Category Archives: British
The pitfalls of marrying an American woman/British man
In light of the Gwyneth and Chris Martin split, the Daily Telegraph has taken it upon itself to do some deep digging into the British man/American woman match, which I touched on last week. I absolutely ate it up!
Here’s journalist Sally Peck’s piece, “Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin split: The pitfalls of marrying a British man.”
And here’s writer/comedian/British husband Tom Cowell’s piece, “Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin split: The pitfalls of marrying an American woman.”
Woo! Enjoy 🙂
The end of Gwyneth and Chris
When I heard that Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin were separating after 10 years of marriage, I can’t say that it come as a huge surprise. And yet Gwyneth’s quintessentially Britishness has been so rooted to her marriage to Chris that the idea that that they are “consciously uncoupling” is kind of unsettling.
If there’s anything that I find endearing about her, it is her pseudo-British quality. That properness of her that makes most people haters. I like the fact that she married an Exeter boy and the idea that she became an anglophile and raised her family in England. She is invariably my favorite non-British British person and I’m admittedly a little sad that she could be shacked up in the near future with a non-Brit and unwind herself from the British scene altogether.
Unless she ends up with Robert Downey Jr. because they are just ridiculously adorable together (which is unlikely since he is still married and good for him! Keep that going!) then I don’t wanna know. Certainly, don’t tell me she’s going to Chateau Marmont with anyone on Lindsay Lohan’s sex list. Please.
If you’re looking for me, I’ll be gorging myself on her dad’s recipe for pancakes (which I think are my favorite homemade pancake recipe of all time) with extra maple syrup and mourning the loss.
Best Cumberbatch photobomb
Have you seen this? Benedict Cumberbatch photobombing U2 on the Oscars red carpet yesterday?! Amazing!
Other awesome Cumberbatch finds online:
18 times Benedict Cumberbatch looked like an absolute GOD in a suit. I’m torn between #8 and #15.
A Sherlock-themed cafe in Shanghai. It’s called 221B Baker Street.
A Benedict Cumberbatch name generator. I was Bunsenburner Custardbath.
Rude street names
Ah, Britain! Land of rude street names!
It appears that if you don’t mind living on a street named Crotch Crescent or Slag Lane, you might be able to get a deal on property!
Here are the top 10 streets with the most embarrassing names, along with the percentage of people who voted each name as embarrassing followed by the price of a property on the street and an example of the price of a similar property nearby, courtesy of a study by Needaproperty.com. As you can see, it doesn’t pay to buy on an embarrassingly named street:
1. Minge Lane, Upton-upon-Severn, Worcestershire, 31%, Detached house – £253,389, Detached house in Longfield – £325,000
2. Slag Lane, Lowton, Lancashire, 26%, Semi-detached house – £112,620, Semi-detached house in Fieldfare Close – £141,297
3. Fanny Hands Lane, Ludford, Lincolnshire, 24.9%, Detached house, £157,200, Detached house in Magna Mile, £236,987
4. Bell End, Rowley Regis, West Midlands, 22.5%, Semi-detached house, £126,409, Semi-detached house in Uplands Avenue, £187,027
5. Crotch Crescent, Marston, Oxfordshire, 19.6%, Terraced house, £238,250, Terraced house in Ouseley Close, £280,500
6. The Knob, Kings Sutton, Northamptonshire, 17%, Semi-detached house, £245,000, Semi-detached house in Glebe Rise, £249,000
7. Turkey Cock Lane, Stanway, Essex, 10.8%, Terraced house, £177,527, Terraced house in London Road, £166,840
8. Cockshoot Close, Stonesfield, Oxfordshire, 10.1%, Semi-detached house, £286,536, Semi-detached house in Longore, £304,794
9. Cumming Street, Islington, London, 8.9%, Flat, £292,768, Flat in Britannia Street, £358,419
10. Cock-A-Dobby, Sandhurst, Berkshire, 6.5%, Detached house, £456,481, Detached house in Longdown Road, £615,000
A 5,000 year old forest on a beach in Wales
Lest anyone think that Buzzfeed is only good for useless round-ups of top 10 tips and stuff like this, check out this prehistoric forest that has been uncovered on a beach in Wales following all of the storms and gale force winds that have stripped away the sand. These photos were posted to Buzzfeed.
These are ancient oak trees that date back to the Bronze age, between 5,500 and 3,500 years ago.
And I would never have known about this without Buzzfeed!
Brits and New Year’s resolutions
89 percent of Brits have resolved to eat better in 2014.
What were the most popular New Year’s resolutions for Brits in 2014? A UK survey asked Brits this question and the results were as follows:
* 91% resolved to do more exercise
* 89% wanted to eat better
* 87% said they wanted to consume less alcohol
* 79% said they wanted to spend less money this year
* 11% said they want to stop smoking
* 4% want to learn how to play a musical instrument
How about you? What are your New Year’s resolutions and how have you done so far? I actually didn’t make any resolutions this year – and apparently I’m not alone. A CBS news poll found that 68 percent of Americans don’t do resolutions!
How British are you?
Love Buzzfeed.com’s “How British are you?” quiz and really chuffed that I ended up with “As British as Stephen Fry walking a corgi outside Buckingham Palace.”
You’re awkward. You’re easily embarrassed. You’re sickeningly polite. You’re as British as they come!
How about you? Take the quiz and post your status!
Happy Halloween!
Are you dressing up and trick or treating today?
I loved these 31 Splendidly British Ideas For Halloween Costumes via Buzzfeed (although I wasn’t sure what #1, 2, 14 and 22 were!).
As for me, I’m going to be an apple (to match my daughter, who’s dressing up as Snow White). Have a wonderful and safe Halloween!
Pass the parcel
Last week, my daughter turned 4!
And she had her first big birthday party with her friends. There was a bounce house, a cake with whipped cream, fresh strawberries and princesses on it and a good old fashioned British game for the kids – Pass the Parcel.
I’ve never played the Pass the Parcel before, but the kids loved it. It’s one part Musical Chairs, one part Hot Potato, one part Russian dolls. You’ve got a wrapped present and the kids sit in a circle and pass the present around and around. When the music stops, whoever is holding the present gets to open it! But the present has been wrapped so many times in different types of wrapping (we alternated with wrapping paper and newspaper) that you’re never sure when or who will get to the actual present inside all of the wrapping.
My husband did an awesome job leading the game and he had wrapped the present nearly 20 times ahead of time, so each child who came to the party would have a chance to open the present at least once! You can only imagine the fun of finally getting to the bottom of it – it was a little apron with Paddington Bear on the front from our trip to the U.K. earlier this year and the lucky winner was a lovely 3-year-old girl who quietly beamed when she realized that could open the present and keep the gift!
The 23 most wonderfully Scottish things that have ever happened
I lived in Scotland for two years and it remains one of my favorite places on the planet! And so I really loved this Buzzfeed.com list of the 23 most wonderfully Scottish things that have ever happened. Particularly numbers 1, 10 and 20.
BRITRISH.COM 