Of mice and men
Was out with a fellow britgal this evening. We got onto the usual subject (well one of them anyway) of men. I can't decide whether its the US "heart on the sleeve wearing" way or that men in London are just crap. It seems like most of my male friends are great (although a few have had their moments at various points in the past) but pretty much every guy I've dated suffers from commitment problems (the last boy commenting "I can't understand why any man would choose to get married these days"!). Was I a different person in London or did I just attract jerks? And are they really different over here or have I just met a rarity? (and is he in fact for real?) .
What is it about men and commitment? Personally I think they are a bunch of wimps - why anyone would not want to love someone and have them love you back is barking. There is only so long you can get excitement out of your life on your own (when all your mates are paired off and doing their own thing, who are you going to tell your heroic, adventure stories to? - you can only impress grandchildren if you have some children of your own first!).
I feel like I'm ranting now and this post is turning into one of those where you wake in the morning with a hangover and think - what the hell did all that garbage mean?!!!
Going to bed with some nurofen...(which, by the way, is another thing you can't get over here!)
Language again
Actually I revise my
earlier statements about language. Well add to anyway - I still think you lot don't end phone calls in the same way we do. But everyday language - going to the shop/getting in a lift type language is akin to learning a foreign language at school. Its very "turn-takey" each person has a role to play and there is a certain script the players follow. We've lost it a bit in London (we'll say morning when we finally get to the office and maybe "have a nice weekend" on a Friday but other than that if we see people in the lift we don't speak to them that much and in a shop you'll be lucky if you get a "2 pound 50 please", "there you go", "here's your change", "thanks"-type conversation - a whole lot of it is carried on with no speaking. Its a bit sad really - especially if you live alone and these are the only times you get to speak to people - its a wonder we don't all forget what our voices sound like! I'm sure its different in the country or somewhere with a community feel but where I come from its more of a novelty than a reality.
Back to Boston
Have been traveling about a bit recently, Vermont last week, Boston this week. Is great to get out of the city and realise that actually there's still a lot of fields and areas that aren't so built up. I wonder how much of the humidity in the city is due to not being able to see sky. Think living in Times Square is getting to me a bit - starting to feel fenced in. Bought a map of the states on the way to the train - is great to finally be able to see where Vermont is....
....Ooooo.....Had forgotten what a great train ride this is - am constantly passing reservoir and lakes and the sun is getting low in the sky - there's some really pretty countryside to be had in this vast country!
The weekend - upstate stylee
Took a trip "Upstate" this weekend (actually only just over an hour out of Manhattan on a bus - but it still counts as "upstate" in my book!) with the boy (no it doesn't count as a mini-break (cf Bridget Jones 2003) - we were going to see friends). Got off in a little village (by US standards not ours :-) and then walked down a dirt-track until we were surrounded by trees and "nature" (not too keen on this bit as the boy had already teased me greatly about the dangers of ticks:- "sometimes when you pull them their heads get stuck in you and then you have to burn them off you" and then John chimed in:- "I've had one stuck in my balls before" Gross).
Anyway, we rounded the corner onto his drive and there was a huge deer! Antlers and everything - that's what I call nature :-) Turned out to be a great evening - we ate BBQ sausages and watched Space Balls (highly recommended - v funny). Then the next day (after ensuring there were no ticks in the bed and the Boy had diligently killed all winged items I could see on the walls) we got the canoe out on the lake (yes they have a lake in their 2 acre garden!), played some table-tennis, prodded the huge frogs with pieces of grass and helped reuse shingle from bits of wall they'd removed - was great manual labour and made me feel very manly! Got back in town just in time to get a late mani-pedi, have a shower, don the war-paint, small shoes and smaller skirt and join my more urban friends' house party in Alphabet City. What more could a gal want from a weekend?!
morbid curiosity?
that's certainly what I thought while watching the twin towers come down on TV in the pub next to my workplace in London. "Why am I watching this?" I thought to myself. But I couldn't tear myself away - and neither could anyone else in the pub - the scenes turned our stomach but we had to see more.
Today is different, I can't turn the TV off because I want to feel close to my home town, colleagues and friends. I feel so removed with the miles and the time difference between us. While the TV is on I feel I am connected to my fellow Brits, my old workplace and the people close to me. And so I am "working" from home with the TV on, trying to make sure everyone is ok. Thank God for the miracle of the text message...
