flanerie

The Indrois

The Indrois, originally uploaded by Jez.

Pschitt!

Pschitt!, originally uploaded by Jez.

Hmmm, I fancy a nice glass of Pschitt!

En France

And so, for the first time in far too long, I am on a little mini-holiday. Nothing speciql – just Pqris;;; bloody French keyboard. Nothing special – just Paris, then the Loire Valley and back to Paris for a second weekend.

All very last minute – I got a call last week saying one of my oldest friends is leaving Paris to return to the United States (so I have a friend in New York now – excellent). Her leaving party was on Saturday at the Pot de Terre and so a very pleasant evening was spent chatting to old friends and making new ones.

And that’s it really. I would upload some photos from Paris (I didn’t have a digital camera when I lived here), but my friend’s computer runs on Linux, and you have to do something fancy with the USB connection. In the week, maybe.

Ahhhh – no work to fret about. Nice.

War memorial at dusk

War memorial at dusk, originally uploaded by Jez.

Grey skies and a war memorial.

Will (probably) write something more substantial soon. Before Friday, anyway. Then I’m off to France for a week.

No comment necessary

More from the BBC Public Talking Point pages:

I live very near to the latest Ladbroke Grove arrests and it sickens me that this very morning I might have bought bacon and eggs from the very shop where [the terrorists] bought different things.

That could have come straight from the pages of Viz.

Bridges and light

Bridges and light, originally uploaded by Jez.

Taken at Castlefield locks, Manchester.

A question

Does it make you bad son if, say, you’re vaguely aware that your parents’ wedding anniversary is sometime in August and you have to look up the date on your family tree – only to find out that it’s this coming weekend, it’s their ruby wedding anniversary, you haven’t got anything for them yet and anything you do buy has to be sent to them overseas?

Must dash. I’m off to the greetings card shop.

English?

London accent changing forever as a result of hip-hop

The rap and Afro-Caribbean speech being adopted by Londons teenagers is
creating an irreversible change in the capital’s accent as well as a minefield for lexicographers, according to the author of the Cambridge Encyclopaedia of English Language.

——

English-English Lexicon of Teen Speak

The first version of an online guide to youth-speak for the not-so-young, which the BBC hopes to add to and update at regular intervals.

——

Uptalk becoming standard speech in US

Once the preserve of teenage girls in Australia and California, uptalk – the practice of ending sentences on a rising note – is fast becoming part of standard American speech, says a New York professor.