Next Stop New York

Managed to escape from Dallas just in time. Apparently its now snowing and it caused chaos. Flghts are being cancelled and apparently people in Dallas don't know how to drive when its icey, so there will lots of accidents.

Am staying in White Plains, an hour or so from New York. Feels very different. Pine trees and hills vs the flatlands of Texas and of course different American accents to contend with. I suppose I should go to New York, but still feeling jet lagged so don't think I'll bother.

Strange things happen to you when you've spent a few days in the States. I've found that I've modified the way I speak. In Dallas, I found myself describing things as 'kinda neat' and saying 'excellent!' and 'all right!' in a really loud voice when I liked something. I almost - but not quite - broke into a high 5. Someone tried it on me and I missed.

Then, over lunch someone told me that my English accent made me sound like 'a classy guy', which I of course found very flattering. I then became posher and posher and started saying things like ' in common parlance this is known as..' and 'that's jolly good' and began to revert to an English stereotype. 'Its 4 o clock everyone, so its time for tea'. I'm sure I ended up sounding like Hugh Grant by the end of the day. What an idiot.

In New York I'm sure this won't happen. I'll try and retain a Derby accent throughout. That'll confuse them. However, I'm sure that by the end of the day I'll sound like Tony Soprano. At one point today I found myself saying 'so who's the wise guy?'. I couldn't help myself.