Cockney Rhyming Slang, a Magician and Swimming

I had to share these three short clips of Donal (friend from the running group) schooling us on something called Cockney Rhyming Slang. Have you ever heard of this?? Well, we never had and I am not kidding you, I've almost never found something more hilarious in my life. I had tears streaming down my face while he told us these.

Apparently it started in some rough parts of London with general crime and needing to have "code" words for things. I say that very loosely because in no way is this a "handy" version of remembering anything and it makes absolutely no sense of ANY kind.

What I don't get is.....WHY is there an entire language of these "rhyming words" for every normal word out there?? Meaning, it's not just for shady words associated with crime or gang activity. For instance, I'd understand if there were words for "cops", "drop-off", "deal", "money", "drugs" (and I'm sure there are) but there are also words for every other word in the English dictionary. Like, tea, feet, pint, face, etc. etc. I know this doesn't quite make sense, it's not meant to. Just watch these three short clips.

One Donal says is "Boat Race" - which means "Face"... in this Cockney Rhyming Slang. So you'll hear him say, "Check out the boat race on your one" (meaning, "that woman over there"). The Irish use this phrase a lot and pronounce it like "yer wahn". In casual conversation you'll hear people say, "Who's yer wan?" (meaning, "who's that guy over there?"). In context it makes sense (usually).

So, to translate (hahaha!) Donal is saying, "Check out the face on that woman over there" (he says, you might say this to your buddy, in a pub, so people don't know who you're talking about) Whhhaaaat??

Then there's:

Plates of Meat = Feet (Why???)

Rosie Lee - Tea ( Ahh sure, I'll have a Rosie Lee)

A Roast Joint - Pint of beer (it rhymes because of the way the Irish say "pint" - more like "Point")

 -------BUT, to make matters WAY more confusing, there are shortened versions of these slang words. So a Roast Joint is a pint but people shorten that to "A Roaster". So you say to your friend, "let's meet for a Roaster". Ohhhh man. You can imagine people spend a lot of time going.... "Huh?!?"

And you can begin to imagine then, why people find some English and Irish accents hard to understand. It's not just the accent it's that you overhear a conversation and it sounds like gibberish because you don't know why they're saying "Boat Race" and asking their friend to meet them for a "Roaster".

Chicken - Finger Lickin'

Curry - Ruby Murray

French Fries/Chips - Jockey Whips

So, at pub you might want to order - Chicken with curry chips (popular here). So you could say, "Finger Lickin', Ruby Murray, Jockey's Whips" and they would understand you! I'll say it again....WHATTT??? WHY would you not just say, Chicken, with curry chips.

Soup - Loop the Loop

Phone - The Dog and Bone - This one gets complicated too - shortened to, "The dog" - in a sentence: "Hand me the dog" (Oh my word)

The Stairs - Apples and Pears (what?? Why? why would I not just say, "the stairs" and why on EARTH would they have a cockney rhyming slang version of "the stairs".)  

Ok, so here are the clips. You'll notice Wayne and I are trying so hard to not just lose it laughing. This is after the Wicklow half marathon when we stopped for soup & coffee. Everyone is completely sober despite how funny this seems to us. :)

(he's going to kill me for this!)



 And a few pictures from the last two weeks:

Absolutely too cute.

Baby Hannah absolutely loves Wayne. She loves to rub her face on his prickly face and she is such a heart-melter.

 I'm not exaggerating, this child is an angel. We love her so much!

This is how she cuddles - she just puts her face up against yours. These are "Hannah hugs". :)

First birthday party with a performer! One of Norah's classmates had a magician.

There were 9 kids there and 2 sets of twins. (kind of the norm in Dublin - this is twin-city)

After begging to be a helper every time he asked, Norah was finally called up.

Don't get me started on this but the guy was here for 45 minutes, kids screaming BLOODY murder for at least 30 minutes of that, and then he does his last trick, opens this TINY blue box (which had a secret compartment in the back, making the box only half that size) and he pulls out a massive bunny. The mom next me to me, and myself just looked at each other with this look of horror on our faces for that poor rabbit. (while all the kids are screaming and cheering that he made a bunny appear) And even when he was out he was completely silent and calm. Didn't move an inch. I can only hope he's deaf and isn't completely traumatized.

A week later, I was chatting with the mom from Norah's school and she says, "You'll think I'm terrible but I called the ISPCA about that bunny!" (which is like the animal rights'/activism group in Ireland). hahaha! Good for her - completely agree. That poor bunny.......

Happy day at People's Park

My friend Lindsey surprised Norah with this play house made of cardboard. (they call these "Wendy houses" here?? Ever heard that before? I hadn't. All sorts of Irish-education happening these days) :) She absolutely adores this thing. You can color the whole thing and that's pretty much all she does these days.

I'm not kidding you, one day I walk into the living room to see this. Thankfully my phone was close so I snapped this picture. So sweet.

One day I was helping Norah with the Wendy House coloring and I came around the backside to see she had written her numbers, 1 through 11! So cute. You can see 7 and 9 are inverted - love 3 year-old minds.

Oh and Norah started swim lessons 2 weeks ago and that's been great. It's once per week and for age 3 to 4, it's a "water confidence" class where parents come in the pool still. At four they're allowed to start more formal lessons in the pool on their own, with an instructor. We just really wanted Norah to have formal swimming lessons early on because Wayne did and he's a great swimmer, whereas I didn't until about 7 and by then I was terrified of the water. I'm still not super confident in the water, despite being an OK swimmer so I don't want her to feel that.

I'm starting in a new book club here in Dublin (in addition to the Skype bookclub I have with Mimi & Sarah) and this is our book. It's a group with a couple moms from Norah's school and some of their friends. Should be good and the book sounds great (set in Afghanistan). Well, Norah picked it up yesterday and sounded out the first five or six words of the introduction. Pretty incredible, this girl.

Dinner at Loren & Agi's new place and Loren show's us his favourite childhood game - it's called Crazy Maze - has anyone heard of that? I hadn't but his mother kept it (now 30+ years old) and it all works perfectly. It's an amazing game and each one of us had a go. It's equally as addictive for Norah as it is for us adults. Cliché but they truly don't make games like they used to. Loren had an incredible point to - he said, "well it's all digital games now for kids but I challenge anyone to show me an iPhone that will be working perfectly in 35 years". So true.