Toys out of the Pram

I'm now an official member of the Bury Bach Choir (woohoo!), which has led to some new acquaintances. When I arrived for my first rehearsal 2 weeks ago, I was immediately presented with "The Other American"...a woman about my parents' age who moved to the UK in 1979 for a two-year assignment with her husband and is still here. In the same village as Ickworth, even. So we chatted and exchanged contact info and then had lunch in the West Wing on Monday, which was really fun. It's interesting to meet people who've done what I'm doing (more or less) and understand the transition. Yay for new friends.

Tonight at dinner I was talking with John about British expressions that I love (over bangers and mash), and I think my all-time favo(u)rite one is "I threw ALL my toys out of the pram!"

It has a similar meaning to "throwing a wobbly," which loosely translates to having a temper tantrum. But adults use it for emphasis, which I find very entertaining.

The image of a grown-up sitting in a large, old-fashioned baby carriage, knees under his chin, having thrown all his toys on to the ground, just cracks me up.

Work is good...I was bored this afternoon so I asked if there was anything non-computery that needed doing (we had a full office so I didn't have a computer to work on). Julia and Sandy exchanged a look and pointed to the floor-to-ceiling bookshelf filled with red binders, also known as our Files, which happen to be in desperate need of archiving.

Me and my big stupid mouth. Why can't I just sit quietly and read a book or go for a walk?

In any case, I've archived all of 1999-2001 and am well on my way through 2002-03. ::sneeze::

I may have to throw all my toys out of the pram.