Local Language

  • gypsy’s warning

    A quiet word to an employee or aquaintance, suggesting that they’d best proceed with caution in respect of their current conduct or attitude, or they may be in for an unpleasant surprise. The details of which aren’t actually set out by the giver of the warning, who may or may not have control over their…

Journal

  • Here’s What I Know

    On days like today I have time to realize (or rather, run out of time to avoid) how much really has changed for me in the last year and a half or so.  It’s like remembering that no one is holding on to your bike as you peddle like mad down the street.  Usually on…

  • Wait, There’s More

    The longer we vacation in the states and the more questions people ask, the more strange things I remember about my new home in London.  For instance, toilets are shaped funny.  I had forgotten all about that, but in describing house cleaning to our cousin, that thought came to the forefront.  I can just say…

  • You Know You are Home When

    You have chores You can talk about gas – the kind that goes in your car and the kind that comes after chili You can laugh and cry when you need to You can tell someone that they are a little bit stinky You can ask for water and eat too much You can spend…

  • Where in the World are Drew and Jen?

    Northeast of Nashville there exist Christmas dinners consisting mainly of foods grown in a family garden and I have eaten some of the best sweet corn that grows on the planet.  There are so many family members to see, but not enough time to tell them what they mean; the last two and a half…

  • So, This is Christmas

    It is strange to be back in the town where we used to own a house, but don’t anymore – and it’s weird to be sleeping at my mom’s when I used to live in a neighborhood ten minutes away.  It can be disconcerting to recognize handfuls of people at a time where ever in public…

  • Wow, It’s Grey and Rainy in Tennessee, Too

    We have safely arrived at our Christmas Vacation destination.  I hope that our trip is not as exciting as the Griswold’s, though I do expect something really funny to write about. I have already had substantive conversations with two strangers and ran into an family friend I haven’t seen since I was kid, only to…

  • Can You Get Drunk on Hot Chocolate?

    Wow.  It has been a busy couple of days…  Yesterday I bought train tickets for my interview in Sutton and went to retrieve them.  Sooner or later I am going to figure out the easy way to travel by train, the way which does not involve going to some weird place to get your tickets…

  • He’s Right Behind You!

    This weekend Drew and I enjoyed ourselves at the Barbican Centre for two very different shows.  On Saturday we had a lovely lunch at the Waterside Cafe before enjoying a special showing of The Day the Earth Stood Still in a very nice cinema.  After the show we had dinner at Tortilla in Islington and…

  • Don’t Look Now…

    All this time I have had to make Christmas cards was foiled by my ignorance.  I’ve been searching for craft stores in London and I have pawed through stationery stores for the supplies I would need to glitter your mailbox.  Today I discovered something wholly new to me.  Haberdashery.  Mostly it indicates sewing supplies, but…

  • Would You Like to Dance?

    Where to begin… With a sequence of events not entirely unlike a roller coaster ride–the kind you wait in line nearly half a day to ride and get off feeling sick, exhilarated, and thankful to be alive–it’s hard to know exactly how to begin to tell the story of the last two and a half…

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