Linda G Hill | But I Smile Anyway...

#SoCS May 13/17 – Language

13 May 2017 22 Comments

by Ritu in Socs, Thoughts Opinions & Memories Tags: Blog, Blog Posts, Blogger, Blogging, English, Language, Languages, Linda G Hill, Mother Tongue, Punjabi, Socs, Swahili

Lind’s prompt for #SoCS this week…

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “language.” Use it any way you’d like. Have fun!

So here we have a poem I penned, which was inspired by a post a wrote a while back. It’s linked to the last word of the poem, if you wish to click through and read!

My mother tongue
is Punjabi
Mixed with accents
of Swahili
But what I speak
the most at home
At work, at school
and on the phone
Is English because
that’s where I was born
To choose a first language
I am always torn
My ‘mother tongue’
or my ‘step mum’ one?
To accept one,
the other to shun?
Or to celebrate
the presence of all three
And to call it
Pun-gli-hili?

#SoCS May 6/17 – ‘Inter-‘

06 May 2017 58 Comments

by Ritu in Socs, Thoughts Opinions & Memories Tags: Blog, Blog Post, Blogger, Blogging, Inter, Linda G Hill, Socs, Stream Of Consciousness Saturday

Linda’s #SoCS prompt this week…

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “inter-” Use the prefix “inter-” any way you’d like. Enjoy!

Inter-national.

That’s where I’m gonna go with this Stream of Consciousness post.

Here I sit, in lil old England born and bred, yet I’m not English.

British, I call myself, or a British Asian. Some say British – born.

Yet my background has a little more colour than your average Brit.

Yes, I was born here, but to Sikh parents.

Who moved here from Kenya.

Who were born in Kenya.

Who’s forefathers came over from the Punjab in India to help build the railways in Africa.

So there is a huge Kenyan influence on my upbringing, and life. I spent many summers there growing up, so I was able to cultivate relationships with all the family we had out there.

But I’m also Indian.

That’s a part of me I can’t hide. My skin tells that story. And whatever anyone else thinks, that is a part of my heritage I am proud of too. From the clothes we wear, to the music we listen to, the food we eat, to the way we practice our religion, it is all part of me.

So… Am I a British person, a British Asian, a British Kenyan, a British Kenyan Asian…?

And while we’re on the subject of international family, my brother lives in Finland, married to a Finnish girl, with a beautiful Finnjabi/Finndian son! Another dimension to add to our family!

On top of that, my extended family have managed to spread far and wide… From India, they dispersed to Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. Then there came the UK, Canada, the USA and Australia. Obviously we invaded Finland, but there was already a branch of my family in Norway and Sweden! Dubai is another place!

(Oh and I didn’t mention that my ancestors from my Pops side many generations previously, were apparently Muslim, so there is probably a Pakistan link there too! Sikhism is a relatively new religion and most families were either Muslim or Hindu before they converted to this new religion, so it really annoys me when there are Sikhs clashing with Muslims… unless you have researched it, you don’t know if your own roots were in Islam!)

Inter-national connections, that’s what I have!

#SoCS Apr. 29/17 – Yard

29 Apr 2017 19 Comments

by Ritu in Socs, Thoughts Opinions & Memories Tags: Blog, Blog Post, Blogger, Blogging, Linda G Hill, Socs, Stream Of Consciousness Saturday, Yard

Linda’s #SoCS prompt this week.

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “yard.” Use it any way you’d like. You can even add letters to it to make a whole new word! Have fun!

Yard – like my back yard? Well, I’ve never referred to it as a yard, I find that quite Americanised! It has always been my back garden

A yard, in my eyes is a place with no grass or flowers, an area with a dirt ground, almost a dumping ground!

Then I think of knackers yard – The place in a slaughterhouse where carcasses unfit for human consumption go to be disposed of. Sometimes we say “Oh so and so is only fit for the knackers yard” meaning he is not fit for purpose any more. (Bit extreme, I know, but it’s true!

Yards – the measurements still used when we go to buy fabric for Indian suits (unless there are a few modernised folk who talk about metres!) – and also the measurements for the markers to say how far the next junction is on the motor way.. you know, 300 yards… 200 yards… 100 yards.. – it was at the 100 yard sign that my accident happened too!

Yardies – defined as Black, Jamaican (Kingston) born gangstas found in rough parts of London. Associated with BMW’s, gold jewellery, and automatic guns. Responsible for a lot of murders and other crimes (mostly drug related) in the Urban Dictionary.

And finally Yardley, or South Yardley. Where I spent the lion’s share of my formative years, growing up, my home town, within Birmingham!

What a mish mash of a Stream of Consciousness post. But that was definitely my stream of thought as I wrote this!

Have a great Saturday Peeps!

#SoCS Apr. 22/17 – Spell

22 Apr 2017 68 Comments

by Ritu in Socs, Thoughts Opinions & Memories Tags: Blog, Blog Post, Blogger, Blogging, Linda G Hill, Socs

Linda’s #SoCS Prompt for today…

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “spell.” Use the word “spell” any way you’d like. Bonus points if you use it in the first sentence. Enjoy!

Can you spell?

It’s not an easy thing, especially the English language!

We teach a phonetic scheme of reading and writing in school called Read Write Inc, where the emphasis is on learning the basic phonics first, and acquiring the skills to blend and read CVC (consonant, vowel, consonant) words like cat and dog etc.

Then you get on to the more complex two letter sounds (ng, nk, th, ch, sh etc) ,then the voewls (ay, ee, igh, ow, oo ) and then the split diagraphs (the ay sound in cake for example) and then the ones that almost seem pointless when you can write the same sound severalw ays.. equally, you can say what looks like the same sound in different ways.

Like I read that yesterday. I will read it again tomorrow.

Why spell height with an igh when mite is the same sound yet easier to write? Actually, simpler than that would be myt but that is not even a word!!

Even the word word isn’t easy to grasp! Phonetically it should be wurd…

And the sious and tion endings? Why not shus and shun, like lushus (luscious) or attenshun (attention).

Whoever decided to be the God of spelling in English must have been on something, that’s what I think!

The grammar and punctuation is hard enough, without the spellings that bear no resemblance to the words we say!

No wonder they say English is one of the hardest languages to grasp!

Oh, I could go on and on, but I shall leave you with this phonetically correct haiku!

The Inglish languwij
Purmunent confushun
Lor untoo itself

*-*-*

The English language
Pernament confusion
Law unto itself

socsbadge2016-17-1

#SoCS Apr. 15/17 – Moo

15 Apr 2017 25 Comments

by Ritu in Socs, Thoughts Opinions & Memories Tags: Blog, Blog Post, Blogger, Blogging, Cars, Cow, Linda G Hill, Moo, Names, Socs, Stream Of Consciousness Saturday

Linda’s #SoCS prompt for today…

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “moo.” Base your post on the word “moo” or a word that rhymes with it. Bonus points if you actually use the word “moo” in your post. Have fun!

Do you give names to your cars?

I have a habit of giving inanimate objects names, and my cars have never escaped. From my first brum brum, Bink, to Vikky. Bebe to my newest, Lippy, or Timmy, depending on my mood. Usually the name has come from the registration plate and the letters have conjured up a suitable moniker for the vehicle.

But one was named for a different reason. After being involved in a multi car pile up, and coming out unscathed, thank God, Hubby Dearest wrote off my Ford Focus Saloon, Vikky. (reg. had VKK in it, hence the name!) I was stuck. About to start back to work after my year of maternity leave ended, I needed a car to get about.

Finances were a little tight, and at around the same time my brother had gone gallivanting around the world, (Dubai!) for a then undisclosed amount of time. His car sat at home and wasn’t being used so my Pops said we could have it. ( It had been bought by my Pops and mum for my brother as a first car, Pops wasn’t giving away something that wasn’t his!)

So this was how I came to have my third car.

What to call it?

I turned to the kids and the end result was Daisy.

Why? Nothing do to with the registration plate this time.

Apparently when the central locking button was pressed on the remote, the mechanism made this slow noise, rather like a “Moooooo!” Lil Man thought it sounded like a cow and so Daisy was christened!