English Lesson

• Many Brits finish their sentences with "yeh?" "You'll want to try the spotted dick from the sweets menu when you're done with the fish and chips, yeh?"
• Spotted dick: click here for a description. Rather a disturbing thing to see on a dessert menu for us Americans.
• Chips: fries
• Crisps: chips
• Biscuits: cookies
• Pudding: cake
• Mushy Peas are on many, many menus and I mustered the courage to try them just last night with my fish and chips. My verdict? YUMMY!
• Holding up two fingers in a V (with the back of the hand facing outwards) is the same obscene gesture as using only the middle finger in America. According to our driving teacher it came from when the French would cut off those two fingers of the British to keep them from using a bow and arrow during times of war. Those who still had their fingers would show them (from a distance, I'm assuming!) to the French and mean more than simply "I still have my fingers."
• Fag: cigarette
  
• Faggot: meatballs
• Hob: stove top
• Tumble dryer: clothes dryer
  
• Torch: flashlight
  
• Sticky Toffee Pudding: my new favorite dessert, especially served with hot custard, a welcome change to cold ice cream. I was thrilled to discover this from my beloved Haagen-Dazs:

I can't wait to try it. I also plan to find and master a really good sticky toffee pudding recipe so that when we leave here I can still have this wonderful dessert.

• Ginger Beer: Of the two I've tried (both non-alcoholic), my favorite is Desnoes & Geddes Old Jamaica Ginger Beer.

Cheers!