Aurora's Sundry Notes

And no offense meant to North Americans, of course, in what I say about the accents - liking or not liking particular accents is just a question of the type of sounds I'm used to because of where I live and which languages I speak and what kind of English I learned first and hear the most often; it's a kind of a visceral reaction I can't help easily, but I become more used to different accents the more I listen to them. Speaking really fast can be a problem for comprehension, though!