Was that Greek or what?

Silence.  Then a flash of confusion with a hint of panic passes across his face.

Seconds earlier, the sales woman at Peter Jones had asked Rob if he wanted his receipt put in the bag.  Once again a Brit had asked Rob a question and he had absolutely no idea what was asked.  Sometimes he looks at me and sometimes he just stares eyes forward as if nothing was asked.  This time it was the latter.  The silence can be painful.  So, I jump in to save him.  "Yes, that''ll be fine," I replied on his behalf.

I'm sure this woman like all the others think I'm just a pushy partner, but I'm just saving them time.

It took a few days in London for me to recognise the look, but then I remembered it.  It was the same look he used to get when some native Spanish speakers would speak English to him in LA.  Of course, the difference this time is these people are native English speakers.

Most English accents don't cause this communication breakdown and I have yet to figure out where the troublesome accents come from - Essex or London's East End, perhaps - but I do know how he feels.

The other day, the building owners sent some guys to do routine maintenance on the heating system in our apartment.  It was a 7 am appointment and unfortunately on this day they were prompt.  I let them in and they went about their business and we ours.

Rob and I were in the kitchen when one of the guys came in and said something.  At first I felt like I was in an episode of the vintage British TV series 'Allo 'Allo, where the French & German characters who 'don't speak English' hear it in a special way.  All I heard was, "Fa fafafa, fa fafafa, fa..."

After a couple of seconds, though, the translation part of my brain kicked in and I realised the guy had said he needed to take one of the units down to the garage and run some water through it with a hose.  So, just a little too slowly for him not to have noticed the translation pause, I replied, "Yep, no problem."

Rob and I had been thinking about resuming our German classes, but now I'm thinking maybe we need to investigate some classes in British Accents for Colonial English Speakers.