an englishman in Colorado

This weekend I entertained a work colleague who is from Britain, Pascal. We have worked together for 6 years.

He is still on UK time even though he had been in the US for a week. So we ended up staying up until 3 am on Friday talking about Archimate. Saturday morning, early, like around 8 am, he lectured me for an hour on the style of brick laying used in my house. Apparently in the UK they use Flemish style for their brickwork. I forget what my house was. He also said I did the worst job ever patching the mortar in the bricks and pointed out to me the patch I used was not meant for patching mortar made in the 1880s because it's made of....something...and the patch I used is made of...something else...so they don't bond. I was kind of hung over and sleep deprived so that conversation was a blur.

To distract him from the bricks, for fear he would start removing my patches, I showed him a silver cigarette case that my friend Arthur gave me. He immediately looked up the symbols and established that the case was made in 1893 (I think that's what he said) and that it's good sterling silver. There was something about the lion stamp on the case (the raging lion? the up paw lion? the mad lion? it was the something lion) which established where the case was made (Birmingham, in UK).

At one point he said "I always yawn too when people are lecturing me and I'm bored".

I took him on Sunday to buy an iPad. I really wonder if that was a good idea. He looked up the stuff about the bricks and my cigarette case on his phone. Giving him a larger display may be the biggest disaster ever.

He comes back next weekend. He was eyeing my movie projector after talking about how he loves to take things apart. I think I'll take him out for some exercise so he won't damage any of the electronics in my house.

And, mad props to Pascie for his cooking. He made omelets (though he said my frying pan was "inadequate"), scrambled eggs, filet mignon, and he sharpened all of my kitchen knives after making disdainful comments about how I needed to sharpen them every week (I've never sharpened them and have owned most of them for over 5 years - hm, may get him to sharpen my ice axes and crampons so I can sleep in).

While drinking on Saturday night, around 2 am, I may have promised to make him banana pudding. Help, please.

Pascal, if you are reading this, you are NOT going to take apart my projector or my stereo. Ever. Comprende?