A Bit of Day-Seizing

Well I've had a very interesting day. And here's why:

As those who you who read this blog often will know, I'm a bit of a fan of the World in One City project, whereby two guys are attempting to meet a citizen from every country of the world living and working in London (within the space of a year) to prove that London is the most international city in the world. And they're doing very well in that, having found citizens from 106 countries at the time of writing. They've been interviewed on the BBC and in the London Paper, so word's getting round. Good for them.

But why am I telling you this again? Well, on their website (see link in right-hand column), they put up a list of those countries they haven't met anyone from yet. So there was me scanning the list, seeing the countries you'd expect to see on such a list (if you knew such countries existed), such as Kiribati, Nauru, Palau, etc. And then getting towards the bottom of the list I saw 'Ukraine'. Now, as you probably know, I am not from the Ukraine, nor am I ever likely to be, but one of my best friends is. Determined to stick to my motto of 'seizing the day' I decided to email these guys and tell them about my London-dwelling, Ukrainian friend, Alina.

So today, me and Alina met one of the guys from the project in a pub in the centre of London. And he was very nice too, and evidently chuffed to be getting country number 105. It was a pretty busy day for him as he was meeting us, a Uruguayan and a Luxembourger all in the same day (when have you ever done that?). I was particularly excited as this meeting was marking two 'firsts': (1) the first time I've ever met a comedian, and (2) the first time I've ever taken part in 'a stupid boy project' (see previous post). So keep checking their website to see the write-up of Ukraine - it may not come up for a little while. And maybe I'll get my name up in lights yet.

I think that was a good bit of 'day-seizing'.

In other news:

1. I managed to convince an Australian working in Quiksilver that I was one of his countrymen.

2. I learned that Colgate had some difficulties when they first started advertising their toothpaste in Spain as 'colgate' in Spanish roughly translates as 'go hang yourself'.

All in all, a productive day.