"I could care less"....???

[beli]

Hmmm, well, they are hot breakfast cereals akin to oatmeal ( You gotta know what that is, right? )

Okay. I'm with you now.

 

[Axver]

That dairy products eg Magnums are ice blocks. They're ice creams. You have corrected yourself since though. lol

If it's on a stick, it's an ice block. Maybe I'm out of touch and Magnums now come in tubs too, but when I think of a Magnum, it's one of those blocks of ice cream coated in chocolate on a stick. That's an ice block to me because it's on a stick.

 

[Axver]

All this talk of oatmeal makes me think of porridge ...

 

[beli]

The stick has no meaning, my child. lol

Cold dairy producty thingies are ice creams.

Water based products are ice blocks/poles. "Freezers" are ice blocks/poles. Frozen cordial in a tube are ice blocks/poles

 

[Angela Harlem]

Not to make this more confusing, I thought it was Axver who reminded me of the name of icy watery things by calling them iceblocks. things with icecreams (on a stick) are called...icecreams loll.

no wonder seppos dont understand us

 

[beli]

Ice cream in a cone is an icecream.

 

[Axver]

The stick has no meaning, my child. lol

Cold dairy producty thingies are ice creams.

Water based products are ice blocks/poles. "Freezers" are ice blocks/poles. Frozen cordial in a tube are ice blocks/poles

I grew up with the stick having the meaning! You had your typical ice blocks - a block of flavoured ice on a stick. But then you had these fancy ice blocks that came along with chocolate coatings and ice cream, but they were still ice blocks! Ice cream came in a tub or cone. Like at my grandparents' shop, they would scoop the ice cream out onto a cone and give it to you, but if you wanted an ice block, you went to the freezer at the side of the shop and you'd find all the stuff on a stick.

So yeah, to make it clear, to me:

On a stick: ice block
In a tub or on a cone: ice cream

Didn't think ice cream would be so complex!

 

[beli]

A Magnum is an ice cream loll

 

[Axver]

A Magnum is an ice cream loll

To you nutty Aussies, perhaps. Then again, every Kiwi knows that if he is in disagreement with an Australian, the Aussie's wrong.

 

[Axver]

I'm off to bed, and that actually inspired another question: what do you folks call the cover? To me, it's a bedspread (the term I grew up with in New Zealand), and that seems to be a universally understood term. However, I've been in Australia long enough that 'doona' has actually become a word I use often, probably more than bedspread, as much as I hate to admit that. I've heard Americans call it a comforter, which I think is simply bizarre as I don't think of a bedspread wrapping an arm around my shoulders and offering me a tissue when I'm upset. What's it called in England?

 

[Angela Harlem]

actually, on further pondering, im wondering if there is any truth in axvers claims.

i am thinking back to public swimming pool days. remeber toobs???? they were the SHIT! and you'd pay your 20 cents and swim then hound mum for another 20 cents to buy a bag of toobs or an iceblock?



what was i saying again?

 

[Angela Harlem]

I'm off to bed, and that actually inspired another question: what do you folks call the cover? To me, it's a bedspread (the term I grew up with in New Zealand), and that seems to be a universally understood term. However, I've been in Australia long enough that 'doona' has actually become a word I use often, probably more than bedspread, as much as I hate to admit that. I've heard Americans call it a comforter, which I think is simply bizarre as I don't think of a bedspread wrapping an arm around my shoulders and offering me a tissue when I'm upset. What's it called in England?

doonas are the fat bulky things which have a cover on them which match your sheets (if you are anal like me lol) and a bedspread is a thinner, but very warm courded (as in courdory) cottonish thick sheet. very thick, but warm. good in autumn or spring.

 

[beli]

Duvet in England, I think.

A bedspreads different to a doona. A bedspread is like a really thick fancy sheet that covers the bed.

A doona is a padded thingie that requires a cover. A quilt cover! Doonas are called quilts over here but not quilts like USA quilts - those are bedspreads. :cookiemonster:

 

[Angela Harlem]

loll

 

[beli]

When I said "over here", I meant here in the West.

 

[Angela Harlem]

well, WA is like an island. an isthmus. a corinth.

pitter patter, pitter patter...

 

[bammo2]

ok.....in england a doona is a duvet, or a quilt. we also have bedspreads, but they are the thick blanket like things (sometimes patchwork) that go on top of a duvet or sheets. there is no such thing as a comforter here. I would agree with the previous comments. Unless it can give me a hug and a cup of tea, it performs no comforting action.

 

[bammo2]

another thing I don't understand is the whole calling petrol 'gas'. Surely it's liquid, not gaseous

(rhetorical question, btw :cookiemonster: )

 

[meegannie]

This is what the biscuits and gravy I've seen have looked like:

It's a white gravy made with sausage (American sausage, though), flour, milk, and pepper.

I've always called carbonated drinks "soft drinks," but most people I knew in Kentucky called everything "coke" and my husband (from London) calls everything "juice."

I thought for ages that when people here pronounced the Castle Mall as "Castle Mal" it was a play on words using the French word "mal" and they meant that they hated going there because it's too crowded.

 

[bammo2]

lol meggie. I guess Pall Mall you thought the same?

those 'buscuits' look like a dry version of dumplings to me. And the 'gravy' looks more like a white sauce or a parsley sauce

vive le difference!

 

[meegannie]

lol meggie. I guess Pall Mall you thought the same?

those 'buscuits' look like a dry version of dumplings to me. And the 'gravy' looks more like a white sauce or a parsley sauce

vive le difference!

I never actually made the connection between the pronunciation of "mall" and "Pall Mall."

Yeah, I always have a hard time describing biscuits, but usually say they're like a dry, less doughy dumpling. The closest thing I've found here is scones. The gravy is basically a white sauce, but more peppery and with bits of American sausage (which may not even be American, but I haven't seen the same kind of sausage here, so I'm not sure of its proper name).

 

[bammo2]

you see now you've described it, it actually sounds quite nice. although I don't think I'd be able to eat much of it before I felt sick

 

[bammo2]

meggie have you come across any food that you thought was weird since you came here?

 

[meegannie]

I can only eat biscuits and gravy about once a year.

I actually had jellied eel yesterday . It was by far (and unsurprisingly) the most disgusting thing I have ever put in my mouth. As far as normal foods go, though, Scotch eggs were (and still are) weird to me, as were most of the meat pies/pasties here (I guess the closest things I'd ever had in America were Hot Pockets, but they have more sauce than pasties). All the blackcurrant stuff was really strange to me at first. It seems to occupy the space taken by grape flavour in the US. We don't have squash/cordial in the US that I'm aware of, but thankfully I saw Sam drink some before I had any, so I knew better than to pour myself a huge glass of undilluted Ribena.

Now I've gotten so used to the differences that I forget what foods/words are American and which are British.

 

[bammo2]

I have never eaten jellied eel in all my 27 years, and I don't intend to start now

I do like black pudding though. and white pudding is nice too, although that's more of an irish thing

I never thought about the blackcurrant stuff, but I suppose we do have a lot of it. I remember being fascinated by the amount of sugary grape stuff you have in the states. The only grape stuff we really have is wine

as for scotch eggs, I bloody love them. But the mini 'party eggs' are nicer than scotch eggs, cos they've got egg mayonnaise in them instead of a whole egg

and pasties

 

[indra]

and pasties

Pasties. Now that's a word that can get you something entirely different than you expected in the US.

Although pasties the food are becoming more common here, pasties are also:

So you have to watch out where you ask for pasties!

I was chatting whit a guy online once and he was ordering his lunch -- veggie pasties -- that put a weird image in my mind!

 

[bammo2]

wow he was ordering veggie pasties plural for his lunch

that's a lot of pasty (they're usually pretty big)

I guess it's a bit like americans calling your arse your fanny. That's one you definitely need to be careful with in the uk

If you said you were sitting on your fanny over here, people would think you were being a wee bit too descriptive

 

[MrsSpringsteen]

I can't stand it when adults say things like "puNkin" or "valentiMes day"

Sorry if someone mentioned that, I didn't read all of this

 

[ILuvLarryMullen]

oh yes mrs springstein, I HATE that. Same with "liBary". There is this one girl at work that always says "suposubly" and i want to smack her .


In the US we have bedspreads, comforters, and duvets. Beadspreads and comforters are similar, but a comforter is thicker and usually fancier. A duvet is something you button over a comforter (esp a down one) to protect it.

We have breakfast, lunch, and dinner or in some places breakfast, dinner, and supper.

A biscuit is sort of like a roll, but more floury and crumbly...sort of.

 

[bammo2]

I thought of another one.

Momentarily.

Since when did it mean 'in a short while'??????????????



Just from looking at the bloody word you can tell what it means. For a moment. Eg, "I was momentarily speechless at the stupid use of the word"

x100000000000