My friend Deb’s father is in the hospital. I’ll see her when I’m in LA but wish I could be there now supporting her.
Yesterday at our meeting, I told a gentleman that I say “You all right?” and watch Coronation Street. He said that makes me a native. And while talking to my friend Nicole on the phone yesterday I said mobile with the long I, the British way instead of the US way. She laughed. I told Simon it wasn’t an affectation, but when I say it the US way here, people don’t understand me. One bus driver—when I said Altrincham—thought I said church.
Sitting at Starbucks writing this. It’s almost 9 and I’ve been here since 8:30. Cab can’t come until 9:15, so I said to pick me up here rather than at home. A pleasant (and caffeinated) wait, plus I get to people-watch. I actually love listening more than watching. No silly—not in an eavesdropping way—but I just love the accents and the colloquialisms. Starbucks is right by the check out counters at Sainsbury’s, so I get to hear tons of accents. And I actually used a colloquialism in our meeting yesterday in Wales.
One-off is the UK version of one-time, as in “training is a process, not a one-off event.” I was proud of myself.
Wish I’d had this notebook out during the trip to and from Southern Wales. Instead it was stuffed in my backpack in the back of the Jeep—so I lost our on so many neat images to record.
I spoke about wishing I had my sleeping bag here. Through conversation with a friend Peg in the Comment section of the blog—it hit me that I’ll be in Milwaukee soon and can pick up my sleeping bag. I can get my big backpack if I choose to. Don’t know if I have the energy to think about that. But I do have a lovely backpacking tent. If only I had a friend to go camping with—that would clinch the deal.
Written at night: We had a lovely day in Dublin. Met Simon at the airport and as usual he didn’t have money, but the big difference was—I did. So I shelled out the dough for his coffee and bun. The flight took about 30 minutes and the only problem was we had to wait an inordinate amount of time for the hotel van to pick us up. And the driver was rude. The first person in a service related industry in Ireland to be rude to me. Interesting.
Our interviews went very well, and the applicants delivered sample training for our review. One of the guys said, “You lads,” and included me in that phrase. I exclaimed my delight. The young man was embarrassed, but said “you lads” includes everyone. I loved it so much, because I always say, “you guys.” Perfect. I told him I’ll never forget the day when someone with a melodious Irish lilt included me with “you lads.”
God I love Ireland. (Simon thinks it’s because I love Irish lads.)
Flight got in after 8 PM and I got home at 9.
posted by Jerilyn Dufresne, author @ 17:36
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