No Sugar Tonight

1) in my coffee: I'm cutting back.

2) in my tea: see #1

3) to stand beside me: sugar sculptures were eaten by me. Hence #1 and #2.

4) to run with me: they were only scultpures and could not move.

Alright, enough nonsense.

Little enough has gone on in the past week, sadly, mostly because of the weather. We dealt with the large group of crazy juniors from Notre Dame who are studying abroad in London. Saturday consisted of staying in because of the weather, finally braving the weather to go to Evil Eye for a few minutes to download Phyllis' Weddnig, and then helping myself to a G& T while watching the espisode in the privacy of my special room. I DJ'd in the bar that night, and that led to some trouble. Some of the guys--I dunno if it's because I was trying to be friendly to them or what (a few went to my high school!), but they decided to bitch when I played Gwen Stefani...the girls of course loved it, but the boys went behind the bar and started manhandling my iPod. I was absolutely enraged, because 1) you do not go behind the bar 2) you do NOT put your hands on my property without my permission. So that night ended badly, but all things considered it was an OK day.

Next day was alright, I went shopping with Sarah. Got some food and other things, and she bought a car!! Methinks cars are in general cheaper here in the UK than in the US...I'm not kidding. It's weird. I found a really cute store in the York city centre that sells toys, and it has a player piano in it! It was playing the most cheery, bouncy tunes and it made me totally happy. I took a video. They also sold in this store these plush flowers with smily faces on them, and bendable stems. I might just have to buy one if the weather does not improve, because I absolutely cannot look at those things and not be cheery.

Last night I went out for sushi with the gang--meaning the 3 Americans and all the Aussies (Me, Christine, Becs being the three Americans and Naomi, Sarah + 3 new ones being the Aussies). Vudu lounge was across the street so we went there for drinks first...and Becs had a Sapphire tonic and let me have some...so it was my first Sapphire Tonic probably since December and it made me happy. Inspired by the menu's offer of a drink called the Multiple Screaming Orgasm, Sarah and Becs and I toasted Valentine's Day and the sexual toys that get us through it. This was followed by sashimi and chicken katsu at Buzz, a very trendy Japanese place. Expensive, but worth it. There wasn't really any variety of rolls, however, and so I missed CA Roll Factory and Pier 2 Sushi. The highlight of the evening was Becs putting all of the ginger in her mouth at once--she had never had Japanese food before--and seeing her face turn red and eyes water. Poor thing--that ginger was terrbily strong.

I'm sitting here at work with not a whole lot to say. York's Viking Festival starts today, and I've decided to go on the comedic walking tour called Park and Raid tomorrow evening. Ought to be amusing...I figure I should celebrate my Norwegian heritage a little. Tonight I can't go out and join in on the Valentine's Day/Men-Are-Black-Mold festivities of the night because I'm on door duty. It's more than OK, though, the wallet needs a break. And I've been called "love", "my dear," "my love" and "sweetheart" about 50 times already today by all the people who phone in to Benenden. Yeah they're strangers. And my own family can't manage to communicate. But that's another story for another day.

Before I go, 2 more observations about the British that I've noticed and find amusing/intriguing/maybe slightly daft.

1) Where an American would say as a casual greeting, "How are you doing?", the Brit says, "Are you alright?" They actually say it a lot. It takes getting used to, because as an American I want to answer, "Yeah, why?"

2) They refer to themselves wtih title and last name only, when identifying themselves for businesses or to strangers, which I find odd. Like, a woman will call our company here and clearly she doesn't know who she's talking to and she's going to have to give us her information so we can identify her. But she calls and says, "Hello, my name is Mrs. Smith and I want..." or a guy will say, "This is Mr. Bradford here and I want to change my address." It sounds a bit odd to my ears, because in the US you wouldn't get this. Having done a fair amount of phone answering there as well, people in the US will give their full name--like "Hi, I'm Josefina Rodriguez" or "This is Joseph Douglas here"--whereas in England you'd get "Miss Rodriguez" (well not the Rodriguez, but you get the idea) and "Mr. Douglas". Just a little interesting tidbit about the way people communicate here.

Speaking of Rodriguez, I FINALLY found La Fiesta Mechicana. Absolutely can't wait to go and see what they've got.