Mwah

I am in the land of the double kiss. So far, every one of mine has been awkward. I never know whether I’m supposed to hug AND do the double kiss…what is the appropriate amount of body contact? And am I really supposed to kiss each side of the person’s face or do I just do the air kiss? Do I do it both at the beginning of the get together AND the end? After doing the double kiss at the beginning, is it okay to do just a one kiss at the end or even not at all? And most importantly, what do I do when I meet up with someone who I really don’t want to do the double kiss with lest it give them the wrong impression, after all, they’ve been smothering me at work asking me to SLEEP OVER when they have a girlfriend? (I won’t name names, but his name beings with ‘R’ and ends with ‘ichard.’) Little help here?

As I was talking to a box office teller this week, I slipped in the word ‘quid.’ I’m not sure why, but whenever I use this word I think I am using it incorrectly and I feel like the person who I’m talking to can see right through me and knows I’m a phoney.

Gimme a ping = gimme a ring

In order to finance my coffee habit (and at 2 QUID a cup, it’s getting a bit expensive), I signed up to be a volunteer for a research study. Even I’M a little surprised I was able to find this so quickly in a new city, but it’s amazing the things this so-called internet has. I basically had to read a couple pamphlets on medicine and then answer reading comprehension questions. Despite the fact that reading comprehension was the only subject I ever got a C in (college, and therefore my D in “The Hebrew Bible,” doesn’t count), I did okay. Fine, truth be told, the girl had to point to the answer in the reading a couple times for me, but I still earned enough to pay for 12 coffees, so it’s all good.

Last night was my first play/musical in London! It’s called Blair on Broadway and it was at a tiny theater in the West End. I was distracted for a lot of the show because the guy playing Blair had a foundation smudge on his shoulder and I kept wanting someone to brush it off for him. Regardless, the show was really funny and well put together. I had to lean over to K a couple times to ask questions like “Who’s the fat guy on the left supposed to be?” “Did Blair really get arrested?” and “Did Gordon Brown really tackle Blair like that at 10 Downing Street?” (The answers being a Deputy PM (I think, but completely forget already), yes, and no.) Maybe I would have enjoyed the play even more had I known more about the politics of Tony Blair, but even as an ignorant American I could get the gist – he’s a lady’s man, he’s all smoke and mirrors, his country hates him as much as we hate Bush for going to war in Iraq, etc etc etc.

I will say this though…going to Sydney and London certainly help me learn who the current prime ministers are.