''Whit like the day then?'' learning the lingo.

I was in a shop recently and overheard two men talking. For all I knew they could have been planning to rob a bank (unlikely however) as I didn't have the faintest idea of what either one was saying to the other. The Orcadian accent is one like I have never heard before I and love listening to it. However with my somewhat BBC english accent, replying can often sound odd. On my second day here I went into a shop and a woman said ''whit like the day then'' A typical Orcadian greeting which has been said to me before and I never really knew how to reply. I just smiled and said ''oh I'm fine thank you'' then rushed home and asked my Orcadian friend what I'm supposed to say! Some say ''deid right'' while others say ''no bad ta, yoursel?'' neither of which sounds right coming from my mouth. I was recently at a friends house (hoose) and I was looking at a picture book with her little boy of 18 months. I pointed to and said ''look there's a cow'' his mum said ''he won't know what a cow is, it's a coo'' I apologised and said I was such a townie to which I was again corrected and told ''no yer a toonie'' So my how now brown cow has to become hoo noo broon coo. Elliot seems to be getting the hang of it. I recently asked him if he wanted potatoes and he said ''no mummy, it's tatties'' as well as correcting me when I said something was small and he again said ''no mummy, it's peedie'' I love all the words I just sound like a plonker saying them. Or is that numpty? One thing I did manage to say without even thinking about it as I went out of the post office was cheerio! (bye for now folks)