|
Post by Miisa on Jun 16, 2017 8:58:34 GMT
Sleepy-head! (Joe)
|
|
|
Post by JoeP on Jun 16, 2017 9:20:54 GMT
:waaah:
|
|
|
So, Kelly
Jun 16, 2017 10:52:41 GMT
via mobile
Post by whollygoats on Jun 16, 2017 10:52:41 GMT
You folks might not have this option, but after attempting to sleep in the sweltering 13th century garret, with the open window which allowed in the frequent interruptions of somebody's frikken car alarm, I decided to give myself a break. I had brekkies at 7, then went back to bed. I re-awoke at half ten, did my shower and dressed to stumble down for a pint of ice water to savor whilst seated in the shade of the apple tree. I'm watching the clouds, and the occasional fly past of a DHC Chipmunk from Duxford, while I consider the prospect of lunch.
For the time, the oppressive sun seems to have abated. I like this weather, but I have set myself rather easy goals.
Lazy? Damned straight. This is a hobby I intend to cultivate.
So...How late does the British Museum allow gawkers to wander their galleries?
We're agreed to meet at the Kindertransport sculpture somewhere near Liverpool Street station, but we have not settled on a time?
|
|
|
Post by JoeP on Jun 16, 2017 11:18:55 GMT
Time: as soon after 11:35 as your train actually arrives (you'll be shocked, shocked, to hear that trains are not always on time) and you can get off and through the barrier and find said meeting point. British Museum - Welcome to the British Museum Open 10:00 - 17:30.
|
|
|
Post by Alvamiga on Jun 16, 2017 13:45:24 GMT
I use SMS most of the time, but WhatsApp for pictures and the odd international text because it's free. MMS is a total rip off; no idea why it's not free now, too!
|
|
|
So, Kelly
Jun 16, 2017 17:42:28 GMT
via mobile
Post by whollygoats on Jun 16, 2017 17:42:28 GMT
Okay...9:52 at the station, it is.
See yuhz at the Kindertransport at sometime around half eleven.
|
|
|
Post by Moose on Jun 16, 2017 19:54:47 GMT
I wish I could be there *sighs*
|
|
|
Post by JoeP on Jun 16, 2017 22:24:55 GMT
You're invited too! The more the mootier!
|
|
|
So, Kelly
Jun 17, 2017 9:20:38 GMT
via mobile
Post by whollygoats on Jun 17, 2017 9:20:38 GMT
OK...so. right out pf the blocks, everything thru Whittlesford Pkwy is running 20 min late.
Nice traincar, with charger for my device.
|
|
|
Post by JoeP on Jun 17, 2017 11:18:38 GMT
A goat, a cat and a penguin walked into the British Museum.
|
|
|
Post by Kye on Jun 17, 2017 11:34:10 GMT
Pics! We want pics!
|
|
|
Post by Moose on Jun 17, 2017 16:30:32 GMT
That must have startled their security ..
|
|
|
Post by whollygoats on Jun 23, 2017 14:35:01 GMT
Interested in your thoughts so far on this visit to the UK. What do you feel has changed since you were last here? (Availability of coffee, I'm guessing ) Has anything surprised you? What about the election? Observations about being here in the run up? As a USer, what's the biggest differences you've found in the UK in general? What about the differences between regions? Food? culture? People? Landscape? It's always interesting to see things from another's point of view. And you've certainly come at an eventful time... So...I'm back home, working in my garden, puttering around the house. I've spread out my loot and assessed it and have started reflecting upon the kinds of things Juju asked. So...My direct responses to her questions: What do you feel has changed since you were last here? (Availability of coffee, I'm guessing )Yes. Coffee. And, actually, I'm impressed with your response. My first visit to the UK was in 1980, and coffee was Sanka. That was nasty. When I returned with my wife in the early 1990s, 'filtered coffee' had made its introduction, particularly on the trains and Duuwe Egberts was in. Now, Starbucks is not only here, Costa and Caffe Nero are mounting a more than credible challenge. Not only is good coffee widely available...so is 'iced coffee'! I was stunned. It was rare, but it was there. Public toilets. Still available, still reasonably clean. Often still a charge. It is disappearing, for sure, and when the legalized extortion of charging to use the loo is used, the inflation is breath-taking. My wife and I often bantered about how that was where the phrase came from, you had to have two pence in order to unrinate....I HAVE TWO PEE! Now it's forty pence...it just doesn't have the same ring. The practice seems to be dying, thankfully. The toilet paper has improved immeasurably throughout the nation, but Scotland seems to lag in this development. You people seem to eat a lot more baguettes than I remember. I saw the curry thing coming down the tracks when I was here last time....what surprised me was the visit to Iceland in Caernarfon. I tried the frozen food. It was decent, it was cheap. I was impressed. "Has anything surprised you?"Butcher shops. These are rare in the US. It is heartening to see butcher shops with street-front locations. Specialty shops. Not everything has been swallowed up by supermarket conglomeration. Bread. How I saw it marketed surprised me. Without a lot of plastic bag wrapping. (This was mostly in Cumbria; I don't know how it was done in retail outlets in the rest of the country, because I was usually eating guesthouse/hotel food.) I liked that. Beer. Particularly in Cumbria, where they seem to be making beer at every frippen crossroad. I was there more than a week and I never realized that I was in a claimant for the 'Beervana' crown. The local 'bitters', 'best bitters', and 'IPA' offerings were seemingly countless. I settled on Jennings Cumberland Cream as my favorite, which I only found in two places, on tap: at the Chase Hotel and on the boat plying Windermere. You people know how to do beer and ale. The Scots are experimenting quite successfully in gin. Watch out England, you'll be outclassed soon. Northumberland, particularly Newcastle-on-Tyne, looks a squatload cleaner and more attractive than the last time I saw it. Finding the country along the wall (Tyneside) was a pleasant surprise. As were the Grampians. I suspect that the Yorkshire Dales and the Pennines offer similar delights. Me. Maybe. The last time I was here, I fell in love with Inverness. The commercial development of the south side of the river was kind of a disappointment to me. The charm, for me, of the arrival at the station was gone. I walked to the river and sat for a while. The last time I was there, I was madly in love with the woman I'd come with, my wife. She's gone, and so is much of the charm of Inverness. I'm sorry, Inverness...it's not you, it's me. I'm surprised that I found that I don't really like English bacon. I tried it and started turning it down regularly, particularly if I could get MORE of the local sausage, in exchange. That was the best outcome. But I had to try American 'stripy' bacon when I got back, and I'm telling you, it beats the sox off of 'English bacon'. That stuff is lame. The sausages are good, though, particularly the Cumberland sauasage with gravy over mashed potatoes. Top rate. I had to ask tangent when we met....How is it that there are no 'beater' cars on the road. Everything on the road seems to have recently rolled off of some sales lot. They all look reasonably new. No primer gray quarters or mixed color panels. He suspected that the MOT testing and the standards they impose are the source of that surprising distinction from the American experience. You people seem to have a shortage of pickup trucks, too. There's a crapload more those in the US than anywhere in the UK. I like the little panel delivery rigs, tho...those are cute. And, surprise! I found in the Anchor Hotel in Haydon Bridge...Rhubarb gin. Sooooper doooper! Can I get it here...NO. Damn. This must change. "What about the election? Observations about being here in the run up?" Heh...Post election was far more amusing. Watching the squirming was great entertainment. I didn't know the scadenfruede played so well. Beforehand was pretty restrained from my republican point of view, where democracy can get a bit brash and 'in yer face'. I only remember having a couple of conversations that touched on politics, and usually it was about my views of the US administration, followed by embarrassed silences. As a USer, what's the biggest differences you've found in the UK in general? What about the differences between regions? Food? culture? People? Landscape?The differences are flavors of the same basic recipe. What I was eating, drinking and seeing in the behavior of the people around me was all pretty standard UK stuff. The Scots and outlanders are a mite friendlier to strangers, but it may be a factor of population density than ancedent culture. I liked the differences. There is a fair amount of mixing amongst those cultural groups, but the local culture seems to suborn the young. Variantions on the food provide interest. The landscape changes between locales has been a source of enjoyment to me. South Wales and its stone went to even stonier slate in north Wales. The slate of Cymru was not a surprise to me, but the artistic uses they had put it to, to lure the touristas in, was impressive. The number of sheep infesting the countryside was impressive. The sheer numbers of sheep...I even bought myself, on a lark, a sheep identification handbook. I was amused about Scotland's 'highlands', but charmed, as well. The barrenness of the northern isles was impressive. I saw the 'forest' on the Mainland Orkney; it is a little wooded dell of about 15 acres, and pleasant to view from a distance. Shetland Mainland has none such. That the height of stone age megalithic culture started on Mainland Orkey and spread southward from there, to stimulate the likes of Castlerigg, and then Avebury, and then the late upstart showboat site on Salisbury Plain. I was surprised to find out about the Ness of Brodgar and excited to hear about what it shall yield up. I wanted to SEE, but I was constrained by the realities of not being here ten years later.... Differences between people...Not much really. I still experience the Scots as being far more willing to put themselves out there and offer help to the confused stranger, often before the confused stranger even knows they are confused. Exceedingly friendly folks, and it seems to spill over in to the northern English counties...I found the same in Cumbria and Northumbria. The wonderful strangers I met, like the older couple who rode the bus back to Whitehaven from Keswick....He was keen that I should save a bunch of quid by buying the regional bus pass of a week duration, and I could get to all the decent sites if I familiarized myself with their schedules and watched out for traveling on a Sunday. I followed his advice and ended up getting around with ease (I was not surprised, as I'd found this on IoM, to my delight). The gent who interceded outside of Queen Street Station in Glasgow to give me explicit and exceedingly helpful directions to Central Station. To the very friendly stranger on the Glasgow train I'd mistakenly boarded and bolted after finding out my mistake, leaving my backpack behind. She followed me, with my pack, to where I was questioning a train staffer about proper platforms, and returned it to me. Scots went out of their way to be helpful to me. But, as I noted elsewhere, the long-suffering train personnel need kudos that it sounds like they do not get...I found them to be treasures. Each and every one I dealt with. I was surprised that I was so pleased with the Isle of Man. I recommend it to anyone even slightly interested. The island seems to have been a major 'get-away resort destination' for Victorian age Brits. I wasn't there in summer, but I can visualize boaters and bustles on the beach, nightlife and theater. A great castle and good historical backgrounding provided, real romance to sell. Same food as on the main island. And cats; enigmatic cats. Murray, my polydactyl Manx stubby is part of what animated my interest in visiting Mann. I was not disappointed. I suspect subliminal prompting here led me to Blair Atholl in the Scottish Grampians, having shared the same overlord. I was charmed by the Isle of Man. I was surprised that London seemed to overwhelm me. I really do not like places with too many humans. I think I have determined that though I am an urban person, raised and having living my adult life in a medium sized riparian city, I don't like hyper-urbanization. London frazzles me (New York and Los Angeles did as well). But, maybe it was the heat doing much of the frazzling....When it came time to go from Liverpool Street Station to Paddington Station (two rail stations) to connect to the Heathrow Shuttle Rail, I freaked about using the underground and took a cab. Yeah, it was pricey, but I didn't have to wrestle with my millstone, it was not stiflingly hot and crowded, and I didn't wonder whether I had chosen correctly, just how much it was going to cost (the answer is 'about 40 quid'). I had prepared myself for this, and I took a taxi. I again took a taxi from Terminal 2 to the ibis hotel where I was staying the night before. When I got to the hotel, I found that there was a shuttle bus service serving the 'airport row' hotels, at a third of the cab cost. Hey, y'learn. I noticed that themes emerged during my travels. Trains were ascendant early, being displaced by boats in Cumbria, and finally, which had had cameo appearances throughout, airplanes in the final two weeks. I sought out historical interest and found it in droves. From St. David's in Pembrokeshire, to the Iron Village near Newport, the castles of Caernarfon, Beaumaris, and Castletown, distinct from those in Blair Atholl and Culzean, the to the pinnacles of neolithic Skara Brae, the Ring of Brodgar, Maeshowe, and Jarlshof, and back to the collections of aircraft, most of vintage pedigree, many still flying. In each area, there were art prints of the location, usually thanks to the 'Go By Rail' themes of the 1920s through 1930s. I intend to remove my three huge Bougereau prints from the wall in the living room and replace them with a collection of travel prints. Mixed with some PAL prints of iconic American locations, it should be a source of amusement. There are always more stories to uncover...each trip is recon for the next.
|
|
|
Post by whollygoats on Jun 23, 2017 17:32:24 GMT
PS - I asked it when I was there, of the folks so engaged in it...
Do they require psychological testing for their bus drivers? I saw this in Wales first, then on Mann, and in Cumbria, especially. They drive like maniacs on roads one and a half lanes wide with occasional turnouts for passing, and hedged in by either drystacked stone walls or centuries old actual hedging. And dealing with the general public....I'm not going to assume it is any 'nicer' in the sticks of the UK than it is in the US...that all sounds quite like a playfield for cultural PTSD...CuPTS Disorder? I was impressed that I did not wet my pants on occasion.
|
|
|
Post by Kye on Jun 23, 2017 17:44:04 GMT
If you wet your pants in England, don't take a minivan ride in the mountains of Sikkim...
|
|
|
Post by whollygoats on Jun 23, 2017 17:57:46 GMT
"It is a way of life."
|
|
|
Post by Moose on Jun 23, 2017 18:00:15 GMT
*pokes head in to defend English bacon to the death*
You've probably never had it properly cooked - most guesthouses just leave it sort of floppy and insipid.
|
|
|
Post by whollygoats on Jun 23, 2017 20:21:03 GMT
'Floppy and insipid' is quite accurate, actually.
Rather like American fish & chips.
I had black pudding that was inedible in Whittlesford Parkway.
I am surprised that from the moment I tried haggis, in the Blair Atholl Arms, I found it delightful. Big plus there on the ol' bucket list.
|
|
|
So, Kelly
Jun 23, 2017 20:53:01 GMT
via mobile
Post by tangent on Jun 23, 2017 20:53:01 GMT
I had haggis for the first time earlier this year and was surprised how nice it was. I don't think it was entirely authentic, being at a church function far from Scotland, but not far off.
|
|
|
Post by whollygoats on Jun 23, 2017 21:07:51 GMT
At places in north England, like the Lake District, and in restaurants in Whitehaven, it was used as a possible sidedish, or, in one case, as the garnish with a 10 oz. steak. I didn't go for it because, well...I was going to Scotland. I didn't get the chance in the far island locales, nor on the ferries. But, when I got to Atholl Arms in Blair Atholl, where they have pheasant and venison on the menu, there was a haggis offering. I figured that was most likely to be classic style. It was more peppery than any subsequent haggis I have enjoyed, so I suspect I might have gotten a uniquely local variant. I was, frankly, surprised. It was very tasty.
|
|
|
Post by Moose on Jun 23, 2017 21:14:47 GMT
I'v always thought that it must be quite good ... otherwise I dunno why people would eat it
|
|
|
So, Kelly
Jun 23, 2017 22:07:05 GMT
via mobile
Post by Elis on Jun 23, 2017 22:07:05 GMT
Some people think liver is good as well. *shudders*
|
|
|
Post by tangent on Jun 23, 2017 22:28:13 GMT
It is
|
|
|
Post by Kye on Jun 23, 2017 22:32:55 GMT
Ew.
|
|
|
Post by Moose on Jun 23, 2017 23:16:20 GMT
Ew here too
|
|
|
Post by whollygoats on Jun 23, 2017 23:51:41 GMT
That depends upon the liver. My dear wife loved her chicken livers...it's a Jewish thing.
Me? I grew up with 'liver and onions', usually veal or beef liver, but once a year, during hunting season, we got fresh venison liver. With fried onions, of course.
I can't say as I was ever a fan of organ meat...but, hey, I eat offal, it's just called 'sausage'.
|
|
|
Post by Moose on Jun 24, 2017 0:39:30 GMT
Well and haggis is offal too
|
|
|
Post by whollygoats on Jun 24, 2017 2:34:54 GMT
Well and haggis is offal too Yeah...and that was the impression I got, that it was basically a sausage, extended with oats. Rather like a sausage meatloaf. What's wrong with that?
|
|
|
Post by raspberrybullets on Jun 24, 2017 9:43:40 GMT
I've had haggis and thought it was tassty enough, except that it was lamby.
My best friend loves American bacon. I assume it's because it's much more fatty. I think you guys use pork belly for bacon is that right?
Regards coffee, I was extremely disappointed to catch another Starbucks here in Melbourne. I think that makes about 3 or 4 now. It never managed to get a hold before and I'm concerned. I'm not even a coffee drinker! But if we're going to have coffee, it should be the good stuff and not megacompany coffee!
|
|
|
Post by Alvamiga on Jun 24, 2017 10:37:35 GMT
Not done for a while, but I used to have liver regularly. Never onions though; they are vile!!!
|
|