What's Irish and stays out all night?







Answer: Patty O'Furniture