What's in a name...?

Everyone who is actively following Puneet's blog will have read his entry about our Saturday night adventure at A&E. Apart from the drunken antics of some individuals that shall remain unnamed we also had an interesting conversation about English locations that cannot be pronounced correctly be foreigners due to their rather misleading spelling. It all started with our mate Robin who was asked by an Australian about the location of 'louga-bouruga'. It turned out he wanted to get to Loughborough. Hilarious you think? Now here is a list of other places around London and England that get frequently pronounced incorrectly often to the amusement of locals.

1. Leicester Square (less-tur) = tourist: Ley-chester square
2. Greenwich (greh-nich)= tourist: Green - ish
3. Lewisham (lewi-sham)= tourist: Lewis-ham
4. Barnesbury(barns-bury) = tourist: Barn-es-bury
5. Edinburgh (eh-din-bur-uh)= tourist: Edin-burg
6. Reading (red-ing)= tourist: Read-ing
7. Gloucester (glah-stur)= tourist: tourist: glou-chester

Now I am sure there are many more and to be honest,being a foreigner myself,I too had to learn how to pronounce these names. I remember quite well how I got on the tube on my very first day in London and said to my friend that we have to get off at Glou-chester Road. I don't remember anyone laughing out loud but I'm sure I cause a few giggles. On the other hand there are names, many of them in Wales, that most people simply can't get their head around and I applaud everyone who can pronounce 'Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwlll'.
BTW, yes this place actually exists as I was told it is in fact a train station in Wales.

Now all you foreigners out there - don't despair - keep practising.

HC TEAM BLOG ACTION

BTW, for more blogging fun and random trivia - check out Pun's Blog (with so much time on his hands there's always something interesting on there)

Tha art of spanking

Everyone who knows me also knows that I love a good spanking. Indeed I will tell anyone who doesn't want to know even if I have just met them.
Hence, I thought it was time for the good guide of effective spanking.

1. Do not think that the more muscles the better the spank - it's all in the wrist
2. It DOES work best on a naked behind. Clothes just hinder the whole process
3. Creative tools are welcome but keep it in the realm of non-criminal weapons
4. Just when you hit it, pull back immediately! That way you both enjoy it more
5. Mutual agreement is a prerequisite - not everyone likes it!
6. Seize the moment - there is a time and a place.
7. Have a safety word - just in case you get too carried away
8. Enjoy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Digital Illiteracy

Call me a digital snob but I find it kinda hilarious (or sad) what type of people choose to study for a MA in Digital Media.
Just the other day I had to explain to one of my fellow students that he can't do a project gantt chart in Excel. In fact, the mere purpose of Project (that is a microsoft application) is the visual demonstration of time management via graphs that Excel kinda doesn't have.
Oh weel, guess I can't expect everyone to know about this - fair enough.
However, fast forward one week and we find ourselves in a seminar trying to arrange a seminar meeting in second life. Being busy editing my avatar's appearance -red shoes, tight black dress - get in!-the girl next to me asks me how to enter second life.
She clearly has the second life website open but struggles to find her way in. Now you see, Second life is an application one has to downlaod in order to participate so you can't access via the web.
Again, I forgive her for not knowing.
So very politely I tell her that it's located on the desktop.
"Where?"
"the desktop sweeaart, it's on the desktop!"
"Where? What?"
"THE DESKTOP!!!!!"

Yeah, No, she didn't know what a desktop is. I had to close her windows and point the cursor to the desktop icon for her. Poor thing, I wonder how she is gonna manage 3D design, game animation and html programming.