Context: Hampshire for first 18 years, followed by relatively short stints in Surrey, York and Cambridge, followed by 18 more in Bristol. Parents: father grew up in Kingston-Upon-Thames, mother in Wrexham.
1. The space between two buildings containing a footpath: an alleyway.
2. A knitted item of clothing worn over a shirt, without buttons: Jumper.
3. The act of not going to something that you're supposed to go to: Skiving
4. Playground game in which someone is "it" and has to touch someone else who then becomes "it.": He. We also had a 'Stuck in the Mud'-style game called 'Stone Dab', where you could be freed only someone crawling through your legs.
5. Playground truce term when you want a break from the above games: For the life of me I can't remember. It's a great sadness to me.
6. Playground term you say when you want to claim something: Bagsy
7. Slip-on shoes worn for school sports in the days before trainers: plimsolls, though I call them daps in Bristol just to be understood.
8. Small round bread: roll or bap. Assuming it's not a brioche...
9. Sweet course that follows the main course: Pudding
10. Scone: pronounced to rhyme with "gone" or with "moan": Gone.
11. Generic term for a bird: Er, bird?
12. Round food stuff made with batter on a griddle, which is brown on the outside: Can't quite picture it.
13. A delicacy that you feel is particularly local to you: In Hampshire, Gales HSB. In Bristol I'm fond of lardy cake and Easter biscuits, which I think are quite local.
14. Term of endearment: Too many to recount... But I don't use them to strangers.
15. Someone who's soft and easily feels the cold: None
16. Tourists: We don't really get many, inexplicably! Grockle seems to be the local West Country term, though.
17. A field boundary: hedge.
18. You see a group of animals standing in a farm building. They have udders and go moo. Complete the following sentence: "Look at those ____ standing in that ____!" Look at those cows standing in that barn!
19. You haven't had anything to eat in a long time, and your stomach is letting you know about it. You would also like to be warmer. You say: "I'm ____ and ___!" It depends on how hungry or cold I was. "I'm starving and freezing".
20. Your friends invite you to enter a haunted house: you demur. What do they call you, by way of a derisive taunt? Dastard! (At least, it sounded like dastard...)
21. A man who dresses flashily with lots of expensive jewellery is a ____: Chav (but I suspect that's not quite right)
22. What do you say in a shop when you are handed your change? Cheers or Thanks.
23. Generic friendly greeting: I wish I could say "Happy Day", like in Children of the Stones, but "Hello" is more likely.
24. Slang term for a pair of trousers: None
25. Slang term for left-handed: If I used one, I'd say cack-handed, but I'm a bit sensitive on the issue.
26. Pronunciation of Shrewsbury? Newcastle? Glasgow? SHROWS-bree. NEW-castle. GLAZ-go. Long 'A's all the way. They got shorter for a while when I lived in York, but I reverted.
27. Two pieces of bread with a filling: Sandwiches.
28. A playground way of saying someone is out of order: When I was very young, I'm sure I remember people saying "Veee!" But I've never been able to find anyone else who remembers this, so perhaps I imagined it - though I'd like to think it was etymologically related to "Fie!"
29. Dialect terms for hands, ears, face – and, indeed, for any other body parts you care to name: Only for the mouth, really: "Gob", "cakehole", and (picked up from my brother, who picked it up in Manchester) "laughing gear", as in "Wrap your laffing gear round that." Oh, "bum", of course.
30. Terms for someone who looks miserable: misery guts.
31. Potatoes: I'd usually just call them potatoes. Potatoes
32. Pale round food stuff with a brown base, lots of holes in it, which you serve hot with butter: Crumpet
no subject
1. The space between two buildings containing a footpath: an alleyway.
2. A knitted item of clothing worn over a shirt, without buttons: Jumper.
3. The act of not going to something that you're supposed to go to: Skiving
4. Playground game in which someone is "it" and has to touch someone else who then becomes "it.": He. We also had a 'Stuck in the Mud'-style game called 'Stone Dab', where you could be freed only someone crawling through your legs.
5. Playground truce term when you want a break from the above games: For the life of me I can't remember. It's a great sadness to me.
6. Playground term you say when you want to claim something: Bagsy
7. Slip-on shoes worn for school sports in the days before trainers: plimsolls, though I call them daps in Bristol just to be understood.
8. Small round bread: roll or bap. Assuming it's not a brioche...
9. Sweet course that follows the main course: Pudding
10. Scone: pronounced to rhyme with "gone" or with "moan": Gone.
11. Generic term for a bird: Er, bird?
12. Round food stuff made with batter on a griddle, which is brown on the outside: Can't quite picture it.
13. A delicacy that you feel is particularly local to you: In Hampshire, Gales HSB. In Bristol I'm fond of lardy cake and Easter biscuits, which I think are quite local.
14. Term of endearment: Too many to recount... But I don't use them to strangers.
15. Someone who's soft and easily feels the cold: None
16. Tourists: We don't really get many, inexplicably! Grockle seems to be the local West Country term, though.
17. A field boundary: hedge.
18. You see a group of animals standing in a farm building. They have udders and go moo. Complete the following sentence: "Look at those ____ standing in that ____!" Look at those cows standing in that barn!
19. You haven't had anything to eat in a long time, and your stomach is letting you know about it. You would also like to be warmer. You say: "I'm ____ and ___!" It depends on how hungry or cold I was. "I'm starving and freezing".
20. Your friends invite you to enter a haunted house: you demur. What do they call you, by way of a derisive taunt? Dastard! (At least, it sounded like dastard...)
21. A man who dresses flashily with lots of expensive jewellery is a ____: Chav (but I suspect that's not quite right)
22. What do you say in a shop when you are handed your change? Cheers or Thanks.
23. Generic friendly greeting: I wish I could say "Happy Day", like in Children of the Stones, but "Hello" is more likely.
24. Slang term for a pair of trousers: None
25. Slang term for left-handed: If I used one, I'd say cack-handed, but I'm a bit sensitive on the issue.
26. Pronunciation of Shrewsbury? Newcastle? Glasgow? SHROWS-bree. NEW-castle. GLAZ-go. Long 'A's all the way. They got shorter for a while when I lived in York, but I reverted.
27. Two pieces of bread with a filling: Sandwiches.
28. A playground way of saying someone is out of order: When I was very young, I'm sure I remember people saying "Veee!" But I've never been able to find anyone else who remembers this, so perhaps I imagined it - though I'd like to think it was etymologically related to "Fie!"
29. Dialect terms for hands, ears, face – and, indeed, for any other body parts you care to name: Only for the mouth, really: "Gob", "cakehole", and (picked up from my brother, who picked it up in Manchester) "laughing gear", as in "Wrap your laffing gear round that." Oh, "bum", of course.
30. Terms for someone who looks miserable: misery guts.
31. Potatoes: I'd usually just call them potatoes. Potatoes
32. Pale round food stuff with a brown base, lots of holes in it, which you serve hot with butter: Crumpet