Thursday 24th November
"Happy Thanksgiving everyone”……”Happy Thanks(cough)”
I’m trying out my American accent and its getting nowhere. Not to worry, people will still enjoy my British accent (yay).
The plan for today would be that we meet up at John and Jane’s house for thanksgiving at 1pm. But c’mon people, it’s the holidays, we don’t have time limits. After waking up at 10am, and getting ready I made my way to the kitchen, where a delicious smell was originating. Greeting my hosts Buzz and Kathe, alongside Greg and Chrissy. By this point the swelling on Greg’s eye had subsided, he had taken an anti-histamine to calm it, but though it’d be better to head to the pharmacy to see if anything else could be done. ………Forget all that, I’m starving (bad choice of words at a holiday which promotes gluttony), by which point Kathe had cut a slice of a breakfast pudding. I can’t remember the actual name but OMG, that was a taste of heaven, so creamy and chewy at the same time.
Now that the hunger has been suppressed by the heavenly foods, the morning can begin, While Buzz took Greg to the pharmacy, me and Chrissy wanted to settle a dispute we had in the car last night. Greg is under the impression that Oceanside, a place not far from San Diego is very dangerous, but Chrissy says otherwise and that it would be a great place to retire (Although frankly the neighbourhood around Poway, where Buzz and Kathe live is more than suitable.)
I searched online to compare crime statistics, and it turns out that apart from rape and car theft, Oceanside is below the national average on all types of crime. Chrissy was delighted by this, but since I found this site, we decided to dig deeper. I checked out San Bernardino, but now I wish I hadn’t. It is significantly above the national average in ALL areas. I hope this just relates to the main part of San Bernardino and doesn’t travel north to the campus.
I was then asked to try out Compton, which turns out to be the North London of California. It was bad, VERY bad. In all areas apart from theft and car theft it beat San Bernardino. I was definitely relieved to hear that there’s somewhere worse than my place J
1pm came and we were still sat around gossiping, it wasn’t until about half 2 when we made our move. Definitely no rush on this one, we only went 3 miles down the road, to an even grander house. Seriously, this makes my house back in the UK look like a shed. An infinity pool, huge dining/ living areas and a driveway even the celebrities would be jealous of. Just thinking about it makes me wonder why the hell I didn’t take any pictures.
For the next few hours I would play babysitter for the young girls, the same girls who put on the show for us all last night. From what I can remember, I spent the majority before the thanksgiving buffet playing ‘Trouble’ with Liz, the youngest. Trouble is just the American version of Frustration, only pocket sized. During the same time, Grace, Liz’s older sister was constantly asking me about the UK and how I’d say things in my British accent. I knew people would find my accent intriguing, but kids take this to a whole new level, not that I have a problem.
Babysitting aside, 6pm came and the food was ready. A barrage of food to choose from, from Turkey and Prime rib, to home-made stuffing and cranberry sauce, not forgetting my bread basket of course. Literally an orgasm in the mouth (not to be confused with oral for those with dirty minds), but the fun isn’t over yet. After time discussing my situation, we had dessert, which included pumpkin brownie cake, pumpkin pie (fairly big on their pumpkin in the US) and of course, my favourite, APPLE PIE.
Having had enough food to last me at least 2 days, the night concluded with plenty of card games, including 4 player canasta with Chrissy, Greg and Megan. This then became the cause of much discomfort in the form of accused cheating. We agreed that there would be no team-talk between either team. This was quickly ignored by the girls, so the boys thought we’d do the same. Christine laid a 5 down, which we could use. I briefly reminded Greg that a 5 had been laid where he then understood that we could use this. In the spirit of things, this gave us the advantage in that game, which Christine wasn’t pleased about. Despite her relentless challenges, the action stood and the boys won by over 1000 points, a considerable deal in Canasta.
During our last game, Shanghai Rum, the topic of conversation came back to mocking my accent, which somehow led us to watching a clip of an American comedian, who seems to have a fondness for taking the mick out of New Orleans. It reached 11pm and since we needed to set off early, we headed home, an early night for a early morning
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