Technology
Merkan: i-Phone.
A bit of background: When I was young, younger than before, we upgraded one of our 370/158s by a whole megabyte. The computer itself was a behemoth to start with, but the extra storage was the size of a large fridge-freezer, took a skilled engineer a whole day to connect up, needed an upgrade to the power supply, cost a fortune to buy and to run, and frequently broke down. But it meant we could play Adventure on night shift.
Little Miss Farty dropped in yesterday to watch the Big Bang and showed us her new och-aye phone. It comes with GPS, touch-sensitive screen, iPod, the current version of the interweb, phone, camera, eight Gigabytes of memory, oh and it's hand-held of course.
"Aye, verry good, but how much did it set ye back?"
"Och, dinnae be silly Pa, it wiz a free upgrade wi' mah contract."
Still needs a power cable ten miles long, I bet. *harrumph*
Time
Merkan: I've been trying to think of a word for two weeks.
English: Fortnight.
Seriously. Why don't you use this word?
English: Autumn.
Ah, a beautiful time of year, when the warm summer sun begins to wane, the leaves turn from green to gold, russet, burnt orange, and deep crimson, then finally to caramel, before they gently swirl to the forest floor, building up a deep carpet for the young and the young-at-heart to kick their way through2. Camp fires in the evenings with the enticing smell of woodsmoke curling up into the deep blue sky. Marshmallows toasting over the embers on sharpened sticks...ok, I'm drooling now.
Merkan: Fall.
Food and Drink
English: Squash.
A delicious drink made from, would you believe, squashed fruit? Basically. But so much more goes into it. A bit like that wardrobe.
Merkan: Coke.
Fact - between them, the Coca-Cola Company and Pepsi, Inc., spend seventeen gazillion dollars a year advertising their respective "products". But if you walk into a corner shop (drugstore? I'll have to do that sometime too) and ask for a Coke, and the guy at the checkout says they've only got Pepsi, the typical response is: "Yeah, whatever."
English: Tea.
A hot beverage made with dried leaves in boiling water. Usually available in about 150 varieties, so that you can pick the one most suitable for the time of day/mood/social occasion/etc. Served with milk and/or sugar. And sometimes lemon. Quick and easy, too, since it takes about ten seconds to boil the water with a 240-volt mains supply.
Merkan: Iced Tea.
Understandable. It takes about a week to boil a kettle in Merka. 120 volts? WTF??? The only thing iced tea is good for is being poured into Boston harbour.
Merkan: Muffins. Mmmm, tasty muffins!
English: Toasted Crumpet. Mmmm, tasty crumpet!
1 So sue me.
2 Note spelling.
