Weeds

I don't understand how weeds grow so much faster than flowers!  With the rain we've been having over the two weeks, previously cleared spots in our garden started sprouting all over again!  I had the morning off and for the first time this week, there was sunshine!  I put on my Wellies and out the door I went...

I apparently take gardening very seriously!

To be truthful, I don't know that I would have gotten around to the garden if my day had gone as planned.  If I have a morning off, I enjoy sleeping in!  However, at 8:31, my phone rang, jolting me out of a very deep sleep.  I fumbled for my phone with my eyes closed and manage to send it crashing to the wooden floor.  Fortunately it was ok!  When I answered, it was my landlord, telling me the plumbers (a father/son team) were just five minutes away to check on some things here at the house!  

Well, that got me moving!  I jumped out of bed, got dressed, and brushed my teeth.  Part way through their work, I offered them drinks.  The son said he would like a cold drink.  I explained to him that I didn't have any juice, but I could offer him water or an American fruit drink called KoolAid.  

"I'll give it a go," he said with a nod.  

By the time they were finished, I had made some cornbread muffins for them to take for tea.  When the son handed the empty Kool-Aid glass to me, I asked how he liked it.

"It's quite good, innit?" he said.  "Tastes like bubble gum!"  

"Innit" makes me smile and grimace at the same time.  It's an East End pattern of speech.  It's supposed to be "Isn't it?" but it is used in more ways than just as a confirmation.  "That's just the way we lot talk, innit?"  It gets tagged onto the end of almost every sentence.  It is one pattern of speech I refuse to adopt.  I'll call my sweater a jumper.  I might even say the traffic is "chock-a-block."  I'll call my stovetop a hob, my phone a mobile, and snow peas mange-tout.  But please spare from me from saying, "Innit?"  

The other phrase that still trips me up is "You alright?"  Basically, this is "How are you?"  It seldom requires an answer.  It took me a few months to get used to this.  I kept thinking, "Do I look ill? Confused?  Why do people keep asking if I'm alright???"  

Sometimes I just sit on the bus, listening to the hodgepodge of conversation around me and think, "And Brits have the nerve to say that Americans butcher the English language?"