Gardian Posted June 22, 2014 Share Posted June 22, 2014 Just a bit of silliness.Our neighbour Michel is ................ how can I put this? A bit of a one-off.We live in the Midi. All of his extensive family live in Lyon, where he was brought up. He and his wife regularly make the trip there for births, weddings and funerals.He always says "On va descendre a Lyon". Then I say to him that you can't "descend a Lyon", it must be a "monter a Lyon". "You're going north, so you're going up!"Then he says that he's going to "Monter a Nimes" (directly south from here). I just shake my head and tell him that he's a mad Frenchie.When I lived in the Thames Valley, I'd always talk in terms of going up to Manchester, Leeds, Nottingham and down to Southampton or Exeter. Bristol was dodgy (due west), but probably down. Anywhere in Wales was definitely up though.Is it me?[8-)] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YCCMB Posted June 22, 2014 Share Posted June 22, 2014 Everybody here travels up to London...which is sort of east of here. People who live in East London seem to go up to the West End. I can't remember, but I think when I was a northerner I still went up to London. Although I might have gone down to London. On an even more parochial level, do you go up the road or down the road to the shops (or wherever)? And is there any consistency or logic if the road in question isn't on any form of incline? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loiseau Posted June 22, 2014 Share Posted June 22, 2014 Along to the shops? :-)I think one goes "up" to London because the railways had an "up" line (towards the metropolis) and a "down" line. Always seemed funny to me when living in Warwickshire as a child that people went "up" when they were effectively travelling south.Angela Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idun Posted June 23, 2014 Share Posted June 23, 2014 I just go with the flow, these things never seem to make much sense to me.I know that everyone used to say they go 'up' to London, but I know people these days that insist on saying 'down' as it is south. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nectarine Posted June 23, 2014 Share Posted June 23, 2014 We used to live at the top of the hill at Epsom Downs. I realise now that saying "we usually go for a walk UP the DOWNS" must have utterly confused our French friends! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CeeJay Posted June 24, 2014 Share Posted June 24, 2014 GardianComing from that fair city I have to take issue with your description of Bristol......or, as the Bristolians very aptly would say "Bristle" !!!!![:)] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crakpot Posted June 24, 2014 Share Posted June 24, 2014 Quote "Coming from that fair city I have to take issue with your description of Bristol......or, as the Bristolians very aptly would say "Bristle""As an old 18 Bus driver there I often saw Ford Cortinals and had problems with my TV aeria because I lived in the wrong arealStill remember the great expression look at her gurt big Brisols Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gardian Posted June 24, 2014 Author Share Posted June 24, 2014 Just a little variation on the 'Down or Up'.Five months ago, we suffered an electricity breakdown (24hrs). It was repaired by ErDF, but it was purely a temporary fix - above-ground cables all over the estate, signage saying "Danger de Mort".Proper fix scheduled for mid-April and everybody duly informed by email and letter. Juice would be off for an afternoon. Nobody came.It got to yesterday and all of a sudden, some contractors turned up and dug a very large hole in the road (single lane providing the only access to and from all the properties). This morning, they all arrived en masse.A tractopelle operated by one bloke and three others looking down the ever-deepening hole. (You could see the damaged cable which had caused the problem).Two ErDF Transits and three blokes looking at one who was up a long ladder poking around at the cabling 6m up. I asked whether the juice was going off today, to which the answer was "Not today, sometime in the future - we'll let you know".So ................. five vehicules, eight blokes, six of whom were either looking down or up. [blink] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gardian Posted June 26, 2014 Author Share Posted June 26, 2014 Well, the hole got filled in & tarmaced over. Fine.Then the juice went off this morning at 10.30. Nobody around from ErDF, so not a deliberate act as in fixing something.Phone calls in to them -"Une petite probleme". "Treize heures".Juice came back on at 12.00 !!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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