baby talk

I don't have to tell you that American English and British English are not the same. Sometimes you find subtle differences ("call me at..." vs "ring me on...") and sometimes they are more obvious ("elevator" vs "lift"). Ever since I obtained British citizenship, I like to joke that I am bilingual in English. I can spell it color or colour; organize or organise; curb or kerb.

There are two areas in particular where I have noticed the biggest divide: cars and babies.

Car and vehicle terminology varies widely: tire/tyre, trunk/boot, stick shift/gearbox, gas/petrol, rental/hire. Working in transportation and logistics for the past few years, I have started to adopt the local words, for ease of communication if nothing else.

Now I'm learning a whole vocabulary. While it is not yet second-nature, I figure there's plenty of time to confuse Junior later on - I might as well try to be consistent at first. Here is a glossary that I have started in no particular order (British to American). Hope it helps his relatives on both sides of the Atlantic!

• antenatal :: pre-natal
• Moses basket :: bassinet
• carrycot :: bassinet
• cot :: crib (although these seem to cross over a bit)
• bath the baby :: bathe the baby
• pram, buggy, pushchair :: stroller
• babygro :: onesie (as well as more terms for each in both countries)
• dummy :: pacifier
• nappy* :: diaper
• breastfeed :: nurse (some cross over, but preferences in each country)

*which gives a whole different meaning to the song we used to sing to put my sister to sleep: "it's happy nappy time..."

Aside from spoken and (eventually) written English, I would like to teach Junior sign language. My dilemma is American Sign Language (ASL) vs British Sign Language (BSL). I studied ASL for several years in high school, and while I don't remember much, it would be far easier for me to pick it up again. But would BSL be more useful in the long run? Or will it really matter if I just stick to a few basic words like milk, more, hungry, want, yes/no...?

Junior, like me, will be a dual citizen. I wonder if he will develop a London accent, which neither S nor I have. Will he be able to switch between American and British accents? Which one will he favo(u)r someday? Will he struggle with other languages? How much Japanese will he learn if I teach him?

It's exhausting/knackering just to think about it!

hot stuff

an update to the food meme: added a green scotch bonnet pepper (#26) to dinner tonight.


ok, so it wasn't raw. and i was glad i only added one pepper - they are truly, extremely hot!


dinner itself was tasty, if a bit of a random stir-fry/curry/noodle dish. i started with chopped onions, garlic flakes, and ground black pepper in a bit of olive oil. added the scotch bonnet pepper (diced into tiny pieces) and freshly grated ginger. added strips of pork. poured in coconut milk and let it boil, then simmer for a few minutes with added spices: green chili, lemongrass and cardamom mix. then added eggplant and zucchini (aubergine and courgette, to be french/british about it) and let them soften. finally added red pepper, baby corn, and mange tout (i love that word as a substitute for snow peas.) simmered until everything was fully cooked, but the veg was still crunchy.


meanwhile, i fried some rice noodles in a bit of sesame oil with sesame seeds and black pepper sprinkled on.


sadly, dinner wasn't very photogenic, but happily, i made enough for tomorrow night, too!

08.08.08

Everyone seems to be talking about the date today. In my little world, today's date is refreshingly free from the confusion that I usually face as an American working at a Japanese food company in the UK.


Our products all require a 'best before' date, called an expiry date in the UK, as opposed to an 'expiration date' in the States, or a 'shomi kigen' in Japan. What makes our job at work even harder is that each region has a different convention for writing the date.


Japan uses year/month/day

Europe & the UK write it day/month/year

We, the confused Americans, insist on month/day/year, which I have to admit doesn't make much sense.


No wonder, then, that I often gets calls from customers asking about products that appear to be out of date already. I have to assure them that 08.11.07 means 'best before 7 November 2008,' not that the product actually expired on the 8th of November last year. But it gets even more complicated with the few products we import from the States. The same date would mean August 11, 2007 in my native California!


This is why I insist that our labels are printed in DD MON YYYY format, with the first three letters of the month spelled out.


But today, it doesn't matter! I gleefully scrawled 08/08/08 on everything. Tiny pleasures, eh?


So in the spirit of the day, I am now watching the Olympic Opening Ceremony (taped earlier). Must say, I'm impressed so far. Can't say I agree with the way that China has gone about their planning, but I still love the Olympics despite myself.

lovely day

a typical stereotype of brits is that they always talk about the weather. if there was a day that deserved to be talked about, it was probably today: it was absolutely beautiful. sunny, warm, with a lovely breeze. the only problem, really, was that it was just after the bank holiday weekend, which meant that it could not be fully appreciated at work.


i was late to work anyway, and had a few minutes to enjoy this pleasant garden outside the merton register office, before submitting my application for british naturalisation (sorry american compadres - this word has to be spelled with an s instead of a z. that's 'zed,' not 'zee.' for that matter, i think it's 'spelt,' not 'spelled.' it's tricky to be bilingual in english.)


the home office has recently announced that they are changing the requirements for naturalisation, but they have not elaborated about the upcoming changes very clearly. logically, then, there has been a rush of applications while people try to slide in before the new rules. i got lucky that i qualified so soon after getting ILR (since my year as a student before marrying s counted toward the residency requirement). i took advantage of the nationality checking service, a clumsy name for "we'll check your application, charge you 40 quid, and send it to the home office so you don't have to be without your passport for the 20 or so weeks it will take to make a decision." all in all, i thought it was well worth the £40.


the merton register office was surprisingly nice - a charming building, currently covered in wisteria, which would make a pretty backdrop for wedding pictures, i suppose. while i was waiting to be served, i looked at the notices for upcoming weddings. nice to live in such a diverse community - some of the people planning to get married were from portugal, brazil, poland, mauritius...


and speaking of photo ops, if my application is approved, i will be back there in a few months for my citizenship ceremony, where i get to affirm my allegiance to the queen. and then i'll be able to participate in elections. i'm fairly sure my one vote would have kept boris out of the mayor's office.

more britishisms

feel poorly

bunged up

lurgy



see if you can guess what inspired this post... achoo.

the wasabi jumper

this is my new project which i have renamed the wasabi jumper. * **



i realize these are crummy photos, but i assure you that the finished garment will be gorgeous. how could it not be when it's made of kidsilk haze and scottish tweed?!



i am knitting in the round, which means that i committed myself to an entire sweater in stockinette - but worse yet, i don't even get to purl every other row! on the plus side, however, it is super easy to pick up and put down again since i am still at the stage where i don't have to think beyond, "K [K] K until body measures 14 inches from turning ridge." i still have a good 10 inches or so before my brain needs to start working in conjunction with my fingers.


* wasabi: japanese horseradish, often colored bright green. it forms a significant part of my work, believe it or not. since i am knitting the bulk of this jumper during my lunch breaks, wasabi seemed appropriate in more ways than one.

** jumper: britishism for sweater. i'm planning an entire blog soon about the differences in names for clothing items in the US/UK. stay tuned!

peter pan(to)

s took me to see my first panto on tuesday.

oh no he didn't!

oh yes he did!

if you're british, you know exactly what i'm referring to.

if you're american, you're thinking:

panto = pantomime = mime = marcel marceau ?

where does audience participation fit into a silent performance?!

pantos, as they're generally known over here, are not a great choice if you're looking for a quiet night out. you'll be surrounded by the under 5-foot tall crowd shouting out helpful tips to the hero (he's behind you!), booing the villain, and occasionally bouncing up and down in their seats like baby kangaroos. good fun!

we went to the new wimbledon theatre to see henry winkler play hook in peter pan. that's right: the fonz!

they had actually booked david hasselhoff earlier in the year, but he pulled out over the summer in a double-booking scandal that made front page headlines (in the local paper, ahem).

gotta say, though, i thought fonzie was perfect for the role. the hoff may rule the beach, but the fonz reigns over the seven seas.

early xmas in ossett

ay up! we spent the weekend in yorkshire with s's family and had a lovely time. weather was nice, but a bit parky like. ecky thump.

(be nice, i'm trying! check here for more yok-sha words)

one of the downsides of this time of year is that taking pictures during an afternoon walk gives the impression that it was much later in the day. sorry for the poor lighting...








xmas was fun. much gift exchanging and merriment.










there is also a story to the record visible in that last photo (yes, vinyl!) s dug it out to play the firm's 1987 hit star trekkin' for me.

what? you don't know it? sing along - it's easy:

Star Trekking, across the universe
On the Starship Enterprise, under Captain Kirk
Star Trekking, across the universe
Boldly going forward, 'cause we can't find reverse


on sunday, we took a walk around the spring mill golf course in fierce winds.

















i feel like that last photo needs a caption. anyone? leave a comment below... ta!

turkey day

my third thanksgiving in london


my third turkey (cooked to near perfection if i do say so myself)


my first thanksgiving chez d, my second one shared with s


read more here



in addition to the turkey and potatoes, i made a spinach casserole. i can't take credit for the recipe which i found on epicurious.com, but since everyone was kind enough to rave about it, i am adding my version here. i doubled the recipe since i could only find a 1 kg bag of frozen chopped spinach. my main variations were to add bread crumbs and use mixed herbs instead of dill.

4 eggs (i used 7 eggs to double the recipe)
3/4 teaspoon salt (i didn't add any and it was fine)
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 10-ounce package frozen chopped spinach, thawed, squeezed dry (1 kg)
1 16-ounce container cottage cheese (250 g)
1 bunch green onions, chopped (i used sauteed onions instead)
1 cup packed grated sharp cheddar cheese (500 g)
1/4 cup all purpose flour (plus 1/4 cup bread crumbs)
3 tablespoons chopped fresh dill or 1 tablespoon dillweed (mixed herbs)

Preheat oven to 350°F/175°C. Butter 8x8x2-inch glass baking dish. Beat eggs, salt and pepper to blend in large bowl. Mix in spinach. Add remaining ingredients and stir until well blended. Transfer mixture to prepared dish.
Bake casserole until center is firm and top is golden, about 45 minutes (took almost twice that for the larger recipe).

8 to 10 side-dish servings plus seconds


ps: pogged means full. i'm still trying to figure out if it's a general britishism, or if it's more specific to yorkshire. maybe our weekend at s's parents' house next week will shed some light!

value for money

around this time last year, i was feeling increasingly skint* and pessimistic about my employment opportunities in the u.k. so i decided i needed a good book, and decided further to splash out on a new book instead of borrowing one for free from the library.**

but obviously i couldn't spend much money, and i needed something meaty, something that would last a while. something about someone even worse off than myself.


david copperfield.


745 pages about a charming boy who lets people walk all over him, is repeatedly robbed and swindled, sells his own waistcoat to have money for dinner, walks in the freezing cold from london to the south of england, is neglected by every family member he has, marries the wrong woman, and generally makes cringe-worthy decisions along the way. but he learns from his numerous mistakes and you can't help but love him.


all this for 99 pence. bargain!

one year later, i have finished dickens' epic novel. it took me ONE FULL YEAR to read it.

now that's value for money!



* skint: another great britishism that means broke, out of moolah, no money in bank account, nada.


** i couldn't actually use the library because my card had expired, and not having a permanent address in the u.k. at the time, i couldn't get a new one. even the library cut me off! now do you understand why i had to read david copperfield?

britishisms

you have probably heard some of the common words that are different in american english and british english:

elevator / lift
trunk / boot

and you know that spelling varies:

color/colour
organization/organisation

but there are some words that are used in everyday british english that just sound downright pretentious in american english. i love those words and endeavo(u)r to incorporate them into my vocabulary. so here is a spotlight on four of them.

bespoke
as in bespoke tailoring, bespoke catering, and even bespoke pizza toppings
means "custom made" or "made to order"
check out this explanation of "bespoke" here

fortnight
as in "i haven't even worked at my new company for a fortnight yet."
means "two weeks"
neat. tidy. to the point.

penultimate
as in "this is the penultimate word in my list of fab britishisms."
means "second to last"
this is a truly wonderful word and americans should take it upon themselves to use it more often. most likely, the only time you even heard it was on a list of obscure words that might appear on the SAT if the testers were feeling exceptionally cruel that year.

shambolic
as in "the service at that restaurant was shambolic."
means "disorderly or chaotic"
my ear is still not fully attuned to the word "shambolic" and i often hear it, associate it with a positive comment offering praise about something, and then realize it means the exact opposite. shambolic.

and finally, to sign off: ta ra!