Road Show Video #2 - Evolution of Dance

This is performance from our Road Show, one well worth your time. It's a dance routine choreographed and performed by three adult non-professionals demonstrating a variety of dance steps they called, "The Evolution of Dance." Enjoy!

British Word Quiz

The first section is the British word, the second section is the American equivilant. See how many you can guess. We'll add as we discover more wonderful 'Brit-isms'.

1. Dressing gown
2. Lounge suit
3. Boots
4. Vest
5. Anorak
6. Trainers
7. Jumper
8. Purse
9. Windcheater
10. Bum bag
11. Snog
12. Quid
13. Shilling
14. Knackered
15. Hoovering
16. Jacket
17. Biscuits
18. Fairy Cakes
19. Chips
20. Crushed potatos
21. Gammon
22. Jelly
23. Lollie
24. Crisps
25. Cupboard
26. Lift
27. Ex-directory
28. Dual carriageway
29. Bonnet
30. Car park
31. Boot
32. Caravan
33. Plaster
34. Till
35. Current Account
36. Paying in slip
37. Ironmonger
38. Chemist
39. Deposit Account
40. Post Code
41. Mobile
42. Bespoke
43. Torch
44. Public School
45. State School
46. Loo

1. Bathrobe
2. Business suit
3. Cleats, like for football or baseball
4. Men's undershirt
5. Parka
6. What we call tennis or gym shoes
7. Sweater
8. Wallet
9. Windbreaker
10. Fanny pack
11. Passionate kiss (we first heard it in Harry Potter)
12. Slang for a pound currency
13. Before 1971 12 pense, after 1971 5 pense, now no longer used
14. Tired
15. Vacuuming
16. Baked potato
17. Cookies
18. Cupcakes
19. French fries
20. Mashed potatos
21. Ham
22. Jello
23. Popsicle
24. Potato chips
25. Closet
26. Elevator
27. Unlisted phone number
28. Divided highway
29. Hood of your car
30. Parking lot
31. Trunk of your car
32. Camper trailer that you tow behind your car
33. Band Aid
34. Cashier
35. Checking Account
36. Deposit slip for your bank account
37. Hardware store
38. Pharmacy
39. Savings account
40. Zip Code - but more precise, indicates a small area maybe 8-10 residences
41. Cell phone
42. Custom made items
43. Flashlight
44. Private School
45. Public School
46. Bathroom

As you see, sometimes just speaking "English" is not enough. And other times the word is identical but the British pronunciation is so different, it is initially unrecognizable. The other day my boss said "guacamole" and I had no idea what he said. It came out something like "goo-CAH-mole." But after a moment's pause and consideration of the context, I knew what he meant.

If you got them all right, please come live with us and translate. I'll buy the crisps and biscuits.

September 2, 2007 - The Warm Up Race

Christina and I crossing the finish line together at the Virginia Beach Rock & Roll Half Marathon. 2 hours, 24 minutes, 8 seconds.

Full marathon coming up in November in Raleigh.

Temporary Quarters - Bracknell UK

I thought I'd put up pictures of our first English home. It's a fully furnished townhouse (complete with towels, dishes, etc. - all you need is clothes & toiletries) in the Bevan Gate townhouses off Binfield road in Bracknell. We're still here, but it looks like in a couple of weeks we'll move into our permanant home in Ascot. We were notified yesterday that the furniture will be in the UK next week. At that point we just have to wait for it to clear UK Customs.

When you drive up you encounter the closed gate. You ease up to the gate and it automatically opens. (I agree, why have a gate if it opens automatically?) One day when Shirleen and the kids got home it wouldn't open - that was a bit of a shock. Eventually John waved his hand in front of the sensor and it opened.

UK Cars

We got a couple of old cars because we think dents, bumps

and bruises are inevitable. Hopefully that's the worst that happens. Also money not spent on vehicles can be spent on traveling to the places we want to see.

Shirleen's is the silver 1994 Honda Accord and mine is the 1993 Mazda MX6. They are reasonably solid on the outside

but well worn on the inside. The Honda has muffler problems so you can hear them coming. The Mazda is a five speed, adding a little complexity to the UK driving challenge. But it is fun to drive.

The first day, in my enthusiasm I decided to get mine washed. I didn't equate the radio not working to the antenna not going down - which resulted in the third picture.

Whoops!

My commute will be 30 minutes each way on good days, so I had to have a radio. Going to have to get that antenna fixed too.

We already have ideas for taking that noisy Honda to the European continent sometime. John Jr is already asking to go through the Chunnel. The cool thing is the answer is, "Why not?"

Big Family Event

Today was a huge day for the UK Allen family. Today Brittany got baptized and John Jr was ordained to the Priesthood.

The way they do it here, since the ward is so spread out, they have the Baptismal services right after the sacrament meeting so no one has to drive back later.

So immediately after the meetings, Brittany and John Sr went and changed into white clothing and came right back to the chapel. About a third of the ward stayed for it.

It was all about the Allens. John Jr gave the opening prayer, then it was time for Amanda to give her talk on Baptism. She couldn't find it, so had to go up and wing it for a couple of minutes. Whoops! She did great. Since she had written in a few hours earlier, she remembered it really well. Then Brittany and Dad went to the font and did the actual ordinance. After we dried off, Mom gave her talk on being Confirmed and then Brittany and Dad came to the front of the chapel and did the Confirmation ordinance. Then the Bishop welcomed Brittany to the ward and invited John Jr and John Sr to the front to perform the ordination to the priesthood.

It was a wonderful day for the whole British Allen family!

September 22: The Second Sojourn - London's South bank

The Tower Bridge at the end of our walk. The Tower of London is at the left end of the bridge.

(Amanda took this shot of the three of us on the train - off to London!)

We are not too far from London, so we decided to take a day trip to check it out. The 'South Bank' is the South side of the Thames river and the walk extends from the London Eye to the Tower bridge, at least. That's how far we went, anyway.

The first adventure was riding the train! British Rail is easy to use, not too expensive ($22 for adults and about half that for kids, round trip), and a 100 times easier than trying to drive in the city. It was new for Brittany and John, and they really enjoyed it. You can get an 'all day travel' pass that lets you ride the train, bus or subway ("The Tube") as much as needed.

(this is the pod right beside ours on the London Eye)
(John and Shirleen on the Eye)
The London Eye is a giant ferris wheel on the banks of the Thames river from which you can see many of the major landmarks in London. It's 35 meters tall, which converted to US units is something like 75 miles high. (not exactly sure about that calculation) On a clear day you can see 40 kilometers whichs converts to something like 24 miles and you can actually see Windsor castle if you know where to look. (no, of course we didn't know where to look!) You ride in large glass pods that hold about 25 people. It moves very slowly and only stops to let on handicapped people, otherwise you step on while it moves. One revolution takes about 30 minutes. We were directly across the river from where the UK House of Lords and House of Commons meets, Big Ben and Westminster Abbey, but we decided to leave the the north bank for another trip.

(Brittany on one of the carved, wooden rocking horses)
Heading along our side we encountered a ton of street artists, some human statues, several musicians, an escape artist who escaped from chains and a straight jacket while we watched, and the one I liked the best, a street artist doing giant replicas of a couple of famous paintings on a canvas stretched out on the pavement. (video of her below)
We got hungry at that point (John - 12 years old - is hungry constantly) and walked down to Gabriel's Wharf to eat. It's a neat little street with shops and restaurants. We had a great lunch, and then found a Crepe shop and had nutella, bananas and whipped cream crepes for dessert. Not as good as the French make, but pretty close. Just a different style of making the crepe. As you will see in the pictures, there were bunches of carved wooden rocking horses.

(The Golden Hinde)

From there we went down to the Tate Modern and walked most of one floor before the little one's boredom got the best of them. Saw some beautiful stuff, the names I knew were Monet, Matisse and Jackson Pollack but there was other great stuff too. And of course some very boring stuff too. Great museum and free. We'll go back.
Almost next door is the rebuilt Globe Theater, where many of Shakespear's plays were (and still are) done. We couldn't tour the place because there was an performance going on, Othello I think.
Just down from there is The Golden Hinde, Sir Francis Drake's ship. It has been refurbished and is now on land, but it is available to tour. The sign said it had traveled over 140,000 miles. I cannot imagine going around the world in that little boat. According to the sign you can book the opportunity to spend the night on it. Can't imagine how much that would cost, but John's already planning on it.

Then we found the best treasure of all, a Gelato stand!! Shirleen and I are big fans of the Italian ice cream and this is the first time we've had it since our trip to Italy a few years ago. It was perfect, just as good as we remembered!

There was much more to see. The London Bridge (the original was sold and is now in Lake Havasue AZ) is just a new, boring bridge. But the Tower Bridge, right by the Tower of London is beautiful. (picture at the top)

And then the 'all day pass' came in handy, we were tired so we just went to the closest station, hopped on the train and took it to Waterloo station where we caught the train back to Bracknell. Another great day.

Here's a video of that artist I mentioned, hope it will play for you.

Pictures!!

We've been able to upload pictures!
Check out the Stonehenge trip, I added a couple of pictures there.

Good News / Bad News

Our first shipment of stuff has arrived!
Our belongings were shipped in three components, the stuff we were allowed to take on the plane - about 50 lb each, a 600 pound air shipment, and a 40 foot container coming by ship. The first obviously travelled with us, the second arrived yesterday, and the third takes 4-6 weeks.
We put mostly computer stuff in the second shipment and that is what arrived yesterday. That's the good news.

The bad news is first, there is no place to put this stuff. We are already crammed in the townhouse. Most of it, definately the clothing, will just stay in boxes till we move in to the house.
However the real bad news is the kids' computer. I mentioned in an earlier post about the difference in electricity. No one mentioned a key component, the fact that there is a 120/240 switch on the back of the computers that you have to switch. So Mom got the new UK plugs for the kids computer and plugged it in and POW - it blew up. Now we know about the switch, but are scared to plug them in anyway.
The fun never ends ...

Miscellaneous UK Stuff

Recycling - The UK is far more serious about it than are we in the states. We take the attitude, do it if you want to. They take the attitude, do it. Even in the office. I really admire that, but it's partially driven by having no place to put it all. England is full. Sorry, no vacancies!

Cell Phones - Using a cell phone while driving is a ticket-able offense. There is discussion of making it such that you go to jail if caught. That one would never get passed in the US. But it makes sense, the country is full of psychotic drivers who don't need distractions.

GPS - GPS use is very common here, foreigners (including both Shirleen and I) live by them. Theft of GPS units is a huge problem here. So much so that the first line of the owners manual is "our units are very popular, we advise you to never leave your GPS in the car". When you shut it down, the unit displays a picture of a man putting his GPS in his briefcase. They are mounted on the windshield with suction cups. I'm told that if a thief sees an empty holder in a windshield, or even the ring where it was, they will smash the windshield to find the unit. It apparently happened in the Wolseley parking lot.

Wolseley Corporate office - The office is very nice, a modern design. The offices line the exterior wall, all of the office walls facing inward are glass. Unfortunately, there are no empty offices, so I am in a cube with four foot walls. (yuck) They are going to remodel sometime in the next few months and hopefully that will change. The nicest perk is the cafeteria, it is free. That's right, lunch is free every day. Every day there is your choice of any or all of, a bowl of soup, salad bar, and freshly cooked hot food on an actual plate. The only beverage is water and no desserts, but the food is very good and the price is unbeatable. There are some days that I can't identify the hot food, some I try, others are too scary.
There are break rooms on every floor with supplies of fruit, canned soft drinks (aka "fizzy drinks"), coffee with real coffee cups, bottled mineral water, filtered water with real glasses, and cookies. You bring your empty cups & glasses to the break room at the end of the day and someone puts them in the dish washer for you. Aren't we special?
Another thing is the hours, 8:45 to 5:30. Not sure why they start so late, but I like it!

The Commute

I commute about 25 minutes each way.

The most arresting thing you see is a giant propellor along the way. It is roughly 75 feet tall with giant blades, each probably 30 feet long. I grabbed this picture of it off the internet. It says it is a very advanced design, capable of generating enough energy to power 1000 homes.

Traffic signals here are backwards. They transition from red, to yellow, to green. So, they all start moving on the yellow. Very strange.

I have not yet seen a police vehicle on the highway. The reason is they can't afford them, so they use traffic cameras. Every few miles there is a sign saying there is a traffic camera ahead. I was told that they mail you a ticket if they catch you, usually about 30 days after you were caught. Of course, you don't know you were caught. The cameras seem to work because traffic goes the speed limit by the cameras. Elsewhere is a different subject altogether. Those of us non-natives mostly use GPS devices to find our way around. They have the location of the traffic cameras built in, so it beeps as you approach one. My first thought was it helps you circumvent the law, but on the other hand, what are you doing? You are slowing down, exactly what they want.

Church

We went to church for the first time this morning. We are in the Bracknell ward of the Reading (pronounced 'RED-ing') stake. We're really close to church but will move farther away in a few weeks. It took us an hour and a half to get there, but only 10 minutes to get home.
UK travel is often that way.

Electricity

The Brits have funny electricity. (why should that be different?)
Electricity is at 240 volts AC, 50 hertz. US power is 110 volts at 60 hertz (aka cycles).
1) Obviously, everything needs new plugs. Big, bulky plugs.
2) Because of the reduction in cycles, US electrical things run slower here so clocks and timers don't work properly. Other products don't get enough power to work well.
3) Step down transformers work with some things not others, we decided not to risk bringing anything electrical. Our friends, the Zanettes, brought their TV and it was ruined the first week.

However, replacing things can be expensive. I use a Sonicare toothbrush which I left at home. To replace it would cost £100 ($200). I paid less than $100 in the states for ours.

DRIVING!

I think the challenge with driving here is not all the differences, it is the pace. Traffic is often really heavy and fast, and drivers are very aggressive. To try to keep up you end up making mistakes because of lack of familiarity.

Speed limits are in miles per hour, as are the distance signs. That was a surprise, I expected kilometers. Highway speeds are mostly 70 MPH, city speeds are generally 40 MPH.

The UK solves traffic problems with roundabouts, we'd call them traffic circles. Generally 3 or more roads intersect at a big traffic circle and there is a controlled free-for-all to get where you want to go. Traffic on the circle has the right of way, so you jump in when there is an opening and try to jump off when your street comes by. Not always as easy as one might imagine. And there is a grading system. No honks means you did okay, one honk means you did it right but not fast enough, more than one means you are me.

The first days on the road were pretty nerve racking. I drove all the time and Shirleen watched the GPS unit. We were both pretty tense leading to some 'lively' conversation at times.

Judging your clearance on the left side of the car was initally a real problem. The first few days I drove over many, many curbs. And the entrance way to each floor of the parking garage at Wolseley is very narrow, so I scraped the side of the rental car on the wall. Twice. I'm surprised they didn't charge me.

Taking a right turn into the left lane just doesn't seem right, but I haven't made that mistake for a couple of days. It's hard to overcome 40 years of practice.

I'll be confident I have it down the day I walk to the car and unlock the door to get in - on the right side. About half the time I still go to where the steering wheel is supposed to be, not where it is.

We get to use our North Carolina driver's licenses for a year. Then we have to take the UK test. By that time we should just about have it figured out.

UK Stuff - Part #6

Went to the gym hoping to lift some weights & run 10 miles or so. Despite the fact that the roads are all measured in miles and the speedometers are the same, the treadmills are in kilometers. To top that, the weights are in kilograms.
So no idea how far I ran or how much weight I lifted, but I got pretty tired!

September 15: The First Sojourn - Stonehenge

Much to my delight, someone told me that we were pretty close to Stonehenge so we went to see it today. It is really something to see. Like the pyramids, we only have theories how they got these giant stones from quarries 240 miles away, shaped them the way they wanted, and then somehow lifted these things, some weighing as much as 45 tons. Just standing them up was a trick, but then they put some across the tops.
It is actually about 5,000 years old and was abandoned roughly 3,000 years ago. So by the time of Christ's birth, it looked a lot like it does today. Very old.
It is designed based on the position of the sun, and can be used as a calendar to identify the month. Plus what they think were the four corner points align with the summer solstice, winter solstice and two other dates I'ved forgotten. (my birthday?)
We have pictures, but the cables to hook to / download from both Amanda and Mom's cameras are somewhere in transit. We'll post them when we have them.

UK Stuff - Part #5

Fast food - We've found a McDonalds, Pizza Hut, Burger King and KFC relatively close to where we live. The menus appear to be about the same. As best as I can remember, the prices are the same too - except here the $ (dollar) sign has been replaced by the £ (pound) sign. Which, of course, results in the prices being double what they are in the states.

UK Stuff - Part #4

Grocery stores - As mentioned earlier, they are busy all the time. The aisles are crowded and everyone is in a hurry.
The carts have four wheels that roll freely, so the cart goes any way it wants. So not only are the aisles crowded, but the carts are all over the place. Fairly chaotic.
AND, you have to bag your own groceries.

Buying A Couple of Cars

As good as public transportation may be, we cannot make it without a couple of cars. The school buses for John & Amanda cost £2,000 per year. ($4000 - per child) So economically, it is much cheaper to buy some cheap cars.

So on our third day there, we hopped in our rental car and went forth to purchase at least one car and ideally two. I grabbed the phone book and had it opened to the list of Used Car Dealers. Of course we couldn't find them so at the restaurant where we got lunch, I asked the proprietor directions to a particular car lot. As he gave me directions, a lady walked up and patiently waited until he was gone. Once gone she said, "We just got here from the states and were recommended a guy who gets people like us cars. I'll give you his number. You just call, tell him what you want, and he'll find it for you. We bought two from him and the whole experience was great." So she gave the the number and we called him. Sure enough, he was great and had a car on his lot for us to look at. So, after many missteps even though we had a GPS (you have to be here to understand how you can make mistakes even with a GPS) , we found him. We really wanted the cheapest, reliable cars he had. And that's what we got.

From what we’ve heard, most dealers just take your credit card. We discovered at the last second that our guy does not take credit cards. And we didn’t yet have a bank account! So I told him we couldn’t get them until next week once we had the bank account and the cash. He said, "Let’s do this. You can come and get the cars today and pay me next week when you get the money. I’ll give you a deposit slip for my checking account, you deposit the money as soon as you have it." Not the sort of thing you’d hear in the states!

The last leg of the 'get the cars' journey was that afternoon when we decided to go get them. We still had the rental car, and Shirleen wasn't comfortable driving it, so I drove it and dropped her off to drive home. This was only her second experience driving in the UK. The first had been an hour earlier. The car dealer was about a half hour away. The rental car had the GPS, so she was going to follow me. As soon as we pulled into traffic we had to take a left turn. Someone pulled in behind me, so there was a car between us. I quickly pulled over to let them by so Shirleen would be right behind me. But Shirleen was so tense she didn't see me do that and drove by me.
So get this. We are 30 minutes from home, no cell phones, she has no GPS, we don't know the home number yet, and we're driving on the wrong side of the road.
As you might imagine, that was panic time. Traffic was really heavy, so there was about 10 cars that passed before I could pull out behind Mom. I completely lost her. So I'm driving all around trying to find where she might have gone. I can't find her, and despite having the GPS, I'm still fairly uncomforable getting around. So I went home. About 30 minutes after I got home she drove up, a bit flustered, but she made it. Luckily, she had a map and just worked it out. She saw a route near where she was that we'd driven a few times and went to that and followed it home.
That was the only real serious scare so far, the rest has just been frustrating due to lack of familiarity.

UK Stuff - Part #3

You know how if you go to the bathroom to wash your hands, you have two knobs - hot & cold - and one outlet for the water? If you balance the hot & cold properly, you get warm water. Here the water doesn't mix, so you get hot on one side and cold on the other. So you have to let the bowl fill and wash your hands there.
If you examine the faucet, there is actually a divider that segregates the hot & cold.

UK Stuff - Part #2

When you look at your Outlook calendar month, the left most day is Monday – I am accustom to it being Sunday.
Another small thing, but I can see how they might all add up to someone whipping out the automatic weapons

UK Stuff - Part #1

This will be the first of many, many of these ....

I believe I have determined the root cause of the serious UK traffic problems. (am I adding value right away, or what?)
The problem is the small homes. Small homes only leave room enough for a small kitchen. Small kitchens only allow for small refrigerators. Small refrigerators only hold a small amount of food, resulting in people shopping for food almost every day. That results in the grocery stores being constantly packed with people, and the roads constantly packed with traffic going to and from the grocery stores.

September 7: The Flight

The plane was a Boeing 777, one of the newest, biggest planes flying. For international flights it is segregated into three classes in decending order of service, first class, business class, and the rest of us.
Wolseley flys their families over business class at the beginning of the assignment, and then again at the end. But not in between.
We had five seats in a row of only seven. The seats were larger and each had a video screen that came up out of the arm rest on which we could watch any of about 10 channels of movie / TV, or another similar number of audio channels. I think other than the placement of the screens, it's the same as coach class.
The seats were very comfortable. In each seat was a package that included a quilt, a pillow and earphones. The earphones were the same as those provided in coach. In the pocket of the seat in front of you was a little package that included a bag for your shoes, some socks, earplugs and an eyeshade.
The service started right away, and was continuous the entire flight. They kept the beverages coming the whole flight. The brought the menu by to collect our orders for later, both a dinner menu and a breakfast menu. Mom and I had lamb for supper, Amanda had a steak, John had chicken, and Britty had ravioli. For breakfast they gave you a choice of a meal an hour before landing, or you could sleep later and have a smaller snack. Warm breads, yogurt, fruit and juice. The food was amazingly good when it came. Served, of course, on a white 'tablecloth.'
Just before dinner, they came around with these little leather cases for everyone. You unzipped them and inside was a pair of Bose noise cancelling headphones. Absolutely incredible quality of sound. They cut out about 75% of the plane noise and the music and movie sound was crystal clear.
After dinner they cut the lights down and we realized our seats had more surprises. They tilted back farther than those in coach (but not horizontal), but the best part was a leg rest came out with a foot rest on the end. Once you'd fully tilted your chair, extended your leg rest, put on your wool socks, pulled on your eye shade, and wrapped yourself in your quilt, you were ready to sleep - and we all did. If you know us well, you could guess that Amanda slept the most, and John the least.
I'm told that the cost of business class is 3 or 4 times that of coach, but my goodness, what a way to fly!

Welcome To Our Blog

As so many of you have suggested, we have started a blog of our UK adventure. We will TRY To continue posting descriptions and pictures of our adventures; things we learn about England; and just some of the funny / maddening things that happen.