Today I went to the Catholic Gift Store near to my place of employment. I am not Catholic but I was/am in dire need of a Joseph to plant in the back yard of my beautiful country house so that it sells soon. This was not something I had heard of while living in England but I am told by a number of different people that it works. We shall definitely see. To be honest, we did try it once already but now I am wondering whether the chipped nose Joseph ended up with as a result of the children burying him for me has meant the house hasn't already sold. I am willing to try again for the price of $12.
So, unashamedly, here is a plug for my house,
for whatever it is worth and just in case anybody chances upon my house this way. After all, if I can bury a Joseph made in China in my back yard, surely I can write about my house sale on my blog?
Here's a picture of my house. It is lovely. It sits on 52 acres of land and you can buy all of it, or you can buy it in two parcels of 25 or 27 acres. We have a big barn and room for horses and cows.
There is absolutely no noise and you can sit on the deck and just hear, well, nothing. Maybe the cows lowing or the birds calling. It's so nice not to hear car traffic of any sort. Our garden is lovely in the spring and summer and over it all our windmill soars, its blades creaking.
We loved living in this house, in this neighborhood. We just don't need to live there any more due to work commitments. It is a happy house, filled with memories of children's laughter and happy gatherings with friends and families. We want it to go to another happy family of one sort or another.
It is priced at $480K
If you like it, please call our lovely realtor Katy Duke at 512-252-8900 or email her at Katy@katyduke.com
Today in England (and a little part of the Texas Hill Country!) the feast day of Saint George is being variously celebrated. Our national saint, George, was first mentioned in British sources by the Venerable Bede in the seventh century A.D. as a warrior saint who frequently came to the aid of troubled Brits in military distress.
Another national hero of ours (not quite a saint), Will Shakespeare invokes George before the battle of Agincourt, "Follow your spirit, cry "God for Harry, England and St. George". Rousing stuff, enough to make you want to belt out a few verses of "Jerusalem" - which in actual fact IS another St. George's day activity the likes of which is enough to reduce ex-pats like me to tears!
St. George eventually made his way to the New World also as his
flag
was flown above/on the Mayflower as it arrived in Plymouth, Massachusetts. I think (unless someone corrects me) that it stopped there though and none of the more 'modern' St. George's day celebrations have crossed my radar while living here. I haven't, for example, seen any St. George's day
Morris dancing or Punch and Judy shows.
Ah well, I will celebrate the best way I can by wearing my red rose in my lapel and of course by drinking tea. Mind you, a 21st century addition to tradition might be in order by visiting the Cath Kidston page where red items of the day are prominently showcased in George's honor!http://www.cathkidston.co.uk
Good Morning from rainy Texas! I don't get to write that very often! As I type, the rain is actually pouring down onto my tin roof. It sounds great. The kids are all at home today for various reasons and it's lovely to be able to sit and enjoy it all rather than haring off in to the rain to drive 70 miles in the darkness to get to work :)
As a means of whetting your appetite as to all the gorgeous things that Union Jackie's is going to be able to source for you, I am starting a blog series of gorgeous English items being handcrafted in the UK at the moment.
I'm going to start with Poppy Treffry, a business established in picturesque St. Ives in the west of England. If you watch Doc Martin on PBS then you will know exactly the kind of fishing village that I am referring to. Poppy and her team of sewing ladies make whimsical homegoods such as tea cosies, tea towels, pictures, bags etc. As an avid tea drinker I particularly like her tea cosies and mugs
Having said that, I am in love generally with the slightly retro and gentle English way of life suggested by her products. You have to love this photo below right......
that was recently submitted to a Poppy photo contest where the competitors were asked to show how they were using their Poppy Treffry goddies that they had purchased. That outside picnic table laden with delightful tea time items and the snazzy VW van is about as eccentrically English as I can imagine.
So, check out Poppy's online store at poppytreffry.co.uk and let me know which items you like the most. Come August it is my fervent prayer that the Union Jackie's market stall near you will be stocking them :)
Okay - so I am a little late with the annual felicitations but, hey, it has been terribly busy these last few months in my little part of Texas!
Living 70 miles away from where you work three days a week, but where your kids go to school 5 days a week is not for the faint of heart and my heart must be fainting because I have decided, for the sanity of our family, not to return to my place of employment next year. I have very mixed feelings on this as I truly rnjoy my job, but sanity is important too, as well as physical health so needs must!
So. What next? Great question. Money must continue to pour (dribble?) into the family coffers so I must do something. I'd prefer to keep office hours with the kids and that means school but school non-teaching would be my preference, para professional with a short drive even better. I'm kind of thinking it would also be neat to start a small business. I have a name for it and everything. "Union Jackie's": Sourcing English Nostalgia, Deep in the Heart of Texas. Catchy huh? I have so many ideas to bring a little bit of England to the Hill Country and to enjoy it too. As soon as school is out and I have some TIME!!!
So that catches me up a bit.
Other things, am enjoying reading Philippa Gregory books. I avoided this series for a while because they looked a bit boddice ripping for my taste but they aren't that way at all. I have learned so much more about the Tudors and the Elizabethan period from reading them than Mrs. Hancock every taught me in 7th grade back in the day! I think I was the last person on the planet to read The Other Boleyn Girl, followed by The Constant Princess and now the rather salaciously titled The Virgin's lover. I highly recommend.
More to come....and I pledge to write more often than once every 7 months!
Thursday, September 27, 2012
It's entirely possible that the roads here in central Texas were not as safe as they could have been last Saturday. Running around with the kiddoes on my usual Saturday morning errands, I decided to block out the mellifluous tones of my darling offspring talking peacably and equably amongst themselves in the back seat (not) and treat myself to a podcast from my favorite Aunty Beeb. Saturday's choice was The Food Program, about, well, food, you guessed right! To be more precise, the topic of conversation was breakfast, a meal I had skipped that day, being too overwhelmed by the plethora of chores presenting themselves, in favor a of strong and sweet cup of coffee.
Now, as someone who tries to present a balanced life to kiddoes 1, 2 and 3 and by balanced I mean half English and half American, I about drove off the road when I realized that I had never, ever, ever considered offering them the full British breakfast experience. Now, I'm not talking about lightly toasted bread with Cooper's shredded marmalade with a cup of milky tea, or even toast and Marmite, I'm talking the bacon buttie or the fried eggs,fried sausages, fried bacon, fried black pudding,fried kidneys, fried bread, fried tomatoes and possibly baked beans. I was mortified. Poor kiddoes! What kind of a derelict mother have I been? To rectify matters I am going to attack this problem head on this weekend during the birthday celebrations for kiddo #3 whose 5th birthday passed just yesterday in a blur of Star Wars Lego building. I will blog the results of this coronary on a plate on Monday :)
On a side note, thought I would be heading to England this summer. Am sad to say it will not now happen in 2013. Bummer.
If you want to know the relevance of this picture, check out Captain Ahab!!!
On a side, side note, hear that J.K. Rowling has been at it again and that her new best seller is hitting the shelves today with nairy a wizard or patronus in sight. If you are missing that whimsical and magical world of Harry and his chums, please do check out my debut children's book for 5 through 8 year olds, Captain Ahab. See the top right hand tab on my blog? Click on it and read it! Just to prove you have done so, shoot me an email with your (acclamatory) remarks and the phone number of a children's publisher who you just know will be interested! Go on - I dare you - prove to me you really read my blog!!
Have a great day - back to cleaning the house for this weekend's Star Wars invasion party!! As Yoda might say "cleaning I hate!"
My supervisor from Cambridge, Mary Beard, has just finished a series for BBC2 called, Meet the Romans. Seeing as all I ever watch is episodes of Disney TV shows or Star Wars, all blurred as I race by with armfuls of laundry or toting piles of grading, I would never have known about this pheonomenon unless my mum, watching the TV series in Australia had alerted me to it. She said that several of her colleagues had been addicted to this documentary and discussing it was the first and most animated conversation held in her office every Monday after the show aired the night before. One colleague even went as far as to opine that a week spent in Rome with Mary would be his idea of heaven.....which just goes to show what an esoteric brain box he is. Personally I imagine a week in Rome with Mary might be a bit intellectually exhausting. A once a week supervision with her used to leave me feeling wrung out and inadequate. A week might kick me off this planet much as I admire her.
Mary Beard on subject of Roman tombs. If you find her as compulsive viewing as my family and friends she is to be found in great abundance on YouTube!
So, other than that, what's new? Nothing teribly exciting. We came back from summer (actually coldest winter in twenty Queenslander years) in Australia and came straight back to a new house at the camp where beloved works. Old house still hasn't sold and new house bears striking resemblance to Little House in the Big Woods a la Laura Ingells Wilder. Laura I-W didn't have to drive 70 miles to work one way though. She had more common sense :)
Kiddoes 1, 2 and 3 doing great. Kiddo #1 is playing volleyball this year and is studying Latin. Hear she has a fab Latin teacher :) Kiddo #2 sharper than several tacks and kiddo #3 going to be a theologian. Today's conversation. "Mum, why is it raining today". Mum, driving the car and feeling rather jaded thanks to self same son's inconsiderately timed 2:30 a.m. asthma attack says weakly, "because God wants it to rain today." To which angelic son says "then if God knows I get asthma when it rains, why does he want me to have asthma?" ermmmmmmmmmm............
When I was a newby ex-pat, I used to speak with affected scorn about our royal family. I would say that they are little more than a useful marketing tool for the English Tourist Board, an anachronism and a drain on the resources of decent tax payers. Truly, I now cringe that I ever spouted such ignorant claptrap. I've had this in the back of my mind for a while, but first there was that outrageous attack on the (fine British) institution of the boat race and then I started listening to an fascinating, erudite, intelligent podcast from BBC Radio 4 called The Art of Monarchy and I realized it was time to think again publically.
The commentator of the Art of Monarchy follows the British tradition of monarchy from 1066 (and all that!) and William the Conquereor up unto the present day. That's 1000 years of the same family (more or less) ruling the country, plus at times a commonwealth and/or an empire. That alone seems pretty incredible. This program was about the art purchased by, at times made by and at all times used for, their own agenda by the king or queen of that time. I learned SO much that I didn't know about my own heritage plus the music was fabulous.
I don't claim to know all there is about the rights and wrongs of our system of constitutional monarchy but I do understand now that there is so much more to monarchy than I had ever imagined and that right or wrong, the institutions that support and guide our queen and her (however many) predecessors are worthy of respect, if for no other reason than they have survived in a dog-eat-dog kind of world for a bloody long time!
I highly recommend this podcast which you can access by clicking on this link The Art of Monarchy
I completely forgot to watch the boat race at the weekend, despite my good intentions....something to do with an unwarranted belief that my house was going to view that day and urges to do a complete Spring Cleaning.
I was gobsmacked when my English Mum, living in Australia gave me a blow by blow account of the drama that unfolded as she listened to the race on the radio!
If you don't know about the boat race, it comprises two boats of 8 men and one cox, one for Oxford, one for Cambridge. The course covers 4 miles of the River Thames. The crews have trained for years for this prestigious and traditional event and it IS an event that is watched, nay enjoyed, by thousands world over, whether or not they attended an Oxbridge college.
Two miles in to the course, the Oxford cox alerted the crews to the fact that a man was swimming in the water, about to have his head sliced off by the flashing blades. The race was halted while police arrested the man, a protestor against elitism. PURLEEAASE............
The man, an Australian, as it turned out was angry. No kidding...really? As someone who was cox of the 3rd boat at her Cambridge college (I was pretty bad at it but it was still a lot of fun) I can attest to the amount of training that goes into an event like this and as an ex-pat who finds such events even more important now that I am not surrounded by them, I mourn the disruption of a pageant which is usually fun and part of my cultural heritage, especially by someone who isn't even part of that heritage!
Union Jackie's first product! For Dawn, my dear friend and Girl Friday at TSJCL!
I Know that pride is not a pretty virtue and generally as a rule I'm a pretty humble gal, but I do have to say that I am SO proud of this attempt at applique!
In my desire to have a business one day which sells artisan made English crafts here in Texas, I thought I might try my hand at some new skills, applique being one of them.
Photographic artist: Lindsey Porter
I think it has turned out pretty well, although I can already see a coupla things I would change to make it even more gorgeous :)
I love the colors and the cheerfulness of the flag. The hearts make it country and the gingham and the spots make it English.
Just wait until you see the English Country Garden wall hanging I am working on! Liberty of London fabric(esque?), quintessentially British in its quirkiness.
Not only are the daffodils and the bluebells springing to life on the backs of the Cambridge Colleges as I daydream, and Robert Browning's lines,"oh to be in England, now that April's there", are going through my head, but now also an email from my alma mater plopped into my inbox this morning to alert me to the fact that
The 158th Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race will take place on Saturday 7th April at 9:15 A.M.
(obviously it will be about 2:15 in England!)
and the beauty of it is that it will be broadcast live on BBC America! Terrific!
Just wanted to alert you to this tidbit of Britannica (akin to Americana) that is taking place this weekend.
Obviously anyone with real taste and breeding will be rooting for the pale blues - Cambridge that is :)
On Saturday I will be watching the telly while wearing my Newnham scarf and rooting for my lads to cruise to victory under the Putney Bridge. Can't wait!
It's a funny thing but apparently if one is frantic busy and never has time to watch the world news, let alone the BBC world news, you miss what's going on in the world. When my brilliant friend sent me a copy of the Daily Telegraph for February 18th, I realized that one's monarch had recently (February 6th) celebrated the date when 60 years ago she took the reigns of our kingdom upon the death of her father, Colin Firth (not really).
I believe that the hoopla that celebrates this epoch making event will take place on June 5-8 but it seemed a shame to me not to recognize the real date right here, even post de facto!
It was a really strange feeling to read an English newspaper though. I can't say that I have read an English newspaper in 13 years, or since I arrived here. I was blown away by how intelligently it was written (apologies for implied criticism of Austin American Statesman) and how much of a cultural nature I am missing out on by my mourned lack of proximity to London. Theater, galleries, museum collections, public lectures. Wow. I am impoverished by my inability to see any of them. But...who am I kidding? I work full time, drive 3 hours every day and have 3 children...AND as I have already told you, I don't have time to watch any news so it's highly unlikely that I would have time to do any of the cultural things I miss even if I was living in Bloomsbury with all of it on my doorstep!
So...I will continue to be virtually cultured and live it vicariously through the Internet and other publications. It's all good!
Off to a State Latin convention in San Antonio today after practicing for it for 3 months. Can't wait (for it to be over.)
next blog, I think we'll go royal! I've a renewed interest in the monarchy!
Saturday, March 17, 2012
Not quite Jan Constantine!
The Countdown has begun!
Spring is here. In fact, Spring Break has been and gone, but the light of the summer is on the horizon and with that comes for me a new venture, one that gives me a sense of relief and hope and endless possibility - but one that I am oh so annoyingly not permitted to blog about just yet. I will reveal this great mystery just as soon as I can! You will hear it here first and just be assured that at last it will allow me more time to write.
Traditionally Spring Break seems to make me feel more English. Perhaps this is because the weather seems so much gentler and more akin to what we experience in the U.K. or maybe it is simply that I have more time to do things that interest me and they are often to do with my heritage country.
So, in terms of baking it was a luscious golden fruit cake that filled the house with a rich fruity aroma that had the kids all running to the kitchen to see what they could scrounge. Then there was a very tasty leek and potato soup and a shepherd's pie. I don't really like making shepherd's pie because it never takes me less than an hour to go through all that peeling and chopping, but my middle offspring loves it and I'm too frazzled to make it during the school year.
In terms of reading I was captivated by C.J. Sansom's 'Sovereign', a murder mystery set in Tudor England. I've never really been a big fan of the Tudor period. It's so harsh and dark and I grew up a stone's throw from the Ann of Cleve's House in East Sussex which had a horrible spooky atmosphere that just compounded everything I sensed or knew about that time of history, but Sansom's hero, an unlikely, hunchbacked lawyer was plausible and compelling and I found myself sucked in to the plot. In fact I will go on Amazon after this blog post and try to get a used one cent copy of another of his books!
Another book I picked up at Hobby Lobby was Jan Constantine's 'For the Love of Hand Stitching', a beautiful, slightly (who am I kidding, completely) above my level of ability embroidery and applique book. It has been a lot of fun to resurrect sewing skills learned at my rarified private girls school! My first two offspring were gung-ho about learning this art and creating some of the gorgeous projects in this book. Sadly their enthusiasm lasted as long as it took to make their first mistake and now they are back to their previous passtimes which is how I have the time to blog this post :)
I'm looking forward to more adventures as the spring blossoms into a highly anticiipated summer....
Well hey there! It has been a while I know! Since I last blogged it has been a bit of a whirlwind. Dad had a heart attack on May 8th and instead of the parental much anticipated visit to Texas, Texas went to visit them with offspring 1, 2 and 3. Yes! We flew all the way to Brisbane for 7 weeks to reassure ourselves that Dad was fine - and Thank God he is - and we had the best time visiting with the fam! Have already booked our flights to do the same thing again next summer - although Dad, I sure would appreciate it (as they/we say around here) if you would omit the heart attack step :)
So - September is here and even though it's 100 degrees still, the part of me that is still English feels that it should perhaps be Autumn and the pull of the misty mornings and mellow English fruitfulness is calling loud and clear. Stupidly I swung by Barnes and Noble to pick up a Country Living UK Edition. Stupid! Stupid! When will I learn that it makes me feel worse rather than better??
So, on the eve of my last step in the Naturalization process here I am wondering whether I will have to change the blog's title if I am soon to be a real, honest-to-goodness American? I've paid the huge amount of money to the US government, and the Immigration attorney, I've had my fingerprints taken and filled out a ton of paperwork. I have learned the 100 questions for the civics test and am now just waiting to have my interview and oral examination.
Exciting, strange, weird, a whole range of emotions and a gamut of new opportunities. Maybe now I will get involved in politics as I will at last be able to vote in a Federal election??? I'll let you know. In England we say that "God is an Englishman." In America we say 'God Bless America". Please God, bless an English-American too!
It may not have escaped your attention that sometimes I get a bit homesick! Saturdays are notoriously bad for homesickness because even though you are still busy, the usual frenetic crazy routine of the week is gone and there is a bit of room to remember that your nearest and dearest are a long way away and that you are not in your home town doing home town things.
I think today I had a bit of a break through in this regard!!
For anybody who doesn't know, Bertram is a very small rural Texas town. We proudly boast 1122 people on the city limits sign and I'm not altogether sure that I have yet found the one horse...
However, a family trip to Bertram today gave me the warm fuzzy feeling that I might be beginning to belong here! We managed to occupy a whole morning in this town and spend only the princely sum of $11 - not including our delicious breakfast at El Rancho :)
Children 1, 2 and 3 expressed the desire to walk along Main Street and go into the Feed Store to pet the chicks that were advertised as being for sale in there. We'd never been to the Feed Store before and I can tell you that it was our loss. A lovely lady called Joanna made us very welcome and Mr. Henry showed us his luxuriant tomato and dill plants which made me very happy as I love discussing gardens even though I have no green thumb at all. It reminds me of Great Grandad and his perfectly manicured pocket handkerchief garden!
We ambled along next to the Balcones Rock and Gem Shop also on Main Street, which is Daughter #2's favorite place in the world (this from a child who has been to England, Australia and Italy!). This girl could spend hours in that shop if I let her and I think that the terribly kind and patient proprietors, Becky and Jerry would be quite okay with hosting this junior geologist for as long as it took her to agonizingly pick out the gems and rocks it takes to spend her allowance.
This shop is truly one of a kind, an experience not to be missed. It's a geologist's and jewelry lover's Aladdin's Cave and even though what sparkles may be fool's gold rather than the real thing, it is simply stunning!Take your kids! Take your Grandkids! They'll come away with treasure and a lovely poster explaining all the rocks found here in Texas!
We were feeling pretty good by now so we returned to the car to drive home for a lunch break. We parked outside the yet-to-be-revealed "Globe" theater. I hear it's going to show classic movies, perhaps serviced by a tea room in the somewhat restored cottage opposite it. I can only hope!
After lunch we bit the bullet and got children 1, 2 and 3 a haircut in Poofy Doo's. How could you resist a place with a name like that? The ladies in there showed patience beyond what was believable especially seeing as they had been fixing prom hair all day for tonight's festivities! Shout out to them!
The day came to a close with a giant ice cream cone in The Moose, where I am proud and astonished to say, works Bertram's other English daughter . The first time I heard her switch out her Texas drawl for a Scouser (Liverpudlian - think Beatles) accent, I'm sure my jaw bit the ground in a most unbecoming way!
Bertram, Oh Bertram! Famous for your Oatmeal Festival on Labor Day weekend. Thank you for your hospitality. You did much to make this gal smile today!
Wow! I sure do feel that I may have missed the chance to blog about a couple of very cool English occasions in the last week!
Of course, on Friday last the whole world watched Kate Middleton say "I do" in an outrageously classy and elegant wedding service in Westminster Abbey in London. I basked in the reflected glory of all things English on that day. My Texan friends and colleagues were so gracious in their felicitations and interest in that event that I too began to feel a tad princess-ish (or at least Duchess of Cambridge-ish!) on that day! I may have missed the boat and not married a prince of the realm (sorry husband - you're pretty good too!) but I am magnanimous enough to still have enjoyed the lucky girl's big day!
Sigh! I was a bit homesick for the next 24 hours and ended up going on line to my new favorite purveyor of fine British goods here in Texas. This wonderful emporium is called British Isles, in Houston and their service is so swift and terrific to be unbelievable. I adore my new Emma Bridgwater mug - can't wait for next month when I can order another one! Wish they'd open a store in Austin with me as proprietor - what a fun gig that would be! I'll put a link to the store in the link section.
Also missed May Day - a big deal in Oxford - the 'other place' where the students of Magdalen College annually sing in the May dawn from the college tower with a few thousand of their followers to cheer them on and then celebrate a bit! Big event but since it happens in Oxford I think I can mention it and skate graciously around it.
One more month until Mum and Dad pop up from Down under! CANNOT wait!!
Sorry for the dearth of posts lately. I have been reading and writing other things and as you all know there are only so many hours in the day!
About three weeks ago I called in at my local Barnes and Noble to collect my monthly fix of Country Living Magazine so that here in unseasonably hot Texas I could torture myself with images of an English Spring. Sadly B&N had no Country Livings to sell me so in high dudgeon I was just stalking towards the door of the shop through the "New in Paperback" aisle when an all-too familiar image caught my eye. There, nestled between some un-noteworthy tomes was the Mathematical Bridge of Queen's College, Cambridge, a site/sight I cycled past at least twice a day for 5 years during my time at Cambridge.
Interest piqued I halted my stalking pace and backed up to the book. It was called "The Devlin Diaries" and had one of those covers that just sucked you right in, made you want to plop down on the floor right there and just start reading. Well, with dinner to put on the table and homework to oversee, laundry to do etc I didn't plop down on the floor but I did buy the book and spent the next three days reading it until it was done. Boy! That was a great book and it made me want to read more books so before I knew where I was I had spent the next week's grocery bill on used books from Amazon.com! Sorry husband! Does that explain the rice and beans in our diet lately?
Historical Mysteries have been the breath of life to me these last three weeks. Restoration Period London, Who-dunnits featuring Elizabeth I as investigator and even a forensic pathologist from Twelth Century Sicily transplanted to my beloved Cambridge. Wow! It has been like taking a little vacation from everyday life. Even the rejection of the first few pages of my children's novel by a literary agent didn't phase me as much as I had thought it might. I could justify my lack of sorrow over that by telling myself I was doing research into how a good book does get picked up by an agent!
So, I have resurfaced from my reading binge and tell myself it is time to return briefly to the real world! Obviously I will order some more books from Amazon and this time discipline myself not to read them until the summer vacation which now looms on the horizon (brief pause for shouts of joy!), but more pressingly it seems like time to start Royal watching as the wedding is THIS WEEK! When all that is on your TV is basketball or Disney Channel, the most important news tends to creep by you. Off to Google Royal Wedding and figure out how I am going to get up early enough to watch it!
Cambridge was indeed in America on Thursday evening as the choir of St. John's College, Cambridge University performed at St. Austin's Catholic Church under the conductorship (is there such a word?) of Andrew Nethsingha. Their music did much to restore the soul and everyone seemed to enjoy it hugely, but we in the Long Family - that is to say self plus daughters 1 and 2 enjoyed the 90 minute performance for reasons that were only tangental to the music.
We sat in the front row because the novelty of not having naughty child #3 with us meant that we could revel in front row ambience rather than cowering in the back row ready to beat a hasty retreat. Therefore we had a really good view of all of the singers' facial expressions, elbowing of eachother, yawns and unashamed staring of the ten year old treble boys at daughter #1!
I am not a music buff so will not pretend to speak with authority about the splendor of Bach's Lobet Gott in seinen Reichen (Bless you!) but I do know that the soaring notes of clear voices in harmony with eachother made me very nostalgic for England and not a little tearful. I absolutely loved it!
The program was very worthy with lots of pieces by composers I had vaguely heard of but I suspect everyone's favorite piece was when the tenors and basses sang "Surfing USA", Barber Shop style. The senior lads (probably second year undergraduates at a guess) were just witty and droll in their version of the song and when Mr. Nethsingha made the Hook 'em Horns gesture, the crowd went wild - well, as wild as such an august and undisputeably senior crowd such as it was could go wild!
My special thanks go to George, Basil and Tom, 3 of the choristers who took the time to meet and greet with my daughters after the perfomance, still splendidly attired in their Harry Potter-esque gowns and bow ties. They were very kind in a non-patronising way to my small ones and I think have struck a chord in a couple of small hearts to be on the look out in about 30 years' time or so (Ha!) for a nice young Englishman. A mother can dream right?
Good times! Perhaps I might even go as far as to give generously next time the alumni phone call comes around!
Last night husband and I took the rare opportunity to go out to dinner together on our own with no children. After the initial sense of being at a loss for words due to the unusual chance to speak to eachother without constant interruption we had a lovely meal. After our meal we made a quick trip to my favorite ATM.
How can you have a favorite ATM you may ask? Well, my ATM not only dispenses money with ease and efficiency but when it speaks to me, you know, phrases such as "Please enter your pin number now", it does so in a lovely, soothing Scottish accent! I have no idea why a bank in Burnet, Texas would have a Scottish female voiceover but it does and everyone in my family loves it! There is always an expectant hush in the car as we breathlessly wait to hear Jeannie (or whatever Scottish name you care to substitute) give us the next instruction. As this 'north of the borders' voice calmly tells us what to do, everyone in my car choruses back the words in their best pseudo-Scottish voice.
Thank you First Scottish Bank of Burnet! It is worth paying an extra $2 for using a bank not my own just for this moment of pure entertainment. I can't wait for the day when my kiddoes meet a real Scot. They'll expect him or her to hand over wads of cash!
Sorry for the week's hiatus! The re-immersion to the workplace after a week off for Spring Break's virtual trip to England has been a reverse culture shock! Actually, the shock has mostly been the getting up at 4:45 again and driving 43 miles one way to work!
Today I celebrate the British National Health Service through a pair of rosy tinted spectacles. I was horrified this evening to open up a medical bill for $662 for a 10 minute trip to the GP's and three labs. The price was so enormous because the labs were done at the doctor's office rather than the laboratory. If they would have been done at the laboratory instead of the doctor's office where I was too sick to remember this minor detail in my vertiginous state, the cost of the labs would have been covered at 100%. Cost to me...nada.
It simply isn't in the nature of people who were raised in the National Health Service to remember to ask whether such and such is covered under the health plan for which one pays through the nose each month. In England, admittedly we pay high taxes but when you go to the doctor's you can go and not worry about whether you can afford a basic doctor's visit (and yes, I am not talking about serious surgery or anything here). You call the practice, get an appoinment within the day and s/he makes you well. When s/he says "We're going to take some blood work" and you are so nauseous that you can't raise your head through fear of spray painting the room with puke, you don't tend to think "Gosh, I must first ascertain whether they are in my lab network" before you consent to allow them to do all in their power to restore you to health.
I'm not a political creature as anyone who knows me will testify but this made me cross at the plain unfairness and stupidity of it. I am really mad. I'm going to fight it. The cost of a phone call and 20 minutes of excruciating negotiations with the billing department of a large hospital will be the price I pay for reducing the cost of this ludicrous bill.....I hope. I will use my most reasonable voice and articulate my vowels slowly and clearly in case they are not used to talking to a Brit. I don't want that to go against me!
If anyone has got any advice for me before I place the call and say all the wrong things, please do not hesitate to let me know!
Today is our last day of virtual vacation and I have to confess that I am really going to miss Suffolk and my virtual home at the Swan! I have become quite fond of the place! You know, the funny thing is that although Suffolk is undoubtedly beautiful, historical and culturally fascinating, ALL of England is beautiful, historical and culturally fascinating. Whether you visit Sussex, Kent, Hampshire, Tyneside or London, you will find interesting places to visit, old and comfortable hotels or Bed and Breakfasts, eccentric folks to talk to and yes, I do dare say it, good, tasty food. You may have to do your research to find it sometimes but it's there. Real England. Ancient, mysterious, atmospheric, and then again, contemporary, cross-cultural and fast-paced, Quite a lot for such a small island!
Today we're going to leave Suffolk and wend our way south prior to our virtual trip home to Texas from London Gatwick Airport. Because Gatwick is so close to where I grew up, I thought it would be nice to spend a day in Sussex prior to our flight home. So, we are going to spend our last day on this side of the pond in Brighton.
It feels funny to be back in Sussex. In Suffolk I really felt like a tourist and a foreigner. In Sussex I feel a real sense of returning home. I look for faces I might recognize and wonder whether my own face is recognizable after 13 years away. I identify what is a sense of loss. When I last lived here my Grandparents were still alive and my own nuclear family still lived here. Now they have either gone on to better things or emigrated. What is now London's second airport was once my Grandfather's delivery route when he was a butcher's boy on his push bike! When you land at Gatwick you can clearly see Gatwick Village Church where my Grandfather would have worshipped (had formal worship been up his street!).
In Brighton we walked down by the sea front between the two piers, one now a condemned and burnt out wreck and the other a grade 2 listed building but in need of some serious TLC. Luckily nobody was down at the nudist beach today so we didn't have to have any awkward conversations or explosions of embarassed and unsubtle giggling! We admired the distressed elegance of the Georgian architecture and ooohed and aaahed at the unlikely sight of the Royal Pavillion, an Indian looking palace built by the Prince Regent in the eighteenth century shortly before that trifling matter of 1776......
Brighthelmstone as it used to be called was once a smuggling center on the south coast and the smugglers used to hide and sell their wares in the warren of narrow streets just off the front, called The Lanes. These days you are more likely to find deliciously expensive boutiques, eateries and antique shops. And in one of those very nonchalent English juxtapositions, you will also find there a Quaker's Friends' House.
We eat overpriced sea food. No kalamari or squid for us however - but whelks and jellied eels, the kind of fruit of the sea local to Brighton. The kind of food my grandparents would have eaten along with a Mr. Whippee ice cream and loads of cups of sweet tea. OK - so in my virtual reality that's what we ate but in truth there's no way on earth that children 1, 2 and 3 would have eaten anything of that kind! They would have been more fascinated by visiting an English McDonalds! They would have loved a stick of luridly pink peppermint Brighton rock however!
Tomorrow we will take the train from Brighton through the Sussex Weald, the rolling south downs where I took so many walks as a child. We'll stop at my old home town's railway station, race through the village where I was born and eventually get off the train at Gatwick airport. I'll buy every magazine and English candy or souvenir available in duty free before we board the plane home. Home from home. Hard to say which is which any more.
I never really have been to Suffolk! I'd really like to go now though. All the people I have contacted for their permission to use images from their websites were super friendly and helpful. Thank you for accompanying me these last few days. We should do it again one day! Say in about ten weeks time when I'm next off school and looking for a distraction!? Just tell me where you would like to go!
