Visions of Grocers

Yesterday I was visiting with some of my new mom friends (holla Jess, Suzy, and Clare!) and we were talking about the difference between customer service in the US and UK. I said that I'd love to train retail and restaurant workers on proper customer service. Waitstaff who never check on you or act put out if you want a refill of your water irritate me. The people who stand at the entrance of Next (a department store) drive me bonkers. I assume they are meant to be "greeters" a post I filled often when I worked in retail. In the US, this person cheerfully welcomes people to the store, informs them of any sales and encourages them to ask for help if it's needed. In the UK, however, it seems that this person is meant to awkwardly and pointlessly hover by the entrance. From time to time they may shyly make eye contact and tentatively smile. The very bold ones might mumble something about "Do you receive the catalogue?" as you walk past. It seems an utterly pointless thing to have a staff member do if they aren't actually going to do anything.  (Oops.  Are my crazies showing? I think so.)

At any rate, I was relating a story about when Ross and I were dating and he'd come visit me in Dallas.  My apartment was in walking distance to a Tom Thumb.

Not this one, but one a lot like it.

While I was at work, Ross would work from my apartment and often walk to the store and buy some food. Often times, he would actually cook dinner for me too. He's a keeper! Very early on, we went to the store together and all of the employees made eye contact and said "Hello".  Many asked how we were doing or wished us a nice day. Ross leaned over and whispered to me "Do you know them?" I laughed, confused why he was so bewildered.  After living in the UK for over 2 years now, I get it.  

After telling this story, one of my friends said that they loved that I call it a "grocery store". I paused, caught off-guard, never having thought to call it anything else. I asked what I should be calling it. She declared that I should never stop calling it that because it made her envision me shopping at a quaint little shop served by men in striped aprons, surrounded by fresh fruit and veg. I started to correct her, but she cheerfully insisted that I not ruin her illusion. There are some that are a bit like that. Central Market and Whole Foods are the best grocery stores known to man, even they don't quite fit that image. In my experience, American grocery stores and British supermarkets are pretty similar. 

I learned afterwards that someone in the UK would call it a "supermarket", though most often I find that people say the name of the actual store they are going to (Morrison's, Sainsbury, Tesco, Asda, etc.). Ross and I were discussing that "supermarket" is actually an American term, but it's not one that I would ever think of using in the sentence "I'm going to the supermarket later to pick up some bananas".  It strikes my ear strangely. Just, I'm sure, in the way that "grocery store" strikes the ears of my British friends. I don't find it strange to think of a store a supermarket, but to actually refer to it as one is another story. 

I think Clare is safe as I can't imagine calling it anything but a grocery store... If you need me I'll be spreading false images of the American grocery shopping.

Wait, what would a British person say instead of "I have to do the grocery shopping?" or "Tonight I'm shopping for groceries?"?
I just asked Ross and he wasn't able to offer any clarity...
Would it be something like "doing the weekly shop"?
I don't think I'll ever stop coming across these little fun idosyncracies! Isn't learning about a new culture fun!?

It's The Pitts

I haven't ever talked about this before, but there is one huge difference between life in the US and the UK that I totally wasn't expecting. Brace yourselves. It's a big one.

Are you ready?

Deodorant is different here.

BOOM!  Explosive and mind-blowing, right?

In the States, I'd used a soft-solid style for years. I'd rotate between Secret, Dove, Degree.  Usually whatever was on sale, but always a soft solid. Most of my friends used this type too. It seemed like a given. Standard.

My Old Favorite

Then, I ran out of the one I had when I moved here and went shopping. I looked on the aisle and found this.

(Well, almost this.  I took this picture today, so there's one minor difference.)

Shock! Gasp!

Here's a photoshopped version to make things more clear.

Red= Spray

Blue= Roll-on

Yellow= Body spray

Black= the stuff that didn't used to be there

Not a soft solid, or even solid-solid (the pre-soft-solid US standard) to be found. Here, it seems that the only options were a handful of roll-ons and a majority of sprays. I don't know anyone that wears spray deodorant in America, but it is clearly the hands-down favorite 'round these parts.

And so, I joined the ranks of spray-deodorant-wearing people.  I found I actually didn't hate it.  It's quite nice actually.  But then something exciting happened a few weeks ago.  I saw an add for this:

New stuff

A television add for my old favorite brand and style of deodorant.  It's called something different (Maximum Protection) and it doesn't mention the words "soft solid" anywhere, but it is.  I'm not sure what changed and why soft-solid deodorant is now available in the UK.  Anyone know?  It's not a wide range.  Dove seems to be the only brand doing it, and it's only the clinical strength kind.  I'm wondering if other brands will follow suit or if this will remain a sort of one off. So that's what's behind the black box in the photoshopped picture.  A shelf of Dove soft-solid deodorant.

And you know what, I've even bought new deodorant since it was introduced and it wasn't this stuff.  It was this:

I think I'm a convert

Cheerful Sunday

Linus is finally doing all his sleeping in the crib! He's been sleeping nights in the crib for quite some time, but we hadn't managed successful naps in it until this week.
He even threw in some cute "Butt in The Air" sleeping for the first time today!

He's back to sleeping through the night after a cold messed his sleep up last week... though I'd be even more cheerful if he'd stop waking up at 5AM!

Victory vs. Honour

We've been watching some of the Olympics coverage...
Not a ton, but random bits here and there.  There's coverage on all day long, so I'll put it on when I'm feeding Linus or we'll watch some in the evening.  The only thing I really got into was the Men's Gold Medal Tennis match.  Hooray Andy!  What a match!

So gorgeous!

I have a few observations about the coverage.  One is that it seems to me that the British coverage involves far more actual coverage of the sports, rather than endless puff pieces on the athletes meant to inspire me.  Maybe I'm just watching at the wrong times, but it definitely seems to be better coverage.  Not that they are immune to the occasional gaffe.  I heard a commentator proclaim that a competitor had "celebrated a birthday just a few short years ago".  I'm fairly confident that she meant days or weeks, but she totally said years. Hahaha!

The biggest difference I've noticed, however, is that when competitors in track and field or cycling events wins they often take an extra celebratory lap.  That's not unusual, but I noticed that this practice is called something different here!  I'd always known this as a "Victory Lap".  Here in the UK, it is referred to as a "Lap of Honour".  I think this difference is pretty interesting and actually says something about the difference in the cultures.  In America, the emphasis is on the victory.  The dominance.  The superiority.  In England, it's the pride and honour brought to the person. and thus their country, for having achieved something amazing.  It's a subtle difference, but it makes sense in my head.  Almost like the American way is about showing off and the British way is about acknowledging the crowd.  It's totally semantic and contains broad generalizations and stereotype.  Oh, well.  It's a true fact that British people don't like to show boat like Americans do.  It's considered fairly egregiously distasteful.  So maybe I'm not reaching on this as much as it seems.  I think there is an actual difference between a Lap of Honour and a Victory Lap.

What do you think?

What's been your fav moment of the Olympics so far?

5 Months

Dear Sweet Bean,

I can't believe you are 5 months old today!  You are such a big boy now.  I look at you and see more and more glimpses of what you'll be like as you get older.  I often find myself thinking that you aren't really a baby any more, because you are so different than you were as a tiny new thing.  Then, of course, I see pictures of you and realize you are still very much a baby.

One Week Old

5 Months Old

You have so much personality.  You get the giggles when we blow raspberries on your tummy.  You love Freddie the Firefly.  You are starting to really babble and experiment with sound.  Once you start laughing, if I copy you, you think it's the funniest thing ever!  

Playing with Freddie

You seem to have had another break through in terms of awareness and interaction.  You are so into what's going on.  The other day, you were looking back and forth between me and daddy.  You switched your attention to whomever was talking.  We were insanely proud of this momentous occurrence.  You are on the verge of being able to sit up, but still need a helping supportive hand in order to keep from falling over.  You want so badly to crawl, but don't quite have the upper body strength yet.  You end up doing this funny inchworm movement.  You can actually get surprising distance by doing it and are getting really good at getting to and grabbing toys. 

You're sleeping really well in your crib at night (knock on wood) and we're working on getting you to nap in your crib rather than your bouncy chair.  We've got the first nap pretty much down.  You've had your first real cold the last two days, so that's been a little rough, but your still very smiley considering how bad you must feel.

Daddy still thinks you are the bee's knees.  I can't tell you how often I hear him laughing at some face or sound you've made.  Sometimes he swoops in for a kiss as though he just can't stand not to plant one on you.  He's very good at calming you down when you're upset and he's still magic at getting difficult burps out.  You're very lucky to have him as your father.  Don't call him "Big Dave" though, no matter how much he asks.  He's very silly.

Silly boys!

We think you're gorgeous and strangers agree!  People are always coming up to us to tell us how sweet/adorable/beautiful you are.  We don't mind it one bit and always tell them that we agree whole-heartedly.  I have to say that my mommy-heart bursts with pride when other people recognize what a special little guy you are.  (Sure, they may say it to every baby they see, but I still think they mean it most for you! Right? Right.)  

You've got a little group of friends who were all born within a few weeks of you.  It's going to be so much fun to watch y'all discover each other and really start to play together as you get older.  We went swimming with them this week.  It was your first time in the pool and you did really well!  I can't say you loved it, as you mostly seemed slightly confused about what was going on.  You didn't scream.though, so I call it a win.

Linus and his buddies

We love you so much, Line.  We're very lucky to be your parents. (As a fun fact, Daddy kissed me for the first time 4 years ago today!)  I can't wait to see what the next month holds.  One thing is for sure, I've got about a million kisses to give you.

love,

Mommy