NFAH is coming at you tonight from very central London, in a neighborhood in which I have never spent any time but which is conveniently located for the combination of what I had to do today (meeting in SW7) and what I get to do tomorrow (visit Mike, from Postcards from Across the Pond, and his better-ha ha!-half Shonagh in their town south of London). So I’m camped right by the train station that will take me to Horsham in the morning, and experiencing a bit of London tourist fatigue. Riding the tube in the heat is rough. Riding the tube in the heat with a huge group of Greek and/or Italian (take your pick) immature teenagers is brutal.
It has been one wicked week. That’s my first bit of randomness. I had dinners for work two of the first three nights that I was back in the UK, and by Thursday morning when my alarm went off, I thought I was not going to make it. I had meetings and a workshop and all sorts of other things to do, and it was bloody hard. This morning, miraculously, I woke up before my alarm and feeling fine. Exactly as predicted: a 5 hour time difference and five days to get back to normal. Interesting.
I took this ad photo in the tube station this afternoon:
OK, I’ve ranted before about the British tendency to drop words, but this is ridiculous. “Every little helps” huh????? “Every little bit helps” would make sense. “Every little help” might make sense. But this does NOT make sense.
London in the summer, scene of ten thousand fashion crimes. Did you know tube tops were back? I can assure you it’s not pretty.
My day got totally messed up when I realized on the train into central London-town that I did not have my cell phone charger cable and I had already drained my battery by 1/3 answering work emails (thinking I was being all efficient and things). Thus I had to take a trip to the Apple Store off Oxford Street, after my meetings were done, in order to get one. I had never been in the flagship London store, and my goodness I will not go back. What a mess. Note to Apple: I am pleased you are having such success but the release dates for the iPad and iPhone 4 were a wee bit too close together for my comfort level when trying to buy a stupid phone charger cable. And note to self: stop forgetting to pack the darned things, this is the THIRD time since you’ve lived in the UK that you have had to go scrounging for a new cable, this time in London, once in Germany and once in the US. Ridiculous! I now have so many of the things that there should be one available to leave in every single piece of luggage and/or computer bag-type things that I have. Grrrr.
The guy in front of me in line at said Apple store bought three iPads. THREE.
Beware, my fellow bloggers, we apparently develop computer skills when we do this, assuming that we do more than just write the posts using the graphical interface and a standard blog template with no customizing. Have I mentioned that I am now the webmaster for a work-related organization, based on my (minimal) knowledge of using WordPress as a CMS? It was when I started talking about “search engine optimization” at the meeting today that I realized that it was all downhill from here.
Thank goodness my hotel has a ceiling fan, and a powerful one at that. But, of course, no air conditioning. Great weekend to be at a hotel in London, when it’s actually pretending to be summer. And oh the displacement activity when I should be at home packing for my big move.
Happy Friday, everyone.
Not From Around Here 
The sausages look great. Would kill to get them rather than the odd white, fingers of meat they try and pass off as “British Bangers” at my local supermarket.
“Every little helps” is an old proverbial phrase that people often use in conversation so it probably doesn’t sound as wrong to our ears.
I figured someone could explain, but what exactly does it mean???
It tends to be used in relation to money – that’s usually the missing part of the phrase.
“I’m collecting for charity.”
“Sorry, I’ve only got 20p on me.”
“Well, every little helps.”
With the Tesco example it’s telling consumers that they can get a better deal with them.
Every little [bit of money you can save] helps.
So I’m not wrong, as per your parenthetical statement, to feel like something is missing–either “bit” in “Every little bit helps” or your longer version! I want to see a scholarly work on this droppage of words… @lynneguist?
Language Log has done a post on this one: http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=749
No, you’re not wrong at all. It’s one of those phrases that must of us don’t stop and consider until someone else points it out.
Yet another reason I don’t particularly like Apple: proprietary hardware.
*sits back and smugs that her Droid phone charges through a USB cable*
And yes, I know, I “verbed” “smug”. 😛
I don’t think I ever noticed it because my Gran says it.
Tube tops…on the tube…in the heat…not good.
It is not just language that Tesco appropriates.
They treat their suppliers very badly, not just those supplying products sold by the company, but businesses and contractors. Lots of bullying about price, so much so that the firm for which my husband used to work walked away rather than give into their demands.
Our family boycott them and try to shop with supermarkets that have more ethical credentials, like Co-op and Waitrose. Not saying any business is perfect but these companies don’t want to take over whole communities and stifle small family businesses .
I enjoy reading your blog, it is interesting to see one’s own city – London in my case – and country from another standpoint.
Yeah someone is going to have to explain this one to me. I have not yet been able to see the evilness of Tesco, especially not in relation to other large supermarket chains including Waitrose. What exactly is the problem?
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