I realized the other day that, despite being internationally known for its bad weather and being farther north that the bit of Canada that people actually live in, the Brits seem to enjoy playing outdoor sports all year round. You would think that getting dark at 3:30 for a good part of the winter would make people go 'hmm, maybe I'll play a sport in pleasant lit environment with temperature controls', but alas, this does not seem to be the case.
The two major sports that span all the winter months in the US are basketball and hockey. This seems to make sense, why make people play/watch sports outside when they could stay dry and warm inside? Although I guess with hockey, warm is a relative term. Baseball is reserved for the warmest months of the year, where people might not mind spending their time outdoors and its less likely to rain. Football is played in the fall and into winter, and while the weather may not be entirely ideal, it's at the very least hit and miss, and they only play once a week, usually in the afternoon, so it's not that big of a deal.
Now the UK. The most popular sport here is obviously 'football'. Being an outdoor sport where contestants run around in little shorts and flimsy tops, you'd maybe think summer sport. Alas, no. The only time they don't have soccer is during the peak summer months, with the season lasting from approximately September to May. Teams play once or twice a week, and while parts of the stadium may be covered, they're always outdoors. Mid-week games are almost exclusively played in the evenings, but weekend games will range throughout the day. Might I also add, my work has a soccer team. I think it's open to everyone, but only boys play. They play throughout the winter, with games after work one day a week, and practice another evening. They're crazy.
Rugby (league and union) are played in the winter as well. Luckily rugby players are so overloaded with muscles I don't think they are capable of feeling cold. However, they do tend to play only on weekend afternoons.
Cricket rounds out the big three, and is played in the summer. The fact that cricket players are sometimes spotted in sweater vests again implies that this is not the land of warm weather.
So that's the big three, all outdoors. But English likes other sports too, perhaps they are played indoors? No. Formula 1 racing - outdoors. Tennis - outdoors. Track and field - outdoors. Come to think of it, the only indoor sporting event I recall seeing on tv is the chariot horse racing in a ring.
Where is the basketball, people? Or even the hockey (and I don't mean the 27th rate random teams they have scattered about in mid-size UK cities, I mean as a sport that people actually play or watch)? Netball doesn't count, as it's clearly imaginary and dumbed down from basketball to try and get girls to play sports!
Friday, November 21, 2008
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Anglo Digits
One of the things that continues to baffle me is the complete lack of consistency in the clustering and pronunciation (not really the right word, but more how they are cluster when being audible relayed) of phone numbers.
Believe it or not, but just this morning I had to do a check to see how many digits are in an English phone number. The answer, surprisingly enough, is 10, just like American numbers. However, the English make it eternally difficult for people like me to remember phone numbers by displaying them in essentially any such way. Here at work I'm working on organizing some interviews with some local authorities, and as part of this list I have copied and pasted in the phone numbers of the people attending the meetings as listed in their emails, and then I have my own phone number as listed in my emails. This small combo of phone numbers results in three different clusterings of digits, as follows:
012 3456 7890
0123 456 7890
01234 567890
You also often see phone numbers simpled denoted as 01234567890.
At this point I should probably add that all phone numbers start with a zero, as technically you find long distance calls in the US starting with a 1.
English phone numbers never have dashes, implying how to easily cluster them together. The other day when I made an appointment for a haircut, I clustered my phone number in typical American fashion (0123-456-7890), only to have it repeated back to me in a totally different way (01234-567-890), and I was like, yeah, I think that is my number. What all this inconsistency has made me realize is how much I rely on the 'beat', so to speak, of a phone number to help me remember it. To be perfectly honest, I have no idea what my cell phone number is, and I have to make sure I write it down to have on hand when I make an appointment by phone.
Here are some additional points on what makes up an English phone number...
Like with American numbers, the beginning technically forms an area code. A full area code is four digits, for example, Southampton numbers start with 02380. As can be expected, cities are often too large to be able to encompass everyone with a four-digit area code. Unlike in the US, where they would then just assume another random area code, they will keep the first three digits and then the 4th digit will come to denote a certain area within the city. For example, Manchester phone numbers start with 0161.
Being especially big and massive, London can't even cope with a three-digit area code. A London phone number is instead simply denoted as starting with 020. Central London is generally 0207, but then when you get down to Croydon or something similar, you move over to 0208.
Phone numbers get even more specific than that, my home phone number shares something like 6 digits with the phone number of some of the local businesses. Much like an English post code, it seems my phone number ropes me into a much smaller area than its American counterpart (FYI, a full English post code only applies to a few houses on a particular street).
The place where this breaks down is cell phones. Cell phone numbers in the UK start with 07, and from there on out it seems the possibilities are expanding as the number of cell phones increases. Typically a cell phone would start with 0786, 0787, or 0788. How these things get decided, I don't really know. And of course, I again must admit that I don't even know how mine starts...
Believe it or not, but just this morning I had to do a check to see how many digits are in an English phone number. The answer, surprisingly enough, is 10, just like American numbers. However, the English make it eternally difficult for people like me to remember phone numbers by displaying them in essentially any such way. Here at work I'm working on organizing some interviews with some local authorities, and as part of this list I have copied and pasted in the phone numbers of the people attending the meetings as listed in their emails, and then I have my own phone number as listed in my emails. This small combo of phone numbers results in three different clusterings of digits, as follows:
012 3456 7890
0123 456 7890
01234 567890
You also often see phone numbers simpled denoted as 01234567890.
At this point I should probably add that all phone numbers start with a zero, as technically you find long distance calls in the US starting with a 1.
English phone numbers never have dashes, implying how to easily cluster them together. The other day when I made an appointment for a haircut, I clustered my phone number in typical American fashion (0123-456-7890), only to have it repeated back to me in a totally different way (01234-567-890), and I was like, yeah, I think that is my number. What all this inconsistency has made me realize is how much I rely on the 'beat', so to speak, of a phone number to help me remember it. To be perfectly honest, I have no idea what my cell phone number is, and I have to make sure I write it down to have on hand when I make an appointment by phone.
Here are some additional points on what makes up an English phone number...
Like with American numbers, the beginning technically forms an area code. A full area code is four digits, for example, Southampton numbers start with 02380. As can be expected, cities are often too large to be able to encompass everyone with a four-digit area code. Unlike in the US, where they would then just assume another random area code, they will keep the first three digits and then the 4th digit will come to denote a certain area within the city. For example, Manchester phone numbers start with 0161.
Being especially big and massive, London can't even cope with a three-digit area code. A London phone number is instead simply denoted as starting with 020. Central London is generally 0207, but then when you get down to Croydon or something similar, you move over to 0208.
Phone numbers get even more specific than that, my home phone number shares something like 6 digits with the phone number of some of the local businesses. Much like an English post code, it seems my phone number ropes me into a much smaller area than its American counterpart (FYI, a full English post code only applies to a few houses on a particular street).
The place where this breaks down is cell phones. Cell phone numbers in the UK start with 07, and from there on out it seems the possibilities are expanding as the number of cell phones increases. Typically a cell phone would start with 0786, 0787, or 0788. How these things get decided, I don't really know. And of course, I again must admit that I don't even know how mine starts...
Monday, November 17, 2008
What's the deal with prefixes
Those crazy Anglos like to mix and match when they use the word 'the' in a way that generally seems to contradict my personal favored use of the word. As can be expected, this breaks down into two groups: times when they don't use the word 'the' and I think they should, and times they use it when it doesn't seem needed.
Perhaps the two most common words that don't go the 'the' love that I think should are hospital and university. People here 'go to hospital' or 'were in hospital'. The university situation is slightly more complex, but I've noticed that people don't say 'I went to the University of Washington', but as the names of universities are slightly more flexible here, they might say 'I went to uni in Washington', (but their schools aren't states, they are generally city names). To avoid having to use the word 'uni', which to me still seems like it should by short for uniform, I opt to state where I got certain degrees, so I say 'I got my masters at Southampton'. It's a bit sly, I know, but I often find myself in situations where I need to slightly rephrase things to uphold my dignity as a speaker of the dominant form of English.
Then there's the opposite side of things. Banks having been mentioned frequently in the news recently (okay, constantly), I couldn't help but notice how banks are referred to. Halifax is called 'the Halifax', Nationwide 'the Nationwide'. So in a sentence 'the Halifax are cutting jobs' or 'people at the Nationwide are having a bad day'. What I find odd is not so much the word 'the', but the omission of the word bank at the end. They never call it 'the Halifax bank' or 'the Nationwide Building Society', like we would say 'the Bank of America'. But thinking more about it, we would never call something 'the Safeway', it's still just 'Safeway'. Hmm. I just don't know. Perhaps I'm just being a bit nit-picky and not making any sense...
Perhaps the two most common words that don't go the 'the' love that I think should are hospital and university. People here 'go to hospital' or 'were in hospital'. The university situation is slightly more complex, but I've noticed that people don't say 'I went to the University of Washington', but as the names of universities are slightly more flexible here, they might say 'I went to uni in Washington', (but their schools aren't states, they are generally city names). To avoid having to use the word 'uni', which to me still seems like it should by short for uniform, I opt to state where I got certain degrees, so I say 'I got my masters at Southampton'. It's a bit sly, I know, but I often find myself in situations where I need to slightly rephrase things to uphold my dignity as a speaker of the dominant form of English.
Then there's the opposite side of things. Banks having been mentioned frequently in the news recently (okay, constantly), I couldn't help but notice how banks are referred to. Halifax is called 'the Halifax', Nationwide 'the Nationwide'. So in a sentence 'the Halifax are cutting jobs' or 'people at the Nationwide are having a bad day'. What I find odd is not so much the word 'the', but the omission of the word bank at the end. They never call it 'the Halifax bank' or 'the Nationwide Building Society', like we would say 'the Bank of America'. But thinking more about it, we would never call something 'the Safeway', it's still just 'Safeway'. Hmm. I just don't know. Perhaps I'm just being a bit nit-picky and not making any sense...
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Toffee v Caramel
What is the difference between toffee and caramel? For some reason I have stumbled into a land that likes toffee. But sometimes they have caramel. Let's dicuss.
As far as I can tell, toffee and caramel have the same make-up, just a different consistency, with toffee being thicker than caramel. For example, if you get a Cadbury caramel or Galaxy carmel, you'll be greated by running insides. There's a candy bar called Toffee Crisp, but as I've never actually had one I can't really tell you what it contains, but I imagine it's less gooey.
Right now on the desk behind me there is a tin of Quality Street chocolates leftover from some surveys some people were doing at a local college. That is to say, there is a tin of individually wrapped chocolates of slightly varying flavor. This includes 1 caramel flavor and 3 toffee flavors. But I say, isn't that just really 3 flavors of caramel?
You see, I think the English just like to use the word toffee because either they don't know how to pronounce caramel or don't like the idea of a word whose pronunciation is varied. I mean, chocolate comes in different levels of thickness but we still only use one word to describe it! I just say come on people, how can you have both a toffee nut and a caramal latte on other at Starbucks! Are there separate vats of toffee and caramel syrup? I somehow doubt this. Anyways, just needed to get that off my chest!
As far as I can tell, toffee and caramel have the same make-up, just a different consistency, with toffee being thicker than caramel. For example, if you get a Cadbury caramel or Galaxy carmel, you'll be greated by running insides. There's a candy bar called Toffee Crisp, but as I've never actually had one I can't really tell you what it contains, but I imagine it's less gooey.
Right now on the desk behind me there is a tin of Quality Street chocolates leftover from some surveys some people were doing at a local college. That is to say, there is a tin of individually wrapped chocolates of slightly varying flavor. This includes 1 caramel flavor and 3 toffee flavors. But I say, isn't that just really 3 flavors of caramel?
You see, I think the English just like to use the word toffee because either they don't know how to pronounce caramel or don't like the idea of a word whose pronunciation is varied. I mean, chocolate comes in different levels of thickness but we still only use one word to describe it! I just say come on people, how can you have both a toffee nut and a caramal latte on other at Starbucks! Are there separate vats of toffee and caramel syrup? I somehow doubt this. Anyways, just needed to get that off my chest!
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
The Full Name Store
I've probably just been spending too much time on buses in Kensington and Chelsea, but I have of late become overwhelmed at the number of stores simply named after what I can only assume to be the owner. For example, 'Birgit Israel' and 'Frederick Aston'. They never include anything else in the title (not even an 's at the end) or give you a clue as to what they sell. Here are a few things I have learned about the phenomenon:
1. Full name stores sell pretentious things
They generally sell antiques, rugs, home furnishings you can't afford and wouldn't belong in your house anyway, and lights that wouldn't actually fit in rooms with normal height ceilings, and of course things like life-size zebra statues.
2. Full name stores come in clusters
Particularly, the east end of Fulham Road, near South Kensington tube station, the west end of New Kings Road, out of reach of people wanting to do normal shopping, and on Kensington Church Street, where they all sell antiques.
3. Nobody shops at full name shops
I pass these places all the time on foot and in buses. Not only is no one ever in them, but they are never actually open. I'm starting to think that people with such names are independently wealthy and their palatial townhomes are so full of stuff they rent a semi-prominent store front to store their excess bling, naming it after themselves so their friends will know who to be envious of. However, this theory has not been tested.
4. Not just anyone can give their name to a shop
These stores don't just sell ridiculous items, but they don't have the names of mortals. For example, there's not going to be a store called 'Katie Smith'. Oh, no. They have names like Christopher Whitefield, Alistair Jefferies, and Georgina Matthews. Essentially, the names are a bit of a mouthful, relatively common (but not too common) and somehow better sounding than your own. I'm not quite sure if this is a reflection on the people who own these shops or if people just make the names up if they want to open such a store. In the case of Birgit Israel (which actually sells clothes, but is in the thick of full name stores on Fulham Road), I'm pretty sure it's a tweaked name. Like no one is named Birgit Israel, so I assume her name is really Bridget, um, let's just say Jones!
Now, my name would not lend itself well to such a store. My first name doesn't have nearly enough syllables and as I don't want to sell drug related items, the last name will definitely have to go. I will therefore have to resort to my middle name, Elizabeth, and will have to revert to my mother's much less hippie sounding maiden name, Sanders. Only I want to pretentious it up a bit so I'm sticking in a U. So if you see an Elizabeth Saunders store on one of the aforementioned streets, please slow down to gaze in the windows with jealousy. But you can't come in, because I'll be on my yacht or otherwise detained.
Additional note: I have just realized I work for a full name company... they're clearly taking over...
1. Full name stores sell pretentious things
They generally sell antiques, rugs, home furnishings you can't afford and wouldn't belong in your house anyway, and lights that wouldn't actually fit in rooms with normal height ceilings, and of course things like life-size zebra statues.
2. Full name stores come in clusters
Particularly, the east end of Fulham Road, near South Kensington tube station, the west end of New Kings Road, out of reach of people wanting to do normal shopping, and on Kensington Church Street, where they all sell antiques.
3. Nobody shops at full name shops
I pass these places all the time on foot and in buses. Not only is no one ever in them, but they are never actually open. I'm starting to think that people with such names are independently wealthy and their palatial townhomes are so full of stuff they rent a semi-prominent store front to store their excess bling, naming it after themselves so their friends will know who to be envious of. However, this theory has not been tested.
4. Not just anyone can give their name to a shop
These stores don't just sell ridiculous items, but they don't have the names of mortals. For example, there's not going to be a store called 'Katie Smith'. Oh, no. They have names like Christopher Whitefield, Alistair Jefferies, and Georgina Matthews. Essentially, the names are a bit of a mouthful, relatively common (but not too common) and somehow better sounding than your own. I'm not quite sure if this is a reflection on the people who own these shops or if people just make the names up if they want to open such a store. In the case of Birgit Israel (which actually sells clothes, but is in the thick of full name stores on Fulham Road), I'm pretty sure it's a tweaked name. Like no one is named Birgit Israel, so I assume her name is really Bridget, um, let's just say Jones!
Now, my name would not lend itself well to such a store. My first name doesn't have nearly enough syllables and as I don't want to sell drug related items, the last name will definitely have to go. I will therefore have to resort to my middle name, Elizabeth, and will have to revert to my mother's much less hippie sounding maiden name, Sanders. Only I want to pretentious it up a bit so I'm sticking in a U. So if you see an Elizabeth Saunders store on one of the aforementioned streets, please slow down to gaze in the windows with jealousy. But you can't come in, because I'll be on my yacht or otherwise detained.
Additional note: I have just realized I work for a full name company... they're clearly taking over...
Thursday, November 06, 2008
Election Day
In the off-chance that you haven't noticed, Tuesday was election day. And as I've previously mentioned, this is a topic of some interest for people in these parts. Here's a brief recap of what went on!
On Tuesday evening I tried turning on the news at around 9 pm, with hopes of constant news on the election. Instead, believe it or not, they had the audacity (and they being BBC and Sky News) to show non-election news! I was like, what is this crap?? So being sleepy (I had to get up early to go to a meeting in Brighton!), I went to bed.
Then at around 3:30 am I woke up and checked the time. Fell back asleep. At 4:04 woke up again, knowing that I couldn't possibly just go back to sleep knowing that the California polls had just closed and the winner likely declare! So I got out of bed and turned on the BBC. Being half asleep (or perhaps more), I was admittedly quite confused to see some random man talking while standing in front of a bunch of African villagers dancing around and waving chairs in the air. It took a little longer than necessary to connect me to an Obama victory, but I made it there eventually. At this point I promptly turned the tv off and went back to bed.
When I got up for real, I again turned on the news, which by now was covering the election almost exclusively. All of the newspapers I saw (which in London, is a lot of newspapers) had Obama on the front cover. I was able to randomly discuss my feelings with random people at a conference I was attending for the day. The evening papers again were all plastered with Obama. There was a special on BBC 2 last night during prime time (8 pm?) on Obama. Basically this is as big as things get in these parts. I don't think they would have non-stop all night coverage of their local elections (of course, they would be during the day anyways). So let's just say that the UK is for once proud of our ability to elect a president!
One thing that I find slightly odd is that they concentrate so much on the one national election we have, and are somewhat oblivious to the number of things that are actually up in the air on election day. I mentioned to a few people that Gregoire was able to sneak in another victory, not because I thought they would care, but just so I could make a point that we voted on other things as a people. Personally, I think the Anglos are a bit jealous of our ability to vote for so many things! Remember, they don't even get to directly elect their leader! They just vote for their local dude and then the party selects the leader! It's silly, but that's for another time. What's important is that we've quickly manage to regain some much needed international street cred! Like the Europeans might start to concede that we're capable of rational thought now... or at least one can hope...
On Tuesday evening I tried turning on the news at around 9 pm, with hopes of constant news on the election. Instead, believe it or not, they had the audacity (and they being BBC and Sky News) to show non-election news! I was like, what is this crap?? So being sleepy (I had to get up early to go to a meeting in Brighton!), I went to bed.
Then at around 3:30 am I woke up and checked the time. Fell back asleep. At 4:04 woke up again, knowing that I couldn't possibly just go back to sleep knowing that the California polls had just closed and the winner likely declare! So I got out of bed and turned on the BBC. Being half asleep (or perhaps more), I was admittedly quite confused to see some random man talking while standing in front of a bunch of African villagers dancing around and waving chairs in the air. It took a little longer than necessary to connect me to an Obama victory, but I made it there eventually. At this point I promptly turned the tv off and went back to bed.
When I got up for real, I again turned on the news, which by now was covering the election almost exclusively. All of the newspapers I saw (which in London, is a lot of newspapers) had Obama on the front cover. I was able to randomly discuss my feelings with random people at a conference I was attending for the day. The evening papers again were all plastered with Obama. There was a special on BBC 2 last night during prime time (8 pm?) on Obama. Basically this is as big as things get in these parts. I don't think they would have non-stop all night coverage of their local elections (of course, they would be during the day anyways). So let's just say that the UK is for once proud of our ability to elect a president!
One thing that I find slightly odd is that they concentrate so much on the one national election we have, and are somewhat oblivious to the number of things that are actually up in the air on election day. I mentioned to a few people that Gregoire was able to sneak in another victory, not because I thought they would care, but just so I could make a point that we voted on other things as a people. Personally, I think the Anglos are a bit jealous of our ability to vote for so many things! Remember, they don't even get to directly elect their leader! They just vote for their local dude and then the party selects the leader! It's silly, but that's for another time. What's important is that we've quickly manage to regain some much needed international street cred! Like the Europeans might start to concede that we're capable of rational thought now... or at least one can hope...
Monday, November 03, 2008
My (Potential) New Flat
This past Saturday, Mark and myself went and saw what may soon be our new flat. After sneaking around the complex as if we were doing something illicit, we finally asked the lady in the office if we could go see it, and she handed over the keys as if she knew we were coming. So we went back into the building (this time less sneakily as we were carrying keys), up the stairs to the 4th (3rd if you're Anglo!) floor and opened up the door. It was an exciting moment!
To spare you a drawn-out mental walk-through, let's just say there's a couple closets, a bathroom, a bedroom, and a living room with a kitchen off of it. Oh, and a big balcony! We spent quite a bit of time walking around and closely examining things. The kitchen is quite big, as is the living room. The bedroom isn't the biggest, but doing the 'lie down on the floor to pretend it's a bed test' (as learned on Location, Location, Location), I determined that it's a bit bigger than I had imagined.
Then there's the view. While the first thing you notice is the large number of tracks down below, if you look straight out, being all up on the 4th floor, you're higher than all of the old townhouses in the area. At the time I termed it 'quite Mary Poppins', only at the time I didn't see anyone dancing around on the roofs. Alas, I'll have to keep eyes peeled.
Of course, one thing I couldn't help but notice how much work will be required and how many things will need to be purchased to get the place up so snuff. For example, a light bulb hanging on a cord above my imaginary future dining table just won't do. Nor will having plain white walls everywhere. And I'm going to require some sort of device to cover the windows. Needless to say, yesterday afternoon Mark and I went into every home store on King's Road and spent over an hour in John Lewis, then picked up some home magazines on the way back. I then continued to rip out pictures from said magazines and the John Lewis catalogue so I could start putting my look together. While I'm pretty sure whatever I attempt will just end up looking like a bit of an unorganized mess, I assure you I'm at least making an effort to make the place look nice and homely, yet with the edge or urban chic. And perhaps most importantly, trying to ensure it doesn't look too girly. Girly, sure, too girly, no. So yes, I've quickly become one of those people who walks around the lighting section at stores with the confused look on their face going 'who on earth buys this stuff?' before finding the one little tiny area where they sell normal looking light fixtures...
So if you have any ideas or things I should be looking at (and no, there's no Pottery Barn in England, sad, I know), please let me know!
To spare you a drawn-out mental walk-through, let's just say there's a couple closets, a bathroom, a bedroom, and a living room with a kitchen off of it. Oh, and a big balcony! We spent quite a bit of time walking around and closely examining things. The kitchen is quite big, as is the living room. The bedroom isn't the biggest, but doing the 'lie down on the floor to pretend it's a bed test' (as learned on Location, Location, Location), I determined that it's a bit bigger than I had imagined.
Then there's the view. While the first thing you notice is the large number of tracks down below, if you look straight out, being all up on the 4th floor, you're higher than all of the old townhouses in the area. At the time I termed it 'quite Mary Poppins', only at the time I didn't see anyone dancing around on the roofs. Alas, I'll have to keep eyes peeled.
Of course, one thing I couldn't help but notice how much work will be required and how many things will need to be purchased to get the place up so snuff. For example, a light bulb hanging on a cord above my imaginary future dining table just won't do. Nor will having plain white walls everywhere. And I'm going to require some sort of device to cover the windows. Needless to say, yesterday afternoon Mark and I went into every home store on King's Road and spent over an hour in John Lewis, then picked up some home magazines on the way back. I then continued to rip out pictures from said magazines and the John Lewis catalogue so I could start putting my look together. While I'm pretty sure whatever I attempt will just end up looking like a bit of an unorganized mess, I assure you I'm at least making an effort to make the place look nice and homely, yet with the edge or urban chic. And perhaps most importantly, trying to ensure it doesn't look too girly. Girly, sure, too girly, no. So yes, I've quickly become one of those people who walks around the lighting section at stores with the confused look on their face going 'who on earth buys this stuff?' before finding the one little tiny area where they sell normal looking light fixtures...
So if you have any ideas or things I should be looking at (and no, there's no Pottery Barn in England, sad, I know), please let me know!
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