Archive for January, 2007
Sunday, January 14th, 2007
End of the Union?
Old Gordy Brown has been complaining that his party’s policy of devolution has spurred on an opportunistic nationalist movement in the UK, and the SNP (Scottish Nationalist Party) are expected to make major in-roads into controlling the Scottish Parliament for the first time. So is an independent Scotland on the cards?
Ironically it is thanks [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Life in Strasbourg by Bart
Saturday, January 13th, 2007
Uh-oh!
We British are very proud of our sporting heritage, mainly because we have introduced the world to many now popular organised sports and games.
I say ‘organised’ because we can’t necessarily garner credit for inventing the games themselves, rather the rules that govern them - which were by and large written by the British.
But this pride [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Life in Strasbourg by Bart
Tuesday, January 9th, 2007
Nice pair
The French have an amusing habit when it comes to communicating numbers. It seems for one reason or another they are incapable of delivering a string of single digits in conversation. No, it has to be done in twos, in pairs.
For example, take an arbituarary eight digit number (06672582) - this is how [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Life in Strasbourg by Bart
Saturday, January 6th, 2007
A border experience
One of the unique advantages of living in Strasbourg is that you can nip across the border into Germany to do a bit of shopping now and again.
Although this may sound a little bizarre - the Germans do enjoy a retail market where many everyday household items are significantly cheaper than in France. [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Life in Strasbourg by Bart
Friday, January 5th, 2007
Russian or Nasty?
Every day I seem to learn a new word or meaning in French, and the moment I do I am often struck by a moment of enlightenment. A moment of understanding: of that phrase I heard the baker say yesterday; of that newspaper headline I saw in last month’s Journal or of that graffiti [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Life in Strasbourg by Bart
Thursday, January 4th, 2007
The January Dirties
If you translate the word ’sales’ (ignoring the actual meaning) into French, it means ‘dirties’. So there is a chance that a Frenchman visiting the UK at this time of year might think that every store across the nation is trying to offload mucky/soiled goods?
By comparison an Englishman visiting Strasbourg at this time of [...]
