Random Play by Graham Reid

At the risk of being obvious: if you showed me a Spanish sitcom, or some Japanese current affairs, or an Israeli crime drama, I wouldn't have the faintest idea what was going on.

But if you show me some guys playing sport, even if the commentation is in foreign and I don't know the rules, I can probably follow 60% of what's going on, and working out the rules can be interesting on its own..

if you showed me a Spanish sitcom, or some Japanese current affairs, or an Israeli crime drama, I wouldn't have the faintest idea what was going on.

But you'd be able to tell it was a "sitcom" or "current affairs" or "crime drama" (usually they have guns)

But if you show me some guys playing sport, even if the commentation is in foreign and I don't know the rules, I can probably follow 60%

That'd be because multi-linguistic abilities aren't required and the plot is simple.

So The Idiot Boy who Flew.
Are you by any chance referring to Thomas Aquinas?

probably for the same reason people congregate to McDonalds - because it's (almost) the same everywhere - cultural comfort food - mind you the one time on a 3 month trip we broke down and took the kids to McDonalds it was the worst meal on the trip, even the kids agreed.

Stuck between planes and wandering Hong Kong airport in the wee hours a couple of days ago I did briefly wonder if it would be a good place for cricket, or maybe bowling down the moving walkways (can you get a ball right to the far end walkway to walkway to walkway to .... and then through the window of the Gucci at the end)

Somewhere there's probably an airport sports league who travel the world's great airports holding tournaments ..... who have to use fake identities because they're all on terrorist watch lists

never once a Pret a Manger

Why not? They do an excellent crayfish sandwich. You wouldn't get that for 10 bucks in NZ.

It's interesting to me that in most of the UK, the small private cafe typically provides food and service that are way worse than a typical chain. So Starbucks and Pret become the fuel-stop of choice. I mean, $6 for a cup of instant makes $8 for a huge mocha a good buy.

I would agree somewhat Rich. I've found very few good cafes without a good deal of hunting about, so during the working week in the outer ring of London I have to go to places like Pret, Cafe Nero or Costa.

The NZ style of cafe just doesn't exist over here, so you have to make do

It's interesting to me that in most of the UK, the small private cafe typically provides food and service that are way worse than a typical chain.

I heard they make scrambled eggs with a coffee machine milk steamer!