Bink

I know right?! One of my UK colleagues was over the other week and asked if I had cash?! Cash?! What's that?!
I put everything on card, even things that are $1!

Jerseygirl

I stand corrected.

kimilseung

Different experience for me. I am still surprised at the number of businesses that will only take cash or cheque. (I supposed it is still rare enough for be to me frustrated when it happens, as I do not carry cheques around with me)

Pulaski

I haven't been to an ATM in a month, and still have about $5-$6 left. Of the last $20 bill I had I think I gave $10 to Mrs P.

Bink

I don't get why so many people here still use checks so frequently. I (my company) got paid by a client on a job recently and they wrote a check for $250k...! Who writes a check like that rather than transfering the money?!

I was amazed at how hard it can be to me a direct transfer here. When I first came over I tried to set one up for my landlord and even though I had all the correct info my bank would send automatically send a check to them every month rather than transfer the money. It's very different to the UK where you can make transfers very easily.

Yorkieabroad

Lucky Lady!

Me too - 15 days and counting.....

GeoffM

Yeah, it's annoying. DS's preschool takes cards; DD's only takes cheques "because it's safer for the staff". I don't quite understand how a card machine is unsafe for staff, though cash yes.

Yep, that's where my cash goes, albeit to my wife, not yours!

Mr Weeze

At our wedding the venue was thinking 10 pound Scottish notes were 20 pound English notes. My new sister in law came and emptied my wallet of them and made sure she was always served by the same person.

Bink

In my college days (Glasgow), I used to make sure I came back to London with as many 1 pound notes as I could get my hands on. They were frequently mistaken for being a 5 pound note in England...!

Steve_

Well The Bahamas is a member of CARICOM, so they seem to think they are in the "Caribbean" so if they think they are, I do too.

Pulaski

Next you're going to tell me the UK is in Europe, aren't you?

Joking apart, membership of a political association does not alter geography. Martinique is treated by France as being politically part of France, but that doesn't mean that Martinique is "in France".

materialcontroller

It does, as it's a French département and also uses the €.

It just isn't part of la Métropole.

kimilseung

Well it of does, and it is. Without the establishment of France we would not have a space that we consider France, same for Germany, as its borders have ebbed and flowed. Only a right wing nut would say all of traditional Prussia was geographic Germany today. Politics and Geography are completely entwined, and meanings in both areas are numerous and context dependant.

The Bahamas is not in the Caribbean in the one definition that you recognise, but it is in the many other definitions that others recognise.

We can agree that it is not bordered by the Caribbean Sea.

Pulaski

Given that ships sail in a geographic dimension, not a political one, if someone says they went on a cruise in the Caribbean I contend that it is the traditional geographer's definition that is most appropriate. Now if a trade or diplomatic delegation said they had visited the Caribbean then I will agree that the Bahamas could be included.

kimilseung

Well then, we must move on to the snobs definition. My mum says people who go to the Dominican Republic are wrong when they say they were in the Caribbean.