'Working UK hours' and 'Finally, cute boys!'

Last weekend I worked 8 hours over the course of Saturday and Sunday. So much for looking forward to "UK hours". And the best part is that everyone I tell this to seems to look horrified that I worked over the weekend. It's like everyone here works a lot, but they just don't talk about it or admit it. Maybe it's the 'English reserve'? Who knows. I think the reason was that I was working on a US client, and the client seemed to be expecting me to work US hours. Anyway, it is done (kind of).

I've been meaning to tell all of my accounting friends some of the funny/weird/interesting differences between the UK and US accounting world (non accountants may now zone out - I promise you can come back in a paragraph or two, it'll get more interesting). Anyway, some terms that are different: Debtors = accounts receivable, creditors = accounts payable, stock = inventory (you can imagine how confused I was the first time that I looked at a balance sheet and saw stock up in assets), they have completely different terms for anything in equity. Of course dates are different - days come before months, so December 31 is 31/12. I keep saying, "twelve thirty-one" and people look at me like, "silly American". Oh, I also keep saying dollars too instead of sterling or pounds. It was actually nice to work on a US client last week so I could write dates the way that I'm used to and put Zs (that's pronounced "zed" here, ??) in my 'recognize' and 'realize' with abandon. I lapped it up.

And I'm still having an immense amount of trouble saying "trousers" instead of pants (pants mean underwear here, remember?). I took some "pants" into the tailor the other day and told the tailor that I need my pants taken in at the waist a little bit. He seriously could hardly hold it in. Fortunately I live in an area with a lot of Americans so he's used to it.

I found out that here, when it's your birthday, guess who gets to bring treats? You do! What is that?? You have to bring treats for the entire department! I'm debating whether or not to ignore my birthday so that no one knows or whether to make my American chocolate chip cookies. Decisions, decisions. Also Dasha told me that you're supposed to bring treats in after you go on holiday somewhere, like even if you just go for a weekend. Definitely going to exercise my ignorant American card on that one. I sound kind of cynical, don't I?

I started going to yoga last week on Monday, and I could barely get out of bed on Tuesday. Or Wednesday. I went to an Ashtanga class that was so packed we couldn't spread our arms wide, and it felt a little like boot camp. There was no music, the lights were full on, and the teacher just kept calling out poses like they were commands. But Thursday I went to a different class with a different teacher and it was much, much better. I went to an Anusara class and it was so fun - we did partner poses and handstands and a nice long savasana at the end. Ahhh...

On Saturday Dasha let me tag along with her to a house party, and then we all went to a club in Putney that was so fun, and the best part - loads of cute boys! Dasha and I walked in, took one look at the dance floor, looked at each other and just smiled! Of course I didn't really act on it, I mean I was having such a good time dancing to euro-trash music, how could I pay attention to the boys? It was really fun though (they also play loads of American-trash music too), and a very late night, although somehow I've been able to keep up without noticing the early morning hours.

Must sleep now, I've been finding it hard to get enough...

Love to all,
Heather