Irish writer Catherine Howard starts her American adventure like so many other innocent explorers: it’s all going to be easy, just like preparing Pot Noodles as she puts it. But life gets in the way. The book follows her attempt to balance the kookiness of Walt Disney world with making a normal life for herself.
I was delighted to get ‘Mousetrapped’ in the mail from Catherine as I’ve followed her self-publishing journey on her blog Catherine, Caffeinated for the last year or so. If you’ve ever …
Once again I was clobbered at the weekend with the ‘ where’s your accent from?’ I do try as I posted here but sometimes it seems that even Irish people expect each other to sound more than a little paddy-wacked.
So for any expats moving here, do not expect people to sound like Brad Pitt in Snatch or or (allegedly) Russell Crowe in Robin Hood. I finally watched ‘Veronica Guerin’ with Cate Blanchett a few weeks ago and she does an excellent job of sounding Irish not Oirish.
We never say ‘top of the morning to ya’ and rarely use phrases like ‘be the hokey’ unless in jest.
Not all Cork people add ‘bhoy’ or ‘like’ to the end of every sentence. Although it does seem to be true that a certain type of Dub is way too fond of ‘loike’.
And you should pay more attention to facial expressions and tics than you’d expect before getting annoyed about some slagging – see here for details.
Olive O Brien has a great post with video clips on this over at Roisin Recommends
What was the worst accent imiation you’ve seen on screen?
Question from marco belluci on Flickr
When you sit in a Catholic church in Ireland the first thing you notice is how much money people have spent on this building. I always think of the gifts which the three kings brought to Jesus – gold, frankincense and myrrh. It was a sign of things to come really. But other religions are no slouch in the glamour stakes either. It seems to be that we can’t really believe anyone is listening unless we throw up a material sign of worship. All very contradictory
Rishikish, India – source of the Ganges and one of the holiest towns in India.
Jama Masjid in Dehli – the largest mosque in India.
A small village near Kanchanaburi, Thailand with a large complement of statues and temples.
Anglor Wat; the temple complex to beat all complexes.
What’s your favourite religious building? This is a secular architectural question!
If you were playing in the World Cup or competing in the Olympics (bear with me), who would you represent? Seems like a trick question, you’d represent yo
ur country, right? But what if you’re not so sure where that is. Aussie hurdler, Jana Rawlinson was rumoured to be moving her allegiance to the UK for future competitions. She is after all married to a Brit and living over this side of the world.
Today the SMH reported that she’s staying with the green and gold. But it made me think about expats and the choices people make when we travel. How far should assimilation go? How long would you need to live somewhere before you take that country on as your own? Look at the hyphen nationalities come from; Irish-Americans for example may never have set foot in Ireland but still add that prefix when you ask then where they’re from. It’s an emotional decision that maybe wouldn’t be recognised by law.
So what does make who we are?
Passport Stamps from IK World Trip on Flickr
