So...a ladybug gets onto the tube...(no, it's not a joke)

It never ceases to amaze me how different America and England truly are. I mean, I get it that there are McDonald's and Starbucks here, and that one can shop in a Gap or even dine on Nando's legendary, Portuguese, flame-grilled, peri-peri chicken (which inevitably makes me want to yell out for "The Amazing Nandoooo!" I've no idea why...). But yet even with all of these, our countries do differ in oh-so-many ways.

Let's look at the newspapers...This evening, I picked up The Sun, which I already do realise isn't exactly the most serious media outlets. However, there's an entire page-6 spread on last night's X Factor show. (Gasp! The twins were knocked off by the judges!) A more serious article two pages later focused on flood-ravaged Workington, where the headline "Looters target washed-up cars" was accompanied by an image of a stripped Audi (buh-bye hubcaps and wheels) with the caption, Looted...stranded Audi stripped by lowlife thieves. It's the "lowlife thieves" thing that cracks me up. Gotta love the manners here, and the absolute disgust for criminal acts. And I'm not even going to go into the space taken up for random celebrity news and gossip within the first few pages of the paper. (Wait -- Posh Beckham bought her boys yoghurt in Hollywood whilst sporting a new curly 'do?!? Oh, my goodness! Turn to page 8 -- stat! Gotta get the story!)

Newspapers aside, there are some things that, while I don't necessarily understand them, I just adore. Let's take some of the fun names here...Whilst walking to the Berry Shoppe (that's Sainsbury's, by the way -- Steve just makes fun of the way I pronounce it) the other morning, I paused to enjoy the River Wandle. As I watched the babbling stream below the bridge, I noticed a sign with a map of the area: Pickle Ditch. Now one must pause for a moment to reflect on this interesting name: Were there really once oodles of pickles thrown into the ravine below the bridge? Did ancient explorers find empty jars of pickles in the river, tossed in by careless passers-by post-purchase from the Berry Shoppe? Or was it just an evolution of a proper name from years gone by? Meh, whatever it is, I like it...And it reminds me of the just-'round-the-corner tradition of hiding the German pickle (or Weihnachtsgurke) in the Christmas tree for an extra treat to the one who finds it...which turns out to be an urban legend, it seems.

One of the more...um...head-scratching that I've seen yet thus far: Last Sunday morning, I'd run down to get a newspaper from the corner store and saw this interesting ladybug walking toward the tube. Not quite sure why anyone would be dressed like this on a Sunday morning at 10 a.m., particularly as Halloween was three weeks ago, but um...ok. To each her bug-y own, I s'pose...I only wish I'd been better able to capture the expression on the guy at the right. Classic. (giggle)