Words don't come easy

I'm pretty good at picking up languages. I'm noticing tho that my brain is slower, and already several times I have felt completely silenced when faced with an incomprehensible question. I'm armed with a phrase book (thanks David and Katy!) and am getting by. We've managed to convey what we need to so far. I even got chatted up on the train (I found that excruciating but it's a source of hilarity for my girly). It's reminded me just how powerless I can feel when I don't understand or can't make myself understood. I remember first arriving in Cork and not being able to make out the taxi driver with his very thick accent (in fact he was the only one I didn't understand, but at the time I thought it was always going to feel like that). There's a lot of anti immigration feeling in the UK, yet I wonder how often those complainants stop to think how it might be like to be in a country where it's not your mother tongue. Pretty frightening at times. Travelling I think can help people get a flavour of what it's like to be in a place outside your usual comfort zone.
We are having a leisurely start today to give time for the rain to clear. Pics later in another blog...