Newspapers are a great source of mind-boggling colloquialisms. The headline at left even confused several of the locals to whom I'd come for much needed explaining.
Defoe is obviously the dude in the picture who, despite the awkward white glasses, I've been assured is one of the greatest. He's coming out of retirement to play for the Spurs (soccer team).
If you are home during the day, you watch soap operas - which theoretically Defoe was doing during retirement. If you are not going to be watching soaps, you could be said to be dodging
the soaps. Get it? Ya, neither do I.
As a bonus, you'll see another confusing byline in the blue part above. "Finn unfazed as Australia step up Ashes mind games." Huh. Something to do with cricket, but sounds confusing.
Second photo. We spotted this while with our friends Tom and Tina in the north of England. Absolutely no fly tipping! In fact, if you tip the fly I'd be very upset. Please don't tip flies in front of the ladies, sir!!
We had a lot of theories on this one. Don't put up tents in the parking lot? Don't urinate in public? Nope. It means don't throw your trash out here.
I asked several locals and all of them knew what it meant, but no one could explain what insects or gratuity had to do with the whole matter.
Final two items are not hard to figure out, but I love these phrases:
1. "A sticky wicket." Derives from cricket when there is a difficult wicket to knock down. If you don't know what this means, go to wikipedia. Used to describe a difficult situation.
2. "A chin wag." A conversation. Love this one.
3 comments:
Nate,
Enjoying your Blog posts.
Your interpretation of the first newspaper article in your latest is wrong though.
The football player in the picture is Edgar Davids a Dutch player coming back out of retirement to play again. His written article is on the left hand side of the picture. The glasses he wears are to protect his eyes as he suffers from Glaucoma.
As to Defoe's 'Soap Dodging' I’ve no idea what the article could be about, but the phrase is used to describe someone who doesn't wash frequently whether by choice or circumstance. You might call a tramp (a bum?) a 'Soap dodger'.
Useful website…
http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/soap-dodger.html
If you visit Glastonbury next year you will be joining the tens of thousands soap dodging participants there. It's not just the toilets that smell!
All the best
John
Nate -- to hell w/ Google, I think you have found your calling...travel the globe and point out all the interesting nuances of the various countries you visit. Wouldn't be bad work if you could get it ;)
Fly tipping: In the UK and Australia, a central place where all rubbish (trash) is collected is called a tip. Same as a dump in the US. eg: I'm taking my rubbish to the tip = Ima take my trash to the dump... Ok, moving along...If you do something "on the fly" you're doing whatever it is as you go - so if I'm driving to work and putting on makeup, I'm doing my makeup 'on the fly'...so, fly tipping = throwing your rubbish out of the car as you're driving to Grannies for tea - makes perfect sense right?
Ahhh..oysters and Guiness and black faced sheep - blissful! Your pictures of Ireland are wonderful - such a beautiful place and I would love to get back there one day - I love the black faced sheep!
Regards,
Linda (MV, just down the street from Matt and Jaimie.
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