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May 01, 2008

That Cafe is Really Lightly Brit!

"WHAT?" you say? What does that mean? Well, I'll tell you. When I was in college, I was walking down the street when I noticed a new coffee house that had just opened. They had installed some very bright halogen lights (very similar, in fact, to the ones we have at JMAC). I tried to remark about that fact, but got a little tongue tied and ended up saying, "Wow, that cafe is really lightly brit." My friend looked at me quizzically when I finally realized what I'd said. It took at least 10 minutes for us to stop laughing our asses off while speaking with very bad British accents. Which brings me to my story.

When I was a teenager, I was introduced to the world of British television and humor. Let me say it was love at first sight. I watched everything I could from Doctor Who to Monty Python, from All Creatures Great and Small to Benny Hill. (And now, of course Harry Potter.) I wanted to BE British. Goofy as that sounds, it's true, but I was a kid at the time and I'm sure every one of you had a goofy dream too, like wanting to be a rock star or some such thing. It was just because it seemed so cool and they had such great humor.

In a way, I kind of got my wish when my mom took me to London when I was about 14 or so. I begged her to take me to Madame Toussaud's Wax Museum so I could get my picture with Tom Baker's figure dressed as Doctor Who (I know I have that picture somewhere). Unfortunately, we were only there for a few days before moving on to France to visit a friend of hers and all we did was ride the double decker buses taking the same siteseeing tour of London about 3 times. And unfortunately, I was only 14, so I wasn't allowed to venture off on my own, especially in such a big city.

I remember that everything costed about twice as much as in the States, the cuisine wasn't that great although the croissants for breakfast were outstanding, and that the people of London were VERY friendly. I still remember having to ask directions to some place we wanted to go and, being so excited I got brave and asked a man passing by how to get there. Turned out he had an amazingly thick accent, Corkney, I think and Mom had absolutely NO clue what he said. I remember being so proud that I could understand every word without having to ask him to repeat anything and we got to where we were going just fine. When Mom asked me how I understood him, I just replied, "It's all the British shows I've been watching."

I think it'd be fun to go back and visit as an adult, rather than a goofy teenager in braces...see the sites, go pub hopping, and stuff. Though I doubt Don would have any interest unless I told him they were filming another zombie movie called "28 Months Later" (see 28 Days Later & 28 Weeks Later) and that we could be in it if we just went to London. Hm, I wonder if I could maybe sneak onto the movie set as an extra for "Harry Potter & the Half Blood Prince" (sneak peek here)?

Posted by Amy at May 1, 2008 01:00 PM

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Posted by: meat at May 2, 2008 05:25 PM

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