Pucker up

The eskimo's rub noses, the Japanese bow and the Dutch...well, we kiss. Not one, not two, but THREE ferm ones you get: 1x left, 1x right and 1x left again (or vice versa so you wish). I've always found this greeting ritual a bit excessive. Especially if you have a room full of people to work your way through, it's very tedious to have to kiss everybody three times.

Here in England I have quickly abandoned the 'triple X' practice. I haven't quite been able to work out what the local custom is though. It seems to be something in between one and two kisses, with a kind of semi-hug thrown in for closer friends. Most of the time I get it right these days and I don't usually end up sending kisses into thin air anymore.

This weekend, though, I've had some culturally confused encounters. None of the people I met up with are Dutch funnily enough, but they all know that I am and are clearly familiar with the ritual. So when we exchanged greetings and I moved away after the first kiss there was instant confusion. The receiving parties were fully expecting all three! In one case the confusion got such that when I then leaned back in to offer up the remaining smooches, the other person was just turning away; limbs got in the way and the glass I was holding was sent crashing to the floor. Admittedly, as far as culture clashes go this is not a very serious one. Nonetheless, I feel a universal greeting ritual is in order.