A hodgepodge ending with hedgehogs

Hiya, all right?
So goes the standard greeting of England. You go into the supermarket: Hiya, do you need a bag for these? Into work: Hiya love, you all right? Walk past someone walking their dog: Hiya, (woof, woof)... and so it goes. I know 'hello, how are you going?' might be a bit redundant at times, but it's comfortably familiar.

I guess it is just one of the little 'tweaks' you get when you move to another country. Things that stand out and say, you're the stranger here. Take vegetables for example: courgettes and peppers? The first sounds like a fancy kind of tie, the second, something far more spicy than the old capsicum. And then there is the potentially embarassing issue of pants and thongs...
Eddy is surprisingly well adjusted to this, but I've had quite a few funny looks when I've been into adventure shops enquiring about waterproof pants. At some stage, Australia added an 'under-' in front of the word 'pants.' In England, they never bothered and hence the funny looks when I've requested...well you get it. What I was actually after was waterproof trousers. It's a good thing I haven't been shopping for 'flip-flops'. I guess the obvious counterpoint to this rant is that the English made up English, and any corruptions must have happened at the Australian end.

Perhaps this is a good time to explain about pasties.



In Cornwall, they became famous as an all-in-one lunchbox and lunch for the miners with meat, potatoes and onions encased in a pastry shell. As the Cornish Bakehouse's website informs, the miners didn't even have to stop work to wash their hands because they held the pasty by the crimped crust which they then threw away to appease any malevolant (and peckish) cave spirts. But it wasn't just the miners who were tucking in: Jane Seymour, Henry VIII's third wife received a letter from her baker (as you do) which mentioned pasties and they also receive mentions in two of Shakespeare's comedies. If you are desperately bored you can see the extracts at: http://www.cornishbakehouse.com/cornish_bakehouse_pasty_history.htm
Anyway, as Eddy has now become a part of the pastie's venerable history, I thought this was all worth mentioning.

Lastly, there is an ongoing debate in our house regarding our spikeiest national mascots. Tom, our English flatmate refuses to accept that the echidna is cuter than the hedgehog. On my part, it was a stupid debate to enter into because I have never seen a hedgehog in the 'wild' (though I do hope I do) but having seen a photo of one I must admit (though not to Tom) that they are gorgeous. He has suggested that if we leave some cat food out we might find one of the little fellas in our garden. The obvious flaw with this is, we're much more likely to just find stray cats so we're still yet to try it.

I'll let you decide for yourselves on this one:




but clearly the echidna is the more intelligent of the two...