Ice floors and common monkeys

Google Translate has definitely been our close friend here in Sweden. From our early days when I had to translate just about everything, to these days when I have some knowledge of the language. And it’s pretty clever, generally being accurate but, sometimes, it struggles. Like today.

A little while ago, Ann-Helen came round and interviewed us for the local paper. She said she was submitting a short article. Each time the paper was delivered, I would scour it for the article. There was a photo of us with the girls, so I especially looked for that. My searching proved fruitless. Until today.

It’s a full page spread with a massive photograph. My first thought was that it was lucky we’re not in a Witness Protection Programme. I also thought that it looked like we were giants next to our British phone box.

Anyway, the article is lovely and, now, anyone who reads the local paper will know who we are. Though I hope they’ll get more sense out of the text than Google Translate did. Apparently, one of the things we miss about living in England is the “ice floors and common monkeys” in the pubs.

As I said to Mirinda, I was never keen on the ice floors, particularly when returning from the bar with a pint, but I do rather miss the common monkeys.

Thank you, Ann-Helen.