The Lemon Fool

We have my 97 year old cousin staying with us at the moment, she moved to Malvern about 60 years ago. We asked one of her old neighbours who is 101 and still lives locally to come and visit her. I couldn't help but notice that when they were reminiscing about their childhood they spoke Welsh but when they were talking about everyday matters they spoke in English. I was amazed that my cousin remembered her Welsh but it seemed to come back to her.

R6

And further confusion caused by multi-lingual signage - from the BBC news site today:-
A sign in Cwmbran's Asda for the alcohol-free section was incorrectly translated to "free alcohol" in Welsh.
Guto Aaron, who spotted the sign, wrote on Twitter: "Get yourself to Asda, according to their dodgy Welsh translations they are giving away free alcohol."
Asda said it was changing the sign.
The sign - which should read di-alcohol - in fact says alcohol am ddim, which means free alcohol.

I remember Kingsley Amis (?) moaning about cab rank signs in Swansea being marked TACSI / TAXI - "solely for the benefit of Welsh people unfamiliar with the letter 'X' "

Mildly off topic, but I quite enjoyed this story about the Welsh labels advertising free alcohol at Asda:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-47959424

Reminds me of my amusement/disappointment upon learning that "SIN ALCOHOL" is the Spanish for alcohol-free. Pity, it looked so tempting on the side of the bottle.

BJ

AleisterCrowley wrote:I remember Kingsley Amis (?) moaning about cab rank signs in Swansea being marked TACSI / TAXI - "solely for the benefit of Welsh people unfamiliar with the letter 'X' "

Ah yes, I must dig out my copy of The Old Devils one day. A life of quiet middle class drink-and-drive despair in southern Welsh academia. Gin and Martini binges in the valleys, with no police around to nab you if you happened to drive into a wall while under the influence. Fine evocative stuff.

BJ