For a time there, I was in limbo, awaiting news of our poor crippled ship, and oddly enough, I calmed down. Now, today, I've had requests for (more!) copies of my passport and more information to be faxed and things are inexorably if more slowly moving again to D-Day. So I'm fluttering again. Paper and forms make me nervous. I had a character, an old lady in a play of mine, respond to a letter she receives in the mail with the kind of nerves I feel. She says,
"A brown letter! I don't like brown letters." Those are the letters you get from the government telling you that you owe money or you haven't filled out a form correctly. They always make me nervous, and so my old lady was nervous, too. Don't tell me that writers aren't autobiographical.

I've almost finished the trip on paper, i.e. the excursion catalogue, I've been reading as I try to decide what I'm going to do in each port of call (89 of them!). I'm just coming across the ocean (Pacific) on my way to Hawaii, living the trip in advance and keeping in mind how old I am. (I've had this conversation.) So I'm opting for shorter junkets, with time each day for a nap or a quiet time. Not forgetting that I have to write a blog each day, and I want to write the first draft, at least, of a new screenplay. I also have some stories I started several years ago, might bring those along. Short takes are better for a disparate trip like this one.

It's funny, isn't it, we say see you tomorrow, or let's have lunch next week, or I'll let you know, when we're talking in increments of a day or a week or two. But when I say see you in six months, I want to add "God Willing" because God knows where you or I will be and He hasn't told us yet. Anything could happen and it usually does, though not in the way we expect it to.

I was thinking about drugstore wraps and butcher's wraps - writing about them a few days ago - and it led me to other considerations. I've had about five of my plays produced in Waterloo, Iowa, premieres so I was present during the rehearsal period. Each time I noticed some differences in our two languages - Canadian-English and American-English. Canadian, of course, is heavily influenced by English-English, though less so as the years go by and a younger generation learns to speak from American television. That's the main reason for current differences, but times change, too, and with them the knowledge and experience of the speakers. I'll give a few examples of a few differences I noted.

bespoke means made to order or custom made. That came up when the actors didn't understand a character saying she noticed which side a man "dressed on". They didn't know what that meant. Do you? It refers to the side of the trousers where a man likes to tuck his "member" (aka penis). When the suit is bespoke, the tailor allows a little extra space on whichever side his customer prefers. While we're down there, none of the cast knew what a rubber was. (Safe, condom - is it age or fashion that dictates the usage?)

Americans go on a vacation; Canadians go on holidays. Americans go to the hospital; Canadians end up in hospital, also university. Americans attend college but go to a university. I sold my first cookbook to an American publisher and my editor and I discovered differences in vocabulary regarding food. She had never heard of icing sugar. They call it confectioners' sugar. I took her a pound of icing sugar, clearly labelled, the next time i went to New York to consult with her. A cottage roll was unheard of- it's just a salt pork roll. But there are lots of differences in food names in different ccountries. Take cilantro, aka coriander. Or eggplant, familiar to Brits as aubergine.

There. That took my mind off the trouble with my trip. Anon, anon.