1 project complete

Thanks to a helping hand from Sergey, I now have a nice shelf under our basement steps and rolling carts for storage. The reason behind it is we hope to create a little play area for X in the basement so that Amanda can play in her sewing area or workout and X can play and be semi-attended. In order to do that we had to make room for X's play area by getting rid of what we had stored there. So now our camping gear is stored under the stairs.

Here are 2 before pictures:

Here are the after pictures:

My next work in progress is our garden. I made a wall to go around the garden (16X5) to keep the rabbits out. I'm told that I have tomato plants arriving for my birthday....and I think we'll put in some sweet corn, zucchinni, onion and peppers. I brought some used coffee grounds home from work and put them in there today. I heard that coffee grounds are good nitrogen boost so I spread them over entire bed.

dr visit and other news

I'm starting to grow up. There have been 2 new developments around here that tell me that. The first is there is a new radio station in town that plays 90's music (93 up to some new stuff...skipping some garbage from 00-04) that is fricking awesome. That's got to be a sign that I'm ...oooh, ...I hate to say it, aging. However the radio station is awesome! It takes me way, way back to 95 and 96.

Second is the fact that we have a family doctor and I went on a visit voluntarily (with minor *harrrumph* motivation from Hugs). He told me to get some blood work done, all routine, so I did that this morning.

Have you ever had blood drawn from you and had it make a noise as if it was coming out of a high pressure hose? You know the sound when you take your garden hose and go to fill up a bucket when you wash the car and the sound it makes when the water squirts into the bucket? Well, my blood did that into the test tube this morning. Of course you couldn't hear it in the next room, but I didn't imagine it.

There was something else I was going to yap about but I can't remember....must be aging to fast to remember.

redneck weekend

I spent my first weekend home from 2 weeks out of the country outside in the beautiful Ohio weather. We replanted some daffodils and some other plants to make room for our garden. Hopefully next weekend I can put that in. Oh, but I need to remember to put up a fence to keep the rabbits out. And I sharpened my reel lawnmower so he should be ready to roll very soon.

And now that I've given myself the inaugural farmers tan for the season I'm ready for summer. My neck and forearms are killing me!

It was great leaving work today and 1) not being the last one out and 2) it still was daylight.

Here's a picture of Amanda in her "Football kit" (soccer jersey) and X in his new coat. When we first put the jacket on him and pulled the hood up we though he looked and sounded like Kenny from South Park.

Day Seven through Twelve

On Sunday we were invited to a guys house to have a traditional English breakfast. It was great! Carrot and curryander (sp?) soup, roast, veggies, worchester pudding (not really pudding) and for dessert spotted dick. I'll just come right out and say it...

I ate the spotted dick. The spotted dick was good. I had seconds on the spotted dick.

Spotted dick is a sweet bread with custard and currants.

The rest of the days are a bit of a blur. We worked late every night and seeking a new pub to eat at wasn't as high of a priority as getting back to the hotel to go to bed was.

Driving back to Heathrow at 4am the GPS was a godsend again because I had to take a detour and when I went off course the GPS automatically recalculated the roads to take.

Overall it was a great time.

Some other thoughts I had while I was there...
The forearm tattoo is big over in England.

So is smoking! Thank heavens that the smoking bans in the UK are strict like they are over here in the US.

Alright, the jet lag is starting to catch up to me a little bit...need to get to bed.

Day Six

I think the jet lag is catching up to me. I feel like crap. I’m very tired and have zero motivation.

For lunch I had a bacon and brie baguette with some onion soup. The baguette was awesome. I ignored my chips. I’m sick of their chips. Everywhere they are the same. There must be only one chip vendor for this town.

I’m getting used to round-a-bouts. However, I’ve been driving on streets that aren’t too busy, so there isn’t too much traffic to content with as I count the exits on my way around-the-bout.

We had some fancy Indian food for diner. The Brits here tell me that curry has replaced fish and chips as the national meal. The dinner was okay, not as good as the Indian restaurants in Cincinnati.

Day Five

We finally left work at a decent hour and went to a pub. It was a nice place, but the employee that brought out our food gave me the creeps because I couldn’t figure out if it was a man or a woman. I had the lamb (fatty) with a potato in a jacket served with a side of, wait for it, wait for it…peas!

Back at the hotel I had a great hot chocolate and fell asleep watching the original Transformers cartoon. That was awesome!

Day Four

Busy day at work. Ended up trying to eat at a carvery, but it was after 9pm and the dinner choices were very very slim. That's one weird thing about England, all the kitchens close at 8:30 or 9pm and stop serving food. Of course they keep serving beer. I ended up back at the hotel restaurant eating a sausage and onion sandwich and some nachos. The sausages were puny, but the bread was very good. Over here, when you order a sandwich they ask you if you want white or brown bread. I’ve only had the brown and it is good.

Day Three

Another busy day. I was supposed to go out with a few of my new ‘mates’ and watch the England vs France Football match, but I wanted to get back to the hotel at a decent hour. Kickoff wasn't until 7:30pm and I had to send some emails. I ended up at a nice, clean little pub. I had the largest hamburger I’ve ever eaten, with chips of course and a Strongbow. The Strongbow tasted like apple cider. It was so sweet and didn’t taste like beer at all. I bet I could get Amanda to drink it.

The bartender was Scottish and actually chatted with em for a minute. Everyone else so far just seems to tolerate me.

Day Two

I had a busy day at work so I just had time for dinner and no sightseeing. I ended up at a dive because all pubs look like dives from the outside. When I went in and ordered the locals at the bar stopped all conversation and looked at one another with expressions that said “WTF?” and “a damn bloody Yankee is in here!” Those wankers were smirking to themselves and it was quite funny.

I ordered bangers and mash and a Carling. The Carling was a good tasting beer. And of course the bangers and mash came with peas. Everything here comes with peas or chips (fries).

Day One

Day 1…
the flight over was good. Not much to talk about if you’ve flown on a plane before. Although it was my first time on a 777. I had a night flight so I landed at Heathrow at 11am and caught about 3 – 4 hours of sleep on the plane, after a full day of Easter Sunday activities. Surprisingly, I wasn't too tired. My mind must be running off of excitement of being overseas for the first time and reading the Harlan Coben book, “The Innocent” (very good book, almost done!).

I get my passport stamped and grab my bag off of the carousel. Which, by incredible luck, was there on the carousel after waiting there for 10 seconds; that’s never happened before.

I ended up getting a new wallet for this trip, one that is slimmer, holds less and goes in my front pocket (to avoid being pick-pocketed). The width of the billfold works just barely for dollars, but of course, was not designed for the pound which is a full half inch taller than a dollar. The lady at the exchange counter suggested I get a new wallet, thanks but…

Aaaah, now onto the rental car. I get on the shuttle bus to go to the rental agency and try to enter the bus on the wrong side. See, if you didn’t realize, in England everybody drives on the other side of the road, so that means everything is on the other side.

I finish up at the rental agency and get situated in my Vauxhall Vectra with a 6 speed manual transmission and GPS. I take extra care in ensuring that the mirrors are adjusted correctly, I know where the turn signals are located, the wipers, my maps; all this extra effort to ensure that my brain is able to focus more attention on driving on the left hand side of the road.

I pull out with the rental car and end up stalling it three times before realizing that I’m trying to take off in 3^rd gear. Blast! The gear shift locations are in the same locations on vehicles on either side of the pond; my only problem was my left hand's inability to know how to put it into 1^st gear. I was afraid I would end up putting it into reverse, but finding reverse will be another adventure to tell you about later.

The GPS was a godsend. I would have gone crazy trying to get out of Heathrow with out it.

So once I was trundling merrily along headed to my hotel, this is what my vantage point was driving:
The devil is in the details when it comes to driving on the left. This means that nearly everything is opposite, stuff you wouldn’t even think about (at least I didn’t):

1. The exits are primarily on the left
2. Faster traffic travels on the right
3. Your blindspot is now on the right
4. Looking in your rearview mirror requires you to look to the left (that’s a tricky one!)
5. The wipers go from left to right, not right to left
6. When I drive, I have a tendency to slouch to the right…I can’t do that now. Well, I have to slouch to the left instead.
7. The guy inside the round-a-bout has the right of way
8. Parking the car is difficult
9. The seatbelt is on the left

Once I was settled in my room I took a walk and here are some pictures.

Danger! Speed cameras!

This is a 50 mph speed limit sign. I’m surprised everything isn’t in km’s, but maybe I’m missing something here.

A road like this, is called a dual carriageway. Look out for buggys!

There were a couple of other buggary things that happened…when I arrived to check in my reservation wasn’t reserved and the clerk said “blimey”. I could not stifle my laughter.

This whole left hand side driving hoses me up in another category: crossing the road. I don’t know if you are like me, but when I’m in America and I cross the street I have a tendency to first look left as I proceed across the road, then when I reach the median I look to the right to ensure I’m not going to be Froggered. This is a problem in the UK. I crossed half of a road while I was on my walk, made it to the median and looked to the right, saw no one coming and proceeded to cross. Then there was that unmistakably new sound approach me, the whir of a 4 cylinder diesel bearing down on me traveling at 40+ mph. Zoinks! Time to run you stupid tourist! Of course if I looked both left and right before I crossed I wouldn't have that problem.

Once I got across it took a few minutes before I stopped laughing at myself.

For dinner I walked to a restaurant across from the hotel. When I ordered the 7oz fillet, the waitress confirmed my order by saying ‘the phil-ett’? Yes, the phil-ett, with a Stella Artois to wash it down.

Baked potatoes are referred to as jacket potatoes.

There and back again

I had a little work trip to England. It went okay. Fortunately we finished most of what we were to do there, but unfortunately I'll have to go back over there in a month or so to wrap up the program.

There are so many things to tell you about this trip. I knew I'd have so much to blog about when I returned that I'd have trouble remembering so I kept a little journal to update this blog when I returned. But in the meantime, here are some highlights in no specific order....

Driving on the other side of the road is something else. I am sooo happy that I ordered the GPS with the car, otherwise I don't think I would've been able to leave Heathrow without going insane. Needless to say I was only honked at once as I was leaving Heathrow.

They don't have light beer over there. Here, if you sit down in any bar there are so many light beers to choose from. Over there, just real beer. It's good beer too. I had ale for the first time as well. I'm not a big ale fan. It tastes like stale flat beer. It must be an acquired taste. And everywhere I went it was ordered by the pint (or half pint). There was none of the 12, 16 or 20 ounce choice. Here's 2 pence, gimme a pint. It's straightforward. That's how ordering and drinking beer should be.

I tried to survey the people of England and see if they were fat like Americans. You know what? They are fat like us. I didn't see anyone that needed to use a wheelchair to get around, but there were obese folks there. The locals that I was working with said that England is more like the US when it comes to obesity, but the rest of Europe is not. So, we are infecting Europe 1 country at a time.

In the city I was in, I liked the fact that I didn't see restaurant chains. Oh, I saw the McDonald's, and Domino's and Burger King's, but for local food, everything was different. Every pub was different. They all had Fosters and Carling on tap and either a football (soccer) game was on or BBC was broadcasting. I liked the uniqueness of the pubs.

So I'll post on here the events of the days that I recorded.

Cheers mate!