寫一篇部落格

        自從上次說要寫部落格，不是搶不到電腦；就是網路不合作，寫完要貼結果斷線；不然就是其他事情作祟，寫到一半就忙看房子、收房間、找工作去。



        八月份欠的一場三天兩夜的郊遊婚禮被寫了兩個星期期間從頭開始兩次，沒有著落。七部電影觀後感已經被拖到簡直要忘記電影內容，數目還在持續累積。



        結果，部落格沒寫成，房子還沒找著、工作現在等於在打工。房間也沒乾淨整齊到哪裡去，頂多就是垃圾桶定期被清掉。



        連續說了一個月的英文(到英國兩年這個月才開始真正只講英文過日子)，覺得自己中文已經退化到很糟糕的地步。某天晚上睡覺夢到極其詭異的情境：跟男友宣布懶得講英文了，開口只講中文...詭異在他竟然全聽的懂；這也就算了，下個場景轉回台灣碰到郭瑪姬許左娜，媽啦為啥我們在用英文溝通...



        說起講英文，曼城口音給我的震撼反而大於當初聽喬地腔的莫名。雖然號稱在英國住了兩年，其實多半時間我也都在講中文，畢竟學校、家裡幾乎都講中文就通。曼城口音難懂不在於跟喬地一樣只是渾厚很多加上猛捲舌，而是抑揚頓挫整個是另外一種體系。



         另外咧，除了上次講到breakfast, lunch, dinner/supper/tea之外，我還被老爸上了幾堂飲料教育。說起來男友跟他老爸也都是奇葩之類的人物，男友的口音也不是曼城口音也不是yorkshire，他老爸更是曼城混蘇格蘭跟混不知道哪裡...昨天晚上問我have you eaten more properly today?我硬生生聽成have you seen any more properties today?全家笑成一團的時候老爸幽幽的說以前老媽也是困惑很久不知道他在講啥...兒子更是到現在有時候要聽懂他講話還有difficulty。



         茶啊，英國人真的很愛tea。咳嗽，tea；淋雨，tea；下班，tea；起床，tea；哭完，tea；笑完，tea；感冒，tea；吃飯前，tea；吃完飯，還是tea...。問要不要喝茶，除了以前學的would you like a cup of tea? do you want a cup of tea?還有更妙的說法：wanna (want a) brew/cuppa?



        因為喝茶要brew，燒水，所以要不要燒水，要不要喝杯熱的，自然而然就成了茶的代名詞。至於cuppa，顯然是cup of的縮減。根本連cup of什麼都不用講了，直接就是tea的代名詞。



        英國人排名第二的飲料應該是500多cc的大杯啤酒。動輒就被問wanna go have a pint?



        台灣啊，啤酒就是beer，頂多就是生啤酒這種分別。英國名目就多了：lager，ale，ale還分bitter，stout...另外加上各種cider蘋果酒。至於lager/ale還有分是draught是bottle是can的差別。至於什麼是哪種，我除了知道Stella跟1664是lager，Newcastle有brown ale，還有Guinness是stout之外(很多還是老爸講了兩三次才搞懂)，什麼是哪個，差別又在哪裡，還是一點都沒概念。



         其實人家wanna have a pint問的就是要不要出去喝一杯，跟台灣的用法滿像的。不過跟台灣比起來，英國喝一杯的場合實在是平易近人很多；在平日晚上九點跟假日晚上七點以前，英國喝一杯的場合還是合家歡的場合。到現在有時候，男友在pub打工，有時候跟著去的時候會看到爸媽坐在座位上聊天，打發跟吧台一樣高的小朋友去買一杯啤酒。看到小朋友在pub裡面晃蕩來去我還是很不習慣。



         另外很受不了的一點。英國常常雨連連，紐卡有時候一連下個三天雨我都快要抓狂，卻聽說Newcastle竟然是英國最乾燥的地區。這個月搬到曼城來，原本還沒啥警覺心的我那天跟男友媽媽聊天才發現，曼城原來是英國雨都!!



         上個星期整個禮拜大晴天，搞的心情很好的我面對這個星期這兩天陰森森冷風颼颼狂下雨的天，一點心理準備都沒有。看來雨傘又要恢復成必需品。

慶祝中文輸入安裝完成

    為了慶祝終於在一台固執的英國電腦上安裝中文輸入法成功，決定要一鼓作氣，寫一堆的電影觀後感。



    另外值得慶祝的一點，是無名的分類終於有所改進一些。



     前些日子一直很想抱怨文章分類被越搞越複雜；以前碎碎念就隨手選個「隨手亂寫」就成了，後來竟然變成非女人心事不可；憑甚麼男人就只能有話題，而女人又只能有心事呢?尤其在英文環境下，這分類更是莫名：feeling竟然說是sexual...更妙的不是women's talk就是men's talk，或者homo、sex talk跟love stories...最好是大家feeling都在這檔事上面轉來轉去。



     現在終於多了個murmur可以選，中文翻譯看不到，猜想大概是碎碎唸之類。



     所以這一篇就堂而皇之被我選了murmur。

And then my computer died

        It turned out that my computer didn't like the fact that I was using it, it seems. It officially decided to lay down and die on Sunday, the 14th of August, 2008. It has been with me for a total of 2 years and 4 months.



        The syndromes started a couple months before. It started crashing all the time, showing me a lot of the scary blue screen of death and so on. But after re-booting it always seemed preforming OK so I never took it seriously. 



        I was going to re-install the system but couldn't be bothered with the hassle while working on the exams, working on the dissertation, working on this or that..., so I put if off once and again...



        I did try at one point to reinstall the whole thing. Format the hard drive and all that annoying crap...sitting in front of it for a full night and turn it into a healthy happy laptop but i just had better things to do. I wrote to my dad asking for another installation disk because just as usual I lost the old one.



        Then came along the dissertation which I officially started and finished within a month. People usually take 2 or 3 months for it so it is easy to imagine my haste and the crammed time, reading, writing, revising, proofreading, meeting, blablabla....



        In other words..., I forgot about my laptop's health completely.



        After the dissertation was handed in I already packed most of the driver CDs away and either shipped them to Manchester or stashed them in boxes in the living room. Then came the moving which only took a day, and the house and job hunting which is still going on...



        Unpacking is still on the list and the laptop already decided it is not going to wait for my mercy any longer.



        It's going back home before I do, it was decided. Back to Taiwan where engineers would try and savage your data before trying to wipe everything clean. In the UK even though you just told them the screen is pitch black and you can't see a thing that's going on in there, they say you are responsible of backing up the data yourself. "Well, that is rather difficult when you can't see a thing that is going on there, is it?"



        "I am sorry but we do not do data recovery" is their reply.



        I am trying to install Chinese input on this very British computer for now. Then maybe just a touch of my computer focused life can be a little bit more "normal". But since I did something stupid the day my laptop crashed I am not allowed to use the administration account on this computer anymore, grounded by my boyfriend.



        So it has to wait.



        Hopefully I can be back online with my own laptop before November. Until then, everything is just chance.

曼城週記

        然後，我跟著前來搬家的男友跟男友老爸一起，開了兩個半小時的車南下曼城。



        才剛剛離開，我就開始想念。新堡好近的天空跟熟悉的一切。男友一路偷偷問我You ok?點點頭眨眨眼，硬是把淚跟酸楚逼回。我看著窗外發呆，看著雨落下，看著紅銅鏽的奇怪天使目送我離開，看著車行過一塊一塊指示著The South的路牌，看著熟悉的地名一個一個從路牌底端上往上移動，然後消逝。



        回到曼城，老爸叫我們把我數量驚人的物品先塞進後院停著的旅行車裡。之後我花了一點時間，在他房裡的角落設下一個小桌，一個屬於我的小空間。其實也就只是擺好電腦，把些常用的東西塞進小抽屜。

        過去這一週，男友的老爸給他找了個白天的打工，所以每天一大早他出門去上工，我就在家一邊看房子招租的廣告，一邊看工作機會。無聊了就開男友的電視跟Xbox來打電動。



        下午他回來了，就去看看之前約好的屋子。逛逛街，喝杯咖啡。聊聊天。



        或者去買晚上做晚餐要用的材料，犒賞他爸媽；也算是我借住的代價吧。我尷尬笑說好奇怪的房租，他也只是笑笑。說是房租，多半還是他老兄打工賺來的錢。他說我沒工作沒收入，要我乖乖給他養。



        雖然是暫時的，也讓人覺得窩心。



        有時候突然低潮起來，想著房子想著工作想到心情不好。男友就瘋狂的要我把一切都放下不要管。下星期三，什麼都沒著落的我倆要去看電影；他說總得有一天要完全不想這些煩人的事情好好開心一下。