My Most Exciting Purchase Today

My most exciting purchase today was a passport wallet. Why? Because in three days I'm meeting my MA and some of her peeps in Prague and then we're going to Vienna for a day. YAY! Tips on "what to do with 48 hours in Prague/ Vienna" welcome. :)

There must be a point....

There must be a point at which it gets so hot it's actually legal to kill people.

So an American walks into a McDonald's...

Recently, on the way back from a conference, J* stopped at the McDonald's in the Cambridge Motor Services. (J* is an American who has lived in the UK for going on 20 years now.)
British people will be the first to tell you that they "know how to queue" (line up). However at the McD's, there were four registers open and one queue for all of them that was beginning to stretch out into the main shopping area, blocking other people from getting by the McD's.
So J* figured the logical thing to do was begin a new queue at one of the open tills, which would more evenly distribute the people at each of the four registers. But as he moved to do so, he was accosted by a tall, lanky British guy about 30 years old or so, who got right in his face and said, "Now how's that fair?! What if one queue moves faster than another one?!?" When J* tried to explain that the queue was getting unruly, the British guy, noting J*'s accent, yelled, "If you don't like it, get the **** back on the boat to America!"
Dialogue from here:
J*: "I've been here for 20 years, sir."
Angry British guy; "Hey we had rationing in THIS country, so we know how to queue, alright! Here, why don't you just cut in front of me, would that make you happy? Eh?!?"
J*: "No, that's ok, I'm not really in that much of a hurry."
Now, several responses could have been made to Angry British guy, aside from the obvious two fingers.
1. You're 30. You weren't even *around* during the WW2 rationing.
2. Well, apparently you missed the brain rations day.
3. You're telling ME to go back to America when you're in line to buy food in McDonald's?? Why don't YOU go to America if McD's is so important to you. There are tons of them there...Oh wait, the way we line up may bother you to no end so nevermind.
4. I've paid taxes and National Insurance here for 20 years, idiot, so if I go back to the US, that's less money the NHS will have to reverse your lobotomy.
5. Are you on crack? Seriously, are you?

I think the thing that bothers me MOST about this episode is that if I were ever to say the equivalent to someone who had immigrated to the US, i.e. told a Mexican gentleman to get back on the boat to where he came from, I would be lambasted and hung from the politically correct gallows...and rightly so. But here it's perfectly acceptable to treat Americans like space invaders. I'm not saying there aren't obnoxious Americans out there, but please. So Angry British guy, if you're out there, just shut up and eat your Big Mac.

Two fun things about yesterday.

1. GREAT haircut by Jose at Taylor Taylor.

2.

In Response....

R*s blog the other day reported: 'According to the July 10 New York Post, a professor from the University of Pennsylvania has been recruited to train other educators—in England—on how to teach "lessons in happiness." These lessons are for 11-year-olds in state schools and are meant to combat "a huge rise in depression."'

R* wonders what could be so wrong over here that 11-year-olds would need happy classes. To be honest, I'm not sure. I mean, yes, there's a tax on practically everything and the tube is hot and smelly and you can't find a Slurpee around here to save your life....on the other hand, the sun doesn't go down until 10 PM these days, there are free music conerts everywhere and Avenue Q finally go here, so yay.

Then again....


*That's* pretty depressing.

I don't even know you...

So I don't quite get why you'd call me 'love', 'hon' or 'darlin.'

I don't get it.

If they *can* make deoderant that doesn't leave white stuff on your shirt, then why don't they just make *all* deoderant that way? I mean, are there people out there who actually *prefer* to have white smudges on their clothes?

Well it was fun while it lasted.

And I want everyone to know how hard I worked to NOT put a "World Cup Runneth Over" post on after the England/ Portugal match. So there.