Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Random Thoughts


I've noticed that the letter 'H' is pronounced differently here. For example if someone is verbally spelling their surname, oh let's say Harris. They would pronounce the H as "Haych" as opposed to Aych.


As you all know in the UK they drive on the left side of the road (North America drives on the right). So that has taken some getting used to. As a pedestrian I needed to retrain myself to look right first, then left (unless it's a one way street). But today I found something else that seems backwards to my North American brain - the photocopier.

I went into the copy room to, you know, take a copy of something. I lifted up the lid, slapped down the page on the top left corner and hit copy. The machine gave me an error message saying it couldn't determine the size paper I wanted to use. No worries, I know how to manually override the automatic setting. The machine whirs and whizzes and bingo - a blank page comes out. I try it again making sure my page is aligned correctly and again get a blank page.

Now I'm feeling silly, I mean how hard is it to use a photocopier?. I'm staring at the machine, reading the option buttons, check to make sure there's no jam and paper (force of habit). I lift the lid again and give it a good once over - that's when I notice it. The copiers here in the UK align the pages using the top RIGHT corner (not the left) and when I thought it through, even the output tray was on the opposite side to what I'm used too. I feel like a complete idiot.

News Bulletin.... this just in.

The salt trucks in Glasgow are now using a combination of salt and...... molasses to coat the roads when the temperatures dip down to the freezing point. Check out this story from The Evening Times.

Lastly, tomorrow I'm off to the town of Chichester for some meetings so no more postings until Saturday I'm afraid. Lucky me, I fly out on a day they are forecasting gale force winds and snow. Goody.

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