Triniglish|Trinididioms Spoken and Explained #11 | Yuh ketch D'Frescole | Yuh is ah Trini
Some time ago I wrote a post teasing a friend of mine from the wack radio shoutbox. She complained that she left home early and went to JFK airport and unfortunately "ketch de frescole." Oh, boi I do hope that this one is causing some of you to wonder or simply smile because of our silly naming for things that are easily known around the world. I must warn you that just about everyone "Ketches de frescole".
The 'frescole' is a real nuisance and causes people to lose time away from work almost daily during the wintry season. In Trinidad ketching de frescole happens regularly during the rainy season but can happen year-round if you are not careful about how you clothe yourself at night and especially in the morning when you hit the early morning dew. Maybe I should simply repost the tease I posted about my friend Gail to see if you can "ketch on and understand what it means to ketch de frescole".
Here is the post that was done on 10/09/09:
One of my favorite people, a friend of the blog is down for the count. However, with a little rest and some help from the pharmaceuticals she should be ‘good to go in a few days. The title of this short post says, “ah ketch d’freshcole”. Those words were written by Gailos because she went to JFK without a jacket early in the morning and ‘ketch d’freshcole’. Please don't worry too much Trinidadians (a citizen of Trinidad and Tobago) 'ketch d'frescole' all the time.
For those of you who are not familiar with the way red-blooded Trinidadians speak here is a word of advice. Please don’t go to JFK early in the morning without a jacket because you will ketch d’freshcole or maybe it will ‘ketch yuh’. Well, we need to get to the bottom of this ‘freshcole’ mystery. We don’t need to send in the authorities to get rid of this nuisance supposedly at JFK but simply need to remember to wear our coats in this changing climate.
D’frescole is nothing more than the common cold but a true freshcole comes with aches and pain that is better known as the flu. Only a Trinidadian could come up with such a term to describe the common cold. I am sorry I had to drag it out this way but Gail put a smile on my face and triggered the light bulb switch that said blog post. So now that we are at the beginning of the ‘catch d’cold’ season with H1N1 lurking nearby to bring about our demise we must remember to practice good hygiene skills. Washing your hands is a must and it won’t hurt to walk with and use hand sanitizer. So until someone else pulls that switch again it is so long until the next blog post.
