I bet the first thing my reader(s) wonder(s) is: what the hell's a Pundy House anyway?
It's a bloody stupid title for a blog, that's what.
To tell the truth I'd give anything to have another go at it. I could have called it something clever like "Junk Food For The Brain"; or even employed a limp literary allusion like "Screen With A View" or something. Anything.
The thing is I panicked. Typed in the first thing that came into my head and pushed the button. Ask yourself, how many people do you think come here because they want to know what a Pundy House is? Don't wrack your brains. Zilch is the answer. A big fat zero. None.
As somebody once said: If he had a brain he'd be dangerous.
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ReplyDeleteStick with 'Pundy'. What an opportunity it gives you. You have passed a new word into the English language and as a Scot it will somehow have acquired connotations of all things Scottish.
ReplyDeleteJust two suggestions. Firstly it sounds as it it could be related to the word 'pundit'. Is that a direction you would like to come from?
Secondly and finally for me it has echos of the tongue twister:
'Old Mrs Hunt had a cuddy punt not a cuddy punt but a hunt punt cuddy.'
Personally I favour this direction.
Ann Mac Nym
Please not the change of nym. I have decided that the time is right to accept and emphasise my Scottish roots
Ann (if it really is you)
ReplyDeleteI have bad news for you.
I am English.
Sorry
Dear Bill,
ReplyDeleteWhen you say you are English I am not sure what you mean. Do you simply mean that you are English by birth or do those first ten years spent in England somehow count for more than the forty seven years you have so far spent in Scotland?
Someone said that if he was given a boy until the age of eight he would give you the man.
Do you think this holds true for countries as well?
Maybe it also incorporates some features of imprinting. Possibly the child identifies itself with the first country it sees?
I was born in Edinburgh but was taken to live in England at eighteen months of age. I therefore became conscious in England but possibly because my parents were Scottish and there was considerable talk about Scotland at homeI always felt that I was Scottish. I had no idea what it meant but I liked the idea maybe because it somehow made me different, like being left-handed.
Anyway, we moved back to Scotland when I was eight years old. I imagined that I was going to a Scotland of bagpipes, lochs, hills and kilts and my aine folk. Wrong on every fucking account.
However, Fifty years on (and having spent another twenty years living and working in England), although I feel that I have a foot in both camps I don't quite feel that I belong to either. I still have a Scottish accent, even though I haven't lived in Scotland since 1983 (after the childhood move in the opposite direction it took about three years to lose my English accent and I was actively trying to hold onto the accent - it was my my straw and my token resistance to being overwhelmed by cannibals). The Scottish accent and being Scottish are important parts of my self identification and 'though I am at a cellular level tempted by the 'here's tae us whaes like us' sentiment I consciouly resist it by identifying it as just another manifestation of the selfish gene and a first easy step along the road to racism, fascism, jingoism etc.
My original question was what does being English mean to you and similarly what does being Scottish mean to you?
Anne
Hi Anne
ReplyDeleteYou pose some interesting questions.
I think in English, if you see what I mean, but I support Scotland at rugby. So I'm really neither. I'm certainly not into nationalism.
There's a lot I don't like about the English - their arrogance for example. There's also a lot I don't like about the Scots - their inferiority complex for example. But there's a lot about them both I like. Oh, and don't forget the Irish. And plenty of other races.
So I don't think about race much. It isn't important to me. But I wouldn't want to live in England. I like it fine where I am. Although I do like travel too. In fact, I think travel is important.
There look, I haven't answered your question. But hopefully you see what I mean.
Where do you live now? In England? Would you ever come back?