One Last Pub Quiz

I joined our team at work for one last pub quiz at our local before I left. We came in 4th out of the 18 teams. My only contribution (which I got one wrong) was to name five songs written by the Bee Gees on the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack that reached number one in the UK. I made the mistake of thinking of only the songs the Bee Gees sung on that record and not considering that they wrote songs for others. The one I missed, Yvonne Elliman singing If I Can’t Have You.

As we were waiting for the scores to be tallied there was a table of three next to us who had been struggling all night and wondering out loud how they could do better. I leaned over and told them they should look around for another small group that scores well and join forces. One of the women asked me, “Is that what you did?” And I responded, “Yes, I don’t even know these people”.  :)

I will miss the pub quiz for the good company, the atmosphere and realizing week to week how little I knew about English history, sport, and politics.

Batting 1000

B got in safely on Friday afternoon. We met H at our favorite curry house for dinner Friday night. I was so exhausted from trying to get everything done at work so I could take the week off that I felt like I was the one with jet lag.

Saturday we had our day planned with a trip to London but the trains didn’t agree with us so it was off to plan B, which quickly became plan C, and then D. In the end B got a taste of village life complete with a pub lunch, a trip to our favorite farm for eggs and vegetables, and a walk through the park. We cooked dinner together in the evening and it was nice just to share the laughter with a good friend.

Just in Time for the First Day Back to Work

Too bad we didn't have snow over Christmas but instead experienced this scene on the 5th of January, the day that most people are heading back to work. As someone from work said, it will look Dickensian for about fifteen minutes until it turns to dirty slush.

Stop and Appreciate

This past week at work was an absolute blur. On Friday afternoon as I ran into my office to throw down some contracts and start working on a spreadsheet I quickly glanced out the window and saw this. Glad I had my camera with me to capture it. It made me slow down for a moment.

Autumn Sky

The Chilterns

It started out like any other day. H suggested we drive to the next village, go on a long walk and then do the week’s shopping. I was all for it since the weekend weather was nice once again. Begrudgingly A. said fine as long as she had her iPod. We had a map from one of the local walking societies, so we started out on what was to be an 8.5 mile walk over the hills and through the woods.

Let’s just say the map wasn’t very clear…to us! It had directions with it and H would read the next direction on the map and there would be at least five words we didn’t understand. We didn’t get lost but the walk was much longer than we anticipated. A even got teary-eyed at one point in between her moaning, afraid we were lost. I just laughed at the prospect. As someone at work said to me, “This is England. Walk a few miles and you’ll hit a motorway in any direction”. When walking up some of the tough hills I would say “help” to A in my most Southern accent, stretching the word into two syllables, but all I got was the teenage glare. Four hours later we were at the grocery store just in time for them to turn us away since all of them close at 4 on Sundays.

As you can see from the pictures, the scenery was beautiful. I’m ready to do it again next weekend. We would probably have to hypnotize A to get her going again.

Taking in the Scenery

I had to work most of Saturday and it turned out to be a beautiful day. So when I left the office I took a quick walk up the hill to take in the view. I love looking at the village below as the leaves are changing.

Pictures of Chesham

As I plan my move out of the B&B next week, I took some pictures of the village I have called home for the last ten months.

Frozen, Literally

I took these pictures as I walked to work. The ducks and swans are all congregated on the one area of the pond that is not frozen.

Victorian Night in Chesham

The local businesses have been advertising Victorian Night for quite some time. What does that mean? For one of the local hair salons it means luring in people off the street for a glass of wine as the movie Moulin Rouge blasts from the television. They may have missed the point just a bit, but they were not alone. There were people here and there in Victorian dress, but I don't think the Victorians were big on carnival rides and there were many. The rain did not at all impact the party.

After I stepped in a puddle that went all the way up to my ankle, I decided to call it a night. L had made shepherd's pie for dinner, which was perfect comfort food for a rainy English night.

CCTV

I am a rule-follower. I don’t know if it is nature or nurture that caused it, but that’s me. I recently was watching a film about football hooligans and one of the characters said to the other “we’re the most watched country in the world”. He was referring to the CCTV cameras everywhere in the UK. H had noticed the numerous cameras on our trip here in June and we even have them at work in our parking lot and can monitor them inside on a two different televisions. One morning over breakfast my housemate N said to me that because of the way I walk to work, I’m probably on the cameras the whole walk. This freaked me out a bit, even though I’m innocently just walking to work.

After thinking about this, I was sitting at the tube station in Chesham and someone was handing out flyers for a town meeting. I read the flyer and was about to just sit it on the bench when a voice in my head said “Don’t do it! CCTV will think you’re a litter bug!” I know there aren’t necessarily people watching the footage as it happens, but I have heard of people getting traffic tickets for answering their mobile phones while driving here thanks to the cameras. I also heard B playing cops with a friend in the house one day and he was suggesting that they rewind the tape from the CCTV cameras to check where the criminal had gone. It’s just a fact of life.

Chesham in Autumn

I took this picture from a hilltop field. The autumn colors will soon be gone!

Chesham Tree

Friday night, a bunch of us went up to a field on the top of a hill in Chesham to watch the Guy Fawkes fireworks below. When we were walking out of the field, I noticed this tree in the distance, so the next day I went back up to the field to take the picture. It reminds me of the opening credits for HBO's Six Feet Under.