ABroad with a View

Everyday Treasures

2012-02-25T12:49:00.000Z

The early morning sky can put me in a very reflective mood -- and so it was yesterday with this sky from my kitchen window. As I sat at the table my eyes fell on the rose in the vase on the tile and I realized that all three reminded me of wonderful people who have blessed my life. The tile was a souvenir from my parents when we were all in Canterbury together many years ago. It was a wonderful

Citizen Me: Whatever Next?

2012-02-22T17:15:00.000Z

The next few years were one surprise after another. The first surprise was that after more or less settling down in Norfolk -- not exactly happily for me -- The Man was posted to Liverpool! Being a true Londoner, this did not make him happy and he tried hard to get out of it. But the verdict was they liked his smile and knew he'd be great in the job! And in fact he loved it! He was the Area

Citizen Me: A New Life

2012-02-20T19:01:00.000Z

September 1, 1980. I arrived in Britain expecting a baby in 6 weeks! The Man had arrived back in England at the end of the previous June. England was a blessed relief from one of the hottest summers on record. From Texas to New England temperatures ranged from 95 to 110 every day for the entire time. I spent the months with my parents while The Man got himself invited back into the Air Force and

Citizen Me: Prelude

2012-02-18T21:01:00.000Z

I remember quite clearly the plane coming in to land at Heathrow in November 1978. It was my first visit to England -- one I had dreamed about ever since I was a small child. It was a grey day and just light enough to see the suburban houses and streets ... those moments were strangely emotional for me and I could feel my eyes welling up. There was absolutely nothing familiar about the houses --

Happy Valentine's Day by Way of Mr. Nash!

2012-02-14T04:08:00.000Z

The Strange Case of Mr. Ballantine's Valentine* Once upon a time there was an attorney named Mr. Ballantine.~~~He lived in the spacious gracious days of the nineteenth century.~~~Mr. Ballantine didn't know they were spacious and gracious.~~~He thought they were terrible.~~~The reason he thought they were terrible was that love had passed him by.~~~Mr. Ballantine had never received a valentine.~~~

Citizen Me: Now We Are Seven

2012-02-11T16:23:00.000Z

1953 was the first year I would really understand that the world was larger than mine! The first event was in January of that year and was the inauguration of Dwight David Eisenhower as President of the United States. I had just returned home from school and my mother had been listening to the radio. We did not have a television. She told me that there was a new President and that there was a big

Citizen Me

2012-02-09T20:46:00.000Z

I have one project that I am determined to complete this year. That project is to become a British citizen. For many years I had assumed that in order to obtain British nationality I would be required to renounce my American citizenship. But then after I had been here for several years and after I had returned from 5 years living in Germany I discovered that this was not so, that I could in fact

Blogger is Having 'Interesting' Times

2012-02-05T12:07:00.000Z

I have been having an interesting time with Blogger! Yesterday I realized that one of my favourite blogs to follow had suddenly 50 posts running down my Blog Roll! When I clicked on the first one it I was 'hijacked' and taken to a pornographic site. When I tried to go to the site by typing in the URL in my browser, the same thing happened! I have e-mailed the blogger whose site it is and warned

Frankie and Bingo ... and Garbo

2012-02-01T13:51:00.002Z

A few nights ago I was having a reverie about films and in particular scenes from films that I can watch over and over again and never fail to enjoy. It occurred to me to come up with my 10 most favourite of these scenes and then see if I could find clips of them on You Tube. And so I did -- for the most part... Now from time to time, I will be writing a series of posts which will include a

Social Networking -- in the Local Community

2012-01-28T03:29:00.000Z

We have lived in our house since 1986 and other than our neighbours on the right have met very few people from our neighbourhood in that time. I am not entirely sure why that is -- other than 'keeping ourselves to ourselves' as some tend to do. We live only a few blocks from the town centre and many of the houses on our street have been turned into flats and bedsits and there is a very high

Violence and Murder = Entertainment Tonight!

2012-01-25T18:20:00.000Z

Along with millions of others I was completely enthralled by the Stieg Larsson Millennium Trilogy and its heroine Lisbeth Salander. I confess to being an ardent fan of Scandinavian crime fiction and have devoured the entire Swedish Wallander series by Henning Manning and the Norwegian Jo Nesbo's rather dubious Harry Hole detective thrillers. Early in January my sister-in-law and I went to the

Honesty Is All Well and Good -- So Is Funereal Discretion the Better Part of Valour?

2012-01-21T17:39:00.000Z

On Wednesday last The Man and I journeyed to Girvan in Ayrshire, Scotland to attend the funeral of a very old personal friend and colleague from The Man's days in the Royal Air Force. We were only in Scotland for a little over 24 hours, but to say the least, it was a very interesting visit and a very beautiful part of the world. I had only been to Scotland twice before -- once to an RAF reunion

Is It Fiction or is it Emotional Perception and Social Cognition?

2012-01-16T15:31:00.000Z

Gosh but the news for what seems like forever has been glum glum glum! Between the global economy, upcoming elections and extreme weather, not to mention cruise ships too close to shore turning over and dire predictions for everybody -- why does anyone in his or her right mind watch the news or pick up a newspaper? So it was a special treat for me yesterday to find an article which truly

You Might Like to Know

2012-01-11T17:14:00.000Z

Recently, so many of the blogs I follow and those that follow me are writing about diets and needing to lose weight. Well, it's not as if I'm not in the same boat or anything but I just want to say to one and all that for me YOU ARE ALL BEAUTIFUL! This is the wonder of the blogosphere -- we can see with a different eye and the 'eye' that we see with is the one that we alone can see -- it is not

On the Twelfth Day of Christmas Memories: Putting Away the Old and the New

2012-01-05T05:00:00.081Z

There is nothing like seeing our ornaments and decorations brought out to bring back memories of Christmas Past. I try to add at least one new ornament to my collection each year. There is not telling what might take my fancy from one year to the next. This year a little Eskimo angel bell took my fancy! There are two decorations that I cannot bear to put away, one is a pewter Christmas tree and

On the Eleventh Day of Christmas Memories: Conspiracy

2012-01-04T05:00:00.002Z

One year Mom decided to take my little sister and me to see Santa! I must have been around 6. We headed downtown to the local Sears and Roebuck store and down the stairs to the basement. I don't remember much of the detail , but what I remember is quite clear. The queue/line was quite long for St. Johnsbury, Vermont -- there must have been a dozen mothers with their children in tow. As I stood

On the Tenth Day of Christmas Memories: Food Food Glorious Food!

2012-01-03T05:00:00.017Z

As a child I was a very very very fussy eater! Of course I loved cookies and cake but not if any of those had raisins or nuts or orange peal or anything lumpy... And I liked ice cream as long as it was vanilla or chocolate! It wasn't until I was quite a bit older than I developed any kind of palate, my point being that my memory of Christmas food is somewhat limited as I didn't like most of it.

On the Ninth Day of Christmas Memories: Boxing Day?

2012-01-02T05:00:00.009Z

New Year's Eve 2011/12 If I'd been thinking I'd have written this to post on Boxing Day -- but I wasn't so here goes. In Britain Boxing Day, the day after Christmas, has many different theories as to its origin. The truth is no one really knows. And I get the feeling a lot of people don't really know what to do with the day. Often it's a day for visiting relatives or for them to visit you --

On the Eighth Day of Christmas Memories: New Year's Eve

2012-01-01T05:00:00.063Z

Overall I would say I have not found New Year's Eve to all that it is cracked up to be! The most memorable of all was seeing in the year 2000. We spent the evening through to the early hours of the Morning with our closest friends in Southport. There were four couples in all and quite a few of our children to see in that special year. Because of the intimacies of the friendships the evening

On the Seventh Day of Christmas Memories: Bavarian Christmas

2011-12-31T05:00:00.096Z

Yuletide in Bavaria is the quintessential Christmas experience! The place is like a Christmas card come to life. The food, the smells, the markets, the decorations, gluhe Wein and usually snow! There are treasured memories of our 5 years in Tutzing are of the people around our table and being invited to share in celebrations with other friends -- German, American and British. There is the memory

On the Sixth Day of Christmas Memories: Frostbite

2011-12-30T05:00:00.002Z

One year when I was a teenager, my best friend, her sister and I decided we would go skiing. It was a crisp sunny day and we set out in the early afternoon a few days before New Year. I was very proud of my ski outfit and my bright red skis. I don't think I could have been much more than 16 because my girlfriend was not driving but had her sister with us and had her car. Our original plan had

On the Fifth Day of Christmas Memories: Blizzard!

2011-12-29T05:00:00.160Z

Christmas 2002 The last time we were all together... Christmas 2002 was very exciting for us. We decided to spend Christmas in the States with my parents -- all of us from England and my son and his wife and my grandson, who would celebrate his 2nd birthday on the 27th of December. My son, Chris, was in the army and stationed at Ft. Lewis just outside of Olympia, Washington. He found a great

On the Fourth Day of Christmas Memories: The Doctor Calls

2011-12-28T05:00:00.035Z

As to the year I cannot recall exactly, but I would guess it was 1952. As usual I was up at the crack of dawn. That was the year the my curiosity got the better of me and I was unable to resist trying to have a peek at the stack of presents in the dining room. Of course I was sure my mother wouldn't realize that I had been trying to see by lifting the paper around the tape -- which of course

On the Third Day of Christmas Memories: The Loriols

2011-12-27T05:00:00.002Z

It was 1954 when the Loriol Family came to St. Johnsbury, Vermont from France. The family was a match for ours with two girls and a boy and we were all of similar ages. M. Georges Loriol was an English teacher in France and had come on an exchange program to teach French at St. Johnsbury Academy, where my father taught English. Both of our families lived in school accommodation and lived more or

On the Second Day of Christmas Memories: Christmas 1968

2011-12-26T05:00:00.004Z

It's funny what one remembers about past events ... I remember my parents and my brother and sisters were all ready to leave for church on Christmas Eve 1968. I was wearing my brand new never-worn-before red winter coat! The television was still on and suddenly NASA was broadcasting from the astronauts as they circled the moon and watched the Earthrise. It was an amazing thing to see and then to