Friday, November 04, 2005

Random English/London facts coming your way!

Random English/London facts coming your way!

-Language: lads, chaps, 'Oh that's rubbish', 'I'm knackered', 'You're a star', 'theres 'loads' of good biscuits here 'man', well good, to down a drink, sick is like you're vomiting and ill means sick, tippex is whiteout, a quidd is a pound, a p is a pence (1 cent), a fiver or a tenner is 5 dollars or 10 dollars.
-Cabs are cute here. They a an older style of car and I am told they are deliberately made with a very small turining circle....how about that now...I am up with it!
-Museums are free here! Hooray for that! There are so manny! The British museum has 4kms of corridoors alone!
-The have good biscuits/cookies here!
-Picidally Circus has big screens that are really bright like time square in New York.
-Mary Poppins, Notitng Hill, Bridget Jones Diary, Love Actually, Bed Knobs and broomsticks.
-6 lane roundabouts with double decker buses!
-Dhivya likes London because "whenever you sit on a bus or a train the person next to you won't be speaking English". She says it has "this buzz and energy"...I agree mate. I agree.
-There are so many buses here! 1 stop can have as many as 12 bus routes going through it! And you have to haiul the buses which is very practical otherwise they would be stopping all the time for no reason.
-The 2 most common pub names in Britain are the Kings Arms and the Red Lion. plus here are some others: The Shakespear, Ye Olde London, The Old Bell, The Coal Hole, Ye Olde Cock Tavern, The George, Crown and Sugar Loaf, The Kings head, A bunch of Grapes, The Greyhound, Pitcher on Piano, The Queen's Arms,
-If you drive in central London between the hours of 8am and 6pm there is a congesiton charge of £8 to minimise traffic.
-The radio here sounds exactly the same as it does in Australia. Exactly! Another example of copying a formula and respitting it out to the general formula.
-Neighbours (an Aussie soap worshipped by the English populagion) is shown twice a day here! 1:30pm and 5:30pm
-Young people her eare pretty good looking on average...lots of cute boys and very pretty girls....dot know what happens as the population ages however....maybe their genetics are getitng cuter and this is the cuter generation....that or they all become average.
-Movies come out later here just like in France! And we thought Australia was behind...
-Apparently you used to be able to just hop off the back of the buses here while they were in motion but they put a stop to that.....
-There is a tea museum and also today I saw a whole Twinings (tea) shop. A whole shop dedicated to tea! Oh the English...gotta love it. At the hotel I stayed at in South end on Sea there was a kettel in everyroom with tea, milk, sugar etc...all the essentials!
-Ben's cookies are the best thing ever! Mushy, gooey cookie goodness!
-Double Decker buses rock my world!
-London is not as good as France when it cpomes to power and water saving.
-The lifts here sepak with English accents 'Going up.'
-There is lined paper here....no seriously folks...it's all graph paper in France! All!
-There is a bigger shopping culture here. You can actually go shopping here and get discount stuff and not pay an absolute fortune. Can't say the same for Lyon eve if it is the second biggest ciy in France!
-P.S. If you buy a pin/badge here it will cost you a pound whereas in Australia you would pay 1 AUD and in the USA it would be 1USD. We are all being ripped off cos it is all made in China but English people are being ripped off big time.
-I want to live and work in England. I also want to earn pounds so for once I can convert the OTHER way and feel rich when on holiday!
-In winter it can get dark here as early as 3pm but in summer you can party in the light until 10pm!!! Yes yes oh yay!
-Fashion is better here then in Lyon...shhh....don't tell the French...
-I am going through withdraws here without fresh markets...I am used to seeing them everywhere and London needs some...visiting Portobello market on Sat.
-There is a big emphasis here on the theatre and shows. Advertisements are everywhere and there are 'loads' of different musicals. The same in Lyon, there are so many theatre groups....makes Melbourne look devoid and we are suppoed to be the culture capital of Australia.
-Most poeple stop for you at pedestrian corssings (such a novel thing) which are marked by black and white stipped poles with round lights on the top. Also, somtimes when pedestrians can cross the road it makes this scary beeping noise like something is horribly worn! The roads have 'Look Right' and 'Look Left' painted by the cross walk becasue all the Europeans are confused as England drives on the left had side of the road.
-There is a naughty lingeray 'Anne Summers' shop which sells all sorts of crazy stuff and had girls in knee high boots and tiny outfits giving out catalogues...meanwile in France they arent waering skirts above the knee!
-In the showers in the residece here there is a sign that says 'Fixed shower head Do no attempt to adjust'...I wantto know how many of Britain finesta nd brightest sctific minds have tried to rip it off the wall...a bit of a worry!!!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Cara!

Wow you've been up to lots! England sounds really fascinating and you've probably only scratched the surface hey?

Reading your blog has put England down to one of the many places i would definetly like to try...but before that i'm going to start using some of those phrases, eat a nice big biscuit and have some tea!

Also saw your Hlloween picture which was very cool it would be fun if we all adapted the whole Halloween thing here but everyone complains that its too American but... Oh thats rubbish...any excuse for more holidays, man!

Well glad your having a great time but dont forget...erm where were you again? Oh well doesn't matter, keep it all up and go have a pint at the pub or something but dont get too knackered!

Your a star!

Hugs from EM

Cara's Mom & Pat said...

Historical Question: Which Brittish King had a Red Lion as his symbol?

Did you find any squishy bugs with squirting gooey guts?

Mom

Anonymous said...

London!! How did you get there? I understand that you went with a friend, but what was the event? Did you fly over the channel or take the tube? It sounds like you have been damaging a number of pubs. Watch out for those sexy undies you might caught a cold. Hope the studdies are going well. Cheery O...

Anonymous said...

If you get a chance honey go and see the white cliffs of dover, bath and stonehenge. all amazing and granted they are fairly far away but are definately worth the trip.

I like the idea of you in london and then i can teach their kids and you can teach the parents about water conservation. Mind you, it rains so much they are practically swimming in the streets.

Claire

P.S. The answer to your mums question is Richard the Lionheart. i think, okay i guessed but it sounds good, right?