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Engagement customs around the world
I got engaged about 6 weeks ago but we only exchanged rings ten days ago in Riga. When we posted photographs of our plain gold bands on Facebook, almost everyone thought we had married – probably...
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Black Friday
Black Friday is an informal name for the day following Thanksgiving Day in the United States, the fourth Thursday of November, which has been regarded as the beginning of the country’s Christmas...
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Pants (UK), pants (US), pants (mathematical) and a pile of pants
Another potential for embarrassment between US and UK English In the US pants are worn outside your underwear: In many parts in the UK pants ARE your underwear: So, it may be inadvisable to say ‘ooh...
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A South African’s view of snow
November 14th It started snowing. The first of the season and the first real snow we have ever seen. The wife took out buttered buns and sat by the window watching the soft flakes drift down, clinging...
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Happy Daylight Savings Time!
South Africa does not have daylight savings time and I find that when the clocks go forward in Spring, it takes me at least a week to adjust to the loss of that hour. Interestingly MEPs have voted to...
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Mukbang
Have you heard of mukbang? It is a trend where people watch videos of others preparing and eating their meals. The word mukbang comes from muok-da (the Korean word for eating) and bang song (Korean for...
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National Leaders Tree – how many faces
This photograph was created in the 1880s by a now-unknown artists and is said to depict national leaders. I have seen it in several different places, and it never fails to cause heated discussion...
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About: emojis
Emojis were invented in Japan by Shigetaka Kurita and first appeared on mobile phones in 1999. The Oxford dictionary named the emoji that has tears of laughter its word of 2015. The emoji is called...
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Sometimes people have no manners
Just before the summer I was shopping for underwear in a local store. The underwear and children’s departments are on the lower ground floor, so you go down on an escalator. As I walked in I noticed...
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I find this so sad
This is a poster that has been up on the Stockholm Underground for a while now, asking people to show civil courage on public transport. What kind of society do we live in that we stand by and do...
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Colour-coded shopping baskets at Sephora
One thing I hate in shops is when the assistants hound you. For me, the worst case scenario is when a sales associate leaps at you the minute you walk in the door, and asks how they can help. If you...
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Why is there a dromedary on the packaging of Camel cigarettes?
Maybe because the dromedary (single-humped camel from Arabia and Northern Africa) is more common – and therefore more recognisable – than the bactrian (double-humped camel from central Asia)? The...
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Things don’t always translate…
My Swedish partner could not understand why I was giggling at ‘Tools on Tour’ and ‘Pratts’ ‘Slag’ means ‘hit/punch/beat’ in Swedish.
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