wash your language

  • All Posts
  • Publications
  • Services
  • Contact
You are here: Home / Archives for 911

The view from the roof

September 11, 2018 by EmmaP Leave a Comment

I took this photo in 2000 from the rooftop of my workplace near the Flatiron building in Manhattan, on 19th Street between 5th and 6th. We worked long hours at our vibrant little web agency, and we’d often pop up to this rooftop for some air, a chat, a look at this view and to remember why we were in New York. Standing on the roof we were 17 stories up, at the level of the water towers and the birds – we were floating high above the streets in this vertical city. Down below us, New York and its people, from all over the world, flowed on through the streets, underground, up and down buildings. Living their lives.

On September 11th 2001, my boyfriend (now-husband) and I stood on another rooftop – 4 stories  up on our apartment building in Brooklyn. We scrambled up the fire escape when we heard that something was going on. We had been listening to the radio while getting ready to go to work but the signal had died: our local NPR was beamed from the twin towers, and this was long before mobile internet. We stood on our rooftop and on the skyline a few miles away we watched another plane calmly, quietly fly straight into the second tower, and soon after, the whole thing collapsed in on itself. It was completely quiet around us on that beautifully sunny morning and I looked down over the edge of the roof to the street below. Instead of scenes of panic, people of all nationalities walked or drove down the street with their groceries. Living their lives. And that continued during the days that followed, people moving forward, not being afraid. And that will never change.

(I shot and printed this photo myself. It’s been hanging on the wall of all the houses we have since lived in, from the US to Canada to Norway to Italy and now in Ireland).

Filed Under: Photography, Travel Tagged With: 911, New York

A Blog and More

I write about language and the quirks of our family life in Dublin and previously in Florence and Oslo. My day job is translating from Italian to English, and proofreading.  Read More…

RSS
Facebook
Facebook
Twitter
Visit Us
Instagram

Instagram

Instagram post 2195675946929875667_214605181 Dub-eh-lin
Instagram post 2194594614447392381_214605181 Just took a wee trip up to Belfast and now I’m really set to read this wee book
Instagram post 2193062881495298332_214605181 Ah the Christmassy peace and snugness of the Gaiety Bar! You’d never know there was a riot of kids and grannies and shiny wavy wands and noise going on at the panto inside. I wrote a story 2 years ago about my first time with the kids (and husband) at the panto, a very Irish/English tradition. And now they insist on going every year. Link in bio
Load More…

Facebook

Wash Your Language is at The Gaiety Theatre.

1 week ago

Wash Your Language

Took a break at the interval from the panto mayhem at the Gaiety Theatre and I was drawn to this beautiful portrait outside the bar. It’s Margaret Burke Sheridan (or “Peggy from Mayo” as she always called herself). She was a top soprano in the 1920s, working between Rome and Covent Garden. Puccini apparently swooned at her Madama Butterfly and she made famous recordings of it. She turned down the offer of a Papal Countess (I’d love to know why), and ended up living a quiet life in the Shelbourne Hotel. I found a nice story on her at https://irishtimes.com/life-and-style/abroad/… ... See MoreSee Less

Photo

View on Facebook

Wash Your Language

2 weeks ago

Wash Your Language

Here's a fun thread on Twitter about weird #Irish expressions of vagueness from the excellent @theirishfor page.
-------------
Not sure if this is something that happens elsewhere but as a child if I asked my Nana “why?” she would reply “that’s the why.” Or if I was asking her where something was it would be “up in Nellie’s room behind the wallpaper.”

What are your favourite Irish vague non answers?

Here are a few of the answers:

Whenever I'd ask where my mam was, my dad would always respond with "she's run off to marry a soldier" lol

What's for dinner? Cats malacky and dogs melodian
What am I getting for Christmas? A bang of a drum, a kick in the bum, and a Chase around the table

Where are you going ?
Off on a bee’s back for a spin !!

Actual conversation I had in the Gaeltacht:
Me: do you know what time the bus is?
Man: ah don't worry now, there'll be a bus!

Where are you going Mammy? "Out of my mind for the want of sense"

Mam, your legs are looking a bit pale...yes, well that’s the sun...🧐
... See MoreSee Less

Motherfoclóir: Hiberno-English Mark on Twitter

twitter.com

“Not sure if this is something that happens elsewhere but as a child if I asked my Nana “why?” she would reply “that’s the why.” Or if I was asking her where something was it would be “u...
View on Facebook

Wash Your Language

2 weeks ago

Wash Your Language

Rome's most beautiful bookshop closes its doors ... See MoreSee Less

Rome's most beautiful bookshop closes its doors

www.wantedinrome.com

Rome's Libreria del Viaggiatore, which specialises in travel books and is considered by many as the city's most beautiful bookshop, will close its doors for good on 31 December 2019.
View on Facebook

Wash my language?

Språkvask is the Norwegian word for proofing text. Literally it means “language wash”; a more poetic way of saying it!

Blog comments

  • EmmaP on Nana’s Gingerbread
  • Margaret on Nana’s Gingerbread
  • EmmaP on Jaywalking

© 2019 · Handcrafted with d by 2 Pups Design Co.