One of my favorite things about England is the glottal stop (the speech pattern where you don’t actually say the Ts in the middle of words like bottle and water). You know, like when Shrek is admiring Puss In Boots’ “wee li’l boots.” Or when Regina Spektor is singing about how it’s gonna get better, [...]
So they put the salt and pepper in the wrong shakers here. The good news is that at least they’re consistent, so I really only had a problem just the once.
In other condiment news, I finally, finally know how to pronounce Worcestershire sauce. Like this: WOOST-ur-shur.
English proper names are sneaky, but the trick is just to not [...]
I don’t know if you know this, but England has been around for a while. I’m fairly certain that this is behind the obvious absence of urban planners in the development of their street systems. It is almost impossible for the uninitiated to get to where they want to go without very specific directions, a detailed [...]
Between the two of us, Stephan and I have been sick pretty much the entire time we’ve been here. Although, that’s not entirely true because, technically, if one is “sick” in England, one has been vomiting. It’s also used as a verb: I sick, I sicked, I have sicked. We have just been ill, not sick.
You [...]
We’re having this problem lately where whoever happens to be driving speeds a little, accidentally. The theory: we’re constantly converting things like money and temperature in our respective heads, so we have a vague sense that we should be converting everything.
Surely there must be a difference between 80 mph on I-5 and the M5!
So they just finished a reality TV show here featuring regular-type people trying to get Tesco supermarkets to carry a food product of their own invention.
They ended up picking “soup in a bun,” an innovative new product that involves—get this—soup that you eat out of a bun. The winner was very excited, particularly since he’d [...]
Now that we have been in England for 12 whole days, I am fully qualified to pass judgment on the country and culture at large.
Great
Vegetarian foods are labeled with a green “V” symbol, which makes them very easy to find.
When you’re on a one-way street, there are lighted signs with blue arrows indicating as such.
If [...]
