Bonus Dad Bonus Daughter
Welcome to "Bonus Dad, Bonus Daughter," a heartwarming and insightful podcast celebrating the unique bond between a stepfather Davey, and his stepdaughter Hannah.
Join them as they explore the joys, challenges, and everyday moments that make this relationship special.
Each episode they take a topic and discuss the differences, similarities and the effect each one had one them
Featuring candid conversations, personal stories, and many laughs
Whether you're a step-parent, stepchild, or simply interested in family dynamics, "Bonus Dad, Bonus Daughter" offers a fresh perspective on love, family, and the bonds that unite us.
Bonus Dad Bonus Daughter
Cultural Quirks: US Meets UK with Bonus Guest Hillary
Send us a Comment, Question or Request, we'd love to hear from you
Ready to chuckle at some cultural quirks and laugh out loud at hilarious mishaps? Join us as we sit down with Hillary, our special guest who has journeyed from the sunny shores of Florida to the green pastures of the UK. We'll clear up some past mix-ups about Hillary's background—spoiler: she performed at Universal Studios, not Disney World! Hillary's decade-long adventure in the UK brings to light charming and eye-opening contrasts between life in America and across the pond, as she narrates her amusing and touching path to UK citizenship, including a pandemic-altered ceremony.
Ever wondered why American food portions are so gigantic or what it’s like to see an alligator casually strolling by? We’ve got you covered with laugh-inducing anecdotes and cultural shockers from Hillary’s trips back to the US. From the nostalgia of the iconic Cadbury’s "Gorilla" advert to the mind-boggling commutes and tipping dilemmas in America, we share personal stories that highlight the amusing realities of everyday life in both countries. Plus, get ready to cringe and laugh as we recount the chaos of Florida traffic and the unique quirks of family dynamics and dining out stateside.
Finally, we dive into the fascinating symbolism of vehicles—from rugged Land Rovers to shiny status symbols—and the stark differences in driving and parking between the US and UK. Hillary gives us a heartfelt comparison of life in bustling Florida versus the serene city of Norwich, touching on themes of work-life balance, the influence of British music, and the joys and frustrations of parking. Don’t miss her vivid tales of festival life in the UK, complete with disheveled McDonald’s stops and eye-opening cultural practices. This episode promises a blend of humor, nostalgia, and insightful commentary that you won't want to miss!
Hello and welcome to Bonus Dad. Bonus Daughter a special father-daughter podcast with me Hannah and me, davy, where we discuss our differences, similarities, share a few laughs and stories. Within our ever-changing and complex world, Each week we will discuss a topic from our own point of view and influences throughout the decades or you could choose one by contacting us via email, instagram, facebook or TikTok links in in bio.
Speaker 2:Hello and welcome to another episode of bonus dad, bonus daughter.
Speaker 1:We are here with a special guest today, a really special guest, someone we've been trying to get on this podcast for ages.
Speaker 2:We've talked about her on episodes in the past as well. Very, very welcome, hills hey hey, this is my first ever podcast hillary's really nervous, I am don't
Speaker 3:be, stupid, but yeah, I am, I'll be fine yeah.
Speaker 1:so just for the benefit of all our listeners, hillary, or auntie hillary as hannah calls her, which hillary doesn't like, it makes me seem like I'm old yeah yeah, is married to my brother Anthony.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes.
Speaker 1:So Hillary is my wonderful sister-in-law. Oh yes, who I call my sister? She is my sister, yes.
Speaker 2:Yes, absolutely.
Speaker 1:And, as you can probably tell, by her accent, Fuck. Hillary's from America, florida, florida, in fact specifically america's a big place, davy, yeah and actually we got something wrong as well, didn't we?
Speaker 2:we did we did because we called hills in a previous episode a disney princess yes, because she is to us she is a disney princess because we thought that hillary had worked in well, for some reason I had it in my head that you worked at Epcot.
Speaker 3:to be fair, yeah, to be fair. No, I didn't work at Disney World, but I did do like Disney Princess characters for like parties and things on the side. So I did like the you know, the Wish versions of Disney.
Speaker 2:Princess Timu Timu version.
Speaker 3:Timu version of Disney Princess.
Speaker 2:But no, I mainly worked at universal studios as a performer, which is so cool. Yeah, I was an park enthusiast myself. Good times. I wish I could go back. So this episode is all about, uh, usa kind of versus uk, but not in, like, not not in a fight, not in a fight like harry hill, yeah you know, fight to the death.
Speaker 2:Who, which one? We just thought we'd have a little I don't know episode about the different cultures of the two places, you having obviously grown up in the grown up and born in the us, and us grown up and born in the uk yeah, but in different generations in different generations. Yeah, um, so yeah, um, but our age difference actually isn't that much at all, which is, I think, why you don't like being called arnie which is fine as well.
Speaker 3:Yeah, age is a gift age is a gift.
Speaker 2:Age is a gift. That's what we tell davy anyway yeah, thanks, yeah not to offend. So how long have you lived here?
Speaker 3:I moved here actually on Anthony, my husband's birthday, in 2014, so July 2014. So what is that that's?
Speaker 1:10 years just over 10 years.
Speaker 2:It's your 10 year anniversary. Oh yeah, happy anniversary. Uk living anniversary yes, and you are also a citizen here.
Speaker 3:I am and I wish I could remember the year that happened. I think it was like a year and a half ago, two years ago, but yes yes, so that's quite late into your.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, what was that like? What was the citizenship experience?
Speaker 3:like, so I don't know how much detail you want, but uh so you have to do a life in the uk test and that is 2 000 questions possible questions they can ask you. So you have to study 2 000 questions. I wonder how many of those we'd know, then it's a multiple, then it's a multiple choice. Uh, test when you go so and it's just a, b, c, d, whatever multiple choice I don't know. I just told you what that just just for just for.
Speaker 2:All inclusive listeners here. That's why.
Speaker 3:Anyway, yeah, so you do the test or whatever. And I passed with flatulence because I found out that I, in order to get like we, wanted to do the visa so I can get it in time, or else I would have to wait another two years of having my indefinite leave to remain. So me and Anthony weren't paying attention to the cutoff times and stuff. And then one day Anthony just comes in the living room he's like you have three days before you need to do your life in the UK test and I was like what, what is that you know? So he ordered me some books on Amazon and.
Speaker 3:I took off work for three days and I just sat in the living room and memorized all of these possible questions about living in the UK.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 3:And then, because it was during the pandemic, we still got to go in person to do the test, which was just all online or just all on the computer. And then, when I passed, you have to do a ceremony, and normally it's like this lovely ceremony that you go to, which I'm grateful I didn't have to but you go and you sing the national anthem with the group.
Speaker 2:OK, OK. So just just for the audio listeners. Davey and I just looked at each other, knowing that neither of us know all the words to our own national anthem as well as me, I don't know.
Speaker 3:So we probably should. As Bricks, though, you're meant to go and you're meant to go to this uh big ceremony with all these other families and things that have all passed and now are citizens and whatever, um, but because of the pandemic, they're like, yeah, we're cutting that, and I was like, yes, but instead it was quite kind of awkward. You sit, yeah, I just I did it on facetime and it's just this woman with a big british flag flag behind her and like patriotic something with the queen or something.
Speaker 2:I don't know, not with the queen, but like oh, I was gonna say, have you met the queen queen, lizzie?
Speaker 3:no, no, definitely did not address us, but yeah, so it was just her and I and anthony wasn't allowed to be, my husband wasn't allowed to be in the video with me, so it was just me looking at this woman and then just kind of telling me that you're a citizen, yay, and she's like now we're gonna play the song, the anthem, and I just had to either sing along or just nod along, which is what I did, and, um, when the celebration concluded, she's like you know, yep, well done welcome to England.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it was basically that she was really kind, but it was just such a weird feeling so it didn't really feel like a celebration, because you couldn't go out and yeah, yeah, it's not like a graduation, no, you're just and I just kind of closed my laptop and I looked at aunt and I was like, yeah, and I was the end of that.
Speaker 1:So when you said about the questions hannah, yeah, hills came around two hours one, I think just afterwards, wasn't it and you had all these questions and there was me, anth jack, uh amanda, so amanda's my other sister, uh jack, jack is Amanda's husband and your mom, and we all sat around Hills asked us these questions. I don't think we got any right.
Speaker 3:They were hard. They were very specific questions, like not only like it's very like date based as well. And then on the multiple choice, it's like I don't know I can't even think of the thing Like I don't know, like when did such and such war take place? And it was like 1856. 1857. 1957. You know what I mean. And then also it was very specific things about what color did such and such wear on their pin or whatever on their coat and what did that represent? Stuff that I don't know.
Speaker 3:I don't even know if that was don't know, I don't even know that was a question some of them were easy, but then a lot of them were very, very, very specific I feel like you might know more about living in the uk than we do yeah, at the time. Yes, probably because I'm, but as soon as I finished, I like it all just disappeared from my brain yeah I would probably fail the test now. Oh gosh, who's listening?
Speaker 3:yeah, maybe I shouldn't say that I'm a loyal citizen I do care about all those things, but it's just hard to retain very detailed information. I don't think anyone's gonna.
Speaker 2:What does that happen? Like you know, a thousand years ago, yeah, I'm sorry, I can't remember the't think anyone's going to.
Speaker 3:What was that happen, like you know, a thousand years ago yeah.
Speaker 2:I'm sorry I can't remember the Hastings. One's easy to remember because of Hastings Insurance. Yeah, oh, 800-00-1066. That one's easy, but all the others I have no idea, so basically just put a jingle to everything and you'll remember stuff and their little jingle is their number. It's like oh, 800-00-1066. So you always know that the battle of Hastings is 1066. Because they're called Hastings Insurance. I probably should have said that yeah, I got it.
Speaker 1:That should have been on the test.
Speaker 2:That should have been on the test. Yeah, british adverts. Oh, by the way, talking about British adverts, I know we've had a podcast episode on this, but, um, do you remember the monkey advert? The Cadbury's well, the one with Phil Collins in the air tonight yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, 2007 that come out, did it really like what? Nearly 20 years ago I know, I wasn't even graduating high school yeah uh, I was just in high school. Oh, just in see, just in, I was 2007. Gee, we were at school at the same time.
Speaker 3:We were at high school at the same time. I graduated high school in 2009. I was 2012,. So I was only three years up. That's what I mean. Stop calling me auntie, sorry.
Speaker 1:See, this makes me feel really old.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you're just sitting there there is. Yeah, there. See, this makes me feel really old.
Speaker 1:yeah, there is yeah, there's such a massive age gap between me and my brother yeah, there is actually yeah, which is unusual, it's 14 years oh, here's 14 years. I remember holding him when he was a baby.
Speaker 2:Oh, well, as a 14 year old. That's a weird thing to do it like. Do you think, oh, as a four when you're?
Speaker 3:like a team. I was an aunt at 10. Oh yeah, I guess. Yeah, yeah, it's more like my little sister than anything yeah, yeah, cute, though cute.
Speaker 2:So I guess, like obviously you're talking about your citizenship in the uk. What are our experiences of the us? And then we can try and like bam combine well.
Speaker 1:First time I went to america I was two oh well and I don't remember that at all. Yeah, I don't remember that at all but that was when I went to new jersey for the first time to meet my new jersey family. Yes, so it was over there too recently and I've been recently new jersey and then I went. Next time I went was when we went to disney, so next time I went was Hills, neck of the Woods, because it was Florida.
Speaker 2:We were. Yeah, that's the first time I went to America. Yeah, I think for me the biggest culture shock was the portion sizes.
Speaker 1:For me, I was like what got me was all the signs about the alligators.
Speaker 2:And the guns, and the guns.
Speaker 1:They just run free.
Speaker 3:Okay, yeah, because they're wild, they're, they're natural to florida, so they are, they do just like the deer like uk. Deer is like florida alligator. But where are you staying on disney property?
Speaker 3:or like where were you seeing all these alligator signs. Just out of curiosity, kiss me, kiss me okay, yeah, because they have to put those up because tourists think that everything that's close, in close proximity to disney world is like safe and they're like, oh yeah, we can swim in that retention pond, like without thinking, oh, there's wildlife in there. And so I think those signs are because you don't get those signs all over florida.
Speaker 3:You get them in like proximity to like the big parks and like or yeah, yeah and those areas because I unfortunately, I think oh, there's a lot of tourists that don't realize the dangers of going close to bodies, big bodies of water yeah, especially when you're from england.
Speaker 1:We don't have those. No, I don't have any. No disrespect like that. It's just quite funny we said before, because we live in norfolk, we are swamp people yeah, so we tend to enter water just naturally yes we are swamp people yeah, worry about no we have nothing there's nothing that can hurt you
Speaker 3:no no, I'll get into that, because that's my big scotcha show. Yeah, it's so safe.
Speaker 1:Yeah but that's the other thing. I remember seeing the um, because there was. We saw a wolf, didn't we as well?
Speaker 2:we saw.
Speaker 1:I'm sorry so, wolf, you saw a wolf. Well, it was a either that or a bloody big dog I think you probably I mean he claims.
Speaker 3:You know what else I mean that seems bizarre, but I think you might have seen a bobcat. Are you sure it was a wolf?
Speaker 1:I had four legs and it was furry.
Speaker 3:Bobcat. I think it's a bobcat.
Speaker 1:I mean.
Speaker 3:I'm not. They're less scary, I don't know, everything about the animals in Florida, but I've never seen a wolf. It could have been like a husky.
Speaker 1:Could have been.
Speaker 3:I bet it was he came to see this wolf, but no one else saw it. Like this magical, mystical wolf in the middle of kissimmee does not sound like something you'd normally see, but I could be wrong. Um, I would think a lot of the wildlife that we get in florida are like bobcats yeah, yeah, um see, that's crazy, we don't have bobcats no we don't have that I want a cat. We have cats and they're not roaming around everywhere. That's really rare sighting that you see when you'd have to go into the.
Speaker 2:I just remember being in IHOP and having a pancake Maybe it's just IHOP, maybe it's just IHOP but it was massive to me and I'm not a massive eater and I was just sitting there thinking I can't, like I feel really bad if I don't eat it all as well and I'm like but the good thing about it, the big portions, the only thing good about it is that here I mean it's it's coming becoming more acceptable here in the UK, but for a long time it wasn't but taking you guys would call it a doggy bag home, yes, like a takeaway box yeah, yeah so
Speaker 3:you get these big portions.
Speaker 2:I can't finish them either, but so you take it home, and then you got a meal tomorrow. That's true, that is so good, that's great value. It is great, I was gonna say, though you have big portions, but it's great value for money. Like, you don't have that in the uk. It's like all these tiny piddly, like a la carte portions and they're like small, but at least in america you actually pay for it, and then you get what you pay for, like I do think it's more expensive to eat out, though in america for sure than the uk yeah, um I can't really remember it's been a.
Speaker 2:Obviously it's been a while for us, but yeah, I mean the heart.
Speaker 1:One of the hardest things to get my head around was the tipping thing oh yeah, I found tipping really yeah, and knowing how much to give.
Speaker 2:I think as well, because it's so alien 15 or 20 percent? It's like, yeah, yeah, um, depending on your service and I feel like you guys can work out the percentages quicker as well, because I'm like I definitely can't.
Speaker 3:Oh, okay, I've got my calculator. Well, basically, I got anthony next to me oh yeah, the human calculator.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I'm just like so he likes to embarrass me.
Speaker 3:He's like no move the decimal and also because he won't just tell me what it is, he makes me do it. Yeah, like a child, like having a lesson, I'm like you suck, like just yeah, so I think they're the biggest.
Speaker 2:Uh, I don't know the. The portion size for me was definitely something like whoa what else did you have?
Speaker 3:did you? Was it just the pancakes, or was it like we had? Was it like fast food you thought was bigger? Did you think?
Speaker 2:yeah, we had a wendy's as well.
Speaker 1:Well, the first thing we did when we when we landed was we had a chick-fil-a, didn't we? Oh?
Speaker 2:yeah, chick-fil-a, in fact, I think did I like chick-fil-a, did we not?
Speaker 1:ask hillary where the best places to eat were, before we even went. I think we did.
Speaker 2:I think we did chick-fil-a yeah yeah, we definitely had a chick-fil-a and I loved it yeah, so good, we had, I hop, we had when? Well, yeah, wendy's did we do an Applebee's?
Speaker 1:We did Applebee's. Yeah, we did Applebee's the Corral.
Speaker 3:Golden Corral.
Speaker 1:We went there for breakfast one morning. The bacon as well. Bacon's weird in America. Why is it weird? Because it's just so crispy. It's been nuked.
Speaker 3:Bacon in America has the fatty little strips in, so you know you have the dark light, dark streaky bacon. And then the bacon in the UK is like proper slabs of meat.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:So that yeah.
Speaker 2:What do you prefer?
Speaker 3:I like the streaky bacon.
Speaker 2:I don't mind a bit of fat on my meat If it's crispy, I'll eat it.
Speaker 3:If it's congealy, I'm not touching it, I ain't touching it.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Yeah, if it's crispy, I'll eat it. If it's congealy, congealy, oh cool. Should we talk about sort of daily life in the uk? Uh, versus us. So I I kind of want to know what a typical work day like for waking up in the morning. Is it much different to to the uk like, is it?
Speaker 3:I don't know, is there a different culture? I think I do think it depends on the industry. Yeah, it's like. Yeah, it depends who you are, what you do for work, where you live. I mean it, but my personal experience, because I can't speak for everybody, because, I said, everyone has different jobs or whatever but when I was in america, the biggest thing for me about getting to work is nothing. Unless you work remotely, nothing is close. Unless you work, like you know, down the road or whatever.
Speaker 3:But like most jobs like are, from my experience, quite far away, so like you have to wake up extra early. Traffic in Florida is horrible. I think any Floridian will tell you this. It's not pleasant. My mom probably complains about it every time I talk to her on the phone. I know firsthand. Recently it's been really bad. Especially when school starts happening again, you get all the school buses and stuff.
Speaker 3:So you have to basically plan your trips out around the school system, but then the school system then staggers themselves, so it's like there's just never a good time. So, yeah, the biggest thing about like, getting to work is just the, the travel, the distance and travel, and then also no, I don't know, is it, is it?
Speaker 2:because, like your, your home is so far away from the big city or not. The city or wherever you work is like the residential and business don't seem to be together. I think everything is just so far apart yeah, just so far apart. Yeah, just far apart.
Speaker 3:I mean unless you live in like an area where you have like, because now that florida's developed so much more, every time I go back like it's just keep, they just keep building. I'm like you guys need to stop building. You're like where the animal's gonna live, um, where?
Speaker 2:are the crocodiles the bobcats.
Speaker 3:That's my own thing. I hate that, but you know, I appreciate that people need places to live, but anyway. So with all these new developments they have been like then incorporating, like your neighborhood walmart. Now it's like oh, it's not your big super local. Yeah, so like my mom's house, um, we used to have to travel. I should probably take 20 25 minutes to get to your like grocery store, unless you do the little windixy which is around the corner. But like for your big, like super store, it'd take about 20 minutes or so.
Speaker 3:But now they just keep building and now they build these little neighborhood walmarts that are like little mini like walmart's, like little mini tesco's like tesco extra yeah extra, but like even a little bit more extra than that, like it's a little bit bigger, but yeah, so, um, they're coming around, that's probably one thing that I've probably noticed when we were over there, it's like when you go shopping, it is like now, if we go shopping, yeah, you, you go out, but it's not like a day thing or like even a morning thing.
Speaker 2:But when we went florida, it's like because you'd have to drive quite a way to get to the shopping complex yeah, yeah, I think we want to spend longer there as well, because we, for us, traveling that far, I guess, is really alien.
Speaker 1:So I guess yeah to us. We wanted to make make a day of it it was like on another podcast when I said about, um, when me and your mum went to chroma and what we would do. You know it's an hour's drive to chroma but we would still do it. But even then that was like quite alien. But if in america an hour's drive is literally just down the road, it's nothing, yeah, nothing.
Speaker 3:And I would complain if I had to drive more than five hours somewhere yeah I think my sister has to drive like over an hour every day to work yeah, and that's that's standard. Like a lot of people like move out of the big cities because the homes are a little bit more more affordable or they have more land, but like more land to build on right, right, right if they want to extend or whatever. So most people like kind of move away, kind of far away, and then they have to drive quite a while to get to work yeah, that sounds crazy.
Speaker 2:Like well, I've worked from home, so my commute is like to my bedroom. But like yes, yeah, um, but I mean for where I live, to get into norwich maybe like 30 minutes tops yeah, it takes yeah in traffic, like 45 maybe, but yeah it just.
Speaker 3:It's all relative. I mean, just depends where you are, what you're doing. I think one thing I do miss about america not the traffic or anything like that, but I like when you have to go, whether it's to work or to a city or to a mall or wherever you're going, there's always going to be a parking spot available.
Speaker 2:Yes, if you want to talk about culture shock? Yeah, yeah, we have no parking. I'm like I get it like you want to condense everything you want to.
Speaker 3:You know you don't. England doesn't have quite as much space in the big cities and stuff, because they're older cities that have been built on and built on. But come on, there is no park. And I'm like and I have a tiny little car too, so it's not even like, oh, you're driving some massive thing and there's nowhere to park. No, I've drive like a kip kanto. It's tiny and um, I don't know if it's just me feeling being entitled, I don't know, but like it just feels like there's never anywhere to park yeah no, I agree.
Speaker 3:For a lot of people it is an issue, my biggest anxiety about going anywhere is I have to know the parking situation before I get on the road Because it's such a stupid thing to stress about, but I'm like I need to know if I'm going to have to parallel park or not, because I suck at it. I need to mentally prepare or leave earlier and then park further away and just walk further in, and then not only is the parking an issue, it's then you didn't have to pay to park as well.
Speaker 2:So you have to find that one little parking spot, and once you find it, you then have to pay to stay there.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's not cheap either. I remember when I first moved to england I can't remember the exact cost, but like um, our, our main parking garage was quite like inexpensive to stay there for the day. It's gone up by like five pounds now. Like it's insane imagine you have to drive in every day park and pay that every day.
Speaker 2:I think as well, they put in parking in places where you think. Why like I think I always think of eaton park in norwich is that they've now charged for that back-end car park. So if you, if you like, do parkrun or anything, they're getting their money's worth because they're putting like I don't know, 50p, two quid, whatever they're doing in there, and you're just like that's the other thing.
Speaker 1:Is what if there's no rhyme nor reason to the price of parking?
Speaker 2:you can. You can park somewhere and park there all day for a quid on the same or a quid a quid for every five minutes, if you go and park down the road.
Speaker 3:It's just.
Speaker 1:No, it's nuts it's nuts yeah, but yeah, it's my little rant about yeah, parking, but actually, while we're talking about parking, let's talk about driving oh yeah yeah, the actual I mean the other side of the road isn't the biggest one.
Speaker 3:Yeah, culture shock about america to um england with driving. I was like my that was probably number one was that. I was like obviously I knew everything was like backwards anyway, yeah, yeah, but it was the size of the roads but like not not your highways and stuff like that, like that's, that's pretty standard. But it's like these country little roads and where we all.
Speaker 3:We live in norfolk so I appreciate the other parts of england maybe yeah, so like I think we are in the minority, but yeah, yeah I'm like I just remember being on the road and like getting to my house and I was like there is not enough space, let alone for just this vehicle that we're in, but then two coming at each other. I'm like where are you supposed to go? Where's the lay-by?
Speaker 3:yeah, there is no like most of the time, there isn't a lay-by, you just gotta like hope your car will get up, you just gotta like wear off the side. And the worst is when you get stuck and you kind of play chicken with the other car. You're like who got there first? Because I ain't reversing, I'm not reversing on this little windy road and yeah so that is my biggest issue. The cars are now becoming too big and the roads are staying the same.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and getting smaller, yeah, yeah. What I love about our country roads is that if you have a car behind you or there's a car in front of you and there are two of you going down the country lane, you rest a little bit easy because you know the other cars. Yeah, you've got priority. The other cars got to move. Oh, yeah, yeah, but even I don't like the country roads. I don't like them I like them.
Speaker 3:Now I've got, I've grown accustomed to them. Like I know how to drive here. I've been driving here for a long time but the first few years, like, I avoided it at all costs. I'm like a country road. No, I'll go the long way, like yeah, it was the long way.
Speaker 1:Yeah, your um, hannah, your mom will attest to this, but last time we went to New Jersey, which was about three or four months ago now, your mum drove, so she drove the car. But I got really panicky to start with when we first got out, because of the fact that you're on the wrong side, say on the other side of the road not the wrong side of the road, but the other side of the road but also because I was sitting on the right-hand side of the car. Yeah, that on the right hand side of the car.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's really weird, that's what really did me is I felt like I should be the one driving. It does feel weird.
Speaker 3:Yeah, sharon was driving. It takes a. It takes a minute it does every time I go back home I walk into the wrong side of the car and I was like, yep, I'm going anywhere so I have to get out and go on the other side and then I just have to like the first, like the first.
Speaker 3:Like few times I drive back in america, um, when I get there, I have to like the first, like the first. Like few times I drive back in america, um, when I get there, I have to like just make sure I'm not driving without anybody around me, like I almost need to see another car to make sure I'm on the right side of the road.
Speaker 3:I'm doing everything correct because I forget and then the road rules are different too. Like in america, you can not all america again, it just depends where you live. But like where I lived, in florida, you can turn right on red, no matter what that is, unless it says you can't yeah you can and same with u-turns. You can basically do u-turn anywhere, unless it says you can't, so but there's a lot of states that u-tunes, u-turns are like illegal. You can't do u-turn yeah, see going on.
Speaker 2:A red light is such a red flag to me.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I can't get my head around that at all you're on the right side of the road anyway, so it makes sense like here. It wouldn't work. I mean, let's they did left on red, which doesn't doesn't really. It's not the alliteration you want, is it? Yeah, yeah, yeah, so it'd be like. That would be like yeah and I wish they did do that, because there's so many times you're just sitting there waiting to turn.
Speaker 2:I agree yeah, they're definitely, yeah, they definitely. You definitely have it down like you have in what they call it inter. No, not into uh interchanges interstates, interstates you have a four-way stop. The us have that down like four-way stops yeah, yeah, because it's, because it's you kind of stops yeah, because we noticed this.
Speaker 1:last time we went as well, because I panicked when we got to them. But it's so efficient it works Because there's no roundabouts in America.
Speaker 2:Are you talking about four-way stops? Yeah yeah, I think so, yeah, I hate four-way stops.
Speaker 3:Oh, I think they're so efficient. I think roundabouts are efficient. There you go. Yeah, yeah, hate it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think it depends on the roundabout. For me, I mean traffic light controlled roundabouts. I'm not. No, I don't like those. I like the ones that you just sit for it's free flowing.
Speaker 3:Yeah, rubbish, but yeah four-way stops with traffic lights good, yes, Four-way stops with. Because you literally don't, people don't realize, don't understand how they work. Usually it's like first come first go. But you get other people that are like nah, and they just go, and then you're like, you're like literally like stop and go, stop and go. Yeah, yeah, that would cross the road because you're terrified someone's not going to follow the rules.
Speaker 1:That's exciting lights is is good yeah, they're so efficient.
Speaker 2:I don't think we knew about the whole turning white on red thing and people were beeping and people were like it's red, what? Are you talking?
Speaker 3:about yeah, guns come out, oh yeah so yeah, I remember that when, when I used to live in florida, I used to get, so again, I feel really bad, but I used to get annoyed at tourists all the time.
Speaker 1:I'm like, just drive um, because cars, would you say cars bigger as well uh, in the us absolutely bigger.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I feel like I'm getting in trouble for saying some of the stuff, but yeah, I feel the cars in the us are like bigger and most of the time really unnecessarily big oh, okay, I don't need. Personally, I mean, I've always.
Speaker 2:I don't know you do drive a key of the canto.
Speaker 3:Maybe I'm just secretly jealous, I don't know, but but I do think, like I get it, like you have a big family, you got, you do lots of adventures, you have a job where you need lots of space, whatever. But I feel like every other person on the road these days, especially in florida, has a giant ass pickup truck. They don't have a farm, they don't, they don't need a. Why you need a pickup truck. What are you picking up? Nothing. What are you picking?
Speaker 3:up you're not a landscape artist like what are you doing with all that?
Speaker 1:I get it.
Speaker 3:If you like, that's for a living. You need a pickup truck, like my brother-in-law yeah, does like he legitimately needs that pickup truck. And the problem is everyone wants a pickup truck so the price of the pickup trucks go higher and higher higher and the people that actually need them are like that's, it's just yeah yeah, you know. So that's my little rant about pickup trucks.
Speaker 1:I get this. I feel the same in Norfolk because I'm gonna I'm going to say something quite controversial now as well, because You're about to say Land Rovers, aren't you? I'm going to say Land Rovers, yeah, like they don't need that.
Speaker 2:I think they're a status symbol.
Speaker 1:They are. What gets me as well is because when you used to go to school at Wyndham High and I would come and pick sitting in the car, it's not a particularly posh school either, it's a public school, it's not anything. Yeah, exactly, and they just take up so much room on the road.
Speaker 3:So the original Land Rovers or whatever again they were for people that had farms or people that were carpenters. They're supposed to be off-road vehicles.
Speaker 2:Even people with dogs. I'm like, yeah, cool. Wildlife, people, people that work in forestry like they're meant to be off-road kind of like your mountain bike. Yeah, yeah, yeah, essentially yeah.
Speaker 3:But then they've because I don't know they've just become like the symbol of whatever. I think they're really cool, though we're all. I think they're amazing vehicles, but then they've turned them into like now they have like the luxury. Luxury, yeah, I have nothing to do with going off road, that's right. Yeah, big ass cars, yeah. Yeah, I don't really fit in england and again, they don't get me wrong, I think they're gorgeous vehicle but I just don't think they're um 100 necessary for everybody.
Speaker 3:I just feel like everybody feels like they need that or they want that. I'm just like it's huge yeah.
Speaker 1:So if they're muddy you can kind of think, okay, it's muddy, it's been off road, it's probably been on a farm. But it's when they're pristine and they're muddy, you can kind of think, ok, it's muddy, it's been off road, it's probably been on a farm, but it's when they're pristine and they're clean and they're just, yeah, just wild people like that.
Speaker 3:It's just like the well, no, the Bentley would be the Rolex of cars, but like yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:So it's kind of middle class type kind of status symbol, isn't it? Yeah, yeah, they're lovely, but not necessary.
Speaker 3:But again, maybe that's just me just projecting, because I have an old Kia Picanto and I really want a nicer car and I'm just being.
Speaker 1:And to buy a Range Rover now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, if you listen to this, you'll be like, well, you said it.
Speaker 3:I would buy a Range Rover if there was room for me to have one yeah.
Speaker 1:I think I'm just yeah, I just get into it.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I think I'm just yeah, I just get to where there's no space for all these things that people are buying. I mean, houses aren't built with parking either in mind, just as our cities and roads aren't either, so I guess that's another thing.
Speaker 1:This is the other thing that I noticed. I think I probably noticed, yeah, in Florida and also in New Jersey when we were there is when we talk about houses, how the housing situation is different, yes, in the way the houses are built, yes, and they've all got more land.
Speaker 3:Where here?
Speaker 1:In America.
Speaker 3:Yeah, in America, yeah, I do find again, depends where you're at, but most become subdivisions, like your little neighborhoods or whatever they're called subdivisions at least in Florida they are. And yeah, you do get a little bit more land Not as much as you used to, but not not as little of land as you get at the new build sites here. Yeah, the new build sites here they're stacked up on and you don't really get that much, do you?
Speaker 2:do you think it's because people need a car to get about? So therefore they actually accommodate for space of that, whereas sometimes our cities not particularly norwich, because norwich isn't a very good, well-connected public transport city, but cities like nottingham has got tram, for example, like maybe they, they like, I don't know, they don't they don't allocate the space for cars because there's not.
Speaker 1:Everybody has a car.
Speaker 2:I mean london, nobody yeah, nobody I can't imagine people in new york have cars either because they've got, so they're so well connected.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think, like again, I've I've actually never been to new york, um, sadly, but um, when I watch all the movies and things that look yeah you got upstate new york and you got all these you know, gossip girl is my only yeah so if you live in like ghostbusters if you live in like the upper east side, no, yeah, like I think if you live in like the cities, like new york city, and like those areas like yeah, I don't think cars are as big but, I think like the further out you live from the city, you have more land, therefore you're going to be driving more yeah, and then I don't really know.
Speaker 3:To be honest, I'm acting like I know all these things. I don't know what I'm talking about. This is just this is just what I think, but I, yeah, don't, don't take me, careful what I say because I'm like I don't, I don't ever want to come across as like I think. I know it all, because I absolutely do not.
Speaker 2:I think um. Another thing that I find different just by watching telly as a child, like Disney channel and things like that is definitely like US slang versus UK slang and yeah, I know your first one is in it. Was there anything that when you come to the UK you're like what the like, what the hell is that?
Speaker 3:not so much like oh my god, what is that? But like it's hard for me because I've been here 10 years and I started to. We should have done this podcast 10 years ago yeah yeah because, I don't even realize how much I've picked up on on British culture until I go home and my family like laughs at me. Like, oh, you're so British now and I'm like what? And so, for example, I talk to my brother, jeff, on the phone, probably like four times a week, like he's one of my best friends.
Speaker 3:But anyway. So I'll say certain things and he'll he'll point them out to me and I'm like oh, you don't say that. I'm like because in my mind I was like I feel like everyone says that, like yeah, I said all right, I'm just gonna crack on now yeah crack on and get this done and I was like, and he like giggled and I was like what's funny? And he's like crack on, and I was and I was like do you not say that?
Speaker 1:And he's like no but then he.
Speaker 3:But then he was like well, it's like I don't say that, but maybe then we start thinking maybe other people do say that we don't know. Um, but yeah, things like, yeah, crack on in it, which I think is Norfolk actually. I don't think that's like. And when you go in a shop and you're like hiya instead of like hey, like hiya, cheers, you know, like all that stuff.
Speaker 2:When I speak to American clients over email particularly, they always start with hey and not hi. Yeah, that's really weird to me because I feel like hi is like the formal.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, on an email Even though hi is actually classed as maybe not formal.
Speaker 2:Yeah, on an email is like even though high is actually classed as maybe not yeah. Yeah, on an email that, when you're speaking to america is like hey, so and so, and that just seems like really unprofessional, but it's not unprofessional, I get that um that's yeah, it's hard for me to remember, like what is what I feel?
Speaker 3:like such a mutt, like I don't know, like I'm such a that was very british a mutt.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there you go see, I don't, I don't even know anymore, um I think like watching, like I grew up on disney channel and disney channel's very american influenced um very much so. So things like dang it like that's not oh gosh, dang it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I haven't said dang it in a long time. I think I just upgraded to damn it, damn it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, see, that's like our equivalent, I guess. Yeah, you guys are just not as pg.
Speaker 3:I think that's what it is from a young age you guys are like swearing up the storm, aren't you?
Speaker 1:it's a dang is damn, isn't it? Is it?
Speaker 3:there's a lot of that it's just like oh, oh, heck, no like it's like saying yeah.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, I mean we'd be a bit more colourful, I guess, yeah.
Speaker 3:You guys are much more colourful, yeah, but it's great and I've learned to love it.
Speaker 2:But also it's turned me into a sailor, I guess in some ways like being British, or sometimes, like I think, portrayed. British people are always so polite or we're the queen's english, but then we're also the opposite end of the spectrum, where we just like. It's the way that we use swear words, I mean the f word is used well yeah, yeah well it's a great adjective.
Speaker 1:It is yeah yeah, but we use it in so many different forms and variations for many different things and it works I think we, I think in america they do as well.
Speaker 3:Um yeah, but I'm a little swearing no, yeah, no, I think you guys, just you guys just take a little notch further. But I don't think. I think it's great, we've crossed a line. I'm not going to go into detail what those words are, but I'm sure you can use your imagination.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, we have to bleep most of them out anyway.
Speaker 3:Which, well, they hear.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:The other thing that I noticed as well, we'll talk about um well, I think, is the difference in drinking culture oh yeah, between america and, yeah, the uk one it's a because alcohol in america seems so expensive and also you can't buy in supermarkets yeah, so you have to go to an actual liquor shop. Yeah, so that's to buy it, yeah, that wasn't like that all the time.
Speaker 3:So I remember when I lived there like, uh, growing, like when I before I turned 21. So we won't go into that, but you could go yes, see 21 21 yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:So I was like 18 and you have friends that are like 19, 20, 21, 22, whatever, so the older friends would get the alcohol and I say to the younger friends and then we'd hang out or whatever, but we'd have to do it like inside someone's house, because yeah you drink secret, drink something outside you like slapped on the wrist, but yeah, so you used to be able to go into like your target walmart or whatever and the they if, if I can remember correctly, you could buy like wine and stuff on, I think.
Speaker 3:Or is it just liquor? Are we talking about wine?
Speaker 1:because I think you can last time we went to new jersey where you say it's about four months ago, so it might be different in florida, I can't remember but that we couldn't find any alcohol in any supermarket anywhere.
Speaker 3:So it has, yeah, so it's all gone, so at one point you could buy. I don't remember spirits as much in there. Again, we don't really say spirits, we just say liquor. Yeah, yeah, another british thing, um, but yeah, you could buy your you know beer and wine and stuff right there in the grocery store, and I think now they do. They have these separate little shoppies right next to the grocery store that you have to go in separately and I think it's just to keep underage.
Speaker 2:We used to have what we call off licenses, which I assume would be the equivalent of your liquor store. An off license? Just what does that even mean? It's actually before my time. Well, off license, just what?
Speaker 1:does that even mean, like it's actually before my time, well off license?
Speaker 2:yeah, it doesn't mean the shop has a license to be able to sell drink that is drunk off the premises yes so it's off license? Yes, that's what it is, but they used to be dedicated, like I'm thinking of ashleborough.
Speaker 1:They used to be that dedicated one oh, like threshers, threshers on the corner, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:But yeah, but then they built the sainsbury's and they went out of business because you could just get cheaper.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because it's cheaper in the supermarket than it was in the Sainsbury's.
Speaker 2:There's not many of those about. I mean, you do have corner shops and they have alcohol in them. Yeah, you do. But again, that's more for convenience, if you're going to get people to go to the supermarket and buy.
Speaker 1:Because, yeah, we do tend to buy alcohol in bulk as well.
Speaker 3:I you guys love a drink. You love a pint with a frothy head on it.
Speaker 2:I wish I loved beer and wine. I'm really bad, I love wine. The only thing I drink is spirits and any occasion is alcohol.
Speaker 1:It could be a funeral, it could be a birth, it could be a christening, it could be a birthday.
Speaker 3:Any excuse to drink. It could be a seasonal day. Is that everybody in the UK, or is that you, david?
Speaker 1:I think it's just if your last name is Wales. Yeah, it's just a Wales thing.
Speaker 2:I mean you can kind of tell, yeah, we drink for everything. You can also tell who's a Brit in, like an airport, because they will be the ones with a pint at 5am in the morning. No, you guys love a cider.
Speaker 3:oh, so it's so british cider is so british cider, that's true I had my. I went to my first festival when I moved here. Um, it was a reading festival, and what a great first oh yeah, that first time in the uk. Yeah, three days being into the uk, anthony drags me to a festival where they're doing like um what was like the drinking. And then what are those like herbal highs that you could buy at the drugstore?
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, and all that.
Speaker 3:And I just remember the amount of alcohol that I saw people consume was something I've never seen before. You gotta remember like I wasn't of drinking age in the U S I was only 20.
Speaker 3:I wasn't even 21 yet. So, yes, I have. I drank in the US, but not very, very little. So here it's like all these young people that I've been drinking since they're probably like 16. But, yeah, just getting plastered. I remember having just sticking to the cider and I can't drink cider to this day because it makes me feel queasy Not mixed with those weird edible herbal high things. I was dry, heaving the entire, the entire festival.
Speaker 2:Miss panic at the disco and it sounds like you were panicking elsewhere the fear was setting in.
Speaker 1:My whole body was panicking.
Speaker 2:It's like what are you panicking at the bathroom? Yeah, I just was not happy, yeah, so that's my yeah thing, but that's a really like rubbish way of of introducing you to the culture as well, that was my first yeah.
Speaker 3:Why a tent surrounded by god knows what we?
Speaker 2:need. We need a word with uncle anth.
Speaker 3:That was not that, yeah he knows, we've made up for it by far but you know I was like that was not great. I remember at the end of the festival I mean you're, you're gross, right, you have like mud all over.
Speaker 3:You paint I don't know whatever else. Paint, whatever food, I don't know. Um, sweaty, you're just gross. You look like you, you look unfortunate. So so we went into. I remember on the way home from reading it's like a three-hour drive or whatever. We went into mcdonald's because we were hungry and we looked like a bunch of like I don't know what the the best term to say. Um, I don't want to be rude. Like you know, we looked.
Speaker 1:We looked like we had you filthy, look like you just come off the farm.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, we looked like we uh, we were. We just looked like we came off a farm or we were. We were stranded on a desert island, decided to come in clawed home. Yeah, yeah, so um yeah, we got some very funny looks.
Speaker 2:I'm sure we smelled bad too, anyway, yeah, so I'm going off topic no, actually let's talk about bands, then let's talk about music and the music influences. So of course, like I, we know that like the Beatles and the music influence kind of went to the US, a lot of our British bands went across, I mean before our time, obviously, beatles way before our time. But but yeah, and I wondered, like I think my question was main question was kind of how, how did you, I guess, what is consume, how did you consume British music and and how do you think that difference is over here as well?
Speaker 3:My first experience of British music was the Spice Girls, of course. Yeah, that is our era. That's the first time I was in elementary school, so that was my, that's what I knew. But, yeah, british I mean, I think for a long time, like you guys had a lot of bands that I've never heard of, like they didn't quite. Like you got Busted and Witch I can't think of something McFly, yeah Whereas there's some other ones like I can't remember them all. Like you got your JML, was it JML, jls?
Speaker 3:That's a shopping channel, it's JLS. And you got all you know, you got all those ones where we had our own version of boy bands and girl bands and stuff like that, and although you guys heard about ours.
Speaker 3:We didn't hear about yours as much. I thought that might be the case, so it didn't actually happen until I swear it was probably for me. But when I really noticed that we've combined cultures like massively with the music is probably like the 2010s yeah, like all of a sudden I noticed that oh, I'm actually hearing stuff and things were as delayed like even like movies in the cinema before we would get a movie and then you guys wouldn't get it till three months, that's right, yeah, yeah, everything just happens all at the same time.
Speaker 3:But I don't know when the world registered that, oh yeah, let's just. Let's just share all this stuff at the same time instead of being weird about it yeah, yeah, so that that's kind of my experience. So I think now everything is just very openly shared between all the world, not?
Speaker 2:even just us uk. That's the. It's crazy to me that, like big bands for us aren't big elsewhere I know that sounds bad. No, it feels like sometimes we're the same culture and sometimes we're so not.
Speaker 3:We couldn't be more similar and more different, I think. I think the newer generations won't feel that disconnected. I think it's because we grew up with something different.
Speaker 2:We did. Yeah, you saying busted is like that's my childhood, I know, but the funny thing, is that busted?
Speaker 1:when you hear Charlie sing, he sings with an American accent because he was trying to break through to the American market.
Speaker 2:I think a lot of British bands do sing in American market.
Speaker 3:You know, the first time I ever heard Busted is have you seen that movie with Lindsay Lohan called Just my Luck?
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, that's Scott McFly. That was my first.
Speaker 3:Oh so are McFly and Busted the same thing. Uh, well, well.
Speaker 2:Sorry, they were like they sound exactly the same. They were like the Blur and Oasis.
Speaker 3:So they're different, they're different they're different people, but then. But then they combined to muck busted yeah, yeah, okay.
Speaker 2:So and now they're separate again, so they were separate to get okay, so fair enough to say they were like one, the same kind of they are. They sound the same they sound the same.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so that was the first time I've ever even knew about that oh, isn't that funny what a great move. American movie. Oh yeah, I love that movie and I thought it was. I thought it was a made-up band as well, because in the movie it was like a made-up band. So I was like, oh, they're not real.
Speaker 2:I think I love Lindsay Lohan. Just speaking about Lindsay Lohan, in particular when in the Parent Trap, because obviously she plays a British and an American twin. Her accent is great.
Speaker 3:I think that's what started my love affair with trying to do a British accent. I love it when you do a British accent. Well, I sound like Mary Poppins. I try really hard to sound like I want to blend in so badly like, oh hello, I'm just doing a podcast with my. You know, I try so hard but it turns into like this um, it's so posh, it really is posh, isn't it, hermione?
Speaker 2:I know, and I just so badly just want to sound normal and I just love it.
Speaker 3:I'm just not very good at it and my inflections all over the place, um no. So I try really hard and it doesn't work. That's all you're getting. But yeah, that's really good. Sorry, my love for just British accents, yeah, lindsay Lohan, I've always loved a British accent, my mom said. She said I don't know where you got it from. She goes, but since the time you were like could talk, she's like. You never called me mom, you always called me mummy from a very little age.
Speaker 3:And she said it's really bizarre. She's like we didn't watch any programs that were from the UK, like nothing. She goes. So I don't know where you heard it from, but like that's what you sound like, she'd say mummy, mummy and yeah, that's she says to me. And then I said some other things that were like really bright, like really Brit, like with an accent, like an British inflection.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:Very little like not having influence by anybody. And she, we always joke and she always says I think in a past life you were British, yeah, so I was like maybe I was my US accent.
Speaker 2:I don't even know what accent it is, because it just to me it's just like that Disney Channel thing where it's like you guys all go for the Valley.
Speaker 3:Girl accent. I was literally just about to say that I was going to talk to you like this. The whole podcast, yeah, awful.
Speaker 1:Because that is the thing. We've got a lot of accents here.
Speaker 2:I mean for such a small island. I think it might have been clueless for me.
Speaker 1:That's what I get my accent from, but even America have got. You know, you've got loads and loads of different accents compared to, like, new York accent.
Speaker 3:Boston accent. Florida accent the Midwest accent.
Speaker 1:California accent like the Valley Girl accent.
Speaker 3:And what's amazing about that is. America is humongous. It's huge compared to the UK. So how in the world does the UK, which is so tiny it could fit into Florida have just as many accents and dialects Like? What like that blew that. Another culture shock blew my mind. I'm like wait, that's like a two hours away. Why do you sound like a different?
Speaker 1:like you're from a different world, even, but even in our county, but there's a norwich accent and there's a norfolk accent and they're two completely different things would you say you have more of a norfolk.
Speaker 3:Your dad definitely has a norfolk. Oh, dad's got norfolk accent. Your dad definitely has a Norfolk accent. Oh, dad's got a Norfolk accent. Yeah, and you kind of got a touch of it.
Speaker 1:Yours is more Norwich, mine's more Norwich, yeah, norwich, but I do A little bit more Norwich, norwich, norwich, but you can talk with a Norfolk accent as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you can. It sort of goes zinc where it goes.
Speaker 3:Mama, there's a guider in the house that immediately makes me think of florida yeah but there's people where I'm from, so I'm from saint cloud, so you have people that were born and raised in saint cloud that are a lot more southern. Like that, you'll hear that draw on their voice and they'll be like I love it.
Speaker 2:It it's like really sings, and it's Hannah Montana as well. Yeah, it's very Hannah Montana, yeah.
Speaker 3:Really nice. But then I think again, over the last, like decades, like Florida especially St Cloud is now which has become so much more populated and populated, and it's been, it's just so influenced by other other cultures and other States and you know, we have a lot of like, there's a lot of like puerto rican um influence and spanish influence and and yeah, just from northern states. So you just hear so many accents yeah, yeah it's crazy, it's pretty cool.
Speaker 3:But what my fam. So what anthony, my husband, I keep, I keep reminding you guys, anthony, I am here legally, I'm allowed to be here I passed the british citizen, shit.
Speaker 3:Probably I was gonna say oh, he said. He said when I get so, when I'm here, he's like you sound like hillary, you're. You know, you just sound like you, whatever, I'm like cool. So when I, when I go to florida, he's like you change, like what do you mean? He's like you talk so fast with your family. He's like americans talk so fast. He's like when you have a conversation with your family, he's like Americans talk so fast. He's like when you have a conversation with, like your girlfriends and stuff, he's like I struggle to keep up. Yeah, so I guess that's. I don't know if you guys experience that when you go to America, do people seem?
Speaker 1:to talk a little faster.
Speaker 3:Do you know what I think?
Speaker 1:generally when people hear our accent.
Speaker 3:They just stop talking.
Speaker 1:No, they slow down, they slow down.
Speaker 2:Oh, hear our accent. They stop talking. No, they slow down, they slow down. Oh, people are. So I think I think that as well, and also I think the volume is is higher. I wouldn't say that you are particularly loud, though, but I'm very loud really. No, I don't think you are to me. You don't change myself.
Speaker 3:Oh, you've learned to control that, but I was no. Volume is definitely high by a lot of people in the uk for a long time.
Speaker 2:The loud girl, oh and not not in a mean way. I don't think you're loud either. I can't I am?
Speaker 3:I don't think I am now. I think in the right environments, in certain environments, certain situations, I, yeah, I can get very loud, especially if I'm nervous nervous. If I'm nervous about something, if I'm excited, I have like adrenaline, any sort of adrenaline in my body. I am like different, yeah, and I think that's just how did you know that people calling you? Did they tell me oh yeah, I remember that's not very British.
Speaker 3:Normally I had a job, at a job once and um, I did get that job. But after the fact I talked to them about, like you know, just about my interview and stuff like that, and they all every he's a small office, everyone the office said oh yeah, we could hear you through the the wall. Um, they're just like. They're like, yeah, you were just really like intense, really loud, and um, you know, I could tell you're passionate because you just kept getting louder and I was like, oh gosh, yeah, that's me. So, yeah, I agree with that. Americans are very loud, yeah, confident as well yeah, confidence, I think as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the confidence comes across a very open.
Speaker 1:I think sometimes us brits, potentially, are very conservative we're reserved, reserved, yeah, sorry, reserved not not only in certain situations, in certain settings.
Speaker 3:I'm not tarring everyone with the same brush either I just I know it is hard, like, yeah, you're just talking about your experience, I get that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, same with me, yeah we seem to be a bit more sarcastic, don't you think? Or is that just yeah?
Speaker 2:yes, okay, yes, we'll go with yes but I really like it.
Speaker 3:I like that you guys are a little reserved, more reserved, because I just feel like I love being American. You know, I'm really proud of being American and all that, and and I do love that we are like instilled with this sense of confidence. Yeah, I think it can go one way or the other, though some people are too confident when they shouldn't be, you know, and all that.
Speaker 2:I think you're also one way or the other, though Some people are too confident when they shouldn't be, you know and all that. I think you're also very direct, like you know exactly where you stand, whereas I don't think as a Brit, sometimes we don't, we don't often say if we're upset with something, does that oh.
Speaker 3:OK, you know what I mean, yeah. We don't always say oh this is really annoying to me.
Speaker 2:We're yeah but I like that because, at least you know where you stand, like at least, like I know, I'm like oh, okay, cool. Like you know we can work through this. But but a Brit could like have, I don't know, just a grudge for ages.
Speaker 1:I feel like like I just feel like, yeah, whereas at least again, again, yeah, I'm not telling everyone but yeah, it's, it's experience wise.
Speaker 2:I just feel like it's nice to know where you stand. In my opinion, yeah, I get yeah someone that struggles, potentially, yeah, but yeah, I, yeah, I always struggle to know what people are feeling. I think that's maybe it's me as a me thing, whereas I'm like, oh, I know where I stand here.
Speaker 1:So what do you miss? Yeah, well, you know what do you really, really miss about america? Or actually, let's phrase it separately what do you miss about America when you're here and what do you miss about here, when you're in America?
Speaker 2:yes, that's a good one, other than obviously key things like family other than obviously, us and Anthony right so obviously, when you're here, you miss your family so let me think about that.
Speaker 3:No, when I'm in, when I'm here okay, obviously, excluding family, because that's obviously the biggest one yeah, yeah, what? I miss a lot, and this is just my experience, because I grew up working at theme parks, living in an area where there's always something to do, no matter what, and I'm really fortunate that I was from the sunshine state, so it's just lovely. You know, it's a novelty too. I mean, the novelty wears off when you do live there. Like, at first it's like lovely and warm all the time, you know, and then it just gets hot and humid and you're like, ah, but so when I'm here, I miss so much and I always call myself a lizard because I like being warm.
Speaker 3:I, because I like being warm. I'm not one of those people that are like, as soon as it gets warm, then I'm like, complaining about it being too warm, like, no, I am me, I will complain about it being cold. And then when it's warm, I am happy, I don't care how hot it gets, I will never complain, I love it. And so one thing I miss about here is when we get those lovely seasonal changes, especially February.
Speaker 3:January February that beautiful time where it's just freezing, cold and raining. I um particularly just miss florida. So much you're saying there was so much passion.
Speaker 3:I I miss those torrential downpours, I miss that, those lightning storms, I miss the sunshine, I miss the breeze, like I miss the weather so much. And I think there's a lot of americans that are from florida, that can, or california, similar climates, that can relate to that feeling that's subtropical. You just miss it so much. So there's that, I miss that. And then I also, just like I said earlier, like I just miss the variety sometimes, like I appreciate that we have really cool things to do that american stone could do, like like we have, like the theater royal, which I think is incredible for the arts like we have a.
Speaker 3:We are like the. Norwich is great for the arts. Oh it is, we are so lucky and it's all so close, like that's great and so I appreciate all that so much, don't get me wrong. But I do miss the ability to just like oh, we're bored, oh, we have an annual pass to universal, let's go there today. Or if I was, working there.
Speaker 3:I just can get in there anyway. Or disney you got your pass or, or, if you, or if you, if you don't have, you know, the budget to do like the big theme parks. There's just so much other stuff to do like you could. You could go paintballing, you could go go-kart driving, you can, you know, go putt-putt golfing, which is crazy golf. Um, you can go to a water park. You can go for a stroll around one of the big cities.
Speaker 3:There's like a bunch of malls, like it's like the tourism capital yeah, I guess where I was from yeah, so I desperately miss that and sometimes I would just go walk around target because it was something to do like yeah, it was nice you get your little starbies, you walk around target and you know you just look for all the real red stickers with the sales and see what you could get.
Speaker 3:You know it's just, it's just a fun little experience. So that's what I miss about. I mean I'm sure there's more things, um, but those are like kind of the two things the weather and the, the opportunity to do activities. It's just more readily available in the us and then when I'm in the us, so I have to think about it when I wasn't. I'm not there just on holiday anymore. I have to think about it like when I was before I moved to the UK brain.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, that's the problem.
Speaker 3:It's like because now when I'm in Florida, I'm only there for two weeks and I'm like I don't miss England at all.
Speaker 2:Yeah, enjoying the hot weather yeah.
Speaker 3:So I think things the US had more of that the UK does. I like Norwich so I can't compare it to all the cities in the UK but Norwich for example it's not so fast-paced.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, just chill. I get that quite chill.
Speaker 3:I mean like there's just this really lovely quaintness about Norwich, like we do get the hustle and bustle, but there's something really lovely about it and that's something you don't get everywhere. Like in the States you do get your beautiful little cities and countries like it's huge, but like in the where I come from, like it just everything's just so fast moving. Now, like I said, the traffic is awful, like you know it just everywhere is. So everywhere Everyone's got to be somewhere.
Speaker 3:And it's like everyone and I feel like in America everyone is just so work orientated, like they're always about trying to get to the next level in work. They're trying to get that promotion. They're trying to be the better version of themselves constantly.
Speaker 1:We're a bit more laid back, yeah, and they'll just sit back and enjoy the moment a little bit more. And again, I'm not painting, I can't say I'm not painting everybody with the same brush.
Speaker 3:I totally appreciate that it. It's not everyone's experience, it's just kind of similar. That's things I've noticed about people's work ethic in America compared to the UK. So when I'm in America you miss that slow pace of life. You just want people to just stop in the moment.
Speaker 2:But you can't because the work-life balance just isn't there.
Speaker 3:In the UK you have that work-life balance. In the US you just don't. That's really nice to know. So people are just constantly like just on the go, on the move and they don't just sit back and relax. We're here in the UK Like we have those moments because we have the two weeks paid holiday, you know if you're full time, you have the health care, you have all the things that you need to just have that moment, yeah.
Speaker 3:I just feel like everybody in America is just trying to one up each other all the time, too Like it's very it feels very competitive atmosphere.
Speaker 2:Yeah, very, it feels very competitive atmosphere. Yeah, I guess yeah, yeah, not, not not so much people I know, but like I've witnessed it, so yeah, yeah, I guess. Does that answer your question? It does, it does, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I thought you were gonna say candy corn, I'm not gonna lie. Um, oh, you thought I was gonna go straight to the food. Yeah, I was, I was. I was like, oh, she's gonna say candy corn, I can feel it.
Speaker 3:I do miss, yeah, but actually we can. We can jump into that really, really quick In the US. One thing food-wise I do love Sunday roast. We don't have a Sunday roast. Our reaction to that was I don't have a Sunday roast. We only have big roasts on Thanksgiving and Christmas and Easter, but that is it. We don't do like oh, let's have a Sunday roast. We don't have a carvery. What's a carvery? Golden Corral, that does not count, like it's just Denny's does not count, denny's does not count, like these weird weird shops do not count, but yeah, so that is if you want to talk about food.
Speaker 3:like Americans need to get down with the Sunday roast? They, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1:We have plenty of chickens there. What was that chicken costume that Anthony was wearing that time?
Speaker 3:Oh yeah. So this was years ago. We thought Anthony was visiting America for Thanksgiving, experiencing his first Thanksgiving with my family. So we thought it would be funny to trick Anthony and make it seem like we celebrate it in a much different way than we do. So my sister bought pilgrim hats and Indian, like you know, feather, but like just the traditional, like how you know Indians and the pilgrims and all that. And we said, oh, you're the guest of honor, we have the, we will buy. I'm sure he was like oh, I pulled out from the attic or whatever the or the, the suit of honor or whatever the chicken suit and basically anthony dressed up as a chicken and he was kind of going along with it, half thinking it was a joke and then half wondering if we were dead serious because nobody broke character. Yeah, it was like turned into like some weird, like movie, like culty thing this is like getting your own back for reading festival.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, this is is like oh and then. So I have one more little, tiny little story no, no, it's about.
Speaker 3:It's about tricking again. So my oldest niece, who now is um fiance to a british man, thanks to me because she visited me another story for another time. But he went to america on thanksgiving and I wasn't, but I heard the story and it made me laugh. So his name's Joe, and at dinner they all like we have all this lovely food Instead of everyone tucking into eating like my family already, like pre said like oh, we're going to play this trick on him, so no one ate anything. Joe sat down, so all the food's out and everyone's like, oh, we're just waiting for Jay. And then Jay's my sister's husband. And when Jay came in, the entire family stood up Are you joking? Put their hand on their heart oh my God. And said the Pledge of Allegiance in unison, but dead serious, like that's what we need to do before we have Thanksgiving, like that's what we do. And Joe apparently face was like had a half cracked smile like, and he without hesitation, stood up and followed suit because he thought that's what you're meant to do.
Speaker 3:But he thought it's a bella, my niece said she could just feel that he was so like, felt so awkward and probably like thinking about his choices about proposing, probably wondering oh shit, I married into a cult family this is really weird, or shit, I shit, I didn't learn the Pledge of Allegiance, the Pledge of Allegiance, pledge of Allegiance. And the thing is, after they did it, they still didn't tell him all day.
Speaker 3:So he spent all day thinking because after they did it, everything went back to normal, everything felt normal, and so it wasn't until later that day that they actually told him that yeah, you know that was a joke, right, and he like had the size like a sigh of relief, like, oh, thank god, like I thought you guys were nuts like, and you know, no offense to those families that do you want to do that again? America is a you know beautiful country and I get you want to.
Speaker 1:You know the patriotism is strong, yeah, patriotic, but there's a line.
Speaker 3:There is a line. I mean we do it at baseball games and football games. No, we don't. We don't do that. We do the national anthem. No, we do Pledge of Allegiance at the beginning of the school day, which is take that as you want.
Speaker 2:I don't know if we do the Lord's Prayer, or did you know there's C of E schools that have done Lord's Prayer? It's just probably the same. You don't even think about it when you're in school, like you just do it.
Speaker 3:You don't even question it like I never questioned it once, like I do my allegiance every single day yeah. I mean, it's nice, patriotic, but is it necessary? I don't know what are, so anyway, yes, that's, that's that oh, that's brilliant fabulous.
Speaker 2:Well, we will end it there should we?
Speaker 1:should we have her? Do we come back on another? I?
Speaker 3:think we're gonna have to have her on another episode we'll see how the response is to what I've said. Uh, from your listeners, um, they might not like me, so we'll be like who is this girl? What is she talking? About oh yeah, if they have questions I can come back on and answer them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that'd be fun well, please find us on all our social networks. Where are we? Instagram, facebook? Apparently we have a Twitter. I still don't know anything about that.
Speaker 1:Find us on there, I actually tweeted the other day, did you? Yeah, I sent a tweet, sent it straight from Buzzsprout. It just pinged off. Oh nice, yeah, didn't even write it. Ao wrote it fabulous.
Speaker 2:I'm sure if you type in bonus dad, bonus daughter in some of these search engines, you'll find us anyway. Have a lovely day, bye, bye, bye. Outro Music.