Not California Follow-Up

After my previous "Not California" post, I found this ultimate example of a potato chip flavor you would not find in California - haggis! My previous impression of haggis was kind of a joke or a "can you believe people eat that" food. I even think eating it was part of an Amazing Race challenge. However, people are not scared of haggis around here. The PTA was planning an event for Burns Night - of all the famous UK poets, I'm not sure how it ended up being Robert Burns that got his own semi-holiday - where they were planning the traditional events, including serving haggis. I asked, "And people eat it?" They looked at me like I was a bit slow. Of course they eat it. And apparently they eat haggis-flavored potato chips too.

Half-Term Jaunt to London

We're on a year-round school schedule here, which means a lot of vacations scattered throughout the year. This past week they had a week off for half-term. Mostly we spent a lot of time lounging around, but Thursday and Friday we took a mini-break to London. The highlight was going to see Phantom of the Opera for a Thursday matinee. Seeing a London production is a treat. Seeing a production with my kids who love musicals and knew very little about the show was an even bigger treat. Their smiles and cheers and gasps were everything I could have hoped for.

In between lunch - for my girls London means a great opportunity to get American fast food - and our show, we had a little time to play tourist. Here's Trafalgar Square of course.

Right now there's a giant blue chicken in Trafalgar Square. I'll leave it to you to look up the meaning of the piece.

And here's Mike and the kids in Piccadilly Circus, roughly equivalent of Times Square in New York. 

On vacation my kids' idea of a perfect evening is to get take-out, bring it back to the hotel and spend the evening on electronics or watching t.v. This works out great for me and Mike, as our perfect evening is going out for a nice meal without anyone complaining about how long it's taking or the lack of hamburgers or chicken fingers on the menu. We left them happy as clams at the hotel with their grocery store dinner while we enjoyed a really nice meal out. From this photo it looks like we picked an alarmingly unfrequented place, but it just turns out that Londoners eat dinner a lot later than we do. It was hopping by the time we left.

Friday morning we decided to finally check the London Eye off our to-do list. We'd heard the lines could be bad without a reservation but decided to take our chances. You'd think February would be off-season, except that the whole country is on the same holiday schedule. Anywhere remotely family-friendly can be crowded when the kids are out of school. There was a crowd when we arrived around 10 am. It turned out fine though. Maybe 20 minutes of a line to purchase tickets (which Mike did by himself while the girls and I checked out the gift shop), and then another 15 minutes in line for the Eye. I felt like that was the way to go. Reserved tickets are more expensive, and when I'm on vacation I really like the freedom of no appointment times.

I actually had no intention of going on the Eye. It seemed too much like a ferris wheel to me, which I avoid when it all possible (the height, the speed, the rocking - yuck!). Anya talked me into it though, and I'm glad she did. It's quite different than a ferris wheel. No rocking, no open spaces, and no speed. And the height doesn't bother me when I'm in an enclosed space.

Although you don't have your pod to yourself, there was still plenty of room for everyone to take pictures.

It was so pretty looking out over the city.

After a nice lunch at Pain Quotidien (although a chain, a nice compromise between kid-friendly and a place where adults will actually enjoy their meal), we headed off to the British Museum. Have you ever noticed when traveling that there is almost always a crane strategically placed in every scene you'd like to shoot?

Ha - side-angle to side-step the crane. As you can maybe tell the from the pictures, the British Museum is huge. We only attempted the smallest section. The nice thing about London museums is that they are free. It takes away the guilt of only going for an hour or two and not getting the most out of your ticket.

We saw the Egyptian, Roman and Assyrian section. This whole thing was brought back piece by piece in the early 1800s. That must have been quite the undertaking with the equipment they had available then!

I don't think I quite have the writing skills to do the experience justice. It's just impressive walking among all the marbles. Does Camille's ability to identify the various gods on display justify all the hours she's spent reading Percy Jackson?

 Totem poles! I felt quite at home.

My only disappointment was that the Reading Room was closed, which was actually at the top of my list to see. Maybe we'll make it back again on another little London trip, which I'm already anticipating.

E-luminate

The thing about really awful weather - and the weather here has been really, really awful - is that it makes you appreciate a sunny day and a beautiful, clear night in a way you just don't when you can count on good weather a majority of the year. It was just glorious waking up today to no wind and bright blue skies.

Our beautiful winter day stretched into a beautiful winter night. We decided to take advantage of it by taking a family walk around Cambridge to check out the E-luminate Festival.

The E-luminate festival is described as a festival connecting "ambitious art with imaginative technology." We missed a number of events due to an unwillingness to venture out in the storms, but tonight was a perfect night to explore some of the outdoor displays.

This project is an illumination of children's artwork being transformed into a rotating image of the earth.

 St. John's Cathedral was lit up as part of the festival.

As was the entrance to Kings College. The lights and colors continually changed.

This is our Detective Morse shot. Doesn't the setting look right for something mysterious? That is Anya silhouetted in the darkness.

Our favorite show of the night might have been the moon rising over our neighborhood. It was one of those times where the moon was full and bright yellow and the surrounding skyline gave the impression that it was twice its normal size. We didn't get a picture of that though, as capturing the effect is a little beyond our photography skills. I think Cambridge by night is even prettier than Cambridge by day.

Not California

We're pretty settled here in England, but sometimes certain things do catch my attention and give me the feeling I'm not in California anymore.

"Respect the queue"
The other day Mike and I were lining up at a lunch counter. Apparently, I was not standing in the right place, because a gentleman ever-so-politely informed me that I might want to move over and "respect the queue." It reminded us of Bill Bryson's words about the English being world-class in their queueing ability. When I pass the bus stops, people are all neatly lined up, no milling about.

They do sell chocolate chips in England, they're just in these petite little packages of 100 grams. To buy an equivalent amount to the American 12-ounce package would cost about eight dollars.

 This is a two-way street!

"Sorry, it's an automatic"

Once we were renting a car, and all they had when we arrived was an automatic. The rental agent was so apologetic, and offered several times to come out and show us how it worked. We assured him we'd be okay. It reminded us of how funny we thought it was that a French couple we know really did need instruction on how to drive an automatic the first time they rented a car in the US. 

Walking as a means of getting from one place to another. Not exercise, not entertainment.

Which flavors are popular is different here than in the US. For instance, black current is a favorite flavor for candy. And the potato chip (crisps) flavors are completely different. Here we've got parmesan, asparagus & truffle; parsnip; cumberland sausage; and prawn cocktail.

 Medieval sculpture used to decorate the ATM/cash point.

Elementary school/primary school parking lot. If you look closely you can see there are three cars along with the bikes. This particular school is about half the size of the school my daughters attended in California, with easily 10 times the bike riders.

Then if there's any confusion left about where I am, there's the weather. It's the wettest winter here since records have been kept starting in 1761! I may never again find windy rainstorms romantic. 

Houses in Cambridge

What I discovered pedaling around taking pictures of my favorite houses in Cambridge is that there is a great deal of uniformity in design in house styles. The homes are almost always brick, and very commonly this terraced house style that is described as Victorian, although it really isn't what I picture when I picture Victorian. Home owners show their flare with door colors and sometimes plantings.

 Quite a similar style, this time with a blue door and cute little picket fence.

 And again, except larger and unattached.

There are also a lot of these bay window style homes in Cambridge. They are again attached. I should have taken a shot of the whole street, so you could see home after home quite similar to this. 

I love this house. It's in a neighborhood of Cambridge that is like its own little village, along the Cam and some beautiful nature reserves. We would have liked to have lived there, except we weren't sure about Camille getting into a school (your placement on the waiting list is based on your distance from the school). We would never have been in this large of a home though. Most of the homes in that neighborhood are the Victorian brick terraced homes or the bay window brick terraced homes.

I think I've shown pictures of the street this house is on. This little cottage style is very unique in Cambridge.

This is a very traditional looking home that is also unique for Cambridge. You don't often see this size or the shutters.

 I really love this painted brick Victorian. It's a couple of houses down from the home above, looking out on a green space and just yards from the part of the Cam where all the rowing teams practice.

I thought I'd have more pictures to share, but as I said, there's a lot of uniformity of styles, and then the houses that don't fit in with the styles I've shown here aren't especially favorites of mine. Maybe this will give you a small idea of what neighborhoods in Cambridge look like.

No Post

Usually I've been trying to post two times a week. Anytime this past week though, when I'd planned on going out, it's been storming. In addition, I've had a child home from school because of illness, which kind of cuts back on my free time. I'll leave you with this picture instead, to show that we've had a lot of water, and also that eventually the sun does come out.

Here Comes the Sun

We had a wet, cold and stormy week. One afternoon I had a number of things to do, requiring me to spend a majority of my time either riding my bike through the rain or walking and fighting with my umbrella against the rain and wind. By evening I was so thoroughly soaked and chilled that I felt I would happily turn the day in for some warm southern California sunshine. But this weekend, the sun came out again and all is right with the world.

Saturday we headed out to Wandlebury Park, located just outside of Cambridge next to the Gog Magog Farm Shop and Cafe (which I mentioned previously here: http://infinitedealofnothing.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/grantchester-and-farm-shops.html). Sadly, I just love it when any kind of exercise excursion I go on is located near a place with delicious food to eat.

The park is a great place for a family walk and exploring in the woods. You know, if you had the kind of kids that didn't think it a punishment to go out walking with you.

We made our way through open fields and wooded paths to an old Roman road. It extends for miles, although we only walked a small part.

Sunday afternoon - when, incidentally, most Americans would be home watching the Superbowl but Mike still had 8 to 10 hours to kill before kick-off - we head back to Anglesey Abbey.

 All kinds of new flowers had bloomed just since last week.

I'm afraid I'm not much of a botanist, so I can't tell you what those pretty flowers are mixed in with the snowdrops.

Going to see the snowdrops is a big event. The parking lot was full, the entry and cafe area was a madhouse, but happily the grounds are large enough that you can still often walk on uncrowded paths.

After a couple of afternoons out in the beautiful outdoors, I'm happy with winter again.