A Random English Commentary

Hiya!
So this is a random blog about lots of different things noticed here that we've either meant to blog about and just forgot to or simply didn't have the space (read - last blog was a 2-parter).

One of the only good things about the New Year for those in the UK is the Royal Wedding of 'Wills and Kate' - I'm not kidding. People refer to it as 'The Wedding' as you would if someone in your own family or one of your close friends were getting married. As broadcast on the news, a start to a new year hasn't been so dismal for a long time. With the rise in the VAT (sales tax) from 17.5% to 20% (included in ticketed prices), the slashing cuts of major services and benefits they say that the next two years are to be bad for Britain, with a possible double-dip recession. The real estate market is terrible - the same homes have been up for sale and the same store fronts have been empty or 'Coming Soon' since we got here in August. There are cuts to the 'Sure Start' program which provides the funding for our Children's Centre - 250 Sure Start centres will close this year and others will operate on smaller budgets (not sure about the New Mills centre). And a pub closes every 3 days in the UK but this is also due to the smoking ban - people would rather drink for cheap and smoke at home.

There is a HUGE divide between the North and South of England. Northerners are 'hard', Southerners are 'soft'. Northerners are rough or plain and Southerners are pretty and posh. Whether you're talking about accents, food people eat, the ability to handle the weather, how the guys (or gals) play sports, whatever - there's a divide. Northerners don't like the South or the people that live there and vice-versa:) I don't know where the Midlands fit into all this? People from Birmingham just must have, and be, the best of both worlds:)

I'm glad we live in the North. I feel like we all fit in with the 'hard' Northerners. We can take the weather up here. Some people look like they are trying to show just how hard they are by not dressing appropriately though - no coat when they really should have one - this is mostly teens and youth. And hardly anyone (even adults) uses an umbrella here - they must be so used to just getting drenched!

I'm not sure who talks about 'the weather' more - Brits or Canucks? Everyone is talking about if we'll get more snow. Typically, they've gotten their 'snowmeggedan' in February so everyone is expecting more snow. Well, if it does get crizazy, I'm thankful we finally registered last month with the Canadian government's list of those travelling/living abroad - LOL :) Just in case we get totally snowed in... or flooded in.

This is crazy - when you fill out a registration or application form here (doctor, bank, NIN card (SIN card), nursery school, children's centre) you're asked to place a check next to your ethnic background (white-British, white-Irish, white-Gypsy (!), non-white British, etc.)!!!! (For any UK readers - this is seen as discriminatory in Canada and is illegal.) It seems to us 'they' really want to know if you're Irish or a Gypsy :)

The NHS have a '5 a day' campaign out for healthy eating - eat 5 servings of fruit/veg per day. The concept is at the children's centre, the nursery, on loads of food packaging (like, how many cherry tomatoes is 1 of your 5 a day) grocery signage, commercials, print ads. EVERYWHERE. It's all good, but what about the people who have their '5 a day' with a pile of deep-fried fish 'n chips, chocolate bickies (biscuits), pop and beer? I guess it's one way to combat the obesity problem here (fattest nation in Europe, but not as bad as the US and Canada). Maybe it's just the start.

The NHS also has a campaign on for the cold/flu season. They haven't adopted the sneezing/coughing into your elbow move like Toronto/Ontario - instead they think it would be easier to feel a sneeze comin', find a tissue from somewhere, sneeze into the tissue and toss it into the garbage "Catch it. Bin it. Kill it." Most people I've seen just use their hand... and not many people are regular users of hand sanitizer. There are a few crazy-Carex-moms (see 'brands' below) out here with me, but they are far and few between.

New series' (season's) of many tv shows have started here. We've been watching our faves online anyway (on undisclosed websites) but I can finally watch Oprah again! It's dated by 4 months, but I don't care, I'll take what I can get. They don't have as many commercial breaks here and it's really noticeable when watching an American show that cuts for commercial and comes back without a British commercial break. We've taken a liking to a few British shows (An Idiot Abroad, Gavin & Stacy, Come Fly With Me, to name a few). And Sky (most popular cable company) has started a new channel, SkyAtlantic, which is basically HBO and Mark is very happy he can watch the latest Entourage.

Surprising Brands that aren't here:
Purel
Tylenol
Polysporin
Lysol
Gerber
Campbell's soup just arrived as a 'new' product at Tesco! (Heinz does most of the soup here)
Cheerios et al is by Nestle - weird, eh?

The most surprising/confusing pronunciation of a common first name has got to be Sarah. Instead of Sehr-ah, it's Saw-raw. At first, we were like, Zara? Charlotte? (this one was a phone message we had to listen to over 5 times) OH - Sarah!
Some other words we just have to get our accent on for are bahnawnaw and tomahto. And we really have to pronounce proper T's - not like D's:)

We speak the same language! Why is everything called something different?
ready, set, go = ready, steady, go
ketchup = tomato sauce or tomato ketchup
(salad) dressing = sauce
baking soda = bicarbonate of soda
vanilla extract = extract of vanilla
pickles = pickled cucumber or cucumber spears with dill (pickle is a spread here - kinda like relish, but also kinda yucky)
tomato paste = tomato puree
muffin = buns, cakes, fairy cakes, muffins (big North American ones)
buns (for burgers) = muffins
hamburger = beef burger
ice cream sundae = Knickerbocker glory - I'm not even kidding, I couldn't have made that up
onesie = vest
sleeper = onesie
weaning = introducing solids (note to tommee tippee - rethink your North American packaging!) 
big mac = McRoyal
Original Chicken = chicken royale

Shopping: something I've lots of experience in but I've never seen charity shops before coming to England for the first time. Every town/city seems to have them - be it in New Mills or Manchester. New Mills is a very small town but has three different. They each sell new and used donated items. And everyone in New Mills seems to pop in.

For some reason, it is acceptable to British bank customers that it takes a bank 3-8wks to process a foreign cheque - we found this out the hard way. Mark went to our English HBSC bank when he first opened his account (his company does pay cheques through this bank) and wrote a cheque to himself from his Canadian CIBC account. When he asked what the exchange rate would be, the teller advised him he would get a call from a representative when it was known. Mark thought that was weird but went with it. A few days later, he got a letter in the post stating the exchange rate, the commission, the additional FEE and that the money would be in the account within 6-8wks! We couldn't believe it. When we called the bank, they just said that's how British banks do it! We called CIBC to put a stop on the cheque, but the money had already been taken out! So the UK bank was just holding it for weeks! We eventually got the money transferred a bit sooner after complaining about the process, but it was such a PITA! We've since found out that another bank RBS takes 3-6 wks! Citizens of the UK - this is not acceptable banking practices! Get angry!

The age kids start school here is strange: If the child's bday is from 1 Jan - 31 Aug (dates are backwards here), they start school in September when they are 5 and go into Year 1. If the child's bday is from 1 Sept - 31 Dec, they have to wait until to start school until the September after they turn 5! If they did that in Ontario, Liam would only be one grade ahead of Gemma! Nutty.

And I realize that throughout I'm using both 'Britain' and 'UK' as if they were the same. Technically, Great Britain in England, Wales and Scotland, and the UK is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (we think). But everyone here seems to use Britain and UK synonymously.

Well that's it for the random commentary... although, I'm sure I've forgotten something else and will have to include it next time:)

Cheers,
The Nicholson Family