Where I Find my Tastes are Similar to the 70-90 Year-Old-Lady Set

When I saw an add for a production of Mansfield Park with these reviews:

'The Play has all the shiny qualities of a piece penned yesterday'

****The Telegraph

'You cannot fail to be seduced by this captivating production.'

Oxford Times*****

'A sheer delight'

British Theatre Guide

**** WhatsOnStage

'A triumph for the Theatre Royal'

East Anglian Daily Times

I knew I had to go. 

The play was in Bury St Edmunds, a very cute medieval city in Suffolk.

I was happy enough to be going out, because, come on, it's Jane Austen, but even more pleased when I saw the adorable theater it played in. It's the last working Regency-era theater in England. I do wish I took better pictures of the theater, because I just loved it. On the floor, there's just about 10 rows, 10 seats across - a pretty cozy size. Then it's surrounded by these small boxes that seat about 4-6 people. Every seat in the house seems like it would be great. It would be so nice to see every production we go to in such an intimate theater. Mike did miss modern seats though. The seating was not designed with the comfort of someone his height in mind.

Mike was very compliant about coming along with me - in fact, he said it was great - but he did find it amusing that we were, on average, a generation younger than the rest of the audience. The youngsters didn't know what they were missing, because the play was so fun and well-acted. Definitely a step or two above our usual date night.

Boden

You can't imagine how excited I was to get this little notice in the mail:

I was initially quite disappointed to find out there is no Boden store in Cambridge. Someday, hopefully soon, I plan on making a little pilgrimage to London sans children to check it out. In the meantime, this Boden clearance sale came to me.

I dropped off Anya at her school at 9 and went straight downtown, thinking I'd have plenty of time to enjoy a leisurely cup of cocoa. People were already lined up though, so I thought I'd better follow suit. By the time 10 o'clock came, the line was around the building. 

 I took a moment from the shopping frenzy to snap this picture. This first room you walk into has the children and teen clothes. I didn't realize at the time that this was the calm before the storm. The next room with all the adult clothes was so packed and intense that I forgot to take a picture. But you get the idea.

In the dressing room - another level of craziness - I kept looking around and wondering  how everyone else seemed to get so many cute items so quickly. Still, even feeling not up to par in the speed, competitive shopping arena, I managed to get two pairs of shoes and two sweaters for Anya, a skirt for me, and three sweaters for my ultra-picky Camille (which I will happily take if she rejects!). All for bargain prices! Still, I'm now even more curious what the London Boden shopping experience is like.

Science Museum, London

We've heard great things about the Natural History Museum in London, so last weekend we headed off on the train to make a day of it. However, on the way we discovered that the dinosaurs weren't going to be on display that day, so we quickly changed our plans to visit the Science Museum instead. We'll save the Natural History Museum for another day when we can get the full impact. 

Here's a couple of interesting things about visiting the Science Museum. One, along with the Natural History Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum which are right next door, it's free! 

Two, taking the train and subway, you barely have to walk outside to get there. Perfect for the many rainy, blustery days in England. We took the South Kensington Tube stop, which has an entrance directly into the V&A, and then two different exits for the Science Museum and the Natural History Museum. You walk out of the Tube and almost directly into each museum.

The Science Museum is huge, so we only ended up seeing possibly half of it. Several levels are geared more toward adults. In Anya's words, "It's not science; it's just a bunch of old stuff." We had to explain that what to us seems like every day objects, at one time were invented using cutting-edge science.

Mike doesn't walk around with lights shining on his backpack. It does have reflective patches, which must look this way due to the camera flash.

Nope. Not Dolly. It's Tracy, the transgenic sheep.

Camille was our photographer for the day, which explains both why she isn't pictured here and also why there aren't any pictures of the Launchpad and the other interactive exhibits. In general, the more engaging the room and activity, the less pictures we have. So the museum does have interactive exhibits for kids, science shows, and giant steam engine displays which we did see, but didn't picture. It also has many areas we didn't get to. We'll have to make it back to see the rest another time.

Window Shopping Cambridge

Back when we first moved here I started taking pictures of some of the store windows around Cambridge, both because I spend a lot of time window shopping and as a way of showing more of what Cambridge looks like. Now that the stores have all changed to their fall window displays, I thought I'd better post my pictures before they get even more out of date.

This is a cute little shop. I especially like their window display with the birds and the classic-looking dresses. It reminds me a little bit of the "Put a Bird on It" Portlandia sketch, but in a good way.

 Cath Kidston seems to continually have cute window displays, but I especially like this one.

This little fabric store is so cute it almost makes me wish I could sew and be crafty.

Occasionally, I see people of the University set walking around in their academic gowns, but generally they dress not too different from anyone else. However, there's a number of shops with this ultra-college-prep look, so they must be dressing like this sometimes. I took this picture because they have a tie sculpture in the window, but you can't really see it with the window glare.

 Real live bookshops are not dead in Cambridge. There's lots!

Around the birth of baby George, a number of store windows in town featured something to celebrate.

This cute little candy shop is right in the main section of Cambridge. Sherbet in England is sometimes hard candies, like lemon drops, and sometimes it's this sugary powder. I had to buy some to investigate. The girls say it's like Fun Dips, but more flavorful. I see the word "lollies" used to describe both suckers and popsicles.

"Bespoke" is my new vocabulary word. You see it on signs and such all over here. I don't remember seeing the word used in America. I think what they mean by it is "made to order."

This is Mike's and my favorite new shop: Cambridge Cheese Company. Besides all kinds of tempting things to eat inside, I think their store window is very cute. Note the "bespoke" picnics!

 I'm a little bit obsessed with these bags from Cambridge Satchel Company.

 I just love this look. I would dress Anya like this all the time if she would let me, and if she wasn't just a few years too old.

This business - well, former business - is outside the main part of town. It doesn't look like the blank tape business is thriving here in Cambridge. 

So that's my short tour of shopping in Cambridge. You'll have to come visit to get a closer look!

Season of Mists

Even though we had some summer barbecues like this:

 And some summer afternoon sunbathing like this:

It's actually been a pretty nice summer. For England. People in SoCal would in general be horrified with a summer of similar weather.

But even though summer officially doesn't end until the 21st, it's pretty much over here. Sunny days begin with that fall nip in the air with middle-of-the-day sunning on the lawn feeling absolutely perfect. The rest of the days we're dodging puddles, tramping through damp, brown leaves and wondering if the beginning of September is too early for turning on the heat. Do you play that game? "See how long we can get before turning on the heat"? I have a feeling I'm not going to make it until Thanksgiving like we did in California.

So far, I'm loving the novelty of fall. I love the air, the smells, getting to wear jackets and gloves and scarves. Has fall come to your home?

Maximizing Expenses

Or this post could be titled: How to turn a cheap weekend car rental into a major vacation expense.

We have learned that the English take their traffic and parking enforcement very seriously. Either that, or we are a unique combination of oblivious and unlucky.

So, earlier this summer we rented a car for two different weekends. Mike was going to pick it up on his way home from work on Friday. I called him from work to let him know the good news: you only need a parking pass until 5pm. Since he was coming home later than that, he wouldn't need to bother with a parking pass. Later that evening as we were walking out to the store we discovered ticket number one. Apparently there are yellow line spots, which aren't enforced after 5, but the white line spots are enforced until 8. Very frustrating, since I had actually purchased a valid parking pass.

The next day we left on a two day adventure. Soon after returning the car, we get a notice from our car rental company explaining that we got a traffic infraction. They helpfully passed our information on to the correct authorities and charged us 30 pounds for their assistance. Weeks later we finally get the ticket in the mail and find out what the infraction was. Mike was going SIX miles over the speed limit. Apparently, the ten-mile-over grace is not a recognized concept in England.

On to our next car rental. This time we were sure to fill out the parking pass and park in the white line space. However, walking home from the store (which we visit daily - I seem to be incapable of advance meal planning) we found parking ticket number two. To this day, my best guess is that the parking meter guy didn't approve of Mike's handwriting. I can't imagine anyone being very impressed with Mike's handwriting, but it still doesn't justify a ticket.

Then, to top off our car renting experiences, the next day we get parking ticket number three! I actually managed to argue my way out of paying the first two tickets, but I was out of excuses for the third one. Mike had thought I had filled out the parking pass, while I thought he had moved the car to a space that didn't require a pass.

The authorities haven't revealed the cost of the speeding ticket, so I can't yet add up the costs of our couple of car renting experiences. But I am looking a little more closely at places we can visit by train.

Beautiful Amsterdam

Amsterdam is such a beautiful city that I can't hold myself back from posting a great deal more of our vacation pictures. This is the part of our experience that Mike and I just love that the girls get very little enjoyment from: walking around beautiful, old cities. I'm not sure that these places strike their interest anymore than the view from driving down I-5 or maybe I-15 through Baker. 

 Can you tell from the pictures that the buildings lean in?

Mike enjoyed watching this woman kicking back smoking while her partner did all the paddling work.

We enjoyed getting a water view of the canals during a little boat tour.