Florida's Only Source for Everything British

FLORIDA COLUMN by Patricia Kawaja  OCTOBER 2007 ISSUE   

SOUTH FLORIDA BRITISH TV VIEWERS! Do you love Britcoms on PBS? Miami's WPBT Channel 2  [305] is launching a Fan Club for YOU. The British Comedy Circle of Friends, [BCCF] will celebrate South Florida Brits and WPBT’s British comedic programming.  The club will kick-off with a 7 p.m. fundraising party at the WPBT Channel 2 studios on January 11, 2008.  Mark your calendar!  WPBT invites all Union Jack readers to attend this fun British evening at their studios. Admission only $15 for WPBT members and $20 for non-members.  Co-hosting the event will be BBC Worldwide Americas Vice President Julius Cain, distributor of British programming to PBS stations nationally, and Michael Seymour, Executive Producer of PBS British Comedy Specials for South Florida.   “Guests will enjoy tasty British delights, raffles for great gifts and a chance to view both old and new British programmes,” said WPBT Membership Director Todd Frandsen.  “Along with great fun, guests attending have an opportunity to join our British Comedy Circle of Friends.”   [Tampa PBS have been doing a similar event [their BritWit Party[ for a few years, which I helped them promote].  Membership includes: Invitation to the January 11, 2008 event, BCCF Fan Club Membership Card (providing various South Florida discounts, BBC Insider newsletter packed with exclusive highlights of British shows, discounted admission to future WPBT Britcom events, WPBT monthly program guide and an exclusive BCCF thank-you gift. WPBT Channel 2 has aired favorite British programs, like Eastenders, Are You Being Served, Waiting for God, Keeping Up Appearances and As Time Goes By for over 25 years.  INFO: Nial Martin at WPBT (305) 424-4261 or email This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it                PHOTO CAPTION  I was delighted to meet UJ’s London columnist Stewart Quentin-Holmes, in the capital last month. What a twinkling star he is, an old-fashioned English gentleman whose company was much enjoyed. I’ve been writing my column for 15 years, but he’s been there since the first issue. We columnists are scattered geographically so never meet each other, unless we set it up. So on this trip back to visit my mother, I contacted Stuart. “I’ve always wanted to meet you Patricia”, he said greeting me with a box of chocolates. Resplendent in  a green suit and velvet bow tie, Stewart whisked me off to a champagne-fuelled art gallery opening in South Kensington. There I met his genial friend John Barrett Watson, then on to a nearby traditional fish and chips dinner [my request]. The three of us had a grand time conversing and the two charmers  enjoy fascinating day jobs: They play Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson at Baker Street’s famous Sherlock Holmes Museum people hire them in character for private parties. So next time you’re over in London, pop in for a visit. MUSEUM INFO: www.sherlock-holmes.co.uk  
SCOTTISH SUPERSTAR ANNIE LENNOX appears October 31 at Miami's Carnival Center for the Performing Arts.  INFO/Tickets from promoter's website www.fantasma.com or www.carnivalcenter.org  BOX OFFICE: [305] 949-6722   
LEST WE FORGET.  SUNDAY NOVEMBER 11:  I do urge you to attend the Royal British Legion Remembrance Service this year.  We live this glorious free life in fabulous Florida and should focus for a few hours each year on the brave souls who fought for our freedom.  "A service of Remembrance for those men and women of all nationalities who have fallen in the service of their country," as the Legion describes it.  Wear your Poppy with Pride. The stirring red symbols will be available at the door. Spread the word to other Brits, bring your family and let's do the Annual Poppy Day Appeal proud.  LOCATION: Shepherd of the Coast Lutheran Church, 1901 East Commercial Blvd, Fort Lauderdale. Service starts at 3p.m. INFO:  Val Belben  [954] 946-0505   LARGO, west Florida-The London Pride shop [727] 517-3550 has new owners, Laurie Black [English] and wife Frances [Scottish], taking over from Krysia and Gerry Goodwin. The Blacks previously ran a bistro in Tampa.
JETHRO TULL, the veteran rock band eccentrically named after England’s nineteenth century inventor of the seed drill, fronted by Scottish flautist Ian Anderson, appears December 13, 2007 at Hollywood’s Seminole Hard Rock Hotel. Tickets/info www.seminolehardrockhollywood.com
SOUTH FLORIDA BRITISH TV VIEWERS! Do you love Britcoms on PBS? Miami's WPBT Channel 2  [305] is launching a Fan Club for YOU. The British Comedy Circle of Friends, will celebrate South Florida Brits and WPBT’s British comedic programming.  The club will kick-off with a 7 p.m. fundraising event at the WPBT Channel 2 studios.The party won't be till January 11, 2008 [mark your calendar] but updates will appear here. WPBT invites all Union Jack readers to attend this fun British evening at their studios. Admission only $15 for WPBT members and $20 for non-members.  Co-hosting the event will be BBC Worldwide Americas Vice President Julius Cain, distributor of British programming to PBS stations nationally, and Michael Seymour, Executive Producer of PBS British Comedy Specials for South Florida.   “Guests of our in-studio event can expect to enjoy tasty British delights, raffles for great gifts and a chance to view both old and new British programmess,” said WPBT Membership Director Todd Frandsen.  “Along with great fun, guests will also have an opportunity to join our British Comedy Circle of Friends.”   [Tampa PBS have been doing a similar event [their BritWit Party[ for a few years, which I helped them promote].  British Comedy Circle of Friends membership includes:  *In-Studio Fundraiser January 11, 2008 * BCCF Fan Club Membership Card (providing various South Florida discounts * BBC Insider - a newsletter packed with exclusive highlights of British shows * Discounted admission to future WPBT Britcom events *  WPBT monthly program guide * An exclusive BCCF thank-you gift.  WPBT Channel 2 has aired favorite British programs, like Eastenders, Are You Being Served, Waiting for God, Keeping Up Appearances and As Time Goes By for over 25 years.  INFO: Nial Martin at WPBT (305) 424-4261 or email This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it  
THE MIAMI and BROWARD TOURISM BOARDS are so keen to woo UK Brits here,  they are heading over to London.  [In 2006 Miami had 5.3 million foreign visitors, Broward had 2.1 million, a major percentage of which were British]. As we know, the pound is so strong against the dollar that Florida is a huge bargain. So in January, when Brits are in the despair of their miserable, dark winter, South Florida tourism officials are taking fullpage advertisements in the Sunday Times and arrive in London, Manchester and Glasgow with special beachmobile cars, boldly painted with bright beach and bikini model scenes on the sides. These four-wheeled sun-seducers will drive around the three British citycentres promoting fabulous Florida. Grand idea—luring more of my countrymen here is inspired.     
TAMPA---OCTOBER 13, 2007 The Royal Tartan Ball of Unification.  Scottish and Irish kilted pageantry, ceremony and celebration . Enjoy an evening in the British Isles . Open bar from 6 pm to 10 pm, mouth watering food including Celtic delights, live Scottish  music, bagpipers, dancing, games, prizes and more!   Venue: The Shriner's Building in Tampa. Tickets $55.00, INFO/BOOKINGS: John Miller  [813 ]735-9005 or e-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
Remember the shopping stampede in the UK, after a TV documentary about cosmetics featured the only anti-wrinkle cream scientifically proven to work?  Well that cream was Boots Number 7 and it’s now available in a white tube at Target stores here.  Ladies, I can already hear your tyres screeching to the nearest Target. 
CALLING BRITISH BLOKES IN DELRAY/ BOCA!  Bring your beards and barnets to Carrs [561] 272-0003,  the newly-opened British barbershop in downtown Delray Beach.  English owners David Solomons and wife Gloria, sold their home in Hertfordshire and moved to Florda with their four sons, earllier this year.  Carrs concept is the traditional upscale  English Barber Shop,  boasting "a standard of customer service second to none". Customers are greeted with a smile, complimentary beverage, wingback leather barber chairs, signature haircut and shampoo, hot towel for the face and a neck and shoulder massage as part of the service.  You are gently reclined in a well padded barber chair, a cushion slipped behind the calves for maximum comfort.  Carrs clients are shaved twice for a super smooth finish and the whole process is performed in a relaxed manner. “In fact” says David  “most of our clients tend to doze off in the chair!”  Go on fellas, treat yourself to a Carrs experience. [Full details about the process on www.carrsbarbers.com
THE BRITISH NETWORK-MIAMI, for anybody who wants to make British contacts, business and social.  Join British professionals for a useful and enjoyable networking evening----a roomful of Brits is never dull!   Hosted by Florida Association of British Business [FABB] DATES:  Tuesdays,  October 30, November 27and December 18 from 6 to 9p.m. ENTRY COST: Free.  LOCATION: Downtown Miami at The Doubletree Grand Hotel in Blu Moon Resto-Bar. Info on website www.BritishFlorida.com  on BRITISH EVENTS MIAMI page.
BRILLIANT BRITS CRUISE TO BERMUDA—Update. An eclectic group of brilliant Brits of all ages from all over Florida are joining me on this and have now booked. This 7 day cruise sails from Ft. Lauderdale on a brand new Costa ship in April 2008. This particular cruise is a popular one-off annual event which always sells out, so don’t delay if you wish to go. Details and cabin choices/prices too involved to list here, so email me for complete info.  
LANGUAGE USE HERE WHICH IRKS MY EARS:  Americans widespread use of that over-reverential term “My dad passed on” instead of “My dad died.” Passed what on—the baton?  Passed on to where—heaven? Only if you belive in man’s wishful thinking. My dad would hate to  be eternally bored on a cloud without a beer, a bird or Spurs to watch. Nobody loved her father more, but I always say “My Dad died in 1999.”  Just the simple truth without honeyed euphemisms.  Apparently most Brits agree with me, witnessed by this reader’s recent letter to The Telegraph complaining at their use of the term:  SIR—The very sad news of Lord Deedes’s death is not helped by the way you say repeatedly that he passed away. Both his sons in statements to your newspaper say that he died. Why do you prevaricate-why use such a miserable euphemism? If you are afraid of the word death what next will come? Perhaps passed on, or passed over, or went to the arms of Jesus or some other mealy-mouthed way of dodging what is an inescapable fact so well described, however sad, by a simple word that is understood by all and can cause no offence to anyone: --–Jack Meadows.     

I’ll mark the tenth anniversary of Princess Diana’s death by excerpting my Union Jack Florida column written immediately after: [Many readers now weren’t in Florida at the time, so this may surprise you]  “..….The shock of Princess Diana’s death hit Florida’s hundreds of thousands of expats, so far from home, like a meteorite.  While losing her had an enormous global impact, it also had an enormous global impact. Each of us transplanted Britons reacted and grieved in our own way. Here is my own whirlwind of events that week:  I was at a party that Saturday night in Florida with 40 other Brits, when an American neighbour walked in around midnight and told us to turn on the TV. We all sat stunned, the party shattered, watching CNN. For five straight days the shock and upset and thoughts of her never left my brain. Alone, I cried. My anti-Royalist [English!] boyfriend, so supportive always, was appalled and unmoved, finding my grief incomprehensible. He seemed to be the only Brit anywhere who felt like that.coping personally with the tragedy was minor compared to the bedlam in my business. Being the primary source for anything British in Florida I expected media enquiries but not to the extent they came. Local ABC News was the first, calling at 4a.m. for comments. For six days straight until the funeral, every Florida TV station and newspaper wanted me to round up   the Brits for interviews and reactions.. I got no other work done, just dealing with media queries. Many didn’t even know that there WAS a British Consulate, so I had to direct them there. [This was before the Internet as a source—I was it]. They even quizzed me for prep with their stories, constitutional questions like why was Prince Philip not called King Philip? We Brits gathered in the Trafalgar Arms, my local [and Ft. Lauderdale’s British epicentre at the time], to watch the funeral.   It stayed open all night, the only place in South Florida to do so, to show the funeral live. With TV crews chronicling it, we sat in the pub from 4a.m., transfixed with sorrow at the TV screens, caving into tears when Elton John started singing.All that week I fielded hundreds of calls from my British Network and FABB members, Union Jack readers and clients. For seven years and three British Consuls, I’ve dealt with every British organisation, club, pub and British business in Florida. Now they all seemed to be calling at once, venting their collective grief,  faxing me poems about the Princess for this paper, asking where to send local donations, would there be a local memorial service for Florida.Brits and all manner of Diana minutiae.”      So for those of you living in the UK on her death, I’d like you to know the waves of shock, grief and coverage were just as intense here.    INANE UK-USA Observation by Miami Herald’s TV critic Glenn Garvin. Writing  about the August 2007 PBS special called The Anti-Americans, where people from other nations comment on Americans, he deems it “snotty bigotry.” Writes Garvin:  As one Brit says at a dinner party, after the ritual dismissal of President Bush as a drooling idiot, “Why should an idiot society have intelligent politicians?  How can you do anything but giggle when you consider that the remark comes from a citizen of the country transfixed by Benny Hill?  Er what, Mr. Garvin? It’s the Americans who are so transfixed by Benny Hill that we expats here groan and roll our eyes every time they ask us, “Oh I just love Benny Hill, don’t you?”  Yes we do, but grew out of him thirty years ago. I noticed Americans surprisingly besotted by Benny Hill when I first arrived in Florida, attributing it to their backwards Puritanism. They were shocked at the sight of a woman in stockings and suspenders being chased around on TV. We British are far too sophisticated and evolved to be transfixed by Benny Hill, Mr. Garvin.    FABULOUS BRITISH MUSICAL MY FAIR LADY comes to Florida. This 50^th anniversary London production of Lerner and Lowe’s musical version of George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion is hailed by worldwide critics as the best  since the glorious Audrey Hepburn/Rex Harrison film. Remember her stunning cream and black striped costume and parasol at the Ascot scene?  This particular show, part of the touring Broadway across America series, stars Britain’s leading theatrical actors Christopher Cazenove and Lisa O’ Hare as Professor Higgins and Eliza Dolittle. ]Thank God we’re spared the shudderingly awful experience of Americans faking Cockney, ala  Dick Van Dyck in Mary Poppins]. Based on the Cameron Macintosh/National Theatre of England award-winning London sensation, this production has been hailed as “the My Fair Lady revival against which all others will be measured.”  Artistic direction is by fabled English theatre titan Trevor Nunn, winner of four Tony awards. I was fortunate to be given a media preview early last month and will definitely be buying tickets for the Miami show. This sumptuous musical will certainly sell out to the rafters, but since tickets don’t go on sale till October 28 I’m giving you extra advance notice. DATES: PALM BEACH October 30 to November 4 at the Kravis Center www.Kraviscenter.org 1-800-832-7469  MIAMI December 18-23. Carnival Center www. Carnivalcenter.org  BOX OFFICE: [305] 949-6722      UK-USA CULTURAL CORNER.   Some differences are hysterical, like the distinctly different  meanings of the word FANNY. In Britain it’s slang for a woman’s  vagina, in America slang for her bottom.  So you’d never see this Florida newspaper headline and report in British publications, which had me chortling all day:  ARREST MADE IN KILLING OF MAN WITH FAT FANNY FETISH [Miami Herald August 2007]. …Perry Bailey was charged with first degree murder .  “Sadly his love of women’s physiques cost him in the end,” said Miami detective spokesman Delrish Moss. “We  found hundreds of Polaroid photos of clothed female fannies inside his small-engine workshop.”    [David Beckham soon discovered linguistic challenges in his new LA life. Telling Galaxy team-mates that he’d gained his sun-tan from being “out in the garden” of his new home, they expressed surprise at his interest in growing vegetables. David’s puzzled looks resulted in them explaining that Americans say “backyard.” ]    NEWS OF THE BOOZE.  Spider Murphy’s [561] 842-0835, a new Irish pub opened in North Palm Beach last month. With Irish owners Norman Breslin and Keith Aherne from the Emerald Isle, the pub  offers delicious English and Irish pubgrub. Pop in for a pint and check it out.  From my emailbag last week [I've changed his name only]:  I have been to Belfast for my visa application. I have a DUI and I presented all the appropriate paperwork. I have now been asked to go to London for a medical. I am fine with this in regards to not having a problem with drinking, however, I have a medical history that I don’t want to disclose. Do you know what the exam involves, what I would have to do? Would it involve me having to remove clothing etc...---Angus McMillan in Glasgow.   Well. I got him the correct professional answer, of course. But I was ITCHING to ask what this Scotsman had on his body he didn't want American officials to see!! THE BRITISH FILM DEATH AT A FUNERAL is playing near you,as they say. I urge you to see it. The PR company sent me free passes for my British group, to create advance buzz for the film so I saw it 2 months before release. It was so screamingly good, the entire preview audience [of 80% Americans ] gave it a clapping, whooping standing ovation. It takes the black humour we Brits relish love to a new level of hysterical, but with a shocking revelation or laugh in every frame. Don’t wait to Netflix it—see it in the cinema now where audience reaction around you enhances your experience.             THE BRITISH NETWORK-MIAMI, for anybody who wants to make British contacts, business and social.  Join local British professionals for a useful networking evening----a roomful of Brits is never dull!   Hosted by Florida Association of British Business [FABB]  2007 DATES:  Tuesdays, September 25, October 30, November 27 from 6 to 9p.m.  ENTRY COST: Free.  LOCATION: The Doubletree Grand Hotel in their Blu Moon Resto-Bar, downtown Miami. Full details on website www.BritishFlorida.com  click on BRITISH EVENTS MIAMI page.  
BRILLIANT BRITS CRUISE TO BERMUDA—Update. Many Brits from all over Florida have already booked for this 7 day cruise. Sailing from Ft. Lauderdale on a brand new Costa ship—join me and other Brits onboard. Sail date is April 2008 but this particular cruise is a one-off annual event which always sells out, so booking now is advised. Details and cabin choices/prices too involved to list here, so send email to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it for complete info.   
LANGUAGE USE HERE WHICH IRKS MY EARS:  It’s annoying when British celebrities visiting the