Birthday Celebrations

Today is my birthday (my 20th birthday celebrated in the good ole USofA) and it made me think about what I miss from working in England. 

Buying doughnuts for everyone in the office  

I don’t know if this still happens, but when I was working in England, if it was your birthday, YOU were the one who had to buy the cakes for the office.  I don’t know why this was or who decided it was a thing, but it definitely made sure you got a cake – usually lovely real cream doughnuts.  Could get a bit expensive though, depending on the size of the office.  (I don't miss having to buy the doughnuts, but I do miss the actual doughnuts).

Drooling.....I miss real cream

Alcohol related presents

To be honest, this does happen here too (to me anyway, I wonder if they are trying to tell me something). The only difference is it’s not acceptable to have a glass of wine/vodka/rum on your tea break in America.  This is merely a technicality though, because there is no such thing as a ‘tea break’ in the USA.  I think I just found a loophole

Drinking at lunchtime

If you worked in town, there was usually a pub or wine bar less than a stone’s throw from the office so if there was a birthday, it was guaranteed that the office would be there at lunchtime, possibly a little longer than a usual lunch though.  Food was not involved.

Drinking after work

Once you had stumbled your inebriated self through the afternoon, hopefully not making too many mistakes, it was back off to the pub for an after work drinkie, which invariably lasted into the late evening even though you were “only staying for one.”

You can get home

Even if you are six sheets to the wind, you can get home.  Public transport is there to take care of you. Once you’ve found the right bus stop, you’re all set.  You just have to make sure you get on the right bus and it will drop you off close enough to your house so you can crawl on your hands and knees to the front door.  I am not saying I’ve ever done this, of course, but you could if you needed to.  [*cough, cough*]

Not so in America.  The lack of public transportation puts a damper on any after work frivolity because you need to stay sober so you can drive home.  Party pooper…

So yes, it’s my birthday, I didn’t get a real cream doughnut, I won’t be having a liquid lunch and I won’t be going to the pub after work.  But then again, I’m not a teenager any more and I’m sure if I did,  I would need tomorrow off work …..

But be sure, I will be celebrating.  And as the Irish say:

“It is better to spend money like there's no tomorrow

than to spend tonight like there's no money.”

Beside the Seaside (Part 2)

I previously did a post about our daytrips to the seaside here.  But I’ve been thinking it over and there are so many more things I miss that I can’t get, or just don’t happen in America.  Here’s a few:

The Shellfish Bar

I did a post about cockles and how they didn’t get to America here.  But it’s not just cockles they sell… mussels, winkles, oysters, lobster, jellied eels, shrimp, crab, whelks.  Oh how wonderful to see all that fishy seafood sitting in the sun.  Of course, it’s a British tradition to get your fish fix when you’re at the seaside.  It’s just that some of those things look a bit, well, nasty.  I will stick to my cockles.

Photo coursey TripAdvisor

Donkey Rides

How can you go to the seaside and not have a donkey ride?  We used to beg and beg our parents to please let us have a ride.  The answer was usually a “No,” but that didn’t stop us from begging.  Of course, you have to take the obligatory photograph of the donkeys, lined up in a row with poor unsuspecting children balanced precariously on their backs.  After being dragged and bumped down the beach for five minutes you were back on solid ground and your parents were out a few quid that they would never get back.  All because those donkeys are so lovely!

Doughnuts on the Pier

Ahhh… to walk along the pier and smell that wonderful scent of cooking batter in hot oil.  There was always a crowd around the window watching those sizzling little doughnuts fall into the mound of sugar at the end of the conveyer belt.  They were always tiny, but perfectly cooked.  It makes my mouth water just thinking about them.  We always ate them too fast and wanted more.  There’s nothing better than freshly cooked doughnuts still too hot to bite.  Krispy Krème try, but they cover them in slimy goop, so it’s just not the same.

Love to watch through the window

Punch and Judy

Although a great British seaside tradition, it’s a bit creepy if you ask me.  Always set up on the beach in a striped “tent” and always, so it seemed, the same storyline which includes Mr. Punch, his poor beaten wife, Judy, a policeman, who I have a feeling wasn’t there to stop her being battered and a crocodile with sausages(?).  There may have been more characters, but I could never stand it long enough to watch until the end.  It fascinated people who, in chorus, chanted “That’s the way to do it” while Mr. Punch was beating his wife black and blue.  It’s a wonder women’s libbers haven’t had it banned by now.  Used to scare the pants off me.

A bit creepy?

Saucy Postcards

How can I possibly remember the seaside without mentioning those oh so saucy postcards?  Every souvenir shop sold them and we, as children, would spend ages reading them all.  I’m not sure we actually understood many of them, but they were so risqué and so part of the British seaside experience that you couldn’t not stop and look at them.  Whether it was buxom women, fat women, skinny little old men, milkmen or doctors they were always very double entendre.   I wonder if anyone actually sent those postcards from the beach?  Something to give the postie a giggle!