I was being cheeky, as Sue suggested; problem is ...... she knows me!
As a foreign language teacher, I have to teach metric and imperial
measurements, as well as USA and European cups (e.g.
when doing a topic on shopping).
I was born in the Netherlands and grew up with metric; live in the UK
and use both metric and imperial; lived in the USA and learned to
use cups, and different liquid measures from those used in the UK (e.g.
USA gallon vs. UK gallon); lived in Finland and used
their cups, which are different from USA ones (Finland: 1 cup is 200ml,
USA: 1 cup is 8 floz).
When I was at secondary school in the Netherlands, I did business
studies, and even had to do calculations in UK pounds, shilings and pences
- just in case, we were told by the teacher, although by the time I
arrived here the UK had gone metric - so waste of time and energy.
However, my mother-in-law would always complain that something that use
to cost e.g. 6 and 2 (whatever that was) before the UK entered the European
Union, was now a lot dearer and it was all my fault, as I came from one
of the original 6 countries in the EU; even though I pointed out that I
had not been born
when they started it, and had no say in the matter.
I also did sewing at school, and my mother would buy the material from a
shop run by a Jewish family. They sold by the El, which was tip of
little finger to the elbow.
You always made sure that the person with the longest arms served you.
And a duim, was equivalent to the length of a thumb. Dutch carpenters
still call
a measuring stick a "duimstok".
Actually, I find it quite interesting to work with all these different
measurements, and am sure there are still some other ones out there in
the big, wide
world - think of horses, measured in hands etc.
Jean Nathan mentioned timber dimensions: our local timber yard still
sells wood metric in length, but imperial by width and depth.
Must go and do some work.
Agnes Boddington - Elloughton UK
Sue Duckles wrote:
Morning All
I just realised I replied privately to Agnes..... (and I guess-timated
it was 4 3/4.... not too bad for a guess!!) Anyway, she was being
cheeky!!!
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