Stevens in the States

My name is Chris, and I don't understand different types of coffee.

Phew.

There, I've said it. I don't know what latte means, or what a mocca is, let alone tall/grande/slim, or why some of them come with cream/ice/chocolate/other-such-nonsense.

This is one of the reasons why, whenever in Starbucks, I'll have a cup of tea. It's a cop-out, but it's a safety buffer. There'd be nothing worse than paying $3 for some beautifully prepared coffee contraption, only to not like it.

So, sitting in SB right now with my cup of tea and my (very heavy) butter criossant, they brought round samples of "egg-nog mocca". Or was it "egg-nog latte". One or the other.

Now, it's actually quite nice. However, I also don't know what egg-nog is, apart from guessing that from the name, it might include egg. So, I wouldn't have a clue how to re-order it, or how to answer the many questions that would follow. Personalised coffee.

Nescafe, hot water, splash of milk. I even got that wrong sometimes.

Maybe I'll just have a cup of tea.

Every time I fly back to the USA, I think that I've sussed the jetlag. Whether it's my cunning combination of staying up the night before combined with wine on the plane, or whatever this month's grand idea might be, I think I've got it under control.

However, having just got up after being in bed for 26 hours, I think it's beaten me again. Here's a quick timeline...

Sun 2am... fall asleep on sofa.

Sun 8am... wake up, realise I'm on sofa, relocate to bed, fall asleep

Sun 1pm... wake up, get up, make a bagel, eat it, fall asleep on sofa

Sun 6pm... Wonder if a shower will sort me out. Have shower, then fall asleep on bed while wrapped in towels.

Mon 1am... Realise there's no point lying *on* the bed in towels so get into bed

Mon 4:30am... well, that's now. And all I want to do is go back to bed.

Effectively, I've lost an entire day. And, annoyingly, a non-work day where I could have got lots done, and enjoyed the rather glorious weather - 24c, dontcha know. But instead, I slept. Lots. And lots of sleep means no exercise, or food intake, or socialising. Not a good use for a day. But I guess it was necessary, else it wouldn't have happened.

Well, it's now almost 5am. Surely one more hour in bed won't hurt...

"Splash" went my phone, as it landed in the toilet. That wasn't part of the plan. Luckily I had obtained another phone some hours earlier (an upgrade to my current one) so it could have been worse.

And after 12 hours of sitting under a heater, the original phone works again. It does smell a bit though.

You can't beat a night out with old friends. There were five in the group - four of us have known each other for around 15 years, and the other married into the group. Laughter, stories, jokes, catching up, all that kind of thing.

And I managed to avoid jet-lag, meaning I've had a full day of activity today. I had lunch at Greggs... possibly the finest chain of pasty shops in the UK. Now, if I were in Dallas, each pasty would be enough to feed me for a week... here, they're just the right size.

The time difference amuses me. America wakes up at around 1pm, and goes to work for 3pm. Now that's the life.

This is a really dull blog. I shall shut up until I have some interesting observations.

...that makes the UK fun, and it's the little things that I forget.

The announcements on the tube. "This station... is Queensway. The next station... is closed."

My favourite was this series of messages on my way to Oxford Circus.

"This train is ready to depart, please mind the door."
(pause)
"Please don't lean out of the door, the doors can't close.
(pause)
"GET YOUR FOOT OUT OF THE DOOR!!!"

Also, the obvious security issue of checking a signature on your credit card. When's the last time someone checked the sig in the USA? I was in Dixons earlier, buying a mouse for my laptop, and after swiping my card I put it back in my wallet. Somewhat surprised, the server asked to check the signature. Which, of course, is correct. But it never happens in the states.

London is wonderful. Especially in the dark, in the early evening. I'm off for pints and food with some friends, and let's see how my body-clock copes. Six hours of sleeping on the plane was wonderful, helped by the fact that it was mainly empty.

To quote sir Jamie Cullum of Pianoshire...

Will you let me romanticize,
The beauty in our London Skies,
You know the sunlight always shines,
Behind the clouds of London Skies.

Remind me to blog about...

1. Going to my first American Football game.
2. The scale of Halloween in the USA.
3. One of my friends (USA) falling in love with one of my friends (UK) and planning to move 5000 miles to be with them.
4. Storms in Texas.

...however right now, my thoughts are on going home. I'm spending a fair part of the next 2 weeks in the UK. Things I'm looking forward to include...

Hula Hoops
Magners Cider
The Underground
The Guardian
Driving a manual car
Being able to argue with my bank, face to face
Half pints
Bars that don't think it's odd to sell crisps
Crisps that are actually called crisps

I think it'll be fun.

They say that everything's bigger in Texas, and as I sit here with an incredible storm passing overhead, they might be right.

I nipped into work earlier, and thought that someone had driven into the building before realising that is was crazy thunder. Decided to head home before things got too crazy, and I'm sitting here while it 18c outside with torrential rain, thunder and lightning.

I've got a little weather program on my laptop, and it keeps flashing up the latest storm warnings. There are street floodings, and my lights flashed earlier - power cuts aren't rare in these situations.

And the essential advice? Well, at the bottom of the weather advisery, after all the technical details and measurements, it gives these wise words...

"Don't drown."