Thursday, May 17, 2012

Scattered


I often think my meadow and its outbuildings and wood piles a work of art.


Very scattered. That's me. Too much on the go entirely. Trailing ribbons of tax work. Buying lovely linen cushions for the Tigeen and boring plumbly bits for its rainwater connections.

Interviews on newspapers, magazines and radio stations as an article I wrote on lack of broadband in the Newfoundland outports went just about viral. Phone ringing off the hook, journalists finding me on FaceBook, I can't believe how cool I am when faced with the press, and how very bloody Irish I sound.

Seriously. Right off the boat. I am shocked. I thought I had one of those sneery no-accent Dublin twangs going and would tell you that to your face as you turned to hide the snort. I should know better. I spoke at something a few months ago and a stranger came up to me and said "Tirty-Tree" (Thirty-Three) which is our secret handshake/code for "You come from Cork?". He was from Cork originally. We can't escape it I tell you. My lovely spoken English only existed in my head. All those years and years of fancy elocution lessons down the loo. My mother is rolling in her grave.

Meanwhile the play is on the windup to actual performances in Da City and elsewhere. So rehearsals, posters, promotions, oh-me-nerves outbreaks and press releases on the go.

It's all very exciting though as I buzz like some mad seanachie - I feel I've really earned the title with all that's going on - from one chore to the next.

Blogging will be sporadic over the next wee while.


17 comments:

  1. Engrained accents can be very hard to lose. I fondly imagine I have a quite neutral English accent but everyone says it's right posh.

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  2. Of all the accents for which I'd swap my Yorkshire twang, I'd choose Irish - I love to hear it.

    Break a leg - in all directions WWW!

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  3. I'm very conscious of the Dutch accent with which I speak English. I think I would be horrified to hear my recorded voice. I think the Irish one is charming and I wouldn't be embarrassed about it at all if I were you.

    Break a leg, WWW. I think it's bad luck to wish you success so I won't.

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  4. Congratulations and enjoy the Buzz! It is very well deserved.

    Voices and accents are strange things. Here in Northern Ireland I am told I have a lovely brogue, yet when I go down south... they laugh at my northern twang. I hate the sound of my own recorded voice.

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  5. Wow. You are busy. Broadband is my window on the world, living way out here in the middle of the Pacific in Hawaii as I do.
    I love that photo and miss that kind of landscape.
    I wonder if my Irish friend who lives in Vancouver thinks she has lost her "accent." I hope she never does, because it is part of her charm.

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  6. Ah sure, you'll be grand my dotey pet. No worries at all, at all. xo

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  7. Good on you getting some notice about the broadband situationthere.

    An oldtimer asked me once if I came from the east coast cuz I spoke like a bluenoser. I never even knew how they sounded.I did tell him that I was born and raised in Ontario but that some of my family have lived in New Brunswick for over 200 years.

    I like your woodpile. :)

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  8. Nick:
    I've always been a sucker for 'right posh' :) Ask some of my ex-boyfriends. LOL
    XO
    WWW

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  9. T:
    We had Yorkshire neighbours on my road where I grew up and I loved the exoticism of their accents and their Yorkshire baking!
    XO
    WWW

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  10. Irene:
    yes lots of breakalegs and I do so wish this awful cold would leave, I am nearly deaf....
    XO
    WWW

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  11. GM:
    Oh I must write about a part time job I had one time on weekends where I used my voice.....
    I've heard you on podcasts and you sound so refined. Your mammy would be proud.
    XO
    WWW

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  12. Hattie:
    Oh do suffer on for the rest of us in Hawaii, my goodness how lucky you are. :)
    Endless sunshine and gorgeous ocean.
    I thought I had lost my accent, lol, and I blush to think how often I've said to people "I'm from Ireland" and how many times the response has been "No kidding."
    XO
    WWW

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  13. Orla:
    Ah the faith of the young 'uns, now can you get rid of this fierce cold of mine?
    XO
    WWW

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  14. GFB:
    And my woodpile likes you, you secret little Bluenoser.
    XO
    WWW

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  15. I *adore* the Irish accent - I had a seminar last week given by a County Cork professor, who'd been out in Nz since 1988, but his accent was still board enough to have me swooning :-D

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  16. Ah Jo:
    I imagine when you're from the originating accent country it is not so beguiling.
    Though I have to admit to a fondness for both plummy British and the brogue of NI!
    Us Corkonians spread afar, don't we?
    XO
    WWW

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  17. I am sure - I've had Kiwis tell me here that they love my British accent, when to me it is nothing special. I think that wherever you are, foreign accents hold the allure of the exotic and the unknown...

    Definitely - I still have very fond memories of sharing a backpacking room with a Corkonian farmer-to-be - he was about to inherit his father's farm, and was on a last 'splurge' before he was tied to it for most of the rest of his working life. He was a lovely, gentle soul :-)

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