Snowed In!

Well no, not really snowed in. Hardly. Really? You call that a snowstorm? (At least they're not silly enough to name every single snowstorm...). Ever since I'd moved here I had been warned that even the slightest bit of snow shut down the country and people would just hide and not even know what to do with themselves. Well it snowed (what I would consider to be) a little bit on Friday, all throughout the day. I'd offered to bring my other American work-buddy cohort back to my area with me, as she is looking for a flat in a more city-city, but for the time being had been set up through work with a flat "near" work. (Though it still takes her 1-2 hours to get in via public transport). But wouldn't you know, shortly after we left work, her landlord-to-be cancelled the flat viewing on account of the snow. (It does seem like a good excuse for stuff here). So I offered her a ride back to her place. Which unlike my commute of primarily motorways, involves typical residential cul-de-sac side street areas. So I skittered and slid us in my Kittymobile through the barely treated streets, got her home safely, and then had to scramble to get back to my home in time to grab my bag and catch the train to London. Well, Google Maps had already told me that my normal 40 minute commute would be over an hour to get back, as the traffic view on Google Maps shows the motorway home bleeding red almost all the way. So I guess having to take the sidestreets home wasn't too much worse. But I must say, taking frenzied and frantic confusing roundabouts, and adding slippery snow? Character building, to say the least... but fortunately there wasn't terrible traffic, and fortunately my route involved going *down* a hill that I saw many cars spinning their wheels and struggling to get up. So I made it back home with just barely enough time to spare to throw a few more items into my rolling weekend suitcase and dash down the street to the train station. Or rather skitter and scuffle and drag my suitcase which doesn't really "roll" very well when the sidewalk is covered in snow. I go to the machine in the station, insert the credit card used to buy the tickets I booked, print them out, just as I hear an announcement over the loudspeaker that my train is cancelled. And of course, the overused national tagline, "We apologise for any inconvenience caused.". (It's either that, or "We're going to be dysfunctional and useless. So it's up to you to plan accordingly for it." plus, of course, more apologies.). Yeah. Uh-huh. Ok, so I go deeper into the station, look around for someone who looks useful, go to the actual ticket agent, and ask "So now what? How do I get to London?" He tells me since my train was cancelled, I can just use my ticket for whatever next train, which I figured would be the case. He tells me there's one coming in a little while, but not to this station, at a nearby station, so I'd have to catch it from there. Ready to face the annoyance of walking through the snow to the other station, I ask the man "How do I get to that station?". To which he replies, "Take the next train there, it'll be arriving on Platform 3". Oh, right, whew, that's easy enough. I don't have to walk the extra mile or so to the next station. Silly me. So I catch said train, take it one station down, check the schedule board there and yes, train to London, 4:53pm. I still had a bit of time. So I wait. And wait and wait. And then the display says the train will come at 5:07. And then the display just says vaguely "Delayed", as an announcement comes on over the loudspeaker that the train is delayed because it is stuck at the station I'd just come from. What? I thought the train wasn't even traveling from there! I had no idea what was going on, and quickly realized nobody else did either. So finally the train arrives, not as crowded as I'd feared, since it seemed all these people waiting to go to London had to be rescheduled to this train. So I get on the train, text Hubby to let him know what's going on and when I should be arriving, listen to my tunes, and get ready for the usual nearly 2 hour train ride. Next thing I know, after not even through a whole CD's worth of music, the train is stopping and we're all told we need to get out at this station and wait for the next train that's coming along because something, blah blah snow, blah blah excuses. At this point I'm starting to wonder "Why can some of the trains apparently make it through the snow ok and others can't?" I don't know. And furthermore, for how many years has this country been getting snow? It's not like it's a surprise. It IS wintertime. Other countries that have proper more consistent snow have seemingly perfectly functioning railway systems. So after waiting out in the cold at some station, not knowing where exactly I was, in anticipation of the train, it finally shows up, and thankfully brings me, with no further interruptions, into good old Marylebone station ("Home Base" station from when I stayed in London for my project in college, if I haven't already mentioned that) as planned. Well a few hours later than planned, but I've learned to not expect much. On the plus side, I had some time to kill while waiting for Hubby at the station, and I found that there is a branch of Paul there, this yummy French Patisserie style bakery chain that sells French macarons. 
It snowed for a good part of the weekend, but even still it amounted to maybe a whopping less-than-half-a-foot. But still, as people in this part of the world promised me, it was enough to cause major disruptions to society.

300+ Flights from Heathrow Airport Cancelled Due to Snow

Really?...

A coworker of mine told me about the time he was visiting the states, driving on the Mass Pike in the snow, he and his fellow Brits pretty timid with the snow, creeping along at maybe 20 mph down the highway, everyone else, of course, zooming by them. Yes, New Englanders seem a bit more... "robust" in some ways than "Old Englanders".

It was still snowy enough this morning on my way into work. Roads were clear, but there was still plenty of pretty snow around elsewhere. While I normally park in the farther away makeshift parking lot on the grass (to save myself the hassle of trying to find a space in the closer formal paved lot), I decided to park in the paved lot thinking at least it'll have to be plowed and not as much of a hassle to park in as the snowy grassy plot of land. Ha. Silly me, what was I thinking? Plow is not even in their vocabulary. (Literally. I was typing an email about it, and spellcheck objected to "plow", insisting it is not a word or is a misspelling). I lurched onto the snow-covered paved lot and after nearly taking out the car next to mine's side mirror, I scooted into a snow-covered space. Fortunately my car didn't get stuck in the snow upon leaving, as I'd feared it might. The drive home was actually surprisingly pleasant and free and clear, probably because people were still hiding from the snow. It was one of the few commutes home where for a good stretch of the motorway, the variable speed limit displays weren't showing anything (implying the default 70 mph speed limit. Or so I think. Who knows, I haven't really been formally trained in driving here!)

First Visitor!

Ok, go for two posts, why not? I just wanted to share news of my first visitor to my flat! Hubby and I had been sitting on the couch this weekend, when we spotted this little critter scampering under it and across the room and into the corner. We finally managed to coax it out, and after failing to chase it into a box, I plunked this little pink bin I had on top of it. Crazily enough, hubby and I are both so cute-little-household-creature deprived (and reinforced by staying in a house with 5 cats, 2 dogs, and a rat for Christmas week), our first thought was "Awww! Can we keep it, now!?" But we decided it wouldn't be right, so we did the classic "slide a cardboard under it" and brought it outside. Setting a pile of cheese beside it on the cardboard for it to partake in when we lifted the pink cover. So cute. So round. Our little truffle mouse, we fondly called it. I'm not sure if it snuck in somewhere around here, or if it somehow got transported in my Big Box that had just been delivered.

Well, ok, technically I did have another visitor, prior to this one - a nasty, decent sized spider that just appeared in my sink one day. But I don't take as kindly to spiders. Let's just say the spider didn't get the same dignified treatment!

I found my soup! and other everyday food adventures

Food! Very, very important, as I'm sure you all know. And of course England has kind of a bad reputation for food. When people would comment "Oh, I hope you're not going for the food, heh heh...", I would just kind of brush it off and say that it's no big deal, I've found plenty of stuff there that I actually enjoy eating. Much like when people would say "Oh, I hope you're not going for the weather, heh heh...", I would also respond with some comment that it wasn't *that* bad, and for all the times I'd visited London, I actually found it to be rainier in other parts of Europe, when I would visit them (France, Germany, Poland...). But no. The stereotypes are true. And now that I've had to live here on a regular basis, I see yes, the weather is that bad. (I guess it doesn't help that there was unusually high rainfall shortly after I got here. Maybe it was my hazing. UK asking me "Are you sure about this? Can you handle it?"). And the food is that bad. Now that I'm no longer on "holiday mode" food-wise, I'm getting to see what all the fuss (or should I say despair) is all about.

I've already complained about the fruits, so I won't revisit that. But I will also say that I'm used to hearty American preservatives and genetic modifications and whatever other freakish stuff they do to our foods so that it lasts exceptionally long without going bad. But here, fruits and cheese and yogurt and things are going bad a lot faster than I'm used to. My friend who responded to my fruit post was right, fruits can go from unripe to rotting/bad/moldy, with little to no "good" eating time in between. But enough of the complaints. One plus to produce here is that I do get more of a variety of things that I'd find (or find for cheap) in the states. Bagged salads (with which I have a love/hate relationship) here most often have much more than just lettuce and few bits of other veggies. Here they're made more often with the fun and different leafy green stuff - rocket, endive, novel bunny food type greens. I've actually seen lychees in the grocery store here. Also, many a leek to be found - I bought my first leek ever weeks ago to make soup.

And yes, the soup. Soup is one of my default easy, healthy, go-to pseudo meals. I would eat canned soup all the time for lunch at work. Having no Progresso here or Target's Market Pantry foods, I had to explore the realm of soup over here. Starting basic I tried canned chicken soup, thinking how could they possibly mess up chicken soup, it's so simple! Though it took some effort to find soups that weren't creamy. They sure seem to like their mushy creamy stuff here. Heinz brand chicken soup. Ok, a known brand, there are many Heinz products here that we don't really get regularly in the states. I simmer it up as directed, simple, noodles, broth, some carrots, maybe celery, some chicken bits. But when it was time to sit down in front of it to eat it, I start to notice - it's thick and slimy! Hesitantly, I try a spoonful. Yup, just as it looks, it tastes like mucus! Thick and glossy and viscous and a bit starchy (corn starch should not be in chicken soup! What's wrong with them?). Feeling bad for it, I managed to choke it down. It was still ok, in theory. But I would certainly never buy it again. Next adventure was with Morrison's (a local supermarket) canned pumpkin coriander soup. Ok, I like pumpkin. I like veggie-based pseudo meals. It could be good and healthy! Double double toil and trouble, I boil up this soup. And this one is even worse! It looked and tasted like a cross between mucus and baby poo. Seriously. I couldn't even have my usual food empathy towards this one, and had to just "bin it" as they say after a number of spoonfuls of wanting to try to like it, but failing miserably. Determined to have some good recognizable soup, next time around I settled for good old chicken flavoUred instant ramen. Chicken ramen is one of my guilty, junk food pleasures. I grew up on the stuff as a kid - cold winter weekend days playing in the snow, and coming in for a nice bowl of chicken ramen. So the ramen made me feel better and back to normal, but I really don't like eating 400 cheap calories of nutritional void on a regular basis. Next attempt was Morrison's healthy "NuMe" line of "cup soup". Pour soup packet in a mug, add boiling water, let it sit and constitute into "food", and eat. Sounded kind of like ramen, only with fewer calories. Well I prepared it, and no kidding there's fewer calories, the amount of "noodle" in there was pretty much the equivalent of the end little noodle bits in the ramen package, after you add the brick of noodle to the boiling water. I seriously had to boil up some spare pasta myself just to make a real meal out of it. But then, my latest attempt was the soup I'd been looking for. Knorr "super noodle" chicken soup. A packet of short noodle bits with seasonings and chicken powder that you add to boiling water. Double double toil and trouble, and yes! Yes! It's looking right! All of the wonderful almost fluorescent greenish yellow glow and excessive delicious sodium content of ramen, but for less than half the calories. Win! The package does claim "Meets FSA 2012 salt targets" (?..?..), but then again, a "serving size" is a quarter of the packet. I make a meal out of the whole thing!

Speaking of nutrition facts, that is one thing slowing me down in the grocery stores here, these days. Nutrition labels aren't as nicely graphically laid out for you as they are in the states. They typically just throw all the facts into one messy paragraph, somewhere on the package near the ingredients. And also they often have calories per 100g, and calories per serving. But not always. It's certainly not regulated like it is in the US, and even feature different and fewer vitamin and mineral bits of info (no iron listing, no calcium...). And I am a label reader. Especially when I'm getting accustomed to a whole new realm of food here. I'm also slowed down by the awe and exploration of looking deep at what's actually in the food aisles here. And also, I'm still learning what's where in my neighborhood supermarkets. It took me all too long to find plain ol' black olives. Canned vegetables? No. (Though they did have a whole section for beans and peas. Ew.) International foods? Like maybe near the artichokes and other jarred veggies in different ethnic sections? No. After aimlessly wandering, I passed by the "pickle" section, and lo and behold, there they were. I guess many things are considered to exist in the "pickle" genre, such as these olives, vast arrays of chutneys, and also, yes, pickles.  

Another thing that was a letdown are some of there Christmastime goodies. Hubby and I were feeling seasonally festive and decided to try this so-called "Christmas pudding". ("pudding" here means pretty much any dessert in general). It was in the desert section of menus and available in supermarkets, so we tried a couple, and were less than impressed. My take on it is that "Christmas pudding" is the chance for bakeries to save up their miscellaneous pan scrapings all year, maybe mix in some orange peels (sure, dip into their compost collection, why not), nuts, maybe raisins, mash it all into this dome shaped moUld, pour some booze all over it, and try to pass it off as a dessert. Bleh. We just couldn't take it. Then there were all these mince pies (fruity dessert ones, not actual meat) around, people would bring them into work to share, they got recognition as their own course at the company Christmas party dinner. Ok, they are quite cute. Let's see what the fuss is all about... (though deep down inside I really knew, convinced that I'd tried them before, and never craved them again while in the UK for a reason). Yeah... no. Slightly more palatable than this "Christmas pudding", but still, just too many heavy and savory-spicy flavoUrs hitting you all at once. Maybe if I was desperate and it was the only dessert around when I was craving some, I could do it once in a while. But I had zero interest in nabbing any more off the desks of folks at work who would set them out to share.

On the plus side, I am exploring more interesting snack foods. Such as "bacon rashers". Think some Cheetos-like extruded corn/wheat/puffed substance, only shaped and flavoUred like bacon. Yeah, I kind of went to town on a bag of those for a few days... So bad, but so clever and tasty! Another "brilliant" find are salt and vinegar flavoUred peanuts. So flavoUrful! So yummy! It kind of reminds me of Pad Thai (at least how Pad Thai *should* be made), only without the noodles... or chicken... or veggies. 

And lastly, I will just say that I deeply miss the wonderful variety of nutritional/breakfast bars that were in the States. Luna bars, Zone bars, Target brand knock-off Zone bars... a staple for me and my daily breakfasts! A healthy and yummy and happy way to start the day! But sadly, such things don't seem to exist in many forms here. Maybe just some Slim Fast bars. But that's not quite the same.

Oh well. Still super happy here, all in all! And my Big Box O Stuff that I'd shipped off from the states the day after the hurricane  (30th October) *finally* arrived here to my flat. And I am happy to say that it looks like my kitchen will have enough room for all of cookware and bakeware. Excellent.

Childhood across the pond

Well, I'm back "home"! As in what I call "home" these days, at least. Fortunately after a week of driving in the States over Christmas holiday, I still reverted to driving on the right "wrong" side of the road when I returned to the UK. Though I still fear I'll get tired or stressed or something at some random time and find myself veering into the righthand side of the street...

So yes, I should make a better habit of updating this since apparently people DO read it! :)

Well here, a quick and easy amusement for now. I'd been meaning to share my visit to the Museum of Childhood. Particularly, as promised, the dark side of the Teletubbies.(And yes, back in the day the Teletubbies, much like other celebrities, had their own controversy surrounding them. A brief walk down memory lane of scandal with Tinky Winky and Po)

 Life-sized Teletubbies display at the V&A Museum of Childhood!
Kind of cute! Kind of creepy... but mostly cute!

Did you know they had actual formal names? I sure didn't! Here are the little descriptions of each of them, straight from the museum display. I swear, I'm not making this up...

Addiction to custard and sausages... um...?....okay...

Oh, believe me, they get weirder... Tinky Winky's got nothing on the next two.

I... yeah... um... I just don't even know what to say to that.

Oi! They're vengeful?! These cute, plush, child-like creatures are vengeful! And it's the littlest, sweetest Po, the red one, saying that, too!

Well, now! Surely there's got to be some other happier, lighter childhood memories and examples to be found here in this museum...

Nifty displays, toys exhibited...

Gift shop, books games...

 Aww, that's cute!...

 TEEN KNIFE CRIME! That's cheerful! Nothing encompasses British childhood memories like teen knife crime...?...!... eh?....

An odd bunch, over here... that they are...