Catherine, thanks for ending the sidebar drought...
"it's pissing down"... hrrm. A little rude, but then again we don't have "getting pissed" as a verb either. This New England region has "Pissah" (meaning, oddly, both great or terrible) but it's mostly trotted out as an amusing regionalism for most folks.
Public holiday? Meaning, like, national holiday (as opposed to a USan "vacation", which is more personal) or event with lots of people?
Anyway, the idea of a large goth picnic with all the pale people (note: this is the pot calling the kettle the very opposite of black) surreptitiously trying to stay in the shade is extremely amusing, regardless of how much it corresponds to the reality of such an event.
I wouldn't say it's pissing in front of my mom, but in Seattle, though we're famous for rain, our rain is only very exceptionally that hard pissing rain, say, twice a year. That is a rain that drives people indoors, but when it lightens up, Seattlites just tolerate the rain, as long as it's not too cold.
Monday's my normal day off (I work Saturday) and so I don't give a care much for Monday holidays, except that I've got to take a day off in the next two weeks, sometime. Most secular federal holidays are Mondays, so I get this a lot. I rarely plan ahead for a 3-Day weekend, tho. So today I watched lots of movies and started cleaning my hard drives. I really hate the smell of burning DVDs in the evening.
I moved from the UK to Seattle (tying the thread together) twelve years ago. Out of principle, I still speak and spell(TM) the eame way as I did back in old Blighty. I write "colour" and "synchronise" and speak "Zebra" and "Beta" the way they should be spoken. Yes, I still say "pissing it down", and also the occassional "Bollocks". (Out of regard for public safety though, even though I drive I British car, I drive on the right, no, is it the left? No, I mean right).
Is "Beta" pronounced "Beeta" (as in, long e) in England and heavier influenced English colonies?
Here are the company I work (a large, large software company in the Redmond area), a follow Brit added a "Pronunication Guide" as an Appendix to his spec. Using his humour the phrase he used to describe it was "I took my wife and I 'beat-her' over the head".
I just called it a day for the UK and have moved to China where when it"pisses down" thats exactly what it does for like 30 minutes then blazing sunshine again.I oddly miss the pissing down UK rain.
An American friend on the office here says something along the lines, "It raining like a cow pissing on a flat rock" (or something like that)