August 2011
43 posts
“They [the brits] told him that they didn’t think much of American hippies who...”
– Neil Gaiman - Smoke and Mirrors
“Impressive as Stonehenge is, there comes a moment somewhere about eleven minutes...”
– Bill Bryson
(For the record, it’s now £7.50 a head.)
“Do you have any idea, other than in a vague theoretical sense, just how...”
– Bill Bryson
Something that I think about a lot lately now that I’m nearing the point of actually driving a vehicle in the UK:
Brits have something against angled parking spaces. They’re always at right angles (presumably to fit more into the lot, because space is premium here) and because of this, it’s difficult to maneuver in and out of them.
I’ve already warned my husband that...
“If this is how the Scots treat their summers, thought Shadow, remembering...”
– Neil Gaiman - Fragile Things
This from the book that also taught me that there is a town in Chesire called Cholmondeley, which is actually pronounced Chumly. Oh England - you so crazy!
“Well, all I can say is that Blackpool’s illuminations are nothing if not...”
– Bill Bryson
(Cleaning out my kindle highlights and this made me laugh, because it’s basically the reaction I had to the Illuminations after everyone nagged me for years that I simply must go and I finally did.)
Gems from recent conversations with the brit...
“I figured that because you’re american, you would only have coffee to offer.”
“I heard on the news that everyone in America has a gun. It’s like you’d be shot at every time you go outside. Why would anyone want to live there?”
“Yeah, they have raccoons. And if you go outside, you could have a grizzly bear show up and rip your head off! I can...
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Today's jaw-dropping moment: →
tithenai:
Er, what? He talked about “Jamaican patois” “intruding on English” and making it feel like a foreign country. He talked about a black MP “sounding white” if you don’t look at him. HE QUOTED ENOCH POWELL. I think it’s EXACTLY the same drive, but with bonus classist and xenophobic bullshit.
It’s worth pointing out for anyone who is new to my blog that I wasn’t born in...
Thank you guys for all the great suggestions! You’re wonderful.
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Help a girl out
You guys, I need to buy a bathroom cabinet (a wall cabinet for towels & bottles) and I have no idea where to look for one. (Didn’t see anything I wanted at Wickes, B&Q or IKEA.)
Who else sells things like that in the UK?
Oh for the days when I knew every store in town, in a town that had more than two choices for anything you’d want to buy.
And another thing...
A few times during/since the rioting here, I heard someone mention with concern that this was going to be all over the American papers, and what would America think about this?
These were just conversations overheard in pubs, where I’m usually quiet enough that my nationality goes entirely unnoticed, but it was really interesting to me. Why America, and not any other country? I...
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Today's jaw-dropping moment: →
how-to-kiss-distinctly-american:
inteawetrust:
On the positive end of things, as I mentioned to friends on Facebook earlier this week, I am really impressed by how fast the UK justice system moved after the riots. The number of arrests was impressive (especially in light of how many were actually made after the fact) and especially amazing to me was how quickly the courts saw those cases and...
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Today's jaw-dropping moment: →
I had to play this clip twice to make sure I actually heard David Starkey correctly when he said that “the whites have become black” and the whole load of other racist bollocks that followed. He reminds me of one of the Cornishmen I ate next to in a pub last weekend, who said they “weren’t racist because they worked with a lot of them.”
Also, I think it’s...
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In Tea We Trust: Honey, I'm hooooome! →
caz:
inteawetrust:
We are home again, catching up.
Oh God I am so sorry that you didn’t experience Sennan in the sunshine… it is a trully beautiful place. I would recommend you come back in April/May next year… no kids holidays to worry about and the weather is usually awesome.
Oh, it was still very beautiful! It just wasn’t what I’d call swimming weather… but I think...
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What I learned on my summer vacation.
You can go to MarineTraffic.com and see all the ships who are traveling the seas at any given moment. It even tells you things like their country of origin and how fast they’re moving, and sometimes they include a photo of the vessel. You can get it as an app, too!
tomato tomato tomato
My husband and I had a good discussion over dinner about how americans say pro-duce and prah-gress and (most) brits say prah-duce and pro-gress. If that even makes sense. If it doesn’t, just fall back on the classics and ask a brit to say ‘boogie woogie.’
Honey, I'm hooooome!
We are home again, catching up. I think a lot about my favorite authors and their blogs about exhausting book tours and wonder how on earth people travel all the time for a living. I feel like it’ll be days before we shake the cobwebs off, and we weren’t gone very long this time. Maybe it’s because the construction on the house was so chaotic before we left.
Cornwall was a...
For good or for awesome
I have probably written here before about how much I love Kiva, the microfinance website that lets you make loans to entrepreneurs in third world countries. I love them. A lot. I think it’s really cool that $25 can make a huge difference for some people, and I have been absolutely humbled by the fact that out of the 100-odd loans I’ve made, pretty much all of them have been repaid...
