It’s nearly Christmas! C is the most Christmassey man I’ve ever met, mocking up a spontaneous Nativity play using dressing gowns, muslins, and various stuffed animals. He also organised a traditional British lunch at The Churchill on East 28th Street for some other expat friends of ours. The Churchill’s a good British pub, check out the menu here if you fancy a roast with all the trimmings. It also plays recordings of Winston Churchill’s speeches in the loo, which is initially unnerving but then surprisingly hypnotic.
We had a v funny conversation swapping stories of cultural or language barriers, British expressions that can unwittingly derail any conversation with an American. Things like:
- Willy nilly
- Rubbish
- Bin
- Full of beans
- Pants (underwear vs trousers, so confusing)
- Restaurant sounding like Restroom (see this blog post for that particular gem)
- Smart vs Fancy (in the US, ‘smart’ means clever or quick witted, and ‘fancy’ means posh or well dressed. So it causes a lot of confusion if you put ‘fancy dress’ on your child’s party invitation. Instead, use ‘costumes’)
However, the absolute highlight of the event was towards the end when I gave my business card to some of the expats there to keep in touch. One of the ladies studied both sides of the card carefully, and said “But, this is you!”
“Yeeeees,” I replied, thinking, what’s your point?
“But I know your blog! I read it all the time! You’re really funny!” **swatting her husband’s arm** “She’s really funny!”
I beamed and swatted my husband’s arm saying, “I’m funny! She thinks I’m funny! She reads my blog!”
It was a pretty brilliant end to a generally fantastic meal that involved fish and chips, red wine and sticky toffee pudding and no children, so that’s saying something.
Happy Christmas, lovelies x
This week’s Highs & Lows:
Highs:
- T’s utter inability to sit still whenever Maria Carey’s All I Want For Christmas comes on. She can be sitting sleepily at the table scooping up corn flakes, and then a heart beat later she’s doing fantastic ‘big body movement’ dance moves on the carpet while J and B gaze open mouthed
- Making two subway journeys today without making a single navigational mistake. Yessssssssss. (Almost three years in and I’m still uncomfortable with the subways. Click here to read why)
- The free Quiet Clubbing at Brookfield Place this weekend. It was a lot of fun
Lows:
- A week of rolling childhood winter ailments – earaches, streaming noses, conjunctivitus, temperatures and teething
- At 4am I try to work out when I last had an unbroken night’s sleep. I reckon I’ve had fewer than ten night’s unbroken sleep in the past two years. It’s something we’d failed to think through when we decided to go for multiple children. I find myself fantasising about a week away from the children, involving a remote log cabin, a crackling fire, a book case, a bottomless teapot, and uninterrupted sleep. I remember once, in my childless, single days, telling a colleague that I had slept for thirteen hours straight that weekend. She looked aghast. Looking back at it now, she had two small boys, and probably wanted to punch me. Sorry KL, I didn’t know
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Great festive blog Alex! As the Yanks would say – ‘I hear ya’ on the language barriers, winter ailments and broken nights…
Happy Christmas – or Happy Holidays – y’all xx