Daily Archives: July 4, 2010

reflections on a grown up night out

I went along to a lovely and very grown up dinner party on Friday night. I felt like a square being jammed into a circle shaped hole!

My accent sounded so broad against their smooth, plummy accents. My stories were tinted with a sense of  Australian sarcasm. And they were sooo grown up compared to me! It is curious how different Australians and the English are. Same language but different outlooks on life!

My other reflection on the evening, which was good fun, was the holding pattern I seem to be sitting in. The people round the table were certainly older than me, and so their achievements were quite grand, and not necessarily the direction I would seek to achieve in. But…….I have been living here for over 5 years and I do have some pretty major career changes to claim but really has any other part of my life moved? Probably not. Is this some sort of failing? Is there something I should be doing to have a more rounded list of achievements?

Tough questions  for which I remain without a satisfying answer.

winning & losing

England is not having much luck on the world stage at the moment – despite their extreme optimism with just about every sporting endeavour.

The World Cup loss against Germany was close to catastrophic. Each and every paper and TV show had a montage of desperate pictures of English fans and the crumpled English team.

Then poor Andy Murray – who I know is technically Scottish when it suits people but since he hit slightly better form he is being embraced by the English. Anyway, out in the Wimbledon semi-finals. Poor chap.

It is interesting to think about how different nations react to wins and loses. It seems that England always loses – implying no matter how improbably they were in with a chance. I do think though that more likely is that they are beaten by a better side or opponent.

Language is certainly an insight into a countries psyche!