Stalled

While in Boston last week, I got to attend some cultural sensitivity training. Oh, they called it something like Managing Virtual Teams In A Global World (or words to that effect), but it was really an attempt to educate us all about how different we are -- Americans versus Europeans, Dutch versus English, etc. -- and why can't we all just get along! (I'm hoping that I wasn't selected for this training because some of my colleagues had read this blog and decided that I was overly insensitive to other cultures, but that's always a possibility.) Anyway, it was all very interesting and enlightening but it failed to address a key cultural difference: Toilets.

I'm always surprised on my trips to the US by how different their toilets -- or rather, toilet stalls -- are. Be it in the office, the "restrooms" at Barnes & Noble in the mall, or in the executive lounge at Logan (shameless name drop, I know), the walls of each stall don't extend all the way to the floor. In fact, there's a good foot of space between the ground and the bottom of the wall, allowing you to identify the inhabitant by their shoes, trousers -- hell, if you're a US starlet, by your "va-jay-jay"(as I believe the kids are now calling it). This is highly unsettling. In the Netherlands, the toilet walls extend to the floor; you could kill someone in our office toilets and fellow occupants of the bathroom would be none the wiser. In the UK, there's a gap of just a couple of inches -- enough to allow the air to circulate in case you got trapped, but not much more. In Japan, you have the option of using white-noise generators to avoid embarrassment. But none of this in the US. Their stalls are far more like the ones you get in UK schools, which allow rampant bullying and the extraction of teenage girls who've just given birth unexpectedly in them during afternoon break.

I'm not the only one who noticed this, in case you think I'm weird. My Finnish colleague Kaisa -- owner of the delightful Tommy and kittens from June last year -- also raised this when telling me about her nasty bout of stomach flu. Most distressing. Thank goodness we're back with more civilized stalls.

Woke up this mornin'

In fact, to get all passive voice about this, I was woken up this morning by the world's noisiest plumbing. There was a great moaning and clanking and humming at about 6.45. Mindful that I had missed Boston's last full-scale (and apparently inter-generational) terror alert on Wednesday, I got up to investigate -- but this was no cartoon advertising stunt, merely someone in the room next door having a shower. Clearly, the Boston Sheraton can add paper-thin walls and booming pipes to its staticky carpet collection, making it an attractive holiday destination ... for masochists.

New $9 shoes

Yes, you heard me. These lovely brogue-esque, T-bar, 3-inch heels cost just NINE DOLLARS!



I popped out of the conference at the Boston Sheraton at lunch time to take advantage of the Ann Taylor Loft sale, and dropped $136 on clothes (ssh, don't tell Customs!). The shoes were marked as $29.99, rang up as $14.99, and had an additional 40% taken off -- coming in at $8.93 or four pounds and fifty-four pence!!! I realize I'm revealing the full "depths" of my shallowness, but this has made me very happy.

Static Cling Death Part Deux

This, THIS is the carpet that's been causing me so many problems this week. That's not counting the blindness induced by the pattern and colours, of course. Who would design (or choose) a carpet like this?

Another cold day in Boston

Given the sub-zero temperatures, it made perfect sense that we would head out to spend the day walking around Boston shopping and taking advantage of the weak dollar. After being frustrated in our attempts to buy a ticket for the T -- it's introduced a new "Charlie Ticket" but doesn't appear to let you purchase a single-ride ticket -- we took a cab to Downtown Crossing. First stop: Designer Shoe Warehouse. No joy, just ugly, ugly shoes. Second stop: Boston City Sports. Success! Lots of stuff on sale, mainly fleece (my favorite fabric), but also the wonderful snuggle hoodie that I'm now wearing as I type. Honestly, that's what came up on the till! It is pale blue, matches the pair of snuggle socks I bought here last year, and is super-toasty. I also got another pair of snuggle socks, a waterproof jacket, and a couple of tees -- all for $122.

A bitterly cold walk to Copley Plaza followed, resulting in total numbness of the face and thighs, with more shopping in Barnes & Noble. I got yet another baking book, a cookbook from Boston's North End, and a book of beer recipes -- shaped like a beer can! -- for PJ. At that point, we'd had as much as we could take so headed back to veg out at the hotel before meeting up with friend/colleague Ted for dinner.

Ted picked us up and we drove along Tremont Ave, trying to find a restaurant and lucked out at 28 Degrees, a very lounge-y place with "small plates". The food was exceptional: calamari, chips, roast cauliflower, spicy shrimp tacos were all beautiful. The other people in the bar were much more smartly dressed than us (although I did leave the snuggle hoodie at the hotel), so it was just as well we were in a dark corner. We were in and out in around an hour -- the joy of American service -- and then went to Toscannini's in Cambridge for ice cream with hot fudge sauce and on to The Miracle of Science for beers. Wherever we went, though, U2 was in the air. Bizarre. Is it the faux-Irish identification of this city or just a lack of imagination on the part of bars here? (By contrast, City Sports played an excellent emo/grunge version of Lola and some Hole -- yay! I love City Sports!)

And so to bed . . .

Cold unlike no other

We flew into Boston last night, greeted by temperatures around -4C. No problem. My very fetching Nintendoworld hat was enough to keep me warm. While watching NBC's excellent Thursday night line, however, the local news kept shouting about plummeting temperatures.

And they were right.

It was 7F, today -- -14 on a more sensible temperature scale. But the windchill took it down to a lung-freezing MINUS 26C! No snow, just clear blue skies and an inability to breathe. No wonder the Pilgrim settlers had a hard time of it when they first arrived.

They say that it should warm up tomorrow, just in time for us to take advantage of the weak dollar and go shopping. For warmer clothes.