Once again I've got myself in a cross cultural stew.

My (other) daughter came home from school in Edinburgh with a message saying that she needed new gym-shoes (the little, cheap(ish) black or white rubber-bottomed affairs sometimes called plimsoles). In Lancashire, in the North of England, where I come from they are known as "pumps". She was mortified when I asked one of her friends where she got her "pumps" from - I think the local interpretation of the word has more to do with pumpernickle than I had realised!