Thursday 13

(Link in meme-roll)
Random weird new things I learned/saw/did in the past week

1. Spent 200,000 frequent flyer miles in one fell swoop. It was either that or spend $3900. That's too much money for Economy class.
2. Nearly broiled on a parked airplane. The starter on an engine broke. When working on an airplane engine, there is no air circulating. And this is now officially the hottest summer on record here. Add those together, and even at 10 p.m., 200 people in a small metal tube will heat up quick.
3. Slept. On. An. Airplane. OK, only for about an hour, but hey, I haven't been able to sleep on a transatlantic flight in over 20 years!
4. Drank close to 3 bottles of wine in 4 days. Nicely spaced out, but that's a lot of wine, for me.
5. Scones. For breakfast. Fresh, homemade. Scones, real ones, not triangular.
6. Chinese gooseberries. Try one. They are pretty damn awesome. If you find the precise right moment, they don't even cost a mortgage payment.
7. I can arrange flowers with the pros. And fast. Give me a bunch o' stems and a template and it's gonna get done.
8. The U.K. does not sell medication in large quantities; even ibuprofen comes in small bottles only. What's up with that? You can buy shitloads of beer or other alcohol, but painkillers are Scaw-wee?
9. My son, drinking beer. Lots of beer. (OK, maybe 3 in 4 days, at most.) He's 17. Woot?
10. British burial traditions are different from U.S. traditions. For one thing, the funeral director walks in front of the hearse--which has clear glass windows--for the first block of the procession, wearing a top hat. Then he gets in and rides to the cemetery. And the casket is lowered, by hand, in the middle of the graveside service, so the mortuary assistants (or whatever they're called) stand in the middle of everyone until that point. 
11. Natural burial grounds. We need to have more of these in this country. Bamboo coffins...weird. And squeaky to move, at a time when squeaky is not the desired sound.
12. Zoloft is one fucking amazing drug.
13. I can function on 4 hours' worth of sleep for up to 30 hours. And that's after 22 hours' of sleep in the four previous nights. While suffering from a cold. But at the end of that, I'm going to be a wreck.