Friday, March 09, 2007

a latvian spy for americans

all my darlings, i am going to smash a lot of your pre-conception about london with what i am going to tell you just now. before i came, i thought that it will be rainy and cold here most of the time and people will have yellow teeth (don't watch austin powers) and everyone will be drinking tea all the time and that london will be as expensive as everyone was making it sound. that part is very true - i read in the newspaper the other day that london is the fourth most expensive city in the world. a burger king hamburger (not the cheapest but not the most expensive) is about 4GBP, which is ... $8! actually, they should make it more expensive so people don't eat that crap. a daily pass for all public transport is 6.80GBP (double that for dollars) and a thing of chicken for one dinner for 2 people will cost about 5GBP. basically, everything that you can buy in dollars in the US is the same price here in british pounds, but the currency exchange is 1 for 2. anyway, i am digressing.

the weather here is AWESOME!!!! if i had to pick a place to live weatherwise, i would say that england would be close to great. granted, i've been here only 2.5 seasons. however, from what i am gathering, it is warmer here in the winter and never gets as hot in the summer, if i had to compare it to latvia or the midwest. most of the time it's sunny and fairly warm. there have been flowers in parks the whole winter. now the cherry trees are blooming and yesterday i saw first dandiloins. so overall, london (england south) has beautiful weather. good enough to have an occasional palm tree planted all over the place and survive their winters.

the yellow teeth - shame on you. it's not true. the tea is kind of true but not really. but there are really really good coffee shop chains here. there is a "nero" it's an italian chain - very very good coffee. and also "costa" pretty good as well. of course that starbucks is taking over the world, so they are everywhere as well. people drink coffee much more than tea. in fact, i've never seen anyone order tea. but whenever they do drink it, it's unheard of not to add milk to it. when i was telling someone that americans don't add milk to tea with bewilderment i was asked "well, what do they add then?" nothing! that was unheard of!

as for expensivness. don't forget that you are talking to the world class bargain shopper. yesterday i found a dress for 5 GBPs which is $10. actually, i was surprised myself. but the one thing english have no idea about is sales. oh my, oh my. this pains me to even talk about. since i work in a shop, i experience this first hand and want to give the poor people lessons on dicounting damaged goods. at our store, if something is broken or missing, they will graciously take off 10%. and feel like they are doing someone a favor. it's normal that way around here!!!!! 10% for damaged goods - i am usually screaming in the background that it should be at least half off if not 75% but no, no one listens to me. whatever. i think they get away with it because this place is so overpopulated that everything goes - even damaged with only 10% off.

alright people, now i need to go dry my hair and get ready for work. my husband forgot to call the maid today again so the dishes are not done for tonight.

we have a very naughty maid!

2 comments:

yellowgirl said...

this was a good post! Thanks! As for adding things to tea - sometimes i add honey, or sugar, but that's only when I have a sore throat...

Anonymous said...

naughty maid? hmmm... maybe I should start leaving my dishes in the sink too, after all, we all need a naughty maid once in a while:) oh, and my tea goes with creamer and a hint of sugar or honey. it's very lovely. i might be british deep down, who knows?