Weird Stuff in London

Explaining Londoners

2012-03-02T22:23:00.001+00:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/04/magazine/explaining-londoners.html

I mostly have no idea what they are talking about.

The Menu

2012-02-14T13:15:00.001+00:00

Walk into most restaurants and whether they are upscale or a hole in the wall, you are likely to find this on the menu:

Starters:
- Mushrooms with Stilton cream on rye toast
-Potted smoked mackerel
- Pork belly - or another nasty sounding meat

Mains:
- Beer battered fish and chips with mushy peas.
- Some kind of roast meat and gravy with potatoes, turnips and carrots and Yorkshire pudding (not a pudding, but something resembling a deflated popover)
- Some part of a lamb with mint sauce
- A pie: Pieces of meat or fish with various "veg" baked in a pastry
-Bangers and mash (sausages)

At a "fancy" place they'll tell you where the animals lived - "West Country beef", "Trealy Farm British meat platter" or "Gloucester Old Spot sausages". They like to tell you that any meat or produce you are eating is British.

Sides:
- Chips (AKA fries)
- Creamed leaks
- Cauliflower and cheese
- "Veg" - usually peas, carrots, corn and maybe chopped up broccoli

Kids:
-Beans on toast
-Chicken or fish fingers with chips
-Bangers and mash

Pudding (dessert):
- Something with rhubarb
- Sticky toffee pudding with vanilla ice cream (YUM!)

Breakfast/Brunch:
Always 2 sunny side up eggs, baked beans, white toast, baked tomato, cooked mushrooms, sausages, bacon and black pudding (huh?!).

6 Months

2012-02-06T14:23:00.005+00:00

I've been here for half a year. Six more months and I'll be a regular Londoner. But right now I still can't understand half of what people say to me.

Another Salesman

2012-02-02T14:30:00.003+00:00

Another salesman knocked on my door. When I opened it he asked if I wanted any horse manure. I'm not making this up.

Toad in the Hole

2012-01-30T13:18:00.003+00:00

Yum yum. This was Simon's dinner the other night. Toad in the Hole consists of sausages in Yorkshire pudding batter. This is a frozen vegetarian version. I've seen this on a lot of menus but never tried it.

Here's a better looking version.

Burns Night

2012-01-24T14:29:00.002+00:00

Looks like I may be going to a Burns Night soon. From what I can tell, this is where you read poetry from some poet named Robert Burns who lived in the 1700's, eat Haggis (which Burns wrote a poem about), drink whiskey and do traditional dances.

Poet Dude

Burns Supper

Plans Are Being Hatched

2012-01-22T21:28:00.000+00:00

Florida here I come

Thai Withdrawal

2012-01-18T13:41:00.001+00:00

It's been almost half a year since I've had decent Thai or Mexican food. I'm almost over my withdrawal symptoms. The first 2 months were the hardest. I still occasionally try to order or make Thai or Mexican, but it is always very disappointing.

I was excited to see these Thai "pots" in the grocery store. Microwaved it up. It was pretty nasty stuff – a sort of ginger Indian-like curry with water chestnuts, yellow split peas and soybeans inside, plus the rice all mixed in with it. Simon didn't mind it, but I'm ready to buy a ticket to Thailand.

Sir DJ Lance

2012-01-16T17:37:00.001+00:00

We've found some of our old favorite TV shows: Wonder Pets, Yo Gabba Gabba, Max and Ruby... but someone decided that all these shows needed to be rerecorded using British actors. Even DJ Lance is a Brit. The only thing they couldn't find a British voice over artist for was Biz. He's still a homey.

Biz's Beat of the Day

Also, you can't get on the US Disney Princess website here. There is a similar Euro-site but none of the Princesses can talk. They just gesture. It's kind of creepy.

Disney Princesses UK

Dogs

2012-01-16T17:25:00.000+00:00

If I was a dog I'd want to live in London. You get a cute little coat to wear if the weather is a little bit cool. You can run leash-free with zillions of other dogs through the city parks (at least around where I live) and you can dine in restaurants with your owner. You can even go to the pub. British dogs don't even know how good they have it.

Weather

2012-01-11T13:12:00.000+00:00

Here is a beautiful drawing Ruby made of me and her in the grass. She told me the blue stuff above us is the rain.

Tiny Soldiers

2012-01-11T12:57:00.004+00:00

Wherever I look there are little bands of kids dressed in matching uniforms with crests on their clothing and backpacks. They walk in little clumps of navy blue or forest green. The littlest boys and girls wear "smocks" which look like long red dresses. There are dozens of schools around here and you can tell where each kid goes just by looking at them. Ruby's school is the only one I've found with no required uniform, but you can still spot them by their navy blue backpacks. Most mornings I look out my bedroom window and see clumps of Ravenstone kids passing my house and think "Damn! I'm late again."

School Dinner

2012-01-06T11:53:00.001+00:00

Sometimes I laugh to myself while I'm packing Ruby's lunch for school. Her lunches must seem strange to people here. In her Wonder Woman lunchbox she has peanut butter and jelly on whole wheat bread or a cheese and ham multi-grain wrap, and various other fruits and vegetables in many little plastic sandwich bags, plus a yogurt smoothie with bendy straw. I think maybe this is a very American lunch. I never see P, B&J here or wraps. One of the teachers, the "nursery nurse", called her rice cake a "piece of cardboard".

The other day she told me that 2 girls in the school bring "chicken on the bone" in a bowl for lunch. I think they are immigrants from North Africa or the Middle East. With all the different ethnicities at school, there must be some very interesting packed lunches.

Most of the kids eat the "school dinner" which is a shepard's pie or beef and potatoes or sausages or the something else meaty. I tried to get Ruby to eat the school dinner for the first week. She wouldn't touch it.

Going Back in February!

2012-01-05T14:58:00.000+00:00

Health & Safety

2012-01-05T14:38:00.000+00:00

I don't think Brits are as preoccupied with health and safety issues as Americans.

Before I moved here my pediatric dentist told me to check any medications doctors here prescribed to see if they were FDA approved, because the approval of drugs here is more lax.

My friend, an American who has lived here for a year, went back to The States for a vacation. She said she was shocked how much anti-germ hand cleanser people used back home. It was everywhere. I used to use those little kid hand wipe things all the time in NYC, but haven't seen them for sale here. They don't even have the antibacterial hand gel stuff in the doctor's offices I've been to in London.

And I don't understand the fire safety here - or lack there of. Didn't London burn down in 1666 because a cow kicked over a lantern? I haven't seen any fire hydrants. Maybe I just don't know what they look like here, but I can't find them. At least there are a lot more parking spots! I guess they could just wait for the rain to put out any fires.

Ruby's school is surrounded by high gates and almost all the doors in the gates are locked with enormous iron locks a few centuries old. There is no way the kids could escape if there was a fire or a sniper on the loose. Maybe they don't have snipers here.

Are you alright?

2011-12-31T17:27:00.001+00:00

Quite often someone I vaguely know will ask me "Are you alright?" I always assumed I looked like I hadn't slept in weeks (which might not be far off) or that I looked as if I was about to burst into tears (also possible). I finally realized that "Are you alright?" is the equivalent of "How ya doin?" or "Whas up?" I no longer try to reassure people that I am not actually on the edge of a breakdown when they ask me if I'm alright.

2011-12-27T21:22:00.000+00:00

London seems empty. Where did everyone go for "Christmas holiday"? Shouldn't I be there too?

Where is everybody?

What the heck is Boxing Day?

2011-12-26T16:32:00.002+00:00

From some website: Traditionally, 26 December was the day to open the Christmas Box to share the contents with the poor. The Christmas box was a wooden or clay container where people placed gifts.

What a nice tradition. I don't think that they do this anymore. Today the main thing going on seems to be a transit worker strike.

The Dead

2011-12-22T21:45:00.000+00:00

People haven't ever heard of The Grateful Dead. Guess I'll have trouble finding Cherry Garcia Ben & Jerry's here.

Bah Humbug

2011-12-16T22:04:00.000+00:00

Ruby came back from school today with tons of Christmas artwork including a few copies of this gem. Does anyone else think this is crazy? Ruby is now asking me to remind her of who all the people are in this drawing and asking me to sing the hymn she sang about Jesus' birth in the school play. (This is a public school!)

Where did Hanukkah go?

2011-12-15T13:09:00.000+00:00

There is no sign of Hanukkah anywhere. I can't even find candles for my menorah. When I ask in the stores they just point to little birthday cake candles. I sent Simon back to NYC this morning to buy me some. (He actually has an NYC business trip, but I can pretend). Since October, everywhere I look there is Christmas paraphernalia. Even in our house - Simon got the kids a tree at a crazy store where you order things out of a catologue. The Christmas Tree
I thought I saw a tiny menorah on the dashboard of someone's car, but on closer inspection it was a Christmas candelabra. Ruby was in a Christmas show at her school. I haven't heard that annoying Adam Sandler song once.

Where's the FUNukkah?

Driving "theory" test

2011-12-09T17:23:00.001+00:00

Part one of my driving test is a multiple choice test on a computer. 100 questions (you need to get something like 85 correct) and it takes an hour. Then a "hazard perception" test where you watch videos and click your mouse when there is a hazard. All the interactive study materials only work with windows PCs, and our computers are both macs. My test is this Tuesday.

My head hurts.

Blogged

2011-12-08T17:33:00.001+00:00

A friend just blogged about my blog on her blog!

Robyn's blog

Bean Bags

2011-12-08T16:54:00.001+00:00

There are a lot of people here who I can't understand at all, and a lot of people don't understand me. A plumber came to the house today. He asked me over and over again if I had a couple of bean bags he could use. After a while I was cracking up, picturing me and this big dirty guy hanging out in the bathroom lying on bean bags. I finally got that he was saying "Bin Bags" and wanted some large garbage bags. At least this was kind of funny. When I had the driving instructor who I couldn't understand at all, it was kind of scary.

Popcorn

2011-12-06T23:11:00.001+00:00

Not sure why all my posts are about food - and mostly snack food at that.

Sweet Popcorn - avoid it

I want to point out that popcorn here typically comes in 3 flavors: "salt", "butter" or "sweet". I found this out when I went to a movie theater and later saw microwave popcorn sold in a variety pack of these flavors. Don't know why you wouldn't be able to have salt and butter on your popcorn. If you were wondering, the "sweet" one is NOT caramel popcorn. It tastes gross and smells like nasty chemicals when it is popping in the microwave.

I'm not brave enough to try this flavor.