Walking in the Mud

Look what the snow left behind...

I Predict a Riot

My work buddy A and I headed to Starbucks mid-morning yesterday. We were greeted at the door with this sign which made us laugh. We went in and of course I had to ask why no coffee. They claimed there was a problem with the machines so the choices were hot chocolate or tea. Thank goodness this happened in a tea society or there could have been a riot. Come to think of it, those faces inside don't look too happy with the choices. 

When I got back to the office I was laughing about it and telling a co-worker. She responded, “This Starbucks on the High Street? They’re rubbish aren’t they?!”

Frozen Britain Begins to Thaw

Finally the ice and snow were getting slushy. It’s been a skeleton crew at work for over a week now and it will be nice to see more faces. Friday night it rained and when we woke up Saturday, almost all of the snow was completely gone. Except for a piece here or there, it would be easy to wonder if it was all a dream.

Friday evening a colleague and I were talking about our trip to the States next week where I was assuring her that at least we would see some sunshine there since we were headed to a desert city. Then we looked at the forecast and believe it or not, it looks like it will be overcast and possibly rainy the whole time we are there. How can this be??? Well, the sun is out today so I need to get out and enjoy it. That may be it for awhile!

Food Snob?

Some people aren’t into food. They eat whatever just to sustain life, not really caring about taste. There are times as I’ve yo-yo’d up and down the scale that I wish I was one of those people but I’m just not. It’s got to be good though. I can easily turn my back on bad food, so there’s got to be some quality involved. For the most part I am not at all interested in partaking in any of the birthday treats people here bring in when their big day rolls around. Usually this means that they went to the local grocery store and bought a boxed cake, similar to maybe Entennmens in the U.S. I hate to compare some of this stuff to Entennmens though because the Entennmens cheese danish is a thing of beauty, where some of this stuff is just dry cake with waxy frosting. Last week someone sent a message around to all saying for no special occasion they had picked up one of these cakes and we could all help ourselves in the kitchen, oh and I guess as a disclaimer they added that the cake was past its expiration date. Why spend the money? Why consume the calories?


I mention this to H after someone we know bought frozen sandwiches for a party. Get this, there is a store here that sells tuna salad sandwiches in plain white bread, cut in fourths and frozen for fun at a later date. I don’t understand this at all. There are some things that are just automatically going to taste better if made fresh from scratch and there’s not much effort needed to make this happen. Not only is this criticism about taste but my mother’s practical voice rings in my head that this convenience food is not much of a convenience. When I was telling H about these sandwiches and how I would NEVER buy them, H stopped me and said, “We’re food snobs”. Are we? Maybe to some extent because as H has made things from scratch at home, I’ve realized that it’s worth taking the time sometimes. Roast chicken, I never realized how delicious simple roast chicken could be when cooked well. Last week I was at the store with L after our winter walk and she was trying to decide if she should by this off brand of boxed mashed potatoes because her usual brand was sold out. She looked at me for advice and I couldn’t offer any but to buy some real potatoes, especially since it was for dinner with guests.

Thursday night after I got home late and still had a mountain of work to do and two more conference calls, and an A-related crisis (well to her it was), I needed comfort food. I peeled a sweet potato, wedged it, threw the wedges in a bowl and drizzled a little olive oil, sea salt, and smoked paprika and mixed. Threw that on a cookie sheet and baked and there’s dinner! If you burn them slightly I think it tastes like burnt marshmallows which takes me back to childhood and one of my favourite treats. When I told H this the first time I unintentionally burned them he said that sounded disgusting. Food snob, maybe just a little bit, but I think a true food snob would throw Thursday night’s dinner in the bin.

The Train Essential

The journey home on the train is always better when someone is talking in your ear. Terry Gross, Ira Glass, Jim DeRogatis and Greg Kot, the folks on National Public Radio are usually the voices courtesy of a podcast as I travel. On a post-it on my desk I have the train times listed for my journey home and they are in roughly half hour or 45 minute increments but weird times like 7:17pm so I can never keep them straight, so it’s not uncommon that I will look up from whatever I’m doing, notice the time at the bottom corner of my laptop screen, immediately look at the train schedule and realize I’ve got to be out the door in two minutes to run to the train station. There’s a big window in my office so I’m sure if people are still in the building this looks hilarious as I jump up and start packing furiously and run out the door without saying a “goodnight”.


A funny thing happened last week on my way out the door. My routine is always the same, as I am walking to the train station which takes me about 6 minutes, I am speed walking uphill and wrapping my scarf around my neck, finding my train card, taking my iPod out and putting one bud in my ear, and turning on a podcast. These podcasts help turn my mind off. Music allows me to just keep on thinking about work, where podcasts take me somewhere else. As I was walking and fumbling for my iPod I made a very stressful discovery, I had left it on my desk. With a very short timeframe do I turn around and go back to the office to get it and risk being stuck for another 45 minutes or do I press on? Because of a pending conference call I didn’t turn back, so the whole journey home my mind is rambling because now, not only will my evening commute suck but what about the morning commute? Sure I’ve got the London commuter paper to flip through but that doesn’t take me long. Can I steal H’s iPod for the day to get me through? But his doesn’t have podcasts loaded? What am I going to do?

I realize the thoughts running through my head make me sound like an addict, and I fully admit my addiction to my iPod. Oh and yes, about public radio, I am a subscriber.

Winter Walk

When I saw L from the B&B on New Year’s Eve I mentioned that I had been walking quite a bit. Now that she is fully recovered from her broken leg she was hoping that we could walk sometime together and made a plan to meet yesterday. The sun was out but it was still pretty arctic. I threw on some warm clothes and took the train to her house. On the way I stopped at the local grocery store to buy some fresh yeast that H requested. As I was checking out of the insanely busy store, the clerk asked me if I was going to be doing some baking. I explained that my husband would be doing some later. She laughed and said, “He could come up here and start selling in our car park after we run out”. It was definitely looking like that was going to happen.

When I got to L’s she was all ready to go in her full-length dress coat, fur hat, and her bag packed with a thermos of coffee and the dreaded mince pies. I say dreaded because I don’t like them and was happy for Christmas to be over so I could stop declining them. Now they were back. I was glad to see that she did have some proper snow boots. I made sure she was okay walking in this weather. After her dramatic spill last year, I didn’t want to be responsible for her falling again. She had one of those walking maps that H and I couldn’t understand and suggested we use it to follow this 8 mile path. I was comforted to see that she even though she is a local, she didn’t understand the map’s directions either. We got about a steep 5 mile walk in before the sun started to set, even past an ostrich farm.

A Brolly in the Snow

Brolly (short from umbrella) - a word that should make it's way across the ocean...

The blizzard of ’10 hit the UK today. H’s work was closed and so was A’s school. Thanks to the wonders of technology, my day charged ahead but just from home instead of an office. At lunch I trudged (seriously trudged with no traction) to the small store nearby to pick up some of the essentials. The bread shelves were bare and the store was very busy. I saw more than one person with an umbrella as the snow was at its heaviest.

What amazes us is that we pay a lot of money every month to our local council (local government body) for things like trash removal, etc. but our street which is not rural will be untouched by a plow or anything.  The sun will be our only snow removal system!

I did get out for a walk first thing this morning.  It was peaceful and beautiful.