SHE BLATHERS ON AND ON
Originally emailed to family and friends on December 3, 2004. I had been in the UK for about 6 weeks. I will put new comments in [brackets] to fill in some gaps. Enjoy this boringly photo-free flashback! Seriously. I'm sorry this is so long. There are some funny parts, I think. Otherwise, I would have spared you the bore. Good luck getting to the end!
Also, you can find Flashback #1 here, and Flashback #2 here, and Flashback #3 here, and Flashback #4 here. And, finally, Flashback #5 here.
Okay, so you've missed my updates, huh? Why has it been two weeks, you ask? I would like to say I took a week off for Thanksgiving, but that's just not the case! The truth is that our lives are just getting kinda boring, I think! There haven't been too many crazy things happen that make me think "Huh, I'll have to be sure to put that in the update"! And I don't want to spend too much time complaining about British radio or British food! :) Plus, I figured with Thanksgiving, you all had more important stuff to do than read my blatherings on about life on the other side!
Although I have to tell you! (I was saddened by this.) Yesterday afternoon, I turned to what (up until that moment) I thought was the best British radio personality, Vanessa Somebodyorother. Her main "call in" question was "Do you remember your first brassiere? What was it? When did you get it? We've got the Queen's Corsetiere on the line with us to discuss this. Call in now." (Or is it corsettierre? corsetteere? What the heck is a corsetiere anyways?) And granted, I'm not the Queen of England, but I sure as heck hope I'm never too snootchy to choose my own bras! And, wow! What a job, huh? Think of the job security! I wonder how you get a job like that? "Guess what, Mum, I just got a job! I'm going to be the Queen's Corsetiere! (Mum: "The What?") "Well, it's a big job. You know, I get to fit the Queen's...uh..." how do you even finish that sentence! And I guess you gotta be pretty high up in British radio to get the Queen's Corsetiere to call in, huh? Not her driver, no. Couldn't get the gardener, uh-uh. Not even the maid... "we've got the Queen's Corsetiere on the line with us. Thank you for calling in today, June." (by the way, wasn't it June Allison that was a big bra advocate a few years back? Maybe she's moved over here and taken on bigger and better...uh...support roles?) [Oh what a funny gal I was back then.] I think one of these days I will just cease to be amazed! [Nope. Lived there 3 years, and amazement never ceased.] I think it just won't shock me anymore. Well, at least I hope I get to that point! My poor mind is numb trying to figure this stuff out! Plus, I think the boredom of my boring days has contributed a bit to the numb mind.
Well, I know many of you had suggestions for our dryer situation, and I wanted to update you. We decided to move it back upstairs, into the kitchen, and put a stocking on the end of the vent-hose! It works very well, thank you Jana! :) It makes the kitchen smell quite nice (not too many good cooking smells, I'm afraid!), and it warms it up a bit, and adds a little humidity to the air, too...which the plants like a lot!
I've had fun re-planting my home. It was very difficult for me to get rid of all my plants when we moved here. I'd had some since I was a freshman in college! Some had sentimental value. Some were just cool! And it's hard to know that the person taking your plants aren't going to kill them! Lucky for me, though, plants here have "sell by" dates on them (like they're going to spoil?) and the stores will usually reduce them by 50% on their "sell by" dates! So I've gotten some pretty fair deals on plants lately! I have tried to be selective and get good plants that make good plant-babies...so I'll have more plants without having to buy them! :) And this house gets so much good sunlight that plants will naturally thrive here! :) I've asked Dave to get me more plants for Christmas...the gift that keeps on giving... I think clearance rack plants are about the only thing that is not painfully expensive here! (and even those smart a little!) But I absolutely love plants and would go without chocolate in order to buy more plants, so it's all good. :) (well, maybe not sans chocolate for life...just for a day...maybe!)
Speaking of food...a record has been set in our household. Dave and I ate dinner at home for over two weeks straight! I hesitate to say "I cooked dinner..." because I am not sure a bowl of Lucky Charms counts as cooking. Yes, it is a nutritious meal, fortified with 8 healthy vitamins...but I can't say I cooked it. It was kind of exciting! Kinda challenging! Kinda like climbing Mount Everest. One of those things that you do once in life and say "Hmm...done it. Let's go back to normal life." So, Dave and I got creative and had some interesting meals :) ... including cereal! We had fun, though. Thanksgiving was the last day of a homemade meal, though. No, sadly, I did not prepare a luscious meal for my starving husband. I was about out of luscious-meal ideas, so we settled on turkey baguettes and potato chips instead! :) What finally broke our eating-out fast? The busiest restaurant in Guildford that night was the one, the only, Pizza Hut! :) Ah, it's good to be back to reality again. It was extra-exciting for Dave because after the pizza, he got to go for unlimited trips to the Ice Cream Dream Machine! (that's our Dave!) I think he stopped at 3 trips? Maybe 4? I lost count. It's not my first choice to cook dinner every night, there just aren't many eating-out options around here! There are a couple of Italian places we've found, and a few Thai/Chinese/Cantonese/gut-buster restaurants, but not the variety like I'm used to! :( And British [pub] food is rather boring. It's very brown. It's very bland. The first day Dave and I were walking around Guildford, our trusty guide pointed to a little shop called "Pasties". At which point I said "Hmm...Pasties...an odd name for a bakery, but okay." And James [Hi, Natalie!] laughed. He said, "No, not pay-stee (like how pasty-white Melissa's legs are this time of year), Pahst-ee." (well, James didn't make that comment about my legs, I did!). (Or pasties as in bra-alternatives...) I said "Oh, thanks for telling me! I would hate to make that mistake in public!" Well, the other day I had the opportunity to have what the Brits call a Pahst-ee. It's a pastry wrapped around a blend of beans (like pinto beans), and onion, and something else - potato maybe? [And sometimes beef. There are also different varieties.] I decided that they had it wrong, that it really should be pronounced PAY-stee...because it really tastes like paste! Except worse! Elmer's really has more flavor and zip to it than these thingies! It was hard to finish! [I know plenty of people that like these - even Dave. I just didn't.]
The Brits really like dressing up in costumes, though...especially the kids. Even though Halloween has come and gone, most of the stores (like Woolworths, and ASDA (Wal-Mart) are selling children's costumes! I think what they do is dress up for birthday parties and stuff. I have found out, though, that some people have their kids dress in costumes for Christmas! It seems a little odd to me, but it's cute, I think! They have little fairy princess or Disney princess outfits for the girls and the boys get to be elves or...um...well, other stuff...I was paying more attention to the fairy princess outfits! :) And the two little girls I know love to dress as princesses whatever day of the week it is, so that's gotta be kinda fun for them! Much to my chagrin, though, Dave and I are going to a dress-up Christmas party. Ugh! I hate wearing costumes! :( The group we do keep-fit with on Tuesday nights is having a party, and when they mentioned it the other night, the lady said "Our Christmas party will be the 21st, and the theme is Disney. I'll let you know more later what to bring." So I thought..."Hmm...theme is Disney. Do we bring Disney-related foods? Disney-related drinks? Bring Disney gifts to be donated to homeless shelters?" Nope. Turns out we come dressed up as Disney characters! AND we have to work out, too! So then I thought (I think it's a brilliant thought, personally) "Well, if I dress up as one of the Disney princesses in some big, foofy dress, then I won't have to work out!" Mais, non, mon cherie. That's not the way we play the ballgame here. Regardless of your costume, you still have to do a little bit of working out. Hmph. Foiled again! So, Dave and I have done a little research in our closets and I think we're going to shoot for Winnie the Pooh and Piglet. I've volunteered to go as Piglet because, well, much as I love him, I just don't think it would be appropriate for Dave to wear pink pants in public! The other option is Pooh and Christopher Robin. I think that would be pretty easy to pull off, too. So not only do I have to cook for this thing, but I also have to dress in a costume and still work out! Life is rough! I think Dave's got a work Christmas party for staff and students only, so, as far as I know, we've only got the dress-up-as-goobers party to go to. We'll let you know how it goes! :o)
The last bit of excitement is that I've been offered a short-term job. Yay me! It's a 6-month position covering for a woman going on maternity leave. There are tons of advantages, the biggest one being that the job is at the university! So it will save on gas (which is nice!), Dave and I can eat lunch together sometimes (which is a good thing), I can join the university gym and work out at my own pace (which is slow!), I get all the university holidays (like 10 days at Christmas! Woohoo!) plus more that I can take as personal days. I start my job on the 13th, so I've got one more week to get my affairs in order before I become a regular citizen again. I can't wait to be busy again! :-)
With all that, I think I can't think of anything else to report to you! Our lives are starting to settle down, and we don't have a lot of funnies for you! But as we do, you know I'll report them to you!
Hope all is well in your "run up" to Christmas (as they say here). I think maybe I'll make a pyramid of cardboard boxes, put a few ornaments on them and call the house "decorated" for the holidays! Should be fairly simple, I think! :)
Love to all,
Dave and Melissa
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