Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Misadventures in South Carolina

Okay, so there was at least one thing with my brother's visit that i was going to have to relate (with apologies, again, for the delay). With my brother being here for our birthday on the 25th April (we have the same birthday, albeit three years apart), i decided to take the day off work and we went for a ride up the road to Myrtle Beach - about 90 mins away, as my brother had a thing for wanting to play miniature golf and apparently Myrtle Beach has about 50 of the damn courses. All was going well, we went for a walk on the beach, had something to eat, played a round of golf (my brother lost :-) ) and then headed back, as we were going out for dinner and drinks that evening. Suffice to say, we ended up taking a wrong turn in Georgetown and on highway 17A instead of highway 17 - but all was not lost as we were still going in the right direction. And then we got a flat tyre. Now, not one to stress, i knew i had a spare in the back, and also a jack but had overlooked that fact that we didn't have a tyre wrench. Having turned down help from a truck that had stopped to ask if we were okay (on account of the rather redneck-y appearance of the inhabitants), we had no other choice but to flag someone down.

Fortunately, we were lucky - the gentleman in question was very helpful - given we were stuck in the middle of nowhere (a few minutes before i had commented on how i would like the peace of living out there, but not the 'being so far from everything'). Anyways, we hoisted the car, loosened the nuts and...the wheel wouldn't come off. So, i used the man's phone (mine had no battery!) to call my insurance recovery who said they would help, and then we decided to move the car off the road more (as my sister-in-law Wendy had suggested a while back). Whereupon the wheel loosened. Thus, not wanting to wait 45 mins for recovery, we swapped the wheel (the spare had low air) and headed back up the road to put some air in, then back to Georgetown - where they were unable to repair and couldn't replace the tire. Thus, we drove back the 60 miles to Charleston on the spare (at no more than 50 mph). In the end we were only two hours late and had managed to rebook the restaurant and let everyone know the time change (by quick calls and text messages!). The most amusing thing of the whole event was that my brother was convinced we were about to be set upon by banjo twanging South Carolinians a la 'Deliverance'. Suffice to say, i told him that SC folk don't usually play the bango...

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Thursday, April 17, 2008

The Visitors

Okay, so i confess that i got a bit sidetracked of late. This post was meant to be about the fact that my brother and sister-in-law were coming to visit, and were soon to be arriving (I intended to write this post on the day before they got here). Alas, as is the way, i got distracted by tidying up, Spanish classes and a rather attention seeking cat. Thus, before i knew it, they were actually here and i got completely swept up and occupied indulging in touristy stuff with them, and staying at friends' houses so they could stay in my apartment downtown.

Apologies all round.

Anyways, now that Andy (brother) and Wendy (sis-in-law) have come, seen, and gone (as opposed to conquered), there isn't really much to say about it all. I enjoyed having them here, and showing them of the sights. I hope they did too - they certainly had good weather to do it (only one really off day as i recall) and much eating and drinking was done all around (i'm still vaguely recovering from it). Now i've settled back down into home and work again, it's a bit blah right now - 'cause it's slow going for now (things should be back up to speed soon). Still, their visit made me realise that i need to take a little more time for myself, rather than just work, exercise and more work. Hopefully i'll be able to keep this up in the future.

Sunday, April 13, 2008

Temperature's Rising....

With the middle of April approaching, the mercury begins to head North. However, i for one am not complaining. It's nice to finally shake away the last vestiges of cold and enjoy the sunshine whilst i can. At least before the humidity rises and gets unbearable as it tends to do in the middle of May. Of course, i'm sure most of you back in the UK are experiencing wonderfully varied weather such as snow, rain, wind, sleet, dark and cold. Hey, what's new? I won't bother going on and on about how nice it is here right now - i'll just suggest that you visit instead!

Thursday, April 10, 2008

Feeling The Pinch

With the end of the financial year approaching (April 15th if you haven't got your tax returns in over here), it seems an appropriate time to consider how things are going at the moment. I think it's safe to say that its not going too well over here at all. The stock market is shaky, the interest rates are getting changed in leaps and bounds (it seems to be at least 0.5% every time now), the housing market is not doing well (foreclosures everywhere) and gas prices are at an all time high for the US. Okay, so that, admittedly, isn't that high compared to other places but given how many people drive here, and it's often necessary given the lack of public transport, you can see how it's hard going. In short, it's tough times. Economists are predicting that we're either in a recession, or on the verge of a recession. And people are probably going to be relying heavily on their tax rebates, as well as the extra money coming sometime in May, in order to live. I heard recently that there was an increase in the number of American citizens planning to use their tax rebates to pay off debts or credit card bills this year than previous. I guess everyone is feeling the pinch.

It's hard to know, right now, how this is going to change in the short term. Sure, some people are going to spend the rebate cheques heading their way, and if not those, then probably the additional ones in May. But is it going to be enough to stimulate the economy as intended? The high gas prices mean that the truckers are feeling it hard - there were protests this past week in Washington DC where the truckers all sounded their horns outside and around Capitol Hill in hopes that they were not going to be ignored. With high petrol prices, there is increased shipping and goods in stores increase in price - which means that people may not want to buy them. It's a vicious cycle. And when the oil companies are reporting record profits, it's hard not to see where to point the finger. With increased tensions in the Middle East lasting, this isn't going to help things either. If funding perhaps went into looking at renewable energy sources, perhaps increasing public transport here and there, maybe the oil prices would steady, perhaps even drop. WHo knows? It's a mess, really, and i guess that the best way to go would be to consider long term possibilities rather than short term solutions. Something has to give sooner or later. I just hope that it's not the economy.

Sunday, April 06, 2008

Idiosyncracies in Idiomas

Having recently started learning Spanish (I'm now about 6 weeks in to my evening class), and, indeed, working in a multi-national lab as i do, the little idiosyncracies of other languages have come to be something of a topic for discussion at lunchtimes and parties, and so on. Personally, I love learning other languages - and with now learing another language again, it made me realise how much that i missed doing it. I can't really put a finger on why i enjoy it so much - i find it both interesting and fun. Anyways, with me learning Spanish, and my Spanish friends (and other colleagues) wanting to improve their English, you can easily see why we talk about language a lot.

It's interesting, really, what we find difficult about learning other languages. For example, one main thing that all of my non-native English speaking friends find hard to get right in their heads (and, hey, most ENGLISH speakers have trouble with at times) is the fact that we often pronounce letters differently for different words. Such as cough, through, plough, thorough, though, tough, thought. All words using 'ough' but in all cases, the ough is pronounced differently. Another one that is a source of confusion is that we have a lot of words that are spelt differently but read the same (yet mean different things). Such as their, there and they're; or need , knead and need; steak and stake. The list goes on (we have found about 30 sets of words so far like this, and i'm sure there are more). For me, i guess, the hard things to learn about Spanish are the masculine and feminine aspects - LA silla, EL telefono (although what makes a telephone more masculine than a chair??). And although i've yet to reach it thoroughly, i'm told that Spanish grammar is hell to learn. Now, this just doesn't extend between English and Spanish. It works for others too. French, German, Bulgarian, Italian. And that's before we even get to the 'tonal' languages such as Japanese and Mandarin. I guess it just goes to show even further that we're all uniquely peculiar in our own ways. Particularly when it comes to language.

Thursday, April 03, 2008

All About the "News"

A couple of days ago, I had taken my car to a nearby garage for a general check over and an oil chance. As I had finished work for the day, i elected to sit in and wait with a book to read as it was going to take about 90 mins for the car to get seen and sorted out. I was happily reading away in the waiting area, where there was a TV on in the background with the FOX Channel News on. Now, i'd never really taken the time to actually bother watching FOX News before as i'd heard that it was rather politically slanted to say the least being somewhat pro-Republican. Indeed, some of my American friends had confirmed this in the past. Given the current events in politics (the 2008 US presidential election in case you're not aware of it), it was obvious what was going to be in the headlines. Namely Hilary Clinton and Barack Obama. Although i have to say that this was probably biased in itself towards Barack Obama - maybe they see him as the main threat to John McCain. Who can say?

Anyways, the topic of discussion at the time was about a questionnaire that Mr. Obama had filled in about 12 years ago in which he had expressed his opinions at the time. What was presented as 'horrifying' to the viewer by the newsreader was that he was, at that time, even MORE liberal than he says he is now (I believe he is said to be more middle of the road these days). The female newsreader went on that 'he was AGAINST capital punishment in all circumstances, and wanted to BAN all handguns'. What struck me more was the tones of absolute disgust that she read these in - like it was just horrible to even consider. Now, i was sat there thinking 'And this is a bad thing, how?' but they even wheeled in 'experts' to talk about this in a similar fashion. The one person who they had that seemed to defend the position or, at least, point out that John McCain has changed his mind in the past and why were they not having a go at him, was pretty much talked out of the discussion and looked down upon. When i told my friends about this after the fact, they laughed and said 'Yep, that's FOX news for you'. One has to wonder though, with such an 'impartial' media outlet, is there ever going to be a fair vote these days?