Back...

in sunny(!) London after a crazy week in the city by the lake. It was supposed to be some silly training but people took this training way too seriously. Midnight every night and plans of shopping and meeting people down the drain. Anyway.

Discoveries:

- Couldn't sleep on the flight back so ended up making long list of things one misses when one is not in the New World. Top two: Trader Joe's and Chipotle Burritos. Mountains and buildings and NPR and people are all there but nowhere close to these two.

- Every single bookstore (both city and airport) that moi went to had big, big books with pictures of President and First Lady on inauguration day. Right next to books on job hunting.

- Missed the boat on the deep discounts. Everything I bought was full price. At 1.34 exchange rate, I might as well have not gone at all.

- Not so bad. Still worth the trip as moi spent 16 hours each day staring at glistening lake. What prettiness!

- I am officially "one of the boys". That was the general conclusion my training team came to after 5 days of working together. One of them apparently went asked women in other teams how they felt being the only woman in the team totally forgetting that moi was in his team. This supposedly is a compliment.

- Babies. Too many of them. Thankfully, every single one of them slept through my visit. Worked all around.

- First day of training I could not understand why the firm hired only stupid people in the States. Then I realised they weren't really stupid, it was just the accent. Strange how here in Britain (true elsewhere too I am assuming), credibility takes a big hit the moment one hears the American accent. The only time moi wants to hear it is when calling a call centre - the rest of the world can do with some of that service.

- Yeah, yeah, Bill. All you Tams out there - anyone remember "No Thangamani, Enjoy!" from Agni Natchathiram? That was Bill's week. If you find the vid anywhere, send me a link.