Whether its the Yorkshire Dales or the Lancashire Plain there are some odd characters who come from the North of England (see picture above). In the North they call a spade a spade and they are proud of it. They have a good mild'n bitter beer and the fish and chips are better than in the South.

Normally they like sausages but obviously the man in the post below (see Czech Menu 2 - Dins) has had enough!

Labels: beer, chips, england, fish, lancashire, yorkshire

Here is a special delicacy of country regions, particularly popular in Moravia and North Bohemia. These are Flippers served with jam, fruit and cream. They are best finished of with a double measure of Plum Brandy (known locally as “Slivovice”) to avoid indigestion!

Labels: cream, flippers, fruit, indigestion, moravia, north bohemia, plum brandy, slivovice

Labels: bratislava, english, hungary, menu, north, sausage, tourist

Labels: cannibalism, cooking pot, czech republic, missionary, soup, south bohemia, tribe

Labels: acupuncture, camel, duck, fish, haystacks, menu, needle, noodle, quiz, side-dish

I would hate to regurgitate an old belief but I just assumed that it was common knowledge that the smell of tar was therapeutic and had some mild medicinal benefit. In other words breathing deeply when passing a roadworks where the smell of tar was strong was “good for the lungs”!

Now I find out that not everybody is convinced of this, and horror of horrors, I am not sure myself that it is true. I simply always believed it.

However with the benefit of the ubiquitous internet searching for “therapeutic smell of tar” reveals that tar is used in all sorts of things from shampoo to sweets and candies, that there are different types of tar anyway; and unlike me, most of the entiries I read were concerning people who thought the smell obnoxious at best, while admitting that the fumes were harmless.

And today we have asphalt. Perhaps that just stinks!

Labels: asphalt, medicinal, regurgitate, tar, therapeutic, ubiquitous

In some conversations about English pronunciation recently it seems that there is some confusion in the pronunciation of the words “nature” and “mature”. So I searched around and found this limerick which, if you read it aloud, should make things clear – including the English pronunciation!

The Turning Lady Limerick
----------------------------
A lady can settle a score
By first making a sweet overture;
Then a quick turn of nature
And she’ll suddenly hate y’ur
Which is really not very mature!

Labels: lady, mature, nature, overture, score