Sounds a bit Irish to me

Kind of appropriate as I spent all day getting wound up and then the spring finally broke when the British Prime Minister in a less than statesman like press conference offended every other nation in the EU. Never mind the pros and cons, the yeas and nays, the ins and outs, the Bremain and Brexits and even the Brundecided, the speech was anything but a worthy speech and certainly not in the very much used phrase "die feine englische Art", an expression often used to describe doing something in a fine, fair, gentleman like manner. I did fully describe this on a Blip in November 2014. As I said back then, Red Flash's and PurbeckDaves Winchester lads know, "Manners maketh Man".

We will see how things go. I will try not to pop my top too often and will try to keep flying the flag and make sure any I see are at least the right way up.The referendum is looking like it will be fought on both sides with emotions, lies and fear. I would ask all UK voters to try and get some facts, try to find out how the EU works and not get hung up on a few petty issues - what is the net effect of child benefit (remember all states will now implement this so all exPats will have the reverse effect) - a few million perhaps and I suspect you may find it is actually a minus for the UK.

My impression from over here is that Europe could hardly care less. There are far too many important issues in the world and the bit of Peter pinching Mr McGregors carrots isn't going to make anyone starve and just adds a bit to all the lettuce he currently enjoys. Sad if they go but it won't make life any worse than it already is.

Talking of which Mr & Mrs O'Donoghue, residents in our parish, moderate a monthly English language "Stammtisch" at the parish "Generation House" in Sontheim. Wow there is a lot to explain in that one sentence. However I will take this as the spur to finally get my backside off the couch for the next monthly meeting on a Thursday evening and bring you all some live reporting.

The group was featured in the regional newspaper this week and Farmer Markus jun. messaged a copy to me with the suggestion I might like to improve my Inglisch. I replied I was struggling to learn "Allgaüerisch" the county language, "Schwäbisch" the regional language, "Fränkisch" the northern Bavarian language being used a lot on TV in recent weeks during the carnival period, "Bayerisch" which is the language around the Munich area (which is what Angie speaks) and then "Hochdeutsch" , German spoken by all those in the north - the Prussians as the Bavarians call them, without having to relearn yet another language. It's interesting that such diversity is allowed within the EU.

Well just briefly, the group isn't an English class but an informal sit around chat session with a beer or two to refresh and use everyday English without the fear of being automatically corrected. It could of course be it becomes redundant after June as the EU will not need it as a language in Brussels. My grandchildren in Ireland have to learn Irish and when the Scots and Welsh break away they will bring their languages with them.If Maltese can be an official EU language, then so can Cymraeg.and Gaelic. And anyway who understands a Scot at the best of time and indeed who needs to, they are simply great fun at any party and so lovable, everyone will agree to anything they want.However I was amazed to find out that since 2009 there has been an EU agreement that Scottish ministers and EU officials can communicate in Gaelic.

  I'm not sure if the O'Donoghues are of Irish or possibly Scottish lineage but the newspaper writes they are from south England.