Books: More Vonnegut (Currently Galapagos
Music: Relient K, MmHmm MxPx Panic
Filmed Entertainment: Gilmore Girls Seasons 1 & 2 DVD, Arrested Development, Amazing Race, My Name is Earl, Office, Everybody Hates Chris

Man, looking at that last entry... No wonder I don't think I have any free time.

Original Post intended for June 21st, 2005
Ug.
We've heard a lot of accented voices (or wait, do we have the accents over here?) mumbling about the "hottest day of the century." Of course, for a century that's only 4 and a half years old (yup, that's how I count my centuries - I celebrated the new millennium on Jan 1, 2001 too. Sorry), I'm not too impressed. What I am is hot. We slept horribly in our tiny room. The air was so still that it was hard to breathe out. Our last exhale seemed to still be in front of our face, preventing the current breath from getting out...

Anyway, our first hot morning, we spent a pound each on little half-litre bottles of water, but when we came back to our place yesterday to change out of our sweaty clothes, we figured we could do better. One block over from Earl's Court Road, we found a little supermarket. Well, "super" is probably an exaggeration. "Mighty" might even be too much. So...I guess we found a little market. We got gi-normous 2 litre bottles for 69 pence. Seemed like a steal! Though we initially hated lugging the things around, it made a HUGE difference in the rest of our day.

We went back last night to get today's supply, and they were all out of water. All water. Except for some small bottles of sparkling stuff. No gracias, we said, we'll be back tomorrow. Well, their 10:00 p.m. shipment didn't come by last night, so they are still out of the big waters. :-( But we'll find some more someplace. I hope.

It is kind of funny though, the trash cans & recycling bins are already overflowing with spent water bottles. Weird scene.

What I wanted to point out, though, is how quickly the term "cold" became a relative adjective... When we were leaving the States, we had ice galore in our little airport-purchased pops, we had ice all the way over on our flight, and then when we landed, ice disappeared.

We were prepared for that, though. Not really a big deal. People told us, and we listened. But instead of us lamenting the lack of ice in our waters, etc., we instead have shifted the entire definition of what we're looking for when looking for cold water. These big bottles we bought? They were sitting NEAR the cooler. On top of the coolers. But not IN them. The coolers were for the beer and expensive drinks. The Pimm's. But when we got our hands on the water that had barely even hinted at being chilled, we gulped it down fast, and rejoiced at it's cooling, refreshing powers.

Lukewarm, meet Cold. Cold will be taking your place for a while. Please step aside. Thank you.

Wow, sorry. That was Much Ado About Nothing. I guess I will sign off for now. I'ma go get a Pimm's - Enjoy it in the park. And don't take this the wrong way, but I hope it's cold where you are.

Original Post: June 20th, 2005. Overlooking Earl's Court Rd., London

We here at AC are big fans of the BBC comedy "The Office." We love it. Even those of us who don't work in offices.
For those of us that do work in offices, we are blown away by the fact that David Brents exist everywhere, and the fact that writers across the pond know what it's like to be Tim (aren't we all Tim? Too good for our surroundings? Over competent? Deluding ourselves about leaving for a better life? Ahem, scratch that last bit will you? Thanks.)

Part of the charm of "The Office" for me is devouring bits of British slang. Mostly because we can get away with using it here and not offending passing church ladies. Okay, not mostly...but it can be fun!

The coolest bit of used slang, though, to me is "Cheers." Tim is the master of Cheer-ing people. Catch any scene where he's leaving the action, and you'll get a "Cheers." This is because Tim is using the absolute best substitute for saying "Goodbye." Tim can up the ante by adding "mate" to the send off. For a triple-dog dare construction of the phrase, Tim sometimes even resorts to:

"Cheers, mate....Cheers."

That's when I pause the DVD, stand up on the coffee table, and declare Tim as the number one, super coolest guy on the Telly! He's the dog's bollocks! (trust me, that's good!)

I realize I'm rambling a bit here. But that's mainly becuase I lose my train of thought trying to type on a century-old PC at "easyInternetCafe." For just One Pound, I scored an hour of Internet time. That can't be beat, I don't think... But there's lots of people in here, and it's just above a McDonald's, so there's even more noises...and the smell of America.

Anyway: I liked Tim giving off the Cheers whenever he got the chance. It just sounds so earnest, and yet also so tossed-off. So nonchalant, yet so meaningful. It's great. But for some reason, whenever I try to use it, it sounds very, very dorky. I discovered why today. I was trying it in the U.S. It is dorky there.

But in the UK, the coolest people do use it. And it IS earnest, and it IS meaningful. And I'm in love with saying "Cheers." Yipee! I'm Tim! Our Taxi the first night had a super-cool driver that said it to us. Then our cool hotel manager said it to us as the elevator closed. And this morning, I said it to the hostess at a restaurant we didn't eat at! And it felt GREAT!

I am proposing that we try to de-dorkify "Cheers" at home. Please start practicing now. By the time I get home, I want you to all say it with me. Please?

Well, I am exhausted. It was VERY VERY VERY VERY hot here today. When we got on our tourbus, we felt waves of heat washing over us. If we have done our Celcius conversions right, we experienced a 95 degree day in London today.
So here's the last fun fact to consider before I sign off: We packed for 60 degree days!

Cheers, mate!
Cheers!

;-)