I heart retro prints.

Yesterday LV and I hit the shops early. I was focused and ruthless. We didn't get much, some face paints for her and a camping chair for me. I have wanted one of these chairs since last Summer, well, I wanted two, but there was only one there so the hunt for another will continue, but these retro camping chairs can reach a fair amount of dollar on ebay! Not that I'm going to sell it, I'm going to hide it in the shed and when we get some nice weather I'm going to bring it out and hope Rob doesn't feel the need to mention yet another of my random purchases. It was £2.99 and is surprisingly comfortable and very light, perfect for taking to the seaside. We rarely go to the seaside, but when we do, we'll be prepared!

I also stumbled across another typewriter....oh what to do. I didn't buy it, telling myself if it was still there today then I should buy it.....I'll let you know.
xo.

Mystical land of 'HAVE A GREAT DAY'!

Last week I was fortunate enough to venture to the US with work for a conference. It was a whistle stop tour in that we flew out and flew back within 72 hours but I'm not complaining I was over the moon to get to experience the land of excessive fizzy pop refills even if it was just for a few hours.

The flight was brilliant, I squeezed in two meals, 3 films, a couple of chapters of a new book 'The Help' and three magazines - I laughed, I cried (film) it was an emotional rollercoaster. I rarely get to do any of these things so I made the most of it. The flight back, well that was a whole different story, I fell asleep as we took off and woke up 20 minutes before landing. That's what business class will do to a gal! My first and probably my last experience of flying business class and I snoozed my way through the entire experience.

So, onto the good stuff, I got off to a good start, for the first 2 hours after landing I avoided doing anything embarrassing (mainly because we were in a car and I was concentrating on not being sick). I was thrilled when we arrived at the hotel and I was still physically well. My sleepy mood was lifted by the onslaught of cheery 'Where are you guys from?',  'Are you having a great day?', 'You say cheers? That's so funny'! etc. This is when things took a turn and I lapsed into my normal state of being embarrassing, a few of the things that happened to me in the few hours I spent in USA.

Concierge interaction
I asked if it would be ok for me to drink the tap water. The concierge looked at me like I was insane and said 'Would you like some bottled water?' me 'oh no I just wanted to check it was ok to drink the tap water' at this point I realised how ridiculous my question was so excused myself.

Starbucks, I ordered a green tea
me 'please can I have a tall green tea?'
waitress 'hot or cold?'
me 'tall' I assumed she'd misheard me
waitress 'hot or cold?'
me 'what do you mean?'
waitress ' would you like to drink your tea hot or cold?'
me 'do people drink tea cold?'
waitress 'yes'
me 'oh sorry, hot please'

Automatic door debacle
When a door requires more than than simply pulling/pushing it open or pushing it shut I struggle. I've had a bad experience with a rotating door before when I accidentally squeezed into the same compartment as my boss and had to shimmy behind her trying not to make contact, awkward. These types of doors make me nervous. But the doors in our US office were worse, they rotated and required both a card swipe and patience...a tricky combination. I swiped, I entered, the alarm sounded and a voice over lady told me to get out, fail. So I tried again I swiped, I paused, but this time I paused too long, entered too late and was instructed to try again. This happened approximately 8 times and as the queue formed behind me (it was rush-hour) I got more and more flustered. My colleague had a go, made it through first time and I was left to try again...with an audience. Thankfully I made it to the other side, finally....I think I heard a round of applause...I didn't look back.

Actually, I've just realised that I didn't last 2 hours before doing/saying something embarassing, as we went through passport control I squealed with excitement as I spotted an Amish family..I was literally overjoyed. I tried not to stare but was so intrigued I pretty much followed them...just for a bit...my collegaue slowly but surely inched away from me. It was a highlight for me. 

There are plenty more where these came from....tip of the iceberg one might say. But for now I'll leave you realising/or reconfirming what a mentalist I really am.

Have a great day now. xo.