New Favourite Word

One of the nice perks about my new job is the language. Although I'm in the Boston office and work with some Americans, alot of my daily contact includes coworkers and other professionals from the UK. I've been slowly adjusting to understanding the Irish and Scotish accents as I interact with them on a regular basis. Six months ago I could tell the difference between the accent, but now it's all become a muddle. My brain is overloaded with the accent and I think I'm even thinking in a strange hybridization of the accents.



Regardless, I've discovered my new favorite word - Cheers! I've co-opted the word and use it all the time. Maybe even too much. This week I was trying to scale back the usage and found I couldn't. It's just such a great word. It covers three great subjects: thanks, take care, and toasting. I've added it to my vocab so be forewarned.



The most useful for me is the farewell greeting. I always felt like "take care" was used more if someone wasn't doing well - a bit of a downer. Along the lines of "take care of yourself during these difficult times." We just never jibed together. And "good bye" was just so abrupt. But "cheers". I mean it's so obviously cheerful. You get to end the conversation on an up note. It just leaves you with warm fuzzies. It's fun saying and receiving.



And using "thanks" in the back of my head was so pedestrian. I was trained from a young age to say "yes" and "thank you" instead of the slurred "yeah" and "thanks". Granted, I still use them as they are easier to say, but I still feel a little guilt of not saying the proper thing. "Thanks" can be abrupt and used sarcastically, in a negative way. You know, like "thaaanks, I didn't know I lived in Boston, thanks for reminding me." And "thank you" is so formal. So prim and proper. But "cheers", again it wins out. It's a good in between and I haven't got a clue how to say it sarcastically - it's immune. It's just a nice, short, polite way of appreciating whatever it is you are appreciating.



Finally, the toasting. I have one toast I took a week to memorize and repeat on a monthly basis to keep it in the head. That's a lot of work to have a toast ready for that key moment drinking. What would work better is a shorter toast, that is easy to remember. If only there was a one world salutation you could say while clinking glasses....



So here's to you Cheers. Cheers Cheers for being in my life. Cheers!

Glasgow prep

I'm off to Bonnie Glasgow this weekend (by way of Dubai and Abu Dhabi). Our corporate headquarters are there and I have a series of meetings with higher ups. I've been working with a crew of scots, irish and english mainly at this new job (in addition to regular old americans here in the boston and san francisco office). I'm struggling with understanding the accent on my phone. Although I realized today that I have trouble understanding everyone on this new phone. I think it might be the phone.

Anyways, I'm meeting with the CEO on friday and he was joshing me about scotish slang. Here's our exchange, which I'm quite proud of (watching BBC pays off - that and the internet):

CEO: Friday morning would be fine except if it is your first day in the office I’ll get someone to take you around to meet everyone. Aw right hen! That is head over the parapet stuff so I will test you when you get here!

ME: That would be pure dead brilliant for someone show me around Friday morning. Understanding sassencachs is mental. I huvny a scooby of half the stuff people are sayin. It’ll be barry meetin with the heid-the-ba and visitin no mean city ova the weekend– I think it’ll be mintit (if I’m not jeeked). Cheers!



P.S. I’m no gowk but a dinnieken what to call ya instead of sassencachs. I ken the difference between a Scot and an Englishman.

We'll see how I survive. Luckily they're putting me up at a posh hotel.

Black Night

Well Happy New Year. I'm letting go of trying to catch up on all the events that have happened and I haven't posted and decided to post about a moment that happened tonight. After meeting up with some friends after work for drinks and food and catching up I was heading home, exhausted from a long week at work (and it's just Wednesday). I had to wait a bit for the subway to come. And then the bus ride home from the T station. I was in that strange state of not really engaging in the here and now and being worn out. I was forgoing any activity such as reading or knitting on the bus and was just listening to Mozart and vaguely staring out the window as we headed down Mass Ave.

And then I noticed something through the foggy windows of the bus. Or rather, I noticed nothing. Mass Ave is a fairly bright main street. Lot's lights from retail and all the hustle and bustle that four lanes of traffic generates. And they were all gone - both sides. The power was out. And it was strange. All of a sudden it seemed so bright in the bus with the lights on. I kept thinking we weren't where we were supposed to be but driving on some rural street.

You couldn't really see too many stars so the picutre is deciving. And eventually, we drove enough, to a point the lights were back on (including my neighborhood - yeah).

The strange thing was that there wasn't any real reason for it. We've been getting weather and storms but nothing much today. When I left Boston it wasn't even that cold. But then when I got off, crossing the street I caught a bit of ice. And the whole walk home was trecherous. All ice on the sidewalks from the combination of a faint drizzle and just barely freezing temperatures. And now, over the past few hours, I've been hearing the periodic revving of engines outside. I would normally say my house was on flat land, but really it's just at a base of a hill and has a bit of a slope, but just barely. And the ice is getting so bad cars are having trouble getting up.

Interstingly, when I was googling for a picture for the black night I was trying to describe, I came across this famous black night:

It's just a flesh wound. Well actually I think for the first arm it's just a scratch. Come on you pansy come back here and fight, I'll bight your legs off. Gotta love Monty Python. Which reminds me of when my brother at Christmas this year, performed charades for Monty Python and the Search for the Holy Grail - it was pretty funny. And took quite a while for Karin, Tyler and I to figure that one out. We were close but very far away being stuck on serpent (for python) and praying (for holy) and drinking (instead of grail - but come on, pretending you're drinking something is quite a reach for us to come up with the grail). But he perservered and we got it eventually with Monty. Well, now I'm just rambling, off to bed. Cheers. (I'm pseudo scotish now with my new job - accent and everything :)