The British Fork Rule (and Major Exception)

Brits, as a rule, use a knife and fork to eat most things. Including, but not limited to: pizza, hamburgers, picnic food, and fruit.

However.

There is one FIRM exception to this rule.

Birthday cake.

Not the birthday cake that you serve adults at the end of a dinner party. There, forks are allowed. Nay, compulsory!

This bizarre fork-less birthday cake takes two forms, as far as I can tell from my extensive anthropological research on the subject.

First, children's parties. For reasons I cannot fathom, the assembled sing Happy Birthday to the relevant kid, then the parents take the cake away. They bring it back, wrapped in napkins (icing and all!) and then put it in the party bags with the party favours. This results in a number of possible outcomes.
a. The kid demands to eat his cake in the car on the way home (sans fork, obv.). Even cake distribution throughout vehicle ensues.
b. The cake becomes unwrapped and coats the inside of the party bag, favours included.
c. The cake is forgotten and rediscovered 2 months later, at the bottom of the kid's backpack. Science experiment!

Why not just feed the cake to the kids at the party (with plates and forks)? They're already good and sugared up anyway, guaranteeing a meltdown in the car on the way home.

Second, at-the-office "it's my birthday and I've brought cake" cake.

Aside: this is something that I don't understand: why do I have to bring cake on my birthday? YOU should bring cake on my birthday. I will make you cake on YOUR birthday. Most people just buy donuts and cake at the grocery store and bring it in. I spend the night before my birthday making brownies, apple cake, and cupcakes (or some similar combination). Not that I mind, it's just odd.

Anyway, once this cake arrives at the office, even if it would normally be eaten with a fork and a plate, it is immediately transformed into finger food. There are no exceptions for icing or general gooey-ness.

This whole post, by the way, was inspired by a colleague's birthday about 2 weeks ago, where I found myself eating (and trying unsuccessfully not to wear) a large piece of very delicious Betty Crocker chocolate fudge cake with chocolate frosting. Without a fork.

Review: Bill Bryson At Home

I've read and loved several of fellow expat Bill Bryson's books. 

I bought At Home sometime in December, and promptly put it on the shelf and forgot about it. I was in the mood for some nonfiction last weekend, so I picked it up and started reading. It's a little bit repetitive, but otherwise very well written (and exhaustively researched). It's one not to read if you're embarrassed about laughing out loud on the train; thankfully, I'm not!

It's one of those books that will give you random dinner party fodder for months. You'll never look at your pillow the same way again, either.

Photo of ginger beer from Frank's Bar in Norwich, quite close to where Bryson lives. Bill, next time you're in town, check it out! The food is delicious!

More Rusby!

Kate Rusby's new Christmas album is out today. I was going to resist the Christmas creep, but who am I kidding? It's excellent. Tomorrow might be a Rusby day on the iPod. With a little Tori mixed in for good measure. It sure is dark enough outside at 3:45, anyway. Small sadness: her closest tour venues to us are Nottingham (sold out) and London (on a night we can't do). Oh well, we had a good run with Ipswich, Norwich, Peterborough, and Bury St Edmunds. Hmm...I might have a Rusby addiction.

I stumbled across this post from a transatlantic blogger, In the Left Lane, and laughed out loud.

My only amendments would be to change the first dates to 2006 and to add a few.

UK 2006: Why are all these cars so teeny tiny?
US 2011: How are these cars all so gigantic?! How do you people ever park?

UK 2006: Woah. This gas sure is expensive!
US 2011: HOLY CRAP this petrol is cheap!

John didn't find it as funny as I did...then again it's a fairly narrow subset of humanity who would.

Things I rather like

I have a few things that are not particularly exciting, but that I love. First, I had a really hard time getting my previous-favorite Vincent Longo liptint out here in the sticks. I found Benetint, by Benefit, and it works just as well. The only drawback is that the pot is quite a bit bigger than the other one, so it's not really viable for carrying around in my bag. It lasts most of the day, so it's not a huge issue.

John and I are both allergic to "normal" deodorants. Itchy and horrible. And my mom worries about aluminium. I found Salt Of The Earth crystal deodorant at Holland and Barrett. We are now neither smelly nor itchy, which is excellent. And it lasts FOREVER. We've been on the same stick for nearly a year, and there's plenty left.

I don't like tights. They roll at my waist and make me want to run away. These, though, don't seem to roll, and they're soft. They come in all sorts of different colours (on the John Lewis website), and hold the lumpies at bay without too much pinching. I also really like their 100% cotton tights, which I wear under a long skirt with boots in the winter and am snug-as-a-bug-in-a-rug.

So there we go. Random miscellany. You're welcome.

Wet Bank Holiday Weekend

Well, it's England. In August. And we just had the August Bank Holiday weekend. Therefore, it rained. Between the showers, we visited Melford Hall (and met the original Jemima Puddleduck). Gorgeous countryside, but we still like Kentwell better.

I also went to Walsham le Willows' annual open gardens day. Again, with the rain. Between the showers, I got some great pictures.

And when it wasn't raining, I was snacking. Lunch: leftover spinach, sauteed, with melted blue cheese on a panini. YUM.