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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To want to go to Markies for picky bits

736 replies

Agirlnamedsam · 09/01/2021 14:15

I’ve not been in a shop since the beginning of December. Been wfh and only been out to go to the park with DS or go for a walk.

We have been using Tesco click and collect, but I want to go to Markies and get some picky bits / afternoon tea for lunch tomorrow.

DH thinks I’m being a bit silly as it’s not necessary travel: and that we should be avoiding shops. He’s happy for us to get something delivered or to collect something. But I’m just a bit fed up and want to go and select some nice bits and pieces.

OP posts:
Thread gallery
6
meeeeh · 12/01/2021 06:28

Wow there's some real bitches on here isn't there?! Go and enjoy op it's food you're allowed :)

Cocacola12 · 12/01/2021 07:34

NE scotland here and always call it Markies, and picky bits/picky tea is something I would say too

ShowOfHands · 12/01/2021 09:19

I've found this thread really interesting from a linguistic pov. I've always had a visceral reaction to certain language and "picky bits" is right at the top of my list. It turns my stomach and I have to physically stop myself from grimacing when I hear it. I've always noticed that it crops up repeatedly on threads about words you despise (and many of them are food related eg plate up, meal, yum, treat) but this level of reaction has made me think. Why do these words evoke this reaction? I know for me, picky bits seems to evoke scabs and skin conditions or referring to food, the notion of "picking" seems to conjure carrion picking meat from a bone. It's so deeply unpleasant and it's not just me evidently. It's not class either, I know people from all spheres who say it.

I think there's something else at play with Markies and it's not regional. I remember a thread many years ago with a new Mum in the grips of PND who could not cope with the sing songy motherese her husband was using. She said she could tolerate it normally but while exhausted and struggling, it was making her want to scream. I've seen this reaction quite a few times over the year. It's nothing to do with dialect really but the singy songy twee shortening of words. Here you wouldn't hear Markies (it's Marks's) but do hear Sainsbo's, Dotty Ps, MaccyDs etc and that sort of language is what we do with toddlers. Doggies and horsies and milkies and biccies and so on. In adult only company, it feels infantilising to some people I think. As an aside, I was out to dinner once with DH's colleagues and partners and one woman referred to it as "din dins" before cutting up her boyfriend's meat. I was aghast but weirdly, the language was the worst bit.

I was one of the people who saw the thread title and 100% assumed it was a goady thread about despised language and was surprised to see the op was being earnest.

I'm an adult of course so manage not to lambast those who use language that I find unpleasant but I find it fascinating nonetheless that there is such a level of reaction to the same words and use of language.

Anyway op, just order in some frivolous food periodically with your normal deliveries. Goodness only knows, life is miserable enough so cheering yourself up is a good thing.

BTW, do M&S still do those biscuits that are a sort of flat shortbread with half a covering of chocolate. I used to babysit for a family who left them out and having never shopped there, I was always a bit in love with them.

PointersPlease · 12/01/2021 09:24

Excellent post @ShowOfHands

CitizenClem · 12/01/2021 09:43

I'm sure it's been said elsewhere on the thread, but it is a bit silly for OP to post a thread with a title whose most important words are incomprehensible to much of (probably the majority) the intended audience. Before reading the thread, I had no idea what Markies or Picky Bits were.

JeezyPeeps · 12/01/2021 10:06

it is a bit silly for OP to post a thread with a title whose most important words are incomprehensible to much of (probably the majority) the intended audience

Bloody hell. Its not like she posted in Urdu or Shona!

And if you've called a widget a widget all your life, how are you supposed to know that other people only know it as a thingamyjig?

What's silly is people thinking their shortened version of a shop name is the only correct one!

ZazieSheHer · 12/01/2021 10:09

@CitizenClem

I'm sure it's been said elsewhere on the thread, but it is a bit silly for OP to post a thread with a title whose most important words are incomprehensible to much of (probably the majority) the intended audience. Before reading the thread, I had no idea what Markies or Picky Bits were.
I don’t believe you tbh.
pinbinpin · 12/01/2021 10:13

We call it "EM and ES" round her, is that better or worse?

It did sound very infantile OP ....I think, really, you can get away with Marksies or picky bits in one sentence, not both. Is M&S not on ocadp these days? You could order? Or go to one of the peteol station ones whilst getting essential petrol?

CitizenClem · 12/01/2021 10:22

And if you've called a widget a widget all your life, how are you supposed to know that other people only know it as a thingamyjig?

I would have thought it would be common sense. In my part of the world, we call it Marksies, but I know that is a regional variation, and that might not mean anything to someone else, but most of us would understand Marks and Spencers.

I don’t believe you tbh.

Honestly. From this thread, I've gathered that these are regional variations, and I'm not from those regions.

Markies · 12/01/2021 10:52

@pinbinpin

We call it "EM and ES" round her, is that better or worse?

It did sound very infantile OP ....I think, really, you can get away with Marksies or picky bits in one sentence, not both. Is M&S not on ocadp these days? You could order? Or go to one of the peteol station ones whilst getting essential petrol?

She correctly called it Markies, not Marksies. And as has been explained, us backwards fuckers here in NE Scotland do NOT have Ocado. Christ, we dinna even hae a Waitrose.
pinbinpin · 12/01/2021 10:55

Grin No Waitrose! Shock

Apologies I hadn't realised this was Scotland. Stand down. Marksies sounds perfectly fine in a Glaswegian accent Grin

pinbinpin · 12/01/2021 10:56

Markies !!!! MY soft southern spell checker just can't bring itself to do it.

LaMarschallin · 12/01/2021 11:02

ShowOfHands

That puts it brilliantly, imo.

I guess, too, a lot of small groups (particularly nuclear families) will have their own slang/baby talk/endearments based on things personal to them and perhaps we use them in public at our peril Smile

For example, my (now adult) daughters calling a Christmas night buffet a smorgasbord. Picked up from watching a cookery program with me when they were children. Fairly quickly drew the comment "only on MN".

JeezyPeeps · 12/01/2021 11:06

I would have thought it would be common sense. In my part of the world, we call it Marksies, but I know that is a regional variation, and that might not mean anything to someone else

You know it's a regional variation - how? Did you just assume it was?

How is it common sense to assume the language you've always used is a regional variation? Surely it's more common to assume the language you use and are surrounded by id normal, until you discover otherwise?

SabrinaThwaite · 12/01/2021 11:23

Someone had better tell this bunch frae Doon Sooth that “picky bits” isnae gonna work.

To want to go to Markies for picky bits
TheVanguardSix · 12/01/2021 11:27

Not from the UK originally but came to London from the States when I was 23 and immediately called it 'Marks and Sparks' because my flatmates called it that. 48 now... still in London, god give me strength... Grin... still here, hanging on by a bloody thread. But I call it M&S. Have done for years. Never hear 'Markies' but I do love how, after all these years, I still learn new regional terminology.
I miss that people no longer say 'bits and bobs' in London. Or 'bosh!' I miss all that. London was much more colloquial in the 90s. Or maybe slang's just moved with the times and I haven't! Probably that!

LaMarschallin · 12/01/2021 12:30

Or 'bosh!

Boris might...

(Sorry Wink)

NuniaBeeswax · 12/01/2021 12:37

How is "Marksies" any better than "Markies"?

pinbinpin · 12/01/2021 12:45

TheVanguardSix

I'm in London and always told my children to not to forget to wash their "bits and bobs" - so they now think it means "willy and balls" - if that's any consolation for you.

Oneearringlost · 12/01/2021 12:50

@MysweetAudrina

Could be worse I overheard my dh finishing up a work call with the words okey doodles.
Grin
CitizenClem · 12/01/2021 13:34

You know it's a regional variation - how? Did you just assume it was?

How is it common sense to assume the language you've always used is a regional variation? Surely it's more common to assume the language you use and are surrounded by id normal, until you discover otherwise?

Perhaps it’s more accurate to suggest it’s a combination of common sense, maturity and education to know if a particular word or phrase is a regional variation.

JeezyPeeps · 12/01/2021 13:46

Lol. What nonsense.

Basically you find out if it is regional when you speak to people from another area that doesn't use it. Especially when it's something as minimal as an abbreviation with one letter difference. It's not like we are discussing an entire dialect here.

Its nothing to do with common sense, maturity and education. Just life experience.

ToniTheDonkey · 12/01/2021 13:48

“Markies” - YABU

“Picky bits” - YABU

Wanting food - YANBU

CitizenClem · 12/01/2021 13:52

Its nothing to do with common sense, maturity and education. Just life experience.

I think it's common sense, maturity, and education that make life experience.

Let's agree to disagree here. To me it seems obvious that Markies and Picky Bits are commonly understood phrases. I've never heard a BBC newsreader talk about the new Chief Executive or the share price of Markies.

JeezyPeeps · 12/01/2021 14:17

As someone that grew up in a place with a very strong dialect, i know for sure that figuring out what is regional needs no maturity or common sense, and needs no formal education. But you can disagree if you like.

However :

To me it seems obvious that Markies and Picky Bits are commonly understood phrases

I am in total agreement with you here.