Queen's English As A Second Language Part 5

Proper (pronounced "Propa")--the best or for real, as in "I need a proper coffee. This one is too watered down."

Saddle--Seat, as in "The saddle on this bike is broken."

Choccy--slang abbreviation for chocolate, as in "Don't eat all those choccies at once!" 

Telly--abbreviation for television, as in "Turn off the telly, we're late!"

Nibbles--appetizers

Fancy--Do you want, as in "Fancy a coffee or tea?"

Windscreen--windshield

Messing about--to behave in a silly way or to waste time, as in "I'm being serious and you are messing about!" or "They don't mess about, do they?" (this is almost interchangeable with "messing around" in the US)

Sweet--candy, as in "Fancy a sweet?" or "Give us a sweet."

Diary--day calendar, as in "My diary is really full this week" or "I need to check my diary before I commit."

Aluminium (pronounced ah-loom-in-e-um)--aluminum

Pegs--clothespins, as in "I need to buy a new peg bag."

To Let--for rent. These signs confused me at first because I thought they were signs for the toilet and that the I had fallen off. I'm more often looking for a public bathroom than I am an office to let. 

Teats--bottle nipples

Spoilt--spoiled. They also say "learnt" here instead of "learned". It still looks strange but I'm sure I'll get used to it. 

This is another spelling one. I guess here they spell it with one 'l' but in the US it is spelled enroll. It is the same with canceled vs cancelled and traveled vs travelled. 

Plaster--adhesive bandage

Take the piss--joking around or making fun of someone, as in "Was she being serious or was she just taking the piss?" Warren thinks that people are saying "taking a piss" so there is some uncertainty around this one. But one thing is certain: it is not seen as crass here as it is in the US.

Speak--talk, as in "Speak to you soon" or "Let's speak about this in person". We definitely use the word "speak" in the US but it is a bit more formal. But here in the UK it is common in every situation to use "speak". 

Alight--exit from a train, as in "Alight here for the Victoria and Albert Museum". I know alight is a word in the US but it is just used a lot more often here. 

Madame Tussauds

My friend Pamela had an extra ticket to Madame Tussauds and asked if I wanted to come along. I didn't realise that Madame Tussauds was a real person, named Marie Grosholtz who lived in France in the late 1700s. Her mother worked as a housekeeper for a physician who taught Marie the art of wax modelling.

Marie was 17 when she made her first wax sculpture, which was of Voltaire in 1777. The London location of Madame Tussauds has that original Voltaire wax sculpture on display. It was really impressive. 

She was hired by the royal family in France to be a live-in artist. She made wax sculptures of each member of the royal family, also on display. Below is a photo of the sculptures of Marie Antoinette and King Louis XVI. 

During the French Revolution, Madame Tussauds made death masks of those who were executed and even made the death masks of Marie Antoinette and King Louis XVI. Below is a photo of the actual guillotine blade used to behead Marie Antoinette.

After the French Revolution, Madame Tussauds moved to England. She traveled around the coast for a year and then opened a museum on Baker Street (the current location is also on Baker Street but her original museum location was bombed during the war). Below are some early entry tickets to her museum.

Some of her early wax figures included Benjamin Franklin, Horatio Nelson, Robespierre, and George III. She passed away in 1850 at age 89. 

I found the history of Madame Tussauds fascinating, but I also had a fun time taking photos with the modern wax sculptures. Here I am with Russell Brand. I didn't realise how tall he is in "real life". 

At least Jim Carrey thinks I'm funny. 

To make it look more realistic, I didn't touch any of the sculpture royals since that is not allowed with the real royals.

Ends up I had dressed just like Katniss Everdeen that day! 

I had to take a selfie with London's mayor, Boris Johnson!

As if I needed another photo with Kate Middleton, but since I was there...

Back in October, Pamela and I attended the live filming of the Jonathon Ross Show. One of his guests was Cheryl from the X Factor so we had to take our photo with the sculpture version of her. 

Cream Tea

Last week Cierra and I had Cream Tea at Sketch off Regent Street. The decor is all pink and fabulous! The chairs are velvet and the place felt really swanky. 

Cream tea includes fruit scones served with clotted cream (the one that looks like ice cream in the photo below) and two kinds of jam (strawberry and fig). 

Sketch has a unique set of serving dishes. The other side of the sugar bowl says "It's Not Okay". 

I ordered the lemongrass and ginger herbal tea and it was delicious! For those of you not familiar with tea, you can see the strainer to the right of the teapot in the photo below. The first time I went to tea I kept forgetting to use the strainer so I'd end up with little bits in my tea. But I remembered this time as you can see from my perfectly strained tea below.

Here I am with my scones (pronounced scawns--like the ending of yawns). 

The people at the table next to us ordered afternoon tea and we were able to catch a glimpse of it before they were served. It looked incredible!

We had a lovely time at Sketch. I realise that ordering cream tea is a great way to go to some really fancy places but still maintaining your budget. 

National Gallery

Last week my friend Suzette and I went to the National Gallery. I still can't get over how many amazing museums are free here! 

The view from the steps of the National Gallery of the sunset over Trafalgar Square was lovely! You can see Elizabeth Tower (where Big Ben resides) in the background towards the left of centre. 

The floor of the main vestibule past the Portico entrance features mosaics that were created in the 1930s by Boris Anrep. Anrep used famous faces of the day as well as his own friends in this series. Below is a photo of the mosaic featuring Winston Churchill as Defiance. 

Suzette and I went to see the temporary exhibit, Walls of Water. It is a series of eight very large paintings inspired by the artist's experience of gigantic waves crashing onto the sea wall of her hometown of Southwold, Suffolk. These were absolutely beautiful. 

In the Van Gogh section, we saw this painting called Two Crabs. For some reason I was really taken with this painting. I also noticed that it is on loan from a private collection. I can't imagine being able to hang up this painting in my home!

A Wheatfield, with Cypresses is another amazing Van Gogh painting. He painted this when he was a patient at the St-Remy mental asylum. 

The National Gallery has quite a few Monet paintings. The one below is called The Beach at Trouville. There are grains of sand in the paint so at least part of it was painted on the beach. 

The National Gallery building itself is really beautiful. It makes for an amazing place to display such amazing artwork. 

I really liked the room with paintings of Venice. I really this one called Venice: The Grand Canal with S. Simeone Piccolo by Canaletto. 

Trees in the Park at Saint-Cloud by Paul Huet was kind of funny to us as it just ends really abruptly. After doing a bit of research I found that he was one of the leading landscape painters of 19th-century France and the abrupt stop emphasises (thank you, British auto correct) its boldness and vitality. 

Suzette and I were both intrigued and horrified by this painting, An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump by Joseph Wright. We mostly thought it was funny because the travelling scientist reminded us of Mr Heckles from Friends. I liked how each person has a different reaction to the experiment. The little girls look very sad, the young boy on the left seems excited, and the young couple barely notice anything else in the room besides each other. 

The painting by Thomas Gainsborough called Mr and Mrs Andrews was interesting because it is also unfinished. The area on Mrs Andrews lap was intentionally left blank so that a child could be added later. My own opinion of this painting is that either they hired a landscape artist who wasn't great at painting faces or that this couple is quite unattractive.

The National Gallery was amazing! We didn't even get through half of the rooms but saw so many beautiful and historic works for art. I look forward to what I will find on my next visit!