Scouse Brows

I want to tell you about the "Scouse Brow" which is all the rage.

It was made famous by a reality TV show called Desperate Scousewives, based in Liverpool, with Scouse being a nickname for a dialect in this northern region.

The look has been spreading... and I'm sorry to say that I see it everywhere. Even Kate has gotten some press for filling in her brows more than she used to.

Below is a picture of this look from another reality TV star from a Laguna Beach/The Hills type knock off show called The Only Way is Essex (TOWIE). These laughably staged reality TV shows are an eye opener for how some people live their lives in Britain, just like Real Housewives might be in the USA.

To perfect your Scouse Brow:

First - For planning purposes, take no regard for the natural color of your hair or shape of the brow - those beauties must be dark and as unsubtle as you can possibly make them.

Second - Pluck the real thing to death until they barely exist.

Third - Draw them in, perhaps with the help of a Brow Shaping Guide like the one below.



Lastly - Your new brows will be lonely without a fabulous set of false eyelashes so don't forget to leave home without them.


.... and VOILA!!! You're now ready to hit the town... or the supermarket.

Olympic Torch Relay

The Olympic torch relay made its way to Oxford this week. With much fan fare, it entered and left just as quickly. As an official partner for the London 2012 Olympic Games, my company was able to nominate 2 torch bearers (out of the 8,000). I ditched work early to go watch this once in a lifetime event with other work mates and we parked ourselves in good position to see our nominated colleague, Ian, run with the torch through his designated section of Oxford.

 You can read about Ian here. Although he is physically handicapped, he's very self-sufficient and quite an inspiration. I just love the look on his face I captured here. It says it all... !

The next day I got the opportunity to hold his official Olympic Torch! Quite shiny and heavier than you'd expect!

London 2012 Torch

Did you know the first Olympic Torch relay was done by the Nazis in the 1936 Berlin games? The idea was then replicated again 1948 during the last London Olympics. The things BBC will tell you...

One Year

It's my one year anniversary today. I landed at Heathrow with 150lbs of luggage split amongst 3 bags to find out my pre-ordered taxi had already come and gone without me. This left me at a pay phone trying to find a company that would pick me up at a decent price after a 3 hour wait. No worries. Looking back I was remarkably calm about reaching my new life in Oxford. I had no idea what to expect.

In someways, I feel like I've been in the UK forever and in others I feel like I just got here. A lot can happen in 12 months though and its these types of anniversaries in life that make you reflective, nostalgic, introspective and speculative. I'm not sure what will come next, but I'm happy with where I've been.

I've explored the best of British cities (St. Ives, Edinburgh, Bath, London), some of the not so great (Scarborough, Exeter) and some of the quirky (Manchester).

I've learned Cockney Rhyming Slang

I've managed to obtain a British Driving license on the first try despite the amazingly stringent requirements and procedures.

I've traveled to the French Pyrenees, the Amalfi Coast, Madrid, Rome, Brussels, Brugge, Amsterdam, Malaga and Granada.

I've been challenged with new projects, new clients and gone through 3 bosses since I arrived in the UK. Hopefully the current one is going to stick around for a while.

I've made friends with people from England, Ireland, Spain, France, Italy, Australia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Ukraine, China and Sri Lanka.

I've picked up golfing more regularly to the shock of British men. It's an old man's sport in England. Perhaps one day I'll break 100 and be able to show them girls can keep up with them.

I've learned to whine about the weather alongside the English.

I can decode the English language and learned how to be self-aware of common American snafus such as not saying please and thank you regularly enough.

As a city girl, I've grown to love and appreciate the countryside.

I've passed through passport control more than a dozen times despite my seemingly invisible fingerprints that are required for visa holders. They haven't stopped me yet.

Somehow I think everything I've done leading up to this was meant to land me where I am today. The expat life is a good life.   #no regrets

Football Fodder

It's Euro Cup 2012 month... and that's all anyone is talking about. For 3 weeks, European nations battle it out for Football bragging rights for the next 4 years.

My international friends are all assembling at various pubs to watch their countries play one another and it has led to some heavy banter and constant speculating on what is going to happen next.

All of this football talk goes right over my head of course. At work it has replaced the weather for a safe and neutral subject to talk about in a corporate setting and my eyes glaze over when it comes up....

The BBC touched on this subject this week... I thought it was rather timely and appropriate as I was starting to wonder how much more I can fake interest when clients bring up last night's field goal.

In very British fashion, this piece addresses concern about how rude it might be to talk football in front of non-fans.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18518186

How much football can you talk about to a non-fan?

By Vanessa Barford BBC News Magazine

Millions of England fans are celebrating reaching the Euro 2012 quarter finals, with many wanting to talk about it. But at what point do football conversations become boring, or even rude to a non-fan?

Usually conversations about football are reserved for football fans. The less enthused tend to nod and smile, or subtly zone out, when football comes into bus stop banter or office water cooler chat.
But now England have reached the quarter finals of Euro 2012, football fever is sweeping the nation.
There are thousands of people suddenly engaging in debates about goals, free-kicks and possession.
A YouGov poll in May suggested 56% of the whole population are either "not at all interested" (37%) or "not very interested" (19%) in football.
So for those who can just about tolerate an office sweepstake, but have no interest in banal office football banter, at what point does talking about football become boring, or even rude?
Etiquette expert Simon Fanshawe, who is not a football fan, says he cannot stand the assumption football fans make about how much others understand, or even care, about the sport.

Continue reading the main story

Costa del Sol

For Easter, we get Good Friday as well as Monday off in the UK. So many places to go, so little time. I don't want to waste a single long weekend and so I convinced some work friends to book a last minute trip. We picked Malaga, Spain mainly because of relatively reasonable last minute price (everything was expensive as the whole country takes off) and it's very southern location. We needed to escape the drabby English spring weather.

Now, going to Spain during Easter means one thing - Holy Week Processions. Every city thoughout the country closes down streets and hosts these holy parades. I was excited to see this cultural event but we did hear that it would be crowded. And now I know....

What an experience to get to our rented flat after landing in Malaga.

To understand why this was a problem, you'll need the visual below. What was going on when we arrived into Malaga city center at 7pm:

Holy Week Processions

Location of our apartment below:


Needless to say, actually getting to our apartment meant the taxi dropped us off a mile away and we had to navigate through the parade crowds with our suitcases. At one point we got lost because we couldn't find the bridge he had directed us to cross and discovered 40 minutes later we had already crossed it we just couldn't tell because there was a million people around and all we could focus on was not running over toes with our bags. We had to line up to cross the parade route a few times and it was basically just madness.

I suppose it paid off because in the end, for the entire weekend we had front row seats for watching these processions pass by our apartment. People probably paid big bucks to sit in these grand stands in our particular plaza and we got an all inclusive deal.

Watching the Processions from our apartment

We explored Malaga all while stopping to check out these processions on occasion that would pop up through various spots in the city.

OK I know what you're thinking. Yes, these sights evoked images of the Klu Klux Klan for me too. I knew about these Easter traditions through years of studying Spanish and the culture but seeing it in action was something else. Of course, they had these ceremonial hoods first and that can't be disputed but for an American to be surrounded by it and watching hundreds of people pass in the pointed hooded garb of various colors was a little unsettling. I'm so glad I got to see this once a year cultural event and its an experience I won't forget.

100 men at a time carry these huge statues marching in unison through the streets

The children get involved in processions

 On Saturday, we took a bus to Granada for the day which is a cool city up in the mountains not far from Malaga. The Alhambra is its main attraction, but apparently they sell out the tickets on line for it up to 2 months in advance and only sell a handful of tickets the day of, starting at 8am. We didn't get to go in, but we saw it from the outside after taking some Segways around town for a while.

Segways in Granada

Alhambra in the background

Malaga from up high

  

Beautiful Malaga

Most of the Brits go to Costa del Sol to head to the resorts and sit in the sun for a week but I think they miss the culture in Malaga when they head straight to the beach - it's a beautiful city!

Say What You Mean

My Dad sent this to me a while ago and it's true. All of it.
  
I have to remind myself of these above nuances in work situations but I have gotten used to it by now. Luckily, most of my clients are international and from all over the place so they tend to say what them mean!  Hopefully I haven't offended anyone by saying what I mean in an obvious manner, instead of the unobvious, roundabout, easily miscontrued way that is customary.

I learned quickly if someone says to you... "I would prefer it if..." it means "Do it or else."  If you offer something to someone and they say "Oh I don't mind" it means "I'd love some but I don't want to be a bother so I'm going to act like I don't want any but yes, I do."

After sending this grid to some Brits they refuted some of them but I don't believe it. I think they just know their own secret unspoken language that they've been brought up with that the rest of us are meant to uncode!

The Great Pronunciation Battle

We all know that the English and Americans pronounce words differently. Basil, progress, leisure, tomato, aluminum (they spell it with an extra i too).

However, what confuses me so... Is that the English will pronounce brand names completely differently. As a marketing major, I learned that of course companies need to make adjustments in translating products into other languages. Not only to make sure the meaning makes sense in that language but also that the pronunciation works as well.

English and Americans speak the same language. So why, I wonder to myself (ok and comment with exasperation to those that bring it up) have the Brits decided to change the pronunciation of brand names that are written in English? Just cuz? As far as I know, the company that made the product gets to decide how it's pronounced. It's doesn't have to make sense. It can be a made up word. It's ok!

These brands are pronounced:
Mentos - Men-Toss
Pantene - Pan-Ten
Nike - Nyke- rhymes with Bike
Nikon - Nick-on

You would think P&G wouldn't have to adjust the pronunciation of their products in shampoo commercials in England. But they do. Because they've come up with a whole new way to pronounce it as if in a symbol of defiance or to give the product an aura of English sophistication, I'm not sure which. I'll give you that Nikon is a Japanese company and therefore the company that made the product likely doesn't care...

My colleague told me that if he ever pronounced Nike - Nikeee in the schoolyard he would have gotten beaten up. It wasn't until Michael Jordan became globally known that he and his friends even knew there was a different way to say it.

Just because Nike looks like Bike doesn't mean the company intended for them to rhyme!

Ok rant over. Until I find out a new brand name pronounced in a ridiculous way.