First Impressions
I used to be into reading books about relationships. Some of them were fun because they were really more like lit crit than advice ( for example: Jane Austen's Guide to Dating) and others were more philosophical (for example: If The Buddha Dated) and some of them were more physchological. In that last category, I'm goint to place Mr. Right, Right Now, although I'm sure that as a book it firmly belongs in relationships and dating/ self improvement. It was an interesting book that encouraged reader to be interesting, to be authentic, but above all to enjoy themselves and love what they are doing. It was full of tips for little things that you could do to look your best and little tips of how to treat yourself just a little bit better, but that made it all worth it. There was a bit in the book, and now that I think about it, it was probably based on some of the same research that Malcolm Gladwell's Blink was based on, where the author but forth the notion that the brain makes a snap judgement about a person in the first 30 seconds to five minutes of meeting them. And you then spend all subsequent interactions sort of gathering evidence supporting your initial reaction. That's what makes first impressions so important. They provide the foundation for how a person will view you, barring some outside interaction or something very big happening.
And, if that’s true, for better or for worse my first interaction with the Welsh (and therefore first impression of them)happened in June of 2004. A group of us were queuing for tickets to the opening day of Wimbledon. Just hanging out, having some wine, preparing to sleep on the pavement and eat take out that was delivered right to us on the sidewalk when we met a young Scottish fellow whom we call “Flashy McKilty”. Now, he was a nice enough lad, we chatted and discussed what our plans were while we were on this side of the pond and then Flashy McKilty went off, presumably to scandalize some more foreigners. And, we thought that would be the last of seeing him. Our group was to break up for a couple of days following the opening of Wimbledon, with my sister and some of her friends staying to watch some more tennis and our friend E and I heading off to Wales. So, much later in the night we were pleasantly surprised when Flashy McKilty turned back up with…. Ta Da! Welshmen! (And, while that isn't an exact quote, that is pretty much how he introduced them to us). Apparently on his travels, Flashy had met these fine chaps named Kip and Owain and felt that they needed to be introduced to us so that we could get a real insider’s look at the part of the UK we were headed to. E. once described Kip and Owain as the perfect Welsh comic heroes. Kip would be the swarthy, used-to-work-in-the-fields-and-now-works-in-the-mines-all-the-while-playing-rugby-on-the-weekends representative of Modern Wales while Owain, was tall and lithe and could very likely have stepped out of a tapestry depicting Arthur and his knights of the round table or a tale from the Mabinogion.
The first thing they said it was, “It is untrue that the Welsh are always drunk and singing. However, we are drunk and we may break out into song.”
Fantastic. In my opinion, we couldn’t have had a better introduction to the Welsh because these chaps were amiable, they were a great laugh, they were incredibly pleasant and they suggested all sorts of fun and wonderful things we could do (of course, none of it fit into our plans.) Although, our first impressions of actually visiting the country were pretty incredible as well.
