Noticeable Oddities of the Day:
A. told me about BYO a while ago, a -in my opinion- strange phenomenon since I’ve honestly never heard of it until he mentioned it… For you out there who are as daft as I am, here’s a definition: BYO (Bring your own) is a term used at restaurants to show that you can bring your own drinks (usually alcoholic beverages), as opposed to Fully Licensed where such drinks must be bought at the respective restaurant, which would be fully licensed to sell alcohol. A restaurant can have both of these labels applied to it. Corkage fees may be applied for consuming/opening wines and other drinks at both kinds of restaurants.
I don’t believe we have anything similar in the Lowlands and I must admit I have mixed feelings about this. I believe if a restaurant is not allowed to serve alcohol it can’t be a good restaurant, to me the whole idea of having to bring your own bottle of whatever-that-is, seems weird and unreal. I’ve never even been in a restaurant with a BYO policy and each restaurant I went to here in London I did have a glass of wine [or two, or three, or…] so I reckon I must have been to licensed restaurants only *lucky gal*. To me it just doesn’t add up, it sounds ‘cheap’ somehow. I thought the Dutch had a reputation of being ‘cheap’ over here, perhaps the English copied it?…
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e.g. “I’m a Dutchman”; “Dutch courage”, “Dutch treat” . All these come from the time of the 17th century when the Dutch were hated military and commercial rivals of the English. Examples include Dutch reckoning, a bill that is presented without any details, and which only gets bigger if you question it, and a Dutch widow, a prostitute. In the same spirit are Dutch auction, one in which the prices go down instead of up; Dutch courage, temporary bravery induced by alcohol; Dutch metal, an alloy of copper and zinc used as a substitute for gold foil; Dutch comfort or Dutch consolation, in which somebody might say “thank God it is no worse!”; Dutch concert, in which each musician plays a different tune; Dutch uncle, someone who criticises or rebukes you with the frankness of a relative; and Dutch treat, one in which those invited pay for themselves.
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Category Archives: Oddities Of The Day
Alice in Wonderland
Appointment 09.30 at hospital. I’ve spoken with the specialist for at least ten minutes before she and the nurse examined me thoroughly. Had to have a scan made, according to the scan specialist all seems fine. Have to call next Monday to make another appointment to discuss the results of the scan. Then I will have to make a third appointment to have a biopsy done under general anaesthesia. Again, for the second time in this life, I will be brain-dead for a few hours… Not sure what to think of that…
Oh yeah do pass me some anaesthetic please! Left or right?:
A very nice lady made the scan with a probe explaining everything that she saw on the monitor to me. It was awesome! I’ve never seen it before and what looked to me like early-black-and-white-television-picture-noise seemed to make total sense to her. What an amazing job she’s got *this is the geek talking*.
While I dressed up again in some silly blue and white checked hospital dressing gown I had a quick look at the prints and asked her if I could have one. She asked me why out of curiosity, I told her it was my geek personality being amazed by her knowledge and/of technology. So yeah, she gave me a print and I was grinning like a Cheshire cat when I left the room. Proudly showing the print to A. who had no clue and probably thought it was just some b/w tv picture noise…
Will keep you posted but will leave you for now since I still suffer from a few examinations… I reckon you won’t mind, I had enough Alice in Wonderland for today!
Some cool noise:
Noticeable Oddities of the Day:
I’ve never seen a hospital like this with such a high standard of efficiency and such nice people. In fact every hospital I’ve ever been to over the last 15 years left me frustrated, without being given any answers to questions and with a waiting list of at least three months… Today I have seen two specialists and had a scan done [without an appointment] while I originally only had one appointment with one specialist. This would have taken at least three months in the Lowlands!
I’ve never been treated at a hospital the way I was treated today, these people were so kind and willing to help. No grumpy cows like some women at hospitals in the Lowlands *pardon my French*, I reckon these people actually love their job and it shows!!! Even A. noticed the difference, no he isn’t biased because he’s English. I will have to make another appointment for the surgery so I will definitely go there again. For once in my life I have left a hospital with a positive feeling. Hurray for the UK!