Fattie Rockets

I am blind. I am totally, whole-heartedly blind. Proofreading 20 pages about turnkey telecoms rollout plans is [to state the obvious] DULL. And the worst part is I just got done proofreading 8 pages that they sent me BY ACCIDENT. Come on! Ugh. I have the greatest newfound respect for Delora, our in-house proofreader at Entertainment.

BAH! Proofing aside, yesterday was a great day. 8 hours of proofreading and meetings on telecoms pricing required a little retail therapy. So, Fiona and I headed over to the shopping centre for dinner and a little spending. We visited every restaurant, scanned every menu, even were seated in a couple, before stumbling on an Eddie Rockets tucked way up in the 3rd floor. Eddie Rockets, delicious though it may be, is a little embarrassing for an American to walk in. Here’s why:


To have traveled 23 hours, across vast oceans and wide continents, to be living on an island in the middle of the Atlantic……and eat in a 50’s American diner….a crud one at that……is mortifying.

Fiona ordered for me. I smiled and kept my American mouth full of milkshake. I ate a double bleu cheese burger, fries, chocolate milkshake, then we went to the mall and bought loads of Butler’s (the Irish Godiva) and ate that, too! Bear in mind, this is after a lunch of McDonald’s nugget meal with a cheeseburger. Something attacked me yesterday and bade me “come, eat! EAT!” And I obeyed the call.

Anyway, we went shopping after that and I couldn’t help but feel the sliiiiightest bit self-conscious when I was fitting into size FOURTEEN jeans!!! Could that be my food intake talking? Five seconds under the harsh and glaring light of the fitting room in size fourteens sent me shooting out to the front of the shop. While Fiona tried on the rest of her clothes, I sulked by the sunglasses.

So I expressed my fat-assed concerns to Fiona on the way home, who told me that size 8 here is a size 4 in the US. That makes 14s here size 10s at home. She also told me that that store runs small, and that she usually wears a Euro 12 (which is a US 8), but has to wear 14s at that store, too. So basically, I’m still an 8, it’s just that 8 reads like “12” over here. GOOD LORD, could they put that in the travel guide??? Why don’t I remember that from last time I was here?

Nevertheless, the whole thing gave me good reason to give my diet and exercise a good think. Today I am eating healthy, and tonight I’m going for another run (I ran this weekend). No more Eddie Rockets---just for the shear embarrassment of it, if nothing else. No more McDonalds (my last taste of home…sob…). No more fish and chi—okay, exceptions will be made, but I’ll eat more healthily from here on in.