January 2012
5 posts
Vocaroooooo
Earlier today, a bunch of my internet friends were passing around this meme where you record yourself saying a list of words and then giggle at each other’s accents and occasionally beg each other to read bedtime stories with lovely voices.
Here’s the list (we do this relatively frequently, so if the list seems a bit random or incomplete, this is why): http://tinypaste.com/022b8888
...
You’ll all be relieved to know that:
a) I still have teeth.
b) Morecambe is still a bit grim.
In the end, I complained that I think I have a cavity and requested an xray, which they did. Then the dentist said I need to come back for a cleaning and filling, which they plan to charge me again for. As I understand it, this is kind of BS, because the cleaning and minor filling should be...
AND WHILE I AM RANTING
Danielle - Yes! You know, since I moved here, my anxiety levels got to be really outrageous and eventually turned into a full blown panic disorder, and I can tell you that I found the options for mental health treatment on the NHS to be somewhat lacking. The doctors in my practice were more than happy to throw pills at me, but to get any actual counseling it took SEVERAL very firm requests and...
urgh.. as suspected. Thanks guys, for your fast responses.
I guess on the bright side, I can stop wasting my time driving all the way over to Morecambe for no real reason!
I am definitely having some culture pains today, regarding the health care systems in america vs the UK.
After two years on a waiting list, we finally managed to secure an NHS dentist, which is great, as we’re squeaking by on one part time income for the last 12 months or so, and money is very tight. When we went for our first appointment, we were in and out in five minutes. They...
December 2011
13 posts
“Like every British tank since the Centurion, and most other British AFVs,...”
– Wikipedia page on the Challenger Two tank.
Make war. And tea.
“Indoor fireworks.”
– filed away in my brain as “concepts that are SO very British.”
“To those who might wish to “torrent” this video: look, I don’t really get the...”
– Louis CK, on his new special, Live at the Beacon, which is only available via his site. (via kaseyanderson) Amen. (via soupsoup)
Co-signed by Wil.
(via wilwheaton)
We bought this from his site last night and laughed our heads of watching it. Five bucks well spent!
Radvent 7 - Travel
(The radvent series of blog posts are inspired by Princess Lasertron’s blog.)
Radvent 7 is a subject very close to many of my (mostly expat) readers’ hearts: Travel.
What would you pack if you had only one bag to live out of?
I am having a hard time answering this because my instinct is to approach it from a survivalist perspective, with emergency blankets and a flashlight.
I...
1 tag
Radvent 5 - Drawing and Radvent 6 - Starting
Radvent 5 is about drawing, and Radvent 6 is about starting something new.
I am going to cheat optimize a little bit and just tell you that I spent most of the week doing both - I am opening an Etsy store where I plan to sell digital patterned papers for cardmaking and paper crafts. It’s here.
I spent the other half of my week starting in on a tutorial course for Adobe Illustrator....
1 tag
Radvent 4 - Caring
(I’m totally behind on Radvent, so allow me to catch up or, you know, drop me, haha! The Radvent posts I’m doing are inspired by prompts and thoughts over at Princess Lasertron’s blog. I do them each year.)
What are other people around you taking care of?
I am a hermit who leaves my house as rarely as possible, but today I’ve been watching my husband shrink wrap our...
Dead, Dead, Dead by Juan Schwartz
You might not...
1 tag
1 tag
Radvent 3 - Fascination
(This post is courtesy of the Radvent writing prompt series over at Princess Lasertron’s blog. I do them every year. Maybe you’d like to do them, too?)
Are you fascinating?
My first reaction to this is to laugh and say, no, not at all. My second reaction is to think, well, at least no more than anyone else I know. Remember, this has been a year of scaling back and learning to...
Gelatinous. I think the word I want is...
Armed with cinnamon and sugar, I tried british porridge again. I still hate it. Rolled oats, in my book, are definitely inferior to cracked oats. To me, this tastes like some kind of oatmeal-in-a-blender sludge one would feed a person who had wired shut their jaw.
Can’t say I didn’t try!
1 tag
Radvent 2 - balancing
(This post is courtesy of a writing prompt series over on Princess Lasertron’s blog. I do them every year in my other blog. Maybe you’d like to do them, too!)
How do you do it all?
Firstly, I really love the idea that’s put forth in this writing prompt about not asking people what they do, but asking them what they like to do. This is something I’ve done quite a lot...
1 tag
Radvent 1
I’ve had a (private) blog for years over at LiveJournal, and for the last few years, my circle of friends there has really enjoyed the annual Radvent blog prompts from Princess Lasertron. I’m going to have a go here this year.
What is challenging you the most right now? And how can you be grateful for it?
I don’t write about it in this space almost ever, but I have had...
November 2011
17 posts
A different kind of advent.
Earlier tonight, I realized that in 30 days, I am eligible to start the process to become a naturalised citizen and subject of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth.
I have to say, it feels pretty monumental. Much more monumental than when I got my spousal visa or my permanent leave to remain (greencard). It kind of caught me off guard how emotional I feel about it. It’s a funky combination of...
I was teasing my sister earlier about how she just...
You will be assimilated.
Graham made me a full English breakfast this morning, which I happily finished and declared excellent. He found this to be really amusing because, according to him, he made the exact same dish for me when I first came across and I said it was vile.
2 tags
Cool story, bro.
Al Capone is the person who got the Chicago City Council to pass a law stating that a visible expiration date must be stamped on all cartons of milk.
The story is that people in his family had gotten ill from drinking bad milk and this is where his motivation came from, but he also knew there was a pretty high profit to be made in the dairy business. At the time, milk was delivered by milkmen,...
1 tag
I don’t hate America since I moved away; I just don’t get defensive anymore when discussing her shortcomings.
Confession
erinmargrethe:
beefranck:
I was so desperate to get some rest last night that I took NyQuil. I slept for five hours. Heaven.
Girl, there is no Nyquil in Australia. I had the last of mine a while back. I think I’m going to have to beg my moms to send me some. In the original Green Death flavor, because I like to keep it real. That shit makes me levitate.
Yeah, Green Death Nyquil is usually...
You didn't even know I was gone, did you?
I just got home from a ten day jaunt to the motherland, and will have a lot to say about it soon, as I sort out the photos. (Spoiler: They mostly involve my husband going, “That car is so big! That building is so tall! This food is so delicious!” and me giggling to not be the foreigner for a change while stuffing his face full of Halloween candy.)
Um, but first, I wanted to rave a...
September 2011
1 post
secret confession
While under the weather and laid up for a couple of weeks, I have become secretly addicted to watching the UK Border Patrol show on PickTV.
What I have learned from this is that if you just throw your passport away, immigration officers will basically just let you go, rather than go through the six month ordeal of trying to get your home country to send them a replacement.
Also, UK immigration...
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...
3 tags
4 tags
5 tags
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.