Back to Bath and Stonehenge

Hello Readers,
Welcome back.  I didn't blog last weekend since we stayed home on the weekend to rest for our month of touring with Bob and Lona (my in-laws).  A few note worthy events happened last week that I will briefly cover before we move onto this weekend's travels though.

A combo Carol Seppanen Book Update/Auntie "B" Word of the Week entry.  I started James Joyce's Ulysses, 657 pages, this past week and my initial opinion is what a pile of rubbish.  Maybe I haven't had the time to get into yet but it is not an easy read so far.  I read somewhere that Joyce wrote the book as an intentionally difficult read and he succeeded.  I wanted to read it after our Dublin trip sparked the interest in me plus it is supposed to loosely follow Homer's Odyssey which I read in high school and thoroughly enjoyed so I thought why not?  Now I know why not.  But I will forge on and see if it gets any better.  It did provide me with this week's Auntie "B" word of the week though - ashplant.  Ashplant in this context refers to the Irish word definition.

The Better Halves Club met again.  This time we met at Shirely's place and there were six of us - the seventh missed as she was picking up her mother in law from the airport.  We all brought an appetiser or dessert dish and Shirley made curry which made for a delicious lunch.  (Sorry Dana I forgot my camera.)  The company was as engaging and comical as usual with Laverne and Shirley being the main entertainment.  The typical discussions range from comparing cultural differences to trip planning/info sharing to local sightseeing ideas to random topic conversations.  I have to admit it was a little tough saying goodbye to the four returning to the USA members this summer but our new group has settled into that comfortable group zone which is great.

Now where do I start with English service?  Restaurants, realtors, doctor's offices/hospitals, appliance repairmen... it is "different" than the US.  Not that the US is good service all the time across the board but c'mon England.  The "Dan Stine extreme self restraint in the face of surmounting adversity moment of the week" is dealing with my tumble dryer (clothes dryer for the Yanks) engineer (field service tech for the Yanks) and company the last few weeks.  A little background - we bought a used clothes dryer from a returning secondment couple when we came over so we knew it was two years old and well used.  We used it for almost a year and then the water tray wasn't always full of water after running the dryer.  (For the Yanks - clothes dryers here aren't vented outside, the water is pumped into a tray and the tray must be emptied after each use.)  I weighed fixing it myself or calling a repairman and of course picked the wrong option.  I called a local repair company and they were out in a couple days at which time the engineer diagnosed the problem as a shot drain pump.  I ordered the part through them the next day and waited a few days for them to call me back to schedule the engineer back out to replace the pump.  No call after a few days so I called back and found out the part was ordered but the part that arrived was wrong so it was sent back.  The last couple of times I've called they don't have the proper part and can't even track if the proper part has been ordered/shipped yet.  I knew I should have done it myself.  Next weekend will be a month without a dryer which means I am washing a load a day and hanging everything.  England can be SO frustrating sometimes.    

The Mark Elliott Pub Glass Pic - check out my newest member!  A Beck's beauty I found at a local boot sale for a paltry 50 pence.  Welcome to the collection my new friend.  Shout out to Mark's Brownies for finally winning a game this past week.  1 and 15 means first pick next year buddy - congrats!

 

Lori had a typical doctor's office experience this last week.  Her ears have been blocked and painful so she is thinking ear infection.  So we stopped at the clinic one night last week and after a quick thirty minute wait she was ushered in to be checked out.  She walked out a few minutes later looking not happy.  Turns out the nurse looked in her ear and basically said looks bad but no infection yet, come back when they are infected.  In the meantime use pain medication to treat it.  So Lori clarified that the nurse was telling her that it looks like it will get worse but she won't do anything to make it better.  Yup.  Typical English doctor's visit - reactionary treatment only.  Go across the pond for preventative medicine.  Load up your "English health care system is better than US health care system" argument Jim Lang - we will be loaded for bear when we return.

 

Welcome to England Bob and Lona!  My in-laws are here for a visit so we are enjoying their company for the next four weeks or so.  After a rough flight over and a couple days to catch up to the time difference they were ready for our first weekend trip - Bath and Stonehenge.  We have been to the area previously so I won't go into a long write up on anything or a lot of pictures but will include some of the pictures from our trip.  (See first trip to Bath and Stonehenge link.)

 

The first stop was Tintern Abbey in southern Wales.  Impressive in size it was a good introduction to a ruins site for them.  They also found it interesting plus it was a scenic drive down.

 

The kids and Bob inside the Abbey.

 

Looking down the centre, you can see a person on the right for a scale perspective.

 

Looking towards the centre of the abbey.

 

The impressive ruins from a distance.

 

Jim Seppanen Pic - Chinese Paperbark Maple.  Some trees are changing colour now.

 

Hard to see but the bark was like thin papyrus curls.  Very neat.

 

Our weekend ride - a people carrier.  Easier to drive than I expected.  A couple tight spots but not unwieldy on the streets.  I was worried about driving these over here but no worries this weekend.

 

After the abbey was lunch.  We tried a cafe but after waiting for ten plus minutes without being looked at (remember my English service comment above?) we went across the street to a tea room/pub/restaurant combo place (they literally had a separate tea room, a separate pub and a separate restaurant in the same building which was a first for me) for some decent food.  The highlight was the adults asking if the kids chicken fingers can be made into an adult portion.  I imagine us Americans are pretty obvious to others as we travel around asking silly questions.  They chuckled but did serve the adult portion.  Thanks Anchor Inn.

 

Adult portion chicken fingers.

 

 

Kevin Coleman Pic - bitter and dull and not chilled.  It's official, Wales beer is as bad as English beer.

 

Dana Johnson Pic - my first Shepherd's Pie.  Mince lamb, peas, onion, gravy, mashed potato, cheese - it was surprisingly good.  The cabbage and carrots side salad was good also.  Bob had the decent tasting adult chicken fingers but will taste some "proper" British cuisine later.

 

Lunch is over so its onto Bath.  We motored on over and checked out Bath Abbey and Roman Baths.

 

Double door for abbey although the entry is through a smaller side door.

 

And inside the abbey was a choir practise or something that limited access which was kind of a bummer although the view is still impressive from the rear.

 

More of my favourite "important person" memorials.

 

 

This guy was a US Senator, I don't remember seeing this last time.

 

Obligatory stained glass window pic.

 

Bath Abbey in centre, Roman Baths entrance on right.

 

View of the Royal Bath from upper level.  Note the emperor statues on the upper level.

 

Emperor Vespasian overlooking the bath.  Vespasian was in The Jewish War.

 

Side of Bath Abbey from the Baths.

 

Combo pic of Roman Baths and Bath Abbey.

 

Interesting.

 

The Gorgon's Head on the temple pediment.

 

See below.

 

From above.

 

We walked past the Pulteney Bridge (above) and also saw The Circus and The Royal Crescent but I didn't have a chance to take some good pictures of those two this time. 

 

After Bath we stopped at a country pub where Bob was introduced to English hamburgers.  I don't think he believed us that they tasted different than US hamburgers but he does now.  He ate about a quarter and tried pawning off the rest to us but there weren't any suckers, I mean takers.  Interestingly enough Lona had a burger as well and said it wasn't bad but wasn't crazy about it.  I guess both her and Karl are missing some taste buds or something.  We also introduced them to English breakfasts at the Holiday Inn Express on Sunday morning.  They passed on the baked beans but tried the boiled egg substitute and mushy sausage.  One bite of sausage and they were done.  Welcome to England Bob and Lona!  Bob commented that the cereal was good though.

 

Kevin Coleman Pic - an okay stout at the country pub.  I had an IPA before the stout that was dirty dishwater flavoured.

 

On Sunday we started out near Avebury Stone Circle so we made that our first stop of the day.  Avebury is less well known than Stonehenge but equally interesting in my opinion.  More circles with smaller rocks set in larger diameters, a little different but still worth a stop.  Bob and I checked them out and he found them interesting also.

 

Steve Frey Pic - so this was the purpose of the stone circles - sheep back scratchers.  Mystery solved!

 

 

Steve Frey Pic - A couple stone circle segments in the distance.  Foggy and soggy day starting out, the sun would come and go all day with a chilly wind at times.  Temps in the mid 50's F all weekend.  Decent weather, no rain so I was happy.

 

Steve Frey Pic - Avebury lawn mowing service hard at work.  A velvety horned ram is on the right.  You could hear them tearing the grass with each bite.

 

Steve Frey Pic - The black sheep of the family.

 

Onto the underwhelming attraction called Stonehenge.  I think most people see it and say, that's it?  World famous and five thousand years old is worth a trip but I think everyone expects more when they first see it.  No exceptions on this trip. 

Stonehenge.  Henge means hanging so this place is really called Hanging Stone for the curious.

 

From a different angle, you can see the country side in the distance.  This place really is in the middle of nowhere.

 

KK and KJ in front of Stonehenge.  On the right is the start of the three tour buses that pulled in after us so now it's getting crowded and the chilly wind comes to life so we headed back to the VW.

 

After Stonehenge was a trip through the scenic Cotswolds.  It didn't seem as picturesque as I remember so I'm not sure what road we took last time or maybe we weren't used to the country scenery last time we were down here.  Regardless, our next stop was Stow-on-the-Wold (tourist info link).  It is a charming market town now with many standing houses built in the 1600's.  Its history dates to the Iron Age although we didn't explore much of the town.

 

Charming buildings.

 

Dana Johnson Pic - clotted cream and jam scones with strong coffee.  We were going to stop for a snack until I looked at a local map and saw the next town was much smaller than Stow so after eating our dessert first we ended up ordering lunch.

 

Dana Johnson Pic - some places have very good scones with clotted cream and jam.  This place was my second favourite only to St. Michael's Mount in Cornwall.  Dee-lish!

 

Dana Johnson Pic - now after my meal planning blunder it's time for a proper lunch.  Ham and cheese with mustard on white bread was okay.  The crisps tasted salt free though so I have to give them a thumbs down.

 

Check out these roofs Dad - bowed roof on right and a humped roof on left centre.

 

I thought this building face was unique.

 

 

I thought this little vestibule was quaint.

 

This cute little dog was watching the street.

 

Next town was Chipping Campden.  I think this is Chipping Campden but not sure because instead of following the road signs I followed the SatNav.  So instead of ending in Chipping Campden we ended up at Country Road to Nowhere.  So we called it a Fail and drove up to Stratford-Upon-Avon then home for the day.  We didn't stop so no pictures this time.  Maybe we'll make it down there this winter.

 

Teresa Robinett Pic - how's Bear doing Teresa?  Bob and Lona are dog sitting for us on our secondment so now Teresa is dog sitting for them while they are here.

 

The last view of the Cotswolds on our way home. 

 

We had a fun sightseeing weekend with good weather to start their vacation.  A few local trips are scheduled this week then we're onto Scotland next week for the kids half term break which means no blog next week.  See you in a couple of weeks.

 

 

Thanks for listening,

Jay

Eden Camp and Twycross Zoo

Hello Readers,
The new month is here so my facial hair style was picked at the last minute then changed at the last second.  The style was going to be the Chipper Jones.  I am not much of a baseball fan and don't follow the Braves but Chipper is retiring this month after 19 years in the bigs with some impressive statistics (stats from Wiki).  Career .303 batter, most career RBIs by a third baseman, second most career RBIs for a switch hitter, 8 time All Star, 1999 NL MVP and numerous other awards/stats plus he was the first overall selection of his draft and played third for most of his career.  Impressive career worthy of its own facial hair I thought.  Then Miguel Cabrera wins the baseball Triple Crown for my home team Tigers.  He batted a .330 average with 44 home runs and 139 RBIs while leading the Tigers to the Division Title.  First Triple Crown in 45 years after The Yaz last accomplished the feat for the Red Sox.  According to a Yahoo News story he is the 15th Triple Crown winner in the history of baseball.  The story also says there have been 23 perfect games and 15 unassisted triple plays in the history of baseball to give a little historical context.  Pretty elite company if I say so myself.  Maybe the best part of him was when the Tigers signed star first baseman Prince Fielder in the offseason forcing Cabrera to switch to third base Cabrera responded by voluntarily losing weight to improve his flexibility and working extra on his fielding instead of moping or complaining. 

The Triple Crown - Miggy for MVP!  And assist to Dan Stine - you da man Dan!

Now to dampen the mood.  We have had an expensive last couple of weeks.  My car needed some parts (spark plugs, air filter, hatch opening/closing rams, front tires) and its yearly garage inspection (requirement to renew the road tax disc later this month and insurance next month), Lori's car needed oil, the clothes dryer needs a new drain pump, we had a Brownsburg house issue that required a service call, and Lori showed up a day late to take her driving test.  She rescheduled the test for next week but had to pay the fee again in order to schedule the test.  Not a good stretch for a cheapskate like me.

The Better Halves Club met at Repton Tea Rooms this week.  I had called to make a reservation on Monday for our Tuesday lunch and was put into voice mail so I left my reservation details.  Fast forward to the car park Tuesday and Sarah is standing there telling us that the new posted-in-the-window winter hours are closed Monday and Tuesday.  Oops - lets not change the website or the voice mail message, we'll just put a sign in the window.  I would make this my Dan Stine complaint but it is so common over here I almost didn't mention it.  So the four of us went down the road to The Bulls Head and had fun catching up and listening to Laverne and Shirley banter for a couple of hours.  I had a different pizza this time, I forget the name (Chicago maybe?) but it had shredded duck, chili peppers, leek, rocket (some kind of leafed grass lettuce thing they have here), cheese and tomato sauce on their standard thin crust.  Very good although I didn't bring my camera so no pic.  Sorry Dana.

On Thursday I had the pleasure of accompanying Kalle's class on a field trip to Eden Camp (link) as part of their WWII studies.  Eden Camp is north of York for the locals.  It is a WWII POW camp that has been turned into a museum mostly about WWII but also had a small section for post-WWII wars and some tanks, planes, guns and other machinery on display.  I had never heard of it before and was pleasantly surprised at how much info they had packed into the smallish camp.  I had a great time although I wasn't able to read/see as much as I would have wanted since I was chaperoning.  I had four rag-a-muffins in my group and we walked with Kalle's teacher who had five rag-a-muffins in her group.  It was a very informative museum, maybe we will combine that with another site or two this winter when its time to get out of the house for an overnight trip.  I love learning about the World Wars over here, it is such a different perspective than ours.  It also led to the Auntie "B" Word of the Week - cagoule.  Kalle's teacher from last year told me to bring our cagoules on the trip.  I brought mine but Kalle opted not to bring hers.  Fortunately we didn't need them.  (Hope you are recovering quickly Auntie "B" - I'm sure Uncle Fran misses your "guidance and encouragement" around the house.)

I'll include a few pictures but none of the students as child protection laws here prevent images of kids at school functions from being shown on the internet.  I didn't even capture a fraction of the small but first class museum with my pics but here's a sample of what I snapped.

Strip cartoons were used to boost troop morale.  I didn't capture the cartoon just on the right but Jane does strip down to nothing and she is shown in her "glory".

 

A Ration Book that shows how the quantities were crossed out week by week when the supplies were picked up.  An eye opening rationing picture is below.

 

In the cities that were being bombed it was common for people to sleep under tables.  It was called a Morrison shelter (thanks Kal) and was used by people who didn't have the space or money to buy/build an outside bomb shelter.  The guy on the right is part of the bombing clean up brigade.

 

Messenger pigeon carriers.

Infant gas mask.  Scary.  Gas masks were required to be carried by all civilians at some point during the war.  There was a display in this section that showed young girls jumping rope and they all had their gas mask boxes hanging on their shoulders.  Such a different perspective from a country that was constantly in fear of being invaded.

 

Every military museum needs a howitzer.

 

This section was about The Blitz (The Blitz is also known as the Battle of Britain, this was when Germany started bombing raids in Britain in 1940 to soften up the Brits in order to invade Britain but Britain showed their mettle and gave better than they got forcing Hitler to abandon his invasion plan).  A couple of students turned around and went back out the entrance in this section.  The lights were off, the air sirens were blaring, it was smoky, "people" crushed in the "bombing" were moaning.  Each scene in here was about bomb damage to houses and businesses.  This was a slightly scary and very somber exhibit that felt almost real.

 

Another section was on the war's effect on businesses.  This business is closed because all the males are off fighting the war.

 

Talk about making sacrifices.  The middle red patty was jam/jelly, the upper right meat is bacon, and I forget what the bottom right square was supposed to be.

 

There was also a section on women's changing roles during the war.  Here's a mixed sex crew working on an airplane.

 

The Women's Land Army.  With all of the men off fighting many, many women moved to the country to work the farms to feed the nation. 

 

One of the many Allied spies, we saw him in Paris if you remember that post.

 

And we join WWI as the President Wilson picture gives away.  FDR was President for the greater majority of WWII for the non-history buffs.

 

Close up of the above picture.  A concise history reminder for the non-history buffs.

 

There was also a section for post-WWII wars.  I didn't stop to read here but I am guessing it reads a little differently than what we saw in Northern Ireland this summer.

 

Concrete and wooden/sand bag air raid shelters.

 

Having the Yanks in town wasn't all good.  There was also a snippet in this section that read that some Brits didn't like the American GI's in town because they drank all their beer and stole all their women.  Not sure about the women but I'm guessing they didn't enjoy the beer so the Brits had a small victory there.  From the picture on the left mostly cut off - that is of a few coloured American soldiers in uniform walking down the street that read that some Brits weren't used to seeing so many coloured men in uniform and found the sight discomforting.   

 

Bank notes and coins for Lori as we collect notes/coins from our travels.  Overall the museums was very good and we will try to get back this winter.

 

On a funny side note for school; one of Kalle's classmates is from Jamaica.  He joined her class late last year and is still acclimating to the weather here it appears.  Temps have been in the 50's F (low teens C) this week and one day both the boy and his father were wearing puffy down winter jackets and chooks while everyone else is wearing trousers (Brit word for American pants) and a light fall jacket.  I guess it is a little colder here than in Jamaica.   

For the non Yoopers from urbandictionary.com - a chook is "[a] word used in Upper Michigan, which refers to a knit cap sometimes referred to as a watch cap. It can also refer to any knit caps worn in cool weather. It is a Yooper dialect word which has no correct or standard spelling. Could be spelled chuk. It is from the French Canadian word, toque, which means the same thing. The Quebecois pronunciation is much like chook. The Anglo Canadians pronounce it toke, or took."

On another side note from school; Karl unintentionally embarrassed his maths teacher in class.  He told the teacher the quadratic formula from memory (x equals negative b plus minus the square root of b squared minus four a c all over two a) and the maths teacher had to look it up to check him.  He said the teacher's face was really red.  I asked him if any of his classmates knew it and he replied that none of them had heard of it before or even knew what a quadratic was.  (There's your second Word of the Week Auntie "B" - quadratic.)  I don't have it memorised myself anymore but I don't teach middle school math either.  This is the same teacher who had them "learn" their 7's multiplication table last week.  The frustrating part is that his school ranked in the top 400 schools in the UK based upon GCSE exam results in 2010 so it is a highly thought of school.  FYI for the Yanks - the GCSE exams are taken by secondary school students here that want to go to college, similar to the ACT and SAT exams in America if I understand them correctly.  I'm not sure where Brownsburg ranks in the US but I do know their math program is a few years ahead of John Port's - kudos to you Brownsburg.

Carol Seppanen Book Update - I finished The Castle by Franz Kafka, 280 pages.  Wow, what a confusing and intensely introspective look into the human mind.  In the book's introduction it says Kafka has a convoluted mind which is spot on the mark.  His themes of The Man being omnipowerful no matter the situation and a person's total lack of hope in improving their situation in life really weighed on me as I waded deeper into the book.  Kind of a depressing read.  Plus the conversations between the characters delve so deep into the twisted whys/whos/hows of what people are thinking that it was hard for me to maintain focus at times.  Kafka has a way of turning a simple decision into a three page minutely detailed explanation of every possible outcome based upon how every affected person may react based upon their station in life while factoring in all of their insecurities and considering any possible external influence which was usually the invisible weight of The Man.  Then the character suddenly reverses course and explains in excruciatingly long sentences how they can't possibly be correct in their thinking because they can't possibly be right because of their low class status and how much they really don't know about life.  He really must have had a tortured mind in real life if his books are a commentary on his life.  Or maybe I am just easily confused.  Either way I think I am good on Kafka books now.  I liked The Trial better than The Castle for what it is worth.  Next up is James Joyce's Ulysses.

On Saturday we went to the Twycross Zoo (link) with the Frey's, you can read Steve's take on the trip here.  We were debating going to a travelling carnival in Nottingham or go down to Coventry when they called and asked if we wanted to go to the zoo.  Since Lori and the kids haven't been to a zoo in a while they all voted for the zoo.  Zoos are okay for me but I don't like to go as often as the rest of the family.  They have been bugging me to find a zoo for a few months now so this timing was really good.  The Twycross Zoo was pretty good, they had a lot of primates (they are the self described World Primate Centre) with some exotic (to me) animals along with the standard elephants, birds, leopard, etc.  Our timing was not very good for picture opportunities; the sun was still rising so some exhibits were blindingly back lit, some of the lazier animals were sleeping in on us, and some of the glass still had the morning condensation on it.  Not only were the good photo opportunities rare, a lot of the photos I did take had reflections in them or the animals moved at the last second.  Kind of frustrating but here's my pics.  Enjoy.

The group about to enter the zoo.  Kuk is guarding the back trail as usual.

 

The stylin' Meerkats were first up on the tour.

 

Chilean Flamingos - reminded me of the annoying pink plastic ones in peoples yards.  Steve said the theme song for Miami Vice started playing in his head when he saw them.

 

Some kind of puffy chested pelican I think. 

 

A Kirk's dik-dik.  Looked like a cross between a deer and a rabbit to me.  According to Wiki they are from Africa.

 

A Black tufted-ear marmoset.  One of the many pics ruined by reflections.  Tough day for pictures.  According to Wiki they are from Brazil.  We were also treated to the Howler Monkeys raising a racket but I couldn't get a good picture of them.

 

The Chimpanzees each had their own water bottles.  This guy looks eerily old man human.

 

Ring-tailed lemur performance art.  Here they are figuratively asleep...

 

And one is awake.  Such style.

 

A Capybara - Nicole learned about these in geography and said they were the worlds largest rodent.  According to Wiki they are from South America.  They were about the size of a medium sized pig.

 

A Lowland tapir.  According to Wiki they are from South America.  They were about the size of a miniature pony.

 

Vicugnas.  According to Wiki they are from South America.

 

A pack of Patagonian maras.  According to Wiki they are from Argentina.

 

Another terrible reflection pic - this of a Diana monkey.  Check out the long tail.  According to Wiki they are from West Africa.

 

A Silver-cheeked hornbill.  Check out the double beak look.  According to Wiki they are from East Africa.

 

Steve taking a picture of the kids on the way out, I am guessing this pic of the kids will be on his blog so I hurridely snapped him taking it.  Kind of a picture behind the picture idea.

 

And after the zoo we drove to the Burton-on-Trent driving office that Lori will be taking her driving test at next week since she skipped this week's test.  Nice one Lori.  The interesting part of her acclimating herself to the Burton streets was driving by a car that just had its drivers side mirror hit.  We drove by this guy quizzically holding the mirror cover in his hands and the mirror still attached to the car was badly mangled.  The streets here aren't much smaller than US streets but the parking is rare so people park on the curbs, sidewalks, lawns, fire hydrants, etc. which makes the streets smaller.  Consequently when cars are parked along the road it is typical to turn in their mirror which this guy had not done.  That'll learn him.

 

I've also attended a couple local Rotary Club meetings.  Lori keeps telling me I need to get out more (my time lately has been spent planning Christmas vacations, upcoming weekend trips, and Bob and Lona's month of adventure so I have been inside a lot) so after some searching and reflection I decided to check out the local Rotary Club as a way to get involved in the local community and possibly help out some worthy causes.  I know that we are only here a short time but Rotary Club memberships are internationally transferable so if I like what they are doing here I can get involved in my Brownsburg chapter when we return.  Not much to report so far as I've only attended a few dinners but I'll post an update once/if I get more involved in the club.

 

Jeff Seppanen sports update - we added another to our Sunday football watching group.  Jeff H. should be joining us tonight to get his weekly American football fix so we are now at a foursome.  Brother Jeff's Packers are visiting Steve's Colts today so it should a tough game for the Colts.  It sounds like Steve has lowered his expectations (I told him to bring a crying towel just in case of a blow out but he said he's prepared himself) so we'll see how the game turns out but I am guessing the Colts won't win this one.  I also read that the Tigers took game one of their series against the A's.  GO TIGERS!

Thanks for listening,
Jay