anenglishmaninneworleans.blogspot.com
An Englishman in New Orleans: April 2009
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An Englishman in New Orleans. Saturday, April 4, 2009. Yes, we have some bananas. A couple of years ago, during our guerrilla gardening phase, we liberated a couple of four-foot banana plants from what was then the derelict house next door and is now the beautifully restored historic home of our friends Kevin and Matt. They're now fifteen feet high - the banana plants, that is, not the neighbours. I looked up bananas on the net and discovered that the trunk of the "tree" is actually made up of huge conce...
anenglishmaninneworleans.blogspot.com
An Englishman in New Orleans: March 2009
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An Englishman in New Orleans. Wednesday, March 25, 2009. Speaking of which, here's a hilarious story from the UK about Google Earth. Thursday, March 19, 2009. Sometimes I go for little journeys inside my head, for no particular reason except to pass the time, and because I can. They're also a good cure for insomnia, much more effective than counting sheep. In the UK, offering a 360-degree, driver's-eye experience of most of the country's main cities. The pictures must have been taken last summer. The...
anenglishmaninneworleans.blogspot.com
An Englishman in New Orleans: If you live more than 500 miles from Jackson Square, you won't find this funny.
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An Englishman in New Orleans. Tuesday, December 1, 2009. If you live more than 500 miles from Jackson Square, you won't find this funny. You know you're from Louisiana if. You've never heard of a dry county. You've never heard of a county. You hear gambling is illegal in some other states and are surprised. You reinforce your attic to store Mardi Gras beads. Your sunglasses fog up when you step outside. When you give directions you use "lakeside and riverside" not north and south. You have to reset your ...
anenglishmaninneworleans.blogspot.com
An Englishman in New Orleans: February 2010
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An Englishman in New Orleans. Wednesday, February 3, 2010. Sorry about the long absence - I'm in the UK, where my mother is very ill. I've left behind a city even more exuberant than usual: not only has the Mardi Gras season kicked off, but the Saints are in the Superbowl this Sunday. And, thanks to my sister Jacqui and the stupidity of the National Football League, the Saints' catchphrase "Who dat" is making international headlines. Subscribe to: Posts (Atom). View my complete profile.
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An Englishman in New Orleans: Happy holidays!
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An Englishman in New Orleans. Thursday, December 24, 2009. As I belatedly installed a pack of "holiday lites" on our Christmas tree last night, I realised just how comprehensively the C-word has been banished from the American vocabulary. Google "happy holidays", and you get 61.5 million hits. Now try "merry Christmas": a pitiful 40 million. It's no exaggeration to say that in the past couple of months, I've seen the word Christmas in print about four times. By the way, if you're looking for a last-minut...
anenglishmaninneworleans.blogspot.com
An Englishman in New Orleans: May 2009
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An Englishman in New Orleans. Monday, May 18, 2009. Excuse the long silence. Pam and I are in London for a couple of weeks. One of my main reasons for coming, apart from catching up with friends and family after nine months' absence, was to give a presentation at the conference of my professional body, the Institute of Translation and Interpreting. Fortunately, everyone was very understanding, and they reshuffled the programme a bit and fitted me in later on. The presentation was about my walk. Once, in ...
anenglishmaninneworleans.blogspot.com
An Englishman in New Orleans
http://anenglishmaninneworleans.blogspot.com/2009/11/i-never-thought-when-i-came-to-new.html
An Englishman in New Orleans. Sunday, November 8, 2009. I never thought when I came to New Orleans that I'd spend so much time in gay bars. But a large proportion of our friends are gay, and so are many of the best bars in town, so I feel quite at home there now. Nor did I ever expect to end up devoting so much of my time to football on TV, but you can't really avoid it at the moment unless you want to end up a hermit, rejected and unloved. It was a bit like Katrina, when bars in the Quarter were abuzz a...
anenglishmaninneworleans.blogspot.com
An Englishman in New Orleans: February 2009
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An Englishman in New Orleans. Saturday, February 28, 2009. With the possible exception of the train drivers and airline pilots who stir us from our slumbers in the small hours, Debbie Fagnano is the noisiest person in New Orleans. And yet she's also one of the city's best-known and most popular inhabitants, though most people have only seen her as a speck in the distance. I had to don earplugs when I sat in on her Saturday lunchtime concert which, for my benefit, she began with the British national anthem.
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An Englishman in New Orleans: November 2009
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An Englishman in New Orleans. Wednesday, November 18, 2009. I had my first encounter with the US healthcare system yesterday. I went to a GP with a minor ailment, and was told that the charge for the initial visit would be $200. (British readers: forget the official exchange rate. In purchasing power terms, $200 is roughly the equivalent of £200.) After that, it would be $70 a visit. So why is it so much more expensive the first time? I asked politely, concealing my resentment. We're still being bombarde...
anenglishmaninneworleans.blogspot.com
An Englishman in New Orleans: December 2009
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An Englishman in New Orleans. Thursday, December 24, 2009. As I belatedly installed a pack of "holiday lites" on our Christmas tree last night, I realised just how comprehensively the C-word has been banished from the American vocabulary. Google "happy holidays", and you get 61.5 million hits. Now try "merry Christmas": a pitiful 40 million. It's no exaggeration to say that in the past couple of months, I've seen the word Christmas in print about four times. By the way, if you're looking for a last-minut...