This Week's Article on Touring Old Blighty

(Otherwise known as my other blogging venture...click the link in the title to read more!)

Disclaimer: Unlike most "Top Ten" lists, this one is in no particular order and draws its results from nothing more than this ex-pat's experience of her first Christmas season in the UK. Do with as you will.

10. Christmas adverts on the television.

Starting in about late September, there were "holiday" adverts on the television. (Yes, those who think that all British TV is advert free, we DO have them on some channels...mostly the ones NOT controlled by the British Broadcasting Compay.) Those tended to be filled with reminders that "the holiday season is just around the corner" but were delightfully void of "make your layaway purchases now!" advice. However, following Halloween, Christmas adverts have been appearing all over the telly, and some of them are just spectacular. While it can be said that Christmas is even more commericalised here than it is in the US (if that's even possible) and that the "Reason for the Season" is left out, I don't completely agree. The adverts show warm, happy, scenes of home, with people gathering and celebrating together. Now, granted that leaves out the Christian reason for the season, but it promotes giving and what I think to be family values. One such example, included for your viewing pleasure, is the following lovely John Lewis advert.

9. Christmas Displays in Shop Windows

Of course, this is not limited to the UK, but I have seen some positively fantastic window displays in shops here since around the middle of November. Moving parts, music, lights - nothing seems to be too much when you're talking window displays. However, what has impressed me is the participation in what seems to be more commonplace here than the US. I'll give you two examples of what I mean: first, I work for a retail shop and the company policy is to make all the windows across the country look the same. The idea is that continuity brings with it a certain amount of familiarity and therefore brand-trust. Makes sense. However, some of the branches, mine included, have large, walk-in front windows (or fall-in, if you're me) and the staff were visibly disappointed at the notion that we will not be decorating the window beyond the bits sent to us (and all branches) by corporate. To my lazy American mind this was joyous news indeed...they tell us what to put in the window and we do it. But my colleagues were telling wonderful stories about Christmases past and staying at the store well past closing to work on window decorations - and I admit to feeling a bit cheated that I wasn't there "back when."

8. Christmas Light Displays and City-Wide Christmas Light Switch-Ons.

Perhaps I didn't live in an area in the US that felt as strongly about switching on their Christmas Lights. Greenville, SC, where I lived until immigrating back in April, had fantastic fairy lights in all the trees downtown - that are on year round. There were of course banners and extra lights added to the streetlights, etc. downtown, but I think the big "thing" in the US is the Christmas parade.

The big thing here is the celebration and official Switch On of the town/city/village's Christmas lights every year. It happens in late November/early December, and I'm ashamed to admit that I missed it for Keighley because I was just feeling a bit too homesick that day to go watch anything Christmas-related. The celebrations range from a local band playing to lavish stage shows and last several hours, the climax of each being some local celebrity pushing a big button or throwing an oversized switch that lights up the big Christmas tree (and other lights in the town, I would imagine). Each place has their own unique thing that they do for Christmas, and I'm pleased to share with you my husband's favourite bit from the town centre here in Keighley (shot yesterday afternoon on my way home from work):

7. Mince Pies (if you like sultanas, that is).

Personally, I don't care for them, but my husband (and other friends, I must admit) giggle with glee when these precious little pastries first appear on store shelves in late November. A mince pie, according to Wikipedia, is "A mince pie (sometimes also minced, minced meat, or mincemeat pie) is a British festive sweet pastry, traditionally consumed during the Christmas and New Year period. Mince pies are filled with mincemeat – a preserve typically containing apple, dried fruits such as raisins and sultanas, spices, and either suet or vegetable shortening."

These things are the stuff of legend, and I'd always compared them to the frightening and traditional fruit cake that is served, feared, and probably re-gifted throughout the US at Christmas. (I have a theory that there are only a few fruit cakes in the US, and those few have been circulated across the country for years.) But where the fruit cake is a joke, mince pies are beloved. I can say that I've tried them and sadly my distaste for raisins and anything similar keeps me from enjoying them, but they are a much anticipated treat here and I felt, as such, they deserved mention.

6. Christmas Specials on Television.

Now I'm not referring here to Andy Williams or The Osmonds. These have little to do with Bing Crosby, a contrived sitting room with Christmas decorations, or two hours of back to back Christmas carols. The Christmas Specials I'm talking about are the episodes of popular programs such as Doctor Who, Two Pints, and others that have specific Christmas themes and sometimes last longer than a normal episode. The Doctor Who specials, for example, are must-see-TV and often herald the new series that will start in the new year by dropping hints or introducing new recurring characters. Other programs use the Christmas special to bring back former characters or craft an entirely different story that has nothing to do with what's going on in the regular series. It's like a Christmas present from the show, and while some programs in the US have similar ideas I see this as unique to British television.

5. Nativity Plays in School.

Have you seen Love Actually? Do you remember the lobster and octopus that rode to the Nativity Play with Hugh Grant and Martine McCutcheon? While I understand that schools in the US also perform "Christmas Programs" just before the winter break (having been a participant in them myself many many years ago), I find it charming and just lovely that the schools put so much thought and time into their Christmas programming. I also find it, I will admit, a bit astonishing the amount of Christianity in the plays and pageants, but then I am reminded that I am living in a country now with a State religion, the Church of England.

4. It's Flippin' Cold!!

If you didn't grow up having Christmas in the southern part of the United States, then this item won't mean as much to you as it does to me. The temperature outside at Christmas when I was young could range from the 30sF to the 70sF, and I can't remember a single one where we've had snow. There was ice occasionally, and it's not nearly as beautiful and magical as one would think to have one's yard turn into a skating rink. Also, having grown up watching people on TV shiver and pull up their collars around their ears while out Christmas shopping or warm up with a mug of cider or eggnog around a roaring fire while singing Christmas carols, I felt a bit cheated every year when my Christmas included iced tea and shorts (indoors at least).

I'm paying for all that envy in spades now that I live in the UK. Man alive is it cold here! The wind is gusty (if only to remind you that this is, after all, an island) and the air is frosty. It FEELS like Christmas here and has since about October, off and on. We have our odd warm days where the mercury climbs to a scorching 60 degrees and I see people outdoors in shorts, but those are few and far between. In fact, I've found myself thinking that I don't need my hat if it's not going to be below about 2C outside (35F) because I'll be warm enough without it. When I lived in the states I didn't go outside unless I had to when it was that cold!

But oddly enough, the British tendency to "Keep Calm and Carry On" seems to be rubbing off on me and I truly am not minding the cold as much as I did just after I moved here or two years ago when I visited over Christmas/New Year. It's all about layers, public transport, and lots of cups of Yorkshire tea, friends.

3. German and Otherwise Christmas Markets

One of the best parts of living in the UK, in my opinion, is the abundance of markets. Keighley, for example, has a Farmer's Market on the third Sunday of every month that is set up on the Church Green and has some of the best of local produce, butchers, and crafts. These markets happen every day of the year somewhere in the country. However, as Christmas draws near the items on offer change as the markets themselves change. There are "German Christmas Markets" that set up in cities across the UK and this website, Christmas Markets.com, has a pretty comprehensive listing of "European Christmas Markets," including offers for coach trips and mini-breaks (flight and all) to some of the markets around Europe.

Keighley's Christmas Market is this weekend and I'm anxious to see how different it is from the regular Farmer's Market. Wakefield, where I work, has a German Christmas Market (complete with bratwurst!!) that sets up around the Wakefield Cathedral and has been running every day for about two weeks now. I see the stalls with their festive red and white roofs on my way into work in the morning, and can smell the brats cooking on my way home in the afternoon. Leeds has a well-known Christkindelmarkt as well that runs into the evening, so it's a must-see on the Thursday Late Night Shopping trips during the Christmas season.

2. Panto

For number two I had to think about something that my husband loves about Christmas in the UK that you don't find in the US. This entry, I must admit, puzzles me slightly and makes me feel like an outsider because I just don't get it. From our good friend, Wikipedia, we find this entry on Pantomime or "Panto" as it is called:

Traditionally performed at Christmas, with family audiences consisting mainly of children and parents, British pantomime is now a popular form of theatre, incorporating song, dance, buffoonery, slapstick, cross-dressing, in-jokes, audience participation, and mild sexual innuendo. There are a number of traditional story-lines, and there is also a fairly well-defined set of performance conventions. Lists of these items follow, along with a special discussion of the 'guest celebrity' tradition, which emerged in the late 19th century.

It is not uncommon during Christmas to see hordes of children being shepherded by tired and slightly frantic-looking teachers on public transport, headed for the local theatre to see the Christmas Panto. It is a huge deal every year to see which TV celebs are appearing in which Pantos. My husband has already been checking into tickets for us to see one in Leeds, I think, so I can report more if that happens. If I'm honest, though, it isn't a Christmas tradition that I'm looking to join anytime soon.

1. Christmas Crackers

Last year my husband and I celebrated Christmas at the home of my sister, Susan, and her husband Dave (also known as the other part of TOB) and he made sure we had some British traditions on hand to make my husband feel at home. One of those is one of my favourite things about Christmas in the UK: Christmas Crackers. Again I turn to Wikipedia for a bit of history of the Christmas Cracker:

"Crackers were invented by Thomas J. Smith of London in 1847. He created the crackers as a development of his bon-bon sweets, which he sold in a twist of paper (the origins of the traditional sweet-wrapper). As sales of bon-bons slumped, Smith began to come up with new promotional ideas. His first tactic was to insert mottos into the wrappers of the sweets (cf. fortune cookies), but this had only limited success.

He was inspired to add the "crackle" element when he heard the crackle of a log he had just put on the fire. The size of the paper wrapper had to be increased to incorporate the banger mechanism, and the sweet itself was eventually dropped, to be replaced by a small gift. The new product was initially marketed as the Cosaque (i.e., Cossack), but the onomatopoeic "cracker" soon became the commonly used name, as rival varieties were introduced to the market. The other elements of the modern cracker, the gifts, paper hats and varied designs, were all introduced by Tom Smith's son, Walter Smith, to differentiate his product from the many copycat cracker manufacturers which had suddenly sprung up."

Sadly we can't take them back and forth from the US to the UK because of the "banger" mechanism mentioned above - TSA tends to frown on exploding bits in luggage - so last year Dave bought them at a British shop stateside. I have to say I love this tradition and I don't even mind wearing the paper hats found inside the crackers.

Happy Christmas!!

As Seen on Touring Old Blighty...

Disclaimer: Unlike most "Top Ten" lists, this one is in no particular order and draws its results from nothing more than this ex-pat's experience of her first Christmas season in the UK. Do with as you will.

10. Christmas adverts on the television.

Starting in about late September, there were "holiday" adverts on the television. (Yes, those who think that all British TV is advert free, we DO have them on some channels...mostly the ones NOT controlled by the British Broadcasting Compay.) Those tended to be filled with reminders that "the holiday season is just around the corner" but were delightfully void of "make your layaway purchases now!" advice. However, following Halloween, Christmas adverts have been appearing all over the telly, and some of them are just spectacular. While it can be said that Christmas is even more commericalised here than it is in the US (if that's even possible) and that the "Reason for the Season" is left out, I don't completely agree. The adverts show warm, happy, scenes of home, with people gathering and celebrating together. Now, granted that leaves out the Christian reason for the season, but it promotes giving and what I think to be family values. One such example, included for your viewing pleasure, is the following lovely John Lewis advert.

9. Christmas Displays in Shop Windows

Of course, this is not limited to the UK, but I have seen some positively fantastic window displays in shops here since around the middle of November. Moving parts, music, lights - nothing seems to be too much when you're talking window displays. However, what has impressed me is the participation in what seems to be more commonplace here than the US. I'll give you two examples of what I mean: first, I work for a retail shop and the company policy is to make all the windows across the country look the same. The idea is that continuity brings with it a certain amount of familiarity and therefore brand-trust. Makes sense. However, some of the branches, mine included, have large, walk-in front windows (or fall-in, if you're me) and the staff were visibly disappointed at the notion that we will not be decorating the window beyond the bits sent to us (and all branches) by corporate. To my lazy American mind this was joyous news indeed...they tell us what to put in the window and we do it. But my colleagues were telling wonderful stories about Christmases past and staying at the store well past closing to work on window decorations - and I admit to feeling a bit cheated that I wasn't there "back when."

8. Christmas Light Displays and City-Wide Christmas Light Switch-Ons.

Perhaps I didn't live in an area in the US that felt as strongly about switching on their Christmas Lights. Greenville, SC, where I lived until immigrating back in April, had fantastic fairy lights in all the trees downtown - that are on year round. There were of course banners and extra lights added to the streetlights, etc. downtown, but I think the big "thing" in the US is the Christmas parade.

The big thing here is the celebration and official Switch On of the town/city/village's Christmas lights every year. It happens in late November/early December, and I'm ashamed to admit that I missed it for Keighley because I was just feeling a bit too homesick that day to go watch anything Christmas-related. The celebrations range from a local band playing to lavish stage shows and last several hours, the climax of each being some local celebrity pushing a big button or throwing an oversized switch that lights up the big Christmas tree (and other lights in the town, I would imagine). Each place has their own unique thing that they do for Christmas, and I'm pleased to share with you my husband's favourite bit from the town centre here in Keighley (shot yesterday afternoon on my way home from work):

7. Mince Pies (if you like sultanas, that is).

Personally, I don't care for them, but my husband (and other friends, I must admit) giggle with glee when these precious little pastries first appear on store shelves in late November. A mince pie, according to Wikipedia, is "A mince pie (sometimes also minced, minced meat, or mincemeat pie) is a British festive sweet pastry, traditionally consumed during the Christmas and New Year period. Mince pies are filled with mincemeat – a preserve typically containing apple, dried fruits such as raisins and sultanas, spices, and either suet or vegetable shortening."

These things are the stuff of legend, and I'd always compared them to the frightening and traditional fruit cake that is served, feared, and probably re-gifted throughout the US at Christmas. (I have a theory that there are only a few fruit cakes in the US, and those few have been circulated across the country for years.) But where the fruit cake is a joke, mince pies are beloved. I can say that I've tried them and sadly my distaste for raisins and anything similar keeps me from enjoying them, but they are a much anticipated treat here and I felt, as such, they deserved mention.

6. Christmas Specials on Television.

Now I'm not referring here to Andy Williams or The Osmonds. These have little to do with Bing Crosby, a contrived sitting room with Christmas decorations, or two hours of back to back Christmas carols. The Christmas Specials I'm talking about are the episodes of popular programs such as Doctor Who, Two Pints, and others that have specific Christmas themes and sometimes last longer than a normal episode. The Doctor Who specials, for example, are must-see-TV and often herald the new series that will start in the new year by dropping hints or introducing new recurring characters. Other programs use the Christmas special to bring back former characters or craft an entirely different story that has nothing to do with what's going on in the regular series. It's like a Christmas present from the show, and while some programs in the US have similar ideas I see this as unique to British television.

5. Nativity Plays in School.

Have you seen Love Actually? Do you remember the lobster and octopus that rode to the Nativity Play with Hugh Grant and Martine McCutcheon? While I understand that schools in the US also perform "Christmas Programs" just before the winter break (having been a participant in them myself many many years ago), I find it charming and just lovely that the schools put so much thought and time into their Christmas programming. I also find it, I will admit, a bit astonishing the amount of Christianity in the plays and pageants, but then I am reminded that I am living in a country now with a State religion, the Church of England.

4. It's Flippin' Cold!!

If you didn't grow up having Christmas in the southern part of the United States, then this item won't mean as much to you as it does to me. The temperature outside at Christmas when I was young could range from the 30sF to the 70sF, and I can't remember a single one where we've had snow. There was ice occasionally, and it's not nearly as beautiful and magical as one would think to have one's yard turn into a skating rink. Also, having grown up watching people on TV shiver and pull up their collars around their ears while out Christmas shopping or warm up with a mug of cider or eggnog around a roaring fire while singing Christmas carols, I felt a bit cheated every year when my Christmas included iced tea and shorts (indoors at least).

I'm paying for all that envy in spades now that I live in the UK. Man alive is it cold here! The wind is gusty (if only to remind you that this is, after all, an island) and the air is frosty. It FEELS like Christmas here and has since about October, off and on. We have our odd warm days where the mercury climbs to a scorching 60 degrees and I see people outdoors in shorts, but those are few and far between. In fact, I've found myself thinking that I don't need my hat if it's not going to be below about 2C outside (35F) because I'll be warm enough without it. When I lived in the states I didn't go outside unless I had to when it was that cold!

But oddly enough, the British tendency to "Keep Calm and Carry On" seems to be rubbing off on me and I truly am not minding the cold as much as I did just after I moved here or two years ago when I visited over Christmas/New Year. It's all about layers, public transport, and lots of cups of Yorkshire tea, friends.

3. German and Otherwise Christmas Markets

One of the best parts of living in the UK, in my opinion, is the abundance of markets. Keighley, for example, has a Farmer's Market on the third Sunday of every month that is set up on the Church Green and has some of the best of local produce, butchers, and crafts. These markets happen every day of the year somewhere in the country. However, as Christmas draws near the items on offer change as the markets themselves change. There are "German Christmas Markets" that set up in cities across the UK and this website, Christmas Markets.com, has a pretty comprehensive listing of "European Christmas Markets," including offers for coach trips and mini-breaks (flight and all) to some of the markets around Europe.

Keighley's Christmas Market is this weekend and I'm anxious to see how different it is from the regular Farmer's Market. Wakefield, where I work, has a German Christmas Market (complete with bratwurst!!) that sets up around the Wakefield Cathedral and has been running every day for about two weeks now. I see the stalls with their festive red and white roofs on my way into work in the morning, and can smell the brats cooking on my way home in the afternoon. Leeds has a well-known Christkindelmarkt as well that runs into the evening, so it's a must-see on the Thursday Late Night Shopping trips during the Christmas season.

2. Panto

For number two I had to think about something that my husband loves about Christmas in the UK that you don't find in the US. This entry, I must admit, puzzles me slightly and makes me feel like an outsider because I just don't get it. From our good friend, Wikipedia, we find this entry on Pantomime or "Panto" as it is called:

Traditionally performed at Christmas, with family audiences consisting mainly of children and parents, British pantomime is now a popular form of theatre, incorporating song, dance, buffoonery, slapstick, cross-dressing, in-jokes, audience participation, and mild sexual innuendo. There are a number of traditional story-lines, and there is also a fairly well-defined set of performance conventions. Lists of these items follow, along with a special discussion of the 'guest celebrity' tradition, which emerged in the late 19th century.

It is not uncommon during Christmas to see hordes of children being shepherded by tired and slightly frantic-looking teachers on public transport, headed for the local theatre to see the Christmas Panto. It is a huge deal every year to see which TV celebs are appearing in which Pantos. My husband has already been checking into tickets for us to see one in Leeds, I think, so I can report more if that happens. If I'm honest, though, it isn't a Christmas tradition that I'm looking to join anytime soon.

1. Christmas Crackers

Last year my husband and I celebrated Christmas at the home of my sister, Susan, and her husband Dave (also known as the other part of TOB) and he made sure we had some British traditions on hand to make my husband feel at home. One of those is one of my favourite things about Christmas in the UK: Christmas Crackers. Again I turn to Wikipedia for a bit of history of the Christmas Cracker:

"Crackers were invented by Thomas J. Smith of London in 1847. He created the crackers as a development of his bon-bon sweets, which he sold in a twist of paper (the origins of the traditional sweet-wrapper). As sales of bon-bons slumped, Smith began to come up with new promotional ideas. His first tactic was to insert mottos into the wrappers of the sweets (cf. fortune cookies), but this had only limited success.

He was inspired to add the "crackle" element when he heard the crackle of a log he had just put on the fire. The size of the paper wrapper had to be increased to incorporate the banger mechanism, and the sweet itself was eventually dropped, to be replaced by a small gift. The new product was initially marketed as the Cosaque (i.e., Cossack), but the onomatopoeic "cracker" soon became the commonly used name, as rival varieties were introduced to the market. The other elements of the modern cracker, the gifts, paper hats and varied designs, were all introduced by Tom Smith's son, Walter Smith, to differentiate his product from the many copycat cracker manufacturers which had suddenly sprung up."

Sadly we can't take them back and forth from the US to the UK because of the "banger" mechanism mentioned above - TSA tends to frown on exploding bits in luggage - so last year Dave bought them at a British shop stateside. I have to say I love this tradition and I don't even mind wearing the paper hats found inside the crackers.

Happy Christmas!!

In Which Nancy DOESN'T Watch Where She's Walking

Finally! A Sign that Gets Me.
Originally uploaded by Nancy Dunne

It was a Saturday morning just like any other in the UK...Cold, dreary, and potentially rainy. Simon and I bundled up Daisy in her coat (thank you, Rebecca and Dave!) and then bundled up ourselves and headed out to the post office to retrieve our Christmas cards that had arrived. We headed for Oakworth Road post office which requires a walk through the park, nothing really earthshaking.

Then I saw them...we were almost to the park and I saw a gorgeous Alsatian and another bull terrier type dog and somehow forgot my own clumsiness and lack of walking ability. I had just said to Simon that the Alsatian was lovely and "ooh look there's another one too!" when my toe struck the curb rather than cleared it. Next thing I remember is being on my hands and knees on the pavement, left palm stinging and both knees on fire. Bless him, Simon was very concerned and was trying to help me get up, and all I could do was hiss at him that I was fine and could we keep moving please?

Luckily, when I "went straight over like a stone," (Simon's account of my swan dive onto the pavement) I didn't let go of Daisy's leash nor did I fall on her. I should really not be allowed out of the house. We managed to pick up the Christmas cards and get back home, and all I have to show for my adventure is a scraped and bruised left hand, some bruises on my right knee, and a stiff-legged walk that could only be made more pitiful by a walker or a cane.

At least I wasn't having to figure out which way the traffic was coming at the same time or I might have a concussion as well.

Piano Lessons and Happy Birthdays

A year ago this past Tuesday I was working at the University of Georgia. I had a class in the Poultry Sciences building to interpret and was running up the hill between Clark Howell Hall and the Chemistry/Biology block of buildings because, per usual, I was late getting to campus. My phone went off in my pocket and I simultaneously pulled my iPod earpiece out and slammed the phone against my head. Breathing like something off a bad B movie, I answered the phone and heard the most wonderful news I'd heard to date: "Joy is here!"

A year ago this past Tuesday something incredible and remarkable happened. My sister and her husband had their daughter, my niece, Joy. Now, I've had nieces and nephews and god-daughters before, but this time it was different. Joy is my sister's child. She's my niece. And she's perfect.

I can't believe she's a year old now or that I wasn't there to celebrate with her on her special day...but I'll see her next month when her parents take her on her first trip to the UK. Until then, join me as I enjoy her piano "lesson" with me back in October of this year. Miss you, Joy, Auntsie loves you to absolute bits.

Thanksgiving, 2009

Ooh, this is good!
Originally uploaded by Nancy Dunne

My sister in law Liz and I threw our English inlaws a Thanksgiving meal yesterday to both celebrate American Thanksgiving but also to celebrate my and my niece (her daughter)'s birthday which was Friday. We had a plan, and then decided to throw caution to the wind and just go tot he store with a vague idea of what we wanted to cook instead of a grocery list.

Our menu consisted of roast turkey breasts, mashed potatoes with onions and sour cream, Caramel and Praline Sweet Potatoes (a brand new dish making its debut at this meal due to the lack of maple syrup or treacle in our sister in law Louise's cupboard), cranberry sauce, my mom's cornbread dressing, cornbread, a bad attempt at green bean casserole, peas and carrots for the kids, with pies and cakes for dessert. It was fantastic!!

I still don't completely feel like I didn't miss Thanksgiving. But I do feel like I know my inlaws a bit better and we had a fabulous time. The funniest part was how surprised they all seemed to be with how full they felt afterward. That's just part of Thanksgiving!!!

SARAH PALIN BOOK SIGNING - Interviews with Supporters

God Bless America. We're clearly gonna need it.

It's not time for Christmas yet!!

pilgrims
Originally uploaded by Nancy Dunne

Anyone who knows me well knows that We Do Not Decorate for Christmas Before Thanksgiving/Nancy's Birthday (whichever comes last on the calendar). As I child I remember clearly thinking that my birthday (27th November, in case you're keeping track) had been forgotten when people jumped on ahead to Christmas. Nothing red nor green was hung in my parents' house until at least November 28th.

Apparently the UK didn't get the memo. Now, to be fair, there is no Thanksgiving Holiday in the UK, but still...Christmas things were being hung here and there and surreptitiously mentioned on the television and internet back in October. October! That's the month for spooks and haunts, people, not Dasher and Dancer, for pete's sake!

I may not be at home for Thanksgiving this year (or Christmas, for that matter) but I'm still celebrating. Liz's daughter and I share the same birthday, so for our birthday dinner we're having American Thanksgiving! Turkey, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, the works...providing Liz and I can get everything done without burning Louise's kitchen to the ground, that is. I'm excited about sharing part of what makes me, me with my in-laws as well as just having a family get-together...to me that's more of what Thanksgiving is than a meal, and it's what I will miss this year about not being with my family.

After that, we can start celebrating Christmas...and shopping.

New Foray into Expat Nerdiness

patriotism
Originally uploaded by Nancy Dunne

Just wanted to let you guys know about an exciting new blog I'm working with called Touring Old Blighty. I'm one of the collaborating authors and focus on both the UK as seen by an American expat AND pet friendly travel in the UK. I'm very excited to have the opportunity, but promise not to forget you, my 5-10 Loyal Lettuce Readers.

You have a title now. Please feel free to use it in social situations and put it on business cards. Folks will be impressed, I'm sure of it.

My insomnia continues, and tonight I'm pondering something that we got at the grocery store today...squash. Not the veggie that is oh-so frequently present in "seasonal vegetables" served alongside a main entree at a chain restaurant, nor the strange game that looks like tennis gone mad. I'm talking about fruit juice that is so highly concentrated that you can add, according to my husband, a capful to water and PRESTO you've got orange juice (or whatever kind of squash you prefer, I chose the orange over Strawberry/Kiwi or Apple/ Blackcurrant).

Fellow expats, British readers, and basically anyone that's tried this super duper non-refrigerated alternative to good old orange juice...answer me this: is it going to taste like Tang? It smells a bit like Tang. Not that I have anything against Tang, it's served our astronauts and millions of kids in 1970's America well. But it's not orange juice, regardless of the pulp level or brand name.

I think it's time to try to sleep, don't you?

Travel and other Developments

Looking Awesomeville in Dawsonville
Originally uploaded by Nancy Dunne

Before you say that Simon and I have reached a new low in Strange Hat Photography, let me just say that I was overtaken by the Awesomeville that IS Dawsonville and Simon put the hat on me when I wasn't looking. I mean how could I be looking? I have those huge sunglasses on after all. In November. Indoors.

We are back from our two weeks away in America, and as always I am of several minds when looking back on the trip. There is, and will always be, a huge part of my heart and soul that wanted to stay there and just send Simon back to collect Daisy and Mills and bring them home to the US. This time back I also had a strange feeling that I was in a foreign country, not like last summer when I felt that I was finally back home. Strange that, because I still feel like I'm in a foreign country here in the UK.

I remember before we left thinking how nice it would be to grocery shop in the US again, and commented to Simon how it would be "easy" because I'd know where everything was. Amazing how I was looking for Flora, Tango, and other British brands at Ingles and getting frustrated when I couldn't find them.

Anyway, we had a marvelous time, including trips to the Carolina Renaissance Festival (my home away from home and huge part of my family of choice), the World of Coke (I tried the Beverly, y'all. It was WRONG.), the Georgia Aquarium, and my 20th high school reunion.

I know, the hat in the picture there makes me not look a day over 10 years out of high school, doesn't it?

Simon attended his first American football game, and we had a great time the next night catching up with my high school buddies over dinner. It was funny to me how we all came into the restaurant in a mass, then seemed to separate into the same groups we were in back at CHS when it came time to sit down to eat.

I had the predictable and never ever pretty meltdowns over, I think, being a stranger in my home country. One was at Target/Mecca, when I bought on a whim a new duffel bag to replace one of the ones we brought over that wasn't going to hold all my winter clothes we were planning to take back. I got out to the car with it, and promptly marched back in to return it...only to find that the cashier hadn't charged me for the carry on that I bought at the same time, so I went BACK in again to pay for that. I should have taken the bag and run, I know, but I love Target and didn't want to feel like Undesireable Number One (thanks, JKR) when I shopped there in future.

Meltdown two came as we were loading the car, and three happened as we took off from Atlanta in the rain. After a bumpy and cramped ride back to Manchester, we came home to Keighley and resumed life today...if I'm "fun" at work on normal then I must have been a riot today on jet lag.

Clicking on the picture above will take you to the photo album from our trip. Thanks unending to Susan and Dave and Joy and Mom and Dad and Katy and Kurt and Leah and Anne and the CRF Cast and the Hounds of East Fairhaven and the Commerce High School Class of 1989 for a fab time. See you all in March...well, some of you anyway.

I wonder if I can sleep now?

Of Store Windows and Bad Dog Owners

Daisy's Eyes
Originally uploaded by Nancy Dunne

Okay, here's what really happened. I was helping a colleague of mine to replace the posters in the anti-theft thingys at the front of our store yesterday. The back sides of two of them are slam up against the entrances to our store windows, both of which were open because another colleague was working on the window displays. I hopped up onto the opening created by the ajar door on the left hand window and the height helped me reach the top of the thing. Because the floor slopes downward, the right hand window's floor is much lower than the left...a tidy fact that I failed to take into account when I sat on the ledge of said lower window.

I leaned back to sit down on the floor of the window, only to find that instead of a few inches away it was about two feet away. BLAMMO. Landed on my back like some kind of crazed turtle, laughing my face off and leaving my poor colleague (who soon joined me laughing) to wonder if I'd hit my head on the way down, I'm sure. Today I'm a bit sore on my back and neck and feel like I've scraped the backs of my knees, but otherwise I'm none the worse for wear.

And Julian, it had nothing to do with the Benadryl. Okay, maybe a little. Teensy bit.

The Benadryl I'm taking to combat a particularly nasty allergic reaction to new washing powder has left me in a haze...an emotional, quick to react, haze. I managed to make it to the bus station early to catch the bus home last night (no small feat considering after 6:30pm they only run once an hour and I didn't even leave Wakefield till 6:40!) and plopped myself down in one of the seats to read while I waited. A man and woman that I see frequently around Keighley came into the bus station with their two dogs.

Now I'm going to pause here and say quickly that I know that not everyone feels that dogs are members of the family and that we have a duty to care for them when we take them into our homes...but I do, and under normal circumstances I am appalled at the treatment of dogs I see on a daily basis around my neighborhood. Just down from us I saw a woman beating the fool out of her dog one day for I don't know what...I made a comment about how dogs respond better to love than abuse and she took the poor thing inside her house. Most of the time I can hold my tongue and not let myself get too involved in the things I see...I have to, because if I don't it honestly hurts my soul.

The man and woman were waiting on the same bus as I was. Someone that I assume they know came over to talk to them and squatted down to pet the dogs. He had no issue petting the male, but when he paid attention to the female the male barked at him. Reasonable reaction, really...they are clearly using these two for breeding (from the state of the female's body every time I see her!) and the male thinks the female is his. The visitor backed up and headed on to his bus stand. The man hit the male dog with whatever was in his hand so hard that the dog yelped and immediately assumed a very submissive posture. The man then looked each of us at the stand in the eye in turn, making comments about how he can't have that dog barking like that and next time the dog will know better, etc. Later on, as we all still were waiting to leave on the bus, I saw the female dog sniffing at something and the woman literally kicked the poor thing off it's feet to stop.

But did I say anything? NO. I will admit here and freely to anyone that asks that I am a coward, and people who will do that to their animals scare me. But at the same time I, in the aforementioned Benadryl haze, was almost in tears thinking about those poor dogs. They look to their humans to take care of them and provide them with safety, and in return they are hit and kicked. I don't know how anyone can look into the eyes of an animal and do it any kind of harm...I know that I could not look at those eyes in the photo there and do anything but fall in love.

Next time I see them I hope that I will be brave...I hope that I will be un-Benadryled and close to an authority figure like a police person...and that I will have hit my head hard enough in the store window to report them and hopefully make life better for their dogs.

Lemons and Lemonade

Lou says "Surprise!"
Originally uploaded by Nancy Dunne

Last Thursday was a pretty normal day. We were getting ready to head up to the Northeast on Saturday to surprise Simon's mom for her birthday, and I'd gone for a much needed hair appointment. I sprinted from the salon to the bus station, made the bus, and got home...and decided that Friday evening and Saturday morning were PLENTY of time to finish laundry and packing and tidying the house for Simon's friend to spend the night and watch Daisy for us.

Lemon Number One: Friday morning before he left for work, Simon popped our duvet cover and spare sheets into the wash so that his friend would have a clean bed to share with Daisy. I went down around 8am to take that out and put some clothes in, and found that the washer was standing in water. Not good, and not the first time it's done that. Did I mention it is a front loader? Kitchen was nearly standing in water as well! I removed the duvet cover and started the thing again with just a sheet left inside in the hopes that it would drain. I checked on it as I was leaving for work and found it again standing in water but THIS time, as a special bonus, the water was foamy. At least I learned my lesson from the first waterfall and left the door shut.

Lemon Number Two: Friday night we had a mandatory training at work...after work...on Friday night. I got out of there at about quarter to eight, caught two well timed trains, and made it to Keighley in time to RUN to the bus station in the hopes of catching the 9pm bus to home (after 6:30 pm, really, the buses only run once every hour). Once again, however, I found myself at the bus station as the flipping bus was pulling out of the station...literally, I made EYE CONTACT with the driver as he left the stand. You can imagine my joy at the mile long walk home in the dark.

Lemon Number Three: To quote my husband, our washing machine is "completely buggered." Bless him, he went out Friday night in search of a laundrette so that we'd have bedding for Ste and underclothes for ourselves and all were closed, so he had to go back Saturday morning. We left for the Northeast about an hour later than we'd planned due to having to wait on the tumble dryers at the laundrette.

Lemonade: Look at the expression on my mother in law's face in that photo. She had no idea that all four of her children, two daughters in law, one son in law, and three granddaughters were coming to take her to dinner for her birthday, and we could hear her almost squealing when she opened the door and found the girls there, claiming to be lost. (The adults were all in various states of crouch behind the hedge.) She wore that grin for most of the night and into the next morning. Simon's entire family has been so kind to me since I got here in April, and his parents have welcomed me into their family like I've always been there. Good times and nothing but lemonade.

Brrrr!

cold post
Originally uploaded by Nancy Dunne

Okay, it's not quite as cold here as in the picture, but in the past week the temperature has dropped considerably. It's like the weather was trying to stretch out just a bit more summer, realised that it's just a few days from October, and BAM! Colder weather. The days are markedly shorter...it's now dark-ish at 5:30pm and YIKES DARK by 7pm. I know that we're WAY farther north than where I used to live in the states, but it's still a bit shocking how fast the change seems to come on. Last week I'd wear a scarf on the way in to work and be sweating on the way back with my jacket on but not buttoned. Just yesterday my nails were turning blue because I'd forgotten my gloves.

With the cold weather I'm starting to notice the difference between houses with double glazing and those, like mine, without it. Thankfully we have the fireplace in the sitting room or I'd be completely unable to watch television there without a wool jumper and possibly the duvet from the bed. Once the fireplace is turned off (it's gas), the heat is sucked out of the room and it goes back to it's recently constant state of "It's chilly in here." We don't turn the "central heating" on until October, it seems...though I'm not entirely sure that I would call radiators on the walls that don't have blowers the same thing that I'm used to calling "central heating." (I may have to take shorts and a swimsuit to the US next month to deal with the temperature of my parents' house after getting used to always being mildly cold here!!)

As far as daily life here goes, I continue to plod along through my new life. I'm getting used to the idea that the English Nancy is a totally different person than the American Nancy, but I'm still not sure I like the new me. The American Nancy had a career that she was passionate about, and that passion for language and ASL in particular made it possible to overlook difficult clients and disagreeable coworkers. The English Nancy has a part time job that brings in just enough extra money to the house to make it impossible for her to quit in the face of difficult customers and disagreeable coworkers. American Nancy had a house full of greyhounds and cats, and her non-signing life focused mostly on activities involving her hounds, about her hounds, and with other people who have hounds. English Nancy has one hound and one cat, and doesn't really have any activities outside of work and her BSL class (there just isn't time, when a four hour work day takes eight hours with the commute time added).

Homesickness has struck again, most likely because a lot of people I know in the States headed to Myrtle Beach this past weekend for Beach Bound Hounds. I've only just started going to BBH again, but the absence of that gathering of people who understand me hit me just as hard as the absence of the RID conference did in August, the absence of the Georgia Renaissance Festival did in April and May, and I'm sure the absence of the Carolina Renaissance Festival will in October and November.

If I've learned anything, it's that I had a very very full life in the United States that I did not come close to appreciating until I lost all of it to move to the UK. Chilling thought, that. I always thought of myself as unhappy there, but I wasn't, not as unhappy as I've been from time to time here, when I think of what I gave up. Now, what do I do with THAT information? For now, to quote an earlier post about compartmentalizing, I'll put on my Confessor's face and get on with it...fake it till you make it...or freeze to death, whichever comes first.

Outings in the Rain and other dislikes...

Nancy doesn't like outings in the rain.
Originally uploaded by Nancy Dunne

I like not having to drive when I go somewhere as far away from my house as Leeds. I like that all grocery stores will deliver my groceries to my door if my husband didn't just love grocery shopping too much to give it up. I like that people call me "luv" and tell me that my accent is Gorr-jus. I like that I can take Daisy on buses and trains and no one bats an eyelash. I like Carex hand soap, the blue kind, because the Aloe Vera green kind smells weird. I like that I can get the same kind of Dove soap I use in the US here in the UK. I like Red Leicester cheese and ASDA brand melba toast. I really like Marmite breadsticks and can't wait to try Twiglets.

I don't like going anywhere when it's raining. I don't like rainy days where the wind can't pick a direction and turns my umbrella back inside out faster than I can right it. I don't like cars that intentionally pull over toward the pavement I'm standing on to splash me while I'm waiting to cross the street. I don't like taxi drivers that refuse to take my dog in their taxis, even if it's to go to the vet. I don't like people who stand in bookstores and very loudly criticise America when I'm standing right nearby and have just asked if I can help. I don't like stairs. I've fallen down two flights of them in three weeks. I don't like having my only bathroom at home be on the top floor of my house. See above comment about stairs.

If you look at those two paragraphs and count the sentences I think you'll find that the first one is longer than the second one. That's huge progress for me. Finding my way to my job on my own for three weeks is huge progress for me, considering it involves two busses and four trains for the entire round trip. The fact that I'm working somewhere that requires me to talk to strangers every minute of every day that I'm there is huge beyond measure...I still make Simon call to order takeaway.

But the biggest huge is that while I'm looking forward to our trip to America at the end of October my entire life isn't hinging on it as it did on the one in June. Well, at least today it isn't...

Why I Desperately Miss My Dishwasher

splish, splash
Originally uploaded by Nancy Dunne

Yesterday's post was pretty upbeat, if I do say so myself. I was up on time, I was ready to go to work on time, all was well.

Had I a dishwasher, things would have gone exactly to plan and I would have made it in for another day of destickering fun. However, I don't, and something as simple as soaking a grill played havoc with my day and turned all my plans on their collective ear.

Okay, that's a little melodramatic. Here's the Reader's Digest version of what happened (for those that are not as ancient as I am or not from the US, Reader's Digest is a fantastic periodical that contains articles and stories, and was my favorite read when I was in elementary school).

Simon had filled the sink with hot water and soap in an effort to soak the grill and remove the remnants of our last foray into quarter pound burgers for dinner. After I ate my brunch (Frosties or Frosted Flakes in the US, and yes, they are GREAT!) I drained the sink to rinse out the bowl so that the grill didn't soak in soapy milk. That done, I replaced the plug, poured in some dish soap and started the hot tap.

We have a divided tap, and the water that comes out of the hot one is akin to what comes out of our BADLY IN NEED OF DESCALING kettle. As in don't try to wash your hands under it unless you don't mind losing a layer of skin.

The sink was taking forever to fill so I dried my hair and came back. Mostly full. I turned off the tap and went back to finish my hair. In the five minutes that took, the sink drained because I didn't get the plug in all the way the first time. Literally, rinse, repeat. Plug back in and tap on, I ran upstairs to grab my bag, iPod, and other travel essentials. Back downstairs, thankfully without the iPod turned on, and I hear water hitting something that does NOT sound like the grill or the sink.

There was an inch of water on the floor and more spilling out over the lip of the sink. Seems that when one gets the plug in the hole properly the sink, which isn't huge, fills up PDQ and runs over onto the floor. It was 11:58 and I had 9 minutes to catch the bus that would get me to the train station to catch the train that would get me to the second train station in time to catch the train that would get me to Wakefield with enough time to walk to the shopping centre and be at work on time at 2pm. You can imagine my panic.

Rang up Simon at work who said he would come home and take care of it so I could go on to work. But then he said something that made me stay home...I heard him tell his co-workers that I'd flooded the kitchen...and they laughed. I rang up my work and told them what was going on, they of course said I could make up the hours later, and that was that. Much toweling and mopping followed, and after I placed the big fan in the kitchen doorway I had a chance to sit down.

None of that would have happened if we had a dishwasher...or if I knew how to plug a sink.

Coming out of the tunnel

On the shores of...dimly seen...
Originally uploaded by Nancy Dunne

This past week has felt like I've been in a long tunnel, like the one between Shipley and Leeds on the Leeds/Skipton train, except without the ears popping. I started my new job a week ago Sunday, and in those nine days have learned to navigate the railway system, use a till correctly, order books in the system, and find the strength to keep moving for four hours without a break. I've also learned that the conductor for the London KX train in Leeds will not wait for love nor money if I'm there one minute before departure...but that's more a lesson in patience for me, isn't it?

I'm liking my job, if not the commute. To get there I take a bus to the train station, a train to Leeds and then another train to Wakefield, then walk about half a mile to the shopping centre where the bookstore is. On the way home, rinse and repeat. It isn't so bad when my iPod is cranking and I've got a book to read, but I do hate having to stand on the train on the way home because everyone and their brother's dogs are traveling at the same time I am. Who knew Keighley was that popular?

Yesterday was another small victory...Simon and I went to Costco to renew our memberships (which, by the way, Costco cancelled and I'm SURE it had to do with that American Express Card) and we were able to get a Yorkshire Family Day Rover ticket to go. That covered our bus and train travel anywhere in Yorkshire, and for two people the £8 fee is very very reasonable. We got to Leeds, walked to the bus station (though we could have gotten a bus there), then caught a bus that took us almost to Costco's car park. We could have made purchases and lugged them back on the bus, it was that close, but instead we went to Nando's for dinner before heading back to Keighley.

Mmmmm Nando's. That is going to be one of the drawbacks to moving back to the States...no Nando's.

So now bank holiday is over and I'm back to work today...and tomorrow...and then not again till the following Wednesday. Can't complain there. I feel like I'm coming out of the tunnel of my first week at a retail job and into the sunlight of knowing where I'm going, what train to get, etc etc.

Only we don't have sunshine here, really...I'd better check those timetables again.