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Country BearsI just wondered, for those of you who do fairs, what you take in the way of a float??
Past Time BearsClare . . . I don't know what a float is. :redface: Please explain???!
Upstate New YorkHas to be a British/American dictionary for the English language somewhere. I'll start lookin'.
aah bless these Americans! I'm a Kiwi so I understand both! 
A float is the money that you use as change.
I price my bears so that I have to have the least change possible. It doesn't help that I do my major show in another country and have to get foreign curency before I leae!! I usually price most of my bears ending in a 0 (eg $80, 90) and make sure that I have lots of 10 and 20 notes - maybe about 6 x 10 and 4 x 20. I do have some bears ending in a 5 so have lots of $5). I was lucky in Melbourne in that there was visa facility for us ll to use as I don't have it personally.
Work out your prices, and then think about what kind of notes people most usually carry - here it's $20 because that's what the ATMs give you, and then kind of figure your way from there.
If you have little bits and pieces for sale, make sure you have plenty of coins - I always have lots of $1 and $2 coins and (about $20 of each) and maybe $10 of 20c and 50c.
Good luck with the show!!!
Posts: 8,574OK so who's gonna write the IDIOMS FOR IDIOTS book....I would never ever ever have figured that one out-I don't believe any British murder books have ever had a bear lady going to a 'fair' with enough change in her 'float'........ :lol:
Upstate New YorkMe either Dilu. 
I guess we'll have to watch more Britcoms (which I love anyway) and Bridget Jones's Diary one or two more times. 
Wild Thyme OriginalsHi Clare! My first thought when I heard the word 'float' as a noun was a parade float. I was imagining you ridding into the bear show atop a motorized platform contraption covered in carnations!!!! Then I thought maybe the beverage made with a carbonated drink and a scoop of ice cream.... That couldn't be it! That little ball that you attach to the end of a fishing line so that you can approximate where your hook is in the water? No..... Bless these Americans is right!!!! Thank Goodness for the Kiwis we have here at TT who do understand both! Now I get it!
Good luck at the show Clare! I'm sure it will be fun!
Beary trulu yours,
Kim Basta
Past Time BearsAAAHHH . . . a float is change!!
Just Us BearsThanks Sue Ann..that was my next question. 'What do you call it then?"
Certainly adds spice to international conversation huh!
Claire..what dates are your show??
Posts: 8,574Hey wait a min. Ladies,
I really liked Kim's Idea- A Teddy Bear Parade......anyone remember that old song 'Elephants on parade' from Dumbo?
Well Teddy Bears fits just as good as elephants....except that it would be the gollies that get drunk and not the elephants or the teddybears! :lol:
Thank Goodness for the Kiwis we have here at TT who do understand both!
one of the advantages of living in a little isolated country at the bottom of the world is that A LOT of our television etc is imported from overseas so we get the best of both worlds (and of course our great neighbours Australia). In the past, most of our influence came from Britain and the rest of the UK, however these days more and more Americanisms are creeping in.
However, if I talked aloud to YOU you wouldn't be able to understand me probably - we have a strange little accent here. (just ask Hayley!)
Just Us BearsIt's such a cute accent though Melissa! We had a young NZ exchange student stay with us last year and it was such a laugh sometimes..her trying to understand us and vice versa. Of course we had to have the discussion on who has the correct pronunciation of sex/six. :lol:
I still remember when you were over here, Tracey commenting on wishing she was a 'full time beer maker". What a hoot! :lol:
We love that show 'Motorway Patrol" that is from NZ. Hearing police talk with such a cute accent.
Matilda Huggington-beareThen I thought maybe the beverage made with a carbonated drink and a scoop of ice cream.... No..... Bless these Americans is right!!!!
Beary trulu yours,
Kim Basta
We call them SPIDERS. :lol
What do you guys in America call a float?
Matilda
Just Us BearsMatilda...would love to see a close up of your new avatar bear...love it!
Sue Ann says a float is called 'change' in the USA. Sounds logical..in fact it's rather more logical that 'float'.
Baird'sBears Matilda,
In the US, it's called (or was called) an 'ice cream soda'. In Toronto, it's called a 'float'.
My information might be out of date. After all, I can remember ordering ice cream sodas at a drug store (chemist's) counter!
Eileen
Wild Thyme OriginalsNow here in the midwest, we do call a carbonated drink with a scoop of ice cream in it a 'float.' As in "gimme a rootbeer float." If you say 'ice cream soda' I know what you mean, of course, but midwesterners don't really use the term 'soda' a whole lot... we call it 'pop.' I think 'soda' is a more East Coast kinda thing...? Maybe?
Beary truly yours,
Kim Basta
Wild Thyme Originals
Upstate New YorkKim ~
Yep ... Coke, Pepsi ... it's all soda here. However, having spent several years in Michigan, pop is also familiar to me. I might order a rootbeer float OR an ice cream soda, with float being specific to rootbeer (at least on the menus). Go figure.
Apple Dumpling DesignsWell...I'm on the West Coast...I call them floats...and soda. I've never heard anyone call a "float" an ice cream soda (although I know what they are so that's probably a false statement). Pop is a common term but everyone I know calls it Soda...hmmm.
Perhaps it depends on where your parents are from and what you grew up with.
Baird'sBears It may be that 'ice cream soda' is only a New England term!
Eileen
Upstate New Yorkstop, stop ... i'm so confused. i'll have to only visit places where there's a picture to point at!
Wild Thyme OriginalsHow about a 'phosphate?' Anyone remember those? I worked at Friendly's (basic restaurant chain serving sanwiches, fries, etc... but known for their ice cream) for a couple of summers in collage for pocket change (maybe pocket float?)..... I scooped ice cream, made sundaes, etc... Anyway, we used to have people (generally those who would have keenly remembered the 1950's soda fountain craze--- I'm NOT being offensive here! :hug:) come in an order a 'phosphate.' It was weeks before I figured out what the heck THAT was! Several shots of soda water (see that's 'soda' to me--- soda water ), with chocolate syrup, or vanilla syrup, or cherry syrup, plus a bit of milk.
Or a vanilla coke! That was before Coke came out with pre flavored pop. I was like, "Huh? We only have one flavor of Coke!" When Coke came out with their flavors.... my son thought it was the just the coolest, newest, awesomest ....and I had to break it to him that it was actually sort of a "vintage" thing! People knew how to LIVE in the 50's. YUM!
Beary truly yours,
Kim Basta
Wild Thyme Originals
Past Time BearsKim . . . you go back as far as the 50s?? Wow, that's when I was growing up! Down here in Texas we called any carbonated bottled drink a Coke, as in "Let's go get a Coke!". You didn't necessarily have to order a Coke when you got to the Drive In, but it was still goin' to get a Coke. My fave back then and still is . . . ta da . . . Dr. Pepper!!! Otherwise, a carbonated drink was/is a soda pop. And floats are ice cream with a carbonated drink poured over it. Love those Dr. Pepper floats in the summertime!! 
When I was little, I used to read lots of American books and things like pop, soda, kool-aid etc used to sound so much more exciting than the names we called things.
We call carbonated drinks "fizzy drinks" (keepin it simple now!!) or by their brand names I guess. Definitely not soda or pop. Like the aussies, we tend to call fizzy drinks with ice-cream in "spiders".
We only got Doctor Pepper here in the last couple of years Sue Ann. Just like root bear - I tried it once and the magic was gone!
Upstate New YorkOh Melissa, I remember we used to have "fizzies" that were little discs that you plopped in a glass of water and it made bubbles and flavored the water. Not truly carbonated, but lots of fun and a special treat. I like Dr. Pepper too, but don't care for the new vanilla cherry flavor. Too sweet. I'm old enough to also remember Nehi softdrinks. Yum ... grape (like Radar on M*A*S*H*).
Vanilla Cherry Dr Pepper?????
We don't even have cherry coke here - they try to introduce it every few years but it doesn't ever do well...I think we have lime coke but that's only diet and I can't have the artificial sweetener so I've never tried it, and we do have vanilla coke and raspberry coke but not vanilla cherry!!
