things that confound me

[atomicduck]

Of course, London is an English-speaking city, so I can't say that there's culture shock of Japan proportions. I can at least mostly read the signs and speak to the natives (one would hope...), so for the most part, I don't feel like the move has really hit me yet. I mean, it feels even less foreign than Quebec. I think, also, that all major first-

Comments

[xiue]

Whoa hailing even though you're at the stop. That just sounds so .. inconsiderate?! Is that even the right word to use? HAHAHA .. and fur coat + mid-dresses.. whoa >.>;; That is almost crazy sounding as those giant furry boots.

[atomicduck]

Haha, I know... it's just that much extra work for you! lol.

I feel like the whole fur coats/minidress thing is really 70s. Which ties in with giant boots coming back in style, too.

[harmlessbondage]

the blah% free thing is common here, too. usually it'll be on something like shampoo but basically it's saying, the usual price is $x per y units, but we are giving you y+.33y units without charging extra, and therefore you are getting 33% free!

... it's a marketing tactic :\ it's designed to make you think you've got a good deal, distracting you from the fact that you're overpaying for the product in the first place. you never had that in canada? not even on your bags of milk products? X3

and hey some of us love obnoxious faux fur products >_<

[atomicduck]

maybe we've had the % free thing in canada all along and I just never noticed. iunno... :/ it just reads funny to me. like I saw it here on a sandwich the first time ("50% extra free!") and I was SO CONFUSED. it just wouldn't parse. ("50% extra free... what? lard? trans-fats?")

lolol, but you like gyaru fashion too, so it's consistent. ;)

[threedee]

Oh no I didn't notice this entry below the more recent one when I checked before! All that stuff is super weird, and yes, the extra free thing makes little to no sense (the "little" coming from what harmlessbondage said). We definitely don't have it in Canada. Just your normal "buy 3 for the price of 2.5" type of thing, which I guess is effectively the same thing but much more parseable.

It's good to see life was good 11 days ago, lol. What times are you online these days?

[atomicduck]

which more recent one? this is the last update, lol.
oh good, i'm glad you can vouch me on not having the % extra free thing. :)

work is pretty much a day-to-day thing these days, but i usually check stuff in the afternoon (so... maybe around noon for you?). what are you doing these days? if you're free often, i might call you. i tried out the new gmail call function with my parents and it works pretty well! and it's freeee! (for canada/u.s.)

[lynch_]

jagged lines? like line-no line-line-no line? or what?
iunno about us/ca but here the intermittent (? good word? had to use a web dict unfortunately) line means "you can overtake the slow going car" and the normal line means you cant... usually cause of some curve ahead.

i went to france to discover love for a venezuelian drink :D

[atomicduck]

Yes, I know what you mean by the dotted lines-- we have those, too. It just means you can change lanes. What I mean are jagged/zig-zag lines. Here is a photo I found online, but I still don't know what they mean:

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Fw4BZ6O1Rrw/S_6P_n1KlKI/AAAAAAAAGjo/uvAx3RctoMc/s800/uk+road+zig+zag.jpg

Any ideas? :)

[lynch_]

ah, this. it's for bus (etc) stops.
for example if you have a tram and its in the middle between 2 lanes and there's no island for the stop, there'd be this thing drawn where tram will stop and people will be getting out ^^
generally its used when people get off something directly onto the road or the bus stops on the road (same lane, no aisle or smt).

[xxpiripirixx]

for my first comment here i thought i'd go through and answer stuff that i could...you probably know by now tho

[atomicduck]

Ha, yeah, I've had a bunch of people explain the 12.5% free thing to me, and apparently they have that kind of advertising elsewhere. It's really just the grammatical phrasing that bothers me, because it parses so weirdly.

I've given up on trying to figure out the Oyster pricing. It's different according to peak hours, too, so I might as well just consider the prices inescapable and hand my money over to the tube as hostage.

are you looking for fur coats or minidresses? i think there's always something charming and unique in finding good vintage, but you run the risk of ill-fit and the weird wears/tears that come with 2nd hand clothing. also, if i were in any way inclined to wear stuff that looks like fur (totally not my style), i would be uncomfortable wearing the real fur that usually comes with vintage, so i'd probably go synthetic and new.

[xxpiripirixx]

i still dont understand what parse means...it keeps coming up in my lectures. explain please?

i've never understood how that works. if you just top up £5.70 or however much a day pass is it will be enough even if you travel at peak hours. have you tried just getting a travel card? makes life soo much easier!

fur coats, im a midget so minidresses tend to look too long and i dont have access to a sewing machine. it wasnt my style until i got cold...they just looks so warm...i think most of the ones ive found are synthetic (too cheap to be real...) im not too bothered about vintage fur either. its already there, might as well wear it. thanks for the advice tho...im starting to lean towards something from the high street...