Not location specific, No rules: Welcome to ILX heaven

It comes down to how much you can use it. My German (4 years of high school and some in college) was in really rough shape until I started goofing off on a German MUD. My vocabulary for D&D type weapons and armor grew by leaps and bounds :)

I've managed to keep it up better since then, writing to friends and reading German websites. You can find your way to more than just the bathroom I bet!

I can also tell people I've been staying here for two weeks...

accentmonkey, how much of your French do you recall now? Did you find it easy learning another language? I studied German for 6 years at school and now all I can remember is how to ask where the toilet is.

Yeah, like Patita says, it's all in how much you use it. I don't remember a lot, until I've been in France for a few days, and then suddenly I find I can order things in a cafe and understand little jokes and it's all good. I coast on my accent, though (hence the nickname). I never really realised how hard it is for people to understand you if they're not expecting your accent. So what usually happens is Mister M will tell me what to say, and I'll say it. But it's extremely basic. My vocabulary's not bad, but I can't do tenses at all.

Also like Rock says. He said it too.

The most important thing I ever learned about shopping or going to cafes in Paris is this: always say hello to the proprietor when you come in. Even if you can't say hello in French. People who work in shops there will look up when the door opens, and if you don't greet them then you are RUDE. This advice may not hold true in every single shop, but it's a pretty good rule of thumb.

I chose Technical Drawing instead of French at the age of 13, but I still remember how to ask where the supermarket is and to declare my wish for a potato.

Allez tout droit Monsieur Myoppe!

It turns out the BBC has a really nice little basic tourist Italian class online.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/italian/lj/

It follows good principles of instructional design (as I learned them ten years ago).

I would love to learn a properly useful language like Spanish. Except I think they all sound like slightly challenged stroke victims. Sorry Spanish speaking world, I am an ignorant man.

I chose Technical Drawing instead of French at the age of 13, but I still remember how to ask where the supermarket is and to declare my wish for a potato.

Haha, you are me (except it's German in my case).

Photies.

Somebody couldn't stop picking up the yellow (and other coloured) stones:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v292/aldo_cowpat/DSC00967.jpg

I call this one "Waiting For Grandad (again)":

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v292/aldo_cowpat/DSC00971.jpg

Rhodes harbour is very nice. This is the view from where (allegedly) one of the Collossus' feet stood:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v292/aldo_cowpat/DSC00977.jpg

St Nicholas' Fort saw lots of FITEING against the Turks:

which left bits of it kind of damaged:

Other bits of the City Walls survived relatively untouched:

and with gates this size, maybe that isn't surprising:

It has a pretty square with a lovely fountain:

which Charlie discovered you could do optical illusions with:

and Alex looked aloof over:

It also has (allegedly) the best preserved Knights Inn street in Europe:

Lindos was much hotter, but has spectacular views:

and a fort:

with an Acropolis at the top:

I found a cricket, but I did not eated it:

Can anybody else see the other pictures?

3 picture limit per post in nu-ILX

Ah. In which case:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v292/aldo_cowpat/DSC00980.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v292/aldo_cowpat/DSC00988.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v292/aldo_cowpat/DSC00995.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v292/aldo_cowpat/DSC00999.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v292/aldo_cowpat/DSC01005.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v292/aldo_cowpat/DSC01011.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v292/aldo_cowpat/DSC01012.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v292/aldo_cowpat/DSC01019.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v292/aldo_cowpat/DSC01064.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v292/aldo_cowpat/DSC01067.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v292/aldo_cowpat/DSC01071.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v292/aldo_cowpat/DSC01049.jpg

Good pictures mate. The kids seem to take turns each at looking like you.

That looks lovely.

Cuet kids! Also yummy lunch etc.

Looks amazing!

Was stupidly hot - Lindos was something like 44 degrees when we were there. And it would have been far lovelier without my parents, but I am not quite ready for that vent yet.

Okay wow. This is what your kids are meant to be saying!

Damn that is hot, even by Texan standards. Was it dry at least?

It was pretty dry. Not dry like the Middle East is, but certainly not as humid as the Far East, or Florida.

Love 'Alex aloof' shot.

OK, wrong country and wrong time but it could be a still from Jewel in the Crown. Or any number of Merchant Ivory films.

You know it's kind of a plus when ILx is this boring. I get more work done.

Ooh, pretty holiday pictures! And high five on getting work done.

That road leading up was the first pic that loaded, and I said "ooh, that's Rhodes isn't it?"

one dark path leading up! Made an impression on me that one.

I have booked my Italian course! It starts at the end of this month! I am very excited.

Oh cool. Who with?

Eden School of English, which sounds like a place you'd train pole dancers, but in fact was recommended by a couple of people in Mister M's workplace.

OK, some conversations I had with my parents on holiday.

(We are at the beach, on the second day.)
Ma: "Oh, you've brought two bottles of water?"
Me: "Aye, well, we thought you wouldn't think about it, so we figured we might as well."
Ma (starting to be in the huff): "That's right, think the worst of us."
Me: "Well did you bring any?"
Ma: "No, we never really thought about it..."

She bore that grudge all week, because on the final night we weren't getting picked up till 4 in the morning, so we were trying to get a bit of kip on the sun loungers - me specifically because it's a 3 hour drive home from Gatwick. She woke me up at half 1 to tell me she'd bought some water for the airport. Which she had told me 3 hours previously.

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(We are in a bar, watching the Arsenal-Blackburn match. Robbie Savage has just gone down in the box when, if he had stayed on his feet he was clean through on goal.)

Da: "There'll be none of that in Scotland soon. We're bringing in a scheme."
Me: "No, FIFA said it couldn't go ahead."
Da: "That's rubbish, it is."
Me: "Da, I run an internet predictions league. I made up a bonus round based on that very pilot, before I found out FIFA had said it needed a rule change first."
Da: "You don't live in Scotland any more, what do you know."

He then huffed for the next hour or so, then when we got our on-the-house-so-you-might-come-back drink (which was ouzo in this case) refused to pass it to F or I (who like ouzo) and forced himself to drink it, despite declaring it "vile" after the first sip.

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(We are in Lindos where, as we have suggested, it was bluddy hot. We have decided the kids will ride donkeys to the top because we don't know how far it is. The previous night my Da had told me they were in pairs, and we figured my parents would go up with them - not least because both of them have had high blood pressure and other health problems. This caused him problems, as he didn't want to go on the donkey, insisting the "donkey man" would watch the kids until we got up there.)

F: "Right, that's the queue for the donkeys. We're going to start up the hill."
(a minute passes)
F: "That's the donkey queue, we're off, see you up there."
(another minute passes)
F: "The donkey queue is there, we're starting to walk."
(another minute passes)
F: "WILL YOU JOIN THE FUCKING DONKEY QUEUE!"
Ma: "Oh! I didn't know we had to do that."

In response to this, my Da drunk all the water that was supposed to be for him and the kids on the way up. They then went into the Acropolis and left in under a minute, saying they had seen enough.

(I should also point out they didn't actually want to go to Lindos until a guy from our hotel with three Celtic tattoos, who only wore Celtic branded wear HIS ENTIRE HOLIDAY told him it was "nice". Our opinions counted for nothing.

__________________________________________________

(During the walk to a restaurant in Faliraki, we are nearly forced off the pavement and into a sewer by a bunch of Glaswegian neds and nedettes. One of them is drinking simultaneously from 3 bottles of lager. One girl is wearing clothing that covers approximately 2% of her body. The remainder of the girls have eaten more pies in the last year than most people eat in their lives. We are now in the restaurant and a group of 17-18 year old girls come in. We do not hear them speak, but from the racial mix they are clearly not Scottish. They are wearing standard clubbing wear, albeit with a slightly IT'S BLUDDY HOT reduction factor in skirt length and amount of material in tops. The drink they are having with dinner appears to be one of the first of the evening.)

Da: "Girls like that will be on one of those telly programmes soon."
Ma: "Aye, Costa del Crime."
Me: "You seriously think that compared to those Scottish girls we passed?"
Ma: "I can't believe you said that, what a racist."
Me: "I'm using it as a descriptor, not as a pejorative."
Ma: "How do you know they were Scottish anyway? They could have been from anywhere."

I thought about telling her that one of them saying "you get tae fuck, ya fucking cunt that ye are" was a bit of a giveaway, but thought better of it. I don't think they spoke to us for the rest of the night.

_____________________________________________

Ma: "All teenagers today think nothing of spending £75-100 on drink on a night out."

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Oh, then there was the time my Da waited till we were ready to go to lunch, before announcing he had to get changed. Which somehow took him over half an hour and included piercing blisters. The "waiting for grandad" picture comes from the wait.

______________________________________________

Or the time when we were accidentally put at different tables while we were in Rhodes town and ended up finishing at different times. We just told them to go down to the square and we would see them in twenty minutes. As we got up to leave, I spotted them in the place we had agreed to meet. By the time we got down there, they had wandered off. They came back about 10 minutes later, claiming since we were late it didn't matter whether they were there or not so they went for a walk.

There's lots more where these came from.

Sounds like a blast.

a shotgun blast

Jesus Aldo. Have you always had these problems with them or is this recent? Did you get any break in at all?

I've not heard of Eden, always a good sign. I only hear bad stories about places (selective negative deafness :) )

There was fun had by us and the kids in spite of them. It's telling though that they didn't phone on Sunday to say their flight had got in safely. And I haven't bothered to tell them that we didn't crash and die on the M4.

See, my middle brother wants all of us in my family to go on holidays to a villa in Italy next year or the year after. But this is because he lives in England and does not see my parents as often as I do. Don't get me wrong, I love them very much and get on much better with them than Aldo appears to get on with his folks, but I don't want to go on holiday with them.

Celtic fans are known for their Acropolis critiquing :)

Me: "I'm using it as a descriptor, not as a pejorative."

If I'd said that to my Dad I'd had got a good dose of the Chewin The Fat "ooooooohhhhh pejorative, you hear that?" wiggly hands treatment :P

I've been on holiday with my parents a few times and it's been a blast. My in-laws on the other hand...

Said Celtic fan was a class alkie btw - on the final day he walked up to the village to retrieve his wife's bank card from the machine that had swallowed it. He came back about 3 hours later. Pished.

His excuse? "Just think of the money I've saved you on crisps. They give you them free in Mike's Bar."

That's... brilliant. I must remember that excuse!

Sounds lovely. I don't think I'll go there on hols. I'm too much of a snob.

I've been on holiday with my parents a few times and it's been a blast. My in-laws on the other hand...

Oh my god, I'm sure I've moaned at length about the time we took Mister M's mam to Paris for five days. Jesus. She didn't bring her glasses, for a start. Which, you know, is grand, because it's not like there's ANYTHING TO SEE IN PARIS.

I haven't really been on hols with my parents abroad. I haven't lived with them since I was 16 so it's always a bit of fun going home.

I did travel with my dad around Myanmar shortly after I turned 21. One of the happiest trips of my life to be honest. My mum and I just drink and get giggly so not the most touristy of times to be had :)

I took my mother on a driving trip to NYC once and that's the closest we've come to a vacation together.

Ha! You know how when you go traveling, or go somewhere really great and life changing, you think that you will remember it forever, and then you look at a photo of one of the amazing places you saw (in my case, Doubtful Sound, New Zealand) and you realise that you don't really remember it. All you really remember is some stupid middle-aged Indian guy smoking on the boat and fucking his plastic cup over the side, like a cock.

^it's not places, but people & time...

aldo, what type of camera do you have? Yours pics are fab, great colour, contrast & clarity.

I've never been away with my parents, though they have invited me once or twice. They have a house in Spain. However I figured it's best to check it out with my girlfriend first so that will be my summer holiday next week. Can't wait, need some heat and good weather. Just want to read, swim, and have nice meals out for the entire time away.

Oh yeah, I meant to say I guess I would enjoy a holiday with my parents, I get along pretty well with them, even if we don't have much in common at all.

we don't have much in common at all

My Dad and I share an unhealthy appetite for alcohol and have been boozing together since I was at school. I suppose I should resent him for it but, you know, beer :)

Camera is a Sony DSC-N1. It's pretty damn fine, I must say.

I think the problems with my parents probably started when I moved to England. They seem to think I'm some sort of traitor to my country, or something, in addition to being a Class traitor.

They're right really. Poor Braveheart :(

So, you know that Irish guy who was imprisoned in Senegal for mooning? Am I the only one who thought he should have received a booting?