Einmal Currywurst mit Pommes bitte!

Shelldrake wrote:

I too was hyped up by horror stories but, as you say, "It was nothing".

Eyes are different Shelldrake, messing about there is scary! You've reminded me
that I had an Eye Lid correction thing some years ago............ five injections under the eyeball gave a bit of a tingle & none seemed to work as an anaesthetic..

And as this is a food related topic, perhaps we should advise all to take a doggy bag if they are called in for anything demanding removal of bits & pieces.

Nice to know all is well David...

Gordon. wrote:

Nice to know all is well David...

Thanks Gordon, though they did say don't buy any green bananas.

Hardrations wrote:

jim wrote:

Fierabend means end of work, I'm surprised and disapointed a schnitzel stube would be closed though

So who was speaking plat deutsch then hardrations?

That would have been my wife and her friend ( friends husband is a Berliner so unfamiliar with Low German) and others we would hear in the Stube. Low German is still quite common with the older generation of Mennonites here in Manitoba. When attending church my wife is usually into Low German mode on meeting friends same at funerals. Our early service is usually in English with some High German. In other Mennonite churches early service is in High German. Mennonites in Mexico mostly speak Low German even in church services. Mennonites in Brazil and Paraguay are familiar with both High and Low German. Low German is a language of it's own and is very close to Dutch. Until recently it wasn't a written language. My wife can usualy follow about 60% if a Dutch conversation.

When I worked in Germany for a construction company building The Atrium Hotel at Mohnesee I became aware of the term "fier abend" -- quitting time!! After 10 hours of mind-numbingly boring labour it was welcome, believe me!! I could never come up with an English equivalent (referring back to the 'brotchen/breadlet' discussion) but essentially it roughly translates to 'free evening' which doesn't even begin to capture the intangible romance of 'feire abend'....to me it conjured up images of sitting on the bench outside one's front door with the sun going down smoking one's pipe and watching the kids play alongside ones frau.

Re plattdeutsch vs Hockdeutsch....when I returned to Canada after my year working in Soest I enrolled in college. One of the elective classes was Conversational German. Now keep in mind, I'd essentially grown up in Germany and had a reaonable grasp of vocabulary (my grammar was a bit 'off' with all the gender pronouns, but at 21 years of age it was seen as 'cute' so I went with it!) and worked cut off from English for a year so assumed this was easy credit. I knew how to speak German for crying out loud and could carry on a reasonable conversation in it. Nothing too complex but social chitchat was fine.

I flunked the course!! The instructor was eine grosse B**ch from Stuttgart who accused me of speaking low German with a terrible accent. I probably did speak German with a Canadian accent but apparently that wasn't it....my 'terrible accent' was Westphalian....those coarse farmers!! I told her, auf Deutsch, that ich hat in Deutschland fuer seben jahren gevont und mein Deutsch war nicht so schlect....she disagreed. Harrummph!! She, of course, taught the German equivalent of Oxford English and decried my use of regional slang, dreadful dialect, and whatever else. Snob. I got a 'D' in the course which I was not impressed by....I would have been fine obtaining a 'C' I suppose but believed I should have received at least a 'B-' if not a 'B'....ich habe keine Deutsch gesprochen fuer dreisich Jahren aber ich kann, in meine kopf, noch Deutsch tenken....(grammar is likely atrocious....'I have not spoken any German for 30 years but I can, in my head, still think in German...')

'I have not spoken any German for 30 years but I can, in my head, still think in German...')

Stephen ...NOW THAT is a scary thought

Len (Ciphers)

Welcome back

bigmal wrote:

jim wrote:

I'm not convinced the original ones had horse meat in Mal

I have to admit to not being 100% certain myself, it is just something that is stuck in my memory from reading labels way back when.
Didn`t stop me eating them, of course, after all meat is meat.

The cold ones sitting under glass on the bar of your local gasthof were 'pferdefleish' -- horsemeat. A bit startling to those of us raised only on beef pork and chicken! Was a bit of time before I would try one but did...with mustard. Quite tasty. Would often partake of one or two on an evening out. My mother just blanched at the idea. But I was 17 and brave.

did go well with a 1/2-litre of good frothy beer.....

I`ll second that.

Nowt wrong with hoss meat.

ciphers wrote:

'I have not spoken any German for 30 years but I can, in my head, still think in German...')

Stephen ...NOW THAT is a scary thought

Len (Ciphers)

Welcome back

thanks....been off site for longer than I planned....life y'know!

As for sometimes thinking in German....don't know if it's a scary thought at all....rather comforting to me, actually, as it harkens to a better time in my life than what it currently is. I even dream in German sometimes....or what appears to be German in dream time....

Speaking of which.
Some of the dreams I have are similar to the seventies German stuff I used to see on ZDF.

You would have to pay good money for that kind of thing these days !

(God only knows what my son saw, as a babysitter, while we were roistering in the mess in Deilinghofen !).

Stephen Lock wrote:

....(grammar is likely atrocious....'I have not spoken any German for 30 years but I can, in my head, still think in German...')

German passable, but English needs a bit of work ! ( Can't resist an opportunity to slip in a cute remark, so don't take that too seriously !)

When I was a kid at school we had one or two Jewish refugees amongst our number. It was always irritating when they walked off with prizes for the English Grammar exams...... but not surprising when you consider that their earlier instruction was in English as a foreign language where construction and grammar have to be pedantically correct. If you've picked up much of your Deutsch in conversation, you'll be as disadvantaged in examinations as my mates were when they had trouble in accepting that their local speak was hardly what was known as BBC or King's English (as it was then ).

I had a long association with a German lass I met after my wife died. She was pretty bright in languages, did English, French & Latin at university and was learning Spanish & Italian as a hobby. Yes, she had a slight accent and, although her English vocabulary might have exceeded my own, some of the stuff she'd been taught was antiquated in content and idiom, or she made unintentional
errors........ i.e wanting a ball point pen she asked if the owner of the local
paper shop had "a Prick" ........ ( not a Bic, that is). But one thing I learned rapidly was that Germans don't laugh at their own errors. So don't be too irritated by your tutor's scorn. If you only need conversational German tell her to get stuffed !

Now my turn to share an experience with the English language as taught in Germany. My land lord in 67 (a wonderful man) who had been a POW in Scotland spoke very good English. The two daughters were taking English in school (Iserlohn) and had brought home some home work that had three ways of saying something in English one the correct version of course and two wrong. There was one of the parts that really didn't have any correct way as far as Heinz could see and checked with us. We both agreed that what was on the paper A or B or C was not correct so gave our version of what it should be. The girls came back to tell us that the teacher didn't agree and stated that , " Canadian soldiers didn't speak proper English and were drunks and just bad people all around". So come parent teacher day all three of us Heinz, Pete, my self off to school. We weren't allowed in as not being family. So on Heinz coming out from the interview, he was steaming. Not only would the English teacher not listen to his side of things but refused to speak in English to him. But all was not lost we got to watch an outstanding billiards game that evening enjoying a few Iserlohn Pils.

Now my brother in law. His adventure in German classes. On arriving in Canada in 48 all three children two boys and my wife to be were en-rolled in German classes at the Mennonite Church every Saturday morning. Now Low German was the common language at home but High German in church and when meeting new folks. So come High School George takes German as an easy credit. He spent 75 % of his time in the hall for correcting the teacher. George passed with a 98 out of 100. Drove the poor old teacher whacko. George now refuses to speak either Low or High unless pushed into doing it. Which is odd as he spent 2 years in Germany on graduating from University worked in a bank and spoke beautiful German on returning to Canada my wife tells me. Mind you in his store in Victoria when German tourists came in he spoke it.

My self I speak enough German to get my self in trouble, but not enough to get out of it.
Besides I have my own personal interpreter. On taking my wife to Germany in 2003 for the first time back for her since 48 I said to my self, that I all ways managed to get along in German, so not to bother Mrs. C. Well that lasted about 15 minutes in the Dusseldorf Hbhf. Basically it went so, " Ein moment, meine Frau is Deutsch". In Holland it's much easier, you simply say, " I hope your English is better than my Dutch". Inevitably the answer is, " Yes it is".

Stephen Lock wrote:

bigmal wrote:

jim wrote:

I'm not convinced the original ones had horse meat in Mal

I have to admit to not being 100% certain myself, it is just something that is stuck in my memory from reading labels way back when.
Didn`t stop me eating them, of course, after all meat is meat.

The cold ones sitting under glass on the bar of your local gasthof were 'pferdefleish' -- horsemeat. A bit startling to those of us raised only on beef pork and chicken! Was a bit of time before I would try one but did...with mustard. Quite tasty. Would often partake of one or two on an evening out. My mother just blanched at the idea. But I was 17 and brave.

did go well with a 1/2-litre of good frothy beer.....

I'm pretty sure that horsemeat was 'de rigeur' for scran from schnellies and for the old BBQ in the very early 70s.

I quite liked the old nag meat.

Hardrations wrote:

. In Holland it's much easier, you simply say, " I hope your English is better than my Dutch". Inevitably the answer is, " Yes it is".

A quick one ........ and back to the food thread ! Whilst in Switzerland with
a lady ( this one was English, I'm not choosy ) she declared she could not go another step without some essen. We looked at the selection of sticky buns in a shop window. "Two of those " she said ".......go in & get them". Meekly obedient,
not knowing whether the local lingo was French, German or what, I asked at the counter "Parlez vous Francais oder spricht Man Deutsch ?" The assistant looked puzzled. "May we speak English ?" she said, "....... I think that will be easier to understand "

I'm told I speak German with a strong "Hamboucher dialect" not surprising really as that's where my Mother is from.

Cricket today, and it's beautiful out there.

jim wrote:

Cricket today, and it's beautiful out there.

All right for you southerners who are used to the heat........... Think I'll have to head for the hills to get some respite !

Quote :

Cricket today, and it's beautiful out there.

It is nice...Sod the cricket, my hammock was put to good use..

jim wrote:

Cricket today, and it's beautiful out there.

Being too mean to contribute to Sky's over-filled coffers, I can only pick up the highlights in the evening. But tell you what, Jim, ain't it refreshing to see them turned out in immaculate whites rather than the clowns' kit that found favour in the colonies ?

Back on the wursts again, another story............

When we were in Hameln in the 1970's, a couple of us took a snack in an out- of-town gasthof. Menu was strange to Brits with limited Deutsch, but sausage of sorts was always acceptable so we ordered Riesewurst. It came with Bratkartoffeln & Salat served up on a wooden platter and went down great. Told our mates when we got back, they were hooked & vowed too try the same.

It went wrong, they were perplexed. Ordered what we told them, instead of a thick slice of a large diameter sausage, they were given a Bratwurst (squaddies' favourite) wrapped up in baconfoil. The knowledgeable will have cottoned on already....... we had eaten a slice of giant sausage and confused "Riese" with "Reise" ( a journey ). The Kellnerin guessed they wanted a carry-out.

Quote :

ain't it refreshing to see them turned out in immaculate whites rather than the clowns' kit that found favour in the colonies

Must take a bit of the pantomime out of the game

[quote="Gordon."]

Must take a bit of the pantomime out of the game [quote]


I view these Pictish comments with contempt. I have watched your own games with wooden poles & iron balls on lengths of chain.......... dammit, there's no elegance in contests north of the border !

Ever bin hit on the heid wi yin o them??/ The elegance is there when the ladies take part..

Off to do some hammock bashing ..Will return at sundown..... perhaps..

Gordon. wrote:

Off to do some hammock bashing ..Will return at sundown..... perhaps..

Enjoy it whilst it's here Gordon........It might be snowing next week ! Have a mind to do something similar, but had my hammock slinging tree cut down last month.
Maybe some Egyptian PT on the airbed will be an acceptable alternative.

T'was snowing yesterday up in Dauphin and Russell. We have frost warnings here. Appears that all that early summer weather we had has moved onto the UK.

Hardrations wrote:

T'was snowing yesterday up in Dauphin and Russell. We have frost warnings here. Appears that all that early summer weather we had has moved onto the UK.

drove through a snow storm to get home yesterday, lots of fun.