Ok, so here's my (Aussie, which is kinda, sorta Pommie) take on it all, as taught to me by Thomas Van Veen at GFM...
1. Our biscuit (or "biccie") = your cookie. 2. Our scone (pronounced SKON, as in "he bumped his scon (aka head) on the door") = your biscuit. We also have this DIVINE invention that we call "choccie biccies", which are really a combination of #1 above, coated in chocolate. We also like to call them Tim Tams, and those of you who were at GFM may remember sampling some that I brought with me! Further to this, we have TWO types of "muffins" - the ones that are like a huge patty cake (which you call cupcakes) without icing on it (you call it "frosting"). And then the muffin (aka "English" in variety) that you have for brekkie (you call it "breakfast"), with heaps of melted butter and Vegemite or jam on it - oh, wait, you call it "jelly"... Doesn't matter as they are much better with Vegemite anyways! Which brings me to the next part of my education whilst I was in that weird country of yours... Our jam = your Jelly Our Jelly = your Jell-O Our lollies = your candy Our chewy = your "gum" Our maccas = your "mickie dees" (WEIRD!) I also learned that Americans think it is really weird to say that a food tastes "nice". It is something I say all the time "oooh, yuuuum, that is soooo nice!" And, everytime I said it at GFM, the American reply to me was raised eyebrows (or just one to those who are clever enough to possess that talent). Apparently, you should only ever say that food is "good", because people are "nice". Oh, and you don't say "heaps" because you should say "a lot" as apparently, you only manure in "heaps" and you don't say "thanks heaps!" (another thing I say ALL the time!), but you CAN say "thanks A LOT". You also don't seem to understand it if a person says a really simple thing like "ta muchly", which of course translates to "thanks very much". Oh, and here's yet another straaaaaange American fact - you lot drink your tea COLD!! AND, like, with EVERY meal!! See, we tend to drink WATER cold, and with every meal, and save the "tea" for when we are needing a nice hot cuppa at the end of long day - personally, I like mine with milk and oh, about 2 1/2 sugars, but with ice cubes, and in a glass, well that is just WRONG! And here's another fun fact - Americans LOVE it when Aussies (pronounced OZZIES!!! Very weird that you have no trouble pronouncing it when it has the word "Osbourne" after it), say the word "wanker". I must have said that word a thousand times whilst I was there as it seemed to entertain you (well, Tom) so much! So, here it is again ... Wangka...! Ooooh, I can hear the giggles now! Oh, and btw, yes, this is indeed what we call a crumpet... http://www1.istockphoto.com/file_thumbview_approve/1383338/2/istockphoto_138 3338_toasted_english_crumpet_with_melting_butter_against_whiteon.jpg I think the strangest thing of all though, was the fact that Cotty was really the only one who I could understand 100% of the time! Sad, but true! We also had this amazing common bond called junk food and we were both in heaven when we discovered how EVERYTHING in America is HUGE!! You could have knocked me over with a featha (bit more Aussie twang there!), when I saw the MONSTER boxes of Tic Tacs!! OMG, HEAVEN! One other strange thing I learned at GFM is that there is a weird species of red haired, bearded Welshmen that like to go off into bear country on their own, overnight, in almost freezing temperatures (apparently this was your SUMMER!), and rain, on some strange quest for photos of a sunrise. I got to meet one of them, although I am sure that there must be others in existence too... right? t.x. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
