Hanging on the Telephone

In the UK the caller knows that they are placing a call to a mobile phone, as mobile numbers begin with 077, 078, or 079. Therefore, the extra cost of placing a call to the mobile network is borne by the caller. Here in the US, there is no separate range of mobile prefixes. Mobile phones are given area codes depending on the address to which they are registered. My mobile number starts with 626, the area code for West Covina. Since a caller has no way of knowing if they are calling a mobile or land-line, the extra cost of the call is borne by the receiver. This definitely increases the annoyance of receiving a wrong number call, as it is both interruption and cost.

Translation

Mobile Phone (UK) = Cell Phone (US)

Monkey Business

I made mention of The Rally Monkey in my recent post on attending an Angels’ game; I thought this truly bizarre thing deserved a post of its own. The rally monkey is the Angels’ mascot. Unlike other teams’ mascot, this one does not appear as a person in a suit, but only on the video screen. The Rally Monkey is a tiny monkey in an Angels’ jersey who leaps up and down in a manic fashion as the words Rally Monkey flash on the screen. The Rally Monkey also appears inserted into movie clips or pop videos. The crowd then shouted “Rally”.

The Rally Monkey only appears when the Angels are tied or trailing by three runs or less in the seventh inning or later. A history of the monkey can be found on Wikipedia.

The pop video used at the game against the Red Sox, was Bohemian Rhapsody. During the part in which the band’s faces appear, they were replaced by that of the Monkey. The movie clip was the recent King Kong; at the point at which Kong’s NY rampage stops when he sees Ann Darrow emerge from the mist, but Ann was replaced by the manically moving monkey.

Not in Kansas

On Sunday I had a perfect California moment. We were cruising with the top down on California Highway 1, also known as Pacific Coast Highway (PCH for short) The Beach Boys was playing on the stereo. We were being passed by bad-ass bikers on their Harleys and passing surfer-dudes on bicycles with their boards under their arms.

Calling all Angels

Having been to see football US style last weekend, I went to see the classic US sport; baseball. The game was at the home of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim; Angel stadium; a game against the Boston Red Sox. The power and popularity of the sport is illustrated by entering the word Angels into Google; the first result returned is the Angels‘ homepage, rather than any link about the messengers of God.

The stadium holds over 41,000 people, considerably larger than the Home Depot stadium and the ground was a lot closer to being full. The crowd was far noisier than the football one, but seemed to lack the range of chants you hear in English football games. Before the game, the national anthem was played. In the UK it is only at finals or international games that we hear God Save the Queen. In the US it seems to be performed before every game. Here it came complete with pyrotechnic accompaniment. As “the rockets’ red glare” was sung, two red rockets arced skywards from the rather strange rock water feature beyond out-field. Then several bomb bursts came as the singer sung “the bombs bursting in air”.

There is a strange tradition at baseball games; “The Seventh Inning Stretch”. Between the two halves of the Seventh Inning, the game stops everyone stands, a tune is played on what sounds like a Hammond organ, and the crowd sings along. The song is a 1908 Vaudeville composition called “Take Me Out to the Ball Game”. Only the chorus is sung and the words are as follows:
Take me out to the ball game,
Take me out with the crowd;
Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack,
I don’t care if I never get back.
Let me root, root, root for the home team,
If they don’t win, it’s a shame.
For it’s one, two, three strikes, you’re out,
At the old ball game.
And yes it is every bit as cheesy as it sounds there.

Not only can you drink beer while watching the game, you can order it from a waitress while you sit in your seat and have it brought to you. Now that is what I call service. The family behind me observed that despite the Angels’ hat I wore and my rooting for the home-team, I ordered a Boston beer; Sam Adams Boston Lager.

The game resulted in a 2-1 defeat for the Angels; although we cheered for the Rally Monkey he (or she) did not appear. What is the Rally Monkey? That is a subject worthy of a separate post.

Two Buck Chuck

In the UK there is duty of £1.29 on a bottle of wine. VAT at 17.5% is levied on this duty when the consumer purchases a bottle, meaning that a bottle of wine in the UK must cost over £1.51. A bottle costing £2.00 would give 41p to be divided between producer, middlemen and the retailer. In California the duty rate is $0.20 per gallon, which works out at less than 4c per bottle. This allows a chain of stores in California to sell a range of wines popularly known as “Two Buck Chuck”, which retail at $1.99 + sales tax, this is equivalent to £1.10 at today’s exchange rate. This is less than the minimum possible cost in the UK, but still allows over $1.95 to be shared between retailer and producer.

The wine is made by a company called Charles Shaw and is sold direct to the retailer, Trader Joe’s. This arrangement, cutting out the middleman combined with a glut of Californian grapes makes the price possible. It is not a great wine, but it is certainly drinkable, and the value for money can’t be beat.

The Beautiful Game

I went to my first football match in the US. There are twelve teams in US Major League Soccer; two of whom are based in Los Angeles. There are also two Major League baseball teams, two NBA basketball teams, and two National Hockey League teams. There are no teams in this city that play American Football in the NFL. Both the Raiders and the Rams have left town several years ago.

I went to watch the LA Galaxy, the more established of the city’s two teams. They have been in the league since its founding in 1995, are current holders of the league title and the cup. The US Open Cup is a knockout competition that dates back to 1914; putting the lie to the oft held assumption that football is a recent phenomenon in the US. The LA Galaxy plays in the same colours, yellow shirt and green shorts, as Norwich City, who I have supported since childhood. The Galaxy play at The Home Depot Center, a ground they share with the other LA football team, Chivas USA. It is a modern 27,000 seat stadium, with the pitch sunk below ground level. Thus you enter above about half of the seats, allowing disabled access to well placed seating; a big change from most UK stadia. The two goal ends are uncovered and the height of the canopy along the sides makes it clear that the roof is intended to keep the sun off the spectators rather than provide protection from wind and rain.

The most obvious difference from UK football grounds is the ready availability of alcohol; spirits, beer, and Bud Lite. You can carry the drink back to your seats and drink in clear sight of the pitch. The crowd was noticeably younger and than would be the case for a match in the UK. Otherwise, it was surprisingly familiar; a significant proportion of the crowd in team colours, one section entirely so and from which most of the singing and noise emanated. The names of a few players dominate the backs of the shirts; Donovan, Jones, and Hartman. There was even the annoying bloke who shouts abuse at the top of his voice; although here it was less annoying as I did understand what he was saying as the yelling was in Spanish.

There was the occasional bizarre announcement during play directing the crowd’s attention to the big screen so that we could see the person in the lucky seat who had just won a set of power tools, or a DVD player. The screen would then show someone waving their prize to all and sundry.

The game was against FC Dallas, who are top of the Western Standings, while the Galaxy lie bottom. From this game, it was not evident why FC Dallas are in that position. The Galaxy enjoyed better possession and made far better use of it, with two excellent goals in the first half. The game finished 2-0. Despite a rather more urgent performance in the second half from the visitors, the best chances still fell to the Galaxy. The game was played at a slower pace than in the UK, with a lot of short passing to feet. LA Galaxy in particular always seemed to look for a short pass even if it was in defence and across their own goal.

One last oddity occurred after the final whistle, as the announcer described the score as two-zero. Having watched much of the World Cup here, it is clear that the word nil is not used in scores; it sounds very strange to English ears.

Translations:
Soccer (US) = Football (UK)
Jerseys (US) = Shirts (UK)

Burgers and Radio

This post is a response to a couple of the comments made a while back on the blog.

I have now tried Fatburger and despite the name, the burger is excellent. It is cooked to order, so no dried up hockey puck masquerading as food. The chips are proper slabs of potato, not strings of vegetable matter. I am not convinced that the burger is better than In ‘n’ Out; more research is required.

In the UK, there has been a push to sell the concept of DAB radio. In the US, there is no mention of DAB radio; here it is sold as HD radio. I guess this helps the advertising as people only have one concept (HD=High Quality Transmissions) to grasp; rather than the two in the UK. In the US, there is a third alternative to conventional radio and HD/DAB; satellite radio. Satellite radio units can be purchased for home or car. There are two main companies providing the service, XM and Sirius. Both services have a monthly charge and offer a vast number of channels, many of which are commercial free.

Beware of Geeks

I have started a second blog, because there were things about which I wished to write that had nothing to do with my move to the USA; the subject of this blog. The new blog will contain musings of a geeky nature, so be warned if you are not so inclined there will be nothing of interest there.
The new blog is at http://allgeektome.wordpress.com/

Under Pressure

In the UK you can go to a petrol station, check your car’s tyre pressure, and add air if required. I needed to check the pressure on my wife’s car.

I assumed that the process would be similar here in the US. I am sure you can guess that it was not; otherwise this would be a rather pointless blog entry. I visited three separate petrol stations; all of them had air pumps, but none had a gauge on the pumps. I returned home, my simple task having become mission impossible. I asked my brother-in-law about the perplexing absence of this key component. Apparently, garages removed them due to vandalism.

I can buy a gauge; the pumps all have a fitment that allows you to connect your won gauge. Alternatively, I can take the car to a tyre place and pay them to check and adjust the pressure. This does not seem an area in which the fabled American customer service excels.

Great Big Freeway

Many of the freeways in Southern California have carpool lanes. You can only drive in these lanes if there is more than one person in the car, or if the car meets certain emission standards (hybrids, electric, or alternative fuel) These lanes are often called diamond lanes, as the road surface has diamond shapes painted on it to indicate that is a carpool lane. The lower density of traffic in these lanes and the fact that you can only enter or exit them close to junctions means that cars generally move faster in these lanes than on the normal freeway. Today, we drove the forty miles from Irvine to West Covina in the carpool lane; for most of the drive I could see one distant car in my rear-view mirror and none in front.

Driving in the carpool lane when you are not entitled to do so is an offense for which you will be fined. There are frequent notices informing you of this fact and listing the minimum fine. The amount is $341. Notice not $340, or $350, but a very precise $341.

While this post is not about coffee, it is the first one I have written and posted in a coffee shop; taking advantage of the free wi-fi offered by Panera Bread.