I was over posting at Daisy Dexter Dobb's blog and she was saying how some countries had funny words for things, and I remembered this story. It was pretty embarrassing so I bet some of you will think it's funny. I wrote it into one of my books (The Argentine Lover) which just goes to show that you can die of embarrassment and use the story as a whole chapter in a book someday.
My now-husband-then-boyfriend and I were in England and we needed to get a pack of rubbers. He had to play polo that day, (good excuse - he wasn't about to go buy them, the big chicken) so I went with three of my girlfriends. We found a drugstore, and I (already red-faced) leaned over the counter and in a quiet voice asked for a pack of rubbers.
The woman chirped, 'Small, medium, or large?'
As my friends were standing nearby, I was in a dilemma. Large, and they would forever be eying my boyfriend with envy. Small, and I would get the pitying looks. Medium seemed a safe choice. When the salesgirl handed me the package I had a fit of hysteria that got us all kicked out of the drugstore. In England, rubbers are the plastic pants for babies that fit over cotton diapers.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
I adore this subject, Sam! And your rubbers story is hilarious! Imagine the opposite…an English couple looking for diapers in the U.S. and asking for rubbers. My, wouldn’t they be surprised! *Snicker.*
After recalling my Tim Tams versus tampons quandary (doh!), I remembered a number of other riotous examples I came across while editing manuscripts written by international authors. The authors and I had an absolute ball learning the idiosyncrasies of the Queen’s English versus the, um, less-queenly American version. LOL
Yup, I think I’m definitely going to have to do a whole blog post on this in the future.
This is so funny!
Oh...just remembered my condom story (how I learned about condoms) was when I was about 8, I found a little aspirin box which had this wonderful long white balloon in it. Wow! I blew it up of course and was on my way home to show it off to friends, when a horrified neighbour ran to tell my Mom. I really didn't understand what the fuss was about but it was very embarassing just the same and as I knew it was possibly something 'naughty' I was quite intrigued!
Daisy i'll be looking for that blog post, lol>
dw I hear you are a Slush monkey - I hope you find the new Best Seller! (And let them down gently when you don't...)
Wynn, My little brother did that one day, and my sister and I looked on in consternation as my mother chased him down the street to get the 'balloon' back!
Post a Comment