Fluorescent Tape & Jackets: Taking the Thinking Out of British Health & Safety

Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam
(c) Amanda van Mulligen

I recently returned to England for a couple of days and for the first time in many years I actually flew over. I was flying to Southampton with FlyBe and instead of parking the plane in the vicinity of the airport terminal the plane was parked in Rotterdam so a bus took us from the Schiphol departure lounge to the plane. (For those not au fait with the British sense of humour, the plane was not actually parked in Rotterdam..... but it was a little bus ride from the terminal. You won't believe the blank looks I get from non-Brits when I'm being sarcastic.)

We piled off the bus onto the tarmac and formed a semi-orderly queue to go up the plane steps. The plane was a little one. Well, not like a two seater little one, but it certainly wasn't a jumbo jet. The little plane had propellors, which were turning slowly for a little while as we queued to get onto the plane.

Surprisingly no one leapt from the queue to put their head in the way of the propellors, just to see what would happen. In fact, no one moved out of line and instead continued to shuffle forward to get on the plane. No deaths, beheadings, or slight mutilations. Common sense and self-preservation prevailed.

My return flight from Southampton a few days later involved us walking a few meters from the gate to the airplane steps. Same type of airplane. Same propellors but this time no movement from the propellors. Even if they had been moving no passenger was in any danger because a fluorescent green band placed strategically around the side of the plane ensured that we could not get further than the steps leading up to the plane. No chance of a confused pensioner heading for the back of the plane, no possibility that a tall Dutchman should bang his noggin against the wing and certainly no room for a freak accident involving a propellor and a curious passenger.

Planes in Britain are more dangerous than in the
Netherlands.......
(c) Amanda van Mulligen

And if we hadn't seen the fluorescent green tape lining the plane perimeter there were strategically placed people in fluorescent green jackets to ensure that there was no straying. In short, the only way any passenger was getting anywhere near the plane was via the steps and inside.

I've heard lots of expats in Britain talking about health and safety gone mad. I've heard lots of things from family, particularly when they are over here in the Netherlands and pointing out situations that would NEVER be allowed in Britain. They comment that the British are no longer allowed to rely on common sense to keep themselves out of dangerous situations - it's all done for them with fluorescent tape and men in fluorescent jackets.

What do you think: has health and safety gone crazy in Britain? What are health and safety precautions like in the country you live in?

A Foodie Alice Awarded ... For Mushy Peas

I recently wrote about my dislike for mushy peas. Well actually it's a little more than a dislike. It's an intense hate relationship. Mushy peas are evil. Evil. Anyway, where was I? Yes, I recently wrote about mushy peas as the one food I certainly don't miss from my birth country. And The Displaced Nation awarded a Food Alice for the piece and gave a very magical shout out for the blog post.

If you are not familiar with The Displaced Nation, the site for the global voyager, then head on over - you won't regret it.

This is what The Displaced Nation had to say about the award:

"Amanda, we award you this Food Alice for the feat of turning the typical “foods I miss from home” post on its head. That’s what it means to step through the looking glass. You’re a smart cookie and the rest of us would do well follow your example and focus on the “evil” accompaniments to our native cuisines that for health reasons alone, we’re lucky to have escaped from."

It's the second time in a short period that I am reassured that there are people in the blogosphere reading and appreciating my blogs. It's motivating me to get blog posts out a little more regularly than over the last year........

Bringing Up Brits Guest Post

Bringing Up Brits by
Meghan Fenn

Meghan Fenn, author of "Bringing Up Brits", a book about the cultural aspects of expats raising children in Britain, has a blog of the same name. She shares the cultural issues she faces as an American raising her British born children in Britain. Her husband is British, and she's finding that her children fail to identify with her American background and culture, seeing everything from a British perspective.


It's a fascinating topic. How, as an expat, do you share your own birth country and culture with your children when they were born elsewhere? It's an issue I've written about before on my blog Expat Life with a Double Buggy. It's not easy to instil a sense of foreign identity into children when they come into so little contact with the culture, people, language and traditions. She also gives a great insight into how the British come across to a foreigner. It's quite eye opening.....

So I was delighted when Meghan asked me to write a guest post for her blog. You can read "Standing Out From the Dutch Crowd, British Style" over on the Bringing Up Brits blog, and check out lots of other great posts and join in the discussion whilst you're there.

How do your children stand out from the crowd in the place that you now call home?

The incredible shrinking newspaper audience

Once the definitive mass medium, newspapers – in both their print and digital incarnations – have shrunk to being niche players in the typical market, according to a number of must-read research reports released in the last few weeks.With approximately a third of adults in the average community saying they use either a print or digital edition of their local paper to stay informed, newspapers

Dutch Difficulty

There is (at least) one word in the Dutch language that still eludes me. It's a word that I just can't quite my tongue round. It's a word I'll avoid saying if at all possible.

That place hard for expats to say...
Photo: (c) Amanda van Mulligen

The list of impossible words was, of course, once quite long. The Dutch language is not the easiest for a British person to pronounce. There are lots of throaty sounds which don't exist in the English language.

When I first came to the Netherlands I lived temporarily in a place called Voorschoten. Thankfully it was only for a few months because I really couldn't pronounce it properly in those early days. It's the "sch" part that caused issues. The same sound is the culprit when non-Dutch visitors are trying to say Scheveningen. It took a while, but I did eventually master the guttural sound.

Non-Dutch speakers should avoid "Uitgang"
Photo: (c) Amanda van Mulligen

Ui (the Dutch word for onion) was the other word that I avoided if I could, simple enough if you refuse to talk about food. That meant I also couldn't talk about leaving the house (uitgaan) or about exits (uitgang). But I got over those hurdles.

However, one word remains. It sits as a solitary, lonely word on my 'impossible to say' list. It glares at me, sits there with an evil smile, daring me to make a fool of myself, challenging me to find an alternative way of saying it.

Difficulty. I have difficulty with the Dutch word for difficulty. Moeite. There, I've said it out loud. Faced my Dutch demon but alas, I still can't say it like a native.

What word eludes you in your host country language? Why?

Photoshopping the news before Photoshop

For those who think phony photos originated in the Age of Photoshop, there is ample evidence to the contrary in a new show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. 

Titled “Faking It,” the museum has assembled nearly 200 examples of photos that were manipulated via airbrush, multiple exposures, darkroom derring-do and other means to appear to be something other than what they were. The

The inside scoop on hiring outsiders

When former BBC boss Mark Thompson starts work as the chief executive of the New York Times Co., he will become the highest-profile example yet of an emerging trend among publishers to hire leaders from outside the newspaper business. 

He’s also a curious choice, as discussed in a moment.  First, some background: 

The idea of recruiting outsiders is a radical departure for an industry that