Aged Parents...

[Jan1954]

Last night I rang my father for some information about the GPO (see Post Offce apprenticeship thread started by Peter Nicholl)

Dad is going deaf. He has the volume right up on the television and you have to shout at him down the telephone.

However, my dear father has strenuously denied this for years.

Part of our conversation, however, went like this:

Dad: Went to the quack's today.

Me: Why? What's up?

Dad: I could be getting a little deaf.

Me: So what's he doing about it?

Dad: He's sending me to an ornithologist

Me: Are you sure he didn't say audiologist?

Dad: Well, it sounded like ornithologist...

I rest my case.... |shakehead

[Alan Welsford]

Dad is going deaf. He has the volume right up on the television and you have to shout at him down the telephone.

It's all those years of trying to pick morse code out from the crackle and static ;)

Let's hope he doesn't end up being referred for NHS hearing aids. It's another of those postcode lottery things, but in some areas of the country the waiting list for fitting is now up to 5 years, apparently.

You need to apply for them while your hearing is still perfect, in order to have them when you need them. |soapbox|

Ornitholgist? I like it!

[Jan1954]

Ornitholgist? I like it!

So do I! :D

Mind you, the term "bird-brained" springs to mind...

[Sue Mackay]

Young parents can be afflicted too (although actually I was 32 when my son was born and so therefore labelled an 'elderly prima gravida').

I only moved to Wales when I got married and so was not used to the strong Valleys accent. I took my son to the clinic when he was six months old for a routine check-up and was told they had to do a hearing test. "Damn", I said, I didn't bring a spare nappy". They looked puzzled, and then I looked puzzled when they started using a rattle behind his head. Of course the way the Valleys people pronounce 'hearing' sounds just like 'urine' :D

[Jan1954]

Love it, Sue, love it! |biggrin|

[Ladkyis]

Of course the way the Valleys people pronounce 'hearing' sounds just like 'urine' :D

They were speaking WEnglish

AH see you says 'eeeerin and we says yearin'.

There was a dreadful joke when the Eichmann trial was going on that went something like this

Eichmann only got two years, one on each side of his head --- oops sorry 'e owny got two years, one each sigh dar 'is 'ead

We also say year for here when referring to a place -- we lives year in Ponty
OH OH I have just remembered the pub singer. He would stand in the covered passageway into John Squash square and sing carols every december and when singing Silent Night would rend the last line of one of the verses with
Jesus the Saviour is year... which always made me hurry past giggling.

[Sue Mackay]

James attended a Welsh medium school and is now bi-lingual, but when he first started at the Welsh nursery he couldn't speak a word of Welsh. We are not a religious family but even I was a little shocked when he came home and said his teacher had told him Jesus was a monster. Turned out they had sung a little hymn which had the line "I weld y baban Iesu" (to see baby Jesus) and James thought they were singing about Nessie the Loch Ness Monster!

He also asked me if I would invite a boy called C.T. to his fourth birthday party. I thought it was unusual for a young boy to be known by his initials, but when "C.T." arrived he turned out to be called Anthony. Anthony had been four on the very first day of term - James' first exposure to Welsh - and the children had all sung Happy Birthday in Welsh. Penblwydd Hapus_I TI :D

[brianb]

Ahh lovely stories

born and bred in Cardiff thats "Kairdiff" folks, where we have "arfur" dark in the pub, and wear daps not plimsolls.

I went deaf many years ago (age 13), and have had lots of fun with misinterpretations, very often deliberate, its so easy to wind people up !

As a bird brain myself, anyone know a good ornithologist please ?

Lets carry on laughing

cheers

Brian
;):D
ps daps - dunlop all purpose shoes apparently !

[BeeE586]

Have you ever 'phoned SKY TV and got a Pakistani with a broad Scottish accent - that takes some beating !

Eileen

[Jan1954]

Have you ever 'phoned SKY TV and got a Pakistani with a broad Scottish accent - that takes some beating !

Eileen

I work with an Indian with a broad Mancunian accent as well as a Bangladeshi with a Brummie one...

I love watching strangers' faces when either of them speak for the first time! :D

[MythicalMarian]

I am a medical secretary working from a lot of audio tapes, and I do know how difficult it can be to mis-hear things - but the following takes some beating. A young SHO I knew once had to correct a secretary's letter from his urology clinic. It read:

'Examination of the abdomen was normal. On examining the genitals he was found to be circus-sized.'

I think that has to be my all-time favourite.

[mary elms]

I lived for over 20 years in the borough of Kingston upon Thames. When I first arrived I couldn't understand why everything was being counselled - they couldn't all be that damaged - could they :confused: I eventually realised that counsel, council & cancel all sound the same in Kingstonian!

Mary.

[suedent]

I went to school in Cornwall, we had a chemistry teacher who was Northern Irish. Sulphates, Sulphites & Sulphides all sounded pretty much the same in his accent. The poor man would get quite irate whenever we asked him to clarify, I'm sure he thought we all taking the mickey.

[KateJones]

Some years ago (quite a few), me 'n' 'im went to visit the Palace of Versailles. We were taken around by a guide who spoke extremely good English, but we were particularly alarmed, when we reached the Theatre, to be told of the "large quantities of woks falling on the audience during the performance". It was only after a couple of minutes and further references to the candles in the candelabras, that we realised that she was speaking of wax - distressing enough, but not quite as bad as we originally envisaged.
Regards

[MaryFrances]

My mother was Welsh and I have very fond memories of my Welsh relatives' accents and ways of speaking.