Wednesday 27 July 2011

What's new in the UK?

Leaving England today (27th) for Chicago. Every year I see different things in the UK. I'm not saying they're necessarily new; I may not have been paying attention. But this year I've noticed -

- Lots of Marmite and Branston pickle products, as mentioned in an earlier post. Heaven.....

- Large and small glasses of wine in restaurants. The small glasses always look ridiculously insufficient but the larger measures just make you look like an alchoholic! Not that it stopped me!

- A continuing probem with chip and pin - less credit cards. I have mentioned this on blogs and comment discussions before and am often told that I'm wrong, but I still have a few problems with my chip and pinless American credit cards. Although more and more stores seem able to cope with them, I still come across the odd place that simply doesn't have a machine that swipes the card. On one occasion I had to flick through the operation manual with the shop ower to work out how to process my card. In the end she called a help desk. Who knew I was a "help desk" case?

- Coffe bars and snack places. Wherever you are in the States, you can find something to eat at any hour of the day or night. Walking around shopping centres and High Streets in the UK, it now appears the same is true on this side of the Pond. In touristy places like London, York, the Lakes etc, there has always been a plethora of tea shops, but now, everywhere you look there's a Starbucks (don't mention the prices!), Pret-a-Manger or a Costa Coffee. Watch out Brits - you'll end up with the same obesity problem!

Anyway folks, I must start throwing things into my suitcase. I somehow now have more stuff than I came over with and had to run out and buy an extra holdall yesterday, so there's a bit of reorganising to do to stay under the weight limit.

Toodle pip!

PS. If anyone can tell me how to stop Blogger underlining random words in red on my posts I'd be very grateful. It's really irritating me!

6 comments:

  1. Blogger has a mind of its own lately. I'm being irritated by the fact that Google reader won't let me read people's posts before I get to their blogs. An irritating email tab covers the spot I want to read & I can't move it anywhere else!

    British chip & pin is very security conscious.I can see you might have a problem with that. I think our system has improved things though.
    Glad you had a good holiday.
    Maggie X

    Nuts in May

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  2. Yes, food and drink everywhere these days. I remember in London's West End in the late 80s, if it was after 11.00pm, places were closed. Bit ridiculous for a world capital. Very different now.

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  3. hi.
    l'm back but in a different space..

    luv Alice (fff)

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  4. I'm so useless I don't know what chip and pin cards are. Are they just pin cards, i always end up throwing mine out because i can't remember the pin number. After nine years away from London found it shiny painted, happy, completely changed as to be unrecognisable. B

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  5. "...Watch out Brits - you'll end up with the same obesity problem!..."

    Too late ;)

    Mike--10 years and 2 stone later

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  6. haha..its really funny things..and its true.

    ReplyDelete

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