September 30, 2020

Living In America: Whose Side Are You On?

 

 

 

 

Public Domain


 Living in a country that you now call home while still having ties to the country of your birth can be confusing. It's a rather unique experience to expats. For instance, the World Cup. England and the USA are playing. Who do you support?? Your new home or your old one? Some might even say whichever one that goes the furthest!

Continuing on the sports theme, does one completely forget about football, or "soccer" as they insist on calling it over here? For anybody wondering, American Football is called just that in Britain. Formally, it's known as 'Gridiron Football'.

I still follow the World Cup when it's on, but not exclusively. If the USA or England (as usually Scotland and Wales never qualify) are doing well in it, then I'll be interested and, it seems as if the sport has gained some popularity in the years I've been here. Due in no small part to my influence of course! *ahem*

What sport would you miss if you moved away?






September 29, 2020

Enola Holmes - Episode 187

 

Netflix / CC BY 2.0

 "What is Enola Holmes?!" I hear you ask! Well, it's the newest offering from Netflix starring Millie Bobby Brown of Stranger Things fame. Enola Holmes is based on the popular young adult series of books by Nancy Springer and set in the original time period that her older brother Sherlock Holmes is set. The character of Sherlock features in this film, played by Henry Cavill who aquits himself well in the role but he's no Jeremy Brett or Benedict Cumberbatch. When Sherlock and Mycroft (Sam Claflin) return to the family home when their mother Eudoria (Helena Bonham-Carter) disappears. Listen to the episode to see whether we go off topic or not! (We do. We start talking about David Harbour and Lily Allen getting married! I KNOW!)

Have you seen Enola Holmes? What did you think of it?

September 24, 2020

Things A Brit Never Heard Of Before Moving To The USA - Episode 186

Raymond Wambsgans / CC BY 2.0

 

As a British expat, I only got to experience American culture from movies and TV and, as a rational thinker, I didn't expect it to be based off reality. Hollywood creates a dreamland, a fantasy world which only exists in the mind of a writer. When I first came to Texas, I was a little shocked and stunned as to how much of the things I'd seen were real and how much I'd never heard of before.

What are some strange British things you had never heard of before?


September 22, 2020

School Field Trips In the USA and UK - Episode 185

 

Image: K.W. Barrett (CC BY 2.0)

Remember when you were in school and you got to go on a school field trip? The excitement of getting to actually leave school and go somewhere else and have a full day of no lessons. Maybe you weren't excited to go, if it was a field trip somewhere boring. Maybe you found all field trips in school boring! The school field trip in the UK was always something I enjoyed going on, as you'll hear in this new podcast episode all about school field trips in the USA and UK!

What was your favorite school field trip?

September 17, 2020

Sex Education Differences In The US & UK - Episode 184

 

Shairyar.khan.7 / CC BY-SA

 

Furthering our talk about the Netflix show 'Sex Education', we decided to talk about our own Sex Education classes growing up. It seems Dominic can't really remember much of his and Erica remembers getting a goodie bag!

What do you remember about your Sex Education?


September 15, 2020

Sex Education on Netflix - Episode 183

 

Public Domain

 This episode, we're talking about Sex Education. Not OUR Sex Education, that will come later, but the Netflix show we've just started watching.We just got a sub to Netflix and decided to check out some shows on there. Erica got her fix of Spy Business and now we're onto the popular shows.

What's your favourite Netflix show?

September 10, 2020

Top 10 Castles of the UK - Episode 182

Public Domain

 So, bet you didn't know the UK had CASTLES, didja? Oh... You did? Well, that was anticlimactic! Anyway! In this episode we talk about the top 10 castles you have to see when you visit the UK. Some of the history of the UK is fascinating and castles are at forefront of that history!

Have you ever been to a castle?


September 8, 2020

Saturday Morning Cartoons of the 90s - Episode 181

 

Image: Bago Games (CC BY 2.0)


Saturday Mornings for kids in the latter half of the 20th century was an absolute treat on both sides of the Atlantic! Who doesn't remember The Flintstones, Smurfs and Care Bears? Perhaps even some of you remember Bananaman?

What cartoons were your favourite on Saturday?

September 3, 2020

Homecoming Explained By An American - Episode 180

CC BY 2.0

So, if you're not American, it's possible you've heard of their culture that surrounds their school life. What exactly is this 'Homecoming' that movies and TV portray? WHO is coming home? And what's all this about MUMS? If you have no clue, then listen to this episode!


What do you remember about your homecoming?


September 2, 2020

Living In America: The Cancel Culture

 

Image: Dick Thomas Johnson (CC BY)

From what I've personally observed in the USA, there is definitely a competitiveness, an eagerness to be successful, to be elite, to own the newest car or most luxurious home, to not just keep up with the Joneses but completely leave them in the dust.

While there's nothing wrong with wanting to be a success, with wanting to own many nice things, there is fundamentally something wrong with wanting to do it just to rub it in other's faces, just to lord it over less successful people. In my mind, when you get to the top and you gloat, brag or be obnoxious, you instantly fall to the bottom, because the people who you are gloating to are the ones holding you up there. This is partly how the "cancel culture" was formed. Celebrities are celebrities only because the people allow it. Just because you've had a string of successes and you are making enough for you and your line to live off for life doesn't mean that you're better or greater than the person struggling to put food on the table in a low paying job. Some celebrities forget that, some don't.

But there's a fine line. There seems to be an unwritten rule that a celebrity can't have their own opinion and their opinion, when asked for, should conform to the watchdog's own, the watchdog being the person who lives on social media waiting for a celebrity to put a foot wrong so they can 'cancel' them. Now, I'm not saying that celebrities shouldn't be held accountable for opinions that go against basic human rights but if you're having a meltdown and trying to stir up the cancel culture because Tom Hanks posted about hating avocados, then maybe you need to look at your own life and get off social media.

Note: I have no idea if Tom Hanks hates avocados or not, I don't know him and neither do you. Unless there is the remote possibility you actually are Tom Hanks and you're reading this right now, if so, Hi Tom Hanks, I loved you in 'Forrest Gump' and 'The Terminal'! Oh, by the way, do you like avocados?

My digression onto Tom Hanks and avocados aside, I still think there are instances where the cancel culture needs to calm down and be more aware, as they claim to promote, of just general insanity on their part.

If I am to be cancelled for my opinion, then so be it.

-Dominic


September 1, 2020

Places We Wanna Go: Cornwall - Episode 179

Image: Kynance Cove, Cornwall. (CC BY 2.0)

Cornwall. One of the more magical counties in England and its cliffs the scene of many a dramatic pose by someone in a corset or on horseback. This county is definitely somewhere we want to explore, for it's connections with strange beasts that roam moors, the ghosts of smugglers and for that mythical wall of corn that Dominic keeps going on about.

What are your thoughts about Cornwall?