Waiting. WIldlife. And words.

Well, Prince Charles is 70. It comes to us all. And he’s still waiting to see whether he will make it to king.

And Theresa May has got some kind of Brexit deal together. And she is still waiting to see if she can make it work.

And we are still waiting to see what the future of our country is going to be.

And EU citizens living in the UK are still waiting to see what kind of status they will have, and what kind of hoops they need to jump through in order to keep their mixed European families together.

We live in uncertain times.

Mind you, I suppose it could be worse. When we were in Portugal we met up with a Canadian friend who told us about seeing bears in his garden and at the end of his street. I assume these were brown bears. He said they were young ones, quite big but not too big! Today I read that one of the consequences of global warming, climate change, and melting icecaps is that polar bears are being seen more frequently close to Inuit communities.

A little too close for comfort I should think.

Interestingly the Inuit and the scientists who study polar bears have differing views about how many bears there are and where they hunt for food. The Inuit claim a kind of almost genetic understanding of bear behaviour - after all they have been living alongside them for a long time - and say that the scientists miss stuff because they cannot do observations from planes on cloudy, misty days, precisely the days when the bears come out to hunt.

Perhaps so. Personally I am quite relieved to live close to wildlife no fiercer than squirrels and hedgehogs and the occasional fox!

Now here’s a linguistic thing. A friend of mine sent me a selection of English words that have different meanings in Britain and America. Here are a few examples:-              

A jumper
UK: A woollen pullover worn in the winter
US: Someone who commits suicide by leaping from a building or bridge

The first floor
UK: The floor above the ground floor
US: The ground floor of a building

Blinkers
UK: Flaps attached to a race horse's face to restrict its vision
US: Indicators on a car

Fancy dress
UK: Informal party wear, dressing up as a well-known character
US: Formal party wear, including ball gowns and black tie

A flapjack
UK: A flat oatmeal snack
US: A type of pancake

(By the way, since Costa Coffee opened up in the airport at Porto, it is now possible to buy flapjack, the English snack, there. I find it completely strange to see the list of coffees and snack available, exactly the same as in Costa on Market street in Manchester!)

A geezer
UK: A gang member, tough guy
US: An old man

This last one puzzled me. I thought a geezer in British English just meant a bloke, a chap, a man. Internet research tells me that since the Kray twins a geezer has a specific meaning in Cockney slang, referring to a respected gang member, or even gang leader.

There you go!

This list could go on and on, but I think thats enough. Except for this one:

Peckish
UK: Slightly hungry
US: Irritable or angry

That’s all.