London and her quirks

a few funny things about London:

mass
I have to stifle a laugh every time at the end of the mass where they say:
Go forth, the mass is ended... THANKS BE TO GOD

am-pm
please explain to me the logic of:
1AM - 2AM - 3AM - 4AM - 5AM - 6AM - 7AM - 8AM - 9AM - 10AM - 11AM - 12PM - 1PM - 2PM - 3PM - 4PM - 5PM - 6PM - 7PM - 8PM - 9PM - 10PM - 11PM - 12AM
makes absolutely no sense to me...

ginger
there is ginger everywhere...
gingerbread
gingertea
gingershampoo
gingerbeer - which by the way is not even beer and does not contain any alcohol (or at least most of the time)
ginger roots in peoples kitchens
ginger lippgloss
dried ginger fruit
and there is much, much more...
I hardly knew what the flamish word for ginger was. First time I heard about it was maybe 4 years ago. Really weird to see it everywhere here.

hamster snacks
During christmas we babysat Humphrey, the hamster of one of the community families.
When I looked in the box where they kept all the food, I saw this:

choc drops - yummy treats for all small animals.

CHOCOLATE DROPS as a treat for your hamster??? Humphrey is one hell of a lucky hamster. I hope he knows...

interested? --> http://www.pegasuspets.co.uk/rotastak-small-animal-treat-chocolate-drops-50g.ir?cName=furries-small-animal-treats

light switches

At the start of the year we had a search expedition for all the light switches in our house. Most of them are outside of the actual room, so have fun reading a book at night. Yep, you have to get all the way out of your bed, open that door, get out of your room, turn off the light, close the door and good luck finding your bed again ... 

But then some other switches are very strategically placed somewhere behind the door. My lightswitch is outside of the room next to all the ones for the hallway. Guess how many times I've been woken up in the middle of the night with my light turned on and a silent 'oh, sorry' whispered in the hallway.

plugs in bathroom

You can search your whole life for a plug in a bathroom here in England. 

Security reasons they say. 

I'm sure those millions of electrocuted people in Belgium and everywhere else in the world are very jealous of this rule here... 

red lights

The traffic lights here make absolutely no sense. If you are waiting for the light to turn green, it takes ages (!), really it feels a lot longer than at home. So no one waits and people are crossing everywhere, with or without a red light. Very efficient!

One of the first nights in London, we decided to go to the pub in Acton. When we came back, we had to cross a rather large and somewhat complicated crossing. Of course the light was red. At the other side a group of 6 or 7 policemen were waiting for the light to turn green. (I guess they had more police around because of the riots at the start of the year.)

Anyway, our hosts just start crossing without even looking at the light. You can't believe my amazement when we crossed those policemen at the other side, who did not say a word about it. 

Weird!

Porridge

Since early winter we have a mouse in our house. We tried everything and it never got caught. 

I called him Porridge. 

Every now and again we spot him wandering around, but with the winter gone, we don't see him that often anymore...