Posts by Blake St. Claire

to-mah-to

Oh, right, that explains everything. I take it you'd never, ever, ever been through the whole to-may-toe to-mah-toe thing before then?

Yet somehow when the same thing happens in Canada, it's different? Because yes, they say to-may-toe in Canada too.

But in this case you were in California -- where 90+% of the minimum wage drones working behind the cash registers of fine dining establishments like MickeyDs and Burger King are latino "immigrants" -- immigrants whose command of spoken English is often not very good.

Right. Got it.

Well, my karma here is not getting any better, but I'm still not going to be a coward and post as AC. It's not like this is my real name either. Really, I've been to the UK on a number of occasions, and in my experience you have just as many tossers there as we have nitwits here. You need to get over yourselves. You're just not that special.

whip me, beat me, make me write bad checques.

Wasn't "swelling body of opinion" puerile enough for you?

Where's Ms. Bee to explain why that's funny?

trusting your government? Or your corporations?

> For some reason, the people of the US are very sensitive about their government

> knowing which books they have read (perhaps somebody can explain the story behind this?).

Good question. There are plenty of anecdotes about the difference between Europeans and Americans, that you trust your governments and not corporations, whereas we tend to trust corporations more and government less.

I'm not sure why this is. Maybe it's a left over "if I move far enough away I can escape all these third parties meddling in my affairs, like the tax man collecting taxes" mentality. Perhaps everyone in Europe that had this gene migrated to America 200 years ago? (And where do these people go today when they want to get away from it all? I guess they build compounds in the boonies, and stockpile weapons for the coming invasion by ATF, the commies, or ETs.)

One of my "favorite" meddlings is my health insurance provider continuously checking whether we have other coverage through my wife's employer. For the twenty-seventh time this year: no. And if we do get any, we'll tell you. Or more appropriately, the bills will go to the other company first. So stop asking and just pay the bills, which is, after all, what I'm paying you for.

wow

Having a bad day, are we?

I suppose I know fuck all. I did live there, but that was nearly 40 years ago. Things change, it's really not the same place it was the last time I was there. We did shop in market stalls -- didn't see SIM cards, but weren't looking for them, so---

We stay in hotels because we're not fortunate (read rich) enough to own in the places we travel to. And no, they weren't places like the Sandton Sun or the Mount Nelson.

FYI we rode the bus (Roadlink SA) from Cape Town to Johannesburg. Something I don't suppose too many whites do; we were the only whites on the bus. We could have flown but didn't. I took a lot of shit from my wife over that. On the other hand I finally got to see some of the Karoo.

And having ridden the bus, I can say I now know where to get a minibus from downtown to Sandton. Another thing not too many whites are familiar with I suppose.

Limo? I suppose that's one way to describe a Hyundai Atos or a Honda Civic. Compared to walking or riding in the back of a bakkie I suppose it is.

I hope tomorrow is a better day for you.

Glad Ms. Bee is here to explain these things

Having a blond day?

From the land of obesity?

So he's from England then?

I've seen my share of overweight Brits -- whole families of them usually. Most often I see them boarding the plane, heading to America for a bit of a holiday, or heading home afterwards. How do I know they're Brits? Well, the accent's usually a bit of give away. The fact that the plane is departing from or headed to Heathrow or Gatwick is another. Sometimes they're waving their passports around too. Not to hard to figure out really.

And you also have that brilliant TV show: "You are what you eat," that showcases some of the less svelte Brits.

Pot kettle, black

Re: Diesel and JP8

JP8 is closer to kerosene than diesel. See wikipedia or any number of other web sites that describe the differences between various fuels.

thanks---

Yes, I plugged that into maps.google.co.uk before I posted. (Did you try that?)

Am I to understand that the visitor centre is really on Gordon Rd.?

If so, why not publish that? Is it a secret? Otherwise I'd expect to have to go to Westwood, then wander around and ask people on the street where to find Hornbys. Or maybe Hornbys is so big that I'll just get sucked into it's accretion disc and I shouldn't worry about whether I'll be able to find it, because it'll find me once I'm in the vicinity.

To me, Hornby's address would be like me listing my address as California, 93065-2159, instead of 1706 Cochran St, Simi Valley, CA, 93065. While California, 93065-2159 might theoretically be enough for the USPS to deliver mail, it's not particularly useful for normal people.

N.B. That's not my address, or even the address of anyone I know.

flushing down the water?

Whiskey, Tango, Foxtrot.

You must speak different Spanish than what I learned in school.

Agua == water.

Idiomatic expressions aside and all that.