Stop press: the English invented baseball
Really?! Well, apparently so, according to that ever-truthful newspaper that is the Daily Mail. To be fair the info came from Visit England and it says thus:
“Historians believe that the American game of baseball actually originated here [England], in the form of rounders. Long before baseball made its way across the pond, records show that some form of the bat-and-ball game was being played in England by the mid-1700s, some 40 years before it was adopted by the States. There is even a reference in Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey, written in 1778, where her heroine, Catherine Morland, prefers ‘cricket, base-ball, riding on horseback, and running about the country, to books.’”
English or American 😉
So when I go to the Orioles game this summer, I guess I’ll be annoying all the fans with my chirpy British spiel about this. ‘We invented this game, don’t you know,’ I shall say between the whoops and cheers. How annoying that will be! 😉
Diary of an Expat Guest Post
When it was the 800th snow day of the year so far (only a small exaggeration….) I wrote a frivolous piece for another expat blogger. This is said piece. Here are a couple of snippets…
About me: ‘I am a fitness instructor, actress, blogger, nutritionist, writer, tweeter, exceptionally bad housekeeper and baker, nagger, list maker and secret mojito drinker.’ 😉
What was the biggest culture shock when you first moved? How did you learn to deal with it?
‘The biggest culture shock was the relationship between us Brits and Americans. This is how I see it: we are like cousins who think they know each other because they have lots in common, but when you actually meet you realise you’ve actually grown up in a different way and there’s a lot to catch up, learn about each other, challenges to overcome, and compromises to make, but in the end, you can’t deny there is something special between you and you reach an understanding.
I love Fort Lauderdale!
Enjoy!
Cockney voice recongntion
Let it be known that American computers with American voice recognition do not understand the Cockney accent.
My husband spent a good few minutes asking his iPad various things through the voice recognition. The poor computer was very confused. When he asked about the weather, it offered him a driving route to North Carolina.
How I laughed! At least now we know what he sounds like to our American friends who politely say ‘pardon’ quite a lot to him 😉 .
FYI, he just resorted to typing the info in to Google in the end.
Alwight geezer.
American celebrations
Pi Day. Halloween. St Patrick’s Day. Valentine’s Day. 100 days of school. 50 days of wearing socks and sandals. 8 days of watching Breaking Bad.
What do all these things have in common? (Except the last two – I made those up 😉 .)
They are days of celebration that warrant a wrist band, homemade hat, candy, badge or Bayeux Tapestry type memory board. Sigh. I’m being very grumpy and British and cynical, but ENOUGH WITH ALL THE EFFING CELEBRATIONS AND CRAP THAT GOES WITH IT (that I then have to recycle)!!
Oh, go on then, I’ll let you keep them America, because the kids get a kick out of it. But honestly! Every day’s a holiday out here – I’ve almost forgotten what a ‘normal day’ is.
Oh purlease! 😉
No booze in supermarkets
My British friend, quite rightly, gets v pissed off by the no booze in stores/supermarkets Maryland law.
This is how it worked back in the UK:
Pop to the shops with list – get milk, bread, veges, nappies AND add in two large bottles of wine.
Here you have to go to a liquor store and carry it out surreptitiously in a brown bag.
The law won’t change, but, for the record – it’s a right royal pain the arse!
Miss this!
The War of 1812
I was reminded in no uncertain terms about the long-lasting impact the War of 1812 had on the USA.
Thanks for the reminder!
A 10-year-old girl spoke to me when she realised I – a Brit – would be teaching her Zumba class
Girl to me: We had a war with you English in 1812.
Me to girl: Yes, you did.
Girl to me: You left America.
Me to girl: Well, we’re back.
😉
ukdesperatehousewifeusa 
Where do I start???? I think I’ll start with enough of the fricken holidays already. I got caught out for Valentine’s Day (who’d know they give each other “candy” because they love them–I thought I was going to find out if my kids had crushes or not & vice versa!). I was sort of prepared for St Patrick’s Day but no one really wanted to play the green game (actually my son did because it’s his favourite colour so he didn’t need to think about it).
We don’t have grog in supermarkets at home but we do here so I’m in heaven. Don’t know how I’ll go back to two different shops. Where it works well though is that the bottle shop is practically next door to the supermarket so at least you could still pull it off in one shop.
Yeah! ‘Fricken holidays’! Grrrr! 🙂
Glad you were clear that the liquor laws you were discussing were MARYLAND laws. It does vary from state to state, and can even vary from county to county (yes, maddening!). In Washington (State, that is) you can buy wine and beer in the supermarkets but have to go the STATE STORE (yes, hard liquor is sold in store run by the state government) to buy the hard stuff. When my parent first moved there in the 60s, Daddy got them drinks at the bar while they were waiting for their table in a restaurant. Their table was ready before they had finished their drinks, and when my mom started to carry her drink to their table, she was stopped. The waitress had to carry the drink to table — customers were NOT allowed to do that.
In the South, there are (or were, anyway) “dry” counties and “wet” counties. Guess where there were always liquor stores? Right over the county line in the wet county because they got a lot of customers coming across from the dry county.
This is so interesting! The county line thing is something that still fascinates me. And issues with liquor linger!!
Thank god I live in a state with freely available alcohol. And to think in Vegas it’s practically compulsory to walk along the Strip with cocktail in hand #onlyinamerica!
I need to be there!!!