It's my every second Saturday post at Writing Wranglers and Warriors blog. I've written about the awesome Fierce Beer that I tasted last night and added a wee bit of Doric on the side.
You can catch that post HERE or read a little more in this REBLOGGED version.
Fit Like?
I’ve said before on this blog that I love words. I love the
diversity and elegance of the English language; I love to use really expressive
words in my writing, even though they may not be easy everyday ones. What I don't often do is give my readers a
teensy wee glimpse into the dialect that’s used by the indigenous north-easters of Scotland .
That’s probably because even after 27 years of living in Aberdeenshire, I still
canna spik a’ Doric! (Can’t speak Doric)
Fit’s this aa aboot
en? (What’s this all about then?)
Doric is a very strong dialect that’s spoken in the city of
Aberdeen, and in Aberdeenshire, but in the way of things they are actually slightly
different in inflection and even some of the actual words differ between city
and shire. The term Doric is thought to have originated from the Greek word for
‘rural’ or ‘rustic’. If you’ve seen the Disney movie ‘Brave’ Doric is spoken by
one of the characters Lord MacGuffin, but it’s pretty easy to follow the film
without understanding a single word of what he says!
Now that’s about the extent of my Doric spikkin though I can understand a little more of the spoken words
so it’s with some trepidation that I venture out into places where Doric might
be spoken. The combination of me being fairly clueless about the dialect and
having a hearing problem makes for a fun situation. Last night’s gaein’ oot intae toon (visit into the
city) wisnae sae bad (wasn’t too
bad), in fact it was fine wee nicht (a
lovely night) considering it was the start of Valentine’s weekend.
My husband and I have never been into the ‘Valentine’s Day’
commercialism during our nearly 42 years of marriage but Valentine’s weekend is
still always a special time for us. My younger daughter was born on Friday 13th
February so we try to catch up with her at some point during her birthday
weekend—though that’s not always easy since she has an incredibly energetic
social life. Today, the 13th Feb, wasn’t going to be convenient to
meet up with her, though last night was.
Since we’re aa’
teuchters (all rural dwellers in Aberdeenshire) we met up with my daughter,
her husband and some of their toonser
freens (city dweller friends) in the city of Aberdeen at the newest Brewdog
Pub which opened just weeks before Christmas 2015.
The Brewdog Pubs are special in that they serve craft beers
and have become very popular throughout the UK and beyond… since they were
started up by 2 guys from North East Scotland in 2007.
I confess to not being much of a beer drinker but I made an
extra special effort last night because we were celebrating more than my
daughter’s birthday. My son-in-law has recently ventured into being a part
owner of a new craft/designer beer company named ‘Fierce Beer’.
Fierce Beer had arranged to do a ‘Take Over’
last night (that is what they call the process) at the Brewdog Pub. It’s a bit
like when authors talk about ‘Paying it forward’, when we help other authors by
reposting blog articles, or sharing posts on Facebook or Twitter. The Brewdog
Pub ideology is much the same in that they are very willing to allow new local
beer companies to promote their new brews in the Brewdog premises. Last night
Fierce Beer had 6 of its new brews available alongside the usual quantity of
Brewdog options.
When we got there at 6 p.m. the pub wis
Fit ye haein’? (What
are you having?) Aa’ll hae a Ginja Ninja!
Cheers mim! (I’ll have a Ginja Ninja. Cheers man, and thank you!)
I’m totally glad that although there was Doric to be heard aroon an’aboot (around us) it’s also a place filled with the young business crowd of
Aberdeen so any Doric tends to be used in one-to-one chat and English used in
the general conversations since Aberdeen is a very multi-cultural city these
days. My answer to my daughter’s question of what would I like was ‘I haven’t a
clue—surprise me!’ My son-in-law presented me with a ‘Fierce Beer Cranachan’ which
is a pale ale made with raspberries and cream and oats and it did taste like
the Scottish dessert named Cranachan. I’m very partial to Cranachan the food
and now the beer! The Ginja Ninja is like a ginger beer with lemongrass and
would be perfect on a hot summer afternoon. I also tasted the ‘Peanuts!’ a dark
and delicious porter made with…you’ve guessed it…peanuts. I’m still sitting on
the fence regarding the Dirty Sanchez which is a dark porter made with chipotle
smoked chillies!
If my hubby and I hadn’t needed to go and find a restaurant
to fill our bellies I’d probably have tried the other Fierce Beers and maybe
some Brewdog ones as well. The Italian restaurant we went to rounded off our
night. And guess what? There was a very young couple (maybe late teens) sitting
next us on a Valentine’s date. The hesitant Doric conversation and long pauses
with no conversation at all indicated they didn’t yet know each other very much,
but I hardly understood a word. I tried not to watch them pouring over their
bill, quietly whispering over who was paying for which part. The man paying for
the Valentine’s meal might not be the norm any more but the bouquet of roses he
had the server present to the girl was very touching.
I was quite chuffed when my hubby paid our bill and the
waitress asked Ye gaan doon a’ steers tae
a’ cabaret? Were we going down the stairs to the nightclub with a cabaret?
Err. No. I could have replied No yer
aaricht. A’hm wabbit! (No thanks.
I’m exhausted.)
We ordered a taxi.
Too many beers followed by a delicious bottle of merlot!
Have a fun weekend—Valentine’s dates or otherwise.
Slainthe!
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