Stevens in the States

Maybe it's a British thing, but I'm extremely uncomfortable giving my car keys to anyone that I don't 110% trust... let alone giving my keys to someone I've never met who then drives my car off to an unspecified place until I leave the bar/resturant/club that I'm at.

It's not helped by being a fan of the film Ferris Bueller's Day Off, which has a non-too-perfect valet section.

But over here, it's a big thing.

You go so a restaurant, you pull up outside and give your keys to this chap, who in return gives you a slightly posher version of a raffle ticket.

Then, when you leave the venue, you give them the ticket back and a few dollars, and your car re-appears. (Note: to me, the word Valet means that your car get cleaned, but this isn't the case here at all).

While the overly-cautious side of me has big issues with not having my keys and leaving my car with some peopel I've never met and frankly don't trust, the advantages are pretty cool as well... no issues finding parking, no walk to the venue, and the knowledge that your car is (apparently) safe.

It's growing on me, but I might split my car keys from the rest of my keys.

I saw the Super Furry Animals last night - a great gig, with the addition of superb video/graphical clips before, during and after the band's set. Is always nice/odd to hear strong Welsh accents booming out in Texas. They also did a very odd song that sounded like the jingle "I Feel Like Chicken Tonight". Perhaps jingles are taking over the world.

Cable TV is almost here. Comcast cancelled yesterday and promised to return today. Between 5pm and 8pm. It's currently 7:45pm and nothing, so I'm not holding up that much hope. Having said that, I've sussed the Blockbuster postal DVD service, so I have new movies to watch.

Have set up lots of the Ikea furniture, and even have a light in my room now - the main one has been broken since I moved in, so as soon as it went dark at night, it stayed dark in that room until the next day.

Blimey, what boring day-to-day nonsense this post has been so far.

American observations. Erm...

Ah yes. Well, I bought that vehicle. At least, I've put down a big deposit on it and am waiting for HSBC to wire the money across. Who'd have thought in this modern networked age that it still takes SIX WORKING DAYS to transfer money from a UK bank account to one over here. That's over a week! Incredible!

So I've still got a rental car that's costing a small fortune. But a small moment of praise for the Texan authorities here... when you buy a vehicle here, you have 30 days to sort out the insurance. During that time, you're covered by the state! Stunning! So that'll give me time to sort out car insurance once my social security number comes through.

Work had a thanksgiving dinner today - however I've been off work today with a stunning level of stomach ache. Not nice. I also missed the annual thanksgiving meal there. Thanksgiving is quite confusing. It's next week and we all get two-and-a-half days off work. Which is nice, but odd. For some people, Thanksgiving is bigger than Christmas. More blurb that makes far more sense here.

10 minutes until cable TV... or a phone call to Comcast. If I had a social life, this'd be getting in the way of it!

And having started this post talking about super furry animals, lets end with one. It's the neighbour's cat, which occasionally wanders into my place as if it's his. He then tends to fall asleep somewhere odd, like the sink, or on a box.

This is Baxter. Don't fall for that cat-like charm. He fights like a mad thing when you try to throw him out. Which, for the sake of his owners, is quite often.

...and I'm thinking of buying this car later in the week. Lots of gadgets, lots of room for moving people/keyboards/furniture, and common enough that it won't cost a fortune to maintain.

And, being a typical American vehicle, it's very big, very comfortable and very good at drive-throughs. Don't mock - it'll be useful when I'm picking you and your luggage up from Dallas Fortworth airport.

...sings the song on the radio... "Just like the ones I used to know..."

Hold on... Christmas songs? On the radio? On the 14th of November? Yes, it's happened. One of the radio stations in Dallas is now playing nothing but Christmas songs. And the most sickly, sugar-filled ones available. There's no Wham or The Darkness here, it's all Bing and Carpenters and suchlike. One would hope that Greg Lake and Freiheit will be on the way, fingers crossed.

But dreaming of a white Christmas? It's still t-shirt weather here! I was driving down I-35 with the windows down earlier! It's very odd to be buying advent calendars while it's still sunglasses weather.

Merry Christmas.

When I moved into this house (which I must tell you about sometime) it seemed a bit quiet, so I bought a TV. However... I didn't actually think to buy a TV aerial, and I don't get cable TV until next Thursday.

So this has left me with DVDs to watch. I own 5 that I've bought in America, and around 20 that I've brought over from the UK. However the TV/DVD combo thing won't play the UK ones, so Cold Feet and Phoenix Nights are sitting on the shelf for now.

This leaves me with the five from America, which are Notting Hill, Duel, Jackass The Movie, Lock Stock & Two Smoking Barrels, and Ferris Bueller's Day Off. They were all rather cheap, and all were impulse buys.

This might seem a bit of a lack of choice, but to put it another way, it's my only choice for TV. So I've watched them all at least twice, and have even worked my way through all the "extras". I've seen Lock Stock's guide to talking Cockney, Steven Speilberg's planning of Duel, the making of Jackass, and I'm now onto the piece de resistance...

Notting Hill... in French, with subtitles.

Great eh. It'd appear that "mais" is "but"... and I'll share more words I pick up later.



PS - I also have two DVDs from Blockbuster's postal DVD rental thing, but due to being unable to work out where post boxes are in Dallas, I've yet to return it. There's boxes for UPS and Fedex post, but none for the normal variety that I can find. This could make a postal DVD service somewhat awkward!

Holidays differ quite a lot.

When I was organising my flight back here, lots of people said stuff along the lines of "Oh, you *must* be back in time for Halloween." So, I was, and what an odd experience it was. It's not just for kids here, it's for everyone. Parties everywhere, and a level of commercialism that amazed me. I don't know how they do it. Every holiday is a commercial joy it'd seem.

So I expected to see fireworks all over the place on bonfire night, but nothing. I asked a couple of people "don't you guys celebrate bonfire night?" Blank looks. "Guy Fawkes? Remember remember the 5th of November?" More blank looks.

Then it occured to me that the Americans wouldn't be that bothered about a day that celebrates a failed attempt to overthrow the establishment back in the UK.
And true enough, it passed without even a mention. The advantage of this being that I've not been kept up all night due to fireworks over the last week.

And coming up... Thanksgiving.

I don't entirely understand this one. But I get 2 1/2 days off work for it, and we all have a big meal at work. Then everyone heads to their families to celebrate together. It seems to be as big as Christmas over here, and I believe it ties in with the foreigners (such as us) turning up and claiming the country.

Either way, it's time off work which'll give me more of a chance to get to know the area. And apparently the day after Thanksgiving is when the Christmas shopping *really* starts. I've got no excuse for not giving good presents this year; the exchange rate is in my favour, and this town is full of novelty gifts.

Anyone for a "Texas is bigger than France" tea towel for Christmas?

What?

I'm getting used to being asked if I've met the queen, or if I know Hugh Grant / Keira Knightley / etc... but this was a new one, and quite original as well!

What's more, the guy was utterly serious. "I was in England from 1964 to 1968 and he was on the radio then." Wow, what a remaining memory of the UK to have. Because, of course, we're all like Sir Jimmy, aren't we.

Sorry for the delay in updates by the way. I'm back in the states, and I have lots to write about. More, right after this break...