pimping
In Iceland we call it pimping, I'm not sure how that sounds to the rest of the world but it is meant in the kindest way possible. We use it as a verb and put on an Icelandic ending so it turns out pimpa’, if that doesn't ring any better you can try to say it very fast. That way it sort of sounds like peppa' and I don't think there is anything especially bad about pepper. Then again what do I know?!? I'm just a simple Icelandic girl who far to often unintentionally succeeds in shocking people.
When I was in a supermarket in the middle of nowhere, USA, trying desperately to find the milk I not only shocked two, big women dressed in huge, big flowery dresses, I do believe I stunned them. One of them was harbouring a very black eye, a bruised arm (which she undoubtedly got from walking into a door or falling down some stairs) and not wearing any shoes. She had a boy in tow, a boy that wasn't all together happy with being in tow, he didn't really seem to be all together happy with anything and was balling his eyes out like I've never seen a boy of that age do. At the sight of me the boy did stop crying which I dare say should have made the big, flowery women incredibly relieved but obviously didn't.
But there I was in the oversized supermarket, sporting my coolest pair of sunglasses, wearing stylish hiphugging jeans while nursing a bit of a hangover and searching for the milk. Extremely annoyed at the whole situation and even more so since I don't even drink milk. After looking down a few corridors I finally gave up called out at Matthew (the jerk) "Matthew, I can't fucking find the fucking milk." Lisa, the lovely, came to my rescue and pointed me on my way and said with her Manchester accent and a smile at her face "bloody relax Eva, the fucking milk is over there". So on my way I went, my mood a bit sunnier after seeing the shocked faces of the big flowery women and sure enough there was the milk.
Milk, endless and endless supplies of all kinds of milk. My suddenly sunny mood disappeared and there I stood without a clue. So I started to mutter, rather loudly, about the milk. As to not offend the big flowery women I was careful to do my muttering in Icelandic, since I was then and there aware that what I needed to say would probably shock them further. My friend Gun had joined me and was joining in on my outraged muttering since she too had no idea what kind of milk to get.
After a couple of seconds of Icelandic swearing I noticed the stunned expression of the two, big, flowery women. The one who had been towing her boy around was actually covering his ears while one of her eyes was wide in total shock (the other one was to swollen from the black eye to be anything but closed, black, bruised or swollen). After quickly going over my previous muttering I realised what had stunned them. We had been saying shit allot, accompanied with a few fucks of course. The women turned around after tu-tu-ing at us and waddled down the nearest corridor for safety.
Shit and fuck are slang words in Icelandic and obviously don't really have the same stunning affect on Icelanders as they have on big, flowery women. I guess they're used in much the same way in the UK, as they are in Iceland, only with a little less oomph.
So now that I express my joy for finding my way into Mad Genius's link collection with saying that I 've just got pimped by him, I sincerely hope that no big, flowery women will misconstrue it and be unintentionally shocked.
