Anywho, I digress …

Being British

Posted by episode81 on September 11, 2009

Maurice on the London Eye

I get asked about my accent all the time. When people discover that I am British and not Australian, Irish or Russian (yes, really), I then get a potted history of their trips to the UK and questions about their next trip.

Everyone has the same questions that largely revolve around places to visit in London. I try to be polite, but inside, I am screaming “Buy a guidebook!”. Sheesh – I haven’t lived there since 1996! The world has moved on since I was there – new phrases have popped up that I have to ask my UK-based friends to translate. That’s pants, that is and fair play to name but two.

Anywho, I digress …

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Posted in Maurice, Thought, UK | 2 Comments »

What would you do?

Posted by episode81 on August 31, 2009

Have you seen my bull?

Odd stuff just seems to happen to me.

I am waiting in line at airport security and I see an Enigma.

I am driving down the motorway and I notice a white bull running down the hard shoulder … hotly pursued by a farmer wearing wellingtons and waving a pitch fork. We slowed down in our red car (yikes!) and gave him a lift as the bull ran down the off ramp. He had to keep the car door open as his pitch fork wouldn’t fit. He took off over the fields and disappeared into the distance. Never did find out if he caught up with his errant charge.

Anywho, I digress …

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Never even occurred to me to check

Posted by episode81 on August 21, 2009

The Ashmolean Hippo

When I was planning my trip to the UK, I thought I would take the opportunity to drop in on my old friend, the Ashmolean Hippo.

I booked a hotel right across the street from the museum so that I could maximize my viewing time. The plane landed just before 7am, and so I got to the hotel before 9am. My room was ready, so I got to check in right away. The guy in the lobby said it was a wonderful room on the fourth floor. Off to an awesome start 😀

With all the luggage, stairs were out of the question, so I looked for the lift. There were two lift doors. The one on the left goes to the fourth floor, the one on the right stops at three. Press the button between the lift doors and only the door on the right opens. Waited a moment. Pressed it again. Same result (why did I think it would be different?). There is only one button. Confused, I returned to the lobby. The guy from the lobby pointed out the button for the lift on left. It was more the 6 feet off the ground, above the door, and therefore not obvious. The guy from the lobby seemed to think I should have been able to find it. Clearly I have been away for too long. Or not.

Anywho, I digress …

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Posted in Thought, UK | 3 Comments »

The world has gone mad

Posted by episode81 on August 15, 2009

Toad in the hole

I have a confession. I have started watching a bit of golf on the TV. The last time I saw any golf was …. way back, when I lived at home, and dad turned on Grandstand on Sundays. I watched all sorts of tedious sport – horse racing being the dullest by a long way. I rather enjoyed the rugby. Damn, I enjoyed the rugby 😉

Talking of entertaining sports, Australian Rules Football is by far and away the best of all. All the excitement of rugby, but with much, much tighter clothing.

Anywho, I digress …

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Thank You Notes are the new black

Posted by episode81 on August 13, 2009

Oh Maggie!

It is no secret that I like to shop. Handbags are my weakness. And shoes. And most things that are orange. But not traffic cones. Or trousers – yikes!

Anywho, I digress …

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A strange encounter at the airport

Posted by episode81 on August 8, 2009

I was traveling through SFO last year when something quite unexpected happened. I am not talking about a friendly check-in agent or a free upgrade – those were the days.

Way back, I once got a free upgrade to Upper Class from Economy. I realized as I went through the Boarding Gate that they thought I was a Virgin Atlantic employee. I didn’t bother correcting them 😀

Anywho, I digress …

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The Cheesecake Factory is on fire. Or not.

Posted by episode81 on July 29, 2009

I was in downtown Palo Alto for a quick dinner when I thought I could smell burning. Then a couple of fire engines screamed down University Avenue. I have never seen a real fire so I rushed down the street to see what was going on. I was hot on the heels of a newspaper reporter. He had no furry microphone. There were no inexplicable celebrities. What can I say?

The street was closed off and smoke detectors were going off at Mad and 5th. It was so exciting!!

Take a look at the pictures … no digressions here …

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The Noods

Posted by episode81 on July 28, 2009

You know where you are when you've got your towel

On May 1st, I picked up my new bunny from Save-a-bunny. He had spent his entire life in a cage – albeit a very comfy one once the fine folk at SaB rescued him. I called him Noodles.

Noodly Jowls

It took the Noodster 6 weeks to come out of his 5ft pen loaded with special Noodly toys and tasty vegetables. Then there was no stopping him! I have discovered that the Noodle-Doodle likes to “taste” everything … including me. He also likes to snuggle, on the sofa, with a towel. The towel is his best friend. He is constantly rearranging it to his liking. I guess you could call it Noodling 🙂

Mr Noodles, as he likes to be called, has a splendid face. Oh, he is cute, but what I really love are his joggly jowls! At the risk of sounding weird, I really like joggly jowls. I often stop to snuggle with dogs on my way into town to joggle some jowls. When I was in Costa Rica, I spotted a cow with a huge dewlap – sort of jowls. Didn’t get to touch them, but I tried 😉

Anywho, I digress …

Happiness is enormous jowls

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The end of an era that I was barely aware of …

Posted by episode81 on July 19, 2009

trev_small Much has been made in the US media of the passing of the US newscaster and journalist Walter Cronkite. As a foreigner, I missed his era in its entirety. I was vaguely aware of his name and of ‘the voice’ from TV clips shown since I arrived in the US, but that is it. It is a different perspective, looking at this as a spectator. Someone asked me what I thought about him and I said “He meant nothing to me” … which was clearly insensitive, but true.

I read in a post (and comments) from the NYT MediaDecoder blog, that back in the day, there were only a few newscasts to choose from and that may have added to his iconic status. Growing up, I had 2 newscasts to choose from (BBC and ITV), but in reality only 1. My parents would not tolerate ITV, so I watched the BBC. Frankly, the news bored me stiff until I was in my late 20’s. Now I absorb news like a sponge from both the TV and the internet. And yes, I do get some of my news from Jon Stewart!

Anywho, I digress …

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More wordy knickers

Posted by episode81 on July 6, 2009

I have posted before about my love of some words. I heard a new word for the first time on the news this evening – braggadocios. What a great word! I have seen braggadocio written before (in the font list!), but never spoken, and certainly not the plural braggadocios. Love it! The news item itself was incredibly unpleasant, but I am pleased to have been introduced to such a fabulous roly-poly word.

It is odd the first time you hear a word that you have only seen written before. Sometimes, it has taken me a while to match the two together. I had lived in the USA for a couple of years before I realized that Arkansas and Ah-Kansas were the same thing. Yes, really. If Bill Clinton had come from Idaho, I would still be in the dark.

Anywho, I digress …

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Posted in Thought, Wordy Knickers | 4 Comments »

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