Horse Races at Christmas #1

The city of Ascot is kind of like a college town, dominated by one major attraction. Instead of a college campus, in Ascot it is the massive Ascot Race track. The horses run varying distances, the ones we saw were all about 2 miles, which was just one lap.
Holiday events all take place at the race track. This weekend they had family events around an afternoon of racing, and John, Brittany and Papa decided to check it out.


The Ascot Brass Band was there playing Christmas carols. There were six races, we saw four of them. In the first race there was a horse named 'Gentle John', we chose to root for him because of the name. Second place. In the second race we picked 'John Terry' - the name again - pulled up lame in the first corner and came in a poor last. The third race we let Brittany pick our horse, she picked the one in pink, and it won! The forth race we let John pick, and it won!

Horse Races at Christmas #2

Santa was there, of course.

They also had a carousel and spinning tea cups. The kids could just get on and off any time they wanted to. No lines, no rules, just get on and off while it is not turning. Very nice.

Other than the fact that it was really cold, and there are no seats in the grand stands (wonder if that's the way it is at the horse races in the States??), it was a ton of fun.!

We Deliver - And That's All

Houses have mail boxes, and mail is delivered, but they don't pick up. You have to take it to a red pick up box, normally somewhere in your neighborhood. Our mail man comes by bicycle, in shorts, even in the winter. Not a pretty sight.

Pantomime

Pantomime (not the same as "mime") is a form of British theater done around the Christmas season, usually from early December to mid-January. They also refer to it as "panto." It originated in the 16th Century with traveling productions and has been a regular holiday tradition since. It is not done in the US, but is a tradition in the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and other current or former parts of the empire.

Looking in the media, there are tons of performances advertised all over the place. Most of the larger towns have productions. It is very common that they bring in famous names to perform in the leading roles, Patrick Stewart and Ian McClellan were two names mentioned in the article I read about it. The only name I was familiar with was Henry Winkler, starring in what appeared to be the most publicized performance being held in London. They are all based on children's stories, performed for a family audience, they are all musicals, and they are comedies. According to the ads, the Henry Winkler performance was 'Peter Pan', and he was Captain Hook.

The performance we attended was in Windsor - after a day at the palace. The story was 'Cinderella' basically, but with quite a bit of slapstick comedy thrown in. No actors we were familiar with. The characters interact with the audience quite a bit. The audience boos the villans and cheers the heros. In the second half, one of the leading characters named 'Buttons' (you don't remember Buttons from the Cinderella story???) stopped the show and invited four children on stage for a rousing, audience participation version of "Wheels On The Bus." They also had a list of birthdays they read out. Clearly the play is re-written annually because several of the production numbers were done to current songs, two from Hairspray and one from High School Musical 2. There was ballet, big production numbers, and even tap dancing. The ugly stepsisters were played by middle aged men, so quite ugly, but hilarious. (cross dressing is also part of the tradition) There was also a recurring character, Rupert Bear (a person in a pooh-like bear costume), who is evidently the star of a children's TV show and evidently much loved British children's books who would walk on occaissionally and advance the plot. I never did understand why he (it?) was involved.

It was great fun, two hours of singing, dancing and laughing. A wonderful family tradition we will experience again next Christmas.

Windsor Castle

We live in the "Royal Borough of Maidenhead and Windsor", meaning we are in the Queen's neighborhood. So, to be good neighbors, we thought it time we baked a plate of cookies and dropped in on the Queen. We live 6.3 miles from the castle, which is in the town of Windsor. (I think the castle came first)
Queen Elizabeth II splits her time between two primary residences, Buckingham Palace and Windsor Palace, the place where the Royal family is quoted as saying, "that we feel more comfortable than any other." And of course they feel comfortable, it's about 484,000 square feet and 1,000 years old. It, like the Tower of London, was originally built by William the Conqueror between 1066 & 1087. (And like the Tower, no photography allowed inside) As is the case with our house, it has been regularly remodeled. The oldest section is the round tower seen behind the kids. It is on a man made hill overlooking the surrounding countryside, a very defensable position. One of the highlights of the tour is Queen Mary's Dollhouse built as a gift for the queen. It is a cube about 6 feet on each side, the exterior of the dollhouse looks like a castle and can be lifted for access to the individual doll rooms. Each is beautifully decorated, complete with electric lighting and working plumbing.
Pieces of the Royal Art Collection are on display in several rooms, with some amazing examples of great masters over the centuries. Of particular interest were several DaVinci drawings. And of course there are many, many 20 foot tall paintings of Kings and Queens. The collection is so massive, and so fragile, that they rotate the pieces on display.
We saw hundreds of swords, guns and suits of armor. They make a point of showing you just how fat Henry VIII was by the size of his suit of armor. The man was tall and must have weighed over 300 pounds!
The very 'castle like' picture is the interior courtyard and where the Queen accesses her Royal apartments. (Sadly, we were not invited in - rude!) The other two pictures are the guards which are in the process of changing (we, of course, picked a day with no fancy 'changing of the guard' demonstration - just marching). And then the flag you see indicates whether or not the queen is home. If the flag is the Union Jack, the flag of England, the Queen is elsewhere. If the Queen's colors are flying, she is home. The picture was taken on a typical English day - grey and ugly - so you can't really tell from the picture. You'll have to trust me, the Queen was in residence.
The tour took us through many of the rooms the Queen actually uses for entertaining. Just amazing. There was a fire in the castle in 1992 which destroyed several of the rooms we visited, so they had been rebuilt and were in immaculate condition. There is a huge hall where the Queen entertains in which they seat a table for 160.
I did note that the Royal family throughtout the centuries was uniformly homely. Very sad.

Another Famous Car Sighted!

Herbie drove right in front of me today! It looked exactly like this picture I grabbed off the net. That's two famous cars I've seen.

British Pizza

We ordered the 'all the way' pizza from Herbie's Pizza. (a good Italian name) The pizza came with sweet corn on it. That was a new one on us. And it was GOOOOOOOD!

Thinkin' of Lincoln

Hey, we thought about Christina, Derek and Lincoln today at the mall when we saw this sign. Hmm, wouldn't it be great to have a chocolatier in the family?

British Packaging

At first you think, "they look just like they do in the states." But they really don't when you actually have them. That's how things work here. You think it's the same as you are familiar with, but when you get closer, or even worse, taste it - you will be surprised.
The soda bottles are two litres just like the States. (yes, "litres" - olde English law requires the 'r' before their 'e' - it dates back to the early 1200s when they spelled the King's son's title differently. Back then they spelled it "Perince" instead of "Prince". But Perince Sandy the Dull besmirched the title so badly in a cricket incident that they changed the spelling to 'Prince' for ever after. And as a reminder to the Royals to not to misbehave, they decreed that the 'r' would precede the 'e' where ever possible. Americans don't have royalty, so it's not required there.) But the bottles are taller and slimmer than the US versions. And less sturdy. For example, you can't hold it in one hand and pour it. The bottle will collapse in your grasp and you will be the subject of much humiliation and have an unexpected laundry bill. (or so I have heard)
The milk cartons are 2.272 litres, or 4 pints. You can get them bigger in six pint containers, but they are shaped about the same. I believe both are the shape and size they are in order to better fit in the small refrigerators, which fit in the small kitchens, which fit in the small very expensive houses, beside the too narrow, poorly paved, roads. (but I digress)
As noted in a previous post, potato chips are called 'crisps' - but the mystery doesn't stop there. The unsuspecting shopper goes to the grocery store and picks up a family size package, as you see in the picture. You open it, ready to pour a big pile of chips in a family bowl and six individual packages of chips pour out. "Pish and Tosh" you say in your blossoming Brit accent, "I must have bollixed that one up and picked up the wrong bleedin' package." You return to the scene ready to correct your mistake, but NOOOOOOOO ... you are doomed to failure. There are no family sized bags of chips. There are some larger bags, enough for two or three to share, but no all-american, glutton sized, 'take the family on a picnic, eat all the chips, and put the bag on your head' sized packages.
Charming

Harrods

In addition to our visit to the Tower of London, we visited world famous Harrod's department store. To get there we had to master the London 'Underground' (aka subway, aka "The Tube") which is really very simple and easy. We bought all day passes and just hopped on and off as we needed to. The only 'gotcha' was that certain stations were PACKED and you were reminded that Europeans have a different since of personal space than do we Americans.

Harrods is one of the largest department stores in the world, seven floors, over a million square feet, 330 departments, 5,000 on staff, and 28 restaurants. On busy days they say that about 300,000 customers shop there. That seems high, while we were there I saw no more than about 298, 000. The outside is adorned in lights, 11,000+ light bulbs light the place up making it look Christmas-y, but it looks that way year round.

They sell everything (Here's a test, name 330 things that could be departments in a department store. See what I mean? They sell EVERYTHING! Plus they have one department in which you can hire a personal shopper.) but seem to lean toward the high end stuff. Any famous fashion name you've heard of (and many, many, many I haven't) are represented there. We couldn't find them, but they actually sell fully functional cars built for children. For example, there is a little Hummer there.

The place was founded in 1834 by a Brit but is now owned by Egyptian billionaire Mohamed Al Fayed. If that name sounds familiar, it is because he is the father of Dodi Al Fayed the guy killed in the car wreck with Princess Diana. At the bottom of one of the escalators is a little shrine (pictured) to the two of them. Apparently Mohamed thinks the British royals had them killed because Dodi was about to propose to the 'rumored to be' pregnant Diana. Recent tests have indicated they didn't think she was pregnant. But the display shows the pictures of them, and in front of the picture a glass pyramid that contains a wine glass they shared they day they died, and the engagement ring he purchased for her just prior to the 'accident.' Kuh-Reepy!!!!

They have several escalators, one known as The Eqyptian Escalator which is really over the top, with marble everything and manequins in little balconies over looking the escalators. As you can see in one of the pix, there is a giant King Tut looking statue that John & Brittay posed in front of. They don't have bathrooms, they have 'Luxury Facilities for Ladies and Gentlemen' complete with attendants. In the toy section they had people demonstrating some of the toys, we saw an employee doing some really good magic tricks and another doing awesome tricks with a yo-yo. We successfully navigated the store without buying a thing. I was very proud of that.

It was neat to have been there, but not some place we'll go back to I don't think.

Tower of London

Another AFA (Allen Family Adventure) - We decided to visit the Tower of London, which is not so much a 'tower' as a castle. (It is the second and fifth pictures) It is right beside the Tower Bridge (first picture), which was, not surprisingly, how you got to it. In the foreground of the pictures of the castle you see a white tent. They set up a temporary ice skating rink on the grounds of the castle. You can rent skates and go round in circles. It was cold but not that cold, so clearly there was some technology involved to make the ice.

It was orginally built as the 'White Tower' (you see it in the last picture) by William the Conqueror in 1078, and subsequent rulers added to it enclosing it in high walls and a moat, and adding many buildings. Probably the most famous use of the Tower was the beheadings done there, famously by Henry VIII of two of his wives. Plus it is the home of the Crown Jewels. You aren't allowed to take pictures of the jewels so I thought I'd find some on the Internet to post, but there are none their either. (I guess they really meant - No Pictures!) Let me just say that they look just exactly like you imagine royal crowns to look. There are about 10 of them, and each are made of gold or silver and encrusted with jewels. There is the coronation crown that is the actual crown placed on the newly crowned king or queen. They have to wear it 20 minutes, and then it is locked up again for the next coronation. There is a very small, delicate crown made especially for Queen Victoria who suffered from migranes and thusly could not tolerate the weight of the regular crown. There are scepters and 'royal orbs' and royal swords galore. Plus a gigantic royal punch bowl with a complimentary massive ladle.

The place is very entertaining, with live actors in some sections in period costumes. (third picture) Plus the place is guarded by the 'Yeoman Warders' more commonly known by their nickname, 'The Beefeaters' which actually comes from them being paid in beef from the King's table. You see John, Brittany and I posed with one. You also see a formation of them marching with the tall hats. This year (2007) the very first female Beefeater was hired, and she actually happened to be on duty in the room with the crown jewels. (Of course, no picture!)

The day was nasty, cold and rainy, and we missed the final Beefeater tour of the day, so we'll go again before we leave. Neat place.

What Time Is It?

Here in the study (aka "The Command Center") we track time by having four clocks on the wall. Clever Mom has put a picture of the applicable family member in the middle of each clock, so we know what time it is in each of the four time zones in which we have family. The clocks on the left are our local time (GMT / Greenwich Mean Time +1 for DST /Daylight Savings Time) and US Eastern time (UK - 5), with Christina's family in the lower picture. On the right on top is Rebecca, US Mountain time (UK-7), and on the bottom is Menolly's family, US Western time (UK-7 for now because they don't observe DST, but UK-8 during summer months).
I guess we can no longer call family any time we want and say, "Oops, forgot what time it is there." :-)

Thanksgiving in the UK

Thanksgiving does not exist. No mention of it. No day off at work. The schools will allow US kids an excused absence, but we didn't take advantage of it because the kids had missed a day due to sickness earlier in the week. No parades on TV, not even delayed. no 'Turkey Bowl' at church. You can get the NFL football games if you have the right sports channels.
We had a small family evening meal of turkey and fixin's, but it really didn't seem the same.
Kind of sad ...

The Brilliant British Language

I am convinced that the Brits love colorful language. Every day listening to the radio I hear wonderful terminology I've either never heard, or heard only in literature, TV or movies. They seem to look for entertaining ways to speak, both in media and in every day business.
1. Today on the radio the newsreader mentioned an instance in which the government had misplaced a great deal of sensitive information. She referred to it as a "cock-up by the government." It sounds rude, but was on the BBC national news.
2. My boss, in referring to a request for money, referred to the ruckus surrounding the current tight budget crisis as a "kerfuffle." "We'll hold off on our request until the kerfuffle has subsided."
3. One of my associates is flying in to London in a few weeks and I am taking him to dinner. He suggested we go to a "gastro pub." I had to ask what he meant. It is a bar that serves food like a restaurant but is trying to retain the pub atmosphere.
4. This morning the weatherman referred to our cold weather as a "nithering cold." That was a new one to me. Not sure I spelled it right.
5. And, a recent favorite I mentioned before, a raffle is called a tombola.
6. In a meeting recently with the CIO of our company, he referred to both 'bob' and 'shilling.' I knew both from previous experience, and the context of the conversation, that they referred to money but I didn't know how much. It turns out that both refer to they same unit of English money worth five pence, but no longer in circulation. The shilling (aka bob) was discontinued 40 years ago but you still hear both terms frequently.
7. "Brilliant" - You hear it used all the time. I have realized, they use it at the same time Americans use "great." "That movie was great!" = "That movie was brilliant!" But they don't use it in a negative sense, like "great, my pants are on fire ... again." Only in a positive sense.
8. A print ad in the London Times describes a movie camera as "a cracking new camera"
9. There is a public service announcement on BBC radio about registering your bicycles, evidently there is a tax on bicycles but many don't pay it. The ad is telling everyone that you can pay it on line now. The voice is that of a young man saying, "I got up this morning to go down to pay my bike tax. I found my bike helmet in the refrigerator filled with pudding. Alas, despite the best efforts of myself and my dog we were unable to eat enough of the pudding to make wearing the bike helmet safe for riding. So I was unable to pay my bike tax today." Hilarious.
10. The Brits have a thing for the word "rubbish. Who knew it was such a utilitarian word? " In an article in today's London Times about Daniel Craig, the new James Bond, there are three different uses. "When he was first named to the James Bond role, websites were set up for the express purpose of rubbishing a man who hadn't yet shot a single scene"; (verb) "...because of all the furor that was going on concerning my having gotten the part, some people were going to come along to see how rubbish it was"; (adjective?) "But I knew what I could do, and knew it was all rubbish." (noun)
Brilliant!

Driving in England

The fabric of the British road system is stitched together by 'roundabouts' and 'bollards.' A roundabout is an intersection, as you can see in the first picture, which is the sign for the Running Horse Roundabout. However, like most major intersections here, the intersection is a traffic circle from which there may be any number of exits, or even connecting roundabouts as you see in the picture. The trick is to enter the roundabout in the appropriate lane so that you are prepared to exit at the right time. This definitely takes some practice and has been the times I have most frequently heard my fellow motorist's "salutes". It seems chaotic at first, but once you get used to it you realize you were right the first time, it is chaotic.
Bollards are essentially permanent traffic cones. The word 'bollard' is pronounced like our southern delicacy "collards", but probably tastes better. As a friend of mine here in the UK describes them, they are "primarily here to dent and scratch your car. " They have lights inside them, so you can see them at night. The traffic configuration in the picture is very interesting, and very common. I can only imagine it's intent similar to US speed bumps, to slow traffic. The bollards narrow the road to one lane and one lane is instructed (as noted in the sign) to yield to the other lane. That too can be a noisy experience when you first get here and don't understand that you are supposed to give way to the cars coming in the other direction. So far I have managed to avoid hitting a bollard. I've hit garage walls, the entry posts on either side of our home's entrance to our parking area, and run over many, many curbs, but have managed to miss the bollards. (but give us time)
I recently had occasion to drive a couple hundred miles north for a work assignment. The highway system is fairly easy to follow. The major roads are "M" (for "motorway") and a number, for example the 'M4' is the highway I take to work every day. Just like the US, the even numbered highways run east and west and the odd numbered highways run north and south. I took the 'M1' most of the way to our Ripon office in northern England . The local inter-city connectors are designated 'A' and a number, for example the 'A329' connects me to the 'M4' every day. Some of those can be multi-lane and highway speed. Lesser roads are designated 'B' or 'C', although I haven't noticed any 'C's yet. They also use a convention of putting a road in parentheses if the road you are on connects to it. You can see an example of that on the Running Horse Roundabout sign. If you take the second exit you are on the 'A329' which connects to the 'M4.'
All in all, just like most things in the UK, they make perfect sense once you understand them.

Wolseley Home Office

This is what the Home Office looks like. It is in the Arlington Business Park, 10 or 15 identical buildings. As you can see, the sign is very subtle. No large sign on the side of the building or anything like that. Basically just a generic office complex. Two identical buildings. Hopefully my group will move to the second building in the next few months so I can get into an office. They are very security conscious. You have to badge your way into the building and between floors. The restrooms are in the lobbies, so you have to badge your way out and back in. A bit of a nuisance.

Halloween

Halloween is gaining popularity here, but has a long way to go. Grocery stores don't have isles of Halloween candy decorated in orange and black as we are accustomed to. No Halloween sales. It was mentioned on the popular radio stations, but we saw no kids going door to door anywhere. Our church had a "Trunk or Treat" in it's parking lot (UK = "car park") due to the large number of Americans in the congregation. What you do is decorate the trunk of your cars. The cars are lined up in the parking lot and the kids go from car to car trick or treating. It's a nice, secure way to let your kids have the experience without the worries of encountering unpleasant strangers. ACS Egham, the private international school John and Amanda attend, had something almost exactly the same but they called it "Boot to Boot."

New English Word - Tombola

I was recently invited to participate in a "Halloween Tombola" at work. (tom-BOE-la) I am by nature a cautious man so I didn't jump right in until it was explained to me that a tombola is a raffle. You buy a ticket with a number on it, the money going to charity, and you do (or in my case don't) get a prize. If your ticket number happens to match one of the previously numbered prizes, you get it.

Alarm Clocks

Here's a great idea by the Brits - when you plug in your alarm (referred to as "connecting to the mains") it sets the time itself. Somehow the correct time rides the electrical current and alarm clocks are aware of it. So recently when the time changed here, the clocks changed themselves automatically, assuming they are plug-ins, and not battery operated. Cool, huh?

Router Rooter

A router ("ROWT-ur") is a switch for connecting computer users to a network or other devices.
In the UK it is pronounced "rooter." It really cracks me up to hear, it sounds so silly. I discussed with a friend one day pointing out how the three letters O*U*T are pronounced in the words "out", "scout", and "about."
He reminded me of an old song and US television show, "you get your kicks on Route (root) 66." He also pointed out that when some English speaking people leave home they are going "oot and aboot." Canadians do that.
I pity the person that has to learn English as a second language.

McDonald's Drive Thru

I found a McDonald's recently that had a drive through. I was on the way home, so I decided to stop and grab a bag of junk food for the family as a treat. Fast food joints are far less common here than in the states. I've seen BK, KFC and McDonalds but they are few and far between.
I drove in and examined the menu board, looking for the differences - which there always are. I got an idea of what we wanted and drove forward to place the order.

There is no menu board close to the microphone / speaker where you place your order! You have to memorize what you want and be prepared to shout it into the mic. Not impossible, but unless you are prepared, a little disconcerting.

The Toilet Door Mystery

A UK based friend recently remarked, "the US is vast, enormous resources and talent, the most powerful nation on earth. Yet for some reason they will not or cannot build a public toilet door that fits the opening." My reaction was, "What are you talking about?" He said, "the next time you are out and about here in the UK notice the stall doors in the public toilets. They start at the ceiling and end at the floor. In the US, they start at knee level and end at shoulder level. Why is that?"

Weirdness in Ascot, Our New Home Town

Driving along High Street (aka main street) one day and this car pulled out right in front of us. It was the original TV show Batmobile from the 60's! It looked exactly like the picture, so if it was a copy, it was one that passed a very close inspection. It was being driven by a couple of normal looking guys. (Bruce Wayne & Dick Grayson incognito?) I couldn't believe my eyes!!

Moving Day

Back in August when we picked our eventual home we guessed that we could get relocated and ship our household goods - plus get them through Customs - by October 9, a month after we flew over. It was a guess, and one we could change, but that was the commitment we made to the landlord. As it turned out, that's exactly how it worked out.
Here are a few shots from moving day.
The house has a name, "Berry Cottage." The kitchen is the highlight of the house, we love it except for the tiny refrigerator. We have two gas fireplaces, haven't gotten them to work yet. We've got a tiny postage stamp of grass in the back yard, it takes about 15 minutes to mow it. All in all, the house is great.

We're Baaaacccck! (November 17, 2007)

We are moved in to the new house, and back on line. You're going to see several "catch up" posts to fill-in the last month or so during which we've had limited access to the web.

26.2 Miles Is a REALLY LONG WAY!!!!

We did it! Christina and I finished the inaugural Raleigh "City of Oakes" marathon today. It was rough. The first half we did really well, staying on our plan of about 10 minute miles, and then the second half started. The second half of the race must have been designed by the Marquis de Sade, because it was torture. Somehow they figured out how to have us run up every steep hill in Raleigh, without running down any. (only a slight exaggeration) Not sure how that worked, but that's what happened. By the end of the race we should have been on top of a mountain. At the 15 mile marker the race entered Umstead Park and started a three mile up hill stretch that only once flatten out or sloped downhill. That killed me. I developed a cramp in my right calf that stayed with me off and on for the next 6 or 7 miles and really slowed me down to a limping shuffle. Christina was doing much better, but refused to leave me so we could finish together. And we did. We crossed the finish line together, running, holding hands, raised in victory.

Christina made us custom shirts and at least 10 people commented on how much they liked them. Not sure if you can read the back but mine says "I'm with shorty" and hers says, "I'm with old." See the "a Team" patch on the shoulder?

We completed the race in about 5 and 1/2 hours. We'd hoped to finish under 5 hours, but that was not to be. By the time we got there we really didn't care we were so miserable. One participant with 13 other marathons to his credit said that this was the most difficult course he'd ever seen.

My prediction is they'll have to flatten it out a bit in the future or people won't come. I'm open to running another marathon, but not this one with the course as it is.

Amazing Charitable Project

Here's a story about England that will warm your heart...
A couple of months ago a friend of mine told me about this project he'd heard about in Africa. The goal was to bring water to African villages. The solution was to build children's merry-go-rounds which doubled as water pumps. I may have mentioned it to some of you.

I was drinking a bottle of water I got from a gas station a couple of days ago and happened to read the label. The product is called 'One.' And to quote the label:

"A Message In A Bottle:
We think One will leave a better taste in your mouth than other waters. Drink it and you won't go thirsty. Simple. So is what we do. All our profits go to building unique roundabout powered wells in Africa. As kids spin on the roundabouts water is pumped out of the ground, providing free, clean water to people who desperately need it. Love it!"

http://www.onewater.org.uk/index.html

http://www.playpumps.org/

Check out the links. The first tells about the guys who came up with the idea to make money for charity by selling water. The second tells about the pump itself and has a cool video telling about the pump and showing one in action.