Magic Bins?

Box update: 9 1/2 boxes packed (mostly books), about 35 to go. Tomorrow, we tackle the junk drawer(s).

We had our 'home demonstration' today - basically a walk-through with one of the customer services people and one of the builders. They told us about the loft, showed us how to use the boiler, and other thrilling things. Two weeks from today we should be IN the new house, pondering the lack of internet. It'll come, it just might take a while. BT (British Telecom for the 'mericans) are not known for being speedy.

One of the things that all Brits have are 'bins'. They're like garbage cans except that they're all standard and provided by the county council and have wheels. And are therefore known as wheelie bins. Mom and Dad, do you feel a joke coming on? I knew it!!

So there's a guy who goes on vacation for 2 weeks, and the morning after he gets back, he runs in to the garbage man (the 'bin man') on his way to work.

The bin man says, "Where's yer bin?"

The homeowner proudly responds, "I been to France!"

"No, no, where's yer WHEELIE bin?"

"I WHEELIE been to France!!"

Teehee. This was on the BBC at some point while we were in the UK when I was a kid and my family brings it up at least once a week.

So anyway, I had to call the council to arrange for some bins at the new house (recycling and otherwise), and when I spoke to the guy he said that they'd be delivered at the new house in the next week or so.

I said, "So they'll just appear? We don't have to sign for them or anything?"

To which he responded, "Nope, it's just like magic!"

"Oooh," I said. "Magic bins!!"

He chuckled. "Yep, magic bins."

Indeed.

Bed Time

Well, we bought a bed frame today. Our flat was furnished when we moved in, although we pretty quickly decided the mattress had...er...seen better days. So we bought a new one last winter (thrilling, I know). The bed frame, however, was fine. But now since we're moving, we've been on the lookout for a bed frame. We've been everywhere - the Bed Warehouse places, the mom & pop stores, ebay, Ikea, the department stores - and found nothing. At all. There've been a few 'Eeh...I can live with that' beds, but nothing that's grabbed either of us.

We weren't really looking forward to putting our mattress on the floor in our new room as a permanent solution, so John went through the Yellow Pages this afternoon. We found a place in Stonham Aspal, about 10 minutes down the road. It's in a little complex with a mini-golf place and an owl sanctuary and random other stuff - we've driven by it a zillion times and never stopped.

It's called MH Beds - here's their website (although our bed isn't on there). We walked in, and I immediately saw a bed that I loved - it had really clean lines and a straight back and was exactly the right look for the house. I was a bit disappointed, since I didn't think John would like it. So I went over to the other wall, where there was a perfectly nice bed that he was moving towards. The sales guy told us about the bed, and then asked what we were looking for. We told him (wood, straight back, low foot end) and pointed at the bed that I'd seen as we walked in.

Apparently John had had the exact same reaction (I love it but Kate won't like it)...

We bought it on the spot and it's going to be delivered to the new house (and assembled!) in 4 weeks.

A different kind of tape...

Well, it's official. We've started packing. We've done 4 boxes, with about 50 to go (judging by the number that the moving estimator gave us after looking round the flat). Oh joy. Part of the problem is that the flat's so small that we can't really cordon a room off for boxes - they kind of just have to sit where they're packed.

We went to the French market in town today - they travel over on the ferry about three times a year and there are all kinds of great cheeses and breads and other yummy stuff. John also got a pair of slippers...since we're having new (white!) carpets in the new house, there will be NO SHOES in the house for at least 5 years. Maybe 10. Possibly 15. The slippers are burgundy velour - I think they're hysterical and John loves them. He's going to need a smoking jacket v. soon to go with them.

We John watched Pan's Labyrinth last night. It's been compared to Narnia and lots of other fantasy films, which I thought was really misleading. It was SO violent and gory that I had to sit on the other couch, with my back to the TV, and then I ended up leaving the room. John thought it was a good movie on the whole, but he definitely didn't love it either. It's won all sorts of awards...who knows.

Tape is evil

I've been going to physiotherapy for a few months now, and last week my physio announced that she was going to start 'taping' me. "Video?", I thought. "Audio?"

Nah...big ace-bandage-y looking sticky tape. That runs up my spine and down my right arm. And is supposed to take the pressure off my shoulder. And is driving me BANANAS.

The good news? I can take it off. The bad news? Not until Tuesday (unless I develop an allergic reaction sooner).

Update: The tape came off at lunch time today - I drove home from work to take it off because it was making me so nuts...

Thanks to everyone who emailed/commented about the Times...I was pretty darn thrilled.

Dear Diary, I'm FAMOUS!!

About 6 weeks ago, I submitted a story to the New York Times Metropolitan diary. And then forgot about it. Check this out!!

Dear Diary:

My mom and I had a funny New York moment last month.

I lived in Tudor City for two years and was a daily train rider. I now live in the United Kingdom with my husband, and one night last month I was on the phone with my mom, who was on her way back home from a Broadway show.

She told me that her train would arrive in about 15 minutes and then sighed, “I’m desperate for a cup of coffee.” I asked her where she was and she replied that she was standing at the top of the escalators in Grand Central Terminal, about to go down to the main concourse.

I informed her that there were two Starbucks nearby, then proceeded to direct her to the closest one, over the phone and from 3,500 miles away. She got her coffee and made her train! Ahh, the miracles of modern technology!

Kate Hughes Herd

He's 9...and he eats vegetables.

We've had a really low-key weekend - it's been great. Today we went and saw the grandparents for lunch, then headed back here to do some misc housekeeping and errand-y stuff. Freda's finished the curtains for our bedroom and they're gorgeous. Pics once they're up in the new house!!

We weren't sure what to have for dinner, so I flipped through the latest BBC Good Food and found a prawn (shrimp) thai red curry stir fry with broc, baby corn and red peppers. It was cooked in less time than it took to make the rice. AND James ate some of his broccoli and all of the corn and peppers. I love the fact that when I met him, 2 years ago, he liked 'Burger King and stuff like that' and now he loves spicy food and curries and veggies. SWEET.

And now that Andrea's birthday's over (Happy Birthday!!), I can post this link. I bought her present on Etsy, which is kind of like a cross between a craft fair and Amazon.com. I was the seller's first web purchase and she was about as thrilled as I was. :)

Doggies!!

It's our second-to-last James weekend before the big move. Woohoo!!

One of my chores today was to finish making the tabs for the curtains that I'm Freda's making for the living room. The only spare piece of fabric we had was a long strip down the side (that we'd earmarked for the tabs), so I decided that rather than sew 14 individual tabs (7 for each curtain), I'd just sew the whole thing in to a long tube. AND I had a stroke of genius - I needed the finished tabs to be 2" across, but my sewing machine doesn't have many guide marks on it. So I took one of the sticky flags that I have for marking pieces in music books and put it 2" from the needle, on the sewing machine. And boom - a 3 meter long, very straight seam, exactly in the right spot. Oh the thrill of it.

And then I had to turn all 3 meters of it. I'm horrible at turning...it just takes forever. I came into the living room where the boys were computing (James has discovered Solitaire), and realized that James' fingers were just the right size to help turn the long tube. He thought it was a fantasic game - he kept shouting about how much he'd gotten this time!! I love it...I'll have him crafting soon. Oh, and his grandma (on the other side...not terribly predisposed to liking me, but a v. sweet lady nonetheless) thought that his lego bag was rockin'. Indeed.

We also repotted my aloe plant- I got it at Lidl for £1.95 and it's thrilled to be in a bigger pot and closer to the window. The weeping fig has been repotted too, but it may have had one forgotten watering too many. We'll see.

We stumbled on Crufts on TV on Thursday night and have been hooked. It's the biggest dog show in the UK and one of the biggest in the world. As a v. doggy person (if you haven't seen Best In Show, go get it), I'm now completely obsessed with it. Tomorrow night we may have to give James special school-night bedtime dispensation so he can stay up at watch it.

We were all cheering madly for the dog & tennis ball relays - teams of 4 dogs (mostly collies) have to jump over 4 hurdles, hit a target to launch a tennis ball, catch the ball, and hurtle back over the hurdles to their human. It was unbelievable how fast they were, and really funny when some of them got SO excited that they abandoned the hurdles entirely and just ran back with the tennis balls. Rrufus has missed his calling.

Vaginas!

Apparently some grown-ups in Westchester are freaking out about vaginas. As a card-carrying Vagina, I'm with the students. Performing the Vagina Monologues in a high school (not even in its entirety) is a fantastic idea. The New York Times article is here.

For those of you who are feeling slightly traumatized by this...sorry. I was in Colby's '03 V-Day production of the Vagina Monologues and it was a fantastic experience.

Moving along...

We've got the mortgage moving, the movers booked, and we're starting in on changing all of our addresses. One of the things I'm most looking forward to: having our OWN mail slot. We have a communal one in the flat now and it's horrible to come in to mail that someone's opened and then stuffed back in the envelope or has muddy footprints on it or is strewn around the hall.

In the new house, if the mail is muddy, it's OUR fault.

Oh, and I can't wait to have an extractor fan. We had trout for dinner last night and we woke up this morning to the flat REEKING of fish. And this evening when we came home the smell hit us like a brick wall when we walked in. And yes, mom, we took out the garbage and have washed everything down. I think the griddle that we used was holding the smell, so I washed it in lemon juice at the MiL's suggestion. We'll see how it is tomorrow morning - it wasn't too bad when I got back from choir.

More Than I Can Chew...

Right...I've abandoned the blog - it's been crazy around here! I'm back now, at least for a bit.

I spent some quality time with Freda (John's mom) this weekend - in my infinite wisdom, I'd decided to make our own curtains so we could save a little money. I hadn't really thought this through, though...I'd picked out and purchased fabric and lining, but I only had sort of a vague idea of what to DO with it. Yeah, I can sew dice bags and skirts and little stuff, but curtains are big and complicated and if you mess them up, everyone can see them.

We worked on them all day Saturday and Sunday and got to 6pm Sunday evening with one set of curtains, mostly done. I have to do the tab tops this week but we've done the lining and the hems (bloody complicated!) and the seams up the side. And the ironing. Ugh.

My mother-in-law is a saint...she looked at the carnage on Sunday evening and said, "Ok, you're not proud about these, right? Can I make the rest of the curtains? MY way?"

"Erm, yeah, that would be awesome."

I'm feeling a bit sheepish. I felt better when I talked to Mom, though...she reminded me that when she made Edward and my duvet covers and matching window valence thingys it took her WEEKS of wrestling with the fabric and the pattern repeats (I HATE pattern repeats) in order to get them right. Granted, the duvet cover she made is amazing and all the flowers DO match up. I guess I have nowhere to go but up...

Speaking of flowers and Freda, she presented us with some gardening stuff on Saturday evening (we cooked them dinner after all the curtaining). Two big plastic planters, gardening gloves for each of us, and two gardening books.

Their titles? The Low-Maintenance Garden and The Impatient Gardener. Hmm...do you think she's trying to tell us something?

New house

Well, we don't have a firm moving date yet, but it looks like we'll be in the new house by the end of March. Woohoo! We've accumulated all kinds of furniture from all over suffolk, so far...most of it is hand-me-downs from various friends. We've got a massive list of things that need to happen between now and the move, not least of which are packing, scheduling the movers, setting our mortgage in motion, making all the curtains, and getting the carpet guys in. Right...can't think about it all in one block like that...all that makes me want to do is crawl under the duvet with my blankie.

We'll get there...it just looks a little daunting from here!

I'm Pasta Caring

Haha...that was punny.

Oh, and I have to post this joke...my Mom and I think it's hysterical. Fair warning: mom's come up with a theory that there's a gene on her side of the family that makes us more susceptible to puns than the average bear...this one will reliably keep us in stitches for a solid five minutes.

There was a king who lived on an island in the tropics. There were other kings on this island, and they were always feuding.

This king lived in a castle made of grass, made from the reeds and rushes found on the island.

In one of the battles with another king, this king stole one of his prize thrones and brought it home to his castle, where he put it up in the attic for safe keeping.

This throne happened to be made of stone, and was very large and heavy. That night, when the king was asleep, the throne fell through the roof of his bedroom, landed on him, killed him instantly, and destroyed the castle.

The moral of the story?

People who live in grass houses shouldn't stow thrones!

Oh, the mirth!

Update: Mom and Dad have posted some more puns in the comments - they're fantastic!

Ok, back to the pasta. I was off sick yesterday with a sore throat, and then went in to the office today. Whatever I had has gotten worse, and I was feeling pretty zonked by the end of the day. John was a model hubby and cooked some fantastic spaghetti sauce with zucchini and mushrooms. He sauteed the garlic in hot olive oil at the beginning, which gave it a really nice hint of smokiness.

I think I'll keep him. :)

Herrmann Socks and Flapjacks

When they were little, my cousins Ben and Willie had...sock issues. For some reason, neither of them could keep socks ON their feet. They always had them sort of flapping off the end of their feet. And then yesterday morning, I saw this:


Yep...James has Herrmann Socks.

Then, last night, after being at rehearsal all day, I was feeling really domestic. So I made a batch of flapjacks. These were supposed to have nuts in them but I lost interest half way through, so they're just oats, dried berries, sugar, butter and honey. Oh yum.


Oh, and James loved John's dice bag SO much that he asked me to make one for him - I think it came out REALLY well. He picked out the pirate fabric, which I lined with the extra pillowcase that I used to make lampshades.

He's Behind You!

Thursday night, I went to Pakenham to see Sandy in the village panto. They were doing Dick Turpin. In the spirit of all village pantos, Sandy was fantastic, a tree (prop) fell over, there was much forgetting of lines, and the audience got WAY too into singing the policemen's siren whenever the two cops (with battery-operated flashing blue lights on their hats) came on stage.

From wikipedia:

The form has a number of conventions.

* The leading male character (the "principal boy") is usually played by a young woman (although this tradition appears to be dying out).
* An older woman (the pantomime dame) is usually played by a man in drag.
* Risqué double entendre, often wringing innuendo out of perfectly innocent phrases.
* Audience participation, including calls of "look behind you!" (or "he's behind you!"), and "oh yes it is!" or "oh no it isn't!" The audience is always encouraged to "boo" and "hiss" the villain.
* A song combining a well-known tune with re-written lyrics. The audience is encouraged to sing the song; often one half of the audience is challenged to sing "their" chorus louder than the other half.
* The pantomime horse or cow, played by two actors in a single costume, one as the head and front legs, the other as the body and back legs.
* The good fairy always enters from the right side of the stage and the evil villain enters from the left. In Commedia Dell 'Arte the right side of the stage symbolized Heaven and the left side symbolized Hell.
* The members of the cast throw out sweets to the children in the audience

We always went to pantos when we lived in Peterborough - I remember thinking that they were pretty neat.

Magical Bag...

I was feeling the call of the sewing machine this evening - we didn't have a chance to start the curtains this afternoon.

So I made John a new dice bag for his Wednesday night gaming sessions. I think it's really cute - very wizardy. I got the pattern here.

It's all lined and everything!

And the outside:

With the

StowmarKate does Stowmarket

First off, a big thanks to Liz for the awesome box of Girl Scout cookies. Samoas, no less. They arrived on Thursday morning and totally made my day! I've put them in the freezer to be eaten one at a time (they're so yummy when the caramel is all cold and crunchy...)

Secondly, I've added some RSS buttons over on the right - feel free to add me to your Google reader or whatever (or let me know if the buttons don't work or are annoying you). :)

John and I had our first James-free, illness-free, chaos-free Saturday in AGES. Leanne and Tracey were originally scheduled to come over for din but they've had an insane few weeks so we've rescheduled. Turns out Caroline and Ian are free tonight, though, and we've been trying to get together with them for weeks. Off we go!

We had a relaxing Leek & Potato night in last night - and then watched some *gasp* TV. We've discovered the joys of Friday night on BBC 2 - Jimmy's Farm followed by A New Year At Kew. Jimmy's farm is about Jamie Oliver's friend Jimmy, who set up a pig farm near us in Suffolk. And has a somewhat exciting time. A Year At Kew is all about the gardeners and botanists at Kew Gardens - it's surprisingly entertaining!

This morning we made pancakes (yum!), used up the last of our maple syrup that we bought in Vermont at Liz & Dan's wedding (sad!), and then went in to town. We had to confirm our flooring order for the new house, go to the library, and sort out some curtains for the study. We found these great pillows at the more expensive curtain store (where we ended up NOT getting a gorgeous asian red floral pattern for the study - it was going to be £400 for ONE window). They, surprisingly, match our green sofas of fun!

I also got an amazing bag of blue-ish ex-sample book fabric scraps for £3! Here are some of my faves:


Gotta love the monkeys...


I can't wait to start making stuff...there are so many random fun scrap projects floating around the internet.

While we were in town, we also found some great dining room chairs (v. comfy) and a really smart dining room table, both on sale. We've bought them, along with some much more reasonably priced curtains that we like just as much and a whole slew of curtain rods. They're holding everything until we move in, which is REALLY nice of them.

Off to dinner in I-town!!

I Love Amy, Emily and John

The concert last night was amazing. John is the best hubby ever - we had the perfect evening. We realized at about noon that we were going to need to eat dinner somewhere...on Valentine's Day. Oh bother. I called some restaurants in Cambridge to see if they could fit us in before the concert, but no luck. One place said that he'd turned away 500 phone calls. Phew.

We were starting to think it was going to be a McD's evening, when one of the girls John works with suggested going to the Pizza Express in Bury at 5pm. Nobody in their right mind is eating then! We'd miss the rush hours getting out of Bury and into Cambridge, and still make the concert in time (the girls weren't on until 9 and they have a history of crap opening acts). So off we went- they had a table. But d'ya want to know who else is at Pizza Express at 5pm on Valentine's Day?

Think about it....

Yup, every member of the under-5 set (with parents in tow) within a 30 mile radius was there. And screaming. Loudly. As they ran around the restaurant.

Somehow John and I managed to block it out while we ate our pizza, which was v. lovely and made slightly more romantic by the rose on our table (intended for the people at the 7pm sitting without the toddlers, natch). Our waitress (whose first language is not English) wished us a "Happy Valentine's....evening!" as we left - she'd obviously heard people referring to it and assumed that the 'day' part was interchangable. Teehee.

Off we trundled to Cambridge, where we were still pretty early, so we went to Frankie & Benny's for a drink before the concert. By this point, it was nearly 8, so EVERYONE who was going out to dinner was out. It was a complete zoo but we managed to elbow our way to the bar.

By 8:15 we were at The Junction for the concert, listening to Catherine Feeny, who was surprisingly good! She's a transplanted Californian living in the UK, with a very Joni Mitchell - type sound. We were pleasantly surprised. :)

The venue's capacity was 750, and we were tickets 318 and 319 when we picked them up. It looked like there were about 450 people there - we were only about 4 rows from the stage (and 3 rows from the back), right in the middle. Amy and Emily seemed really psyched to be there - they played a lot of classics (Closer to Fine, Power of 2, Galileo, Virginia Wolf, The Wood Song, etc), and then a bunch of their new songs (Pendulum Swinger, Money Made You Mean, Little Perennials). Amy also did a rip-roaring rendition of Let It Ring, which is what I would consider to be the ultimate protest song. There was much Bush-bashing at the concert - these two don't feel any shame in saying how much they hate Bush. They were talking about how they want Hillary, Obama and Gore to be a triumvirate. Hey, it could happen.

Here's the pic I took with my cell phone - sorry the quality isn't stellar.


Overall, it was an amazing concert. It didn't have the 'we all know all the words to all the songs' energy of the NYC concerts that I've been to, but the Girls were visibly excited to be there and they were throwing everything in to the performance. They sounded really rested and their voices were great - Amy's was more of a rich baritone than it usually is and Emily didn't have the hoarseness that she can get after a long tour.

John found an interview with them on Wednesday's Woman's Hour on Radio 4: here's the link.

Enjoy!!

Indigo Girls prep

I'm a big IG dork. They're playing in Cambridge tomorrow evening and John and I are going, come hell or high water. I couldn't believe it when I saw that they were playing so close to us (it's only about 40 mins from the office - about an hour from Stowmarket). I would have gone if they'd been playing in London, Manchester...pretty much anywhere in the UK. Cambridge is perfect - we don't even have to take any time off work!

I'm listening to my Indigo Madness iTunes playlist...after about 40 minutes of it, John asked me to put my headphones on. Poor chap. I think there's going to be some Mellencamp on the way to Cambridge tomorrow night to offset the estrogen of the evening. I love the crowds at IG concerts - it's usually about 90% female, with the occasional tortured husband/boyfriend/random gay support buddy brought along for moral support. I've been to see Amy and Emily with Colby peeps, my mom (twice!), Emily, and Meade, but never John. I guess it's a select group and he has to join it some time...

I think if they play Power Of Two or Free In You I'll cry. I should be fine with most of the other stuff, though. Review to follow.

Update on my new year's resolution to run the 5K Race For Life: I haven't signed up yet (sign up opened last week) at the request of my physical therapist. I've been having really bad back probs at work and the PT doesn't want me to do anything else that might tax my back until it's better. I SHOULD be fine to run, though, since the race isn't until June. I'll keep you posted (and then badger you for sponsorships).

Fabric!

On Saturday, when John was horizontal and I wasn't feeling great, I went to Ipswich to take James to a birthday party. It was a three hour party from 10am to 1pm on a Saturday (a day-killer, as we call them), so I was noodling around in Ipswich to kill time.

When John and I had been killing time previously in Ipswich, I'd noticed that there was a Fabric Warehouse down by the football stadium. So off I trundled on Saturday morning.

I'd been fretting about the amount of naked windows that we're going to have when we move in to the new house next month, and the fairly overwhelming task of 'matching' curtains to the stuff in the rooms that we haven't furnished yet. When I was taking about it with Sandy, she had the great suggestion of going to the fabric store, finding stuff that I liked (and that was on sale) and then buying more than I think I need.

I found two great fabrics - the one for the living room has six-inch high purpley-blue tulips with green stems on a cream background, and the one for the bedroom is blue, yellow and green stripes on a cream background. I got lots of both (they were on sale - yay!), and I'm going to borrow Freda's sewing machine to make the curtains next weekend. I'm a little daunted but mostly excited. I still need to get window coverings for the other two bedrooms, the three bathrooms, and the kitchen window. Phew.

Man-Flu

We had James this weekend, and completely broke protocol by dropping him off this afternoon. John has what James has christened Man Flu. As you've probably heard, they've had a break of the H5-N1 Bird Flu in Suffolk, so it's all over the news. John, however, has escaped with Man Flu.

I'm not feeling terribly stellar, either...mine's more of a low-grade 'ugh' feeling. Blech.

Snow in England!

I caught up with my friend Sandy on Tuesday night - I hadn't seen her since she started her new job and she's loving it. It's the perfect thing for her - she's doing lots of event planning and conference management. Yay!

As I was leaving, her husband arrived home from a conference that he'd been at, where they were giving out squeezy animal stress-reliever things. you know, the little squishy things that you squeeze to make all your worries disappear. hah. So anyway, he gave me a purple rhino, who immediately made himself at home on my desk with the other guys (Sailor Elmo, Horn Smurf, and George the Fimo Dragon).

During my lunchbreak, I was tormenting my boss (who was sort of trying to work, but laughing anyway) and I threw Mr. Rhino to him. And what did he do? Pulled his head off.

I know!!! I was distraught!! Apparently he thought he was the stretchy kind of stress-relief toy thing, and was trying to stretch him out. After some emergency surgery (aka superglue) he's right as rain, with the exception of a fairly gnarly scar around his neck.

He even went out for a small adventure in the snow we had this morning. That's right, snow in England. We had about 3 inches and the whole country screeched to a halt. Everyone was freaking out and convinced that we were all going to die. Somehow, we made it through.

I had a funny New York moment last night - I was on the phone with my mom, who was on her way back from a Broadway show. She told me that her train was in about 15 minutes and then sighed, "I'm desperate for a cup of coffee." I asked her where she was and she replied that she was standing at the top of the escalators in Grand Central, about to go down to the main concourse. I informed her that there were 2 Starbucks nearby, then proceeded to direct her to the closest one. It's kind of tucked away in the side of the terminal, over by the Transit Museum Store, and she had no idea that it was over there. She got her coffee AND made her train! Ahh, the miracles of modern technology.

Garlic, Sapphires and Drooling

At Rebeka's recommendation, I'm reading Ruth Reichl's Garlic And Sapphires. It's AWESOME. She gives backstory on the reviews before including the reviews themselves, and they are truly drool-inducing.

To give you an idea of how much I'm enjoying the book, I started it last night at 9pm and I'm on page 227. And I was at work all day. And we had parent-teacher night at James's school so I didn't start reading until about 8 tonight.

She has a real knack for describing food (she must, to have gotten her job), and I've been thoroughly enjoying her $100 dinners. I just don't want it to end. Luckily, she's written two other food memoirs. Let's hope the Stowmarket library has them!

To all the foodies (and New Yawkas) out there, go read it.

I'm obsessed with food...

John went out for a curry with the guys last night, so I went to Waitrose and bought a v. glorious steak for dinner. (J doesn't eat red meat). I had a long phone chat with mom and then read for a while and went to bed early. It was very battery-recharging.

This morning I went in to Bury to meet John, and we went out for breakfast. We both had coffee- my latte was SO pretty that we had to take a picture of it. It was with John's cameraphone so the resolution isn't fabulous but I think it gets the point across. I had eggs benedict with a fantastically lemony hollandaise and John had the full english. YUM.



Then we went to the fabric store - we had our first walkthrough of the new house yesterday (it's AWESOME!) and I wanted to check out some curtains. Instead, I got completely distracted by the corduroy that was on sale. I'd mentioned ages ago that I was making a knitted and corduroy blanket like the one that Emily has, but I hadn't found any cord that I liked. This stuff is a really nice chocolate color AND was on sale because it was a remnant. Perfect. Oh, and while we were in there, we saw a sewing machine that costs £4,000. Yup...$7,000. Apparently it will embroider ANYTHING that you tell it to. When we win the lottery...


Speaking of chocolate, I bought some strawberries at Waitrose the other day (I know, I know, it's January...) and they're glorious. So I decided to dip some of them in chocolate. They turned out ok...the chocolate has hardened with a somewhat unappetizing texture, but other than that they're glorious. Sorry the pic's kinda blurry - it's the best I could get.


One more thing- we went in to Stowmarket to do some errands and went to the new wine shop at the station - we were the only ones in there and the assistant was thrilled to have someone to talk to. We 'tasted' the better part of half a bottle (and then bought a few with a promise to return). Good stuff!

We have a date!

The NYT has announced the release date for the next (last!) Harry Potter book. ACK!!! Here's the link to the article.

I have 2 PINK driving licenses!!

My second pink driving license has arrived - yee haw! Not only is my NY one pink, but my new and shiny Brit one is, too. I may or may not look like a drug dealer in my photo, but that's ok. I'll only have the license until I'm...75.

Oh, and it's Radio 1 week at work again. For you non-brits, it's a Top 10-ish playlist with REALLY annoying DJs. Not sure where they find the knuckle-trailers who call in, either. They play the same 5 songs OVER and OVER and OVER...it's completely soul-shredding. And the sound comes in through the walls of our office (we don't have speakers in there, thankfully), so all we get is the bass and some of the louder lyrics. I've asked for it to be turned off but I think that there will be a snowy pig flying through hell the day it happens...

I'm pretty sure it's not butter...

This is Rrufus (note the 2 R's at the beginning...he can say his own name).


He's my parents' dog, and he is quite convinced that he's a person. He's the smartest dog we've ever seen (I know everyone says that about their dogs, but he really is). He understands more than some of the people I've worked with, and can identify the sound of my parents' car as they turn in to our street (at least 200 yards from the house and out of sight).

He also has a bit of a butter fetish. He can hear the butter dish being opened from anywhere in the house, and he'll sit and drool on your shoes until you give him a pat, at which point he'll inhale it and look at you for a second one. "Surely, you're not going to use that whole stick! It's a waste to put it back in the fridge- I'll just polish it off for you!"

My parents can leave a steaming roast, turkey, ham, dog biscuits, or anything else on the kitchen table. Except butter. He's stolen at least 3 whole sticks that we know of, and broken one butter dish - there's probably been more.

My mom was told by a doc that she should switch to some kind of buttery substitute thing, and so as she was spreading it on her toast the other morning, Rrufus was standing by. She gave him a blob, which he promptly spat on the floor.

He can't believe it's not butter...

Brownie Points

I have the best husband in the world. I'd mentioned to him that I was feeling a little homesick last week - I think the darkness was really getting to me. So what did he do?


BROWNIES!! 2 boxes of American Betty Crocker brownie mix, to be exact. It turns out that the wife of one of the guys he works with goes to the US Airforce Base a lot, and can buy 'merican' food there. And so John asked him to buy 2 boxes for me. And they arrived today. Whattaguy!

I'm going to make one box this weekend and ration the other for when I'm feeling homesick again.

Oh, and I took the photo in the 'photo studio' (two pieces of black card, one taped to the wall) in our office at lunch break. I'm so high-tech.

Fred & George with Broccoli

I'm still on track with my recipe resolution - John and I had broccoli in garlic sauce for dinner tonight. YUM! The recipe's at the end of the post.

John and I have unilaterally decided (with some help from the BURPS boys) that the slippers should be known as Fred and George. YAY to C for suggesting it!! We'll plant a tree in your honor in our back yard. :) And call it Ron.

Speaking of unilateral decisions, I don't really get involved in politics on here but I'm fairly interested to see what comes of the State of the Union speech tonight. Being in the UK (and dedicated to Radio 4) gives an interesting perspective on things. It seems like the brits view Bush as a complete lunatic, but they also think most Americans are nuts for voting for him. Twice. Blair has definitely fallen from grace here, with his demise accelerated by the terrier-like obedience to Bush with Iraq. Nice job.

BTW, the Blogger photo uploads were annoying me so I put them on Flickr - you can see them in the window over at the right (and click on it to go directly to my Flickr page)

Here's the recipe we had tonight, from Epicurious.com. I added bok choi (2 stalks) with the broc, and then corn starch at the end to thicken it a bit. Oh, and I used about 8 cloves of garlic...I lost count. And the feeds 6 business is nuts...John and I had it with noodles and are still kinda hungry.

BROCCOLI SPEARS WITH GARLIC SAUCE
1 1/2 lb broccoli (about 1 head)
1 tablespoon canola oil
4 garlic cloves, lightly smashed
3 tablespoons Asian oyster sauce
1/2 cup chicken stock or low-sodium broth
1 teaspoon Asian sesame oil
Peel off tough outer skin of broccoli stem, then halve broccoli crosswise (top half with florets should equal length of bottom half). Cut bottom half (stem) lengthwise into 1/2-inch-wide wedges, then cut top half (stem with florets) into long spears with 1/2-inch-wide wedges.

Heat a wok (or v. large pan) over high heat until beginning to smoke, then add canola oil and swirl to coat sides. Stir-fry garlic until golden, about 30 seconds, then add broccoli and stir-fry 5 minutes. Stir in oyster sauce and stock and cook, covered, until broccoli is crisp-tender, about 3 minutes. Remove from heat and toss with sesame oil.

Gourmet
February 2004

Ally Pally

Yesterday John and I drove down to London to go to the Model Engineering show at Alexandra Palace. The show was pretty neat, even if it was, as John said, a shadow of its former self. Apparently he went with his dad when he was a kid and it was HUGE. Or maybe he was just smaller...

Either way, on their website they make a big production of how EASY it is to get there. If by easy to get there they mean that you must have a London A-Z street map and be a reasonably skilled navigator, then yes, it was fab. Part of our problem was that there was a road closure on the M25 that they didn't tell you about until you were on top of it, but it could have been worse. We saw 2 signs for the palace on the whole trip - one was a sign pointing off into nowhere and the other was a sign pointing towards the palace, about half a mile away. Problem with that one? We could SEE the palace at the end of that road. Good job, guys.

Here I am at the show (we did actually get there), driving a model tank. They were really fun...you 5 minutes to drive around and shoot other tanks. :)


Here's the outside of the building:


I have more pictures but Blogger has decided to stop cooperating...will post them soon.

I PASSED MY TEST!!!

Thanks to John's lucky moose boxer shorts, much finger-crossing on Sandy's part, a series of lessons with my kick-ass instructor Glen, and lots and lots of mirror-checking.

I've really done it - I've passed my UK driving test. I didn't pass with flying colo(u)rs, but I made it.

WOOHOO!

It was raining cats and dogs for the entire time I was out on the test (and then cleared up for the rest of the day), and I made random mistakes and discovered a whole bunch of Bury neighborhoods I'd never seen before.

SO relieved.

Cooking and Ducking

OK, in no particular order:

1. Fred & George

2. Peking & L'Orange

3. Ginko & Biloba

I've also made further strides in the 'cook something new every week' resolution. I made a butternut squash/spinach/bacon pasta thing tonight - it was pretty good but I think it put both John and me over the butternut squash threshold. We've had a it a lot and I think it's time for a new winter veg. Suggestions gladly taken. :)

MOOSE!

Our apartment smells like hyacinths. It's glorious. I bought a mysterious pot plant with some pansies primroses (thanks, Lizzie!) and 3 unidentified green leafy stalky things when we were at the market in Felixstowe last weekend, and after some major TLC at work, they've turned out the be the most wonderful smelling and enthusiastic hyacinths.

Here they are, in all their glory:


This morning we made pancakes for James - I tried to make him a mickey mouse one and it ended up looking more like Moose than anything else. He totally enjoyed the Mooseness of it. Didn't get a chance to take a picture before he devoured it, though.

Oh, and the contest is still open for the slipper naming - Mom & Dad have made a request to have more time. :)

Slipper Contest!

When Edward and I were kids, we always had really fun slippers. The ones that stick out were my Bert & Ernie slippers (one of each, obviously), and Edward's monster feet (big furry black feet with brown claws) and his frog ones. I think the frog ones were so spectacular because of their sheer impracticality. They were large and green, with googly eyes. And legs. It was the legs that caused the problem, because when you walked, they got tangled up with each other and then you fell down. Minor design flaw...

So I opened my Christmas present from Edward this year, and what did I see?


So, you say, where do we come in?

They need names. Good ones.

As some background - they have personalities. As you can see from the photo, the one on my right foot (left side of the pic) is much more assertive and generally happier. Not that the one of the left foot isn't happy, he just doesn't wear his heart on his sleeve so much.

Names in the comments! Winner gets...hmm...worldwide fame. :)

Crazy week

John and I have had a busy few days - Monday night I had a committee meeting for Choir, so I left work, went to the supermarket, picked up dinner, heated up my dinner, ate it, picked up John from the station, dropped him at home, and then blasted back to Bury for the meeting. It was like when I used to run around all day at Colby - I'd leave the room at 7am and not come back until 11pm. Phew.

Then last night Sandy came round and we had a great evening chatting and hanging out. John originally intended to mess around with some servers and stuff, but got totally sucked in to our conversation and ended up hanging out with us, too, which was fun.

Tonight was our second St Matthew Passion rehearsal, and then tomorrow I have my first physio appointment - I've had real back/shoulder problems since starting my job in August and it's time to get it sorted out. And then Friday we're picking up James for the weekend. No rest for the weary.

At least I'm not running a marathon this weekend....GO ANDREA GO!!!

Carbo Loading

John and I have had quite a day. After watching The Prince And Me last night (SO BAD...stay away from it), John made pancakes this morning. We used the Food Network Kitchens recipe - I thought they were so good that they didn't need syrup and John thought they were a bit too sweet. Here's the recipe

Here's one in the pan:


And on my plate (look how fluffy it is!!)


And about to be devoured by John:


After our pancakestravaganza, we went to Felixstowe to meet up with Leanne and her partner. We went out to the seafront, where we admired chavs in their native habitat and ate greasy, salty, glorious chips.

Me and Leanne, looking, as John says, 'windswept and interesting.'



Apparently Leanne has interesting taste in seaside snacks. Standard fare? Fish & chips, ice cream, cotton candy, etc. Leanne? Krab Sticks. You know, those fake crab sticks that are pink and white and sometimes go in sushi. Yeah, those. She bought a bag of 10 (in the sort of translucent bags that fish come in) from a fish vendor who was also selling NORMAL snacks like cooked shrimp with cocktail sauce and cockles in a thousand island-y dressing. And then she ate them all. And then she had a hamburger. With onions. How she eats it all and where she puts it, we'll never know...

The Constant Curryhouse

John and I both had completely crappy days at work yesterday, for totally different reasons. As much as I'd love to go in to great and gory detail, I don't want to get fired (or get anyone else fired, for that matter...)

In any case, we both just needed to wind down and enjoy the first evening in what seems like months when neither of us HAD to do something either that night or the following morning.

We also didn't particularly feel like cooking, so we walked over to Radhuni, our favourite Indian restaurant. We got there at about 6:30 and it was hoppin'! We're really glad they're busy, since we used to go there on a Friday evening and be the only people in the restaurant for 2 hours. We said hi to all the usual guys and ordered our normal 'variations on a theme' dinner. We're somewhat adventurous in our ordering but we also don't eat out as much as we used to, since we're saving money for carpets and furniture and other such luxuries. Anyway, the food was absolutely amazing and the service was really good. John loves Tarka Dal, which is kind of a lentil & garlic stew thing, and every time we have it at Radhuni, it's slightly different. This time, it was really garlicky and just smoky enough. YUM. The food there has always been really good, but if it continues like this we're going to have to move in.

We stopped at Blockbuster on the way home and rented 3 movies (one Kate movie, one John movie and one compromise. We watched The Constant Gardener (the compromise) when we got home - it was completely gripping and really well-filmed. It's was really draining, though, so we both conked out right after it finished. If you haven't seen it, definitely check it out.

John has nipped in to the office to run some random updates, so I'm curled up on the couch, trying to decide between watching the Kate movie (The Prince and Me - I LOVE Julia Stiles) and do some knitting or make a cup of tea and read some more of the latest Isabel Dalhousie saga that I just picked up from the library. Decisions, decisions.

Rachel Ray's Chicken Piccata A La Rebeka

My friend Rebeka sent me this recipe last week - I tried it out on John tonight and it was a hit. I used strong bread flour instead of normal, which made it a little goey, but other than that it was v. yummy.

I'm trying to get Rebeka to start a recipe blog - she cooks all the time and is more inventive than I generally am.

Oh, and New Year's Resolution #2 is off to a flying start!!

Rachel Ray's Chicken Piccata A La Rebeka

1 lb linguine or fettucine
2 large boneless skinless chicken breasts
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons butter or margarine
4 cloves of garlic, chopped
2 medium shallots, chopped (or half a yellow onion, chopped)
2 tablespoons flour
1/2 cup white wine
Juice of 1 lemon
1 cup chicken broth or stock
3 tablespoons capers, drained

Heat a large pot of water to boil for the pasta. Cook according to package directions.

Place the chicken breasts in a large, deep-ish non-stick skillet and cover with water. Bring to a boil and poach for about 10-12 minutes, until the chicken is pretty much cooked through (if it's not all the way done, don't worry....it will finish cooking in the sauce). Set them on a plate to cool and rinse out the skillet to use for the sauce. (You can always just use a 3rd skillet/pot...but why give yourself more to wash?)

Over medium heat, put the olive oil and butter/margarine in the pan and let it heat up. Add the chopped shallots and garlic and saute until soft, about 3 minutes. Add the flour and cook for another 2 minutes.

Whisk in the wine and reduce for about 1 minute. Whisk lemon juice and broth into the sauce. Stir in capers. (At this point I shred the chicken breasts with my fingers or a fork) Lower the heat on the sauce so it doesn't burn.

When the chicken is shredded, increase the heat slightly on the sauce and let it come to a bubble, then add the shredded chicken in. Stir to combine and heat through.

Drain pasta and add to the sauce and chicken. Enjoy!

Bach Therapy

Had our first Bury Bach Choir rehearsal of the term last night - we basically sang ALL the way through all the choral parts of the St Matthew Passion, which we'll be performing on March 31st. It was a completely exhausting rehearsal, not least because the score is a somewhat epic 248 pages and is rather heavy to hold on to for 2 hours. But this was just a warm up - we're not making any cuts in the performance which should being it to a resounding 3 hours and 15 minutes. Phew.

Having not sung much Bach since Colby, I'd forgotten how completely relaxing I find it. Not necessarily the chorales (4 part hymn-things, for the non music geeks)...they're nice but not anything special. It's the fugues that I love (nmg's: a Bach fugue is kind of like a REALLY complicated round). The fact that each part is not only complex, with lots of notes, but it has to trundle along on its own without any help from the other parts, means that the only way to sing one is to have your mind completely empty of other things. This is not the kind of music you can sing (and especially not sight read) while you're worrying about the house/the job/the hubby/the car or anything else.

We sang Bach's Magnificat in Collegium when I was at Colby - I think it was one of my all-time favourite concerts. In any event, last night's rehearsal was very tiring but really rewarding and generally brain-clearing.

I got home to find the boys gaming by candlelight - there was a power outage in our corner of Stowmarket and so the two flashlights I picked up at Tesco's on the way home were MUCH appreciated. John and I very industriously turned everything off so that when the power came back on, it wouldn't all kick in to high gear, but apparently we were the only ones. I'd left my bedside light on so I'd be able to wake up and check on things, and so at 2:35 this morning I was peering out of the kitchen window (as the washing machine was finishing its interrupted cycle) to see our little neighborhood all aglow. Since the power had gone off at 7:15, most of the people had ALL of their lights on and hadn't thought to turn them off. When I drove John to the 6:40 train (still dark out), most of the lights had been switched off, but a surprising number were still on.

Nowhere to go but up!

We had a great time with Ian & Caroline last night - we all chatted and laughed and ate fantastic food. And got carried away with the drinking. Caroline's friend introduced her to a cocktail which is 2 parts Baileys and 1 part Cointreau. There were two problems with this: 1. The drink tastes like a chocolate orange and goes down VERY fast and 2. It's BLOODY strong.

Yeah...I was having some issues this morning. I spent the whole day on the couch, reading, after a somewhat exciting car trip back from Ipswich. John was a model hubby, making sure I was drinking water and feeding me crackers when I decided at 4pm that I might want to eat something. And then he made my favorite dinner, the famous leek & potato surprise. Whattaguy!

On the bright side, I have nowhere to go but up for the year in terms of waking up and feeling like shit.

My parents have a similar 'that was really yummy but now we want to die and we're never going to drink anything ever again' story...one of our neighbors had a Mardi Gras party in the early 80s (I was about a year old, Edward was still a glimmer), where some delicious but completely toxic punch was served. Apparently mom and dad spent the day taking turns to make sure I was being changed and fed at semi-regular intervals, while the other one slept. The rest of the neighborhood was in a similar state, except that mom and dad were the only ones with an infant - everyone else's kids were either teenagers or not born yet. Lucky them.

I'm also making a few new year's resolutions:

1. To run a 5K this summer with the Tesco Race for Life (Andrea's inspired me with all her marathoning)

1 1/2: To lose enough weight so that I can wear my favorite grey trousers again. Not a lot, just enough for that.

2. To be more adventurous in my cooking - we can get a little bogged down on weeknights and as much as I love veggie chili and leeks they can get a little old. I have a stack of cookbooks and John got me a subscription to BBC Good Food magazine...I think I'm going to try and make one new thing every week.

3. To not be such a procrastinator. It's one of the things about myself that I dislike the most.

4. To bring my horn over and find some people to play with.

Happy New Year!

We're off to Ipswich tonight to have dinner with Ian & Caroline...we haven't seen them since the wedding so it will be really nice to catch up. It's not going to be the same as my above-Times Square with alcohol, music, food and bathrooms (and fantastic company!) - thanks Evan! But it should be fun.

Oh, and I can't believe it took me until Christmas to find this (and to today to post it)...the new Harry Potter book's title was released by Jo Rowling on the 21st - it's 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.' I'm hoping that it will be released AFTER Lizzie & Greg's wedding so that I can pick up my books from my parents' house in time to read them all again.

Oh, and the Indigo Girls are coming to Cambridge on Valentine's Day...John and I have tickets - he's the best hubby ever. Although I might have to bring mom, Meade and Emily over for the concert too...it won't be the same without them...

What side of the road am I on?

Freda made us a Christmas cake this year - it's a fruit cake with marzipan and fondant on top - YUM!! I was a little skeptical (not a huge fan of fondant, or fruitcake, for that matter), but it's really good. Not sure if I'll be able to wait until next year for more. AND we have a Christmas pudding that we haven't polished off yet - it was homemade by one of my friends and I can't wait to try it. Here's F's cake...

I had a 'what side of the road am I on?' moment the other day - thankfully it was with John and James in the car who both yelped and got me back on the correct side in time. It was, exactly as mom and dad had warned, as I was coming out of a network of one-way streets and making a left turn. The cars in front were going straight, and I was a little bit lost - I knew where I was but wasn't sure where I was going to be going next. Basically, all the usual reference points had disappeared and my brain kicked in to autopilot. And oop...over onto the right I went, headed for some (stopped) cars waiting at the light. I think they were as surprised to see me as I was to see them.

When I wasn't having near misses on the roads, I've been refashioning some lampshades for two Ikea lamps that John and I had on our bedside tables. The lamps are fairly lightweight wood frames with circular glass shades inside them. Only problem with them as bedside lamps is that when you're fumbling in the dark to turn the light on (during these glorious English winter mornings when it's dark until 7:15am), the whole thing tips over and shatters. Lovely. After John and I both killed our lamps in quick succession, I decided it was time for something a little more tip-over-proof. Or at least unbreakable. So I bought a set of really cheap pillowcases and made little shades for the lamps. Blogger's picture upload seems to be working again, so I'll add some pics tomorrow when it's light out.

Night At The Museum

James, John and I went to see Night At The Museum today - James saw it yesterday and was raving about it and John and I both wanted to see it, so we went. It's really clever and very funny, and it had a lot of 'New York Movie' moments, which made me love it even more. It was one of those movies where the kids and the adults are laughing in completely different spots... Oh, and it has Dick Van Dyke AND Robin Williams in it - what more could anyone want?

We took John out to dinner last night for his birthday (happy birthday John and Dad!!). We went to Pizza Express in Ipswich - it's a chain with really yummy pizza. Last night they were having kind of an off night, but we still had fun with our party hats and miscellaneous birthday candles...

I realized that I'd been completely neglecting the library - Freda had loaned me a few books and Andrea gave me some for my birthday, which I'd been working my way through. Jodi Picoult's stuff is fairly engrossing, but Andrea's right - you can really only read one before you need to switch to something else. I was interspersing them with Alexander McCall Smith books...they're light and fluffy but very entertaining. I've reserved a few more books from the library...any recommendations would be gladly accepted!!

Boxing Day

Well, it's my first Boxing Day in a few years...I think the last one I spend in the UK was with the family in 1993. We were at Freda & Travis' yesterday for Christmas Day, after we had Christmas with James here in the morning.

It was really strange - I felt like I was on the 'wrong' side of the morning stocking opening. When Edward and I were little, we were allowed to open our stockings as early as we wanted, and then we had to wait until a predetermined time to go upstairs and wake up Mom and Dad to show them what Santa had brought. Then they'd come downstairs with us and we'd all open presents together.

So yesterday morning John and I were sleeping and James bounced in with our stockings to wake us up. I definitely felt like I should have been bouncing somewhere with my stocking...

We set up the LGB trains (with John's additional christmas track from Mom & Dad) in F&T's living room. I'm not sure if 'set up' is the right word...it was more of a 'takeover'. The boys played with the trains for HOURS...all of the teddies had rides and John and Travis were tinkering with everything and shunting cars around. Then when we got home this afternoon, John set up his new digital Hornby trains...they are REALLY cool but they're going to have to wait for our new house before they get much use...they really need to be nailed to a baseboard and set up more permanently.

Speaking of our new house, we drove by today to wish it Merry Christmas...it looked very cosy and like it's coming along. Our initial walk-through is in January, which is suddenly creeping up on us...

I was going to add some photos to this post - blogger's having issues so you can check them all out on Flickr.

Now We Can Have Christmas!!!

Well, through the magic of the Interweb, I've found it. Nope, not the Holy Grail. I have, however, found what I was looking for regarding making Christmas complete. Yup, you guessed it: an audio file of the original 1975 version of Merry Christmas from Sesame Street!! It's here, as an archived radio program by someone named Christine Moritz (to whom I'm eternally grateful). I downloaded the streamed audio radio program - all 3+ hours of her favorite Christmas music - and then downloaded Audible, cropped and edited the file, turned it into an mp3, and then burned it to a CD. YAY!!! I'm SO excited about it - firstly because I have it and secondly because I have it on CD. And on my computer. And on my iPod. It's not quite the same as my record, but Christine originally ripped the file that she broadcasted from HER record, so it's got all the right scratches and pops. Not in the same places, but it'll do. As she says in her intro (it starts right about the 2 hour mark if you're interested), vinyl records and little kids are a somewhat toxic combination.

And just think, Mom and Dad...now I can listen to it BY MYSELF in the car and nobody else has to be around. And I can listen to it over and over and over and over again. But only from the beginning, just like the record. Since it's one BIG mp3 file - I didn't have the energy to figure out how to chop it into tracks...maybe one day.

In other Christmas news, we went out to a farm to pick up our reserved Christmas goose, along with two stalks of brussels sprouts that Freda and John swear will be unlike any sprouts I've ever tasted. Hmmm.

John and I watched Seabiscuit last night- I really liked it, although John found it a bit predictable. We were having trouble agreeing on a movie- he likes darker ones and i'm much more of a kid's movie/romantic comedy girl.

There is much Christmas eve TV on tomorrow night...we're going to watch the Kings' College Choir sing carols and then watch Chicken Run. Oh, the excitement. :) Or I may let John and James watch it all while I sit with my headphones and Sesame Street...

5 Days to Christmas!!

Everyone's still trying to recover from the work Christmas party - the pictures were posted on the intranet today, so everyone's embarrassment was relived. It was v. entertaining.

Continuing in the Christmas party vein, I'm off to the Ickworth staff party tomorrow night. I haven't seen most of the guys in quite a while, so I'm really excited.

Oh, my friend found this on the New York Times...it's an article about a Colby alum who I was friends with freshman year - he's 'invented his own scholarly field.' Lucky him! Here's the link. It's required reading for the Colby grads.

Oh, and Andrea's friend Rebeka introduced me to Epicurious - it's a whole world of recipes, waiting to be discovered.

UPDATE: Apparently the permalink is having problems...here's the beginning of the article.

Noah Charney hasn’t stolen a major artwork, as far as is known, but he gives it lots of thought. I met him one day last spring in Rome, in a cool, shadowy side chapel of the church of San Francesco a Ripa on the west bank of the Tiber. He stood with his hands clasped reverently before him, gazing at Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s statue of the Blessed Ludovica Albertoni. Bernini seems to have caught the pious mystic just as she passes to her great reward; she lies prostrate on a tousled bed of marble and jasper, her back arched, her eyes slitted, her lips parted and her right hand pressed to her breast in an ecstasy of divine transport that, as more than one critic has observed, resembles a far earthier kind of ecstasy. “I’ve spent hundreds of hours here with Ludovica,” Charney said, less to me than to the statue, about which he wrote his master’s thesis in art history in 2003. “We have a special relationship. I want her in my living room!”

Charney, a slender, courtly 27-year-old from New Haven with a back-swept mane of jet black hair, pointed out details in the statue and the ormolu molding around it that suggest an inner meaning few observers have perceived: a pomegranate and a flaming heart, which signify Ludovica’s passionate love of God, and her shoes, which prove that she isn’t on her deathbed, as most people have assumed, but is experiencing the fierce, heart-melting heat of divine rapture. “A lot of art history is detective work,” Charney told me. “Instead of just staring at a piece, you’re studying it and gathering information.”

Then, with the same probing eye, he noted what for him were even more essential qualities of the statue: how it might be stolen and by whom. The nearby window, the old-model motion sensors and the doubtless un-manned surveillance cameras would all facilitate theft. Yet the stature of the Blessed Ludovica herself, a cool ton or so of stone, would give any thief pause. “To get her out of here, you’d really have to be obsessed,” he said. Then again, he reckoned someone who was truly smitten with the work could find a way to pinch it. “And if Ludovica were ever stolen,” he said, “I’d be the first suspect.”

Charney is completing a doctorate at Cambridge University in a field he appears to have invented: the use of art history, combined with the more conventional tools of criminology, psychology and deductive logic, to help solve modern-day art thefts and to prevent future art crimes. The stolen-art trade is now an international industry valued as high as $6 billion per year, the third-largest black market behind drugs and arms trafficking. Yet the solution rate in art crime is reported to be a startlingly low 10 percent. Investigations are hampered by the cult of secrecy within the art world itself — museums sometimes don’t report thefts, fearing to reveal their vulnerability to future crimes and thereby hurt their chances of receiving new donations. “The art trade is the least transparent and least regulated commercial activity in the world,” says Julian Radcliffe, chairman of the Art Loss Register, a London-based company that maintains a leading database of stolen artworks.

Charney wants to cut through this murk by treating art theft as a scholarly discipline, drawing on a wide range of sources in an attempt to reach the first unbiased, statistically based conclusions about the nature of the crime. He has reviewed police files of art crimes in Europe and the United States from the 19th and early 20th centuries, looking for ways that past thefts might illuminate current trends, and he has questioned investigators from the F.B.I., Scotland Yard, the Spanish Policía and the Italian Carabinieri about their often distinctive attitudes and crime-solving methods and about the different cultural and bureaucratic barriers that each force encounters. Charney has explored the legal aspects of art ownership, sale and copyright by consulting with lawyers, federal prosecutors and art insurers, seeking to chart the complex currents in the flow of stolen art worldwide and to understand how laws in certain countries smooth the passage of stolen pieces into the legitimate market.

Rhinestones and stockings

Phew...it's been quite a weekend!

Friday night was the office Christmas party, which was REALLY fun. The theme (they're Brits- we have to have a theme!) was Oscar night, so everyone pulled out all the stops. John unexpectedly had to go to London on Friday, which was NOT what we had planned, since the party started at 6:30 and it's an hour and a half home from London plus half an hour to Bury. He missed the 4:30 train by 2 minutes, and then rang me to tell me that he wouldn't be making it to the party. I was completely crestfallen - we'd both been really looking forward to it. He called again a few more times, to tell me that his train was delayed (the next train after the 4:30 was a 5:30...ugh), and that he would be getting to the flat some time around 8 and would see me when I got in.

I had optimistically laid out his shirt (which I'd ironed) and his tux, just in case. He texted me again at about 7, when I was at the cocktail hour, to tell me to have fun. And then I looked outside and there he was, in his tux, beaming at me. He'd taken 5pm train to Ipswich, and lined up a taxi to take him from Ipswich to home, wait while he changed, and then carry on to Bury. Awwwww. I was SO glad to see him. :)

I was at the Christmas party last year, as a 'freelancer' (since I was technically still working for the company via the NY office), and this year was MUCH more fun. I knew a lot more people and it was just a really well-run party. Here I am with my boss:

And here I am in all my blingy glory with Ruth, my choir buddy.

I borrowed ALL the rhinestones from all the women in our family (thanks, Mom, Ruthie, Sandra and Grandma!) and wore them. All of them. And my tiara. I think I would have put some rhinestones on John if he'd stood still. I was even nominated for best dressed!! I didn't win - there were some girls who were truly stunning...but I think the rhinestones helped. :)

Then yesterday I finished off our Christmas shopping, and made these stockings:


I used a Martha Stewart pattern as a springboard and went kind of nuts. They're not the same as the hand needlepoint-ed ones that Mom and Dad made for Edward and me (that are at my parent's house), but I'm still pretty proud of them.

I'm also trying to find a webby recording of the Sesame Street Christmas record that I LOVED when I was little (ok, I still love it). It's got a story about Bert and Ernie selling their favourite things to Mr. Hooper to buy each other's Christmas presents ("A soap dish for Rubber Duckie! But Bert, you shouldn't have!" and "Oh Ernie! A cigar box for my paperclip collection!") and Oscar singing the great unknown Christmas carol, "I HATE Christmas," and I'm having trouble. I can find an updated version on Amazon but not the original. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

UPDATE: LOOK WHAT I FOUND!!!!

All dressed up

It's the work party tomorrow night, so we're going to get all dressed up. I've finally grabbed these pics that Kim took at Liz's wedding (thanks Kim!). It's kind of a before and after. :)

Oh tee hee

The English have a similar thing to the American 'housing projects,' known as council flats. These have been making the rounds on the web as excerpts from letters received by the council from the council house occupants:

Subject: These are genuine clips from council complaint letters.

I wish to report that tiles are missing from the outside toilet roof - I think it was bad wind the other night that blew them off.

I am writing on behalf of my sink, which is coming away from the wall.

Will you please send someone to mend the garden path. My wife tripped and fell on it yesterday and now she is pregnant.

50% of the walls are damp, 50% have crumbling plaster and 50% are plain filthy.

I am still having problems with smoke in my new drawers.

The toilet is blocked and we cannot bath the children until it is cleared.

Our lavatory seat is broken in half and is now in three pieces.

Our kitchen floor is damp. We have two children and would like a third so please send someone round to do something about it.

This is to let you know that our lavatory seat is broke and we can't get BBC2.

Haha.

On a much more serious note, they think there is a serial killer in Suffolk. Five prostitutes have been killed in Ipswich (about 10 miles from us) over the last 2 months, 3 in the last 2 weeks. I was NEVER afraid when I lived in the city but this is freaking me out. It's been the lead story on the BBC for a few days - it's not good. Read more here. Even the NYT have picked it up in their international section...yikes.

James' Movie

James and I made this today...I think it's hysterical and John's not so sure. It was written and directed by James, starring his hand, The Claw, and various Lego extras. The sheep are my favourite. :) Enjoy!

Christmas update...

Here's our tree after an early Christmas present from Mom and Dad. (The angel...she's gorgeous!)

Wassailed

I've now officially had my Christmas carol fix...the Bury Bach Choir and I have been rehearsing madly for the concert that we had tonight in the Lavenham church. The church was beautiful (and cold!), and the concert went really well. There were no unscheduled solos, and the readings were somewhat unusual but all very engaging. One of them featured hypothetical thank you notes from the recipient of the gifts featured in The Twelve Days Of Christmas. It got a big laugh from the audience. We had a surprising number of people, as well. The church was packed!

In the break between rehearsal and the concert, I went to the pub across the road with one of the tenors - we were both on our own and so we had a quick din. It turns out that his girlfriend is a horn player and is looking for people to play with. Woohoo! My horn's still in New Ro but it'll come back over with me in April.

We have a few weeks off from choir, which should be nice. I can use the time to get cracking on our Christmas cards and other such things. We put up our tree yesterday - I'll try and post a picture tomorrow.

It was making me a little sad - my parents usually go for a Nutcracker-type tree, and ours is a little fake one that doesn't smell like anything and sits on a table. Oh well...it's better than nothing. We'll have our own ceiling-scraping tree someday. :)

Keeping John on his toes

When John was getting dressed this morning, I heard a *snap* followed by much swearing and gnashing of teeth. The poor guy broke his toe when he stubbed it on our bedstead...it's all swollen and sore. He's going to work from home tomorrow because it hurts to walk - ugh.

I chipped one of the bones in the side of my foot after a somewhat gnarly skateboarding accident, so I'm v. sympathetic to foot pain.

One More Test To Go!

Today, I passed my UK driving theory test. I've been studying sort of sporadically since the summer and taking lots of practice tests, so I wasn't too worried about the questions. The beginning of the test freaked me out, though...the first two questions weren't ANYTHING I'd seen in my studying, but I managed to figure them out. I guess driving for 9 years before taking the test helps...

Onward and upward - it's practical test time!!

Mummy?

I left work early yesterday to pick up James from his after-school club, and then we went to an Advent fair that they were having at his school. He bought a mood ring (remember those?) and then asked me "Kate, what's stressed mean?" as we were leaving the school. :)

We went over to see Gillian and Martin and James' new house...which he'd described as 'like the TARDIS'. For those of you who don't know what a TARDIS is, you can find out here. Basically, it means that it's bigger on the inside than it looks from the outside. And it is...it's sort of a chalet-looking house off a busy road (we had an exciting entrance into the driveway from the street), and it's HUGE on the inside. It's got an unconventional layout, with little corridors leading from room to room, but the rooms are really big and bright. The kitchen is easily the size of my NYC apartment. And the kitchen is painted in exactly the same color scheme as my parents' dining room - dark red walls with white trim and dark wood. I really liked it, though. James is THRILLED that his room is downstairs, away from the other bedrooms.

Oh, and he keeps calling me 'Mummy' when he's not paying attention. And people in shops etc. always assume that I'm his mother. I think it's funny when James calls me Mummy (or sometimes Daddy), but I find it weirder when strangers do it. I was 16 (and very far away) when he was born...I guess I'm old enough, but only barely.