Clueless in the UK

Once you make that choice you can start to address a few issues. For example, we splurged on an answering machine that actually tells you when there's a message waiting. We decided we couldn't keep blowing off all our maybe future friends like that … 

For months we were surviving on 8 forks, spoons, knifes, but recently we bought another set, so … we can have friends over for dinner!!!!!!!!

We're down the three oops, two wine glasses, so it's time to find some nice restaurant grade ones. We're here for the long-haul baby! Ah - since I first started this I have bought some more glasses, but not the restaurant grade ones I was hoping for. We'll get there though.

Today as I was walking down Flask Walk from the butcher (I swear, when they are closed, we go hungry …) I saw a very nice looking espresso cup+saucer set at a "junk" sale. I think they just raise money by getting stuff from people who are moving out of the area or something. I ran home and got Sue and she came back, and we got the whole set for < £20, including four champagne glasses (we had none, and people who know me know how much I love champagne!), so we're good to go in that department as well!

I've been meaning to send this post for a while, to be honest. Sorry, no pictures, but our recent trip to Wales ought to make up for this boring post. 

I went so long without writing a post I’d forgotten how to do it. I had promised some pictures of the neighborhood. I am not sure how well they came out but we’ll see.

First, here’s the butcher shop:

It’s a great place for fresh … uh … meat. Here’s MacBook Pro guy posing for me:

I don’t know his name. I think it’s time we were properly introduced.

The butcher shop is in the alley just up the road from us, a little alley called Flask Walk which we sometimes take on the way to school. The kids get their haircuts in there sometimes.

When my espresso machine was broken I walked across the street to Gail’s every morning. I love that place, I miss the people in there, I barely know them but one guy knew what I wanted without my having to ask by the time the 5 or 6 weeks were up. He doesn’t seem to work there anymore:

We get our bagels just up the alley to the left of Gail’s at Bagel Street:

which we pass every day on the way to Tesco, where we buy most of our daily groceries:

I have a love/hate relationship with Tesco. I love that they are 2 minutes away, have milk, fresh rolls, decent veggies, etc. I don’t like them for meat of any kind, and I just don’t like their … well, either their reputation or their logo, I am not sure which. They feel like a low-end supermarket to me, some where below Safeway and above 7/11. I think that’s being unfair, so I have concluded that it’s their logo which turns me off.

Higher end stores, in my mind but not necessarily in reality, are Sainsbury and Waitrose. We were told that Waitrose is where we would want to shop for our organics, but I find that I cannot stand that store. Sainsbury is supposed to be in the same category as Tesco yet I like that store a lot (except their meat - blech!). So, it’s off to the J.A. Steele butcher for all our meat, occasionally a Marks & Spencer will do for meat as well, and most other things are delivered from Sainsbury, and then things we need last minute, and quite often, is Tesco across the street.

Luckily right near Tesco is my favorite wine store, where I am getting to know some of the people inside:

Jeroboams means “wicked big bottle of wine”. This is where I bought my recent mixed case of wine. I’m currently into Australian Shiraz and Pinot Noir, affordable and quite tasty but I bought a coupe of whites just in case.

Here are the Greek restaurant I mentioned a while back and the EveryMan theater, which is a small theater where you book your actual seats online, and expect to bring your wine, etc., into the theater with you. Um, did I say theater? I meant CINEMA:

I am now in the habit of getting our fresh fruit and veggies from this stand which is almost just across the street from us as well. They have another inside store up on Heath street across from Tesco I also visit from time to time. When I asked if they had any organic fruit they said, Sure … Um, that’s all he said. He didn’t say, “Yes, and here’s how you can tell …” He just said that that some of the fruit was organic …

I was there recently and a woman before me asked for some blood oranges. I asked her how they were, and she said they were fantastic. She seemed to know the guy pretty well and she said, “Just give him one!” After she left the guy did offer me one. I think he is starting to recognize me as well. The fruit looks good, but is it organic? And should I care?

The last time I went down the organic path was with milk, where I concluded that the main benefit of organic milk was the way the cows were treated. Can anybody shed some light on this for me? Organic pesticides can be deadly as well, says the Organization for Wicked Big Farms of the USA. J.A. Steele’s beef is “better than organic” if you read their website, because they say that the rules for organic are bogus and not currently enforced properly. The organic industry is a cash cow for the dairy industry

In other news, there is a rumor that some high end fashion shops which are all along High Street in Hampstead will be closing. Some people are in an uproar because they are worried that they will be replaced with another mini-market. Personally I am hoping for a mini-Marks & Spencer although walking down the road to the real Marks & Spencer is good exercise. But along these lines, here is one store I am hoping will be shutdown:

Their logo is FCUK and it just pisses me off. I know that’s ironic given my history of potty mouth, but it still bothers me. It’s such a lame gimic and I can’t get over it: this store must go.

The first part of our recent trip was to Bath. I was anxious because I hadn’t done a lot of driving and it wasn’t entirely clear how well our GPS was going to work. As I hinted in the previous post, the GPS was brilliant, flawless, amazing. The only difficult part was the occasional roundabout.

All of a sudden I am not clear whether it is roundabout or traffic circle. Ah, I just have to think back to what the GPS said: “Enter roundabout and take 3rd exit to blah blah street.” So here are Sue and I counting exits: “One … two … wait - was that an exit … THREE … oh shit!” Once I took the wrong exit but the GPS recovered quickly and so did we. Another time I knew where I wanted to go but must have counted wrong, so I did a quick maneuver and ended up on the wrong side of the road … uh … very briefly, no worries, nobody was hurt … cheers!

My US license expires in September this year. Meanwhile I have one year to get a UK license and that year is up at the end of June. BUT, once I officially apply for a learner’s permit here I cannot drive on my US license AND I cannot drive in the UK without an experienced UK driver … pretty weird, eh? So, we have a UK trip to Wales next week and then after that I think I just need to try to get my UK license ASAP.

So in Bath we arrived at this beautiful B&B just outside of Bath:

The house was something else, quiet, nice, very nice family, etc.

The next day we drove into downtown Bath, about, oh I don’t know, 2 or 3 miles away if that? The highway was backed up from the roundabout at 10am, Bath is a tourist attraction extraordinaire, and for what? Well, this:

That’s the Bath Abbey in the background there.

Yes, the Roman Baths, 2000 years old, the original plumbing still works except for a minor algae problem that apparently (but how they know I have no idea) wasn’t a problem back then. Anything 2000 years old is all right with me, however, and I thought this was pretty cool.

While wandering around afterwards, we wandered in to the Bath Abbey and saw a small orchestra and chorus practicing Bach’s The Passion of Christ. Coincidentally, Sue, Madeline and I had just gone to watch our friend Ruth perform that somewhere in London. I was shocked, simply shocked, to discover that I had been blasted by this very music my entire childhood. Seeing it performed before my eyes was an unexpected pleasure, and unlike every ballet performance I have been to, I had absolutely no trouble staying awake even though the whole thing was in German.

In London the week before, Madeline couldn’t help giggling at seeing a grown man sing like a … grown woman. In Bath here was just such a grown man doing just that during the rehearsal:

This particular man was very good, however, definitely better than the one at the London performance. Still, I can’t help wonder whether a woman wouldn’t make a better choice for this role?

After watching this for a while we decided to hang out in a square across the way from the Roman Baths and watch a very very bad performer get strangely large amounts of money from onlookers (unless they were just putting in 2-pence pieces):

I think the picture speaks for itself. That guy was so bad I almost gave Madeline some money to offer the guy on condition that he would just stop playing and leave. I am not exaggerating.

So then these two guys came out and since one had a cello I thought they might be more serious musicians, and indeed they were:

They took a very long time to get started and they should have had some sort of amplification because it was a decent sized square, and the cellist seemed a little embarrassed and there was a problem with the wind, etc. Still, with his friend holding the music he played a nice cello piece by good old J.S. Bach that I liked quite well. So as soon as he finished in went the two kids with a pound each to show our appreciation.

From there we headed out to the local park, and this park was one amazing park. We knew the kids would love it when we drove by the day before, but we didn’t realize how much they would love it. We spent two hours there just watching the kids run around from one thing to another, happily playing with kids they never met, running into the occasional obnoxious teenager, and one really obnoxious mother. But that’s ok. The highlight was the zipline, which with the occasional push got the kids going so fast that when they hit the end of the line they ended up almost horizontal to the ground. Hard to explain but luckily we have about 30 pictures, which I have narrowed down to two:

Luckily both kids knew to hang on for dear life!

All in all, Bath was a nice place to visit. Not sure when we’ll get there again.

But Salisbury, where we stayed the following day, that is a place worth visiting again, just for the privilege of seeing the amazing Church. Unfortunately I have no pictures of it because I thought we didn’t have the camera with us - turns out we did, which is a shame. The church is called Salisbury Cathedral, built in 1220 or thereabouts. It’s the tallest medieval church still standing in England. It contains one of the four remaining originals of the Magna Carta. Ah - maybe wikipedia won’t mind my borrowing the image???

Inside the huge church was a massive organ and some choir boys singing, rehearsing for an Easter concert. They were angelic - uh, their voices were. The church was huge, each chair had a “in memory of so-and-so” on it, the choir was practicing, and I was thinking … If you ever feel the need to be part of something bigger than yourself, you might just want to give church a try … it might be what you’re looking for.

Yes, I was moved, but I doubt it would last beyond the first sermon. But you never know …

We just got back from Bath and Stonehenge. I assume I am not alone in having a hard time saying “Stonehenge” without going into Spinal Tap mode? As I was walking back to our apartment with my first overseas case of wine, our new neighbors (last couple of months I’d say) said hello and asked where we’d been and I mentioned Stone Henge in Spinal Tap voice and the husband got it pretty quickly. He said he had the DVD if I wanted it, and I said I had already decided to go buy it, so yes! They are having a baby in 3 months or so. I am excited for them.

It goes without saying that if we go on a trip it’s only because Sue has put in countless hours researching places to stay and see. I mean, almost as much time as I spend reading up on Mac computers!

This was the sunset as seen from our B&B the night before, so we had high hopes for a spectacular evening at Stonehenge the next day.

Sue bought special tickets so we could get in with the stones with a handful of people after the crowds have left, from 6:30 to 7:30 pm. We’d have to wait until the evening the following day to find out how it would turn out, however. Before then we headed to the beach (Bournemouth) for the day.

Yes, this looks just like a beach:

We thought that on a super clear day you could see France from this position. But now we’re back in front of a computer I can see that it’s at least 60 miles to France. There’d have to be some nice big hills at the other end to see anything:

Madeline showing her form:

I got in on the action eventually:

You can see the kids were dressed for beach weather (well, they were able to undress for it) but I was not. But for the first 2 hours on the beach I had a sweatshirt and a long sleeve shirt on, so it wasn’t exactly toasty. But it was probably the nicest day of the year so far and we were lucky to have headed to the beach for it.

I could make a comment about english women in bathing suits, but I think I’ll refrain.

I could also make a comment about the fact that I put close to hundred miles onto the English roads this weekend, and not a single person was injured. We made heavy use of our Garmin nuvi 350, which I thought sucked when I first got it but now think it is the best little device I have ever bought. Its quality blew away the quality of the GPS that came with our 2001 Acura MDX that I am so glad we no longer own. I especially love the “There’s a traffic camera coming up” warning, including the speed you need to be below to avoid getting a ticket. Amazing… Amazing how many picture taking devices there are, even out in the middle of nowhere!

Here’s a comment I can make about the English: I love the way they get together and play a game of football. Everywhere you go, kids, adults and everyone in-between are playing an easy game of football. Everyone seems at ease and relaxed about it, too. A happy competition. Oh - except it is just the boys. Madeline is just about the only girl I have seen playing, except when she was in a soccer league attended almost exlcusively by Americans.

Here’s the Stonehenge teaser:

This next one will probably show up on our Christmas photo this year:

Jason doing some serious contemplating:

Obligatory cute kids shot:

My attempt at a cool, artsy fartsy shot. Yes, that is Sue and the kids on the right, and yes it sure looks like we’re the only ones there:

A nice father and son shot. Do we look at all alike? I don’t think so:

But now we’re home and things are presumably getting slowly back to normal. Sue, Jason and I were sick during this whole trip but I think I shall feel more comfortable coughing up a lung in the privacy of our own … apartment, than in some random B&B. On the other hand, we stayed in some nice places I must say.

Madeline is in the bath singing her heart out right now. Some day she is going to audition at American Idol, I can just see it. But maybe … maybe first we should get her some voice lessons to go with her one obvious, year-round passion.

I’ll have more pictures of Bath tomorrow, but for now I will leave you with this: I now look at every new meal as an opportunity not to stuff myself into oblivion. I have been successfully avoiding it for about a week or so now, although tonight was by far the toughest test: Indian food. Oh, nasty nasty Indian food, I love it too much, I have caused myself more physical discomfort with Indian food than anything else. The reasons for this new approach are self-explanatory and I will uncharacteristically leave the details out …