Nora, can you get your hands on a Starbucks hot apple cider? And make them put a cinnamon stick in it?

Huh. Maybe my voice changes in a very subtle way. It's almost subconscious. Weird. I'm trying to switch back and forth, and I think my voice is slightly different, but I can't do anything about it. I can't tone down the Gujarati into what I think is closer to my normal voice. It's the only way it comes out.

This is me, going back and forth between the US and the UK. Here, the London comes out and is noticeable, at least to Brits. In London, I get very North American - think a San Francisco version of Carmela Soprano.

Thank you all for the sorries - alas, this is likely to be one in a series. I've just realised something - most of my friends from those years were between ten and twenty years my senior. I'm fifty. And even I can do that math.

I need to go write.

the London comes out and is noticeable, at least to Brits

Well, I don't know from London, but when I talked to you on the phone I thought, "Wow, how long was she in England?"

His work is fine, but he sends me back my emails with typos corrected

Sparky, he must be slapped.

Work time. Off I go.

This is me, going back and forth between the US and the UK.

When DH speaks Spanish (it was his first language) he sounds exactly the same to me. Has has no foreign accent in either language. He is also the person whom I am most able to understand in Spanish (although that could be because I hear him the most). But I don't think his voice/tone/whatever changes. I have to concentrate a bit to sound right in Spanish or Portugese.

ETA: I love the idea of connie's husband being a double agent. That exchange made laugh.

Also, deb, so sorry about your friend. That sounds trite to me, but it's not meant to be.

alas, this is likely to be one in a series. I've just realised something - most of my friends from those years were between ten and twenty years my senior. I'm fifty.

Being the same age that was my first thought. We got a lot of this ahead of us. Sucks. Though not as much as not having had the friendships in the first place would.

Sparky, he must be slapped.

I've tried. His ego acts as a force field.

That sucks, Sparky.

Girl down the hall was "let go" yesterday. Kinda came out of nowhere. If I actually cared about keeping this job, I might worry.

I've tried. His ego acts as a force field.

Ah, you'll have to bring him down a peg before you can slap him. Duly noted. We'll have to pants him, first.

Runs away.

Well, I don't know from London, but when I talked to you on the phone I thought, "Wow, how long was she in England?"

Between childhood and adulthood? Probably a mashed-together total of about seven or eight years. (That's math I can't do very well - piecing together summers and adding them up.) But I was also married to a Brit, and before that lived with another Brit, and was at school there for a bit. So, there you are.

Deb, I am sorry to hear about your friend. I hope that you have many wonderful stories to remember and tell us about him someday.