Home Page

Have you Noticed?
Brian Houston notices some strange things
Bairds of Gartsherrie
A feature about the family who shaped the Monklands area
North Calder Heritage Trail
by Alistair Ewen
The Monkland Canal
by Alistair Ewen
The Railways
A brief introduction 
by Jim Howie
Hobbies Section
ISO 9000  A Quality System for the Millenium?

Go to Leisure pages

 HAVE YOU NOTICED?
By Brian Houston

Have you noticed the ever increasing encroachment of American culture into our own culture? It is now impossible to buy "chips" in some restaurants as they only sell "fries" or "French fries"
Bars now have happy hours on Wednesday "Nites" God forbid they ever adopt the politcally correct "Have a nice day." Even certain companies have adopted an American accent in their Televison and Radio advertising, it would seem that they think that, we the general public, won’t consider their products or services unless the voice in the advert has a rather dubious "American" accent. Just listen to the adverts for a well known double glazing firm and of a well known Lanarkshire theme Park. Personally I think the Americans have a lot of advantages over us, in particular prices, please Uncle Sam can you export you’re prices here?

PETROL PRICES…

MUSIC CD’s (album)

(20 King Size Filtered.)

BOTTLE OF SCOTCH (70cl.)

This is just a small sample of some everyday items and prices in Scotland and the USA. While it is impossible to match like for like, the comparisons used here are current for the above mentioned articles in the US and the UK.

Note: If you’re a drunk driver who likes to listen to his CD Player while having a cigarette, America is definitely the place to be.

 Ps Brian does not smoke or drink!!