Thursday, 15 October 2009
Parliamo Glesca? Firm seeks translators
A translation company is looking to recruit Glaswegian interpreters to help business clients who are baffled by the local dialect.Today Translations placed an advert in The Herald newspaper on Tuesday seeking speakers of "Glaswegian English".
Successful candidates, who could earn up to £140 a day, must understand "vocabulary, accent and nuances".
The firm said, so far, 30 people had applied for the positions - some of them in Glaswegian.
 | SOME GLASGOW PATTER Baltic (very cold) Boost (head off) Buckie (tonic wine favoured by youngsters) Cludgie (toilet) Eejit (idiot) Hampden roar (score) Hee haw (nothing) Hen (term used to address a woman or girl) Laldy (enthusiastic participation) Maw (mother) Midden (rubbish tip) Pure (very) Moroculous (drunk) Messages (shopping) Scooby (clue, ryhming slang - Scooby Doo) Shoot the craw (leave in a hurry) Stooky (plaster cast) Swatch (look) Toaty (small) Ya dancer (fantastic) Yersel (yourself) |
Today Translations spokesman, Mick Thorburn said: "Over the last few months we've had clients asking us for Glaswegian translators.
"After some consideration we've decided this is a service we would like to offer.
"Usually, the role would involve translating documents but in this case its more likely to be assisting foreign visitors to the city whose 'business English' is not good enough to understand the local dialect."
Mr Thorburn said successful candidates may have to sit in on business meetings.
He added: "We're not necessarily looking for people who are particularly skilled in linguistics, just candidates who can help out clients who may struggle with native Glaswegian."
Today Translations said that depending on the volume of applications, it expected to contact the successful clients in the next few weeks.
Earlier this year a bus driver was recognised for teaching his Eastern European colleagues at First Glasgow bus company to understand Glaswegian slang.
James Lillis said: "When new employees come to Scotland and hear the Glasgow accent, it can be a problem. Drivers have to learn to understand what is meant when a customer says, for example, 'Gie us an aw day tae the toon' (Give me an all day ticket to the town)."
How could I have forgotten?
The milk snatcher's birthday was yesterday!Don't forget that when she finally dies there will be a BIG party in Trafalgar Square and I shall certainly be having a celebratory drink or two!
Wednesday, 14 October 2009
How ill is Khamenei?
- This may be a very interesting few days, it appears Khamenei health in real question. May just be too frail to carry on? #iranelection
- had false reports Khamenei death before, i'm vry cautious, but my instict - no evidence - is that he is not long 4 ths world #iranelection
- Source: Qom ldrs prepare 4 fight 2 gain power in wake of Khamenei condition being serious. No way 2 100% confirm reports coma #iranelection
- Mixed reports Khameni, some sources claim it is very serious, but one caution that he had a minor episode and is recovered #iranelection
- There may be some truth to reports that Khameni condition not good, but no confirmation of Coma. #iranelection #iran
- Several sources Khameni collapsed yesterday and is in private clinic with son and doctors. No way verify his condition. #iranelection
Spiritualized @ RFH, London
Jason Pierce performing Spiritualized's Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space at the Royal Festival Hall, London. Photograph: Jim Dyson/GettyReleased in 1997, Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space is the key text in Spiritualized's canon. It was the album that synthesised all of frontman Jason Pierce's influences (from gospel to free jazz) and preoccupations (drugs, religion, the agony of love). Performed in its cacophonous entirety at the Royal Festival Hall, in a suitably extravagant arrangement – aside from Pierce and his six-piece band, there is a mini-orchestra of strings and wind players, plus a 12-person choir – it still dazzles, although at this scale its imperfections also feel exposed.
There is a thinness to Pierce's songwriting: dwelling on his acrimonious split from the band's then keyboardist, Kate Radley, he seeks no complexity in his emotions. The affecting fragility of Broken Heart is undermined by the fact that what Pierce expresses is the lavish melancholy of Hollywood movies. In All of My Thoughts, Pierce luxuriates in his misery. And sometimes, that pleasure in pain becomes sadistic. Electricity is a screech of nerve-shredding noise, while the black screams in the seemingly interminable closer Cop Shoot Cop create the impression that hell has opened up. No wonder Pierce applauds the audience: we're passing an endurance test just by staying in our seats.
But at its best, the show offers a kind of transcendence. With its disjointed rhythm and odd texture, Stay With Me eschews sentimentality yet captures a lifetime of romantic experience. Initially woozy, I Think I'm in Love slowly envelops the audience in a pulsating, repetitive groove. When it ends, you feel exquisitely transported.
1973 Catholic church logo
The 70s were definitely a simpler time, but today this logo for the Catholic Church’s Archdiocesan Youth Commission looks like an admission of guilt. 
From extraction to consumption: Oil, an exhibition by Edward Burtynsky
State Oil Company of the Republic of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) oilfields, Baku, Azerbaijan, 2006
Elvis Costello - Veronica
There is some trivia for all you Melbourne folk!
