Category: UK/England

Last night, whist watching one of my new movies (Cyndi got me Jingle All The Way for Christmas) I was mindlessly surfing the internet when I came across a blog written by an American expat living in London.  One of her articles was a link to a Slate.com article on The Superiority of American Appliances.

The title intrigued me so I went to have a look.  The main jist is that American appliances (called white goods in much of the rest of the world) are way easy to use (or have controls labeled in ways that are easy to understand) while European appliances are much harder to figure out.

I don’t have any good pictures to illustrate this for you (and flickr wasn’t very helpful either) but I think the same thing.  Even here, in English speaking England, controls for appliances are complicated and machines do rather odd things.

Image from gnarls monkey via flickr

…our first power cut/outage in the UK.  Actually, we had 3 of them.  The electric went out and, at first, I thought it was us.  I checked the breakers then looked outside.  The breakers were ok and our neighbors didn’t have electricity so we waited.  In about 15 minutes, it came back on.  Then went off again in about 15 min.  This repeated itself 3 times.  Finally, it stayed on.

Cyndi and I joked if the Grizwold’s turned on their lights 🙂 This is part an inside joke because what passes for tacky Christmas lights here are nothing like tacky lights in the states.

Image from jodigreen via flickr

Image from UGArdener via flickr

Shortly after I finished this article on the Asian Giant Hornet, I came across an article on the BBC dealing with myths from English/British History.  The ones mentioned are: Norman Conquest, 1066, Myth: Good Saxons versus Bad Normans – with an arrow as the clincher The Battle of Agincourt, 1415, Myth: England’s triumph The Glorious Revolution, 1688, Myth: The revolution was glorious American Revolution, 1774-83, Myth: The American colonists had nothing to lose but their chains World War II, 1939-45, Myth: Britain won World War II Of these, I really only want to comment on one:  WW2.  The BBC speaks about Roosevelt and Stalin diving the world and compares numbers of dead.  In that sense, no, Britain didn’t win the war; however, I think there is something being overlooked.  If Hitler had actually invaded the Island of Great Britain (think that is a country, watch this video), the Allies (in particular the US) would have been hard pressed to fight the war.  Even with today’s supercarriers (that are loads larger than WW2 era carriers) we couldn’t do it.  Without having the Island of Great Britain to use as a base, there would have been no way to get supplies across the ocean, stage them, then attack the continent of Europe. So, I think they were very strategic in the winning of ww2.

This post is more of a placeholder/reminder for me; however, I stumbled across some pictures on the Internet of a place called Paddock.  This got me searching and I found this Wikipedia article on Paddock and these pictures.  Turns out it was an underground bunker that was made for Churchill’s War Cabinet as a refuge of last resort during WW2.  It still exists but is privately owned.  It also was only used twice for meetings (and those were trial runs).  It is open two days per year for the public to view.  Paddock’s opening schedule can be found here.

I’m going to try to go next year. 

P.S.  The image isn’t mine but it is a public domain image I got from wikicommons.

…an ingrown toenail.  I had poked around at it but it wasn’t getting better.  So, after asking a few people here, I gave up and called our surgery for an appointment.  I wasn’t hopeful, but after talking to people, I thought they would numb my toe and take off part of my toenail….in otherwords, I wouldn’t waste my time going.

So, I went yesterday.  And then came home with…..antibiotics….and instructions printed off the internet about how to soak the toe and push the skin back.  The odd thing about this is that as a general rule you won’t get antibiotics if you turn up with a sinus infection or something, but I got them for an infection in my toe.  crazy.

While there, I asked about things you could buy at the chemist (aka drugstore) like outgrow.  The dr said the closest thing she knew of was iodine liquid but you couldn’t get that any more here.  ARG.  So, For the next 5 days I’m taking my antibiotics and using a cotton bud (aka qtip) to poke around at it.

Image from ksbuehler via flickr

English.  The heart language (native language) of most people in the US.  It is also the heart language of many people in the UK.  But they aren’t the same.  Oh no.  I would say there is 70% (or more) overlap; however, there are differences.  In fact, there is a whole page on wikipedia about AME and BE differences.

I’ve been reading it today and it has been so long since my English classes that I don’t understand lots of it.  Verb tenses are hard.  Sure, I understand past, present, and future; however, it gets harder when speaking about past-perfect, etc….  This section was especially difficult to understand.

I’m thinking about coming up with a quiz for kids at youth group….along the lines of:  What are braces called in the US or something (btw, they are suspenders.  Suspenders in the UK mean a garter belt).  But that may take some time.

[Update 2011-10-15 15:54:51] I wonder if this might help?

Image from richard cawood via flickr

…one learns all sorts of new things.  Like, for example, everyone knows who Queen Elizabeth II is (the current reigning monarch of the UK and the Commonwealth countries).  However, until I moved to the UK, I didn’t know her husband was not the king.  He isn’t the king because the king can only be the real king if he was the heir-apparent.  Instead, he was given the title of Duke of Edinburgh (if I understand everything right).  He is also called Prince because he was the (or a?) prince in Greece.

So who will be next?  Well, the current line of succession has Prince Charles, then Prince William.  But what happens if William and Kate have a girl as their first child?  She is not the heir-apparent (again, if I understand everything).  The heir-apparent would be their first male child (I don’t know who would be next if they only had girls).

But, David Cameron is pushing a bill through Parliament to change that.  However, it also has to be passed by the other commonwealth countries.  Supposedly, there will be a constitutional crisis if this doesn’t happen….I don’t claim to understand it all.

In the end, there are always new things to be learned when you are in new situations.  Just ask questions and be patient.

[Update 2011-10-28 15:34:44] David Cameron and the other Commonwealth countries have agreed.  The first child of William and Kate will be the ruler.

Image from Steve Punter via flickr

I had an opportunity to go to Windsor Castle yesterday.  I had a great time, except for one thing….because it is so close to Heathrow, there were planes overhead all day long.  If I were the monarch, I think I would either fix the problem or ask the government to fix the problem.  I can’t imagine having a state dinner or a dine and sleep there and having it interrupted by the constant air traffic.

For those who don’t know, Windsor Castle is 

Windsor Castle is a medieval castle and royal residence in Windsor in the English county of Berkshire, notable for its long association with the British royal family and its architecture. The original castle was built after the Norman invasion by William the Conqueror. Since the time of Henry I it has been used by a succession of monarchs and is the longest-occupied palace in Europe. The castle’s lavish, early 19th-century State Apartments are architecturally significant, described by art historian Hugh Roberts as “a superb and unrivalled sequence of rooms widely regarded as the finest and most complete expression of later Georgian taste”.he castle includes the 15th-century St George’s Chapel, considered by historian John Robinson to be “one of the supreme achievements of English Perpendicular Gothic” design.More than five hundred people live and work in Windsor, making it the largest inhabited castle in the world.

from Wikipedia

Image from david (ddpf) via flickr

…UK.

Just wanted to let everyone know that we arrived safe and sound in the UK this morning.  Along with 2 kids and 14 of our bags.  Besides a bumpy first 1/3, the flight was uneventful.

Image from az1172 via flickr

…speak now or forever hold your peace.  Would have been funny if someone actually spoke up.  Why do I say this?  Not funny for Kate and William, certainly.  But, for the same reason I say that I like sports teams loose.  For the crazy fans.  Sometimes other people make way too big of a deal over things.

[Update 2011-04-29 21:09:51] I’ve thought about this today and wanted to clarify….my comments here were directed at the people who watched NOT from countries within the Commonwealth.  Those in the Commonwealth should be interested….at some point in the future, the child of William and Kate will be their king.

Image from edwin11 via flickr