In general, the bus drivers here are extremely courteous... everyone says good morning/afternoon/evening when you get on the bus (we have to check our watches around noon to ensure we get it right) and the bus driver says the same to you. And then everyone says thank you when they get off the bus and the driver says you're welcome to every single person. We even got a "have a blessed day" the other week.
Today my bus driver even went so far as to call me gorgeous twice in the space of a 5 minute journey - this makes a remarkable contrast to the comments directed at me by my husband on a regular basis... last night he told me that my hair was looking like a fuzz ball. Charming. Anyway, the absolute best thing about today's bus journey was the sign with the bus driver's name (which is at the front of every bus).... which said "Your professional driver is [insert name]" and underneath it said "Ladies stay fabulous". AMAZING.
Wednesday, 23 April 2014
Tuesday, 22 April 2014
Chingas.... I have a lot of new wurds to learn...
We have been rather enjoying the Bermudian accent so far, but we are also finding that there are quite a lot of new words for us to learn as well as learning to be uber-polite to everyone. For some examples, see the link below:
How to speak Bermudian
We are trying to say "Chingas!" as much as possible and we always walk "down de heel" rather than down the hill now.
One that isn't on the list (I think) is lobster, which basically means a tourist. We initially thought that this is because all the tourists get pretty sunburnt, but we are (reliably) informed that it's actually because "all de meat is in de tail"...
How to speak Bermudian
We are trying to say "Chingas!" as much as possible and we always walk "down de heel" rather than down the hill now.
One that isn't on the list (I think) is lobster, which basically means a tourist. We initially thought that this is because all the tourists get pretty sunburnt, but we are (reliably) informed that it's actually because "all de meat is in de tail"...
Monday, 21 April 2014
Proud to be Bermudian...
This music video is amazing and the very nice lady that sits next to Bruce in the office was one of the executive producers of it (she also has about nine cats, but that's another story). Bruce quite likes to sing along with it (it's very catchy)...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frydTHUf1Ws
My favourite bit starts at about 3:11 (From the white rooftops, pink and blue bus stops, in my Bermy shorts with my knee high socks and I'm in the Bermy flow, people smile and say hello...)
We showed this to my parents while they were staying with us and my mum's response was "We should have something like this for Britain... Proud to be English". Oh dear.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frydTHUf1Ws
My favourite bit starts at about 3:11 (From the white rooftops, pink and blue bus stops, in my Bermy shorts with my knee high socks and I'm in the Bermy flow, people smile and say hello...)
We showed this to my parents while they were staying with us and my mum's response was "We should have something like this for Britain... Proud to be English". Oh dear.
Wednesday, 9 April 2014
Office attire, supermarket shout outs and a modern pirate
Good news - it looks to be (almost) certain that I am going to have job. So I will no longer have to write "housewife" next to occupation on application forms, and I'll only have two days a week to spend writing my novel (watching things on Netflix) once my work permit is sorted out (i.e. in 2 months time).
Office attire
Today I went to the office to meet a few people and find out some more about what they do/what I'll be doing. Everyone is really nice and friendly, but there were two clear highlights to my visit:
1. The HR lady I was meant to meet was off sick so couldn't make our 10am meeting. However, she had just slept off her headache and was in the office by 11:15am, when she called me to catch up. Like that would ever happen in the UK.
2. I met a manager in the tax team who is from the US and was wearing shorts with long socks. And if that wasn't amazing enough, the shorts were quite a bright shade of yellow! He is basically Bruce's fashion hero.
Actually there was also a third remarkable thing - my Bermuda boss has a Nespresso machine... but you can't buy the pods for it here, so they have to stock up whenever they go to New York. Ridiculous.
Only in Bermuda...
Last week I was highly amused to hear a birthday shout out... in the supermarket... for a customer. Going to have to make sure that they know when it's my birthday!
At the weekend, we also saw someone in the mall queuing up to speak to CableVision. And he had a bird perched on his shoulder... I don't think it was exotic enough to be a parrot, but it looked a bit like the bird that Brett gave Libby on Neighbours (Dahl?) about a million years ago.
Office attire
Today I went to the office to meet a few people and find out some more about what they do/what I'll be doing. Everyone is really nice and friendly, but there were two clear highlights to my visit:
1. The HR lady I was meant to meet was off sick so couldn't make our 10am meeting. However, she had just slept off her headache and was in the office by 11:15am, when she called me to catch up. Like that would ever happen in the UK.
2. I met a manager in the tax team who is from the US and was wearing shorts with long socks. And if that wasn't amazing enough, the shorts were quite a bright shade of yellow! He is basically Bruce's fashion hero.
Actually there was also a third remarkable thing - my Bermuda boss has a Nespresso machine... but you can't buy the pods for it here, so they have to stock up whenever they go to New York. Ridiculous.
Only in Bermuda...
Last week I was highly amused to hear a birthday shout out... in the supermarket... for a customer. Going to have to make sure that they know when it's my birthday!
At the weekend, we also saw someone in the mall queuing up to speak to CableVision. And he had a bird perched on his shoulder... I don't think it was exotic enough to be a parrot, but it looked a bit like the bird that Brett gave Libby on Neighbours (Dahl?) about a million years ago.
Wednesday, 2 April 2014
Excuse me, that's a coat, not a bag!
Most awkward Bermuda experience to date:
Yesterday the packer at the supermarket decided that my coat (at the bottom of my rucksack) was a bag. So she packed up my rucksack and put the rest of the things in the middle of my coat, and then bundled it up so I could carry it. I was left with a rucksack half full of stuff and tuna and sweetcorn etc in the middle of my coat...
She was surprised when I explained that it was a coat, not a bag.
Yesterday the packer at the supermarket decided that my coat (at the bottom of my rucksack) was a bag. So she packed up my rucksack and put the rest of the things in the middle of my coat, and then bundled it up so I could carry it. I was left with a rucksack half full of stuff and tuna and sweetcorn etc in the middle of my coat...
She was surprised when I explained that it was a coat, not a bag.
Monday, 31 March 2014
Strange bars, "fake" tan and remarkably insecure banking
Bars
One of Bruce's colleagues recommended somewhere for happy hour on Friday, at the back of a little café in town. Turns out that you had to buy tickets for your drinks (a bit weird), and then there was virtually no one there (it was quite early), but there was a middle aged man doing the DJing, which was super loud. And he was doing shout outs. We left after one drink.
We then went to a 'pub', where the barman hissed at Bruce when he ordered our drinks and an elderly gentleman told us that if we were going to get divorced it would be much better for Bruce if we did so in Bermuda rather than in the UK.
"Fake" tan
My feet basically look like I've put fake tan on them really badly. I've been wearing the same pair of sandals pretty much every day, so I have odd white marks across my feet and some of my toes are half tanned, half white as ever. It looks completely ridiculous - unless I just keep wearing the same shoes...
My hair is also a bit of a disaster - it's now so curly and frizzy that I have 3 - 4 inches of extra head width on both sides of my head. Bruce now likes to tell me that I look very hairy; I have such a nice husband.
Banking
Convinced that this must be a hotbed of credit card fraud - not only do they not have chip and pin here, but no one even checks that your signature matches the one on your card. In fact, the person on the till doesn't even get a look at your card at all... you swipe it yourself and sign on an electronic keypad thing most of the time.
One of Bruce's colleagues recommended somewhere for happy hour on Friday, at the back of a little café in town. Turns out that you had to buy tickets for your drinks (a bit weird), and then there was virtually no one there (it was quite early), but there was a middle aged man doing the DJing, which was super loud. And he was doing shout outs. We left after one drink.
We then went to a 'pub', where the barman hissed at Bruce when he ordered our drinks and an elderly gentleman told us that if we were going to get divorced it would be much better for Bruce if we did so in Bermuda rather than in the UK.
"Fake" tan
My feet basically look like I've put fake tan on them really badly. I've been wearing the same pair of sandals pretty much every day, so I have odd white marks across my feet and some of my toes are half tanned, half white as ever. It looks completely ridiculous - unless I just keep wearing the same shoes...
My hair is also a bit of a disaster - it's now so curly and frizzy that I have 3 - 4 inches of extra head width on both sides of my head. Bruce now likes to tell me that I look very hairy; I have such a nice husband.
Banking
Convinced that this must be a hotbed of credit card fraud - not only do they not have chip and pin here, but no one even checks that your signature matches the one on your card. In fact, the person on the till doesn't even get a look at your card at all... you swipe it yourself and sign on an electronic keypad thing most of the time.
Friday, 28 March 2014
When the trip to the supermarket is the most productive thing you do all day...
... supermarket finds suddenly become the highlight of your day (excluding your husband getting home from work - obvs!).
I'm not sure if it's just because we have gotten so used to just ordering from Ocado/Waitrose and it's actually been ages since I have had a proper wander around a supermarket, but some of the stuff you can buy is amazing! Fun finds include:
- Teabags - eggnog flavour anyone?! I have also found red velvet flavour and black forest flavour - which both sound delicious too.
- Reese's Pieces cereal - I think Bruce will judge me if I actually buy this
- Whipped peanut butter and chocolate in one - completely delicious
- Jelly instead of jam (guava jelly is yum)
- Jello
- Really cool pink and white striped milk cartons - but apparently some of the milk starts out as skimmed milk, and then to get it up to the required fat content, they add vegetable oil - yuck!
- An extensive selection of baked bean varieties - mostly including some type of bacon, but you can also buy honey baked beans, which sounds weird!
- Appetizers for your cat - I thought the steamed tilapia sounded (and smelled) really nice, but Daisy and Bert weren't that keen. They quite like wild salmon florentine though!
There's also a LOT of out of date stuff on the shelves, so if you aren't careful, you buy ridiculously overpriced stuff that's already out of date. It's also funny what they don't have in stock - on a Monday, there is never any chicken available.
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