10 July - retailing. Them and us..
Have spent the weekend basically tanning and shopping. Although i am down to my last $300, i do have the small matter of a credit card with a $16,000 limit on it, so have been exercising it over the weekend at the Eaton Centre.
Shopping is an education. Surrounded by 300 shops, you can really get a feel for what people are like, what is important and how consumers... well consume. You can really get an education for most things.
Hair has been a bit of a problem child for me these past 10 days, what with my clippers not working and then getting new clippers which just werent cutting close enough - how vain am i?! i knew which shop I thought i would end up going to, but i took a scenic tour round a few stores to get a feel for the place i am staying in.
I went to a bookstore (they have loads) and immediately went to the travel section. Instinctively, i picked up a book on England which described English people as 'not as reserved as you would expect'. It also said that 'while there are millions that engage in the principal sporting interests of football (soccer) and cricket, you will still find many British people who partake in traditional pastimes like stamp collecting, train spotting, tea pot collecting and bird watching..' Jesus it makes us sound like a bunch of freaks. And were the brackets really necessary after football? No, thought not..
The other thing that stood out in the book shop was the 'new Oxford Canadian English dictionary'. Errrr excuse me? Canadian English? I am definitely bringing one of these home. I was intrigued to see what Canadian English consisted of, and sure enough, within about 5 references, i found the term 'dime store', which is wont surprise you is a bargain basement shop. It wont surprise you if that isnt in the real Oxford English Dictionary either! Hang on, I know the auditor of OUP, maybe i'll ask her to confirm for me!!
Musical tastes isnt something i've really got in to yet. I do have a radio in the flat, but i also have a TV with (as far as i can make out so far) about 75 channels on it. As a result, i've not really got in to music yet. But a HMV is a HMV, and they still have the CDs laid out in chart form. I'm happy to report that i already have 3 of the top 6 (Black Eyed peas, Killers and Coldplay), so on this basis it would appear that musically taste is not all that diff. I am somewhat concerned that CDs can cost as little as $10 over here (just under a fiver). But still, work will pay for 20kg of excess baggage so if i choose to extend my collection hopefully i will also get it home. For today, I settled on the new oasis one ($12) and old ones from Oasis, Blink 182, Coldplay and IceCube. That'll keep the neighbours guessing..
Shoppers Drugmart is basically a version of Boots. Probably better stocked too. Interestingly though, here in this bulk buy society you can buy a pack of 180 aspirins, just in case you have a really bad head ache. In the UK, i got stopped at boots trying to buy 3 x 16 piece packets to stock up for my trip. 'I'm 29 and i suffer from blood clots' did not make much difference to the good management of Boots, Queensgate, Pboro. I'm equally fairly certain that the 32 i did buy would still kill me if i ate them all at once - i can only assume that is the only merit in limiting sales.
I was also interested to see how the children's medicine market has advanced compared to ours at home. For those kids suffering from coughs, you can get 'cough freezer pops'. Yes. Ice lollies that mend your cough! And band aid plasters come in various characters, sponge bob, barbie, batman, spiderman, scooby amongst them.. all the encouragement a child needs then to go out and get ill, and then hack themselves to shreds... I think when i get a cough (its bound to happen) it would be wrong of me not to try out the ice lollies, just as an experiment. Not sure that scooby would go down so well in an accounts department though..
I went looking for clothes for a while too. I am still on the scout for a decent t shirt with the number 75 on it - all feedback gratefully received. I visited most of the clothes shops in Eaton, just to get a taste for local fashions. They are into baggier clothes than us, a combination of the surfing influence on one side, and the NBA/NFL/NHL tops, which are all huge also playing their part. But there are some good tops about, with some decent lines that suggest that humour is not dissimilar to that at home. Among the best ones (this'll tell you how bad my humour is!) "i see you have met the twins already' (girls top of course), ' i swear it is this big', 'you've got to lay em to play em' (they are obsessed with poker here) and again on the poker theme, 'poker? I hardly know her'. That one is coming home with me!
Most things come with a helping of french. Sometimes this is clearly wrong, like on the FCUK t shirt i saw 'je fcuk pour england'. But on the other hand, it can give moments of childish humour to someone like me all day. Like when i bought batteries for my new walkman. in french these are called 'piles'. Sometimes its great being able to laugh at such silliness! May those moments continue...
Shopping is an education. Surrounded by 300 shops, you can really get a feel for what people are like, what is important and how consumers... well consume. You can really get an education for most things.
Hair has been a bit of a problem child for me these past 10 days, what with my clippers not working and then getting new clippers which just werent cutting close enough - how vain am i?! i knew which shop I thought i would end up going to, but i took a scenic tour round a few stores to get a feel for the place i am staying in.
I went to a bookstore (they have loads) and immediately went to the travel section. Instinctively, i picked up a book on England which described English people as 'not as reserved as you would expect'. It also said that 'while there are millions that engage in the principal sporting interests of football (soccer) and cricket, you will still find many British people who partake in traditional pastimes like stamp collecting, train spotting, tea pot collecting and bird watching..' Jesus it makes us sound like a bunch of freaks. And were the brackets really necessary after football? No, thought not..
The other thing that stood out in the book shop was the 'new Oxford Canadian English dictionary'. Errrr excuse me? Canadian English? I am definitely bringing one of these home. I was intrigued to see what Canadian English consisted of, and sure enough, within about 5 references, i found the term 'dime store', which is wont surprise you is a bargain basement shop. It wont surprise you if that isnt in the real Oxford English Dictionary either! Hang on, I know the auditor of OUP, maybe i'll ask her to confirm for me!!
Musical tastes isnt something i've really got in to yet. I do have a radio in the flat, but i also have a TV with (as far as i can make out so far) about 75 channels on it. As a result, i've not really got in to music yet. But a HMV is a HMV, and they still have the CDs laid out in chart form. I'm happy to report that i already have 3 of the top 6 (Black Eyed peas, Killers and Coldplay), so on this basis it would appear that musically taste is not all that diff. I am somewhat concerned that CDs can cost as little as $10 over here (just under a fiver). But still, work will pay for 20kg of excess baggage so if i choose to extend my collection hopefully i will also get it home. For today, I settled on the new oasis one ($12) and old ones from Oasis, Blink 182, Coldplay and IceCube. That'll keep the neighbours guessing..
Shoppers Drugmart is basically a version of Boots. Probably better stocked too. Interestingly though, here in this bulk buy society you can buy a pack of 180 aspirins, just in case you have a really bad head ache. In the UK, i got stopped at boots trying to buy 3 x 16 piece packets to stock up for my trip. 'I'm 29 and i suffer from blood clots' did not make much difference to the good management of Boots, Queensgate, Pboro. I'm equally fairly certain that the 32 i did buy would still kill me if i ate them all at once - i can only assume that is the only merit in limiting sales.
I was also interested to see how the children's medicine market has advanced compared to ours at home. For those kids suffering from coughs, you can get 'cough freezer pops'. Yes. Ice lollies that mend your cough! And band aid plasters come in various characters, sponge bob, barbie, batman, spiderman, scooby amongst them.. all the encouragement a child needs then to go out and get ill, and then hack themselves to shreds... I think when i get a cough (its bound to happen) it would be wrong of me not to try out the ice lollies, just as an experiment. Not sure that scooby would go down so well in an accounts department though..
I went looking for clothes for a while too. I am still on the scout for a decent t shirt with the number 75 on it - all feedback gratefully received. I visited most of the clothes shops in Eaton, just to get a taste for local fashions. They are into baggier clothes than us, a combination of the surfing influence on one side, and the NBA/NFL/NHL tops, which are all huge also playing their part. But there are some good tops about, with some decent lines that suggest that humour is not dissimilar to that at home. Among the best ones (this'll tell you how bad my humour is!) "i see you have met the twins already' (girls top of course), ' i swear it is this big', 'you've got to lay em to play em' (they are obsessed with poker here) and again on the poker theme, 'poker? I hardly know her'. That one is coming home with me!
Most things come with a helping of french. Sometimes this is clearly wrong, like on the FCUK t shirt i saw 'je fcuk pour england'. But on the other hand, it can give moments of childish humour to someone like me all day. Like when i bought batteries for my new walkman. in french these are called 'piles'. Sometimes its great being able to laugh at such silliness! May those moments continue...
posted by CBC at 9:00 pm
6 Comments:
Am I allowed to start asking for your address yet? x
I think the person who wrote that book on the English has been reading George Orwell. And Orwell's point about the English "reserve" is that we are just a private people. This sense of privacy keeps us insular which in turn helps us keep invaders out.
Do you feel more English in Canada?
(hi Beeca by the way. I think we have met. But you won't know me as Scribbles)
You can ask for my address hopefully from about wed night, which is when i believe i am being moved (they are doing it, all i have to do is pack!). I've been livinng downtown but its 40 min from the office so i'm moving more local. Will let you know before weekend.
"je fcuk for England"
Can i apply for that job?
And get your hair cut properly, not one of those namby pamby hair clipper trims!
Also,
tanning? You? I'm not sure getting burned and going red counts as tanning you know!
Canadian English..
Add eh to the end of every sentence especially when over excited about learning more or questioning someone.
Eh? How long have you been in Canada?
Eh? You gotta be kiddin me the CN Tower is that big?
So, what do you think of Canada so far eh?
It's annoying if you start paying attention to hard...
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