So, I had my very first Canadian visitor a few days ago. A friend from Calgary, who I know through my involvement with CIRI (Canadian Investor Relations Institute), was vacationing with her family in Amsterdam and popped up to England to see me and another friend of hers in the Midlands. Debbie came on Sunday night and stayed until Wednesday noon. I took Monday off and we went to Harrods and Hyde Park and Kensington Palace and the Princess Dianna Memorial and Covent Garden. It was lots of fun.
Harrods is an experience in itself! It's not just a store, it's a big theme park! Each room has lavish decorations and amazing specialty items. There is a heavy Egyptian bent to it, probably because it is owned by Egyptians. The food rooms were absolutely amazing, both in their selection and their displays.
Kensington Palace was a bit of a disappointment. It is, of course, where Princess Diana lived from the time of her marriage to Charles until her death. It is less of a palace and more of a very large brick house. We didn't want to pay the £11.50 ($25.00) admission to go in, so just went around the outside. It is right on the edge of Hyde Park.
We then walked through Hyde Park, found a lovely little "secret garden", and made our way to the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain. At first, it seems very plain - just a big marble oval in the grass. No spectacular geysers or anything. But once you get close to it, and walk around it, it is quite beautiful and interesting. I think it is a good indication of the public image of Diana. When she married Charles, she seemed very ordinary and "vanilla", but once she became comfortable with the public, we saw her for the interesting and passionate woman that she was. I thought it was a very beautiful and appropriate memorial.
Covent Garden was brilliant, as always. We went to the Maple Leafe pub for supper then and back to the flat. I had to work the next day, so Debbie went off sightseeing on her own. There is a brilliant tour bus that allows you to hop on and off within a 24-hour period, and so she spent the day doing that and got her money's worth! It was so nice having a familiar face and, more importantly, a familiar accent! I didn't have to ask her to repeat herself once!! lol
So, life goes on. Paul is home from the hospital and healing well. We bought a small used car, which he is picking up today, so now I have wheels, although he'll be doing all the driving for the next while. A week from tomorrow, I have some more friends coming to visit, and right after they leave, my Uncle Jac is coming up and we're going down to Greece. Life is about to get busy!!
22 June 2006
12 June 2006
My First Shoot
I attended my first ever clay pigeon shoot on June 7. A very English thing to do!
The shoot was arranged by RAFT, a charity organization that does research into and treatment of facial and other deformities resulting from burns or birth defect (the name stands for the Restoration of Appearance and Function Trust) - www.raft.co.uk. The shoot is one of their main fundraisers. Stratic decided to enter a team, and I thought I would volunteer to help out. Turns out, volunteerism in this country is somewhat unheard of, and they were all surprised and excited! It was quite amusing, since volunteering is so taken for granted in Calgary!
So, I helped out here and there throughout the day and had a lovely time. They let me do some shooting myself, which was brilliant as I had never worked a shotgun before. I even hit a few clays! The day was beautiful and hot, and we raised approximately £60,000 for the charity, which is entirely funded by private donations and fundraisers.
There were a number of oil companies represented there, and I ran into a couple of people that I knew from the industry. It was a great day and lots of fun! A couple of pictures are here:
http://www.chrisinchiswick.zoomshare.com/1.shtml/RAFT%20Shoot
The World Cup started on Friday, and on Saturday Paul dragged me to the local to watch England play. Can't say it was too fascinating, but it was fun to get out and with a group of people cheering on their team. Kind of like when Calgary is in the playoffs, and suddenly there are a lot more hockey fans in the pubs. You just kind of get caught up in the spirit of it. Anyway, England won, despite a dismal and boring second half. Those guys sure get paid a lot of money to play that badly!!
We're in the middle of a heat wave here - it has been 25 to 30 celsius. The tube has been almost unbearably hot, and buses are hellish (literally!) I have started wearing bare legs and flipflops with my suit to work and changing into nylons and heels once I get to the office (which is gloriously air-conditioned!). My flat isn't air-conditioned, so the windows are all open trying to catch a breeze and a fan is going 24/7 in the bedroom. Being on the 5th floor, I get a bit more of a breeze than the lower floors, so it's just bearable. I didn't go out much on the weekend because it was just too sweltering! Paul and I did venture out to pick up a couple of things yesterday and spent about 45 minutes in the air-conditioned Starbucks with iced coffees and treats! I love doing that on Sunday - walking down to WHSmith, getting a paper, heading into Starbucks for a coffee drink and lounging in the oh-so-comfy chairs reading the paper and chatting.
Some more cool English terms:
Stropy - sulky or pouty. Paul always teases me that I'm being stropy when I don't get my own way!
Tintinet - northern-speak for the internet.
Egg Mayonnaise - Egg salad, as in a sandwich.
OAPs - old age pensioners. What we would call "seniors".
Charity Shops - Thrift stores in Canada, like Salvation Army or WINS.
The shoot was arranged by RAFT, a charity organization that does research into and treatment of facial and other deformities resulting from burns or birth defect (the name stands for the Restoration of Appearance and Function Trust) - www.raft.co.uk. The shoot is one of their main fundraisers. Stratic decided to enter a team, and I thought I would volunteer to help out. Turns out, volunteerism in this country is somewhat unheard of, and they were all surprised and excited! It was quite amusing, since volunteering is so taken for granted in Calgary!
So, I helped out here and there throughout the day and had a lovely time. They let me do some shooting myself, which was brilliant as I had never worked a shotgun before. I even hit a few clays! The day was beautiful and hot, and we raised approximately £60,000 for the charity, which is entirely funded by private donations and fundraisers.
There were a number of oil companies represented there, and I ran into a couple of people that I knew from the industry. It was a great day and lots of fun! A couple of pictures are here:
http://www.chrisinchiswick.zoomshare.com/1.shtml/RAFT%20Shoot
The World Cup started on Friday, and on Saturday Paul dragged me to the local to watch England play. Can't say it was too fascinating, but it was fun to get out and with a group of people cheering on their team. Kind of like when Calgary is in the playoffs, and suddenly there are a lot more hockey fans in the pubs. You just kind of get caught up in the spirit of it. Anyway, England won, despite a dismal and boring second half. Those guys sure get paid a lot of money to play that badly!!
We're in the middle of a heat wave here - it has been 25 to 30 celsius. The tube has been almost unbearably hot, and buses are hellish (literally!) I have started wearing bare legs and flipflops with my suit to work and changing into nylons and heels once I get to the office (which is gloriously air-conditioned!). My flat isn't air-conditioned, so the windows are all open trying to catch a breeze and a fan is going 24/7 in the bedroom. Being on the 5th floor, I get a bit more of a breeze than the lower floors, so it's just bearable. I didn't go out much on the weekend because it was just too sweltering! Paul and I did venture out to pick up a couple of things yesterday and spent about 45 minutes in the air-conditioned Starbucks with iced coffees and treats! I love doing that on Sunday - walking down to WHSmith, getting a paper, heading into Starbucks for a coffee drink and lounging in the oh-so-comfy chairs reading the paper and chatting.
Some more cool English terms:
Stropy - sulky or pouty. Paul always teases me that I'm being stropy when I don't get my own way!
Tintinet - northern-speak for the internet.
Egg Mayonnaise - Egg salad, as in a sandwich.
OAPs - old age pensioners. What we would call "seniors".
Charity Shops - Thrift stores in Canada, like Salvation Army or WINS.
06 June 2006
England and the English
I've been reading a book lately entitled "Watching the English", written by an anthropologist after extensive research into what makes the English so...well....English. It is very interesting, and explains a lot of my experiences. Here are some of my own observations.
Pronounciation of place names seems to be very topsy-turvy. Some they pronounce every syllable, such as Herefordshire, which is pronounced "hair-e-ford-sure", but then other ones they skip most of the word, such as Towcester, which is pronounced "toaster". Berkeley is pronounced "barkley" and Pall Mall is pronounced "pal mal".
When I first came here, there was some confusion with where I should be walking on the street. In Canada, of course, you walk on the sidewalk, which is right beside the pavement where the cars drive. Here, you walk on the pavement, which is right beside the tarmac where the cars drive!
Banking is another interesting thing. Most payments that are not done online are done by direct transfer from one bank account to another. This means that you are giving banking information out to everyone and their dog! It is strange in a country that is so fanatical about security! And, it takes 3 working days for these transfers to take place, as opposed to a few hours in Canada. So, for instance, my rent comes out of my bank account 3 days before it is actually due, so it will be in my landlord's account on the day it is due. So, I actually get paid about 4 days before payday to account for this, and my salary comes out of my company's account 3 days before that!! It's all quite silly, really!
The English line up, or queue, for everything!! The queue is a long-standing tradition, and is strictly observed. Although the English are too polite to actually tell someone to get to the back of the queue, they will let them know they are queue-jumping by all sorts of subtle little signals. The queue is always orderly and straight, even when waiting for a bus! I, of course, hate queues and often refuse to wait in one, choosing instead to come back later. It's very un-English of me! Queueing is very important to the English, and is considered by some a national past-time. Someone shoot me, please!!
World Cup fever has hit big time over here. I have never seen anything so fanatical, except perhaps when Calgary was running for the Stanley Cup two years ago. There are English flags everywhere - not British ones, mind you, with the red and blue - but St. George's Crosses, which specifically represents England. Wales and Scotland have their own flags. The whole of Englad has been gripped in the agony of whether their best player, Wayne Rooney, will be fit enough to play after breaking his foot or something a number weeks ago. He was declared fit last night and everyone is so excited. Me, I'm planning my shopping trips during England's world cup games so the stores will be nice and empty!
Here's some more words, a lot of them from Paul, who is from Lancashire in the north of England:
Chook - affectionate name for a woman, could be daughter, wife, close friend, etc.
Skive - procrastinate, such as "skiving off work".
Brew - tea, as in "would you like a brew?"
Kit - clothes, as in "I need to change me kit". Which brings up another interesting colloquial, the use of "me" instead of "my". It's very addictive!
Our - Mostly used in the north, families refer to children and siblings as "our" something, as in "Here comes our Diane". Paul even refers to his niece as "our Danielle".
Stone - weights here are all done in stone and pounds, with a stone equalling 14 pounds. It is quite inefficient, but that's the way it is. Most of the English I asked didn't even know how much a stone was - I had to find out from Google! So, somone who is 148 lbs would be 10 stone, 8 lbs.
Well, that's it for now. I hope I haven't offended any of my English friends by my mini-rant. Despite what it may seem, I am absolutely loving it out here. I'm having the time of my life and there is so much to do and explore! I'm happier than I've been in a very long time!
Cheers!
Pronounciation of place names seems to be very topsy-turvy. Some they pronounce every syllable, such as Herefordshire, which is pronounced "hair-e-ford-sure", but then other ones they skip most of the word, such as Towcester, which is pronounced "toaster". Berkeley is pronounced "barkley" and Pall Mall is pronounced "pal mal".
When I first came here, there was some confusion with where I should be walking on the street. In Canada, of course, you walk on the sidewalk, which is right beside the pavement where the cars drive. Here, you walk on the pavement, which is right beside the tarmac where the cars drive!
Banking is another interesting thing. Most payments that are not done online are done by direct transfer from one bank account to another. This means that you are giving banking information out to everyone and their dog! It is strange in a country that is so fanatical about security! And, it takes 3 working days for these transfers to take place, as opposed to a few hours in Canada. So, for instance, my rent comes out of my bank account 3 days before it is actually due, so it will be in my landlord's account on the day it is due. So, I actually get paid about 4 days before payday to account for this, and my salary comes out of my company's account 3 days before that!! It's all quite silly, really!
The English line up, or queue, for everything!! The queue is a long-standing tradition, and is strictly observed. Although the English are too polite to actually tell someone to get to the back of the queue, they will let them know they are queue-jumping by all sorts of subtle little signals. The queue is always orderly and straight, even when waiting for a bus! I, of course, hate queues and often refuse to wait in one, choosing instead to come back later. It's very un-English of me! Queueing is very important to the English, and is considered by some a national past-time. Someone shoot me, please!!
World Cup fever has hit big time over here. I have never seen anything so fanatical, except perhaps when Calgary was running for the Stanley Cup two years ago. There are English flags everywhere - not British ones, mind you, with the red and blue - but St. George's Crosses, which specifically represents England. Wales and Scotland have their own flags. The whole of Englad has been gripped in the agony of whether their best player, Wayne Rooney, will be fit enough to play after breaking his foot or something a number weeks ago. He was declared fit last night and everyone is so excited. Me, I'm planning my shopping trips during England's world cup games so the stores will be nice and empty!
Here's some more words, a lot of them from Paul, who is from Lancashire in the north of England:
Chook - affectionate name for a woman, could be daughter, wife, close friend, etc.
Skive - procrastinate, such as "skiving off work".
Brew - tea, as in "would you like a brew?"
Kit - clothes, as in "I need to change me kit". Which brings up another interesting colloquial, the use of "me" instead of "my". It's very addictive!
Our
Stone - weights here are all done in stone and pounds, with a stone equalling 14 pounds. It is quite inefficient, but that's the way it is. Most of the English I asked didn't even know how much a stone was - I had to find out from Google! So, somone who is 148 lbs would be 10 stone, 8 lbs.
Well, that's it for now. I hope I haven't offended any of my English friends by my mini-rant. Despite what it may seem, I am absolutely loving it out here. I'm having the time of my life and there is so much to do and explore! I'm happier than I've been in a very long time!
Cheers!
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