Archive for March, 2010
British Daylight Saving Time
March 26th, 2010 | 
Author: Don’t forget the clocks go forward this Sunday 28th March 2010.
First introduced in April 1916 it has been a prelude to Summer ever since. The aim is to ensure that afternoons have more daylight and mornings less.
Daylight savings was the brainchild of William Willett (1857 – 1915), who was a London builder living in Petts Wood in Kent. In 1907 he circulated a pamphlet to Members of Parliament, town councils and businesses. He pointed out that for nearly half the year the sun shines for several hours each day while we are asleep, and is rapidly nearing the horizon, having already passed its western limit, when we reach home from work before it is over.
His proposal was to improve health and happiness by advancing the clocks twenty minutes on each of four Sundays in April, and by reversing this idea by the same amount on four Sundays in September. He said that it would not only improve health and happiness but it would save the country £2 .5 million pounds. Although the scheme was ridiculed and greatly opposed the Daylight Saving Bill was introduced in 1909.
Every year there are calls to abandon the scheme but policitians are less pioneering today than they were back in 1909.
Don’t forget to adjust your clocks!
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Brit Speak for Americans in the UK
New to the UK from America? You will probably intrigued by the language of British people. We have compiled a list of common Brit words to help you better understand your Brit counterparts.
| Ace – Used to describe something good. ”Beckham’s goal was ace!” |
Aubergine – Eggplant.
Blag - To lie or embellish the truth to get something for nothing. ‘She blagged her way into the nightclub by convincing the bouncers that she was famous.’
Chuffed – If you are chuffed, you are happy with something. ‘I was chuffed for passing my Physics exam’
Dishy – A man who is sexy can be described as dishy. Reference to ‘quite a dish’.
Gobsmacked – Incredibly amazed. Your gob is the same as your mouth and if you smack your gob, it would be out of amazement.
Gutted – Not happy because of an event that has occured which didn’t go your way. ‘Gunter was gutted to learn that his favorite sports team didn’t make the finals.’
Knackered – Same as tired. You could also use the word ‘shattered’ for tired.
Luvvly-jubbly – Just another way of saying ‘lovely’.
Nick – Means ‘steal’. ‘He nicked a mobile phone from the table!’
Pull – Means picking someone up. If you are “on the pull”, you are scouting for a mate.
PTO – This is an abbreviation for “please turn over”. Sometimes used in letter writing if the letter extends to the other side of the paper.
Scrummy – When something is scrummy, it is delicious. Shortened from scumptious.
Skint – Broke. ‘It is the beginning of the month and I am already skint.’
Skive – To skive is to avoid something. ‘I skived off work the other day’.
Slapper – A slapper is a female who is a bit loose. US equivalent = ‘ho’.
Stonking – Means huge. ‘I had a stonking headache this morning after drinking too much wine!’
Sweeney – Another word for the Police.
Tosser or Tosspot- Not a nice expression. Usually used referring to a male who is a jerk.
Totty – A sexy person. Usually used in reference to girls. Men can be described as ‘dishy’.
Suss – If you heard someone saying they had you sussed they would mean that they had you figured out! If you were going to suss out something it would mean the same thing.
Wally - Idiot. Jerk.
Whinge – To whine or complain.
Wicked – Excellent, outstanding, awesome, great.
Wonky - Not quite right. Something a little bit off about it.
Y’alright? - Typical greeting used by the English. Shortened form of ‘Are you alright?’. Liken it to ‘How are ya?’ as a typical American greeting.
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St Patrick’s Day
St Patrick’s Day 17 March 2010
Celebrate all things Irish this Wednesday with even cheaper calls to Ireland. Ireland is Betsy’s home so we are happy to report that calling Ireland is only 1p per minute.
Just Dial 0844 862 9910 then the Ireland number in full.
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Mother’s Day
Happy Mother’s Day to all mothers on Sunday 14th March 2010.
For those that need to call abroad you can speak for longer use our cheap access numbers.
Breast Milk Cheese
In a move that has delighted some and disgusted others, a chef in New York has made cheese out of his wife’s breast milk.
The idea struck chef Daniel Angerer 2 months ago after his wife gave birth and she began freezing her surplus milk.
She produced far more than she could use for their baby daughter Arabella. Daniel became curious as to whether human milk could be used in the kitchen.
So he began to experiment in using it to make cheese. He aged it for a few weeks before testing it – and was amazed at its sweet taste.
Now the unusual cheese is on sale at the upmarket Klee Brasserie in New York, USA.
Chef David is using it in a range of dishes including maple caramelized pumpkin encrusted cheese with concord grapes, and cheese rolled in dehydrated porcini mushroom powder with burned onion chutney
Daniel said: ‘Being a chef, you’re curious about anything in terms of flavour – you look out for something new and what you can do with it.
‘After two weeks ageing, it was somewhat like a raw-milk cheese – it had all the flavours in there. It tastes just like really sweet cow’s milk.
‘It wasn’t like, “Hey, this is such an amazing cheese.” It’s just like, “Can you use human milk? Yes, you absolutely can!”
Daniel offers a recipe for the adventurous to make their own. It requires four cups of milk, a small amount of yogurt, rennet and a teaspoon of sea salt, which he said will yield half a pound of cheese.
The chef, who first announced the project on his blog, received responses ranging from ‘gross..who’s supposed to eat this’, to ‘fabulous’.
His supporters are now urging him to consider making breast milk butter and breast milk ice cream.
Betsy’s Comment:
I cannot approve the use of an inferior product such as human breast milk to be used in any dairy product and can only authorize the use of pure dairy milk in the manufacture of cheese.
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Mexican Cops Told to Ditch the Tortillas
Mexico City’s police department has introduced a new lower-calorie menu in cafeterias serving its 70,000-member force after finding out that almost 3/4 of officers are overweight.
A diet of fizzy drinks, tortillas and sweets is weighing down crime fighters and leaving criminals on the run.
Authorities in Aguascalientes want to offer 100 pesos ($9) for every kilo shed by their portly policemen.
About a 1/4 of the city’s 1600-strong force are reported to be overweight.
“We do have some fat officers. We have been encouraging them for a while to lose weight, to be more agile, to do sport,” a police spokesman told Reuters.
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Commonwealth Day 2010
Celebrate Commonwealth Day on 8th March 2010. 
Commonwealth Day is the annual celebration of the Commonwealth of Nations held and is marked by a multi-faith service in Westminster Abbey, normally attended by Queen Elizabeth II, Head of the Commonwealth, with the Commonwealth Secretary-General and Commonwealth High Commissioners in London.
Mootel is proud to have some of the lowest rates to Commonwealth countries so it is now even easier for those living in the UK to phone friends and family abroad.
Check out our cheap call rates to the following Commonwealth Countries: