good bye and thank you!

Okay, when is it appropriate to say, "cheers!"? and how long before I feel as though I have earned the right to use it (and not sound like a silly poser)?

organic

Our organic fruit and veg came today along with a litre of milk, some garlic, organic soy milk (for me) and some porrige oats. I got the small mixed box that had four veg and three fruit. This was our choice this week:

The brown bag has "conversion apples" in it. Those are apples from a farm that is in the process of becoming organic. Sadly, I made apple sauce yesterday (and it turned out deliciously, thank you). But many of the recipes for parsnips seem to have apples in them as well. We'll have to hone our choices on the web and see what comes in the next box.

Put down that spoon!

As I lay on the couch yesterday listening to This American Life podcast and eating Nutella with a spoon I thought, thank goodness I'm not still in my pjs at 2.47 pm or this could really be pathetic.

I also was wondering if my little study break treat and those tasty little digestives were filling my body with transfats. So, as always, I turned to Google. It turns out that McVities, the makers of digestives, in a response to public outcry has removed transfats from their biscuit dough. Less than a week after the release of a study confirming the evils of trans fats in August of last year Sainsbury's, maker of tasty aforementioned Indian dinner for two, as well as Tesco, another major supermarket chain, pledged to remove all trans fats from all of their products by the beginning of this month.

Why haven't our markets jumped on this bandwagon? More importantly, why haven't our citizens taken up this battle cry? Trans fats have been proven to be evil and yet most processed products, which means most products in the US, contain them. Good for you, Michael Bloomberg, for stepping up.

The internet is not so consistent about Nutella. Some sites say that it is amazingly trans fat full. One page cites a study of 50 processed foods whose authors listed Nutella as in the top ten. But seek and ye shall find...A story published just a few weeks ago in the the Columbia Spectator indicates that Nutella passes the NY ban on trans fats. Is Mr. Bloomberg's ban incredibly weak? Either way I should probably put down my spoon.

shopping on the left side of the aisle

I am a nuisance at the market. I realize that they drive on the left side of the road, and ergo, I suppose, they must conduct all locomotion in the same fashion. I still find myself in head on collisions with grocery trolleys in the 'teatime' section of the supermarket.

Yesterday, we did a little shopping and discovered, among other things a full indian meal for two in a box. See below:

It is the supermarket generic brand, our supermarket of the weekend having been Sainsbury's, and it was amazingly good. Not only was it tasty and a little bit spicy (of course not nose-runningly spicy preferred by Jason) but it was also less than $20. And there is more than enough for dinner tonight.

As we put our dinner in a box on the conveyor belt Jason dryly said, "happy anniversary." We've been married for 8 months. And just in time to celebrate, we should be receiving Jason's replacement wedding band that he misplaced on the plane on our transatlantic flight.

our "new" car

Our "new" 1995 Golf GTI resplendent in the mottled sunshine of Saturday morning.

We bought this lovely car for about $3000. It runs better than the old one and it isn't crashed, which is a huge plus. Strangely, the insurance company won't insure it unless it has an alarm and an immobiliser. In addition, its a "more powerful" car (thanks GTI) so the insurance has increased.

curses to you Alexander Grant!

I will weigh 400 lbs when I return to America. The chocolate digestive biscuit will be the death of me.

form doesn't always follow function

recon

I took a walk into town on this cold but beautifully clear day.


This is a big park between our flat and the city center. I'm sure it has a name, but I don't know it yet.

I was actually looking for an organic deli I found on one of the websites we discovered in a chinese take-away place. Its low-tech, but extremely informative. It has list of places to shop for food and the locations of lcoal farmers' markets. On Tuesday of next week we are going to try organic veg delivery. It isn't more expensive than the supermarket and it requires neither the gas nor Jason's consternation with driving (at which he is excellent). I will let you know how it goes.

I am struck daily by the growing insistence on sustainability. (I learned about the Eden Project , built by Grimshaw, at a sustainability conference back in May...I'd like to visit) Interspersed in the media among all the stories about "Celebrity Big Brother" are stories about the harm Britain's dependence on air travel is doing to the environment or the number of large corporations that have pledged carbon neutrality in the coming years. Every morning show has a guest speaking on the benefits of locally grown produce. Even in the big supermarkets there are Union Jacks on UK products. It is clearly typed on the package that these mushrooms were grown in Somerset.


Incidentally, see then little green '5' in the corner? That is a label indicating the one serving of mushrooms fulfills one serving of the "five a day": servings of fruits and vegetabls one should get every day. The lentils I bought last week had a logo telling me they were good for the lower GI.

If we had slept at all last night I would have some lucid observation to make about this. When the constant Stomp-like banging of the pipes stops and the building next to us decides to open the windows when they cook instead of setting off the fire alarm from 7-9.30 pm I might have something to say that is pithier than- I think we are way behind.

first snow

we woke up to snow this morning.

Paris whirlwind

First class all the way..

our first course

We have to leave the country so that Jason can come back into the country with his new visa. France is easiest and Jason has never been to the top of the Eiffel Tower so we boarded a train in Oxford to London and took the tube to Waterloo to try and buy tickets on the Eurostar to Paris. Not having reserved in advance we were holding our collective breath. Turns out the only tickets left were in first class, go figure. They were half the price of the 2nd class tickets and thank goodness because it was one of the most relaxing and enjoyable train rides we’ve ever had. Facing eachother with a little table between we shared an amazing four-course meal with wine and chocolate.

Funny thing happened on the way to Sheffield

Jason’s visa finally came through! Thursday morning a woman called for Jason regarding the visa. I spent a frantic 20 minutes figuring out how to bleep him thinking that something else had gone wrong. It turned out that the paperwork was done and we could pick it up- in Sheffield

The DfES, Department for Education and Skills, closed at 5.00 and the train got us there at 4.38. Thinking it would be a long but potentially pretty drive we decided to drive. Turns out, either way we were screwed.

Storm Kryill lifted roofs off of homes, turned lorries on their sides, and blew down brick walls. There was footage of Dutch people being blown off their bicycles and stranded boats being blown out to sea. It was the worst windstorm to hit Britain in a decade with winds up to 100mph. It was on this day that it took us 7 hours- 7 HOURS – to drive 147 miles to Sheffield. We didn’t make it by 5.00.

The traffic was unfathomable. At one point the entire highway was shut down in both directions. No idea why. It just was. At another point we were stop-and-go for 2.5 hours for no reason that we could discern. It was pouring in Sheffield and, as luck would have it, there were conferences. Three hotels later, drenched and without toothbrushes, we got a hotel room at the swankiest hotel in town.

By 8ish we had borrowed toothbrushes from the front desk and gone in search of dinner. On a seemingly deserted street we found an Ethio-Cuban restaurant.



Did you know there was such a thing? It was surprisingly good. BUT the BEST part of the day. I found my new favorite tv show. Its “Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me” meets “Who’s Line” meets “Daily Show.” Mock the Week- the best show on BBC 2. Ever wonder where John Oliver came from????

In the morning we walked to the DfES and pretended not to know eachother because it is illegal for Jason to have any dependents. At 9.05 they came downstairs to have him sign his shiny new visa and, wait a second, wouldn’t you know it..the passport number was incorrect. At 9.45 Jason finallysigned off and we were able to go home.

The drive home took 2.5 hours. That’s it. No traffic. No closures. Nothing.

blustery day

(this was written before we got he phone call from the woman in Sheffield)

From: Winnie The Pooh and the Blustery Day
Written by: Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman
Performed by: Sterling Holloway [Pooh]


Hum dum dum ditty dum
Hum dum dum

Oh the wind is lashing lustily
And the trees are thrashing thrustily
And the leaves are rustling gustily
So it's rather safe to say
That it seems that it may turn out to be
It feels that it will undoubtedly
It looks like a rather blustery day, today
It sounds that it may turn out to be
Feels that it will undoubtedly
Looks like a rather blustery day today

Boxes!

Our boxes finally arrived today. 11 boxes full of clothes and things from Cosco. and peanut butter.

TEN pots of peanut butter.

Jason's paperwork has been delayed again because of incorrect signatures.

a warm shower

We got hot water today.

the first day of work

Jason was supposed to start working today, but just before we got here the HR dept. at the hospital was informed that he needed a visa. The paperwork has been started and signatures are being gathered, but until such time as he gets a visa, Jason is a "Nonclinical Observer" and can only shadow people and figure out where in the hospital has the best tea.

On another immigration note. If you ever come to live in England for 6 months don't bring your new bike. It cost me nearly $300 to import my bike because I hadn't owned it for more than 6 months. Strange rule that I don't understand. I think I could have bought a used one here for less. Live and learn.

the Zurich Flughafen

So, we are sitting in a dark terminal waiting for our gate to open and watching the tourism tv over and over again. I suppose we should have read the guidebooks maybe, but it seems that we were supposed to wait out in the mall until an hour before our flight and, only then, venture to our gate. The lights are off and the only people around are two cleaning women and some little girls who are playing in the playground at this gate.

Did you know that Switzerland has four official languages? I had never even heard of Romantsche. Romanish?