General Chat

Just phone a restaurant in USA (west coast, anyway) and ask to 'book' a table, this 'evening' at 'half seven' :-D

Manchester was where all the trading was done and the cotton mills were all over the North West,but the hub was in the city.

I am from Manchester originally and some of my great aunts worked in mills around Salford .

A lot of places in Victoria,especially in the smaller towns still call the bedding Manchester.I remember seeing a lot of signs in Bendigo and Echuca.

Thanks JoyLoise. There are a number of internet results suggesting the same thing, that the bedding was made in Manchester. There's a couple of corrections saying it should be Oldham, but that's neither here nor there ;-)

Det, if you go onto the Myer Australia site and type in the search box 'Manchester' up pop bed linen, towels etc.

Do the same with David Jones, Australia and a good range of bed linen appears.

Another thing that confuses foreigners is our habit of saying the opposite to what we mean, as in

You are joking

when they certainly are not!

I have heard of Manchester to describe linen but it is little-used now. I have seen it used in a written leaflet and online by one of the big stores too, not in the too-distant past but for the life of me I can't remember which one.

i have always thought it was used for linen produced in Lancashire from the many cotton mills that were around the Manchester area - but that was only a thought as I've never looked up the word.

I will do so now.

Someone referred to Manchester in connection to bed linen. I've never heard of that and have no idea what it means. There's an Oxford pillow case. Does Manchester have anything to do with a particular design?

Rollo - why have you chosen 'hotel' as word which could cause confusion? Apart from France, does any other country or language where it has a different meaning?

There are a fair few 'English Sayings' that confuse the British born.

Example: "It is what it is".

Here's your chance to add to my amusing & growing list.

.... "in five minutes"
the pyriamids were built in less time

"brexit"

nice

hotel

tea

I play the piano with sheet music,but I also play by ear!

It's a lazy wind

Thumb a lift.

Just looked in after my weekly night out before I hit the hay!

Toodle pip! :-D :-D

looks over, kind of "sideways"

"Well, I'll go to the bottom of our stairs!"

Explain this to a foreigner or anyone living in a bungalow!

I recall they were called singlets in Oz and I'm sure that they were described as such in some shops in England when I was a child, Sylvia.

My Liverpool Gran used to call trousers kecks - you may know that Sylvia.

Another favourite was going up the dancers - when going upstairs to bed.

One universal saying that may flummox foreigners is 'glad rags' - still used by us.

Don't you just love life's little quirks! :-D

a ladies vest in the UK is a tank top over here.

If you ask for a "vest" you will be shown a gillet (gilet) or possibly sent to the men's department for a waistcoat. Alternatively, you will be sent to the underwear department to look at undershirts.

I bet you were Dermot.

Not half as rattled as we were when we saw how hard the ECB had come down on Durham Cricket Club.

Talk about done up like a kipper!

Not only a drop in league and a cap on players' wages but a 48 penalty to boot.

The Club will start the next season behind the eight-ball in more ways than one.

When other clubs owe more and one Council has written off another club's debt, it just ain't cricket.

They don't half like to stick it to them, some people.

Now, what parts of that would any foreigner not understand? :-S

I was a bit flummoxed the other day when a report indicated that England's caretaker manager excluded English foreigners from his team selection.

Flake and chips is what you always get there when you ask for fish and chips in the take-aways in Vic. In the same way here, the norm is cod and chips unless you place an order for a different fish.

Chips and crisps, too, is another strange one in supermarkets.

Courgettes French and zucchini Italian and in Oz.

Aubergine French and eggplant in Oz.

Closer to home and a word that's now more widespread - butty (which I have used all my life).

Bap, roll, bun, tuffee - they're all rolls to me.

Language is fantastic.