Tweets from celebrities

Let me first of all say: no I don't know if I'll ever blog about Tennessee and Colorado either. I really should get on it. Especially since Emma is now back. (Well she would be if her flights hadn't got delayed, rerouted and delayed some more. Reminded me somewhat of this experience of mine.)

Anyway, back to tonight. I try not to blog on Friday or Saturday nights, you know, because I have far more important things to be doing. Like watching The Voice. But tonight I got a tweet from a celebrity! And I was out so it's not like I stayed in on a Friday night so I could tweet celebrities.

I was out with Karen Photographer in town. Neither of us drove so as to open up the possibility of a cheeky glass of wine. In fact, it opened up the reality of a cheeky glass of Pimm's and wine.

Ninety-nine times out of a hundred I'll get the salmon when I'm out. Tonight was one of the ninety-nine.

On the train on the way home, once Karen got off I listened to a podcast (a Five Live one if you must know) on my phone. I just caught one station announcement and it hit me who it was: the PR4L! If you listen to Radio 1 you'll probably be familiar with her work. If not she's the Posh Radio 4 Lady and reads Dear Scott. In her actual job she reads the news on the Today programme. Hence, the Posh Radio 4 Lady!

I wasn't sure but I knew I'd seen her on Twitter, so I wrote a tweet and mentioned her:

Am I wrong or is the automatic station announcer on Translink trains the PR4L? @Kathyclugston

But it's Friday night and she's the PR4L and has much better things to be doing than looking at her tweets, let alone replying. But she did! In a matter of minutes. She said, and I quote:

@tinaarena22 you are RIGHT!

So I did what anyone would do in that situation. I retweeted it. Well, I looked on it like a public service announcement for my followers who might have wondered the same thing on a Translink train. 

It's moments like this that make me love Twitter! And the PR4L! RT @kathyclugston: @tinaarena22 you are RIGHT!

But then I had a moment of mind panic; I had mentioned her but not actually thanked her for replying or said anything directly back to her. What's the Twitter etiquette about that, the twetiqutte if you will? So I wrote back to her:

@kathyclugston Thank you! I don't often get the train but tonight it just hit me that it was you so had to check! Have a nice weekend!

I thought that was nice, polite end befitting an encounter with the PR4L. But this is the PR4L we're talking about; of course she wrote back.

@tinaarena22 you too!

Being so encouraged by the PR4L I will now do my very best to have a nice weekend. 

I will draw the line at tweeting her about it come Sunday (or Tuesday). You know, in case she thinks I'm weird or something.

The pink bottle is dead. Long live the pink bottle!

It's the end of an era over here in Princess world. I have retired my pink Nalgene bottle. Please, no flowers.

Honestly, my pink bottle has more air miles than most people I know. I got it in a shop (a mercantile, if you will) in Hicksville, just a day or two before I went to Korea for the Conference. It came with me. It came it home and then to Singapore. It lived beside my computer in my classroom and travelled daily to the staffroom for refilling. It's been around the world (aye aye aye...), been in more meetings that it would care to remember, and last week it was in Serbia on its last mission in keeping me hydrated.

But the time has come to put it into retirement. I'm a little bit sad about it, so many memories and good times we've had together. It was still going and still so strong.  But alas, it is not BPA free. That's a bad thing, they say.

So I got a new one. In exactly the same shop I got my last one. It proudly displays its BPA free-nees. Hurrah and huzzah.

There wasn't a coronation or anything, but all hail the new pink bottle.

I like using a refillable water bottle. It makes me feel like I'm saving the world. Plus I save money. If Coke, or that Tesco Tropical Juice that I'm so partial to, came out of the tap for (close to) free, would I buy it? Heck no.

This is my blog; I can say what I like (so long as it's legal), so I'm just going to come out and say it: buying bottled water is ridiculous. Bottled water uses two of the earth's most precious resources, oil and water, creates CO2 emissions in the delivery and most of the bottles end up in land refill sites. Yet, in the vast majority of cases, we have clean, safe drinking water at our disposal. How many people in the world don't have that luxury? So many that 'luxury' is the right word to use here. 

But we buy bottled water because we've been marketed to. We've bought into the myth that drinking bottled water is better, cleaner, healthier and heck, even cooler.

I know, rant, rant. But really look into some of the facts for yourself. Try here, here, or here. Or use the mighty power of the interwebs for yourself.

And why not get yourself a reusable bottle? BPA free, of course.

Well this is just embarrassing now

Here I am getting ready for another trip and I never even mentioned the last one...two months ago. Eek. I even said last week I would write about it 'tomorrow'. And worse still I talked up my travelling tales before I even left for that trip. Don't worry, I won't make such a stupid mistake this time. I don't want to be the boy who cried wolf, as it were.

So where am I off? Well, I'm glad you asked. It's time for my annual reminder as to exactly how crap my French is. This time I'll be all shades of rouge in Belgrade. No, honestly. And as a special bonus lesson this year I'll find out just how abysmal my Serbian is! Two for the price of one!

But I am kind of excited too; I think Serbia will be my first new country since Cambodia in 2009. That's pretty exciting if you keep score of your new countries like I do. (What? Doesn't everybody have a mental tally of their countries?! Probably not the pot of flags though...)

And after a day like today in the homeland, what better time to go off and get some eastern European sun?

Don't worry guys, I'll take this one for the team.

While I'm away I might try and actually write about what I got up to in Colorado and why I'm moving there next. That last part is a joke. I think.

Shocking Princess performance.

I must do better at blogging.
I must do better at blogging.

I must do better at blogging.

I must do better at blogging.

I must do better at blogging.

I must do better at blogging.

I must do better at blogging.

I must do better at blogging.

I must do better at blogging.

I must do better at blogging.

Seriously. I don't think I've ever gone that long without writing anything on here. Tomorrow is May. Tomorrow is my comeback. Tomorrow I will start to fill you in on the past six weeks. Well, the exciting parts anyway.

Unless of course I don't.

Sounds promising eh?

There's someone in here

There's lots of differences between America and Northern Ireland. You probably don't need me to tell you that. Like they need drive-through Starbucks and we want drive-through Starbucks. Or we sell small packets of crisps and they sell gigantic bags of potato chips. Or their parking spots are made for SUVs and trucks, and our parking spaces are not, despite Tesco mums' best efforts. Most of the differences are fine; you get adjusted.

However, here's one difference that will never be normal to me and I bet if you've ever been to the States you'll have noticed it too. It's that uncomfortable gap in the toilet cubicle door. What is with that? 

Yes I was sitting down when I took this photo. What of it?

It's all over too, it's like they have one company make all their toilet cubicles and they decided there should be a gap and so in public toilets all across America there's a gap. Or maybe there's a federal law which dictates the size of the gap? You see, it doesn't matter where you are, you can see people on the outside and they can see you. That's just weird. (Of course, Americans probably travel to Europe and think it's weird to pee with no one being able to see in. That's how we pee in Europe, my American friends!)

I suppose it's a small price to pay for the free refills though.