In England, it's standard practice to adopt French words and mangle the pronunciation to the point the word is unrecognized and use it as if it were English in the first place.
Case in point, the traditional summer fete, pronounced "fayte."
All pronunciation and British quirkiness aside, this form of summer garden party turns out to be quite fun! Hang on to your coconuts...
Our local community garden held a party this past weekend as part of London's "secret garden" tour (featured in Time Out, no less!) and we volunteered to help out. By "we," of course, I mean that I volunteered Brian as well.
Whilst Brian mixed Pimms and sipped in the shade, I toiled away in the bright sunshine at the Slug a Slug booth. What does this entail? Stuf
fed slugs are dropped down a vertical pipe, and the slugger tries to hit them with a bat before they hit the ground. Harder than it looks, believe me! Most of the slugs escaped squishing, though a five year old proved to be uncannily accurate. He's now being scouted as a batsman for the English cricket squad, who could use the help. But cricket is a whole other post waiting to happen...So, what does one do at a sunny summer fete? One, drink Pimms. Check. Two, play silly games. Check. Three, buy raffle ticket. Check. Four, throw balls at coconuts and knock them off a stand. Check. Use coconuts for further photographic opportunities, check.
Eat cake. Lots of cake. Check.
Stagger home, sunburnt and weighed down by coconuts, laughing all the way.
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