At what age can you add "Grumpy old" to your gender?

Now that Christmas is over I can put away my smiley mask & go back to my "old git" persona! But when did I start to be such a moaner? For many years I was happy to stand in the background & let others' opinions wash over me like the tide, not trusting my own. As my other posts probably reveal nowadays I do not suffer fools gladly & am far from afraid of expressing my opinion, even if I set myself up as an Aunt Sally. This morning I found myself annoyed at Sky news because one of the captions had a miss spelt "sucessful" which had been allowed to be transmitted around the world - not for the first time - only being calmed when Naz the weather girl appeared in one of her zipper dresses.


I now complain when I get poor service, will express my point of view at dinners, even though it might not be the popular one ( I remember the outrage I caused soon after Madeleine McCann disappeared by putting forward the theory that her parents might have had something to do with it). The other day I was returning from town when, after negotiating a roundabout, a van decided to drive dangerously close behind me, about 5 feet. He could not pass me as conditions would not allow. After a little while I felt that something needed to be said as NO ONE has the right to put my life in danger, so I stopped! Then I got out to ask his reason for his behaviour to which his reply was that I was the dangerous driver as I had failed to use my indicators at the roundabout! As I was going straight across & was in the right hand lane & nobody was waiting I didn't see the need, which may or may not be the correct way, but I don't think in that circumstance it could have been considered dangerous & I said so.


I tell those who make the mistake of listening my opinions on the poor quality of TV, not being a cook or interested in B list celebrities &, oh, so many things....


I'm now 54, so do I qualify?


Do you?

Brian, I once knew a geezer from Brick Lane in the days when it was East London and not north Bengal. You couldn't possibly mistake his accent for any other than full-blooded "cockney" as carefully crafted over centuries. And completely different from Saf of the river or round by Shepherd's Bush (Who-land).

Peter, Tyldesley near Sn'ellens is "Bongs" :)

And I won't go into how Walkden is pronounced

Happisburgh has two, the other is Hasbrë if you are from 'near' the place rather than from it.

Yes Ian, with you. When we went to live in London, SW19 to be precise, there were several recognisable accents just in that district. When people do a Dick van Dyke 'Mary Poppins' bad Cockney as something from London, then they are walking on thin ice. The city has dozens of localised accents and place names that do not correspond with postal addresses, signs and maps. Authentic London accent/dialect is an oxymoron and more. But try telling that to the 'experts' somewhere else (especially 'mericans or Anglophone French).

I ave a mate in Barnoldswick. Apparently the correct pronounciation is

"Baa'lick" !

A few come to mind from Norfolk tho' i'm sure there are dozens :

Costessey = Cossey

Happisburgh = Hai'sbro

Wymondham = Windom

Hunstanton = Hunston

Little Snoring is well named too !

Hope I've found the right "reply" button, getting a bit long this sub-thread :)

Not only Burnley or Blegburn or Bowton can be differentiated from Skem or Blegpow, you can differentiate between estates divided by a main road, or could time back, prolly gone now with TV wiping away accents. You could always tell if someone was from north or south of the Ribble, that being a major frontier for centuries between Mercia and Northumbria. I love accents too.

No-one ever says "Atherton" meaning a place near Bowton, quite isolated and a reputation for "queerness". It's either Chequerbent or Chowbent. Two local squaddies on leave thought they would have some fun with the ticket clerk at Euston by asking for "two tickets to t'Bent". "Reight", he said. "Which wun? Chow or Checker?"

Bowton bred : long i'th erms and shoart i'th'ead

Similar Pete, I love dialects. The outcome is that NO language I know comes out in the so-called high version unless I try my hardest.

The difference in accents between Gt Yarmouth and Nowich and the far-flung wasteland near Kings Lynn offer very different accents. Probably the same as Lancashire Ian were someone from Burnley sounds different to someone from say, Skelmersdale or Fleetwood ?

I love accents.

Oh yes, where I was living we could see Suffolk and the same happened with their dialects in costume dramas. You'd hear one of the 'old boys' (they are any age from birth on, but the same as in West Norfolk there) saying something about going to Bristol once and that is how they speak... There was a thing set in Bury St Edmunds once where they put up road signs and the city sign saying Bury St Edmunds, whereas entering the city they all actually say St Edmundsbury, because only the original city in the centre is BSE (sic) and the area around is composed of the nearby villages. Thus the hospital where my youngest was born was put on her birth certificate as St Edmundsbury by the registrar in Ely. The Beeb have a crap research department for detail.

All that kind of thing they were obliged to skoff during the war, my aged in-laws go on about it all the time. I was damn pleased to find a huge bag of swedes on my doorstep when I lived in West Cork for a while :)

Still treated by many french as 'cattle feed' of course.

Can't beat a nice mangle in a soup or with a roast nosh !

Parsnips is another veg underrated by our hosts tho' things are changing.

Different worlds, but at least something in common!

I used to really enjoy the BBC costume dramas except for something like David Copperfield & others when it came to accents. The Norfolk accent is quite 'special' but it never stopped casting directors choosing actors & actresses using a south-west accent. Devon & Cornwall is a different world to East Anglia ! Just a bit of research would have made a refreshing difference.

Right Brian. Ten-a-penny costume dramas where the costume seems to have taken over the plot. Re-watched the first three "Yes Ministers". Couldn't hold my glass properly for guffawing :)

I can see why Brian. I'm afraid i'm losing the will to live with this series.

We tried. This kind of thing is becoming ten a penny and not very convincing anyway, the world is never that far-fetched, even when the situation in the real world IS far-fetched in most people's minds. We gave up.

Speaking of television. Has anyone beeen watching thhe second series of Broadchurch ? The first series attracted an average 9.1 million viewersbut the figures are tumbling and presently stand at about 5.7 million. Could this be because to the scriptwriters are losing the plot, literally ! Can anyone actually understand what's happening ?

This mish-mash of a plot makes Smileys People seem quite plausible !

Grump over.

This is the BBC that had This Was The Week That Was, Spitting Image, other satire by the heap and through to still having Have I got News For You for two seasons a year. Now they are crawling into a hole where they will curl up and dither away. That is as much laughable as it makes grumpy.

It must be my age, but I have had a 'grumpy' week with first the car insurers - as yet unresolved, but I have just read about the BBC not being able to use the word 'terrorist' now, but must use 'militant' or 'assailant' (notably in reference to the Charlie Hebdo attack). Granted it seems to apply to the Arabic service, but what happened to the once proud 'independence' of the BBC?

Source: Franceinfo today's date

Wimpishness always raises my ire anyway, and this is almost unbelievable.

Has Britain gone so far down the pan that every part of it has to be 'politically correct'?

Is the BBC still funded by the State?

Good grief it would make a Saint grumpy?

Yes Norman, I went to Chelsea very tokenistically during the 2008-09 season. I paid £30 to go in the Shed where I used to go for five bob. Even then we moaned some. Back then the best part of the stand was £60! Up to £80 almost surprises me as a bit lower than I might have expected.