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My car (Ford Fiesta) had been squeaking of late. Or rather, for almost as long as I’ve had it. It was a very small squeak, but it was getting progressively bigger, louder, and more persistent. It was at its worst when driving around 30-40mph, which is a good proportion of my journey to and from work, so it was driving me to distraction (pun not intended).

I finally got it booked in for today at the dealers to have it looked at. A little bit of Googling was showing other people with the same issue, and it seemed to be related to the shock absorbers. I was hearing it in the rear near side (passenger side). As my car is still under the manufacturers warranty, and replacing shocks would more than likely be very expensive further down the line, I elected to get it looked out now, rather than later.

As is often the case with such things, it turned out to be something VERY trivial. It seems that the actual fault was in a trim on one of the panels. The dealers removed it, greased up the connectors a bit, and put it back. And now – no squeak! I drove home glad to not hear that annoying noise.

No, instead, I could now hear a light tapping noise every now and then. Turns out, it’s just the passenger seatbelt hitting the door post.

I think I might have to resort to just duct-taping down everything that moves. Except the steering wheel, of course.

I was shocked, and appalled the other day.

I was at the Morrisons petrol station, filling up as usual. A dirty white van pulled up to the pump in front of where I was filling my car. As is often the case with dirty vehicles, somebody had written various things into the dirt. The usual ‘clean mes’ and the like.

What got me, was the fact somebody had written ‘I love my mom’ in the dirt. Not ‘mum’, as one would expect here in ENGLAND, but the Americanised spelling of the word.

It took all my energy to stop myself putting the pump nozzle back, walking across the forecourt, and wiping out that hideous error. I was beside myself!

Well OK, it wasn’t quite that bad, but even so, it did annoy me on some level. I’ve noticed the increasing influence of American language and culture on people here. I’ve read some people’s Facebook profiles, and their listed favourite TV shows include nothing produced in the UK, even though there’s tons of decent shows.

I’ve occasionally heard people using more American English as well, dropping words in the slightly different contexts. Like saying ‘bring’ instead of ‘take’. Kids are by far the worst; more often than not when I hear a child speaking, they sound like a Californian, with a distinct twang that certainly isn’t from ’round these parts’.

The UK is a rich melting pot of cultures and languages, moreso than many other countries, but it’s at risk of being totally diluted by one language that really doesn’t offer anything. This might sound like an anti-American rant, but it isn’t. I like American people, and some of the culture. What I’m worried about, is people in the UK just adopting it as their culture, when we have hundreds of years MORE culture of our own, which ironically, American people seem to be quite interested in.