If dedication to purpose can be quantified, surely the lack of posts since the 2nd of March is an indication of my commitment. Oh hell, that’s crap, i’ve just been overwhelmed with coursework, mostly through my own lack of time management! Still, the first lot is done now, and all in time (just). I’m pretty happy with the virtual environment written work I did – a historical adventure set in ancient Japan – but like all things that run up to the last hour, there’s probably more I could have put in. I’m very pleased with our group project, we put a lot of good work in I thought. Now we just have to follow up our promises and make it;-)
Re the post title: I’m not really homesick but the coursework had to take priority this weekend so I cancelled the trip to Scotland=( However, I promised Habboi i’d post about this so, first on my list of reasons to miss home is…
Oor Wullie and The Broons
When I was just a wee lad, I grew up on our nation’s favourite comics, Oor Wullie and the Broons. They’re published in annuals, but I think they can also be found in the newspapers sometimes. I also read The Beano and The Dandy (By the same publishing company as Oor Wullie and The Broons, but also issued in England I believe).
Oor Wullie follows the adventures of ‘William’, a cheeky young boy who gets into all sorts of trouble through various schemes. He has trademark spiky hair, wears black dungarees and usually ends each strip sitting on his bucket and, in the strips I read, with his pet mouse Jeemy. We had one or two of the annuals at home and I still read them when I find them. It’s probably easier for you to wiki them, but seeing Habboi trying to make sense of the language last week was hilarious.
The Broons are just as good. It follows a Scottish family (The ‘Browns’ in English) and features such memorable characters as the bairn and grandpaw Broon. You can wiki it here but I suggest you try to get your hands on the annuals=)
I have to admit, even though I understand the language in them both fine, I don’t regard myself as being able to speak Scots. My dialect is so watered down it’s pretty much English. I remember seeing a programme on TV about Oor Wullie – it might have been the “Happy Birthday Oor Wullie” that Wikipedia mentions – and when I heard the voiceovers, I found the pronunciation of some of the words didn’t match what was in my head. For example “crivvens!” (an exclamation of surprise) was pronounced “creevans” whereas I always thought it was how it’s written.
It’s hard to know really, nobody teaches Scots, lol, so unless you live around it, I can see how English completely takes over. Wikipedia sums it up nicely. Quite disheartening too is the quote from the Scottish Education Department in the 1840s: “..it is not the language of ‘educated’ people anywhere, and could not be described as a suitable medium of education or culture.” I have to admit, with shame, that when I go home and I (sometimes) hear people talking Scots, it can be quite jarring and I do form the impression that it’s somehow lower than English.
Then there’s also Scottish Gaelic of course, which is a language in its own right. I don’t speak it, except to know that ‘Alba’ is Gaelic for Scotland, and I have the vague understanding that it’s spoken in some communities in the north of Scotland, but it’s dying out, much to my regret. I would like to somehow preserve both Gaelic and Scots if I could.
Huh, well thinking about all that’s kinda put me in a sour mood, so I’ll end quickly with my second reason to be homesick: Scotch pies=) You normally can’t get them in England, since every bakery i’ve tried has given me pork pies, christmas mince pies, or blank looks. They’re replacement down here is probably sausage rolls, although you get those back home too, but I actually found one in the supermarket today!! (Yes, I was probably the ONLY ONE in the supermarket who was that excited about them). It was unusually expensive for a scotch pie, but there was only one and I had to have it. It even came with cooking instructions (eh?) but I’d scoffed it before I got home. It was delicious. Seriously people, you don’t know what you’re missing.
In case anyone thinks i’m going to die of food poisoning in the next few hours (I’m pretty sure it was cooked), I should clarfiy what Scotch pies are. It’s basically minced mutton in pastry. You can eat them cold or hot. When they’re hot it’s best to get a fresh one as you can drink the hot grease that runs out of the pie, mmm!lol I actually found a recipe. I’ll have to try making them soon=)
Since my pie didn’t survive the trip home, here is a random picture of a Scotch pie:
Copyright EatScotland.com
Well, that’s your lot, lesson for today: read comics and eat pies;-)
April 8th, 2009 at 8:52 pm
Hehe. Yum.