I always enjoy learning new vocabulary. According to wikipedia, exeat means “a period of absence from a centre of learning… [used] in Britain to describe weekend leave from a boarding school”.
The kids both had special activities at school on Friday to kick off the long weekend. Sage and her classmates sold cakes for [...]
It’s been raining quite a bite here recently. As the kids are fond of saying, it’s been chucking it down! The River Trent has overflowed its banks and the fields, as well the road we normally take to get to the school, are covered in water.
This reminds me of another interesting linguistic tidbit. Sage brought [...]
Gail arrived yesterday in Heathrow. We picked her up and brought her directly to a pub for the full English experience.
Her flight went well; she got an entire row of seats to herself and was able to stretch out and get some sleep. We are all very happy to see her!
This morning the [...]
This sign next to the canal near our house seems particularly eloquent in warning of the potential danger of drifting off the road. It reminded me, however, of the “Adverse Camber” sign I described in a previous post. While this sign may be effective in bridging language boundaries, it does little to expand our vocabulary.
I saw a road sign the other day warning of an “Adverse Camber” and had to head for the dictionary. It turns out that it means that the road tilts the same way as the road is turning. Thus, if you are riding a motorcyle, you have to lean further than usual into the turn. [...]
Here’s a new vocabulary word:
scrumping (verb)
Harvesting something from someone else’s property, e.g. picking apples from a tree next to the road.
We’ve been scrumping a number of times now, mostly for blackberries which grow wild along the hedgerows. But we were also introduced to conkers, which must be a close relative of chestnuts [...]
