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	<title>The Accidental Expats &#187; Interesting tid bits</title>
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		<title>Six Uses for Wee</title>
		<link>http://www.theaccidentalexpats.com/six-uses-for-wee/#utm_source=feed&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=feed</link>
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		<pubDate>Tue, 01 Dec 2009 22:42:07 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Emma</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Interesting tid bits]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[The word that is!
I was walking down the street in Edinburgh and came accross a shop called &#8216;The Wee Shop&#8216;. (Photo comng soon)
A perfectly reasonable name for a shop in Scotland.
My Australian humour however, thought it hillarious. (ROVE would have a field day)
So to satisfy my humour I have compiled a small list of uses [...]


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			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>The word that is!<br />
I was walking down the street in Edinburgh and came accross a shop called &#8216;<a href="http://www.corstorphine-trust.ukgo.com/CorstorphineTopics/TheWeeShop.html">The Wee Shop</a>&#8216;. (Photo comng soon)<br />
A perfectly reasonable name for a shop in Scotland.<br />
My Australian humour however, thought it hillarious. (ROVE would have a field day)<br />
So to satisfy my humour I have compiled a small list of uses for this little word, can you think of any more?</p>
<p>1. We (pronoun)<br />
we [wee]<br />
&gt; 1. Refers to speaker and others<br />
&gt; 2. Refers to people in general<br />
&gt; 3. Used Intead of &#8220;I&#8221;<br />
&gt; 4. Used instead of &#8220;you&#8221;</p>
<p>(online dictionary)</p>
<p>2. Oui &#8211; (pronounced wee)<br />
&#8221; The basic, standard French word for &#8220;yes,&#8221; and it&#8217;s also the best translation of &#8220;I do&#8221;": <a href="http://french.about.com/od/vocabulary/a/oui.htm">[1]</a></p>
<p>3. Wee &#8211; (Pronounced wee)<br />
The scottish word for little or small</p>
<p>4. Wii &#8211; (Pronounced wee)<br />
&#8220;Nintendo Wii is currently the most popular home console on the market, with a wide range of games that take advantage of its unique motion-sensing controllers. That includes true Nintendo classics for the dedicated gamer, casual party titles the whole family can play together, and even releases that will help you live a healthier and more balanced lifestyle (I couldn&#8217;t have said it better myself).<a href="http://www.game.co.uk/Wii/_/N-1z13mmu/"> [2]</a></p>
<p>5. wee wee &#8211; (pronounced wee wee) Ok so we all know that one!</p>
<p>6. weeeeeeee &#8211; Sheer joy as my children slide down a slippery slide.</p>
<p>And now we must  go for a wee wee before we play our wii&#8230; oui?</p>
<p>(wondering how google will index this one?)</p>
<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002ISGMW2?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=emmajsjourney-20&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;creativeASIN=B002ISGMW2">Go here if you want to buy a wii <img src='http://www.theaccidentalexpats.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_wink.gif' alt=';)' class='wp-smiley' /> </a><img style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=emmajsjourney-20&amp;l=as2&amp;o=1&amp;a=B002ISGMW2" border="0" alt="" width="1" height="1" /></p>
<p><a href="http://www.theaccidentalexpats.com/an-intersting-history/#utm_source=feed&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=feed">More interesting tid bits.</a><br />
<a href="http://www.theaccidentalexpats.com/edinburgh-in-autumn/the_sign_spotting_project/#utm_source=feed&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=feed">More Funny Stuff</a></p>


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		<title>An Interesting History</title>
		<link>http://www.theaccidentalexpats.com/an-interesting-history/#utm_source=feed&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=feed</link>
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		<pubDate>Sat, 10 Oct 2009 09:47:45 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Emma</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Interesting tid bits]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[History]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[// 


The next time
you are washing your hands and
complain because the
water temperature isn&#8217;t just how you like
it, think about
how things used to be. Here are some facts
about the 1500s:
They used to
use urine to tan animal skins, so families
used to all pee in
a pot &#38; then once a day it was taken &#38; sold
to the tannery&#8230;&#8230;.if you had to
do this to [...]


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<p><strong><span style="font-family: Sylfaen; color: black; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Sylfaen; color: black; font-weight: bold;">The next time<br />
you are washing your hands and<br />
complain because the<br />
water temperature isn&#8217;t just how you like<br />
it, think about<br />
how things used to be. Here are some facts<br />
about the 1500s:</span></span></strong></p>
<p><strong>They used to<br />
use urine to tan animal skins, so families<br />
used to all pee in<br />
a pot &amp; then once a day it was taken &amp; sold<br />
to the tannery&#8230;&#8230;.if you had to<br />
do this to survive you  were &#8221;Piss Poor&#8221;<br />
But worse than that were the really poor<br />
folk who couldn&#8217;t<br />
even afford to buy a pot&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;..they<br />
&#8220;didnt have a pot to<br />
piss in&#8221; and were the lowest of the low.</strong></p>
<p><strong>Most people<br />
got married in June because they took<br />
their yearly bath in<br />
May, and they still smelled pretty good<br />
by June. However, since they were<br />
starting to smell . .. brides carried a bouquet of<br />
flowers to hide the <span>body odor</span>.<br />
Hence the<br />
custom today of carrying a bouquet when<br />
getting married.</strong></p>
<p><strong>Baths<br />
consisted of a big tub filled with hot water. The<br />
man of the house<br />
had the privilege of the nice clean water,<br />
then all the other<br />
sons and men, then the women and finally<br />
the children. Last<br />
of all the babies. By then the water was<br />
so dirty you could actually lose<br />
someone in it. Hence  the<br />
saying, &#8220;Don&#8217;t<br />
throw the baby out with the Bath water!&#8221;</strong></p>
<p><strong>Houses had<br />
thatched roofs-thick straw-piled high, with<br />
no wood underneath. It was the only<br />
place for animals to get warm, so all<br />
the cats and other small animals (mice,<br />
bugs) lived in the<br />
roof. When it rained it became slippery<br />
and sometimes the<br />
animals would slip and fall off the roof.<br />
Hence the  saying &#8220;It&#8217;s <span>raining             cats and dogs</span>.&#8221;</strong></p>
<p><strong>There was nothing to stop things from falling into<br />
the house. This<br />
posed a real problem in the bedroom where<br />
bugs and other<br />
droppings could mess up your nice clean bed.<br />
Hence a bed with big<br />
posts and a sheet hung over the<br />
top afforded some<br />
protection. That&#8217;s how canopy beds came<br />
into existence.</strong></p>
<p><strong>The floor was<br />
dirt. Only the wealthy had something other<br />
than dirt.<br />
Hence the saying, &#8220;Dirt poor.&#8221; The wealthy<br />
had slate floors<br />
that would get slippery in the winter when<br />
wet, so they spread<br />
thresh (straw) on floor to help keep<br />
their footing. As<br />
the winter wore on, they added more thresh<br />
until when you<br />
opened the door, it would all start<br />
slipping outside. A<br />
piece of wood was placed in the<br />
entrance-way. Hence: a thresh hold.</strong></p>
<p><strong> </strong><strong><span style="font-family: Sylfaen; color: black; font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: Sylfaen; color: black; font-weight: bold;"> (Getting quite<br />
an education, aren&#8217;t you?)</span></span></strong><strong><span style="font-family: Sylfaen; color: black; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Sylfaen; color: black; font-weight: bold;"> </span></span></strong></p>
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<p><strong>In those old<br />
days, they cooked in the kitchen with a<br />
big kettle that<br />
always hung over the fire. Every day they<br />
lit the fire and<br />
added things to the pot. They ate<br />
mostly vegetables and<br />
did not get much meat. They would eat<br />
the stew for<br />
dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot to get<br />
cold overnight and<br />
then start over the next day. Sometimes<br />
stew had food in it<br />
that had been there for quite a while.<br />
Hence the rhyme:<br />
Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold,<br />
peas porridge in  the pot nine days old.</strong></p>
<p><strong>Sometimes they<br />
could obtain pork, which made them feel<br />
quite special. When<br />
visitors came over, they would hang up<br />
their bacon to show<br />
off. It was a sign of wealth that a man could,<br />
&#8220;bring home<br />
the bacon.&#8221; They would cut off a little to<br />
share with guests<br />
and would all sit around and chew the fat.</strong></p>
<p><strong>Those with<br />
money had plates made of pewter.. Food with<br />
high acid content<br />
caused some of the lead to leach onto the<br />
food, causing <span>lead </span><br />
<span>poisoning</span> death. This happened             most often<br />
with tomatoes, so<br />
for the next 400 years or so, tomatoes<br />
were considered poisonous.</strong><span style="font-family: Arial; color: black; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: Arial; color: black;"> </span></span></p>
<div>
<p><span style="font-family: Verdana; color: black; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana; color: black;"><br />
</span></span><strong><span style="font-family: Sylfaen; color: black; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Sylfaen; color: black; font-weight: bold;">Bread was<br />
divided according to status. Workers got the<br />
burnt bottom of the<br />
loaf, the family got the middle, and guests<br />
got the top, or the upper crust.</span></span></strong></p>
<p><strong>Lead cups were<br />
used to drink ale or whisky. The combination would<br />
sometimes knock the imbibers out for a couple of<br />
days. Someone<br />
walking along the road would take them for dead<br />
and prepare them<br />
for burial. They were laid out on the  kitchen<br />
table for a<br />
couple of days and the family would  gather<br />
around and eat<br />
and drink and wait and see if they would<br />
wake up. Hence the custom of holding a wake.</strong></p>
<p><span><strong>England</strong></span><strong> is old and small and the local folks started<br />
running out of places<br />
to bury people. So they would dig up coffins<br />
and would take<br />
the bones to a bone-house, and reuse<br />
the grave. When<br />
reopening these coffins, 1 out of 25 coffins<br />
were found to have scratch marks on the inside and<br />
they realized they<br />
had been burying people alive. So they would<br />
tie a string<br />
on the wrist of the corpse, lead it through the<br />
coffin and up through the ground and tie it to a<br />
bell.Someone would<br />
have to sit out in the graveyard all night<br />
(the graveyard shift.) to listen for the bell; thus,<br />
someone could be,<br />
saved by the bell or was considered a deadringer&#8230;</strong></div>
<div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 12pt;">
<p style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><strong><span style="font-family: Sylfaen; color: black; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Sylfaen; color: black; font-weight: bold;">And that&#8217;s the<br />
truth&#8230;Now, whoever said History was boring ! !</span></span></strong></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 12pt;">
<p>This is from an email I recieved yesterday, I&#8217;m not sure who wrote it originally.</p>
<p>(if it&#8217;s you please let me know and I will cite you)<strong> </strong></div>
</div>
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