Random brain dump
It's edged into the eleventh, but I'm still up so it's still Saturday night and therefore Saturday marks one month that I've been in England. (Minus, obviously, the days in Spain. For which I now have my pictures sorted but I'm not done with the write-up yet.) I present a list o'stuff, because it is three o'clock in the morning and my brain is just about comatose but I wanted to post.
-queue, quid, loo, not fussed, not bothered, not arsed, trousers, handbag, football, relegated, premier vs. championship vs. 1 vs. 2, post, mince, minge, hire (in the sense of rent, like at Blockbuster), and more I can't think of this second = personal lexicographical adjustments/acquisitions. I've always used "proper" in the British sense; gotten called on it not being American enough on fic before, in fact. *g*
-thank god the money went decimal. £2 coins are bicoloured like toonies, and similarly-sized. £1 coins are gold like loonies, but small; however, the edges are heavily etched. Pence(/pennies) are copper the world over, it seems. 2p are freaking large coins. 5p are the size of Canadian dimes and 10p are the size of Canadian quarters. 20p are octagonal (possibly >8 sides but I ain't pulling one out to check - it's an -agonal, anyway). £5 < £10 < £20 in physical size as well as denomination. I can now locate all of these things in my wallet with little difficulty.
-the cheese is good. This is important. So are the multigrain Cheerios.
-the @ and " are reversed on a British keyboard. Also, the # and ~ are moved to the key cradled in the L of the enter key, and I don't recall where the backslash ends up (there's a different symbol replacing the tilde in the top left key); the £ is on the 3. It's really just the " that fucks up my typing, though.
-bank accounts tend to be simpler to open when you own property, even if it's a partial-own in a different country.
-still not thinking much about my cat because it's the one thing guaranteed to make me start to cry; even reading my mom's emails is hard sometimes. Everyone else's pets are lovely, and truthfully far more attentive than Nibbs has ever been, but they're not mine. I miss him. And my dad, who does not email and thus communicates through my mom, which is insufficient contact to feel like I've actually talked to him.
-which reminds me, not receiving replies in some form to my sent emails annoys me.
-walking lots more is good, even on days when my sciatica disagrees with me. The rest of me feels better.
-cooking with gas-powered appliances is a bit of a learning curve for someone who's always had electric.
-Magners cider is a good thing.
-so is Costa coffee.
-I'm beginning to think everybody lied to me about all the British rain I haven't seen. I brought a pocket-sized umbrella and everything, and I have used it twice.
The Roswell Chatathon has been a lot of fun today. Momentary sour note for me, privately, due to someone who managed to be both nose-in-the-air and obsequious all at once, and was annoying the everloving daylights out of me. I chose to let the incredibly condescending comment they made to me slide on the grounds that they are currently far more invested in the fandom than I am, and therefore I both don't want to disturb that, and don't care enough to expend the effort. Aside from that one person, however, it's been so awesome to reconnect with so many people that I used to know, and spend some quality chatting time with the ones that I still know but don't necessarily get to see much of all the time. It's been the best kind of trip down memory lane. ♥
(Go, brain: I typed Matthew instead of mattress in my location the first time. LOL)
-queue, quid, loo, not fussed, not bothered, not arsed, trousers, handbag, football, relegated, premier vs. championship vs. 1 vs. 2, post, mince, minge, hire (in the sense of rent, like at Blockbuster), and more I can't think of this second = personal lexicographical adjustments/acquisitions. I've always used "proper" in the British sense; gotten called on it not being American enough on fic before, in fact. *g*
-thank god the money went decimal. £2 coins are bicoloured like toonies, and similarly-sized. £1 coins are gold like loonies, but small; however, the edges are heavily etched. Pence(/pennies) are copper the world over, it seems. 2p are freaking large coins. 5p are the size of Canadian dimes and 10p are the size of Canadian quarters. 20p are octagonal (possibly >8 sides but I ain't pulling one out to check - it's an -agonal, anyway). £5 < £10 < £20 in physical size as well as denomination. I can now locate all of these things in my wallet with little difficulty.
-the cheese is good. This is important. So are the multigrain Cheerios.
-the @ and " are reversed on a British keyboard. Also, the # and ~ are moved to the key cradled in the L of the enter key, and I don't recall where the backslash ends up (there's a different symbol replacing the tilde in the top left key); the £ is on the 3. It's really just the " that fucks up my typing, though.
-bank accounts tend to be simpler to open when you own property, even if it's a partial-own in a different country.
-still not thinking much about my cat because it's the one thing guaranteed to make me start to cry; even reading my mom's emails is hard sometimes. Everyone else's pets are lovely, and truthfully far more attentive than Nibbs has ever been, but they're not mine. I miss him. And my dad, who does not email and thus communicates through my mom, which is insufficient contact to feel like I've actually talked to him.
-which reminds me, not receiving replies in some form to my sent emails annoys me.
-walking lots more is good, even on days when my sciatica disagrees with me. The rest of me feels better.
-cooking with gas-powered appliances is a bit of a learning curve for someone who's always had electric.
-Magners cider is a good thing.
-so is Costa coffee.
-I'm beginning to think everybody lied to me about all the British rain I haven't seen. I brought a pocket-sized umbrella and everything, and I have used it twice.
The Roswell Chatathon has been a lot of fun today. Momentary sour note for me, privately, due to someone who managed to be both nose-in-the-air and obsequious all at once, and was annoying the everloving daylights out of me. I chose to let the incredibly condescending comment they made to me slide on the grounds that they are currently far more invested in the fandom than I am, and therefore I both don't want to disturb that, and don't care enough to expend the effort. Aside from that one person, however, it's been so awesome to reconnect with so many people that I used to know, and spend some quality chatting time with the ones that I still know but don't necessarily get to see much of all the time. It's been the best kind of trip down memory lane. ♥
(Go, brain: I typed Matthew instead of mattress in my location the first time. LOL)