Chelp, Shitun And Shim Shams

Now that I have reached a fairly advanced stage of my second-childhood, I often find myself recalling incidents from the first time I was there. Such an incident occurred yesterday when I was teasing, Sandy, our ginger cat. The more I teased him the more he was talking back to me and I suddenly found myself using a word I have not heard for over fifty years. As he rolled around on the carpet miaowing, I said to him, "and I don't want any of your chelp." Now 'chelp' is not a word you will find in the dictionary, then again I may be spelling it wrong, I presume, therefore, it was an old word peculiar to Lincolnshire dialect. As a young boy, back in the 1940s, if you dared to answer back when talking to an adult, you were met with the retort "less of your chelp."
One of my grandfather's favouite words was 'shitun', it doesn't take much imagination to realise where this derivative came from. If he was trying to use, or assemble, something and he couldn't get the hang of it he would say "this is a shitun thing." Thankfully, I didn't pick-up on it and start saying it myself, otherwise I would have got a good clout round the ear, which would have left me in a dazed state wondering what I had said.
My mother had a stock answer for when she was preparing dinner. Whenever there was a wonderful smell coming from the oven and you asked her "what's for dinner mam" she would always reply "shim-shams for medlers." I never did find out which part of the meal were the shim-shams, but they always tasted damn good.

I Think We Have All Spoken To Him

A call centre employee in India.

Combining old and new technology!

Brainteaser

Ten more Trivia questions to make you put your thinking caps on. See how you get on with this latest brainteaser.

01 Who was the first man to walk in space?
02 What material is made out of Jute?
03 Which famous silent screen comedian died on Christmas Day?
04 What is the old name for Istanbul?
05 What do oak trees grow from?
06 Which is the longest river in Britain?
07 Who was killed in Khartoum in 1885?
08 Which Himalayan kingdom lies north of Bangladesh?
09 Who are the native inhabitants of Australia?
10 Who was the United States President at the start of the Second World War?

The best of luck with your answers!

Invisibles

Thought For Today

To succeed is nothing, it's an accident, but to feel no doubts about oneself is something very different: it is character.
Marie Leneru

Sand Sculptures

Pictures from this year's sand castles competition in Oregon - absolutely amazing.

(Click on images to enlarge).

Bonnie And Clyde - Blind Compassion

Two border collies, Bonnie and Clyde, have been abandoned. New ownwers are being sought for the pair who cannot be seperated, because one is blind and would be lost without the other. Click on the following video link to see and hear more of their story.



http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/8168233.stm