Modern Old England Houses

England is a mixture of the old and new.  I like how, rather than tearing down an old house, they will often keep the shell intact and completely refurbish the inside.

We visited some neighbors that live in such a house. The exterior is something similar to the house in this photo. As soon as you step inside, the house has a completely modern feel.

Old Exterior

I grabbed these pictures from an Internet site of houses for sale in the area. They show a typical refurbished kitchen and bathroom in older houses.

Modernized kitchen

Updated bathroom

Our neighbor friends are Ex-Pat Americans who are renting. They gave us a tour of their updated older house. The inside was completely gutted and redone. So you would think it would have all the modern conveniences. Not so. 

Oddly enough, the bedrooms have no closets. Wardrobe furniture is required to store clothes.

The kitchen was equipped with a modern American-style refrigerator, as opposed to a smaller European model. However, it had no ice-maker. That's pretty un-American.

The bathroom was sleek and modern but modern bathrooms in America have a separate room for the toilet. Not here. The "throne" sits right out for all to see. There is also hardly any storage in the bathroom. No linen closets. Very few cabinets.

The washer and dryer were the smaller European models even though larger American-style ones are available here.

The house was wired with an intricate security camera system with monitors to view the interior and exterior of the house.

I was left with the feeling that the house is a meshing of the old and new. Yet the interior is all new, just not all American-style new.  So what if there is no ice-maker, no closets, no separate toilet-room?

I wonder if the refurbishing attempted to keep some of the old English charm and character while adding modern conveniences. Or maybe the American in me has trouble seeing that some people are quite happy living without what I consider to be modern necessities. It has made me think about "new" versus "American".

Keep Calm and Carry On

In my last post I described the wonderful visit Lexi and I had with friends in California over the October break. I left out the details of the long, eventful journey that eventually got us there. It was one of those days when seemingly everything went wrong.

When we arrived at the airport we were told our direct flight from London to San Francisco had been cancelled due to a problem with the aircraft. Hearing that, after all our preparations for the trip and the rush to get to the airport, was like a blow to the gut. The airline helped us find other flights leaving later that day. Naturally, none of them were direct flights so we had to choose between layovers in Washington DC, Los Angeles, or Vancouver. We went with the flight that would get us to San Francisco the earliest. Or so we thought!

We chose the flight to Vancouver with a 2-hour layover and then onward to San Francisco, arriving sometime just before midnight, only about 7 hours later than originally planned. It was a bummer, but we could deal with it since we'd still be getting there that same day. Or so we thought!

We drove to another terminal at the airport and arrived too early to check-in. No problem, we'll have lunch first to kill some time. Finally, the check-in desk opened. We confidently went up and presented our tickets printed out by the first airline. We may as well have handed them rubbish. We were not on the flight. Apparently the first airline did not wait for confirmation that we were on the flight before they printed off our tickets. Now we were told the flight was full. Another sinking feeling in the gut. We stood there a moment with blank faces not sure what to do. Just then, the phone at the desk rings and the clerk is told that two seats have just opened up. It was like a miracle. We're on the flight after all, great news! Or so we thought.

We are the first at the gate, it feels like forever until it is time to board, but finally we do. The plane is all loaded up and ready for takeoff. Or so we thought.

We sit and sit and sit and... there's a problem with two passengers traveling together on the plane. One of their boarding passes does not match up with the name on their passport. They are taken off the plane for questioning. Next, all the passengers have to deplane (that's a real word, I looked it up) including all carry-on items. This is a 2-story aircraft so it takes a while. The entire plane has to be searched for bombs since the two questionable passengers had been on board. About this time, we are really questioning whether this trip is meant to be. There is no way we will make our connecting flight now.

So what do we do? We were feeling nervous. Is someone/something trying to tell us not to get on the flight? Why can't another airplane be brought in? Evidently, there were no extra ones sitting around. Chris kept in contact with us by phone and told us it would actually be the safest flight we'd ever been on now that the extra precautions were being taken.

We stayed calm and carried on. No since in throwing a hissy fit. The airline re-booked our connecting flight for us to the next morning. All that was left was to get back on the plane which we all did - minus the two questionable passengers. When the flight finally took off I actually clapped.

From then on the flight was uneventful. We landed, the airline put us up in a hotel for the night in Vancouver. It was, after all, their fault for allowing the problem passengers on board. It was about midnight when we went out in the cold Canadian air to take a shuttle to the hotel. Spending the night in cold Canada was not what we had planned for that day. But at that point, we were just grateful to be safe and only a few hours from our final destination.

The next morning, the flight to San Francisco went without a hitch. The travel day from hell was over.

Thinking about it later, I am reminded of the British saying "Keep Calm and Carry On". It originated during World War II in England on posters to strengthen morale in the event of a wartime disaster. We may not have been in a wartime disaster, but the saying was appropriate to our situation.

California Americana

Living abroad gives us wonderful traveling opportunities. Europe, or "The Continent" as it is called, is just across the English Channel from us. Having lots of school holidays here means we travel even more than we would in the States. During the recent week-long October break, we journeyed to the exotic location of....
                                                  California!

Sometimes you just crave a taste of Americana, and we certainly got it!

Pleasanton Main Street

We met a wonderful family last year through the American school. Lexi and Maggie hit it off like giggling magnets. (They were drawn to each other, get it?) Unfortunately they moved back to California this last summer. So Lexi and I decided to spend the break visiting them in their charming hometown of Pleasanton, near San Francisco.

Maggie's mom, Amy, and I both started our blogs about the same time. We had attended a talk at the school on "Maximizing your Strengths". It dealt with identifying those activities that make you happy and that you do well. Instead of spending time trying to improve your weaknesses, it's more effective to focus on your strengths. It turns out we both enjoy writing and had both been wanting to start a blog to share our England experiences. I like the name of her blog, "Sunny Spells", a familiar weather forecast phrase in England. You definitely have to enjoy those sunny spells because they don't last long, similar to their one-year adventure here.

Friday Night Lights

While visiting them in California we got to enjoy a taste of home, things we can't experience in England. We went to a high school football game, which happened to be the homecoming game, complete with the queen being announced, crowned, and driven around the track in a convertible. We got to see the high school marching band practice its performance. I so miss high school band shows. There was a parade of area high school bands marching down Main Street on Saturday morning, I love parades. We went to the Saturday morning Farmer's Market and sampled farm-fresh produce including bite-size miniature kiwi fruit, plums, and English peas right out of the pod. To think I travelled all the way from England to eat fresh English peas in America.

Homecoming Queen

Lexi got to experience a day at a huge public high school, quite different from her small private school. When Maggie told her schoolmates that her friend from England was coming for a visit, they mistakenly thought Lexi was British. To have some fun with it, the story was created that Lexi was Kate Middleton's niece, which some even believed!

Here's a bit of trivia about the town of Pleasanton, California. It was named after US Civil War Army officer Alfred Pleasonton. A Post Office employee mistakenly changed the spelling but I think the name fits the town well, it IS a very pleasant town!

Monterey

Venturing away from the charm of historic Pleasanton with its tree-lined streets and kids playing outside in neighborhood parks, we also took in other sights of the San Francisco area. Maggie's grandparents have a house on a hillside in Monterey. They have built what looks like an infinity-edge deck into the side of the hill to be able to enjoy the stunning view. Their house is a 15-minute drive to the beautiful sandy Carmel beach.

Carmel-by-the-Sea is a beautiful, artsy village with no stop lights allowed in it. Clint Eastwood was the mayor of Carmel in the 1980's.

Chillin' at Carmel Beach

Fisherman's Wharf, Monterey

The girls enjoyed the Monterey Bay Aquarium. It is located on the former site of a sardine cannery. Maggie's grandma is a volunteer at the Aquarium.

Cannery Row mural, Monterey

Monterey Aquarium

Pebble Beach Golf Course

We drove along a stretch of the scenic 17-Mile Drive that hugs the Pacific coastline. It goes through Pebble Beach where we stopped to have a look at the famous golf course. The Lone Cypress Tree is also found on this route. My previous post has a photo of it.

Scenic spot on 17-Mile Drive

Eventful Day

Thursday, October 20, was an eventful day. On that day:

• The Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi was killed
• 2 medium earthquakes hit the San Francisco area as well as San Antonio, Texas
• Amy's car keys that had been lost for 3 days were found!!!

We were in San Francisco that day riding on a cable car so we did not feel the earthquake but that was my first time to be in the area of an earthquake. The epicenter was close to Berkeley where we had toured the University of California just the day before.

The keys were found in an open bag of kettle popcorn but that's another story!

San Francisco was a fun touristy day riding on the cable cars, eating clam chowder at Fisherman's Wharf, getting scared by Bush Man, and indulging in Ghirardelli chocolate.

San Francisco Cable Car

Riding on the cable car

Friday included a tour of Stanford University's beautiful campus near Palo Alto and Silicon Valley.

Rounding out our visit were shopping trips to Target and the good old American mall, where we shopped at, of course, American Eagle.

A day in California

Lexi and Barbara on October 18, 2011 in California

sea lions
otters
harbor seals
Pleasanton
Monterey
Carmel
17 mile drive
lost car keys
Castroville, artichoke capital
cypress trees
Pebble Beach
ocean breezes
Lone Cypress
fog
sun
egret
tide pools
Gilroy, garlic capital
John Steinbeck
Salinas
marinated artichoke
tortilla soup
Highway 1
kelp
marching band practice
Hamilton
day at Amador public high school
seagull
spare car key
On the Road Again

Lone Cypress

"Thatches"

In England, houses have names. For example, we live in Briony House. In the nice neighborhood where I like to go for walks there is a property with the name of "Thatches". Sure enough, located on this property are at least 2 thatched-roof houses.

Thatched-roof house

House Name of "Thatches"

Wikipedia tells me that thatch was the main roofing material available in the United Kingdom countryside until the late 1800's. The development of canals and railroads eventually made other materials more readily available. Gradually, thatch became a mark of poverty and the number of thatched properties declined.

Fast forward to now and we find that thatch has become much more popular in the United Kingdom over the past 30 years. It is now a symbol of wealth. Thatching is becoming popular again because of the renewed interest in preserving historic buildings and using more sustainable building materials.

I learned something new just from a house name catching my eye.

Night out in London

While Lexi was in The Netherlands for a soccer tournament at the American school in The Hague, Chris and I headed to London for a night out with two blokes visiting here from Houston for work. With Ryan at school in Nashville, I just realized that puts our family of four in 3 different countries at the moment.

Cocktails

Our buddy Rocky is well acquainted with the London scene and knew just where to take us. We started with drinks on the rooftop bar at Trafalgar Hotel. We were blessed to have a pleasant evening, not too cold, not too hot, just perfect to sit on the top of a building with the London Eye and Trafalgar Square in view. There is also artistic landscaping at the rooftop bar. For what you pay for the overpriced drinks and the cover charge, they better provide a nice ambience.

Rooftop Bar

I had a refreshing summery drink loaded with crushed ice, a rarity here, and mandarin orange, lychee and vodka. Yumm. I had to snap a photo of my drink next to the delicate tray of nuts and olives and the plant-in-a-bowl table decoration.

Fancy drinks and snacks

Happy couple

Dinner

We next headed to dinner at a Belgian restaurant in the Covent Garden area called Belgo's. Specialty of the house is mussels and Belgian beer. I had a pot of Thai Green Mussels steamed in green chili, lemongrass, lime and coconut (isn't that a song?) Excellent flavor. Then you dip bread in the sauce at the bottom of the pot to complete the culinary experience. Wonderful.

Enjoying our mussel pots

Belgium is known for its beers and the beer menu is longer than the food menu. The beers made by monks are pointed out on the menu. The Chimay Rouge is one of the beers made by Trappist monks within monastery walls. I had a light fruity beer called Floris Kriek. The wait staff all dress up as monks to add to the fun.

Belgian Beers

Those ambitious Belgians are ALSO known for their chocolate. We couldn't pass up sharing two desserts: 1) white chocolate mousse wrapped in dark chocolate with passion fruit sauce. 2) Brussels style waffle with vanilla ice cream, Chantilly cream, and chocolate sauce. Are you getting hungry?

I am so ready for a trip to Belgium now!

CellarDoor Finale

Finally, we stopped off for an after-dinner drink at a "little bar" Rocky knows about called CellarDoor. It's one of those places that you would walk right past if you didn't know it was there. The entrance is a tunnel opening on the sidewalk leading down to a staircase. You go down the stairs and surprisingly you find yourself in a bar right under the street. The address is actually number Zero on Aldwych Street.

I downloaded these pictures from the internet because mine didn't come out very good.

CellarDoor Bar entrance

The place was probably a public toilet in a previous life. It's a small intimate space with a bar on one end and a small stage at the other. Mirrored walls deceptively make you think there's plenty of room to wander around and then you realize you're looking at yourself in a mirror. Somehow a live cabaret show was going on with performers wandering through the crowd.

Interior of CellarDoor

Rocky told me I had to check out the bathrooms while there. When I saw that the doors to the toilets were clear glass, I said never mind! But Chris showed me that when you close the door and lock it, a light transforms the door so you can no longer see through it. Clever!

9/11 Anniversary

Even in London, the 10 year anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attack on the United States was commemorated. Among the almost 3,000 victims in the tragedy were 67 Britons, the largest number from a country outside of the USA.

Prince Charles laying wreath

There is a 9/11 Memorial Garden in Grosvenor Square near the US Embassy in London. A memorial service was held there this last Sunday on the 10 year anniversary. White roses were left for each of the 67 victims. I didn't even know the Memorial Garden was there. I will have to stop by it some time. These pictures are all from the internet as I did not attend the services.

Young relatives of victims laying roses

67 white roses

US ambassador Louis Susman, Prince Charles, Prime Minister David Cameron

Sadly, some protesters organized a noisy demonstration next to the service and brazenly set fire to a US flag during the moment of silence.

There was also a memorial service at the beautiful St. Paul's Cathedral:

St. Paul's Cathedral

Even at Lexi's local English club soccer game that day, a moment of silence was held prior to kickoff. Very touching.

Brazil / Ghana Futbol Game

The really good Brazil soccer team was in London playing a "friendly", a game that doesn't affect a team's league standings. We couldn't pass up the opportunity to see them play, even if it was on a school night. What a party it was!

Originally, Brazil was scheduled to play a friendly in Cairo, Egypt, but it was deemed not safe due to the political unrest there. So a last minute change had them playing against Ghana instead in London at the Fulham stadium known as the Craven Cottage.

The excitement began well before the game. Lexi was wearing a scarf from a previous Brazil match. As we walked in to Pizza Express for dinner, the guy seating us noticed the scarf and started talking to us in Portuguese. We had to explain we were only supporters, not Brazilian.

As we made our way to the stadium the crowds were colorfully decked out in their team's colors.

Brazil fan

Ghana fans

Confused fans?

This Brazil fan was having his picture taken with anyone apparently. He had a replica of the World Cup trophy and was wearing a shirt signed by one of the players.

We sat in the section at one end of the field designated for the Brazilian supporters. This is where the fans had huge drums and loud horns. People were chanting and gyrating to the drum beats. The crowd in our section stood up the entire game. On the opposite side of the field were the die-hard Ghana fans and they were just as boisterous. It was definitely an upbeat atmosphere.

Ronaldinho

Before the game

At half-time we were treated(?) to scantily-clad female Brazilian dancers with huge headdresses doing a samba dance to yet more drummers on the field. It was not your typical half-time entertainment. But then again, this was not your typical English Premier League soccer game.

Final score Brazil 1 Ghana 0

Tea with Mum

Dear Mumsy and I were invited to afternoon high tea in London over the weekend. Some lovely friends had purchased tea for 4 through a Groupon deal. I would never pass up an opportunity to spend some precious time with my mum, and anyway my friend Monica would be there, so away we went.....  I'll let my wonderful mum describe it for you.....

Well, yes, as my sweet daughter says, we were invited to the traditional English Tea with American friends that just moved here earlier this year. It was their first experience and we were happy to accompany them. The venue was a place called Altitude 360. It is on the 29th floor of the Millbank Tower in the Westminster area of London. The views of the city are breathtaking. It's so pleasant to sit there and enjoy tea while taking in the scenery through the surrounding windows.

Teen/Mum Tea for Four

Spectacular view: Thames River with London Eye and Parliament

Here is a picture of the delectable 3-tiered serving platter they bring out to the table. Finger sandwiches on bottom, scones on top, sweets in the middle.

And of course here is the cup of tea. You have a choice of several herb-infused teas, black teas, chai, or green tea. I went with the traditional English tea.

The teacups were so large I was holding mine with two hands, making it difficult to do the proper pinkies-up grasp.

There was an assortment of sandwiches including:

• Cucumber
• Salmon
• Prawn (shrimp)
• Egg salad
• Chicken
• Cheese with caramelized onion
• Ham and (strong) mustard

The scones can be topped with lemon curd, clotted cream, and jam.

Dessert included:

• Profiteroles (cream puffs)
• Shortbread
• Chocolate cake
• Meringue

As you can see in this "After" picture below, it was all quite tasty!

We noticed that there were no forks provided, just knives. That settled the question of whether it was okay to eat with our hands, it was all finger-food.

Afterwards we walked back to Waterloo train station along the river just across from the iconic Parliament building and the Big Ben clock tower. It was a picture perfect ending to a delightful afternoon tea.

Trip Back Home

It's summertime and that time of year that families living abroad like us travel "back home". School is out so it's a good time to head back to visit family and friends. Quite commonly, the company pays for one trip back home a year, a sweet deal!

First the trip must be planned, airplane tickets bought, arrangements made for where to stay, what dates for the trip, etc. It's similar to planning one of the many vacations we take while living over here but with the added excitement of reconnecting with friends and family and getting to go to America! One of the must-do's is to compile a shopping list of what to buy while in America to bring back to England. If you're interested here are the items I brought back this time:

Things you can't easily buy in England:

• Lipton Onion soup mix - I like cooking simple meals with it
• Kraft Macaroni and Cheese - a family favorite comfort food
• Tony Chachere's Creole Seasoning - we're addicted
• Sloppy Joes Seasoning mix
• Ear drops for drying water-clogged ears after swimming - it's mostly alcohol so they don't sell it here
• Abreva cold sore medicine
• Melatonin pills - to help regulate sleep when jet-lagged

Items that I prefer the quality of from America:

• Glad Cling Wrap
• Ziploc freezer bags

Lexi brought back a whole sack load of American candy such as Reece's Peanut Butter Cups that she misses. Supposedly she brought some back for her British friends, that is if she doesn't eat it all herself!

There's plenty more things we'd like to bring back but you do have to be careful not to pack something messy like pancake syrup that might spill in the suitcase.

I was worried about driving in the States now that I'm used to driving on the left side of the road in England. But I drove in the States for so long that it just comes naturally to get back on the "right" side of the road. The streets are wider and well-marked in America so I find it much easier to drive there. I love being able to pull up in a huge parking lot, find a space easily, and not have to pay for parking.

People are friendlier in the States, it's a bit of an adjustment to actually have strangers say hello, wave in the streets, and start up a conversation.  It feels so good to hear American accents all around you and to not feel self-conscious when I start speaking with my American accent.

Shopping is almost overwhelming with so much selection to choose from. We couldn't resist buying some frozen corn dogs, toaster strudel, frozen waffles, and Blue Bell ice cream, yum. I ate lots of yummy Mexican food, can't get good Tex-Mex in England.

Texas was having a record-breaking heat-wave while we were there. But honestly, the sun and heat felt so good to Lexi and me as we really miss it in England.

We tried to see as many friends as we could but it's hard when you can't see everyone. We enjoyed visiting with our English friends that live in Missouri City now. They are like our counterparts in this living abroad experience and we have fun swapping stories about the differences of the two cultures.

Before you know it, it's time to say goodbye, which is so hard. But it's time for our "trip back home" to England.

Here are some photos from our trip, including a visit to Texas' Largest Beach Bar in South Padre Island, a sunrise jog on the beach, and just kicking back relaxing.