Smartie's Oasis Bar & Grill #44

Yeah, let's don't even get into the whole tuna fish discussion. Ever seen a tuna that wasn't a fish?

 

Perry is an English name with 2 possible origins - apparently the most likely is that his ancestors lived near pear trees (seriously!), taken from the Old English word for a pear tree, but they may have possibly worked in quarries, taken from the Norman French word for a quarry. Either way, it shoulds better as a name than Rick Appley would have!

 

I've heard of it, but not seen one.

Did you know that, according to the Catholic church in the 17th century, the beaver IS a fish?

 

My English ancestor (paternal) was named Rev Robert Bracewell who came to America from Yorkshire, England to Wight County, Viriginia around 1650. The name evolved to Braswell... then to Brazzel (once the clan ended up in Louisiana). Our connection to him has been confirmed thru DNA.

Glad he wasn't named Appley.

 

Lol, I'm glad I asked. Now that you got that off your chest, how is your day?

 

Yer making that up as you go, don'tcha?

 

As if I would do a thing like that!
http://genealogy.about.com/library/surnames/p/bl_name-PERRY.htm

Names are fascinating things.

 

As if I would do a thing like that!
http://genealogy.about.com/library/surnames/p/bl_name-PERRY.htm

Names are fascinating things.

 

Lol, you got me....twice.

 

[video=youtube;7s2kigVWUPM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7s2kigVWUPM[/video]

 

[video=youtube;UNhcIK91DqQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNhcIK91DqQ[/video]

 

Two songs about my old home town (now a city, of course!).

[video=youtube;6KCHxVq6cGs]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KCHxVq6cGs[/video]

[video=youtube;U8igH8KytQo]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8igH8KytQo[/video]

I was actually looking for a different song at the time (also sometimes called 'Swansea Town'), but I came across these so I thought I'd post them here.

 

I'm trying to convince him we shouldn't go to London and have thrown Santiago de Compostela into the mix with the carrot of cheap flights and hotels.

Tonight, I will be mostly sipping this instead of red wine. We had a couple of bottles given to us as it's being promoted. It's actually really really nice and light. I like the berry one but the pear is equally tasty.

 

London, I find, is one of those cities that just looks and feels kind of dirty and grimey in some way, even though it has some nice parks and so on. It's exceptionally busy and bussling, and (compared with most of the UK) I find quite rude in the way it goes about all that - everyone is always in a massive hurry, and will barge people out of the way to get where they are going. It's also hugely expensive, and not pleasant or easy to get around. It's really just a big capital city, I suppose, and I'm not used to the pace and urgency (and size) of them, It does have some fantastic museums and historic places and so on, but whenever I visit I just spend the whole time wanting to leave again and find somehwere to chill out away from it all! Alot of people from the US seem to 'do Europe', and think they have 'done the UK' by visiting London, without realising that London is very, very different from most of the rest of the place, not representative of it at all (a bit like 'doing the USA' by visiting Disneyland, but without the nice rides!), and frankly alot less pleasant in many ways! Come over and visit the UK, and visit London while you do it to see the sights, but only spend a day or two there, then get out and see the real place!

As for the beer thing, the point of our ale is that it is (or should be!) served at the correct temperature (cellar temperature, so, contrary to the common rumours, it isn't 'warm' at all) to be able to taste all of the different elements. Ice cold 'lager' beer is generally served like that so you don't taste all the different elements, because the elements in it are usally pretty bad (or non-existant)! I guess you really need to drink some of it to understand (you will understand much better after 3 or 4 pints of it), but the key to it is probably to think of it as a completely different drink from what is called 'beer' in other places.

I visited Italy when I was a teenager, and was quite disappointed with it, to be honest. Things may have improved now, but at that time there were all of these fantastic buildings and monuments from through the ages, but it looked very much like nobody had bothered to clean them since they were first constructed! Perhaps that was a feature of the place where I went, and out of them Rome was particularly awful, but I didn't really like the place much. I found the people to be quite rude (not just in Rome) too - again, barging people out of the way and that kind of thing (and they do like to shout alot!). Oh, and try to avoid crossing the road as much as possible, and under no cuircumstances attempt to drive - they really have no concept of safe or sensible driving there at all, and every single car is covered in dents!

You should definately add Scotland to the list of places to visit, too, and not just the tourist trail bus tour around Loch Ness. The Highlands of Scotland are unique, and without doubt one of the finest and most beautiful places in the world, and Edinburgh is certainly one of the world's most pleasant cities.

 

I just want the brownies! LOL I love your new avatar - so tired of looking at that ugly thing that was in your last one.

 

Evil Aztec would like this. Where are you Aztec man??

 

Tokyo, Japan - super expensive
London, England - very expensive
New York, New York - expensive

I've been fortunate, in my lifetime to visit these 3 megatropolis sized cities...and after the initial overwhelming culture shock to the sheer
bustling beehive of non-stop activity...I liked all 3, each a nice place to visit but I wouldn't want to live there. I couldn't afford it.

 

I'll take whatever Viv is having...party on, girl!

TGIF....what a freaking crazy 24 hours I've had. After waiting for an hour to see the doc, all I wanted was a cold beer. Get to the bar and it's locked up and the lights are off. Thankfully, I was able to follow the brownie crumb trail.

 

Where were your grandparents born, because we were in Italy recently and my best friend has just come back. (so much for your trip to freezing rainy Scotland ..)

We had an absolutely brilliant time, thank you. I don't watch football, but the atmosphere was brilliant, we had a fantastic time and hope it's as good at the semi final.

The wedding was good as well, later I'll post you a shocking video but it's not work safe. I got to wear long dresses and drink cocktails and didn't even pay because my friend insisted and it was her son's wedding so... We stayed two nights though and went to Culzean Castle, Portencross (v small and more of a watch tower or fort than a castle, but a real castle, not a kid on one like Culzean), Millport (tiny holiday island where everyone rides bikes) and Rothesay another island - don't like the town, but if anyone is ever near it, don't miss Mount Stuart House. It's absolutely stunning. Made Culzean look like a hovel. It has a lot of history, used to be owned by a Prime Minister and the current owner just sold one of his other national treasure estates to Prince Charles.

60. T shirt weather...

 

Don't I wish! LOL Sorry, Thelma....had a glitch and disappeared for a while.