Threading

Dear Yankee Doodles,

Has anyone ever heard of threading? Well I hadn’t before I moved across the pond, but I did just have it done to me last week… But before you read on, I’m just giving you a head’s up that this post will most likely only be appreciated by the girls. Jason didn’t want me to talk about this to the world, but this is the reality, and I personally want to share my experience, so here it is…

Ever since I was a young girl I’ve had to get lip waxes. It’s something unfortunately I’ve had to deal with for awhile, but I guess that’s the price I have to pay for my Middle Eastern background! So last week Kelly brought me to Fenwicks (a department store in downtown Newcastle) and I sat down to get threaded. The procedure took about 10 minutes and have to say was more painful than a regular wax I’ve gotten at home, but the experience was amazing! I think the result is better than a wax and worth the extra pain.

The woman that did it was very nice, professional, and knew exactly what she was doing. She was originally from Pakistan and told me that threading had been used in her country for years. It had made it over to London about 10 years ago, and was now in Newcastle. However, like I said earlier, I’d never heard of it, but maybe some of you have?

So she pretty much takes this long string and threads it through her mouth making like a knot in the string, pulls the string across your skin, and it catches the hair and pulls it out. The process feels like someone ripping your hair out with pluckers, which yes I know is pretty much what she’s doing, but it was worth it. It doesn’t burn your skin or make it as red as waxing it. Plus unlike the States where it’s mostly Asians with fair skin color and no hair what so ever on their body, she could relate to me, and I felt so much more comfortable. I also think that is why the result was so much better. But so I know it sounds weird and hard to picture it, but if you ever see it advertised, it’s worth it and do it, haha. Well I hope at least some of you enjoyed this post, but I did warn you about it! :)

Thanksgiving Across the Pond

Dear Yankee Doodles,

This post is dedicated to my first British Thanksgiving. Well Carolina and I decided to host a Thanksgiving dinner for all our American friends over here, but of course there are some wanna be Americans that are joining us as well just for the turkey and pecan pie I’m sure! 

So Carolina and I began prepping for our big day on Wednesday. We went shopping and ran into a few bumps when looking for things on our grocery list. Couldn’t find hash browns, potato wedges, cool whip, cheez whiz (Sorry Tejchmas, no cheesy rice and broccoli casserole for us this year!), and the big one for me was pie crusts, or a pie dish! Apparently they don’t sell either, in fact no one had even heard of them when we asked! So we went the bakery to actually see if she could make us one, and she pointed us in the direction of pastry crusts, and since there are no pie crusts, there are definitely no pie pans, so I used a quiche pan to make it! And don’t even ask about the pumpkin pie because they definitely don’t have that!

So after our shopping episode Carolina and I went back to start prepping. I have to give big thanks to Carolina because she was pretty much the cook of most of the food since I had to work the day before and the day of Thanksgiving. So thanks Carolina!! You did a fabulous job! Overall we had a success with our meal. It included several casseroles, turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, deviled eggs, ham roll-ups, and desserts! Everyone said they enjoyed the food and personally it felt like Thanksgiving to us. We even had some British friends over, including my friend Kelly, who is now a personal fan of sweet potato casserole! She’d fit in well then with my friends down South! 

Our Thanksgiving also included football! Carolina and her husband Ryan have a Sling box, which is this thing you attach to a TV back in the States, and then using your computer you can pick up American shows back home. So of course all the boys crowded around the laptop for the Lions game. We also had fun playing some beer pong that night, and of course since you know we were playing that, leg kicks did follow soon after! 

Well I hope that everyone else had a great Thanksgiving. Let me know if you had anything exciting/funny happen on yours. Miss you all!

Shannon

P.S. Pictures and Video to follow...

Dear Yankee Doodles,

Hello again, I know I know you’re already hearing from me again so soon. Well like I said before I’m going to try my best to keep up a better blog so you know what Jason and I are up to. Well this week has just been work, work, and work. But one thing I would like to know is how I can be working six days this week and still not get 40 hours! I know seriously!!

But anyways I was thinking the other day at work how over here they speak the same language as us in America, but I can’t tell you how many differences I’ve run into just at work alone where I have no idea what they are talking about! So I decided I would give you a list of what we say and what they would call it over here. Also even just some of their comments they make about things are different. Like when we would say someone is nice, they’d say “oh they’re so lovely.” Or if they comment about something like chocolate, we would say, oh that tastes good, and they’d say “it’s gorgeous.”

I’ve also noticed that older women love to call me “Pet.” I would say that’s the equivalent to dear. They are always like “oh thanks pet.”haha I loved it the first time I heard it, and thought that she was specifically saying it to, but nope everyone says it! Haha guess I’m not that important! But so here’s just a few things that I can remember that are different.

English British
Sweater Jumper
Tech vest Body warmer
Bathing suit Swimming costume
Turtle neck Just laughed at me (don’t remember what they call that!)
Cash register Till
Line(what people stand in) Queue ( So many of my co-workers love it when I say next in line!haha)


And another last thing I’ve thought of is how they say Americans have a lot more costumer service than they do, so when I wait on people at the till, many costumers always have a big smile on their faces and get a kick out of it when I say have a nice day! Can you believe that? I’m like everyone back in the States says that, and that’s what they say back to me. No one over here says it, and I guess it’s totally an American thing, but personally I just think that’s being nice. Well hope you enjoyed this British lesson. Talk to you all soon.

Shannon