What's the Time?

Change your clocks!

Tomorrow (tonight) the clocks go forward in the USA.  This time of the year is confusing for me since I like to Skype with my family in England on a Sunday morning.  The powers-that-be keep moving the date and although they have a nifty little rhyme “Spring Forward… Fall Back”, it doesn’t help because England move their clocks too and I have no idea when they do it.  I have a feeling it’s sometime before America, but there again, it could be sometime after.  Consequently, the usual 8 hour time difference is sometimes 9 hours and on a rare occasion it’s 7 hours.  What is a girl to do to keep it all straight? 

 

When you ask someone why it’s necessary, the usual answer is “Oh, it’s something to do with the farmers.”  Which could be right, but I read an article recently which stated it was due, in part, to the Industrial Revolution when officials reorganized how daylight hours were used.  If there are more hours of daylight in the summer you could spend more time on fun activities outdoors and you would use less electricity in the house, thus saving money.  I’m not sure what the thinking was for this in the winter, especially in England when it gets dark at 3:00p.m.!

All I know is I will lose an hour of sleep Saturday night so will need an extra long lay-in on Sunday.  I won’t be getting up at 2:00 a.m. to change the clocks (why does it have to be at 2:00 a.m.?) and then I will spend all Sunday morning forgetting it’s an hour earlier than all the clocks say.  Unless of course those friendly elves change them all for me.   [for “elf” read “fiancé"]

 

I will be having a lay-in Sunday Morning

My sister will have to live without seeing my smiling face this Sunday morning because I won’t be able to do the maths. 

The Cockles of my Heart

When I was pregnant I crave, crave, craved cockles.  I love those little shellfish and I just couldn’t get enough.  (and yes, I did eat shellfish whilst pregnant – shame on me). 

I remember going to the seaside way back when and queuing up at the shellfish bar to get my tiny plate of cockles in vinegar with a little sprinkle of pepper on the top and using that weeny two prong fork to eat them one at a time.  Ahh the deliciousness of it all!  But not only at the beach, there seemed to be a cockle/shellfish bar in every market.

Not in America

Imagine my shock and horror to realize you can’t get them in California.  I’ve looked everywhere and never found them.  I wondered if they were called something else here?  I even Googled “What are cockles called in America” and came up with nothing.  Apparently they have not made the journey across the pond and are not sold anywhere!!

I’m taking a trip back to Blighty later this year and one of my stops will definitely be the cockle stall.  My American fiancé will be with me and I can’t wait to see his face when I try to get him to eat one!    If he actually likes them, it will definitely warm the cockles of my heart! ❤

With Vinegar and Pepper - Perfect!

10 English Words I Don't Use Anymore

1.         Everso

            This expression somehow fell out of my vocabulary.  I’m not even sure what word I put in it’s place.  I think it might be “really” as in “I’m really hungry”.  It sounds more quaint when you say “I’m everso hungry.”  Maybe that’s why I don’t say it – I needed to blend in.

2.         Fortnight

            Nobody understands when you say you’re going on holiday for a fortnight.  You have to say two weeks.

3.         Holiday

            A holiday is not a holiday as we know it.  A holiday in America is Christmas, July 4^th,  Thanksgiving or any other day you have off work.  A holiday is now a vacation – which is never as long as a fortnight, unfortunately.

4.         Brolly

            During the recent rain storms here in California I told someone I was looking for my brolly.  I got a blank stare until I explained it was my umbrella.  I hadn’t used that word in ages, and I then realized why.

It's my Brolly

5.         Biro

            Ask someone to borrow their Biro and you will get that blank stare (again).  Apparently Biro do not make pens in America.  You need to borrow a pen – nothing fancy, just a pen.  The same thing happens when you ask for Tippex – you need to ask for White Out, which I always thought was a snow storm.

Biro - or is it just a pen?

6.         Anorak

            I don’t use it for a jacket or a trainspotter (and I’m sure there are such things in the USA).  I tried once and it didn’t go over too well.  Rain jacket or parka are used – even though a parka as we know it is nothing like an anorak.

Parka - Not really an anorak

7.         Nan

            When talking about my nan, I don’t call her my nan anymore.  She is now known as my grandma or grandmother – which makes me seem frightfully posh.

8.         Roundabout

            I don’t use this one anymore, because if you do happen to come across one, its called a traffic circle.  I only knew of one locally and that was removed because people kept having accidents as they didn’t know how to use it.  Oopsie.

9.         Rubber

            When I started work, I was surprised to see that all the pencils had rubbers on the end (we just had regular old pencils where I worked in London).  In fact, I actually exclaimed to my new co-workers "Oh, the pencils have rubbers on the end" ... having picked themselves off the floor, they explained my error and told me that it was, in fact, called an eraser and a rubber in America is something totally different!  I quickly removed that word from my vocabulary in the work environment.

           

10.       Motorway

            I have to use freeway now, and suddenly it feels very awkwardly English to say motorway.

 Ten Words I Refuse to Change

1.         Garage – I will not say Gar…arrrge (with a soft g)

2.         Petrol – although I do sometimes slip up and say Gas

3.         Nail Varnish, not Polish

4.         Zebra – I refuse to say Zeeeebra

5.         Zed – not Zeee

6.         Pram – Baby carriage seems a bit archaic

7.         Lead, as in dog lead – Leash just doesn’t sound right

8.         Sellotape – I just can’t get used to calling it Scotch Tape

9.         Indicator – as in American turn signal.  I have been known to shout at people “Use your bloody indicator”

10.       Maths – why is the ‘s’ dropped?  I’ve never understood

What's on the Telly?

Am I wrong, should I be so excited?  They’re making a Paddington Bear film and I can’t wait.  I remember back in the day sitting with my children watching Paddington on the telly every afternoon.  It seems though that most American’s have no idea who he is.  How cruel.

The film is due to be released in England in November.  I wonder if it will reach the USA?

 

 

And this made me wonder how many brilliant children’s tv programmes never made it across the pond.  It seems as if they always travel the other way and we got American shows.  How can I forget Scooby Doo and Little House on the Prairie (we called it crying day because it was always so sad).

My son was a huge Thomas the Tank Engine fan.  He had all the videos and books with cassettes and he knew all the words. (yes, it was a while ago)  Ringo Starr was his friend.  That one did make it over, but it annoys me that everyone calls it Thomas the Train.  But nobody seems to have heard of Thunderbirds and I was so sure it was an American programme.  Didn’t they all have American accents and names?  I had a huge crush on Virgil.  Oh dear my first love was a puppet!

Good grief - look at those eyebrows!
Thunderbirds are Go!

I could watch forever

While flicking through the tv guide recently, I found Charlie and Lola.  Although made for toddlers it made me stop and watch because I just can’t get enough of those English accents.  I never realized before just how wonderful English children sound.  It’s just so… well, cute!  (Arghh, an Americanism)

They say such wonderful things as "I'm really everso not well."  Perfect!

 

Nothing makes me more homesick than listening to English children.

 

Pancake Day

Listening to the radio earlier, I heard a report that today is pancake day at IHOP (International House of Pancakes).  Apparently, in 2006 they invented pancake day to raise money for charity. (???)

Well, I’m sorry IHOP, I have to disappoint you.  You did not invent pancake day.  Anyone in England (possibly Europe) knows Shrove Tuesday is pancake day and in fact, it may have been invented by Jif Lemon, but I’m thinking Jif may have been invented because of pancake day.

Actually, in Olney, Buckinghamshire, there is an annual pancake race, which has been run since 1445.  It was said to have started when a local housewife, hearing the “Shriving Bell” ran to the church with her frying pan in hand.  She had been cooking pancakes and thus, the race was on.



Don't forget to flip as you run

America calls our pancakes “crepes.”  Their pancakes here are basically stodgy dollops of goo fried in a pan for a while and served with anything from syrup to fruit or even eggs and bacon.   

 

How frightfully uncivilized, having sweet and savory on the same plate!

American Pancakes

 

The Great British Pancake



Shepherd's Pie

I’m not professing to be Gordon Ramsay – heck, I’m not even Fanny Craddock.  I can’t cook.  I give it a good old British try, but some things just aren’t for me – cooking fancy stuff being one of them.  I’ve never made a cake that doesn’t sink in the middle and cupcakes, well, we won’t even go there.

So when people ask me to cook English food, I go to my staples.  I can do blinding roast potatoes and a Sunday roast.  I can make curry (with the help of Patak’s sauces) and I make a brilliant Shepherd’s Pie (even if I do say so myself).  The thing is, and I’ve never told anyone, I cheat when I make Shepherd’s Pie.  There it is – it’s out there now. 

I don’t use herbs and spices or fancy seasoning in my meat – I use a packet mix.  But not even a Coleman’s Shepherd’s Pie packet mix – it’s just a supermarket own brand stew mix!  I use half a packet and dissolve it with an Oxo cube.  Very un-English (except for the Oxo). 

This is how Jamie Oliver would make it right here.  And he says it’s simple!

Well, this is how I make it:

• 1 pound mince
• 1 tin carrots
• 1 small bag of frozen peas
• Half a sachet of Stew Mix
• 1 Oxo cube
• Mashed potato

 

 

 

Brown the meat; mix the Oxo and Stew Mix with 1 litre of hot water.  Empty peas and carrots into meat with Oxo and stew mix, cover and simmer until water has reduced.

Meanwhile, make your mashed potatoes.  Put the meat in a baking dish and put the spuds over the top – fluff with a fork.  Pop in the oven for an hour, or until the top gets crusty and/or brown.

And now I’ve given away one of my biggest secrets, my American friends will not be pestering me to come to dinner so often – but maybe that’s a good thing  *smile*

Be My Guest

I was recently asked to do a guest blog for http://ukdesperatehousewifeusa.com.  I had contacted Claire to let her know how much I liked her blog and how I had been through the same learning curve - although it seems like ages ago now. 

I'm loving the stories about her son and can remember quite clearly when my son, after his first day in Third Grade, came home and disgustedly informed me he didn't want to go to school here because "They can't even find England on a map"

Oh joy!

Oh, there we are!